RCKS 26

“Hey, watching your boyfriend’s game?”

“It’s… not like that, I told you?”

“Do something about your face turning red. It’s pretty much the color of kimchi dumplings?”

“Ah, geez…”

Kim Jihoo, who had been lazily hitting badminton serves nearby, slyly came over and started teasing Lee Yoonsan. Then he peeked and looked at the game screen where Hwang Haekyung was playing. Seeing that Saemyeong High’s score was in the lead, Kim Jihoo wasn’t very surprised.

Kim Jihoo had also taken some interest in Hwang Haekyung and Saemyeong High because of Lee Yoonsan, but he couldn’t help but be nonchalant since he knew that Saemyeong High was the team that won the championship at the National Sports Festival every year anyway. They’ll probably win this time too, whatever.

“Hey, if you keep this up, the P.E. teacher is gonna get super suspicious.”

“Then what am I supposed to do? I’m already scared I’ll get caught for saying my stomach hurts because I missed my meds…”

“Ah, you scaredy-cat, really.”

Even as he replied to Kim Jihoo’s words, Lee Yoonsan couldn’t seem to tear his eyes away from his phone.

The person himself might not know it, but even from a distance, it was obvious that Lee Yoonsan was doing something else on his phone. Even if the teacher hadn’t noticed now because it was just the beginning of P.E. and he was looking after the other kids, he would soon realize that his claim of pain was a pretense with just one glance at Lee Yoonsan.

Therefore, Kim Jihoo raised his hand high and called the teacher in a loud voice.

“Teacher, Lee Yoonsan says he thinks he needs to take more painkillers!”

“What?! Is Yoonsan in a lot of pain?”

“Should I tell him to go to the nurse’s office?”

“Should he? Is it too hard for Yoonsan to even sit down?”

“…Yes, yes!”

It was a generous, if not entirely selfless, act to let him go to the nurse’s office and watch the game comfortably. Lee Yoonsan was bad at lying, but he still tried his best to play along with Kim Jihoo’s words and forced a frown. When he even curled his body slightly as if in pain, the teacher’s permission was granted.

And so, that day, Lee Yoonsan was able to sit in the nurse’s office and watch Hwang Haekyung’s game, and that day, Saemyeong High won the match by a large point margin. And later, in a separately released highlight video, Lee Yoonsan was able to see Hwang Haekyung’s very short celebration after the final point in the latter half of the game.

The ‘bunny ear celebration,’ where he held a V sign above his head and slightly bent and straightened his fingers.

Naturally, that day, WhatTube Shorts was flooded with competing repeat videos of Hwang Haekyung’s ‘bunny ear celebration.’ In the shorts, a bunny emoji was attached next to Hwang Haekyung’s face without exception, which made Lee Yoonsan feel embarrassed for no reason. Perhaps because of that, his heart, which had started beating faster from the moment he first witnessed Hwang Haekyung’s celebration, showed no signs of calming down easily.

---

The final winning team of the volleyball event at the National Sports Festival, which lasted for a week, was, of course, Saemyeong High School.

“Camera get!!”

Lee Seokjae, who had been shouting excitedly about getting a camera in the dorm every time they continued their winning streak, let out a final roar with a yell that was close to a lion’s roar. At that, the players who were packing their things in the dorm where they had stayed during the games added a word each, calling him a crazy bastard, but even the other players who were chiding him couldn’t hide their very excited expressions.

When they first came to the stadium, they didn’t feel much emotion, thinking, ‘Doing well is just the baseline,’ but now that they had actually won the final championship, they couldn’t hide their feelings of pride and elation. Everyone’s phones were already blowing up with a flood of congratulatory messages, and the director and coaches were also excited, grinning from ear to ear and making calls here and there.

And that atmosphere continued until the moment they boarded the bus. Hwang Haekyung was also busy checking the messages on his phone, which was ringing off the hook, and in the midst of it, he was finally able to catch Lee Yoonsan’s congratulatory message. He had sent the message as a text this time, since he had given him his phone number.

Dark Bunny

Congratulations on the win! I watched the whole game too! It was really cool!

Although it was a text of only three sentences, the corners of Hwang Haekyung’s mouth went up. Hwang Haekyung covered his lower face with one hand to hide his rising smile and thought about what to reply. He hadn’t replied to any of the congratulatory messages he had received so far, so he was wondering what to say to such a message. The entirety of Hwang Haekyung’s experience was replying to the congratulatory message from his parents with, ‘See you at home.’

