HWAMB — Chapter 14

4. Receiving and Giving Heart (1)

The three days of midterms finally ended.

As always, I gathered up all my answer sheets and took pictures of them before heading home.

If I checked my answers on the first day, I would obsess over my score and it would affect my studying for the following exams. That’s why I always did it this way.

This way, when classmates bombarded me with questions like “What did you put for that one?” or “How many points do you think you got?”, I could brush them off with “I haven’t graded it yet, so I don’t know,” and slip away.

Then they would feel awkward, say, “Ah, really?” and go pester the class president instead.

“It’s finally over…”

I stretched and glanced at the empty seat in the next row. It had been vacant for a week now.

Jang Jae-ho had disappeared just like that.

After that huge fight, he stopped coming to school, and eventually, during homeroom, the teacher announced that “Jae-ho had to move away because of family circumstances.”

The sudden news caused a stir, but only briefly.

A few days later, everyone acted like nothing had ever happened, forgetting about him completely.

Though things had ended messily between us, with misunderstandings unresolved, there was a sense of relief at having that irritation removed from sight.

“Still… I wish I could have cleared up the misunderstanding properly…”

While I was lost in thought, someone suddenly slung an arm around my shoulders. A familiar voice rang in my ear.

“Well, well, the manly Kang Eun-jae!”

“You’re dead, seriously.”

“Ow, ow! Come on, can’t you take a joke?”

Ever since the fight with Jang Jae-ho, people had started giving me weird nicknames and teasing me.

This was already the mildest version.

The guy who got smacked by me rubbed his back with exaggerated groans.

“Eun-jae, exams are over. Let’s grab food. Everyone’s coming.”

“And then karaoke for round two!”

“Yeah, yeah, let’s go.”

I looked at the noisy crowd. Inside, I sighed over and over, but I tried hard not to show it.

With exams over, I had wanted nothing more than to lock myself in at home and dive back into my fandom life. But things weren’t going as planned.

I liked hanging out with friends too, but lately, I had deliberately cut off all my fangirl activities to focus on studying, and it had been exhausting.

So far, the only person who knew about my secret hobby was Hyun-woo.

Not even my older brother knew the extent of it. If my classmates ever found out and labeled me a hardcore fan, school life would become unbearable.

People always talked behind your back once something like that was revealed.

To avoid such fallout, the only measures I had were to socialize as much as possible, hide the fact that I wanted to be alone, and never get too serious about anything.

Hyun-woo once clicked his tongue at me, saying, “You’re killing yourself over something so pointless.”

But what could I do? That’s just who I was.

Sighing quietly so no one noticed, I texted Hyun-woo: “I’m eating with friends today, so I can’t come with you.”

“You texting Shim Hyun-woo?”

“Huh? Ah… yeah.”

Startled by the sudden voice, I looked up to see the class president standing there.

A bright smile spread across Jin-gyeong’s face as he glanced at my phone.

“You two seem close. Are you childhood friends?”

“Yeah. Our parents have been close for a long time.”

“Ah… I see. You’ll come eat later, right?”

“Huh? You’re coming too?”

“Yeah. Oh… unless that bothers you?”

“No! Not at all. Why would I be bothered by you?”

I shook my head with an awkward smile. I wasn’t uncomfortable, just surprised.

Jin-gyeong usually didn’t hang out with groups he wasn’t especially close to.

And even if I had been uncomfortable, how could I say that to his face?

Well… there was one person who could.

“Hyun-woo probably could…”

Looking relieved by my answer, Jin-gyeong smiled brightly, waved, and disappeared back into the crowd.

Since the accident in PE class when I hit his head by mistake, I’d been strangely running into the class president a lot lately.

Even in situations where there shouldn’t have been any reason.

“Maybe it’s just in my head…”

That vague, uneasy feeling settled in my chest, but I shook my head and followed after the group of kids heading out together.

* * *

After I got home, it wasn’t long before Hyun-woo came over.

I didn’t even have the strength to lift a finger, so I just lay flat on the bed. First round was food, second was the escape room, third was karaoke, fourth was the movie, and the fifth was…

I’d meant to play a little and head back early, but once I was out, I ran around like a dog let off its leash.

Young-ho’s voice, still hoarse from screaming at karaoke, was ringing painfully in my ears.

