Chapter 7

Chapter 7

The more he recalled that day, the more he grew annoyed, so Doyeon flipped the final page while glaring at Hyunoh’s hand.

Finally, the papers made their final round, and Doyeon stared at his paper with his name. There were bits and pieces of writing he couldn’t recognize.

[You’re so mean to Kangbin these days, darling…]

Kangbin Baek, that stupid jerk, does he know this is meant to be anonymous? Why the hell would he write his name?

And what was his comment supposed to mean? It had nothing to do with first impressions.

Besides Kangbin’s weird comment, there wasn’t much else.

There wasn’t anything bad. Most of the comments were along the lines of “you seemed cold on first impression, but you seemed cool after some time” or “you were hard to approach, but you’re kinder than I thought.”

There was a lot about a bad first impression because his resting face was calm and expressionless. Many of thecomments said they liked him after getting to know him, but they struggled to approach him first.

So I’m the opposite of Hyunoh, who sparkles like the damn sun at first sight?

Doyeon went over the comments slowly and found a little word wedged on the edge of the paper.

[Pretty.]

A very short and concise word.

He was speechless.

Doyeon rubbed the corners of his eyes in disbelief. Calling a guy pretty was not a compliment. He would have preferred descriptions like “handsome” or “cool,” but it was written so carelessly that he began to wonder whether someone wrote it because there was nothing to write.

Doyeon looked around, paper in hand, but he couldn’t guess who it was.

He was about to look back down when he remembered something.

It was something that happened a few days ago.

“Doyeon, close your eyes for a moment.”

“Why? Is something on my face?”

“No, your lashes are long. They’re pretty.”

He had kept his eyes closed for Gahee Bak because of her compliment. This was... probably from her.

Doyeon turned to look at Gahee Bak, and somehow, because she happened to be looking at him too, their eyes met. Gahee’s face turned red, and she jumped in surprise to the point her shoulders came up to her ears.

Doyeon mouthed a hello, waved at her, and grinned.

Gahee’s eyes only grew wider. In fact, she turned her head away.

Doyeon rubbed his mouth. Gahee’s firm denial dealt some emotional damage, so he pressed the edges of his mouth together until someone interrupted him by shoving a paper on his desk. It was Hyunoh’s first impression paper.

“What the hell? This was you, right?”

Hyunoh’s long, pale finger pressed down on the upper half of his sheet. Below the name “Hyunoh Gon” was a scribbled comment.

[Laughing? Seriously?]

How did he know...?

Doyeon felt a stab of guilt, but he bit his lip and turned his head up. “No.”

“What do you mean, ‘no’? You’re the only person who’d say bad stuff about me.”

Hyunoh snatched Doyeon’s notebook, flipped through the pages, and showed him his own handwriting.

“See, the ‘g’ is the same shape, and ‘s’ and ‘y’ all have the same angle.”

Hyunoh waved Doyeon’s notebook up closer to his eyes. It was so close that Doyeon couldn’t see his writing and could smell the paper.

Doyeon pushed it out of his face and went into denial. “Coincidence.”

“You suck at lying, Doyeon,” Hyunoh laughed and returned his notebook. Doyeon slid it into his desk tray with a blank expression.

The whole activity is meant to be anonymous. What’s the point of digging up identities and fussing about it...?

Doyeon looked up at the teacher.

But something was stinging his cheek, something that wasn’t an object, but some force made from Hyunoh’s intense stare.

Doyeon continued to ignore him until he couldn’t help himself.

“What now? What?!” he snapped.

“What?”

“Why are you staring at me?”

It’s so annoying.

Hyunoh smiled at his prickly tone. “Doyeon, if you don’t like me staring at you or laughing, what am I supposed to do?”

Doyeon didn’t answer at first.

“Breathe?” he tried.

“Is that allowed?” Hyunoh asked with a straight expression.

