CEL 2

His expression and tone of voice made him thought he would only wear clothes in achromatic colors, but what drew his eyes was that he unexpectedly enjoyed wearing clothes with colorful tones. Today he was wearing a bright yellow knit.

“It doesn’t suit you at all.”

He laughed pointlessly, and time passed quickly. There was a lot he had to do, but he didn’t want to touch a single thing.

He turned and looked inside the officetel. His eyes met the drawing paper on the easel, its mouth wide open, waiting for him.

He fiddled with his ear rim and muttered.

“…Should I pierce another ear.” He suddenly felt a little stifled.

•••

Because of consecutive canceled classes and breaks, he came to school for the first time in three days.

He rubbed his stiff shoulders and checked the time. Only two minutes were left until the hour and minute hands met, and the boring lecture finally ended.

He gathered his scattered books and was packing when, as always, familiar footsteps approached.

“Promise….”

Jaeha was about to naturally refuse such an uncreative beginning, but since the sentence wasn’t completed, he slightly raised his head.

Seo Hamin, clutching his thick major book tightly, looked the same as always. He was wearing clothes that didn’t suit him, and he didn’t care about the stares around him, whether because he had no pride or because he truly didn’t notice.

Even to Jaeha’s ears, the rebuke hidden in“Why does he keep coming here?” was perfectly clear, and of course Hamin couldn’t possibly not hear it. But Seo Hamin stared only at him, as if other people’s voices never reached him at all.

He suddenly felt strange. Unlike himself, who could never endure without paying attention to each and every person when there were many people, Seo Hamin was someone who focused only on him even in countless stares. That made him feel odd. He looked foolish and it also felt irritating.

Instead of hearing such things, wouldn’t it be better if he just asked for his number? Why did he come at the same time every time and insist on saying things he didn’t need to?

He clicked his tongue at the stubborn attitude, and then wondered, what is he staring at so intently? The end point of his gaze wasn’t Jaeha’s face, but slightly off.

After staring at something for a long time, at last he moved his lips.

“You pierced your ear again.”

“……”

“…That must hurt.”

To the listener it was a ridiculous remark, and even the speaker looked a little embarrassed. He noticed the change and spoke immediately, but it was obvious he hadn’t thought about what to add afterward, so he just said anything.

Jaeha blinked with a flustered face. The truth was he was surprised. During the morning class he had exchanged greetings with quite a few people, but no one noticed he pierced his ear.

Of course, hardly anyone paid attention to other people’s ears in the first place, and since it was just another piercing with the same design right above the cartilage that was already pierced, it was naturally hard to notice.

But how did this guy know?

He felt chills and unconsciously covered his ear with his hand.

Maybe he wasn’t just a little odd, but really strange?

Until now, he jokingly called him a stalker, but he hadn’t really thought that way. He was just… a bothersome person?

There was no reason to be overly wary of someone he only ran into on campus anyway.

For the first time he felt doubt about Seo Hamin’s identity. Come to think of it, the fact that he was in the law department was only his own claim.

He started to think maybe he had been fooled by his pretty face and carelessly got close to a criminal, and it made him feel nauseous.

Now even the major book he always carried looked suspicious. It seemed like a threat, as if he would hit him over the head with it if something went wrong.

If you hit someone with that…

His narrowed eyes moved back and forth between the thick book and his thin-boned wrist.

“Do you have plans?”

Hamin asked again calmly, as if the previous exchange never happened. Jaeha swept back his hair. Normally he had no plan to sit and eat face to face with Seo Hamin today. Of course, not tomorrow, not the day after, not the day after that either.

“No, not today.”

He thought if he didn’t know the reason for such behavior, he would keep feeling anxious.

“Let’s go.”

Contrary to Jaeha’s expectation that he would look visibly happy, Hamin was indifferent. He wasn’t very pleased, but he didn’t look excited either. Now even such small actions looked psychopathic.

He walked ahead without saying where they were going. The silence was awkward as they walked side by side.

Why does he keep coming to me?

Jaeha sneaked a glance at his unreadable side profile. Because of the height difference of about half a head, he naturally looked down at him, but since Hamin didn’t pay him any attention, it felt like he was secretly peeking.

Curiosity, interest, attraction. Those were all overly familiar words. The reasons attached were many but always stale.

Because he was handsome, because he had a good personality, because he had money. In the end it only meant they wanted to treat him as a trophy, just in different words.

Was Seo Hamin the same?

Looking at his worn-out sneakers with frayed toes, it was obvious he was broke, so if that was the reason it wouldn’t be strange. Judging from how pitiful he looked, maybe it was more reasonable to think he just wanted one expensive meal.

Jaeha even felt a bit of pity. He himself didn’t care about spending money, so if Hamin had just been honest, they wouldn’t have wasted unnecessary time between them.

Once he sorted out his thoughts, his steps felt lighter. He also felt an unexplainable emptiness but it quickly faded with the scattering cherry blossoms. He was thinking the unusually long cherry blossom season felt noisy since there was no rain, when Hamin stopped walking.

Jaeha tilted his head. The place they arrived at was strange. It wasn’t far from the lecture halls, and it wasn’t unfamiliar either, but it was the first time he had actually come here.

He blinked slowly. He also wondered if this person was sane.

“…You want to eat here?”

“Yes.”

Jaeha’s eyes, which usually didn’t shake much, trembled slightly.

He had expected a high-class restaurant, hotel buffet, or omakase. It was hard to believe the sight before him. Seeing people crowded together in line, getting rice and side dishes, he unconsciously shut his eyes.

“Really here?”

Instead of answering, Hamin left him behind and got in line. Jaeha followed absentmindedly and stood behind him, and until he got his food and sat down, he couldn’t believe what was happening.

