PUPPY 20

“I don’t think I can do it at all.”

Seowoo whispered, looking back and forth between Juwon’s thick, muscular arms and his own ordinary ones. Misunderstanding that Seowoo’s hesitation stemmed not from a lack of strength but from the height difference, Juwon suddenly came up behind him.

“I’ll lift you.”

“No, it’s fine—.”

Before Seowoo could refuse, his body was lifted into the air.

“Just hold on for a bit.”

As Seowoo gripped the pull-up bar and hooked his chin over it, Juwon relaxed his grip on him. Seowoo held on as long as he could, but soon his arms began to tremble.

It was the moment Seowoo, letting out a deep sigh, was about to collapse.

“Gotcha.”

Juwon’s laughing voice came from behind him. Juwon’s hands, wrapped around Seowoo’s hips and thighs, tightened, and Seowoo was lifted into the air again.

“Heok.”

Seowoo, inhaling sharply in surprise, held on with all his might. Juwon let go, walked around, and stood in front of Seowoo.

“I’m going to get down now.”

“You held on for 10 seconds, isn’t it a waste? Just hold on for 10 more seconds.”

“It’s not a waste, haah, really!”

“One—, two, three.”

“Ugh.”

He could see the strength draining from the hands of Seowoo, who had squeezed his eyes shut. Before Seowoo could fall to the ground, Juwon took a step forward and caught Seowoo’s waist, lifting him up.

Seowoo, who had expected to fall straight to the floor, opened his eyes at the feeling of his body floating in the air.

“If you do well, you could probably hold on for a minute.”

“Haah, my arms were trembling, I really thought I was going to die. I told you I was going to get down…!”

His chattering was unlike the usual Seowoo. Contrary to his resentful tone, a bright smile was on his face.

‘Ah, this is fucking great.’

It was nice to take walks or have meals with Seowoo and be in the classroom together, but Juwon’s preference was, after all, roughhousing and getting physical.

“Let me down now.”

“Why, it’s fun.”

Juwon held on tightly to Seowoo, who was twisting his body to get away from him. For a moment, their faces were close, and in his excitement, Juwon habitually opened his mouth to bite the bridge of Seowoo’s nose.

He was really just turning his head to bring his mouth closer without any thought…

“…Cha Juwon, why are you.”

Seowoo reached out and grabbed Juwon’s shoulder. He could see Seowoo’s eyes, which were facing him, wavering. Their laughter died down, and in an instant, their surroundings became quiet.

The sound of Seowoo gulping audibly reached both of them. Juwon swallowed and said in a low voice.

“I was going to pretend to bite your nose.”

“…Why?”

“Just, it’s a prank friends play on each other.”

He meant it sincerely, but hearing it out of context, it couldn’t have sounded more foolish. The atmosphere had changed in an instant, and Juwon, still holding onto Seowoo, couldn’t do anything. While he was wondering how to handle the situation, Seowoo carefully opened his mouth.

“…Then do it.”

Seowoo, breaking the short silence, said quietly. In fact, Seowoo also felt like he was going to die from the awkwardness of the current atmosphere. If he could, he would have liked to push Juwon away and go back, but he couldn’t because of Juwon’s words about it being a prank between friends. If he refused now, it would be proof that he thought of Juwon as more than just a friend.

‘Is my heart going to start hurting now….’

As he closed his eyes and waited for his nose to be bitten, he could feel his heart pounding at an insane speed.

“…I’m doing it.”

“Do it.”

Letting out a short breath, Seowoo closed his eyes and slightly wrinkled the bridge of his nose. In Juwon’s field of vision were Seowoo’s nose, with a mole dotted on it, and his long, slightly trembling eyelashes.

Juwon tightened his arms around Seowoo, tilted his head a little more, and moved closer. As he felt Seowoo’s breath fully, he had a feeling that something was wrong. But it was too late to fix it now.

‘Quickly pretend to bite and act as naturally as possible.’

It’s a prank between friends, so act naturally, naturally…. Juwon made a promise to himself several times in his mind and brought his mouth over the bridge of Seowoo’s nose.

Smooch—.

At the sound effect, which was different from what he expected, Juwon’s brow furrowed. At the same time, a gasp escaped Seowoo’s lips.

“…Ah.”

I’m screwed.

The strength in the arms that had been holding Seowoo slowly drained away. The sound of his feet landing on the soft urethane floor echoed with a thump—. For a moment, Juwon mistook it for the sound of his own heart dropping.

Seowoo, whose feet had touched the ground, turned his head. Juwon’s gaze was fixed blankly on Seowoo. To be precise, on Seowoo’s straight nose, where his own lips had just been.

This was a genuine mistake.

An irreversible mistake of kissing his nose when he meant to just give it a little bite.

🦴

Kim Dongwon, standing in front of Seowoo, poured a pile of chocolates and snacks onto the desk.

“What’s all this?”

