By Zephyria 
As I stepped onto campus, the voices of students reached me from all directions.
Talk about assignments, part-time jobs, club activities.
On any other day, it would have just been tiring noise, but today, strangely, it felt comfortably like background music.
‘I’m really lucky today.’
First period canceled.
Pizza to soothe my stomach.
And Cha Jeong-won’s words that I didn’t have to go into detail about yesterday’s events.
‘At this rate, isn’t my luck finally turning around today?’
Muttering to myself internally, I climbed the building stairs.
My good mood lasted all the way until I headed down the hallway toward the studio.
Cha Jeong-won’s expression as he walked beside me also seemed much more composed. Somehow, the atmosphere wasn’t bad.
But then…
“……”
I felt Cha Jeong-won, who was walking ahead, pause very briefly for a moment.
Haon stood beside him a beat later and looked at him.
Cha Jeong-won’s previously gentle demeanor suddenly turned sharp as a thorn, as if he had noticed something.
Haon, who couldn’t fathom why, belatedly recalled a possible reason.
‘Misfortune.’
Since I was beside him, I thought Cha Jeong-won would be fine inwardly.
‘Is misfortune about to strike again now?’
Should I initiate some physical contact with Cha Jeong-won now?
Haon subtly tugged at his sleeve, shielding the action from others with his body. Then, he turned his head in the direction Cha Jeong-won was looking.
A group of people were gathered, chatting. The back of one of them looked familiar.
“Oh, it’s Hyun-gyu.”
Kim Hyun-gyu was laughing and talking to someone, wearing his usual black hoodie.
His face, looking utterly delighted, resembled a large, excited dog bouncing around in front of someone he was happy to see. Moreover, he stood quite close to the person he was talking to, as if they were fairly familiar.
Whenever Hyun-gyu said something, the man nodded and smiled.
Haon turned his head to look at Cha Jeong-won.
“Senior?”
Haon called out cautiously.
Cha Jeong-won’s lips were drawn into a straight line. His gaze also remained fixed on the two.
“What’s wrong?”
Even when Haon asked, no answer came immediately.
Cha Jeong-won’s shoulders trembled slightly before settling.
“……Nothing.”
His reply was short again.
“Huh? Yoon Haon!”
Kim Hyun-gyu, who had spotted Haon, widened his eyes and immediately waved his hand vigorously. It was such a cheerful greeting that several people in the hallway turned to look along with him.
Haon reflexively glanced beside him again.
Cha Jeong-won’s expression had hardened even more than before.
Haon tugged his sleeve once more. From a distance, it would look like he was just calling the person beside him.
“Let’s go.”
Muttering in a lowered voice, he took the first step forward.
Concealing the hand hooked inside the sleeve a little further inward.
In that state, the two slowly walked toward Kim Hyun-gyu.
“Kim Hyun-gyu, how sneaky of you to go ahead without us.”
Once they reached a suitable distance, Haon grumbled first.
It was closer to a joke meant to lighten the mood rather than a sincere complaint.
Kim Hyun-gyu grinned and said,
“Yesterday you were making such a fuss like you were dying, but today you look perfectly fine?”
“I’m on my way back from nursing my hangover. And you, why did you go alone?”
Haon gestured subtly toward the person beside Hyun-gyu. With a look that seemed to ask ‘Who’s that?’, Kim Hyun-gyu took a step back to give a better view.
It was a face that evoked the word ‘pretty’ before ‘sharply handsome.’
Soft features, bright skin, and when he smiled, the corners of his eyes seemed to fold moistly.
“I moved quickly when I heard the senior was coming.”
Hyun-gyu naturally and respectfully gestured toward the person beside him with both hands.
“Senior Lee So-yul.”
The moment the name was mentioned, it felt as if a light had turned on in Haon’s previously dark mind.
“Ah.”
Haon’s eyes widened.
“Long time no see?”
Lee So-yul smiled gently. His voice, slightly low and elegant, suited his face well.
“I’m sorry.”
Haon apologized with an awkward expression.
When Haon and Kim Hyun-gyu were freshmen, Lee So-yul was a senior in his fourth year. Back then, Haon and Kim Hyun-gyu had helped him with his graduation project. Of course, perhaps because Lee So-yul was popular, there were many assistants besides them.
They had never been alone together, nor were they particularly close, so Haon hadn’t remembered immediately.