“Hey, what’s this? Seeing this bastard grinning, he’s got something going on?”

So, as he was contemplating a reply and looking at his phone for a long time, Lee Seokjae, who was sitting in the seat next to him on the bus, said excitedly. He was happy that the camera he was getting this time was a pretty expensive product and was equipment that celebrities also used, and Hwang Haekyung, in order to cut off the attention coming his way, replied appropriately. It was an action he wouldn’t normally take.

“Do you like the camera that much?”

“The camera is nice too, but it’s a gift to myself, you bastard. A gift! A reward for me, who worked my ass off and rolled around until we won today!”

“…A gift.”

“Yeah, a gift!”

“A reward.”

“Yeah, a reward! You boring bastard!”

Lee Seokjae, who had been chattering in a very excited tone, yelled as if he didn’t like Hwang Haekyung’s calm tone at all and started a conversation with another player sitting in the front seat. It was, of course, about the camera and today’s victory. And Hwang Haekyung, regardless of such a loud conversation, was lost in thought, looking at his phone. If he just turned on his phone’s lock screen, the text message window with Lee Yoonsan would pop up. And also his own message window, where he had only placed the cursor, not knowing what to send to Lee Yoonsan.

“…Since I won a big competition.”

Even though he hadn’t done anything yet, he felt his heart rate quicken for no reason. Hwang Haekyung contemplated whether it would be okay to act on the impulse that had risen in his mind.

The bus had left about 10 minutes ago, and it takes about 3 hours from Sangju to Seoul. Lee Yoonsan lives in the southern part of Gyeonggi Province, and he would have just started his exam period. On the day they had a long DM exchange, Lee Yoonsan had said that he didn’t know if he would be able to watch all the games because his exam period and Hwang Haekyung’s game schedule overlapped.

“I should get a gift too, at least.”

Hwang Haekyung muttered like that and closed the text message screen with Lee Yoonsan. Then he opened the Instagram app and opened the conversation window with Lee Yoonsan. As he scrolled up through the DMs, he saw the DMs from the midterm exams last semester.

It was a conversation where, in response to Hwang Haekyung’s question of what he was doing, Lee Yoonsan had replied that he was studying at a reading room in the apartment complex’s shopping center. So he had set all notifications to silent and had checked the DM late.

Hwang Haekyung hoped that the content of that message was still valid this semester, and he tried his best to control his quickening heart rate, as if he had secretly done something bad. It seemed that this time, his father’s words, “Then keep protecting him,” were not doing their job. Perhaps the rewarding feeling of elation from winning had blocked his father’s warning, Hwang Haekyung thought.

Meanwhile, Lee Yoonsan, who was solving problems at the reading room for his last exam tomorrow, raised his head, stretching his stiff neck. He quietly picked up his phone and checked the text message window with Hwang Haekyung, but soon his expression became a little sullen.

It was because there was still no reply to the message he had sent to Hwang Haekyung. The game had ended in the afternoon, and he had sent the text in the afternoon. And now it was approaching 10 p.m.

It was not long before 11 p.m., the designated closing time for minors at the apartment complex’s shopping center reading room, and it had also been quite a long time since he had received no reply from Hwang Haekyung.

‘Should I have sent a DM?’

But he wanted to show that he knew his phone number. Lee Yoonsan was the type who hadn’t sent any messages during the games other than a single line of DM saying “Fighting” for each game, in case he might be a distraction. Then, he had sent a text message to commemorate the final victory, but there was still no reply.

He must be busy. How many other people must have sent him congratulatory messages? My message might have been swept away and buried. Then should I send a DM again? No, isn’t the time interval a bit awkward? It’s like I’m begging him to notice, to reply.

Lee Yoonsan felt his head getting complicated with various thoughts and sighed deeply. Then he heard another person using the same room clear their throat. He had been trying to be quiet, but it seemed he had been restless somewhere.

And at that moment, a notification finally popped up on the phone Lee Yoonsan was holding. A text message notification, not a DM.

(Map)

Do you study here?

