Mint Candy Love - Chapter 1.10

Yoon Ye-jun had a small head for a man. I often heard people say that I had a small head, but Yoon Ye-jun was even smaller than me. The body he leaned against, breathing shallowly… had thin bones. He was also quite short.
“Ah, shit…”

Ki-young Han couldn’t hold it in and immediately chewed out the curse. There was no reason for it to come to mind, but it did. As he chewed out the curse, he erased everything he had written so far. Then, he ignored all the feelings and activity reports and went straight to a one-line evaluation. He gave his evaluation of Yoon Ye-jun without hesitation.

”The first impression is the worst, but the head weight is light.”
***
“Hey. Yoon.”
Yoon Ye-jun lifted his head as a finger pressed hard against his side. It was his close friend, Kim Dong-hoon. Kim Dong-hoon pursed his lips and made a peck, peck sound. He could have just said that he wanted to go out for a smoke, but he acted like this. Anyway, it was really easy for straight people to live in South Korea.
Yoon Ye-jun stood up. Kim Dong-hoon and Yoon Ye-jun left the classroom together. They waited for the elevator to go to the smoking area on the first floor. It took a long time to get to the 9th floor.
Meanwhile, the two men had a meaningless conversation. The cafeteria food is cheap. I want to kill the guys who smoke in the bathroom. The professor asked what class Yoon Ye-jun was in. Most of what came out of Kim Dong-hoon’s mouth…
The elevator door opened. Yoon Ye-jun took a step forward and naturally turned his eyes inside. He was met with a familiar face.
“… … .”

“… … .”

It was Ki-young Han. Strangely enough, after becoming familiar with his face, I saw him often. Maybe it was because we lived in the same building as the social science building. Ki-Young Han had a sullen face even in his usual state. Our eyes met naturally.
Should I say hello…? He thought about it briefly, but there was no need. Ki-young Han walked past Yoon-ye-jun as if he saw him for the first time. Normally, when he met someone, he was working on a group project with in private, he would at least say hello. Anyway, he was a total jerk. Who would like someone like that?
I got on the elevator. As the doors were closing, I heard a voice.

“Hey, Younghan!”

The tone was cheerful and seemed quite friendly. Well, I guess he has friends. That’s lucky. I don’t think this person would care if he didn’t have friends. He didn’t seem like the kind of person who would be particularly good to friends.
And, as expected,

“Hey, I’m deaf. Speak softly.”

He does that with his friends. This is really great. The door slowly closed. The last thing I heard was my friend Ki-young’s voice nagging me to drink or something. I wondered if a kid like that would drink.
“Yejun, today’s the day you don’t have to go to work.”

“Huh.”

“Want to have a drink? Hyung Min-seok opened a bar. He keeps begging us to come.”
He was a senior who had taken care of me since I was a freshman. How old is he? I know he’s in his late 20s, but I don’t know exactly how old he is. As I stayed in school longer, my seniors got older too, so eventually I forgot about him.
I heard that my senior had opened a bar when we exchanged greetings at the beginning of the year. He was originally famous for being from a wealthy family. He didn’t pay much attention to his studies, but as soon as he graduated, he opened a bar nearby. It really is a world where money can buy everything. It was different from me, who didn’t even have time to sleep because I was working part-time.” Yoon Ye-jun smiled bitterly and then straightened the corners of his mouth.
“Shall we go?”

“Hey, let’s go, let’s go. Minseok Hyung said he’d give us great service if we came.”

It seemed okay to drink alcohol after a long time. Since they were usually busy with their part-time jobs, it wasn’t bad to take a break for a day or two and have some fun.
Come to think of it, what time was tomorrow’s class? It seemed okay as long as it wasn’t a morning class. After all, tomorrow was Tuesday… Yoon Ye-jun thought about his schedule. The first class was at 1 p.m. It was okay.
Yoon Ye-jun nodded slightly. It’s been a while since I had a drink, and it’s good. As soon as the approval was given, Kim Dong-hoon said, “Good,” and took out his cell phone. At the same time, the elevator arrived at the first floor.
***

After class, they were chatting with their friends, and it was almost time for dinner. Yoon Ye-jun and his friends, who had been lazing around in their own rooms, met in front of a bar opened by their senior and went inside.
It had a dark atmosphere, like a place where freshmen would gather at the beginning of the semester and just drink alcohol. It was an ordinary bar that you would often see on a college campus.
Yun Ye-jun stopped at the entrance and stood still.
There were two types of bars that felt particularly uncomfortable: one was a room bar in a busy area where no one seemed to care what anyone was doing, and the other was a dark, gloomy bar in a college district that had exactly that kind of vibe.

If I had to give a reason***.

Perhaps it’s because it reminds me of someone who has passed away. In Yoon Ye-jun’s time, who generally lived a strong life, it was a time when he was particularly spineless, swaying, like a sturdy sailboat floating in a rough sea with strong waves.
“… … .”
Yoon Ye-jun stood still with a hardened expression. His colleagues, with the exception of Yoon Ye-jun, stood at the entrance, chatting loudly. “Min-seok hyung,” he said, waving his hand. The senior, who had been standing in the hall and feeling the young CEO’s mood, came over to them after feeling the presence of people.
“Hey, are you really here?”
“Oh brother, why are you like this? You told me to come first.”

