LCL Ch 6

“Hey, Lim Dae-han!”

The person running towards us while shaking his upper body along with his arms was our senior Seong-hong from the same department. I discreetly glanced at Dae-han. He wore a similar expression to mine.

No, his was even more severe. With an annoyed and sullen look on his face, he couldn’t hide his expression as he faced the approaching person.

That senior… I don’t know if I should say this, but he liked Lim Dae-han to the point where I thought he might have a crush on him. He openly favored and discriminated against Dae-han. It was all thanks to senior Seong-hong that made the relationship between Lim Dae-han and his classmates awkward.

The senior who had instantly approached tried to put his arm around Lim Dae-han’s shoulders despite being shorter than him. As soon as he draped his arm over Lim Dae-han’s shoulder, Lim Dae-han skillfully ducked down and slipped away, standing in front of us.

He took a step back and showed his discomfort. Just a moment ago, he was chuckling by himself at whatever I said, but now deep wrinkles had formed between his brows. His cheek was puffed out as if he had stuffed his tongue in it like sucking on a candy.

Being so openly arrogant could lead to the other person getting hurt, but senior Seong-hong seemed to have no sense of pride. He pretended to be friendly towards both Dae-han and me.

“Why are you guys together?”

I missed the right time to say hello, but I answered the question.

“Ah, I was asked by the professor to run an errand, and Lim Dae-han happened to be there too. So by chance…”

I know there’s no need to go into this much detail, but I kept saying it for fear of misunderstanding.  I also felt uncomfortable around the seniors despite the age gap being only a year or two.

“Oh, is that so?”

Before I could finish my sentence properly, the senior casually cut me off and snickered while looking at Lim Dae-han.

“Lim Dae-han, hey, you should greet your senior. Is your neck stiff?”

But I didn’t greet him either. I glanced around, but the senior didn’t care about me at all. It was only then that Lim Dae-han gave a slight nod.

“Hello.”

“Yes, that’s right. Anyway, this errand… why is Young-hyun having Lim Dae-han…”

“Oh, he, he lost in rock-paper-scissors.”

As I hurriedly blurted out my words, the senior smiled in a friendly way. He seemed nice. Although I answered, he poked fun at Lim Dae-han instead.

“Hey, you should at least win at rock-paper-scissors, kid.”

“Hah…”

Lim Dae-han sighed. He basically disliked being bothered or teased, but senior Seong-hong was exactly that kind of person.

Lim Dae-han licked his lips once with his tongue and handed the textbook to me without saying a word.  I could hear the sincere senior inquiring and the insincere Lim Dae-han conversing.

“Lim Dae-han, are you going to join the basketball club or the soccer club? Male students have to do one of them.”

“Neither.”

“Play basketball. The seniors think you’re cute. You’re so tall too.”

Lim Dae-han was over 190cm tall. He had been that way since high school, and maybe even taller now. He hoped he wouldn’t grow any taller. He already weighed over 100kg and was huge, so he said if he got any bigger it would be bothersome.

I wish… I was a bit taller. I looked at the distant mountain. Maybe I had grown 1 centimeter compared to high school. I hoped so. Although I’m not extremely short, since everyone around me is quite tall, I unconsciously developed an inferiority complex about my height.

My senior didn’t offer me the basketball team or the soccer team. This was the first time I heard that male students were required to have one of the two. It was rather fortunate. I was always bad at physical education. At best, I was only good at running. Anything with a ball was not my forte.

Lim Dae-han answered without a moment’s hesitation, perhaps because he thought Senior Seong-hong was on the basketball team.

“I want to join the soccer club.”

“Great! The soccer club is good too.”

“Are you on the soccer club?”

“I do both!”

“Nah, I won’t.”

“Geez, what a stubborn kid.”

Lim Dae-han looked truly annoyed and hurried his steps. A gap opened up between Lim Dae-han and me. I considered catching up to him but didn’t bother. Why should I? In the meantime, senior Seong-hong almost ran to grab Lim Dae-han. I watched their backs as they left.

“…”

Despite acting so rudely, why do the seniors like Lim Dae-han? Not just senior Seong-hong, but all the other seniors liked Lim Dae-han too.

Usually, they become friendly while smoking together, but Lim Dae-han hasn’t touched a cigarette in a long time. Still, everyone was eager to get close to him. Among the new students, they always sought out Lim Dae-han. It was like that from the moment they first saw him.

“…”

Lim Dae-han, who was walking ahead, looked back. He raised his hand towards me. It was a farewell. I raised the corner of my mouth and raised my hand.

“See you in class.”

“Yes, bye.”

Now that I was left alone, I was able to explore the campus without any hassle. Ah. So pretty. Come to think of it, there were couples all around. They took photos of each other and enjoyed relaxing dates sitting on benches.

Lim Dae-han didn’t even see this and just went to get Senior Seong-hong away. He walked away in an instant and was no longer seen.

“I wish we could have seen it together.”

It would have been nice if the two of us could just have a leisurely conversation and look around the campus without any annoying interruptions.

“It can’t be helped.”

A secret date. It was much more difficult and troublesome than I thought.

* * *

Even if Lim Dae-han and I pretended not to know each other at school and acted like distant peers, not much changed. We lived together and secretly went to and from school together. At school, we were only apart for a few hours at most, and unlike high school when we were at school all day, we had plenty of opportunities to meet avoiding others’ gaze.

“…”

Surprisingly, the “pretending not to know” project was going smoothly. To be honest, it was easy because it was a large school with so many students.

The problem was the major courses. The economics department had so many students per grade that they were divided into Class 1 and Class 2. Coincidentally, Lim Dae-han and I were in the same Class 1. All our major courses overlapped.

Before the lecture started, I quietly looked at the end of the textbook. I hoped today would pass without incident as well. I hoped the semester would end quickly. Then I could spend a few months at ease.

“Hey, Ki Young-hyun.”

My college classmate, Park In-gong, pulled up a chair and sat next to me. Our seats weren’t assigned, but we always sat together.

“You’re here. Ugh, the smell.”

I frowned at the stinging cigarette smell. The pungent odor spread whenever he moved. I ended up pinching my nose. Park In-gong held up three fingers.

“Smoked three. It’s a three-hour lecture, so if I don’t smoke now, I’m screwed.”

“There’s a break time.”

“I’ll smoke again then. You know I’m a chain smoker.”

That’s a lie. He started smoking after entering university. I didn’t want to argue, so I ignored him. The scattered classmates around us attacked Park In-gong.

“Hey! Get rid of that cigarette smell!”

“Seriously… Ugh, geez…”

Unable to bear it any longer, one of the classmates sprayed perfume on Park In-gong. They seemed to think that the smell would get less, but instead, the scent got mixed up and became even more unpleasant.

If he knew he was causing trouble to others, he should at least pretend to be sorry. But Park In-gong seemed to enjoy the attention he received.

Really… he’s a friend I made in college, but he’s annoying. So annoying.

Lim Dae-han entered through the back door of the noisy classroom. Because he had taken a liberal arts lecture in the previous class, he came in just before class time. Next to him was senior Hyuna, a third-year retaking the first-year course.

Senior Hyuna had her hair down to her waist and had thick curls permed. With her unusually pale face, jet-black hair, and red lips, she looked like Snow White.

They said she’s the prettiest in our department. The seniors said so. Male and female classmates alike praised Hyuna’s appearance. Such a senior became friends with Lim Dae-han by chance due to overlapping liberal arts classes.