HWAMB — Chapter 2

It was a message from my brother, saying he’d be off work at nine.

“Late again today…”

Lately, his work hours had been getting later and later.

I texted back that I understood, then went into the bathroom to wash up.

* * *

“Sigh…”

I couldn’t even focus on the digital idol dancing beyond the tablet screen.

Maybe it was because it wasn’t my favorite character’s part, but this was the first time I’d ever felt this way.

I turned off the screen and flopped onto the bed. Even as I replayed everything in my head, my thoughts only grew more tangled, without any real answer.

“Since when… did he like me?”

I had always thought of him only as a friend, so I’d never even considered it.

Up until elementary school we were always together, but once we entered middle school and ended up in different classes, we started hanging out with different groups of friends.

Like now, we still met up on weekends, but at school we rarely sought each other out. Unless one of us went looking, we didn’t eat lunch together or spend much time during breaks.

Hyun-woo’s and my social lives were complete opposites.

Usually, Hyun-woo preferred being alone quietly, but people never seemed to leave him that way. I, on the other hand, always felt the need to belong to a group somehow.

Because of that, I tended to keep shallow but wide connections. The only person I really opened up to was Hyun-woo.

That’s why he was the only one who knew about my nerdy, obsessive fan life.

To other friends, I just pretended to be casual, claiming I only watched the same cartoons everyone else did—your typical “normal guy cosplay.”

“God, this is driving me crazy…”

I pressed my closed eyes with a clenched fist. On my hand was a yellow chick band-aid.

Somehow, it only made me feel more unsettled.

The truth was, Hyun-woo was handsome.

He was a dominant alpha, tall, sharp-tongued, but not actually mean-spirited. He looked after me in unexpected ways.

He knew I got lonely easily, so he always came along with me, even to things he had no interest in—like my nerdy hobbies. I appreciated that.

He was unexpectedly considerate and meticulous, so it was impossible for him not to be popular with omegas.

I’d even seen him date a few omegas before.

Of course, those relationships never lasted long.

I remembered them as all nice, good people, but the fact that they all broke up so quickly made it seem like maybe Hyun-woo got bored easily.

“Dating, huh…”

Now that I thought about it, I’d dated exactly twice.

Both times, I got dumped. And both times, the reason had been Hyun-woo.

Not that he had interfered or done anything bad—of course not. They had just all felt extremely uncomfortable with how close Hyun-woo and I were.

Both had asked me to cut ties with him or at least grow distant enough to be awkward. I told them I couldn’t do that.

After that, my interest in dating dropped to nothing.

‘What if Hyun-woo’s the same? What if he kept getting dumped for the same reason I did…’

Maybe he thought, “If it’s always going to be like this, it’s easier to just date Eun-jae instead.”

‘Wait. Does that mean it’s my fault?’

Lost in a spiral of thoughts, I let out a hollow laugh and shook my head.

“No way.”

That was taking it too far.

Anyway, Hyun-woo was someone everyone liked, but there was one problem—never once had I seen him in that kind of way.

When we were kids, sure, he’d been cute, trailing after me everywhere. But that was it.

‘Besides, even if he does like me, how am I supposed to face my uncles after that?’

After my parents passed away and my second brother died, my uncles had kindly taken care of us.

They helped cover our living expenses, looked after me when I was reeling from the shock of the accident, and even said we could live with them until we were able to stand on our own.

But my brother had refused, saying we couldn’t impose that much.

A few years later, he took on more work and managed to repay all the debt to them.

Though my uncles had said repayment wasn’t necessary, my brother insisted on giving them the money. They were people we were grateful to just for their kindness.

Even now, they sometimes sent us side dishes and still kept an eye on us.

‘So how do I turn him down?’

It wasn’t the first time I’d been confessed to, but I honestly had no idea how to handle it. How could I reject Hyun-woo’s feelings in a way that didn’t make things awkward or drive us apart?

It was hard.

Just then, my phone buzzed. It was a message from Hyun-woo.

[Is your stomach feeling any better]

I was already stressing out over Shim Hyun-woo, so when he suddenly messaged—as if he could read my mind—it startled me for no reason.

It wasn’t even like he had said anything bad.

I felt bewildered, but there was no point in putting it off. So I braced myself and replied.

[Yeah yeah, better than before]

[Send me a picture]

My fingers froze at that strange reply.

“A picture? What picture is he talking about…?”

It couldn’t be the photocards I got today.

Neither of us cared much for SNS, so even when we ate out we never took food pictures—we just stuffed the food straight into our mouths.

Sure, Hyun-woo liked taking scenic photos, but I wasn’t good at that sort of thing.

Still, since I had taken a few shots on the way home, I figured I’d just send one of those without thinking too much.

[No you idiot, not that]

[Then what]

[The medicine]

“Medicine?”

