ETP Ch 18

As Hwang Yoohyun finished speaking, Bokseung tilted his head.

“The festival?”

“Yeah, I’m going to check out the festival.”

But I just saw you with my own two eyes heading towards the parking lot without even glancing at the festival grounds?

Seongyeon was bewildered by the sudden mention of the festival. Hwang Yoohyun and a university festival. It was a terribly mismatched combination.

“Sunbae-nim, weren’t you going home?”

“Nope, changed my mind.”

Despite Bokseung’s suspicious gaze, Hwang Yoohyun held his ground, as if daring him to challenge him.

It was true that until a moment ago, he had planned to go home and watch some documentaries he’d missed. But he had changed his mind. Since it was his own private thought, he saw no reason to explain it to Bokseung.

Yoohyun turned and headed towards the festival grounds. Bokseung, still harboring a distrustful look, made no move to follow.

“Come on.”

Hwang Yoohyun muttered under his breath. Bokseung’s small lips, clutching the sprout hairpin, moved silently. He didn’t even bother hiding the fact that he was cursing.

The docile image of Bokseung with his friends overlapped with his current expression. To Yoohyun, it was method acting. He just didn’t know which side was the act.

Meanwhile, Seongyeon was lamenting his half-successful plan, foiled by Hwang Yoohyun.

From his few encounters with Yoohyun, he knew that despite his prickly demeanor, he was a bit of a pushover. He had used that to his advantage to escape the festival with the trio.

It was the perfect time to go home and rest, but somehow, he found himself being dragged back into the festival chaos.

Seongyeon listlessly looked at the festival stalls next to Yoohyun. At first, it had all seemed childish and chaotic. But as they walked around, a few decent stalls, or rather, game booths, caught his eye.

Oh, wait. That one looks interesting.

The first game he tried, half-dubiously, was the carp candy picking game.

“Welcome!”

A burly man greeted him boisterously. Remembering playing this game a few times as a child, Seongyeon handed the owner some money.

The owner gave Seongyeon four flat sticks. Each stick had a word written on it: goldfish, pistol, carp, turtle ship, small knife, and so on.

Seongyeon pondered seriously after receiving the sticks. Then, he turned to Yoohyun, who was standing blankly beside him, and asked,

“Sunbae-nim, where should I put these?”

Seeing his serious expression, Yoohyun wondered what the big deal was. No matter how he looked at it, he couldn’t understand how the game worked.

When Yoohyun’s silence stretched on, Seongyeon gave up on getting an answer and placed the sticks on the numbered board that went up to 80.

The sticks were placed strategically across the board, on numbers that combined his lucky number and his birthday.

“You can’t change them now, okay?”

“Okay!”

“Alright, you played three times, so pick three slips!”

Bokseung’s expression turned serious again as he looked at the slips of paper. Yoohyun, also becoming serious, stared at the papers next to him, when Bokseung generously offered,

“Sunbae-nim, pick one too.”

“Me?”

Bokseung’s round head bobbed up and down. Not knowing what he was doing, but since he was told to pick, Yoohyun pulled a slip from the bunch.

Bokseung, watching from the side, stood on tiptoe to see the number on Yoohyun’s slip.

“Oh! Number 13!!”

Then, looking at the board, Bokseung jumped. The number 13 was covered by the word “Dragon.”

Bokseung shouted excitedly and showed the slip to the owner.

The owner, seeing Bokseung’s joy, smiled and handed him the dragon. Yoohyun, however, was confused. The “dragon” turned out to be a piece of yeot (Korean hard taffy) about the size of his palm.

While Yoohyun was bewildered by the prize, Bokseung had already moved on to the next pick.

Bokseung carefully put the dragon aside and focused on picking the remaining two slips.

“Turtle ship, turtle ship, turtle ship.”

Wanting to pick the turtle ship, Bokseung muttered to himself as he rummaged through the slips. After a moment of contemplation, he picked two slips at once and carefully examined the numbers.

The numbers covered by the turtle ship were 58 and 29.

Bokseung’s slips were 75 and 30. Unfortunately, no turtle ship.

However.

“Wow!! It’s a carp!”

He had won the “Carp,” which covered the number 30. Bokseung jumped again, his face flushed with excitement.

The owner, who had smiled along with him when he won the dragon, now had a serious expression as he checked the number.

Only Yoohyun, clueless about the reason for their contrasting reactions, was once again lost in confusion.

“Goodbye!”

A moment later, leaving the bewildered Yoohyun behind, things proceeded smoothly, culminating in Bokseung’s cheerful voice ringing out. The owner waved, but his face looked like he’d lost something precious.

It was because of the carp yeot now clutched in Bokseung’s arms.

Unlike the happy Bokseung, Yoohyun looked at the yeot with a weary expression. The fish-shaped candy, longer and thicker than his forearm, didn’t look appetizing in the slightest.

