Later that night, as Ye Jun sat next to a shy but pretty freshman, he noticed a keen sense of… disinterest. He was baffled. This had never happened before.
Ye Jun had always been a ladies’ man. He had always been undeniably interested in women from as far back as he could remember, from even the first time he got his first girlfriend at 6 years old. Even before puberty hit and his interest became more romantic and flirty, he had been constantly surrounded by the opposite gender and he had enjoyed it. He would give his attention to almost any woman who sought it, flirting, playing the part, and if he happened to be interested in her, he would date her.
Almost all types of women were his type as long as they were well groomed, dressed well, and reasonably attractive. He liked their soft bodies and their cute ways of flirting. And the freshman who sat next to him, in her modest but cute pink dress with big eyes and brown shoulder length haircut, fit that to the T.
So then why?
He pulled out his pack of cigarettes and excused himself from the group. The girl smiled shyly at him, her doe like eyes free of artifice. Really, she was pretty and, just as importantly, humble, which was a nice change of pace from the last two. He should be very interested.
Ye Jun made his way to the side of the restaurant’s building and lit a stick. He knew that he needed to stop, that it was detrimental to his health, but everything, the dreams, the girl, the sunbae was driving him nuts.
He scratched the back of his head in frustration.
“Hey, did you hear about that sunbae?” a voice came from the corner of the building.
Ye Jun recognized it as the voice of one of the men at the mixer. He didn’t know him well but he had seen him around the university.
“Which one?” asked another.
“The one who all the women keep saying is pretty — Go Si Woo, maybe? You've seen him around campus before.”
Ye Jun froze, his ears straining.
The other man was quiet for a moment before speaking again. “Oh yeah, I know who you’re talking about. The one who came to help a professor with something. The one that looks like that actor, what's his name. Lucky punk, with that face of his, he probably gets a lot of women – eh, anyways, what about him?”
“Well,” the first guy said slowly, “that’s the thing, I heard he’s dating someone from the CS department and it’s a man.”
The second voice began to cough, it was evident that he too had been smoking and had likely inhaled too quickly with surprise. “He’s gay? Who’s he dating?”
“I don’t know, some guy – I’ve seen him around, he’s kind of plain, a bit short. You know him, he’s always hanging out with Chae Ji Soo and Yoo Hwan.”
“Oh, yeah, I think I know who you’re talking about. The quiet one. He just kind of fades into the background. Hey, didn’t Han Ye Jun used to hang out with that group?”
“Yeah. Yeah, I recall that. I heard that group had been friends since middle school or something. Wow, being friends with a gay guy, wonder if that rubs off or something. Gotta be careful not to go near that guy.”
“I don’t think you have to worry, he doesn’t talk to anyone. He’s rude to his sunbaes too, I heard. He’s a loner and a weirdo.”
Ye Jun dropped his cigarette to the floor as he heard the two men being called back into the restaurant. He grounded the butt into the concrete and leaned back against the wall, staring at the hand that had been holding the stick. There was a slight burn on the callus of his middle finger where he had unwittingly let the cigarette get too close.
Fuck. He clenched his fist to calm the trembling in his hand. Blood rushed to his head as he tried to stop himself from strangling his classmates. Who the hell were they to talk about Jong In like that? As if they knew anything about him.
And what was wrong with him being gay? Was he even gay – could he possibly still like women? All Ye Jun knew was of Jong In’s feelings for him, he had not seen him with any other man, even Hwan didn’t count since he was only there as an extension of Ji Soo.
Until Si Woo, that is…
He took a deep breath and pulled out another cigarette.
Fuck. He really needed to stop smoking.
~
“Hey,” said Si Woo, breaking the peaceful silence of the room as he turned onto his front on Ji Soo’s bed. He and Jong In were alone in her flat, waiting for her to end her final class.
“What?” replied Jong In, not bothering to look up from his laptop.
“Why’d you pick Media Design as your major? You don’t really strike me as the artistic type, you also don’t seem to care for any of the artistic mediums like music or paintings so why this? Does it have to do with Han Ye Jun?”
For a while, Si Woo did not think that he would respond when he heard the creaking of the chair and saw Jong In turn to face him.
“No,” he said, slowly as though considering his words. He sometimes seemed so careful when speaking as though he put a great deal of thought into them. “I find it easier to communicate. When I found out that one of media design’s purposes was to communicate using digital art it just appealed to me.”
“Ah,” Si Woo replied as he gazed at the back of Jong In’s head when he turned back around to face his laptop. It was the first time Jong In had responded to a personal question without much provocation. Despite the fact that they had spent nearly every day together in the past month Jong In had not opened up himself to Si Woo. Most others needed just a bit of prompting to become vulnerable to his seduction. It wasn’t as though Ye Jun was his lover and yet Jong In was still more tightly bound to some unspoken rule of fidelity than some married men Si Woo had met in the past.
Lee Jong In was, from what he could gather, a straightforward, socially inept child. He was not particularly popular, most people only seemed to know him by association to the others. But the few that did know him, seemed to love him fiercely. These were all simply points he gathered naturally in the time he had spent with him, unlike most people, he seemed utterly disinterested in talking about himself. That was why his answering Si Woo’s question came as a complete surprise.
“Why do you like Ye Jun?” he asked, hoping that his mood was indulgent that day.
His immediate reply was again silence.
“Sunbae,” Jong In finally said, “if you’re not going to be of any help then leave.”
“So cruel,” Si Woo laughed as he sat up and swung his legs around until his feet touched the ground. “I only wanted to know a bit more about my adorable hoobae.”
“I doubt that,” Jong In replied, his eyes back on his laptop screen, “You just seem like a busy body more than anything.”
“How did you know that?” he chuckled. “That was a secret I held dear to my heart. Very few people know this about me.”
“Probably because you only show them the sides you want them to see,” Jong In mumbled.
“Hmm,” Si Woo peered at the back of his head. He wasn’t exactly wrong. Then he perked up with a sudden and fun realization. “So you’ve been observing me,” he said, jovially.
The back of Jong In’s ears reddened and Si Woo’s smile grew wide.
Perhaps the boy wasn’t so wholly disinterested.
“It’s not what you think,” Jong In said after a moment’s pause.
Si Woo waited, knowing that if he spoke, he may never actually hear this boy’s explanation.
“It’s just that Ye Jun does this too. Showing only particular sides to people and I’m not sure why.”
Ah, of course. Jong In really did have eyes for no one else. But what he said did pique his interest. “What do you mean?”
Si Woo had sensed something similar from the handsome and popular ‘Ice Prince’ but then again, there were those moments – his face at the chimaek restaurant the first night they met, the warning he had given Si Woo regarding Jong In at school, and the moment he pulled them apart in the karaoke room.
And Jong In had noticed. But, Si Woo wondered, had Ye Jun noticed as well?
“I don’t know,” Jong In replied, “It’s irrelevant anyways. Let’s quickly get this done. Ji Soo should be back soon.”
“No fun,” he said but he smiled as he jumped off the bed and made his way over to the hard working student. “I’ll do as you say but I’m going to need some motivation.”
Jong In looked up, “I’ll buy you something to drin–”
“No,” Si Woo cut in and suddenly held his face between his hands as he stood in front of him. “I’m going to need something with more substance than that,” he said with a grin as he brought his head down. Jong In’s eyes widened and Si Woo chuckled internally as he suddenly angled Jong In’s face and kissed him on the cheek.
“Next time, if I’m good, I want my reward to be on the lips.”
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