Chapter 9 Part 1

“You should eat too.”

Lee Jun, who was just putting a pork cutlet into his mouth, looked up at Chaeheon’s. The pork cutlet in front of him remained in its original shape, other than being neatly cut into pieces. He stared, wondering why Chaeheon wasn’t touching it, but Chaeheon only rested his chin on his hand and watched Lee Jun eat.

“Let’s eat together tomorrow too.”

Tomorrow, let’s go out instead of having cafeteria food.

Lee Jun’s expression was a mix of “Did I hear that right?” and “We don’t even want to eat together now, and you want to again?”

“You don’t want to?”

When Lee Jun didn’t answer, Chaeheon’s eyebrows furrowed. Lee Jun knew his good mood had changed, but he couldn’t bring himself to agree.

“Why?”

Instead, he was curious why Chaeheon wanted to eat together. At Lee Jun’s question, Chaeheon merely traced his dry lips without answering.

“Why do you want to eat with me? Sitting next to me in class is one thing. Why do we have to eat together too?”

That made it even harder for Lee Jun to understand why Chaeheon wanted to eat. Lee Jun looked around and lowered his voice. There was no one within a two-meter radius, but he couldn’t be too careful.

“…Lonely.”

“What?”

Lee Jun looked elsewhere, and Chaeheon’s voice was too low to hear clearly. When Lee Jun asked again, Chaeheon met his gaze. As their eyes locked, Lee Jun gasped, surprised by the blatant change in Chaeheon’s expression. His lips stretched tight in a smile. His expression looked so pleased that Lee Jun couldn’t take his eyes off him, feigning indifference.

“Because I’m lonely.”

Lee Jun frowned deeply at the answer, which didn’t suit Chaeheon’s smiling face. He had no idea why Chaeheon would be lonely. Couldn’t he feel the lingering gazes directed his way even now?

“What’s lonely about you? Lots of people like you.”

“That’s just them clinging to my face.”

Lee Jun momentarily lost for words at Chaeheon’s dismissive chuckle. He knew objectively that his face was handsome, but saying it outright was different.

“Senior, you weren’t just fond of my face, were you?”

At Chaeheon’s brazen remark, stating that Lee Jun was different, Lee Jun picked up his chopsticks without answering. The pork cutlet, which had tasted good just moments ago, no longer appealed to him. Lee Jun’s chopsticks aimlessly poked at his salad as he thought, ‘Did I dislike Chaeheon’s face?’ As soon as he concluded that he hadn’t, Lee Jun spoke.

“Don’t think I’m any different.”

“You’re not?”

“Do you think I didn’t see your face?”

It’s just that other things appealed to him more.

Lee Jun liked Chaeheon’s face. Honestly, it was still his favorite face.

“Wow, you’re only telling me that now?”

Chaeheon’s voice was more excited than before at the revelation that Lee Jun had seen his face.

“We have a lot to talk about, don’t we?”

Lee Jun turned his gaze to his meal tray under Chaeheon’s expectant eyes.

“I don’t.”

Anything to talk about with you.

Nothing at all…

Lee Jun, who had just entered the lecture hall, casually looked around. In the sporadically spaced seats, early comers were either opening books or looking at their phones. Chaeheon didn’t seem to be here yet.

As Lee Jun walked towards a corner seat in the lecture hall, his eyes continued to scan other seats. Should he sit among the students who had already taken their places? Or should he move all the chairs next to him?

Lee Jun, who was deliberating over something he hadn’t worried about even at ten years old, soon gave up and placed his bag on the seat he had initially chosen. Whenever their classes overlapped, Chaeheon would naturally come and sit next to Lee Jun and wouldn’t let him go home until they had eaten together. When Lee Jun wanted to quickly finish his meal and leave, Chaeheon would somehow know and wouldn’t get up until Lee Jun had eaten everything.

‘Even if you don’t want to eat, eat. You look thinner now that I see you.’

‘If you don’t want to eat here, should we go out? To that place we used to go?’

‘This part sticking out here… Is that bone?’

Chaeheon’s absurd question, when he grabbed Lee Jun’s wrist and asked, was still unforgettable.

“He’s… changed.”

He certainly wasn’t like this before. Well, he knew people don’t live in just one way, but the Chaeheon he was with these days wasn’t the Jang Chae-heon he knew. He was younger, but he never acted like a child, and though he could be gruff, he was never sarcastic…

“Anyway, everything’s weird.”

How many days had it been since he’d spent such unbelievable days? He hated coming to school every day, as if he had a bully, yet his complexion was improving daily. Even if he ate at home, he often had long periods of fasting and irregular meal times, but just a few days of eating on schedule were already showing.

Lee Jun placed the americano he had bought to the side and took out his phone. Just then, it vibrated, and Lee Jun saw the name on the screen and answered.

“Oh, Haein.”

“Can you talk right now?”

“Yes. Speak.”

“Haa. Oppa, I’m really going crazy. It’s already hard with Hae Sol being fussy these days, and do you know how much he just cried?”

A laugh escaped Lee Jun’s lips at Haein’s groaning. He must have called because Lee Jun only saw Hae Sol sleeping this morning before leaving.

“How can he be like this? Huh? Hae Sol really… I never knew raising a child would be this hard.”

Lee Jun kindly listened to his younger sister’s attempts to lay the groundwork for something. ‘She wants to go out and have fun because it’s Friday today,’ he thought.

“Mom said she can’t today, and Oppa is busy because he’s earning money… It must be hard, right?”

Perhaps because he was the head of the household and the only one earning money, she kept beating around the bush. Lee Jun listened to Haein’s words and picked up his americano. It had cooled while he carried it, but it was still warm. A self-deprecating smile appeared on his face at his own patheticness for buying a hot drink for just 500 won.

“Oppa, are you listening to me?”

“I am.”

Lee Jun pulled the americano closer and told Haein to continue talking. There was a certain amusement in guessing when she would finally stop talking in circles and ask to go out. Just as he was about to bring the cup to his lips, a large hand reached in and took Lee Jun’s americano.