OMLM | Chapter 32

“No, Kang Yebon! Class is over, why haven’t you come out yet?”

It was Lee Seunggu. Only then did Yebon hurry toward the classroom entrance, feeling relieved.

Feeling the weird glances on him, Yebon awkwardly smiled.

“Where are the others?”

“Park Soojeong went off with Kim Minjeong since they had plans, and Kim Junghyun is still here,” Lee Seunggu nodded toward the direction.

Turning his head, Yebon saw Kim Junghyun leaning against the wall, fiddling with his phone.

Checking his phone, it seemed like class had been over for about five minutes.

Feeling a bit sorry, Yebon resolved to pull himself together.

“Have you been weird since yesterday? Why are you zoning out? Something up?”

Kim Junghyun, who had been staring down at his phone, looked up, and their eyes met.

Yebon hadn’t really spoken to Junghyun properly since their last fight.

He couldn’t hide his awkwardness, the reason for his distraction was truly, really… hard to explain.

Junghyun seemed to interpret Yebon’s behavior somehow and suddenly scrunched his face in annoyance.

“Fuck, I’m out, you guys have your sweet little secret talk.”

Without giving them a chance to respond, Junghyun turned his back and left, his steps loud with irritation.

With Junghyun gone, Yebon felt bewildered and guilty, as if he had become a bad person.

“Should I go after him?” Yebon wondered, but Lee Seunggu seemed unfazed.

“He’ll come if you message him before we go eat. He left on purpose.”

“…Why?”

“So we can talk comfortably.”

Junghyun did that as a favor?

The Junghyun Yebon knew wasn’t like that. He glanced suspiciously at Seunggu, who just shrugged.

“Anyway, you don’t have to tell me everything, but try to share sometimes. If you can’t talk now, let’s go eat quickly. If we leave Junghyun alone too long, he really gets pissy. Calming him down is a pain.”

Lee Seunggu was making it easy for Yebon, and he knew it.

After a moment of thought, Yebon cautiously began to open up. Keeping it to himself wasn’t helping anyway.

This was his first time talking about this kind of thing, and he was unsure how to start, so his words stumbled out.

“Uh, it’s not something serious… but there’s someone who’s been really nice to me lately.”

“No way.”

Seunggu’s eyes widened in disbelief, making Yebon even more embarrassed, as if heat was rising to his neck.

“Wow, is this like a love story? Crazy, wow, Kang Yebon is seeking relationship advice. Wow, this is really something.”

With sparkles of interest in his eyes, Seunggu steered Yebon to a corner of the hallway.

He seemed to have completely forgotten his own words about not leaving Junghyun alone too long.

Caught off guard by Seunggu’s eagerness for romance talk, Yebon rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

“No, it’s not that serious… I thought this person was interested in me because they were so nice. So I asked, but they said no…”

“What kind of nice things did they do?”

“Well, they always want to eat together, pick projects with me even when others are around, come when I call, drive me home, tell me to contact them often, always support me and comfort me, and sometimes… say things that could be misunderstood.”

“Like what kind of things?”

At Seunggu’s question, all of Cha Hyuk’s words rushed through Yebon’s mind.

Thinking about them all at once made him blush, and he waved his hands dismissively.

“Ah, there are things!”

“Ah, too shy to say?”

Seunggu teased, narrowing his eyes mischievously as he poked Yebon in the ribs.

Yebon, now with both cheeks flushed, ignored Seunggu’s reactions.

“Well, since the person said no… I’m trying to believe it’s not like that. But I can’t help thinking about it. What would you do?”

“If they said no, it’s probably not like that, but if you’re still bothered, it’s because their actions haven’t changed?”

“Um, yeah, pretty much.”

Seunggu stroked his chin seriously, furrowing his brow.

Yebon felt nervous, anticipating Seunggu’s response.

After a moment of thought, Seunggu spoke gravely. “Isn’t this like being strung along?”

“What?”

Yebon was shocked, his response exaggerated as he waved his hands.

“No, they’re not like that. They’re really nice.”

The idea of Cha Hyuk stringing anyone along was unimaginable.

If it was stringing someone along, Cha Hyuk would’ve chosen someone much better than Yebon.

But Seunggu, not knowing who Yebon was talking about, looked unconvinced.

“People being strung along usually don’t know, dude. How do they act around others? The same?”

“Uh… well, that’s the thing.”

Yebon rarely saw Cha Hyuk mix easily with others, so he thought about the few times Cha Hyuk interacted with Seunggu or occasionally with Kim Beomjun.

But these two weren’t as close to Cha Hyuk as Yebon was, making it a vague comparison.

“He seems genuinely nice… but I’ve never seen how he acts with other close friends…”

“Ah, that’s important. Maybe he’s just naturally charming and accidentally charms everyone he meets.”

…That didn’t quite sound like Cha Hyuk.

‘No, but the way he is with me, maybe it’s possible…’

Yebon thought it over and slowly nodded.

“Maybe… could be.”

“Wow, Kang Yebon, of all people, you had to fall for a tough one. What are you going to do? Looks like you’re in for a rough time.”

“Uh… fall for?” When he asked back, Seunggu looked at him as if he was the weird one.

“Don’t you like this person? That’s why you’re so bothered.”

Yebon was blindsided by the suggestion.

‘I like hyung?’

He should say no, but the words wouldn’t come easily.

It wasn’t that he disliked Cha Hyuk. He genuinely liked Cha Hyuk as a person.

But he had never considered liking him in the way Seunggu was implying.

Although he’d felt something strange at times, it was because Cha Hyuk was good-looking.

Moreover, even if you don’t specifically like someone, it’s natural to feel peculiar when someone treats you with such consideration.

That’s just how Yebon had seen it.

The very idea of liking someone right now didn’t make sense.

It had been six years. Six years that he had liked Jung Woochan.

And it hadn’t even been a year since they had broken up.

To think that he could like someone else already? Yebon firmly believed that was impossible.

His feelings for Jung Woochan had been deep and heavy.

That didn’t mean he still had feelings for Woochan.

But given how long and deeply he had loved, surely he needed a significant period to recover before he could like someone else again.

It had taken a long time to get over his residual feelings for Woochan, and how long would it take for his heart to be ready to love someone else?

Especially since that love had ended in betrayal, leaving Yebon deeply scarred.

He hadn’t overcome all that yet, to think he could like someone else.

Even as these thoughts swirled, Yebon couldn’t respond to Seunggu’s question.

A foreboding feeling enveloped him.

…If he truly didn’t like Cha Hyuk, why was he so concerned about whether Cha Hyuk liked him or not?

Even after confirming it wasn’t the case.

The redness from Yebon’s ears faded back to their original color.

He looked fearful, somewhat sad and confused.

When Seunggu caught Yebon’s gaze, he awkwardly reached out and drew Yebon closer by the shoulder.

“It’s not that, who knows? Maybe that person is just shy and pretending not to know. I spoke too harshly, right? But Kang Yebon, you have high standards, you can see people clearly.”

…Yebon couldn’t bring himself to agree.

If his standards were truly high, he would have realized sooner that Jung Woochan was a jerk.