Mint Candy Love - Chapter 2.5

Yoon had awkwardly averted his gaze and then drifted off to sleep again. Meanwhile, Gi had been unable to focus on the movie, thinking Yoon would lean in for a kiss at any moment due to his sleeping position. And yet, Yoon had slept soundly.

If Yoon had just slept without leaning over, Gi might have let it slide. But Yoon repeatedly leaned in toward him, and every time Gi nudged him awake, he’d soon start to drift back in his direction. Gi’s irritation only grew.

Turning to Yoon, Gi replied with a sharp tone, “Did you sleep a lot?”

Yoon, waiting for a response, didn’t answer. Seeing his slightly narrowed eyes only aggravated Gi’s frustration. Honestly, if Yoon hadn’t slept so much, none of this embarrassment would have happened. It was all because Gi had tried to wake him up, leaning a bit closer than usual.

But what was more infuriating was that Yoon, misinterpreting the situation, had turned away as if Gi had tried to kiss him. Like, why would Gi kiss a guy? It wasn’t like he was lacking in any way.

Gi couldn’t help but snap, “You were practically snoring. And why were you leaning on someone else’s shoulder to sleep? Did you do it on purpose?”

“On purpose?”

Yoon also tossed his trash into the bin. Walking down the hallway leading to the exit, he muttered under his breath, “You kept poking me…”

Gi caught that muttered comment immediately and reacted.

“What the…?”

He was about to retort, asking what nonsense Yoon was spouting, when Yoon dropped a bombshell.

“You were trying to kiss me, weren’t you?”

“Oh, come on!” Gi couldn’t hold back his frustration, running a hand through his hair as he caught up to Yoon.

“Hey, hold on.” Gi put a hand on his hip, raising the other in an accusatory gesture. He was practically pointing his finger in Yoon’s face, though Yoon held back a retort of his own. Their exchanges were little more than picking at each other, and anything he said now would only be bait for the other’s temper.
Barely able to calm his breathing, Gi licked his lips and managed to say, “Look, you’ve misunderstood. I wasn’t trying to do anything to you. I was just trying to wake you up because you kept leaning on me.”

“Sure, it doesn’t bother me. It’s not like… your preferences…”
“No, I said no!”

The injustice of it all made Gi’s voice rise. People coming out of the theater glanced over. One of them made brief eye contact with Yoon, who felt slightly embarrassed, worried they’d think they were fighting.

After taking in his surroundings, Yoon gave a faint nod.

“Got it. It was a joke.”

Though he tried to end things smoothly, Gi’s expression remained far from pleased. People with his kind of pride couldn’t just let things slide without a proper resolution.

Living with that kind of temperament must be tough, Yoon thought, though he wasn’t one to talk. Still, he had a decent amount of social awareness, even if perhaps overly so. Thanks to that, he’d never had public outbursts like this before, let alone ones that involved drawing attention.

“No…why would I want to kiss a guy like you?” Gi mumbled, so frustrated that he couldn’t even form a coherent sentence. Was he really that put off by the idea of being mistaken for someone interested in men? It was almost like self-hatred. He’d heard that homophobic people often struggled with their own identity.

Yoon mused on this quietly but was wise enough not to say it aloud. After all, Gi had been vocally repulsed by a professor’s jokes about such matters during orientation, and saying it now might cause a louder outburst.

Taking a slow breath, Yoon replied, “Understood. I don’t care. Sorry if I misunderstood.”

He glanced at his phone, seeing it was just before 1 p.m. Messages had piled up: his part-time group chat, tutoring students, and friends from his department.

He had a class at 2 p.m. on Fridays—a bad slot in many people’s eyes, but he had no choice with his part-time job schedule.
After checking his phone, Yoon pocketed it, met Gi’s reddened face with a calm gaze, and said, “I have an afternoon class, so let’s part here.”

Gi clenched his eyes shut and nodded, then brushed past Yoon, still simmering with anger. He didn’t say goodbye or even look back. After walking quite a distance, he stomped his foot, seemingly unable to contain his irritation.

What kind of grown man stomps his foot in anger in his mid-20s?

“Tsk…”

Yoon clicked his tongue in exasperation. He couldn’t understand him, nor did he want to deal with someone like him.

A quiet weekend.

Gi Younghan sat, staring blankly at his monitor.

He focused on the report template the professor had provided, frowning. The activity report section was childish, with categories like “Activity Report,” “Reflections,” “One-Line Summary,” and “Plans for Next Meeting.”

“What a load of…”

He glanced at the calendar on his desk. It was still March. How was he supposed to survive until late June?

“…….”

Gritting his teeth, he tapped the keyboard, then refocused on the monitor.

There was a space to enter the other person’s student ID number, but not wanting to ask Yoon directly, he dug it up from the university’s portal.

He began typing up the report.

“We met at a cafe at 9 a.m., where he arrived two minutes late and had the audacity to argue with me about it. I was about to go home, but he insisted on a movie—to gather material for the report, so he claimed…”

Gi deleted the last part, rephrasing it as “I had no reason to refuse, so I agreed.”

Yoon hadn’t even asked what kind of movie he liked and instead bought tickets for a random film. It felt like he was owed something, so Gi had bought snacks, only for Yoon to barely eat and to sleep through most of the movie.

