Campus Log - Chapter 41

It almost looked like a protest. An air of dissatisfaction wrapped around the man’s broad shoulders.

I had no idea what he was protesting about, but if I spoke to him now, I’d probably just hear something unpleasant. So I kept my eyes off Ryu Eun-seok and continued decorating my planner.

After class ended, I stopped by the restroom for a moment. When I came out after throwing away the drink I hadn’t managed to sip even once, Ryu Eun-seok was loitering near the entrance. He’d said he didn’t even have another class—so why wasn’t he in the lounge? I couldn’t understand why he was wasting time here.

“Sang-hee noona!”

It felt like my name had been called unusually often since morning. When I turned around, Song Hyuk-jun was cutting across the bustling hallway.

“Oh, Eun-seok hyung is here too. Did you get home safely on Friday? I’m sure Eun-seok hyung saw you back properly, but still—you didn’t get hurt anywhere, right?”

Song Hyuk-jun seemed like a decent guy. He must’ve had a hard enough time calming Kim Do-wan in the middle of everything, yet he’d gone out of his way to check on me as well. Considering he already had plenty on his plate as the class representative, I felt a pang of guilt for having practically dumped the aftermath on him.

“I’m fine. Sorry for ruining the mood.”

“Ah, what are you saying? Everyone just forgot about it and kept drinking that day.”

The man standing next to Song Hyuk-jun cleared his throat. Whatever signal that was, Song Hyuk-jun immediately caught on and made an introduction.

“Ah, noona. Do you remember him?”

Only then did I take a proper look at the man. The image of that pale face, flushed bright red as he approached me, came back to mind.

He was the one who had run second in the relay at the sports festival.

“Hello, sunbae. My name is Lee Dong-ha.”

My oversensitive nerves tend to pick up all sorts of meanings in people’s glances, the movement of their lips, the direction their hands point.

And I could clearly tell that the sparkle in Lee Dong-ha’s eyes right now carried the same kind of light as Joo Seung-jae’s when he handed me that drink earlier.

“Oh, hi.”

I spoke casually, but at the same time almost ended up bowing my head. I didn’t even have close friends among my own classmates—dealing with underclassmen was even more awkward.

“Dong-ha said he got nervous on Friday and didn’t run very well. But you practically ran half a lap more for him, noona. So he wanted to say thank you, and I brought him over.”

Song Hyuk-jun smoothly played the spokesperson. Beside him, Lee Dong-ha’s face was turning redder by the second, just like when he’d been running. At this point, it wasn’t just my overreactive self—any passerby glancing at this standoff would be able to tell.

That some guy had developed favorable feelings toward a girl.

Without meaning to, my eyes shifted to the side. Ryu Eun-seok had been—more precisely, ever since my yogurt shake had been taken, After taking a few bites, he had kept his lips pressed into a thin line the entire time.

I was afraid those red lips would part at any moment and spout something absurd like, “Sang-hee, you’re pretty popular.”

“Thank you, sunbae. The guys were about to curse me out so badly I might’ve lived to be 120 from all that resentment. Thanks to you, I survived.”

Lee Dong-ha’s words didn’t quite add up. He said he almost lived long but then survived. It seemed like he was trying to act smooth like Song Hyuk-jun, but judging by the way he spoke, that probably wasn’t his natural personality.

“No, it wasn’t a big deal.”

“When you came running up like that, sunbae, you were seriously my savior. I thought I was completely done for back then. When you grabbed the baton like that, I was so grateful I almost cried.”

Rattling off his words like rapid fire, Lee Dong-ha looked like a job applicant reciting a self-introduction he’d rehearsed in advance.

It was obvious he was wearing clothes that didn’t fit his personality.

“It wasn’t that much…”

With my nerves stretched taut toward my side, I just wanted this conversation to end quickly. I didn’t know exactly why, but Ryu Eun-seok was clearly sulking at someone.

And there was a high chance that ‘someone’ was Hong Sang-hee.

All the different emotions leaking out from everyone around me made my head start to throb. I wanted to hurry back to the lecture hall and be alone.

“You do it.”

In the meantime, Song Hyuk-jun and Lee Dong-ha nudged each other in the ribs with their elbows, whispering without barely moving their lips.

“You can at least do that much.”

“You said you’d help.”

“Ah, you punk. So timid.”

As if they’d finally reached an agreement after their fierce debate, Song Hyuk-jun held out his phone.

“Noona, can you give me your number? We’ll keep in touch sometimes.”

It seemed this awkward encounter was finally about to end. Thinking I’d quickly type in my number and leave, I reached out my hand.

“Why?”

That was when Ryu Eun-seok spoke for the first time in a while.

“Huh?”

Why does he need her number?

At his blunt question digging into the intent, I ended up feeling embarrassed. He obviously knew it wasn’t Song Hyuk-jun who was curious about my number, yet he still chose to act like this. What a nasty streak. I felt sorry for the class representative again.

“Isn’t Sang-hee already in the department group chat?”

Ryu Eun-seok even took a step forward, subtly blocking my view.

“You can just add her as a friend and send her a message. Do you really need her number?”