By the fourth round, I was already limp, being dragged around by the others, but Do Jin-gyeong never once showed a sign of exhaustion, wandering around with that bright smile glued to his face.

Everyone seemed thrilled just to have Jin-gyeong hanging out with us.

It was fun, but I had no strength left to make it to the fifth round, so I mumbled something about having plans halfway through and slipped away. (I secretly texted Hyun-woo to call me.)

While I was lying there, practically one with the bed, Hyun-woo was sitting beside me, grading my test papers.

With a voice barely alive, I asked him,

“How many did I miss…?”

“None. You got all the multiple choice right, and the written ones too, for the most part… ah, wait. You’ll lose points on this one.”

At that, I shot my eyes open and turned toward him. Hyun-woo, as if expecting this, shoved the paper right in front of my face.

It was the math test.

I narrowed my eyes.

“But the answer’s correct…”

“Here, your solution. You used the wrong symbol.”

“What?! Ah…”

I flinched in shock, but as I looked at the solution, my excitement drained away in an instant.

He was right. Hyun-woo was right.

Seeing me sag with shock, Hyun-woo quietly patted my back.

“Other than that, you scored perfect in every subject. Yeah, it’s a shame about the symbol mistake, but they’ll probably only take off partial points. They won’t dock all three.”

“Still…”

“You did well. You really did.”

He murmured gently, stroking my head. Hyun-woo’s comfort was always like that—honest and plain.

It was far more reassuring than any hollow, flowery words could ever be.

To cheer me up, Hyun-woo even peeled the peaches from the fridge for me and hooked up my phone to the TV, playing my bias’s digital concert video.

My favorite position, my favorite obsession, my favorite fruit.

All of it while I lay there, rolled up in the blanket like a kimbap, not lifting a finger. My mood began to ease.

The peach melted sweetly in my mouth.

I glanced at Hyun-woo sitting beside me.

He gave a long yawn as if bored, but his eyes never left the screen.

Onscreen, my bias was at center, moving lively across the stage.

With strong features yet playing the “cute” youngest member, his reversal charm made him especially popular.

Of course, Hyun-woo always looked at my bias with clear disapproval.

I was soon caught up in the video, murmuring in awe.

Every time I saw my bias, my chest filled with excitement.

“God, look at that shiny hair. I wanna pet it so bad.”

Hyun-woo, listening silently, frowned, then suddenly shoved his head toward me.

I blinked, startled, staring at him like he was insane.

“What are you doing? Why’re you sticking your head out?”

“That’s me.”

“Huh?”

“Shit, he looks exactly like me.”

He cursed flatly as he glared at the idol on screen.

…What the hell did this bastard eat wrong today?

It felt like he was saying, ‘If you want to pet someone who looks like that, then just pet me.’

He’d once joked, while I was watching my bias, that I must really like his face. I thought it was just a tease, but maybe he meant it more seriously than I realized.

I nearly jumped, but instead I asked with as much seriousness as I could,

“I’ve been meaning to ask… is your head okay?”

“If you like that guy so much, then just date me. I’ll treat you a hundred—no, a thousand times better than some guy trapped behind a screen.”

“It’s not about whether he’s on the screen or not…”

Shim Hyun-woo, this lunatic, had actually started competing with a two-dimensional idol.

I tried explaining again and again that wanting to date someone and having a bias weren’t the same, but it didn’t seem to sink in.

After glaring at the phone for a while, Hyun-woo tapped at the screen a few times and then spoke.

“Hey, keep your weekend free.”

“The weekend? Out of nowhere, why…?”

“You’re going out with me.”

“What? Suddenly? Where?”

Startled, I asked back, and he turned his phone to show me.

It was the new amusement park that had just opened last month.

So that’s what he’d been fiddling with earlier, sulking. He’d already made the reservations.

Wow… it’s gonna be packed.

It would probably be fun, but it was so sudden.

I opened my mouth to protest, but Hyun-woo, reading my mind as always, cut me off first.

“Hey, you never asked me either…”

“Come on, it’s about time you went somewhere I wanted to. I always just follow you around.”

“Well…”

…He wasn’t wrong, so I had nothing to say.

Sure, Hyun-woo often came of his own will, but there were plenty of times I’d dragged him along.

Honestly, it seemed like he was sulking over something else entirely, but still…

I wasn’t the kind of jerk to ignore my own karma. So I just nodded quietly, agreeing to go.