A short silence passed. Then I realized I had already forgotten about the pills Hyun-woo had bought me earlier.

I’d forgotten in the middle of washing up.

Since I didn’t reply right away, Hyun-woo seized the moment and pressed sharply.

[You forgot, didn’t you]

He knew me too well. That was the problem.

Afraid of the backlash, I had no choice but to lie. I promised myself I’d take it right after this conversation ended.

[No no no no no, I already took it lol]

[Are you in your room?]

[Yeah]

[Take a picture in 20 seconds and send it]

I was thrown off by the sudden mission.

This crazy bastard Shim Hyun-woo was seriously counting down out loud, “20, 19…”

I wanted to explain myself and complain, but that would just waste precious time.

We both knew the layouts of each other’s houses by heart. If I had really taken the medicine, twenty seconds would’ve been plenty to prove it.

The problem was, I hadn’t taken it.

‘But if I hurry, I might just barely pull it off!’

Of course, twenty seconds wouldn’t be enough to actually swallow the medicine. My plan was to quickly pop the pills out, hide the rest, snap a picture, and send it.

I rushed to the dining table and dumped out the medicine bag. Two small blister packs fell out.

Each one had eight pills sealed inside the transparent plastic.

Out of habit, I tried to press one out with my thumb, but it wouldn’t budge. It turned out I had to peel open the foil on the back one by one.

“Damn it… nothing’s going my way.”

I scratched at the foil with my nail, but I pushed the wrong way and had to try twice.

I was too rushed.

“Ah, shit. It’s not working well…”

Pathetically, the twenty seconds had long since passed.

I didn’t even dare open our chat. Sure enough, my phone was lighting up furiously.

A storm of nagging was pouring in.

[You didn’t take it, did you, Kang Eun-jae. You must be feeling real fucking smug right now????]

[I said I did!]

[Take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it]

[lolololol what are you even doing?]

I let out a helpless laugh at his insane texts. Then, seconds later, a new notification popped up.

[Notice | “Take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it take it” has been registered as an announcement.]

Hyun-woo had even pinned it as a notice. Feeling guilty, I gave up on trying to trick him and just swallowed the pills.

The whole thing was so absurd and funny, I almost choked.

[lololololol you’re insane]

[Take it right now]

[I did, I did, really]

I sent him a photo of the blister pack with one pill missing. Almost instantly, he replied with a simple [ok].

I couldn’t help but laugh.

Hyun-woo wrapped it up by reminding me not to forget to take the medicine tomorrow morning too.

In the end, I still had no good answer for “the best way to reject a confession” and no one I could even consult.

So I decided to put off thinking about it for a little while longer.

* * *

I had forgotten to tell Hyun-woo that it was my turn for morning duty today.

The duty rotated once a month, and whoever was on duty had to arrive at the classroom an hour early.

In a rush, I changed into my uniform, slipped on my sneakers, and sent Hyun-woo a message saying I had to go first because of morning duty.

I added an apology for not telling him earlier.

Because if Hyun-woo came to school an hour early just because it was my duty, I thought that would be way too cruel and horrible.

The difference between sleeping five minutes longer in the morning and not sleeping at all was like heaven and earth.

Sure, those five minutes wouldn’t drastically improve life, but they definitely determined how the entire day felt.

‘Hyun-woo must be in dreamland right now…’

The notice pinned in our chat still carried the madness Hyun-woo had left last night. Feeling guilty for almost forgetting again, I took off my shoes and went back to swallow the medicine.

“Ha… I want ten more minutes of sleep too.”

Our houses weren’t far apart, so we always went to school together.

Even though Hyun-woo’s house was closer to school, he always went out of his way to wait in front of mine first.

As I was putting on my sneakers again, my phone buzzed.

[In front of your house right now]

It was Shim Hyun-woo.

I opened the door, still stunned, and stepped outside to find him waiting in front of my house.

Still dumbfounded, I asked him,

“What, you’re heading out early too?”

“I’ve got morning duty today too.”

“Huh? You do?”

I thought he’d already done it recently, but maybe I was wrong.

Honestly, my sense of dates had been hazy lately, so I just kept quiet. Hyun-woo gave a short reply and let out a long yawn.

Maybe he hadn’t slept well the night before, because he looked really tired.

“Did you take your medicine? How’s your stomach?”

“I did, I did. I think if I’m careful today, I’ll be fine.”

He didn’t seem fully convinced, but he just nodded without saying more.

I glanced at Hyun-woo’s tired face.

It wasn’t like him to stay up prepping for class, so maybe he had stayed up late finishing cram school homework.

Before we entered the classroom, Hyun-woo suddenly asked,

“You busy today?”

“Today? No, not really.”

“Then stop by my place after school.”

“Huh? Why? Did I forget something at your house last week?”

I thought back to when I had hung out at his place the week before.

Hyun-woo clicked his tongue, as if too annoyed to explain.