Campus Log - Chapter 40

Ryu Eun-seok was even looking it up, as if he truly intended to buy it. Do I have to make another trip to Yongin? I could even hear him muttering quietly to himself.

I already have another one that’s the same. A key ring identical to the one Ryu Eun-seok had given me was taking up a corner of my dorm desk. It felt too precious to use, so I’d left it sitting there neatly and had barely even touched it.

…Should I give it to him?

At the thought that suddenly surfaced, the back of my neck stiffened. The question of why I’d go that far clashed with the practical reasoning that, since I had two now, a simple exchange wouldn’t be such a bad idea.

As I hesitated over whether to ask him or not, Ryu Eun-seok’s gaze shifted toward the classroom entrance. Joo Seung-jae was walking in, holding a strawberry yogurt shake in each hand.

“Uh…”

Joo Seung-jae let out a strange murmur and stopped short. The friend following behind him peeked his head out to look this way, then hurriedly covered his mouth as if something was funny.

After wavering for a moment, I gave a small nod. We hadn’t even known each other’s names before, but he had held onto my glasses during the sports festival, so it felt polite at least to greet him.

“Hello.”

Beside me, Ryu Eun-seok’s smooth, low voice rang out. Joo Seung-jae nodded awkwardly, looking flustered.

“Uh, yeah.”

The upperclassmen took their seats behind me as usual. Ryu Eun-seok suddenly fell quiet, and behind my back there was a restless bustle.

It was noisy behind me. Joo Seung-jae’s friend made a strange sniffing sound, then suddenly choked and coughed.

“Uh, Sang-hee.”

Joo Seung-jae’s voice, still unfamiliar to my ears, tapped at my shoulder. Before I could even turn my head, the strawberry yogurt shake popped into view first.

“Drink this.”

Without realizing it, I checked Ryu Eun-seok’s face first. Since Joo Seung-jae was making yet another obvious move today, I was wary that Ryu Eun-seok might cut in again with sarcasm like last time.

Ryu Eun-seok merely looked down quietly at the pink drink Joo Seung-jae was holding out. No expression surfaced on his face.

As long as he didn’t sneer, that was enough. I quickly accepted the drink. It wasn’t to my taste, but I couldn’t refuse when he’d gone out of his way to buy it.

“Thank you.”

“Hyung, what about mine?”

Ryu Eun-seok twisted around toward the back and shot back the question. The sulky look on his face didn’t suit him at all.

“I can drink that too, you know.”

“I didn’t know you’d be here, you punk.”

Joo Seung-jae replied sheepishly, flipping through his textbook with a rustle.

“You’re the one with money—buy it yourself.”

“I don’t have money anymore.”

Ryu Eun-seok admitted the rumor without hesitation. Just the other day he’d been whining to me about how he was supposed to keep attending school, and now—whatever had changed in the span of a few days—he accepted it calmly.

I was just about to put the thick straw to my lips when my shoulders jerked in surprise.

The people in the back row were just as flustered.

“Oh, really? Then, uh, I’ll buy you one next time.”

Ryu Eun-seok’s obvious gaze flew toward my lips. Because of that, I couldn’t take a single sip and ended up pushing the cup to the side.

“Want some?”

“Thanks.”

Without refusing, Ryu Eun-seok promptly took it. The clear straw slipped between his lips, and the yogurt shake was swiftly sucked down.

He gulped about three mouthfuls before handing it back. I’d only asked out of courtesy, assuming he would naturally decline—I’d never imagined he’d actually drink it so boldly.

There was only one straw. I couldn’t exactly use the one his lips had just touched. I stared disapprovingly at the now-problematic drink.

“So you two are just friends, right?”

Joo Seung-jae’s friend asked. He had probably brought it up on behalf of the person who was actually curious.

“We’re in the same year.”

Not knowing what kind of nonsense might come out of Ryu Eun-seok’s mouth, I answered quickly first. Then, to signal that I had no intention of continuing the conversation, I turned my back on them and sat up straight. I pushed the plastic cup, now beginning to bead with condensation, to the side.

Ryu Eun-seok was still hugging my bag and fiddling with the panda key ring. Somehow, he looked dejected.

Now that he’d finally admitted with his own mouth that he had no money, maybe that was understandable. The way he sat there, overly quiet, kept catching at the edge of my vision.

“Oh, right.”

I pulled a freshly washed short-sleeved T-shirt out of my bag. It was the one Ryu Eun-seok had lent me on Friday to drape over my legs.

“Thanks. It helped.”

I handed the T-shirt back to him and reclaimed my bag from his thigh. I was clearly the owner of the backpack, yet I felt like a bad person snatching away something that was his.

It was all because Ryu Eun-seok had been sitting there, saying nothing, with the corners of his mouth drooping gloomily.

He placed the neatly folded green T-shirt on top of his forearm. Then he used the freshly laundered shirt as a pillow and flopped down face-first onto the desk. His side profile, drawn in clean lines, sank into the green fabric.