NCBF Ch 37

Holding and gently shaking the tips of Yuwon’s fingers as he nodded, Hyun Gyujin let go of him as he saw the 5th period teacher enter through the front door. Yuwon quickly went to his seat, sat down, and pulled out his 5th period textbook. Then, keeping an eye on the teacher, he subtly turned his head to make eye contact with Hyun Gyujin, who was sitting at the very back of the same row.

Hyun Gyujin smiled. Keeping that smile overflowing in his eyes, Yuwon sat facing forward again and dropped his gaze to his textbook. Hyun Gyujin’s smile fell over the textbook and flickered, tickling and shaking Yuwon’s heart here and there throughout the entire 5th period.

∞ ∞ ∞

Standing up from his seat as soon as homeroom ended, Hyun Gyujin lightly ignored Choi Haeyoung and Kim Junjae, who were clinging to him, and approached Yuwon. Following behind Hyun Gyujin, Choi Haeyoung narrowed his eyes and looked back and forth between the two of them.

“What’s this, affair over?”

“Bullshit is a habit and nonsense is a routine for you, seriously.”

“Did you two ditch P.E. and go somewhere to have a bout? Did you just go right back into fucking lovey-dovey mode?”

“We were always on good terms. Right, babe?”

Looking at Hyun Gyujin, who leaned his large body over toward Yuwon—who was packing his school bag—and spoke cutely, Kim Junjae and Choi Haeyoung made gagging sounds. Smiling softly as he looked at the two of them, Yuwon nodded quietly.

“It’s not like we fought. I told you before that wasn’t it.”

“It wasn’t, but clearly you two…. Whoa, then Hyun, are you going to pick up Spacey-Yuwon from hagwon again?”

Simply swelling with expectation that Hyun Gyujin would play games again, Choi Haeyoung forgot everything he was saying, pretended to cry, and bowed low to Yuwon.

“Spacey-Yuwon-nim, please have a comfortable trip….”

“Forget it. I don’t have time to play games.”

Cutting right between Yuwon and Choi Haeyoung, Hyun Gyujin slung Yuwon’s bag over one of his shoulders and headed toward the front door together. A sound like Choi Haeyoung’s scream echoed from behind his back, but that kind of thing wasn’t important in the slightest. Hyun Gyujin matched the speed of Yuwon’s steps as he held the handrail and went down the stairs, moving his feet slowly alongside him.

“What should we eat for dinner? Is there anything you want to eat?”

“Hmm…. A tonkatsu place opened inside the entrance of the hagwon district; do you want to try going there? They say the cheese tonkatsu is delicious. I heard kids talking about it at the hagwon.”

“Yeah, let’s go there. Sounds delicious.”

“They give you curry there too, and they say that’s delicious as well.”

“You don’t like curry that much.”

“Still, they say it’s delicious, so I’m curious.”

Seeing Yuwon smile while saying he was curious about curry—which he didn’t even usually eat—made his heart feel ticklish. Hyun Gyujin stroked Yuwon’s soft hair as they crossed the playground.

“Can’t we drop by the hagwon for a moment after eating dinner?”

“Why the hagwon all of a sudden? Just hearing the word ‘hagwon’ pisses me off.”

“I left my earphones in the study room. I just need to grab them and come out.”

“Got it.”

Going into the hagwon district, which was starting to get crowded as school ended, the two entered the tonkatsu place Yuwon mentioned. Yuwon ordered the cheese tonkatsu, which was said to be the most famous, while Hyun Gyujin ordered the basic tonkatsu that Yuwon had debated over until the end.

While sipping a few mouthfuls of the cider that came out first, piping hot food was served. Picking up two pieces of tonkatsu with cheese stretching out long, Yuwon placed them on top of Hyun Gyujin’s tonkatsu plate. Hyun Gyujin also shared his basic tonkatsu with Yuwon.

Dividing it almost exactly half and half, they took a bite of the cheese tonkatsu almost at the same time. The cheese stretched out long and was so very soft and delicious that their widely opened eyes met simultaneously. Finding that hilarious, they both burst out laughing together.

The small portion of curry served alongside was also truly delicious as rumored, so they ate all of it without leaving a single bit behind. By the time they stepped out of the restaurant talking about how they could come back again next time, it was already dark outside.

The hagwon wasn’t very far from the tonkatsu place. Approaching the familiar building, Yuwon grabbed Hyun Gyujin’s arm once and then let go.

“I’ll go in and come out quickly.”

“Take your time. You’ll trip if you rush.”

“Okay!”