It was a message from Hwang Haekyung. With a rather random content. Lee Yoonsan checked the map Hwang Haekyung sent. It was a map with the coordinates of the shopping center reading room where he was studying, and a concise question. Completely unrelated to the congratulatory text Lee Yoonsan had sent in the afternoon.

yes

Still, Lee Yoonsan replied to Hwang Haekyung’s text immediately. It was the first time they were having a conversation via text, and the fact that his phone number would appear if he pressed the arrow mark next to Hwang Haekyung’s name made him feel strangely. The fact that it wasn’t the DM window he had been looking at for the past year also made him feel awkward for no reason.

And soon, a reply from Hwang Haekyung came back.

Come up to the rooftop

‘What?!’

As soon as he saw Hwang Haekyung’s reply, Lee Yoonsan barely managed to cover his mouth to keep from making a loud noise. Then he immediately got up from his seat and hurriedly left the reading room and climbed the stairs to the rooftop.

The apartment where Lee Yoonsan had lived since he was a little kid was quite old, and so the shopping center in the complex was also an old-style low-rise shopping center. Not a building with densely packed signs and built in a modern style like the shopping centers these days, but a 2-story old-style building. So there was no elevator, and to get to the rooftop from the reading room on the second floor, he had to climb the stairs.

Fortunately, the rooftop was kept open at all times so that students using the reading room could have a simple cup of tea or a meal, but even as he was rushing up the stairs, Lee Yoonsan had the useless worry of what if the rooftop door was locked.

He couldn’t properly grasp or believe this situation, and he felt a mix of anticipation and doubt as to whether Hwang Haekyung was really on the rooftop. It was a sudden situation, so he felt a little burdened, but still, the feeling of anticipation was greater. Seeing as how he had rushed, taking the stairs two or three at a time at the single word ‘rooftop’ in Hwang Haekyung’s reply.

However.

“…He’s not… here?”

The rooftop he had run up to like that was empty. Lee Yoonsan started looking around, searching for any sign of a person on the empty rooftop. But even after checking the small wooden bench, the unkempt flower pots, and the bench at the edge of the rooftop, he couldn’t find any trace of a person, let alone Hwang Haekyung.

“What the…”

Was he playing a joke? Lee Yoonsan got annoyed at that thought. The anticipation that had swelled up like a balloon, the very slight sense of burden, and the fingertips that had even turned slightly cold with tension from his heart pounding like crazy due to the sudden situation, all felt futile in that moment.

So, just as he was about to leave the rooftop with a sullen expression, Lee Yoonsan’s phone screen lit up and a call started coming in.

The caller was Hwang Haekyung. Lee Yoonsan couldn’t tell if it was okay to answer this call right now. It was a series of surprising events, and besides the brief meeting a year ago, it was the first time they were exchanging voices. Could he endure the awkwardness and shyness? Is my phone voice okay? Is it okay to answer this? Numerous questions passed through Lee Yoonsan’s mind, which had already frozen up with awkwardness.

“…Hello?”

But the answer was already decided anyway. The phone kept ringing without stopping after three or four rings. As if it wasn’t a mistake, as if it was waiting for Lee Yoonsan to pick up. So in the end, he brought his hand to the call button. Lee Yoonsan pressed the call button and put the phone to his ear. His own voice saying ‘Hello’ sounded a little awkward, and it bothered him. But he soon became unable to think of anything at the sound of Hwang Haekyung’s low voice that followed.

—Hi.

“Uh… uh, uhuh, hi…?”

—I’m down here.

“What…?”

—Look down.

At those words that came after a brief greeting, Lee Yoonsan, as if possessed, headed to the edge of the rooftop. And when he stood by the railing and looked down, he saw Hwang Haekyung, who was looking up this way and talking on the phone under the streetlight near the building entrance.

His hair falling down naturally, his face smiling leisurely with the phone to his ear, a windbreaker zipped up to his neck, and below that, well-fitting jogger pants and sneakers. Hwang Haekyung, who had grown much taller even than when they had briefly met last year, was standing there looking at him.

Not Hwang Haekyung in the uniform he had seen in videos or news photos, but Hwang Haekyung in casual clothes.

“H, how, how…?”

—Because I won the game.

“Ah, right, congratulations! You were really, completely cool!”

—I wanted to do this much for myself.

“Huh?”

This much is a distance where the pheromones won’t reach. Hwang Haekyung swallowed the words he was about to add and looked up at Lee Yoonsan, who was standing inside the rooftop railing.