Separation Anxiety

35.

#I’ll Buy You Lunch

The two-hour lecture ran without a break and filled the entire time until the end. As the professor left the classroom exactly at 11 o’clock, the students clicked their tongues. Even for college students, sitting still for two hours straight was challenging.

Dawoon also stretched widely after turning off his tablet PC. Feeling stiff in his neck, he tilted his head left and right to loosen his muscles. By then, more than half of the students had already left the classroom. They seemed eager to escape the classroom as quickly as possible after the tedious lecture.

Disliking crowds, Dawoon tidied up his things and stood up more slowly than others.

“Jung Dawoon!”

As soon as he exited through the back door of the classroom, he heard someone calling him. Turning towards the voice, he saw Choi Yu-na standing there.

“I thought I might have gotten the wrong classroom when you didn’t come out,” she said with a bright smile as she approached Dawoon. Dawoon just stared at her without saying anything. More than wondering if she had found the wrong classroom, he was curious about how she knew which classroom he was in.

“First-year lectures are predictable, aren’t they?” she added, as if sensing Dawoon’s confusion, and nodded towards the timetable posted in front of the classroom. While there were indeed mandatory courses for first-year students, Choi Yu-na was from a different department. It was still strange for a student from another department to know about first-year classes. Was it an overreaction to think she had looked it up on purpose?

“What brings you here…?”

Dawoon wanted to believe there was a reason for her coming all the way here. If she had come without a reason, that would be uncomfortable in its own way.

“To have lunch together. I said I’d treat you to a meal, but you kept refusing. I thought I’d have to drag you along to get you to eat with me.”

Knowing why she kept insisting on buying him a meal, Dawoon barely swallowed a sigh that was about to escape.

“You really don’t need to worry about it. The shirt, I washed it when I got home and it’s fine now.”

Probably. Since he hadn’t worn it again or even looked for it after taking it off, he couldn’t be sure if the stain had come out or not. In any case, his closet was overflowing with similar clothes, and not being able to wear that one shirt wouldn’t affect his daily life.

“Still, the fact that I caused you trouble doesn’t change,” Choi Yu-na was quite stubborn. It seemed she wouldn’t stop mentioning the incident unless she paid some kind of compensation.

“If it really bothers you, just think of it as getting a free meal from a broadcasting club senior,” she said. Many juniors begged their club or department seniors for meals, and many actually got treated.

“Is a senior buying us a meal?”

They both turned at the sudden interruption. Na-eun was standing there with a beaming face, looking at Choi Yu-na.

“You’re not just treating Dawoon, are you? That would be cheap. I’m also a broadcasting club junior. And a direct junior in the announcer department.”

Na-eun pointed at herself and smiled charmingly, her eyes crinkling. Not many people could refuse that face.

“Uh…” 

Choi Yu-na seemed flustered, as if she hadn’t considered Na-eun’s presence, and couldn’t answer right away.

“Unni, buy me a meal too. Please?” 

Dawoon barely held back a laugh at Na-eun’s brazenness, deliberately drawing out her words and calling Yu-na “unni” instead of senior.

“Alright. Let’s go together.”

In the end, Choi Yu-na had no choice but to give Na-eun the answer she wanted, but she didn’t seem particularly upset as she smiled prettily at Na-eun. Watching the two women smiling at each other, Dawoon felt strange. They were both clearly smiling, but for some reason, he felt a tense atmosphere as if he shouldn’t interfere.

“Buy her a meal instead of me,” Dawoon said.

Both of their gazes simultaneously fixed on his face.

“Why?” 

“You’re not coming?”

Their words overlapped as they spoke at the same time.

“I have an appointment,” Dawoon said to Na-eun first, then turned to Choi Yu-na.

“I really do have a lunch appointment today.”

He answered to convey that he wasn’t deliberately avoiding Choi Yu-na.

“Ah… Then next time…”

Choi Yu-na’s gaze turned to Na-eun as she was about to suggest another time. The situation had become awkward since she had already agreed to buy Na-eun a meal too.

“There’s no need to go to the trouble of making time again. Buy the meal you were going to buy me for Kim Na-eun instead. I’ll consider it as if I ate it.”

“Hey, that’s not how it works!”

Na-eun flared up. The smile also disappeared from Choi Yu-na’s face, as if she thought that wasn’t right either.

“…Alright.”

Still, Choi Yu-na didn’t argue like Na-eun. She looked at Dawoon quietly, then smiled gently and agreed.

“You’re heading out anyway, right? Let’s go down to the first floor together.”