Yuwon, who waved goodbye even for that brief moment, quickly went inside the hagwon. Hyun Gyujin had said there was no need to rush, but Yuwon’s heart was in a hurry. He wanted to quickly find his earphones and hang out with Hyun Gyujin. Because during all this time, he hadn’t been able to talk properly nor spend time together while working hard to avoid him continuously. Even without doing anything grand, just drinking something refreshing with Hyun Gyujin and talking about this and that sounded fun.

Just as expected, when he entered the empty study room and went to the seat he had sat in yesterday, the earphones were right there inside the drawer. Ah, what a relief. Yuwon quickly put the case holding the earphones into his school uniform jacket pocket and quietly came back out.

Must go fast, fast. Still, I shouldn’t trip, so slowly. Slowly, fast. Realizing he was having a truly strange thought, Yuwon let out a soft laugh on the stairs. Today was strange in many ways, and a day where he felt as good as it was strange, so he decided not to consider having such thoughts as strange either. If anything was to be considered strange, the fact that he and Hyun Gyujin, his childhood friend of 18 years, had ended up dating so easily was at the top.

Walking down the stairs and drawing close to the door, Yuwon stopped in his tracks upon seeing a few girls wearing different school uniforms standing around Hyun Gyujin. They hadn’t been there when he went up earlier, so he couldn’t tell where they had suddenly appeared from in that brief moment. Judging by their uniforms, they seemed to be girls from a nearby high school.

“Are you really not doing Insta? I sent a DM last time.”

The pretty girl standing in front asked, but Hyun Gyujin just leaned against the wall with his eyes cast down on his phone, not answering.

“You know Choi Haeyoung, right? I saw a picture on Choi Haeyoung’s phone before. We’re gathering next week; do you want to come? Or we can meet separately.”

When Choi Haeyoung’s name came up, Hyun Gyujin’s gaze raised slightly. At that moment, Hyun Gyujin—who really just looked at the girl with expectant eyes once—turned his head and looked at Yuwon.

“Huh? When did you get here.”

The moment their eyes met, Hyun Gyujin stride through as if there were nothing around him and smiled at Yuwon.

“…Who are they?”

“Don’t know. Annoyingly talking to me and throwing a scene.”

Startled by Hyun Gyujin speaking loudly enough for them to hear, Yuwon subtly looked at the girls’ reactions. Offended, of course, the girls left the spot right then, but whether they did or not, Hyun Gyujin didn’t take his eyes off Yuwon.

“Did you find your earphones?”

“Yeah, luckily they were in the drawer.”

“Give them here. You shouldn’t hold heavy things like that.”

Grinning, Hyun Gyujin took the earphone case from Yuwon’s hand and put it in the front pocket of his backpack. Then he wrapped his arm around Yuwon’s shoulder.

“Where should we go now?”

“Do you want to go eat ice cream waffles?”

“Waffles?”

“Yeah…. Back then, Seungjun said that place was really delicious and asked to go, but I said let me go next time and didn’t go.”

Hyun Gyujin, who had a sulky face at the unfamiliar name, fiddled with Yuwon’s cheek. To gain peace of mind and body, he had to touch something soft and squishy.

“Why didn’t you go. You must have wanted to go. You like that kind of stuff.”

“…Because I wanted to go with you. You like waffles too.”

Ah, what should I do. How did I manage to stay friends with him? Hyun Gyujin took a deep breath as he looked at Yuwon’s flushed face and ears. At those words saying he wanted to go with him, all the past grievances vanished completely.

“You wanted to go with me?”

“…Yeah.”

“Then we have to go. Where is it?”

“They say it’s there if you go a bit down the alley behind the bubble tea shop. We didn’t have any reason to go that way, so I guess we didn’t see it. They said the churros there are delicious too.”

“Let’s eat churros too, then.”

Looking at Yuwon smiling happily, Hyun Gyujin smiled along and raised the hand that had been fiddling with his cheek to stroke his hair. Dating Yuwon still felt a bit bewildering and didn’t completely register yet, but still, he was truly glad their relationship had recovered like this. Just the single fact that he didn’t have to lose Yuwon to those hagwon bastards anymore made him happy.

“Oh, looks like that’s it over there. A waffle is drawn on it.”

Going behind the bubble tea shop they usually frequented, a sign with a picture of a waffle drawn on it indeed came into view. Hyun Gyujin entered the store—which was quite spacious inside compared to what he expected—and settled into a corner spot good for talking with Yuwon. He then ordered the ice cream waffle Yuwon was curious about, as well as churros and warm lemon tea. Because he shouldn’t feed him a whole bunch of cold things only.