Yoohyun recoiled at its somewhat realistic appearance, but Bokseung gazed proudly at his trophy.

“I’ve been playing this game since I was little, and I’ve never picked a carp before!”

Bokseung chattered excitedly, his face still flushed. He seemed happy to have finally won the carp, regardless of how many times he’d played the game.

“By the way, the game price has really gone up. Back in my day, it was only a thousand won per game.”

Yoohyun burst out laughing in disbelief at the phrase “back in my day” coming from the mouth of a 20-year-old. Just listening to him without looking, he sounded like a middle-aged man.

Despite this, Yoohyun found Bokseung’s chattering pleasant.

And the dragon-shaped yeot he was holding was starting to look kind of cool.

Thus, the two gradually immersed themselves in the festival.

🍑‧₊ ⋆˙

Yes, this is it! Seongyeon clenched his fist.

The bullet fired from Bokseung’s gun had just burst the balloon in the top right corner. It was his seventh consecutive hit. Seongyeon looked at the three remaining bullets and the balloons, contemplating his next target.

Hwang Yoohyun, standing next to Kim Bokseung, was inwardly quite surprised. Bokseung, who looked like he couldn’t even swat a fly, was popping balloons with perfect accuracy the moment he held a gun. It was as if a different personality was controlling Bokseung.

Yoohyun simply watched silently, sensing a sharpness that didn’t seem to belong to the boy.

The people around them did the same.

Passersby who had stopped to watch the seemingly difficult game now stood transfixed. They were now invested in whether Bokseung could hit all his remaining shots.

Oblivious to his surroundings, Seongyeon held his breath and focused. He was reminded of his time in the military, and the night markets he enjoyed with Hyungseop and his other friends. He had always been the best shot among them.

Proud of his still-sharp skills, Seongyeon aimed at the balloon in the bottom left corner. If he hit this one, it would be a perfect 10 out of 10.

Bang!

The sound of the balloon popping was followed by applause from the surrounding crowd.

Only then did Seongyeon realize that several people besides Yoohyun were watching him. He put down the gun, a slightly embarrassed expression on his face.

The owner of the game stall also applauded and brought over a large teddy bear. It was the top prize for hitting all ten shots.

The teddy bear was, with slight exaggeration, almost as tall as Bokseung and even bulkier. When Bokseung hugged the bear, it almost completely obscured him, leaving only the top of his head and his sneakers visible.

He accepted the prize, proud of his accomplishment, but it was quite cumbersome to carry around.

Yoohyun, watching Bokseung struggle beside him, took the teddy bear. Bokseung’s brown eyes widened as his vision suddenly cleared.

“Here, you were going to drag it on the ground.”

The combination of Hwang Yoohyun’s impassive face and the teddy bear’s cheerful expression was strangely amusing. Seongyeon was grateful to be free from the suffocating view of teddy bear fur.

Thanking Yoohyun, Seongyeon resumed his chattering.

“So, what do you think? Did you see my skills? Amazing, right?! With these shooting skills, I could’ve racked up the rewards…!”

Oh, right. I’m 20 now.

Seongyeon, about to launch into a story about earning reward vacations in the military, stopped himself just in time.

“Racked them up, I could’ve racked them up, right?!”

He tried to recover with an awkward laugh.

“You don’t go to the military.”

Yoohyun’s words made Seongyeon realize his mistake again. Bokseung was an Omega, so he was exempt from military service. He remembered being relieved about that when he first started living as Bokseung.

It was annoying how Hwang Yoohyun, who usually went with the flow, was so meticulous about pointing out flaws at times like this.

“Ah, right. I was just saying, hypothetically, if I went to the military, I’d sweep all the reward vacations.”

“Uh-huh.”

Seongyeon was irritated again by Yoohyun’s disinterest in his elaborate explanation, even after pointing out his mistake. He wished he could express his frustration freely, but outwardly, Hwang Yoohyun was the senior and Kim Bokseung was the junior. It was incredibly frustrating.

Hwang Yoohyun, carrying the giant teddy bear, and Kim Bokseung, holding the large carp yeot, attracted attention wherever they went.

Yoohyun, already noticeable on his own, now carrying a human-sized teddy bear, drew curious glances from all directions.

Some students, thinking they were filming something, looked around for cameras.

As expected, Seongyeon was the first to surrender to the embarrassing attention.

He looked at Yoohyun, who continued on his way regardless of the stares, with a newfound respect. That kind of shamelessness had to be innate.

“Hwang Yoohyun Sunbae-nim?”

At Bokseung’s call, Yoohyun turned around.

His expression was completely calm, as if Seongyeon was the only one feeling self-conscious.

“Um, shall we go home now?”

“Already?”

Yoohyun’s indifferent expression morphed into a pout. He reacted like a five-year-old whose snack had been taken away.