Kim Dong-hoon spoke to his senior, who was bouncing around with a cheerful expression. Watching the conversation bouncing around like a ping pong ball, the afterimages of the past gradually began to fade.

Yoon Ye-jun looked around the store, leaving behind the guys who were chatting with their seniors. It wasn’t late yet, but the interior was dark. Judging from the atmosphere where people were drinking, it seemed like it would be difficult to go in sober today.

“Come this way. This way.”

Yoon Ye-jun sat down in the seat the senior had shown him. The senior led them to the center, and handed them a menu with a decent selection. “Senior, you really look like the boss?” As his classmates joked, the senior also laughed bitterly.
Since this was a meal replacement, he ordered spicy soup and fried food as side dishes, and 3000 cc of beer and four bottles of soju as drinks.
The senior, who seemed to be in a good mood, walked into the kitchen and giggled, “It’s going to be a hot day, so eat whatever you want.

“Do you know why the senior invited us?”
“I do.”

“All my seniors and peers are so damn ugly.”
“This class was famous. It was a class cursed by men.”

“But I think it’s okay for us.”

Yoon Ye-jun, who had been listening to the gossip with a bored expression on his face, rested his chin on one hand and fiddled with his phone with the other. The conversation was incoherent. He had no intention of participating in the ramblings. With a bored expression on his face, he waited for the food to arrive, went into Messenger, and swiped his thumb across the screen.

[Ki Young-han, Department of Political Science and Diplomacy]

There are some really good ones here.
Yoon Ye-jun looked at the profile for a moment, which didn’t have a profile picture or even a status message.
I didn’t look at every man as a potential romantic partner, and even if it wasn’t my style, Han Ki-young was handsome. It’s not easy to be handsome and masculine, but he managed it. Sharp jawline, deep eyes, long eyelashes. He had a pretty appearance, but his strong nose bridge definitely had a manly side to it.
It would have been even better if they had talked less. Then at least they could have been pretty close. It’s not easy for two guys to work on a group project like roasting beans and having fun together.

“Hey, guys, should we hold out as long as we can and then go?”

Before I knew it, my senior had come over and started talking to me as he put some undercooked soup on the gas stove.
“It’s not fully cooked yet, so eat it while you roughly season it. Oh, and take the alcohol from there and drink it yourself.”
As the senior spoke in a very generous manner, pointing to the refrigerator with his chin, Yoon Yejun covered the cell phone he was holding. I should drink. He poured some snacks on his appetizer plate and drank alcohol. As he drank one or two glasses, more and more people came in. The room was pretty full.

“Hey. Surprisingly, there are a lot of people here.”
When Dong-gi spoke, Yoon Ye-jun also nodded. Then, he brought the soju glass in front of him to his lips and drank it.
The conversation was mature. It wasn’t like when they were freshmen, laughing and talking wildly and drinking, but they were still comfortable now. Yoon Ye-jun was moderately drunk. He had to drink three or four bottles of soju to get drunk, so it wasn’t like he couldn’t drink at all, but maybe because it was his first time drinking in a long time, he was pretty drunk.
My colleague, who was chatting with my senior while I was in the bathroom, said as he sat down.
“Hey, I just came from hearing a story from Minseok Hyung.”

“What?”

Instead of asking, Yoon Yejun tilted his head and met her eyes.
“Brother Jae, I heard you’re coming to Korea soon.”
“… … .”
Yoon Ye-jun’s expression, which had been slightly agitated by the alcohol, slowly faded. His lips became stiff. He bit his lower lip slightly. He soothed his dry mouth with water. As expected, a question flew at him.
“Jun-ah, weren’t you close with Jae-yi’s brother?”

“Your brother Jae-yi loved you very much. He practically lived with you.”
“… … .”
“That’s why I had a little suspicion that you two were dating.”

“No, but Jae-hyung seems to have some potential in that area. I heard he lived in America for a long time.”

“What are you talking about…?”

Yoon Ye-jun tried to playfully dismiss it, but his words were heavy. He was screwed. He closed his eyes tightly and opened them again. He was hungry for the soju sloshing around in his soju glass.
Her chances are zero. Even so, he was just a curious person. And I was the one who actually liked him.

There must have been a time when I lived with you. It was when I was shaky and unstable. What fun it must have been to play with you. You must have felt that I liked you from the look in your eyes. Yoon Ye-jun tilted her head. I guess I’ll drink well today. He couldn’t even smile bitterly, afraid that his classmates would ask him what was wrong.

“I don’t have any contact with that guy anymore. We lost contact after he went back to the States.”

“Oh, really? But judging from the way you keep in touch with Minseok Hyung, it seems like you still keep in touch with people from college.”
“Anyway, let’s have a drink.”

Yoon Ye-jun returned to his usual expression. A face that was moderately respectful, moderately sly, and moderately smiling.
Naturally, I raised my glass and proposed a toast. The glass clinked lightly, mixed with the sound of the clinking, and the music from the bar rang in my ears.
***

“How many times do I have to tell you I’m not going? Stop bothering me.”

Ki-young Han replied without hesitation to his classmate, Yoon-hak Lee, who was clinging to his arm. Yoon-hak almost begged.
“Please just once, okay? Please, please just once.”