Not only were there Seowoo’s favorite snacks, but there were also chocolate bars that Juwon sometimes looked for, mixed in. Seeing the chocolate bars, Seowoo frowned slightly.

“Cha Juwon’s treating to celebrate the end of midterms. He told me to give them to you.”

Kim Dongwon, as he said this, also had a snack in his mouth. Seowoo hadn’t asked for the snacks, but he felt he should say thank you, so he turned his head toward the back of the classroom where Juwon was standing.

‘…I’m doing it.’

Juwon’s voice, which hadn’t left his mind for the past two weeks, echoed again. Seowoo’s eyes met Juwon’s, who was biting into an ice cream bar. Before Seowoo could say thank you, Juwon turned his head first and avoided his gaze.

The atmosphere had become strange since the day Juwon kissed his nose. They still walked to and from school together and walked home from the reading room together, but their conversations had drastically decreased. Moreover, physical contact like putting an arm around each other’s shoulders had completely disappeared.

Having missed the timing to say thank you, Seowoo stood in his place and watched Juwon and his friends talk.

“That was a hundred percent Cha Juwon checking her out at the snack bar earlier.”

“Stop talking nonsense. Oh Dongjae, you’re not even in our class, why do you keep following us.”

“Well, it’s probably because I have a crush in our class….”

“Hey.”

Juwon had only erased the smile from his face, but a tension immediately filled the air. “Hey, hey. Stop it and let’s just check our English answers,” Yang Juhyeon said, breaking the tense mood.

The Dong-Dong-Jus gathered around Juwon’s desk in the back row. Dongjae, who didn’t have his test paper, also stood by and watched them grade.

“English was so damn hard, right? Ah, I was debating between 2 and 3 for this one, and I chose 3, but it was 2?”

“Isn’t it 2?”

“Why? This is a subordinate clause of the conjunction.”

As they were checking the answers without hesitation, Kim Dongwon and Yang Juhyeon’s opinions clashed. When Yang Juhyeon and Oh Dongjae insisted that the answer was 3, Kim Dongwon raised his hand and called Seowoo over.

“Ryu Seowoo, Ryu Seowoo. Come here.”

After hesitating, Seowoo walked to the back where his friends were gathered.

“What?”

“English, number 15, is it 2 or 3?”

“I put 2.”

As Seowoo answered, glancing down at the test paper, Kim Dongwon exclaimed frivolously.

“Nice. Cha Juwon, what did you put?”

“I put 2 too. I got most of them right.”

“That was number 13, what do you mean you got them all right, what’s number 14, it’s 1, right?”

“If you got it right, then go.”

Juwon shooed his friends away with a wave of his hand. Shoving his test paper into his bag, Juwon laid his head on his desk and buried it. At his clear reaction of not wanting to talk, his friends exchanged glances and backed away.

“Why did the atmosphere get so tense when you came over?”

This time, the friends gathered around Seowoo’s desk. Turning his head to look at Cha Juwon, Oh Dongjae whispered in a quiet voice.

“…I don’t know.”

If even the slow-witted Oh Dongjae had noticed, it seemed the uncomfortable atmosphere flowing between him and Juwon was more serious than he thought.

“Did he bomb his midterms? They were a bit tough, but I heard Cha Juwon is good at English. He seemed to have gotten all the ones at the beginning right.”

“I don’t know either.”

“He didn’t seem like it, but maybe he’s more sensitive about his grades than I thought… Is it because you study better than him?”

When the March mock exam scores were released, Juwon’s high scores had come as a small shock to the other students. The Juwon that Seowoo saw from the side studied diligently, but he had never seen him act anxious about his grades dropping.

“I don’t think that’s it.”

As Seowoo answered that, a shadow suddenly fell over his desk. Juwon, who had strode over in an instant, said.

“I have somewhere to be today, so I’m leaving first.”

It was essentially a statement meant only for Seowoo, who he usually went home with.

“Okay.”

“You guys go with Ryu Seowoo.”

At Seowoo’s reply, Juwon said to the Dong-Dong-Jus. The friends, perhaps thinking that Juwon’s previously fluctuating mood had settled, giggled and answered insincerely.

“Oki.”

Although they said they would, it was a rather sudden notice. As of last night, there had been no mention of any plans.

Seowoo bit his lower lip for no reason. Juwon turned and disappeared without a word of goodbye.

At this point, Seowoo started to feel a little wronged. The point at which this subtle atmosphere began was exactly that evening walk.

It was Cha Juwon who had pressed his lips to the bridge of his nose, so it was frustrating that he was the one walking on eggshells around Cha Juwon.

Cha Juwon would never know how much his heart was in turmoil over the ‘Good night’ greeting they exchanged over video call every evening. The more he thought about it, the more unfair it was.

It wasn’t like they had fought, and he had no desire to grow distant from Juwon because of a skinship that had deepened during a prank. He didn’t know how it was for Juwon, who had many friends and was always at ease, but Seowoo was anxious. He wanted to quickly restore his relationship with Juwon to the comfortable friendship it used to be.