***
“TA.”
“Yes?”
Eunseo, who had been glued to his laptop, lifted his head. Han Jaeheon, who’d been sitting across from him working on the problem set, suddenly stood up with the paper and came to sit in the seat next to him.
“I don’t get this part.”
“Which part?”
The rest of the study session took a slightly different shape than usual. Maybe his “I’m busy” refrain had gotten through, because Han Jaeheon had switched to solving the problem set on his own and only coming to ask when he got stuck on something, and Eunseo had agreed that much was fine. But a few questions still remained: why he only started the assignment after the deadline had passed, and why he couldn’t ask his questions in advance and swing by briefly before submitting. Eunseo didn’t ask. He’d obviously just get swept up in Han Jaeheon’s sophistry anyway.
“You said you were good at organic chemistry.”
“Only the engineering side.”
“…….”
“It’s been a while since I’ve had to show the whole process from start to finish like this.”
Han Jaeheon laid out his difficulty in a soft, honeyed voice. Eunseo, who had once been good at seeing straight through Han Jaeheon’s
lies, was starting to get confused. The moment Han Jaeheon lowered his eyebrows slightly and spoke in a small voice, his judgment would just vanish.
“How does pure science feel after so long?”
Once the dejected voice came out too, he couldn’t handle it anymore. Eunseo barely managed to turn his head away from Han Jaeheon, ignored him — then ended up drawing diagrams on the paper and explaining anyway. His quiet voice filled the seminar room.
“…Are you listening?”
“Of course.”
“Then explain this part back to me.”
“Look at you, going full tiger teacher.”
Tiger… he’d called him out once for clearly not listening, and now he was a tiger teacher? When Eunseo frowned slightly, Han Jaeheon poked him with a teasing quip.
“There’s still a bit of it left.”
There was a small bruise left on the side hidden by his glasses frame, but you couldn’t tell unless you looked very closely. Eunseo carefully pushed away the hand still hovering around his eye and smoothed his hair over the spot for no real reason. He didn’t want to fall for the subject-changing trick, but the brief contact heated his face and there was nothing to be done about it.
“I know it’s funny to ask this now, but did you report it to the police?”
“Report what?”
“You said you got robbed.”
“…I didn’t bother — I figured they wouldn’t catch him anyway.”
“You didn’t look like you had much to take, but what if he does that to someone else?”
“Then that person can report it.”
“And you know a robber wouldn’t do that to someone else?”
He still couldn’t get used to Han Jaeheon’s way of talking. He’d already worked out every answer in his head and asked like he was canceling them out, so Eunseo always got swept along.
“What do you do on weekends?”
“I come to school on weekends too.”
“……..”
“…What about you, Han Jaeheon?”
For some reason his face looked like he’d been holding back tears, so Eunseo looked back at him. Once the words were out, his lips tingled for no reason, and Eunseo pressed his upper and lower lips together and rubbed them.
He’d never wondered about anyone else’s everyday life, never been curious about anyone. He especially didn’t want to know about Han Jaeheon. Because the more he knew, the more he’d surely miss him. Even now, he might have already mortgaged his future to Han Jaeheon, who had completely overturned this simple daily life of his.
But Han Jaeheon was different. He asked about Eunseo without hesitation and talked about himself just as freely. Because of that, Eunseo ended up learning things he hadn’t wanted to know — his tastes, the hobbies he spent his private time on.
The most shocking of all was that his hobby was playing the piano. Sure, it suited those long, elegant fingers… but piano? No matter how he thought about it, he just couldn’t believe that Han Jae
heon played the piano.
“I was originally going to go see the fall foliage with my sister’s family.”
“Yeah…”
“But it got vetoed.”
Was he asking for sympathy? At the vision of his ears drooping again, Eunseo shook his head quickly and offered the consolation that was already on his lips.
“That’s too bad.”
“Haha, TA, are you reading a book right now? You don’t sound sympathetic at all.”
He’d hit the mark. Eunseo did like Han Jaeheon, and he was truly weak to that face — but he knew all too well how rotten his personality was, so he could never sink into purely liking him.