Choi Yu-na turned towards the stairs first, then looked back at Dawoon and Na-eun who were still standing there.

“Na-eun, aren’t you coming to eat?”

She called Na-eun in a calm voice. Na-eun, who suddenly found herself actually going to eat with Choi Yu-na, frowned, unable to completely hide her emotions. Having begged for the meal herself, she couldn’t now say she didn’t want it.

“Dawoon, you’re coming down too, right?”

At the friendly voice calling him, Na-eun turned to look at Dawoon. When Dawoon nodded slightly in agreement, Na-eun also let out a deep sigh and trudged along.

In the end, they went down the stairs with Choi Yu-na on Dawoon’s right and Na-eun on his left. They bumped into people coming up, but neither seemed to have any intention of moving in front of or behind Dawoon. If Ui-hyeon had seen this, he would surely have teased Dawoon about suddenly becoming popular with women.

As they were descending the last half-flight of stairs leading to the first-floor lobby, a student rushing up bumped hard into Choi Yu-na’s shoulder as they passed. Losing her balance for a moment, she also misstepped and was about to fall forward. Dawoon reflexively reached out his arm across her chest to catch her as she was about to tumble down the stairs.

“Are you okay?”

“Huh? Oh…”

She also looked surprised and tried to quickly straighten her posture. But perhaps because her feet were tangled on the middle of the stairs, she stumbled again as she tried to step with the other foot. This time, due to Dawoon’s holding position, she swayed and ended up falling into Dawoon’s chest.

Dawoon also tensed slightly at the unexpectedly close proximity. He had never been this close to anyone outside his family, especially not a woman. A fragrant scent, whether perfume or shampoo, wafted up and tickled his nose. When his friends used to say that women smelled nice, he had laughed it off, wondering how that could be true, but now he realized it was real.

“S-Sorry.”

Choi Yu-na quickly stepped back. Even then, she seemed embarrassed and couldn’t look at Dawoon’s face properly. Her noticeable embarrassment made Dawoon, who hadn’t been thinking about it, suddenly self-conscious.

“Dawoon.”

His head turned reflexively at the familiar voice. Hayun was standing right at the bottom of the stairs. Though he had called Dawoon’s name, there were no words after that. He just stood there, staring at Dawoon. Unlike usual, his expressionless face somehow felt cold.

“Oh?”

Na-eun, recognizing Hayun, pointed at him in surprise, then realizing it was impolite, quickly folded her finger and hid it behind her back.

“You said you had an appointment, was it with your brother?”

Na-eun asked, leaning towards Dawoon. Although it wasn’t particularly a conversation to hide, she lowered her voice, unconsciously intimidated by Hayun’s gaze. Dawoon just nodded and finished descending the stairs. Hayun’s gaze followed Dawoon.

“You’re early. It’s only 11 o’clock.”

Dawoon had expected him to come around 12 o’clock, since he had said he’d come for lunch and his company would have its own lunch hour.

“The errand nearby finished early.”

Hayun’s brief response conveyed no particular emotion. However, his gaze towards Na-eun and Choi Yu-na, who were still standing on the stairs apart from Dawoon, was chilly.

“So Kim Na-eun is at the same school,” Hayun muttered. It was hard to tell if he was talking to Dawoon or to himself, his voice was so low. So Dawoon didn’t know how to respond.

“Come to think of it, you were in the same broadcasting club in high school too.”

Hayun added another comment. Knowing he was talking about Na-eun, Dawoon felt unnecessarily tense.

“The one who took the camera test, it was Kim Na-eun, wasn’t it?”

Hayun’s voice seemed to sink even lower. Although Dawoon hadn’t lied, he felt guilty because he had deliberately hidden it when asked who it was. If he had known he’d be caught so quickly, he should have just been honest when asked last week.

Hah. The sound of Hayun sighing, which was rare, could be heard. His eyes moved from Na-eun to Choi Yu-na standing beside her. His gaze seemed to grow even colder than when he was looking at Na-eun.

“Don’t tell me the broadcasting club senior who spilled the drink on your clothes was Choi Yu-na?”

“Huh?”

Had he ever mentioned Choi Yu-na’s name? How did his brother know her name?

Due to the big question mark appearing in his mind, Dawoon stupidly asked back instead of answering the question. Hayun’s eyes, which had been fixed on Choi Yu-na, slowly turned to Dawoon.

“I see.”

The quiet words sounded particularly chilling. It was a coldness Dawoon had never felt from him before.