Doyeon sighed in his face and turned around. Whether Doyeon was annoyed or not, Hyunoh continued to smile at him.

Fine, look all you want, you damn mutt…

Doyeon glared at Hyunoh’s fingers, imagining how satisfying it would be to flick his forehead. His long, pale fingers were writing something.

Oh, Hyunoh’s left-handed...?

The bottom halves of his letters were slanted, just like his personality. Doyeon took his eyes off his fingers, thinking Hyunoh’s handwriting reflected his personality very well, and fixed his eyes on his teacher.

Arc Two. An Annoying Relationship.

The after school break room was loud during break time. There was someone playing games on their phone in one corner, while someone else was giggling through mouthfuls of sausages.

The window showed it was dark outside, but tutoring schools were still in session.

Hyunoh leaned against the wall, sitting near the window. The flashing green lights of the vending machine across him sat underneath sweet corn drinks, Hot6, and apple ades. He stared at the names blankly until Kangbin began talking to him.

“Hyunoh, what are you doing?”

“Looking.”

“Looking? At what?”

“The vending machine.”

“The vending machine? Why?”

“It’s fun.”

“It’s fun to look at a vending machine?” Kangbin sucked on his sweet and sour candy as he plopped next to Hyunoh. Then, remembering something, he pulled out his phone and began to talk to someone in a cheerful voice.

“Were you sleeping? What’s with your voice? It’s only nine, why are you always sleeping?”

He couldn’t hear what the person on the other end was saying because the center was loud.

Hyunoh continued to look at the vending machine, ignoring Kangbin’s call entirely. The aluminum can was starting to warm in his hands.

Kangbin giggled, then, as if an audio call wasn’t enough, changed the call to a video call. The person accepted it, which turned his screen a dark gray.

A voice came through the speaker. “What’s the point of a video call? You’re so annoying…”

Hyunoh finally raised his head to look at Kangbin’s phone. The whining voice that accepted the video call was familiar.

Doyeon Yoo.

I thought he was calling a girl.

The screen Kangbin was holding up was dark. The figure on his screen was vague because the lights were off, but it moved from time to time as though Doyeon was walking somewhere else.

Soon, the screen brightened. Doyeon had walked out onto the balcony where the street lights were shining. A breeze lifted the edges of his hair.

“Dude, what the hell? Aren’t you at your tutoring center?”

Doyeon’s voice was groggier than usual, probably because he just woke up from sleep. It was calm, almost song-like, and Hyunoh found himself focusing.

“Yeah. Why do you always fall asleep when you’re putting Aeyoung to sleep?”

“God, Kangbin, you don’t know anything... People fall asleep when putting children to sleep, you understand? Wait, do you?”

“Of course not. Wouldn’t it be strange if I did?”

“Right.” Doyeon yawned and rubbed the back of his neck.

His face lit by the streetlights was pale, and his thin frame looked thinner under his old, washed-out T-shirt.

Hyunoh stared at Doyeon’s pale neck, then lowered his eyes and opened his can.

“Where’s your mom?”

“Not home yet. She said she’ll be late for a while.”

“Oh, that’s why you’re on put-Aeyoung-to-sleep duty. Damn, you’ll be a great father later. You’ve practically raised her.”

“Uh... I guess? Talk softer, you’re going to wake Aeyoung up. My baby’s sensitive these days,” Doyeon whispered.

Hyunoh turned his head again to see the screen, and he found Doyeon smiling gently with a finger on his lips.

He was unlike his collected, put-together self in school, with his hair tousled in all directions. His face was a little swollen from sleep, which made his already plump lips thicker. Sleep clung to the edges of his eyes, which made him look comfortably tired.

So that’s what he looks like when he’s not in his buttoned-up appearance at school.

It was unexpected. Hyunoh had imagined him as being dainty at home, too.

Hyunoh slowly drank his drink. He was thirsty.

The jut of his throat bobbed as he kept his eyes on Doyeon on the screen.