“So I’ve got time left over this weekend.”
“I see.”
“I’m a super plan-oriented person, so I really hate stuff like this.”
“Yeah…”
A plan-oriented person who doesn’t even think about turning in assignments and reports properly? After a moment of quiet, Eunseo realized that this course’s assignments and reports weren’t in Han Jaeheon’s plans at all.
“So what do you do on weekends, TA?”
No way. At the repeated question — “what do you do on weekends” — Eunseo’s face went blank for a moment.
He shouldn’t be drinking the kimchi soup like this. No wait — was even the kimchi-soup bit overdoing it? Eunseo saw a vision of a white porcelain bowl piled full of something right before his eyes.
“I’m basically done for, at school…”
“The weather’s nice since it’s fall.”
“Because of the experiment…”
“They say the foliage in Gangwon-do is already in full color.”
“I have to write my thesis.”
“Hmm… thesis.”
“…….”
“You really have to write it?”
This bastard, really… Han Jaeheon put on a pitiful act, flaunting his downturned eyes with an innocent face.
“Well, I have to write my graduation thesis too. Same for you, TA. But ours is basically at the level of a lab report.”
“It’s a bit different from an undergrad thesis.”
“I suppose it would be…”
Drawing out the end of his sentence, Han Jaeheon leaned a little closer to Eunseo. Ugh — Eunseo barely managed to turn his head and dodge that burning gaze, but it was pointless, since he’d come close enough for the faint perfume he’d sprayed that morning — nearly all faded — to brush the tip of his nose. Han Jaeheon knew his own weapons all too well. The even facial lines with not a rough edge anywhere, the face as symmetrical as a decal print, the slightly downturned eyes that gave off a kind impression, the straight, high nose anchoring the center of the face — they disarmed Eunseo completely. And his lower lip, just a touch fuller than the upper, was a pretty pink.
But if it were just the face, he wouldn’t be this helpless. Han Jaeheon’s voice worked in synergy with his face, tickling the inside of his stomach. Just as the other grad students all said, Han Jaeheon seemed like kindness distilled — and even Eunseo, who knew how pitch-black he was inside, felt like a bomb he couldn’t defuse.
“Give me some of your time this weekend.”
“…I’m busy.”
“You’d die of regret living like that.”
“It doesn’t matter to me…”
“Then I guess I should go alone… Everyone else will be there with family or their partners — I’d look great sitting alone at a little café drinking coffee, wouldn’t I?”
“Yes.”
“…What was that firm answer.”
“I’m saying it’ll look great, so don’t worry.”
“Haha, you really do like my face a lot, TA.”
With weeks of experience by now, Eunseo had given up denying it. Han Jaeheon played his feelings however he pleased — he’d dismissed his own confession as if it never happened, yet used it whenever it suited him.
“You’ve done nothing but study since the semester started.”
The words came smoothly from the person who accounted for part of the reason Eunseo had to work through weekends too.
“Well, so I’ll compensate you. Just give me Saturday.”
Reading the displeasure on Eunseo’s face, Han Jaeheon added. He didn’t seem to expect a refusal at all. Then again, Eunseo had never truly refused him before.
“Compensation… is something you do when Han Jaeheon has caused me a loss.”
“Yes, exactly.”
“I haven’t particularly suffered any loss, so there’s no need to compensate me.”
Eunseo didn’t particularly think Han Jaeheon had caused him any loss. And probably Han Jaeheon didn’t think so either. His words were surely just invented to achieve his goal, so Eunseo needlessly latched onto that point. Han Jaeheon, who had been quietly watching Eunseo finish his words with such finality, curved the corners of his eyes with a full smile and said,
“Then let’s not call it compensation.”
“……..”
“Give me your time, TA.”
At the direct request and that bright smile, Eunseo almost agreed without meaning to, but barely held his tongue. Han Jaeheon was just a little faster than Eunseo, who was drawing a long breath and barely getting out his refusal.
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