The place where Hamin stopped was the student cafeteria. If it was just that, he could have let it go. But of all the student cafeterias, it had to be the 1000-won cafeteria.

So… a meal cost 1,000 won.

After pestering him to eat together, he brought him to a place like this, and even bought his meal ticket. Watching Hamin eat, Jaeha fell into thought.

Was this some kind of high-level strategy? Was he pretending to be pitiful so he could demand something more expensive later?

Whatever guess he came up with only left him anxious. He stared at the soybean paste soup filled only with broth, like leftovers from someone else’s meal, and Hamin urged him, “Eat quickly.”

Eat what?

He stirred the soup with his spoon and lifted it. A piece of radish greens no bigger than his pinky nail floated up. This wasn’t normal.

He ignored the crazy soup and ate plain rice. The grains rolled in his mouth like sand. The rice tasted like that, he didn’t even want to touch the side dishes, but he forced himself to empty the tray, conscious of other people’s eyes.

He forced himself to swallowed and looked at Hamin. Jaeha himself ate quickly, but Seo Hamin was faster. He had already set his spoon down long ago and was watching him, which made him uncomfortable.

Contrary to his expectation that Hamin would finally bring up the main point after the meal, he said something completely unexpected.

“Have a good day.”

…The kind of phrase you usually said right before parting.

“…What?”

No one answered his question. Hamin packed up his things and suddenly left the seat.

He left like this?

It was such a clean exit that it was hard to believe it was the same person who had pestered him for days.

Jaeha stayed in his seat, refusing to accept reality, but only people whose names he couldn’t even remember approached him.

“Hi, Jaeha.”

“…Hello, noona.”

Even while politely returning the greeting, countless question marks floated in the center of his mind.

It had already been ten minutes since he left. That meant he really was gone.

“Jaeha, you come here too? I never saw you before so I didn’t know.” A girl whispered, shyly tucking her hair behind her ear. He couldn’t bring himself to smile as usual. He only let out hollow laughs, weighed down by emptiness.

“Right.” Why am I even here?

He gathered his things in disbelief. The only lesson he got from that day was that hitting someone in the back of the head didn’t always have to be physical.

He thought that he wouldn’t bother him anymore, but that strange lunch wasn’t the end.

“Do you have plans?”

“No, let’s eat together.”

The next day Hamin casually came to him again with a blank face and asked. Jaeha could have refused, but stubbornness kept him from doing so. He wanted to know why he was doing this, whether he wanted something, or if he just wanted to annoy him. He wanted to know the reason.

His pattern was always the same. They ate at that wretched 1000-won cafeteria, finished within five minutes, and parted naturally. The walk to the cafeteria took longer than the meal. Since the meal time was so short, there was no room for small talk.

Even after days of eating lunch together, the only words that came out of Hamin’s mouth were still, “Do you have plans?” and “Have a good day.”

He had heard them so many times that he thought if he heard those two sentences just three more times he would lose his mind. But his pride kept him from asking directly what he meant. Everything had its timing, and the timing to ask had long since passed.

There was another strange thing.

While they ate, many people recognized him and greeted him, but no one ever greeted Hamin. Naturally, he began to suspect that this suspicious stalker might not even be a student at their school.

He was a third-year, yet no one greeted him? With that face?

As he looked at his face while he ate seaweed soup with his chopsticks between his lips, Hamin raised his eyes slightly and asked.

“What?”

It was the first conversation in a whole week.

“What’s your next class, sunbae?”

“Property law.”

His natural answer made Jaeha lift one eyebrows. So he had really prepared quite a bit?

“What about after that?”

“I don’t have more today. That’s the last one.”

“Then….”

“I have to go. Have a good day.”

Hamin glanced at his old-looking cell phone, whose model he couldn’t even tell, slung his backpack over his shoulder and left.

By now Jaeha was used to being left alone, so he also left the cafeteria quickly. Otherwise, it was obvious other people would catch him and waste his time again.

To cool his throbbing head, he ordered coffee at a cafe. Sitting by the window, he stared outside, but his head was filled with thoughts of the strange stalker.

Was he really a student at their school?

It was reasonable to be suspicious, but then again, there was no reason he would go so far just for Jaeha, which left things in a maze. He bumped his forehead against the cold air-conditioned glass.

Ripples in his quiet daily life were not welcome. Being at the center of commotion was something he refused.

So, he wanted this to stop soon.

“Order number 103, one iced americano!”

He picked up the coffee and smiled as he always did. When he added, “Thank you,” to the dazed part-timer blinking blankly at him, her pale cheeks flushed red in an instant.

If it was this easy, why didn’t it work on the stalker?

He hadn’t said anything, but whenever their eyes met he had smiled, and he often brushed off flower petals kindly. It wasn’t that he was trying to flirt, but was there anyone who didn’t open their heart to kindness?

Honestly, by now Jaeha believed the careless stalker would eventually reveal his purpose on his own, and the uncomfortable relationship would end. So every time his hand was pushed away like swatting a bug, and every time his smile made the other’s face distort like he was seeing something strange, his pride took a hit.

What did I even do? He’s the weird one.

He drank his cold coffee. He felt a bit better with caffeine in his body.

“Will he come tomorrow too?”

If his conscience bothered him, he wouldn’t come. If he was confident, he would. He chewed on the plastic straw with regret at how quickly the coffee disappeared. Because of how quickly he had been eating meals lately, he seemed to have developed the habit of drinking coffee quickly too.

That was a bad sign in many ways. Since that stalker showed up, he felt his daily life was falling apart little by little.

Because of that, he thought he was pathetic for being swayed so much by someone who had no real connection to him.