“……”

And then│
The cursor blinked on the screen.
And then│
And then
And then│

He thought back to Yoon’s small head resting on his shoulder. At first, he’d nudged him off, but Yoon had leaned over again, several times. In the end, he’d given up and let Yoon doze on his shoulder.

Yoon had a small head for a guy. Gi got plenty of compliments on his own head size, but Yoon’s was even smaller. His body had felt light, almost delicate, as he leaned in…

“Damn it…”

Gi cursed, deleting everything he’d typed. Forget reflections or activity reports; he skipped straight to the one-line summary and entered his verdict on Yoon.

“First impression: terrible, and his head is light.”

“Hey, Yoon.”

Yoon glanced up at the tap on his side. It was his friend, Kim Donghoon. Donghoon puckered his lips, making a kissing sound—his usual way of signaling for a smoke break. Straight people sure had it easy in Korea.

Yoon rose, and the two of them walked out of the lecture hall, waiting for the elevator to go down to the first-floor smoking area. They chatted about trivial things while waiting: cheap campus meals, hating people who smoke in the restroom, a professor who had asked about Yoon’s classes—all topics from Donghoon’s side.

When the elevator arrived, Yoon naturally turned his gaze inside, meeting a familiar face.

“……”

“……”

It was Gi Younghan. Ever since they’d gotten acquainted, they seemed to run into each other frequently. Probably because they used the same social science building. Gi’s default expression was a scowl. They locked eyes.

Should I greet him? Yoon wondered, but it was pointless. Gi brushed past him as if he were a stranger. Normally, people at least nodded when they saw someone from a group project outside of class. No manners at all. No wonder he didn’t get along with anyone.

Just before the doors closed, a voice called out.

“Hey, Younghan!”

It was a lively, friendly tone. At least he had friends. Not that Gi seemed the type to go out of his way for anyone, but at least he wasn’t alone.

And true to form—

“Hey, I’m not deaf. Lower your voice.”

So he’s rude to his friends too.

There were two types of bars that made Yoon Yejun feel especially uncomfortable. One was the kind of private room bar where people could do whatever without caring about others, and the other was this dark, gloomy bar near the university.

If he had to say why…

Maybe it was because it reminded him of someone from the past. Even in Yoon’s usually straightforward and confident life, there had been a time when he’d drifted aimlessly, like a rickety sailboat tossed on a stormy sea.

“……”

Standing with a stony expression, Yoon remained silent as his friends gathered at the entrance, chatting noisily. They called out, waving enthusiastically, “Minseok hyung!” Their senior, who was enjoying the ambiance of his new establishment, noticed them and came over.

“Hey, you guys actually came?”

“Oh, come on, hyung, you were the one who insisted we come.”
With his usual easygoing smile, Kim Donghoon replied to their senior, bouncing off his words like a ping-pong ball. The memories that had been haunting Yoon started to fade in the background.

Yoon left his friends to chat with the senior and looked around the bar. Despite the early hour, the place was dim and had an ambiance that made you want to drink. He figured he wouldn’t be leaving sober tonight.

“This way, over here.”

Following his senior, Yoon took a seat in the center. The senior handed them a nicely designed menu. When one of the friends joked, “You really look like a boss, hyung!” the senior laughed heartily.

Since they were skipping a meal, they ordered spicy soup, fried snacks, a 3-liter beer tower, and four bottles of soju to start.
The senior, looking pleased, chuckled, saying he’d treat them and that they should order whatever they wanted before heading to the kitchen.

“Do you know why hyung invited us?”

“Like I’d care.”

“Well, his batch was full of really ugly guys.”

“Yeah, that year was infamous. Cursed batch for sure.”

“Still, we’re pretty decent, don’t you think?”

Listening with a bored expression, Yoon propped his chin up with one hand while mindlessly scrolling on his phone with the other. He had no intention of joining the random conversation and instead waited for the food to arrive, scrolling his messenger.

[Political Science – Gi Younghan]

The only genuinely good-looking person around here.

For a moment, he looked at Gi’s profile, which didn’t even have a profile picture or status message.

Not that he saw every guy as a potential date, and even though Gi wasn’t his type, he couldn’t deny he was handsome. Pretty yet masculine—a rare combination. A sharp jawline, intense eyes, long lashes. He had a delicate face but with a strong nose that gave him a distinctly masculine edge.

If only he’d talk a little less, maybe they could’ve gotten along better. He could imagine they’d at least be close enough to work together comfortably on projects, instead of this awkward, simmering dynamic.

“Hey, you guys need to stick around as long as possible, okay?”
Their senior had returned, placing the still-simmering soup on the stove.

“It’s not quite ready yet, so take your time. Oh, and feel free to grab more drinks from the fridge whenever you want.”

Pretending to be generous, he pointed to the fridge with his chin. Yoon put down his phone. Might as well drink, he thought, grabbing a side dish and taking a sip of soju. As he drank one glass after another, people started filling the bar. It was getting crowded.

“Wow, this place is more popular than I thought,” one friend said, and Yoon nodded, tipping back another shot of soju.

The conversation had warmed up. They weren’t drinking and laughing wildly like they did as freshmen, but it felt easy and comfortable. Yoon was getting nicely buzzed. He wasn’t a lightweight—usually needing at least three or four bottles of soju to feel tipsy—but he hadn’t drunk in a while, and the alcohol was hitting a little harder tonight.