Lee So-yul offered a faint smile.
“It’s understandable you wouldn’t remember. It’s been years.”
At that, Hyun-gyu chimed in from the side, agreeing.
The atmosphere softened considerably, and some of the juniors in the hallway subtly glanced over. Their gazes naturally gathered toward the voice of the pretty graduate senior and the popular senior.
That’s when it happened.
Lee So-yul’s gaze slowly shifted to the side of Haon.
“……Long time no see.”
Lee So-yul’s expression as he greeted Cha Jeong-won seemed to calm slightly.
Only then did Haon finally recall the relationship between the two.
‘Ah, they were in the same year.’
Lee So-yul was Cha Jeong-won’s classmate.
Then, shouldn’t they be greeting each other more warmly? But the atmosphere between them felt subtly peculiar.
Perhaps because of that, everyone, including Haon, quietly closed their mouths and simply watched the two.
‘What on earth is it?’
This didn’t seem related to Cha Jeong-won’s misfortune. Haon subtly tried to release Cha Jeong-won’s sleeve.
That’s when it happened.
Haon’s hand was grasped.
Startled, Haon looked down to see Cha Jeong-won intertwining his fingers with a firm grip.
Until now, Haon had been holding the sleeve so subtly that even a million people wouldn’t notice, but now, on the contrary, it looked like they were holding hands to anyone who saw.
Warm body heat pressed into Haon’s entire palm. The warmth was so distinct that he could feel each and every knuckle of the fingers.
No, why…? At a time like this, when we’re not even in that kind of relationship?
Just as Haon was about to turn his head to the side, Cha Jeong-won slowly took a step forward without any explanation.
Without letting go of the hand he was holding.
“Huh?”
Kim Hyun-gyu reacted first. Kim Hyun-gyu stared wide-eyed at their hands. A rustling air spread instantly.
“Yoon Haon, were you two in a relationship I didn’t know about?”
The most surprised person here was Haon.
Should I pull my hand away, or should I just leave it?
Two choices flashed alternately in Haon’s mind.
In this situation, pulling his hand away would likely make things even more awkward.
Above all, Cha Jeong-won’s hand was strangely warm.
‘Let’s just leave it for now.’
I don’t know why he’s doing this, but it doesn’t seem right to shake him off here and now.
Haon said nothing and surrendered his hand to Cha Jeong-won.
He very subtly aligned his fingers with the ones gripping him a bit tightly.
A brief silence followed.
Only after seeing the intertwined hands did Lee So-yul’s gaze rise again. After quietly scanning Haon’s face, it slowly shifted to Cha Jeong-won beside him. His pupils trembled ever so slightly.
“……Have you been well, Jeong-won?”
The voice was lighter than expected. But the end of that sentence wavered slightly.
Like ex-lovers meeting after years. Pretending to greet casually, but it felt like more was being hidden because of it.
The tone seemed reserved for someone known for a long time, making even the listeners feel oddly ticklish.
Haon inadvertently tightened his grip on the fingers.
People were already looking at them strangely; fidgeting his fingers would be no different from asking to be watched.
But doing nothing made each knuckle of the held hand feel awkward, as if it weren’t his own.
“Yeah.”
Cha Jeong-won answered curtly. Unlike Lee So-yul, who seemed to radiate warmth and affection, Cha Jeong-won appeared devoid of any emotion.
It was such an insincere response that the onlookers were taken aback.
As the words cut off, the air immediately stiffened.
Kim Hyun-gyu, standing beside them, fiddled with his phone unnecessarily and cleared his throat, while another junior pointed to the vending machine and muttered something like, “The coffee’s sold out.” Even though several voices were clearly layered in the hallway, it grew quiet as if all sound had drained from this spot alone.
‘Wow, the atmosphere is really…’
Haon inwardly sighed, closer to admiration.
Thinking he should tactfully step back, he subtly shifted his body to the side but failed. Jeong-won didn’t let go of his hand. Instead, he gripped it even more firmly.
That’s when Lee So-yul composed his expression first.
He closed his eyes just once, then opened them and hung a smile on his lips again. Erasing the previously stiff demeanor, he revived the elegant atmosphere as if it had always been that way.
“Do you have some time after class?”
It sounded like a casually thrown remark, but his gaze naturally turned toward Cha Jeong-won. That peculiar look lingered on Cha Jeong-won a little longer.
68 – NOT 68