Campus Log - Chapter 70

“Oh, you’re back.”

Lee Dong-ha, who had been lingering outside for a while, returned with a face lacking confidence. The junior stared at Ryu Eun-seok, who had changed seats, then sat down in the empty seat across from me. Perhaps because he had been scolded about the perfume smell earlier, his shoulders drooped sullenly.

“Dong-ha is here too, so let’s cheers. Cheers!”

Four heavy beer glasses clinked cheerfully. The table was filled with dried snacks, cheese rice cakes, grilled skewers of chicken hearts, and even grilled chicken skin. It had been years since I’d had drinking snacks like this, so my mouth was watering.

“Why are you picking at your food? Did you start a diet?”

Song Hyuk-jun poked Lee Dong-ha, who was listlessly moving his chopsticks, with his elbow. Lee Dong-ha shook his head indifferently, saying that wasn’t it.

“I guess the jjimdak hasn’t digested yet.”

It was Ryu Eun-seok who answered on behalf of the person in question. Lee Dong-ha, who had been gulping down his beer, paused.

“Jjimdak?”

“I heard Sang-hee and Dong-ha ate jjimdak together today.”

Ryu Eun-seok explained first again to the bewildered Song Hyuk-jun. I nibbled on the chicken heart skewer and glanced sideways at the man next to me. He had seemed to disapprove of it from the moment we first made plans, and his voice still carried a hint of spite.

“Hey, man, so you disappeared instead of studying, and it was all to eat jjimdak with noona!”

At Song Hyuk-jun’s theatrical tone, even students at other tables turned their heads to watch.

“No matter how blind with love you are, a student has to fulfill their duty, kid. And then you’re gonna whine that you failed your exams?”

“Shut up.”

The word “love” that popped out of Song Hyuk-jun’s mouth made me feel inexplicably self-conscious. With perfect timing, Ryu Eun-seok handed me a tissue. I nearly sprayed beer across the face of the junior sitting across from me.

“Hey, are you crazy?”

Lee Dong-ha, whose face had also turned red, glared at Song Hyuk-jun. Only then did the class representative realize he had spoken too hastily, and his eyes rolled around.

“Drink.”

Ryu Eun-seok poured fresh water and handed it to me. I barely calmed down and wet my lips with the water. My startled heart fluttered as if it might leap out from between my ribs.

“I just bought him a meal because I was grateful to the senior during the sports day. Don’t overdo it.”

Lee Dong-ha stubbornly stuck to his usual excuse. Mumbling that with his face burning bright red, no one was going to believe him anyway.

“Is that so?”

Ryu Eun-seok’s face, with a lukewarm smile, tilted slightly to the side.

“Then I’ll think you two just ate as senior and junior, without overdoing anything.”

At Ryu Eun-seok’s remark, my eyes sharpened. His intention to deliberately revisit the excuse that Lee Dong-ha had stammered out in embarrassment seemed sly. Was he trying to childishly tease him?

“I’m a little concerned because you two ate together.”

The follow-up comment he added now had an ambiguous purpose. Even Song Hyuk-jun, finding it odd, tilted his head.

“Why are you concerned, bro?”

“Because Sang-hee isn’t usually that kind of person.”

What exactly was included in the expression “that kind of person”?

“I’m also worried that maybe Sang-hee thinks of our Dong-ha as someone special.”

Ryu Eun-seok downed the rest of his beer in one go. His thick Adam’s apple moved up and down smoothly.

“Worried? About what?”

“You know how it is. When someone you thought was only close to you gets close to someone else, it bothers you.”

Ryu Eun-seok’s lengthy story finally reached its conclusion. But both Song Hyuk-jun and Lee Dong-ha sat there blankly with bewildered faces. Their expressions seemed to ask what on earth this senior was talking about.

I remained frozen, staring down at my small plate. It seemed that right now, I was the only person here who understood how Ryu Eun-seok was feeling.

“You don’t know that feeling? I guess I’m the only one who feels it.”

Ryu Eun-seok didn’t hesitate to spill his pathetic inner thoughts. He pressed the call button to order more beer and there was no trace of embarrassment to be found in the man.

“Bro, why are you being so intense with jealousy between classmates?”

Song Hyuk-jun, who always carried the burden of lightening the mood, burst into a hearty laugh. Stuck between the senior who was acting somewhat crooked and the friend who had been listless all along, the class representative’s bottom fidgeted as he tried to read the room.

“Is this jealousy?”

Ryu Eun-seok asked Song Hyuk-jun back while turning to look at me. But I kept my head down, pretending to focus on eating the rice cake stir-fry. Even though I could feel gazes pouring in from all directions, I just kept chewing the food in my mouth.

How could I possibly look Ryu Eun-seok straight in the eye right now?

The man who had been suffering from the same feelings as me, the man who could speak about it so casually—with what kind of eyes was I supposed to look at him?

I wanted to wear big sunglasses instead of my regular glasses.

About an hour after gathering at the pub, everyone’s voices grew loud enough to make my ears ring. Silly laughter burst out, and chopsticks kept falling to the floor.

I, too, felt my focus blurring from time to time. The corners of my mouth twitched more frequently.

Whenever that happened, a thick gaze would fly over from beside me. At first, I endured by focusing only on the side dishes, but after drinking about three glasses of draft beer, I finally mustered the courage to turn my head and meet Ryu Eun-seok’s gaze head-on.