Love for Love’s Sake - Chapter 28

Chapter 28

[ Q: What is necessary for a happy life?

A: Stable housing and income. ]

The subsequent message that appeared was similar to what I had seen before. Even what appeared to be my own handwriting.

[ Sub-Mission: Raise Cha Yeowoon’s midterm ranking to 10th. ]

10th? School ranking? I didn’t think it would be the class ranking. Just like the previous Sub-Mission, it was vague.

Finding Cha Yeowoon a friend and now raising his grade. The timing felt like someone was reading my thoughts.

If I remembered correctly, the last time after this was…

[ Accumulated favorability: 130 ]

[ Hint triggered. ]

As expected.

Last time, the accumulated favorability was 15, and now it was 130. It was difficult to guess the meaning behind the number.

Rational suspicion crept back in. Could this system, which had appeared after I was thrown into this novel-like world and given me various tasks, had some personality or will of its own?

“Why are you suddenly asking me to do this?”

I heard a voice as if it was answering a question.

Looking around, of course, it was just me and Cha Yeowoon. I felt a slight shiver down my spine. The voice was unnervingly familiar.

It was mine.

“Because there’s a purpose for everything. Write it diligently.”

Then another voice continued the conversation. This one, too, was a voice I was familiar with.

As expected, this was the ‘hint’ provided by the system window.

“I’ll write because senior told me to.”

“The word happiness is too vague, so the criteria is important. Right?”

Senior.

The moment I realized who the main character of the conversation was, I felt like I had been hit on the head. The person who had written and with whom I had spoken to before awakening here. It was the voice of senior.

“If you set your own criteria, you won’t feel unjust.”

A grinning smile suddenly came to mind.

But that was it.

I couldn’t remember what senior looked like. We were definitely close. Despite me still being a lonely person at the age of 29, I was close to senior. By the way…

What was senior’s name?

“Senior.”

As my confused thoughts cleared, I saw Cha Yeowoon in front of me.

“What’s the matter?”

“…It’s nothing.”

“Is something wrong? Are you sick?”

When he looked at me with concern, I shook my head. It did hurt–my head.

But worrying about it now wouldn’t solve anything. I decided to do as I had learned in life. Sometimes, you had to set aside what you couldn’t solve for the time being.

Mulling over an issue that had no immediate solution wouldn’t help.

Focusing on the task at hand was more effective.

This time, there was even a deadline. The midterm exam.

Although there was the problem of there being less than three weeks, it was best to try before considering other possibilities.

“Cha Yeowoon, starting now, I’ll teach you how to study.”

I declared while holding on to both of Cha Yeowoon’s shoulders. However, his reaction was unexpected.

“…Senior, do you study?”

“Hey. What do you really think of me?”

“You missed school today again.”

“Well, that’s true.”

“There aren’t many workbooks or textbooks at senior’s house either.”

“That’s true, too. But I’ve solved it all when I was younger.”

Cha Yeowoon’s eyes were full of skepticism.

I wasn’t lying. I had spent a year teaching children about his age and sending them to college.

“What was senior’s rank for the end of term?”

“…Anyway, if you’re going to learn, trust and learn.”

“Okay.”

I thought I would have to convince Cha Yeowoon by solving some problems in front of him, but he readily agreed.

“Then where do we study? My place?”

“Whatever works for you.”

Cha Yeowoon hesitated for a moment.

“Just the two of us?”

“Oh, do you want to call Gyeonghun too? He’s the top student in my class.”

“…”

“Good thinking. Let’s call Gyeonghun.”

If we all studied together and the two became friends, I would be able to complete the remaining Sub-Mission.

Cha Yeowoon stared coldly at me, who was full of hope.

“Annoying…”

“What?”

“I thought it would just be the two of us.”

“Huh?”

“Studying. I want to do it alone with senior.”

Just the two of us? Cha Yeowoon had emphasized that part strongly. Why was that?

“Why? Since we’re doing it anyway, let’s have all three of us do it together. You’re so picky.”

“Haa…It’s really annoying.”

“You’ve been annoyed since earlier.”

“Fine. Senior do as you please. I’m going to wash up.”

“Okay. I’m leaving then?”

“There’s ice cream in the fridge.”

As I was about to head to the front door, Cha Yeowoon caught my ankles with an unexpected remark.

“Eat some before you go.”

His additional comment made the situation awkward. Did he think I was ice cream in my last life or something?

“I’ll wash up quickly and come out. Let’s eat together.”

Cha Yeowoon’s face brightened as he hesitantly paced in front of the bathroom.

He, with a plus favorability, was rather cute.

* * *

[ Current favorability: 11 ]

Cha Yeowoon was in a good mood.

The wind blowing in from outside swept the ice cream wrapper to the edge of the table. Tae Myeongha bit into his popsicle and crushed the wrapper.

The crackling noise tickled Cha Yeowoon’s ears. He watched as Tae Myeongha, sitting cross-legged on the floor, stretched his neck to look at the doorway. The long nape of his neck was emphasized at that moment.

Throughout the day, Cha Yeowoon couldn’t take his eyes off Tae Myeongha.

“Did you fix the front door?”

Tae Myeongha quickly turned his head back toward Cha Yeowoon.

Cha Yeowoon even found such a gesture pleasant. Perhaps his persistent gaze had been discovered, but the nervousness was momentary. Tae Myeongha was simply nonchalant.

As expected of his senior, he was oblivious.

“I fixed it myself.”

“Oh, you can do that too?”

“Because I’m not a child.”

“It’s impressive, really.”

Tae Myeongha persisted in treating Cha Yeowoon like a child, even though Cha Yeowoon had asked him not to. It was just a difference of one year, but he would act as if he was his uncle whenever they were together.

“But what’s wrong with your foot?”

Tae Myeongha touched Cha Yeowoon’s bare feet. A blister on his toe had burst, exposing red flesh.

“I think I scraped it during the competition.”

Cha Yeowoon couldn’t say that it was because he had sprinted with all his might in a new pair of untreated spikes. At least, not to the person who had bought them.

Tae Myeongha carefully inspected Cha Yeowoon’s wound with his attentive gaze. The gaze tickled Cha Yeowoon.

“Just because it’s a small problem, don’t ignore it. Do you have ointment? I’ll apply it for you.”

At Tae Myeongha’s suggestion, Cha Yeowoon retrieved the first aid kit without hesitation. Having lived with an elderly person and being prone to minor injuries from training, his home had always carried ointment and bandages.

“I’ll do it myself today, okay?”

Tae Myeongha smiled as he took out the ointment. Cha Yeowoon’s heart skipped a beat.

After doing so, Tae Myeongha examined Cha Yeowoon’s feet with great care.

When Tae Myeongha’s eyelashes were lowered to look at the wound, Cha Yeowoon realized that his eyelashes were thicker than he thought.

Tae Myeongha’s slightly furrowed forehead seemed discordant. His focused expression contrasted his usual playfulness.

Cha Yeowoon, feeling a sharp, electric-like tingling sensation on the underside of his toe, instinctively curled his toes.

“Does it hurt?”

Tae Myeongha immediately stopped his hand.

“…No.”

Cha Yeowoon’s heart was pounding. He buried his head halfway into his forearm.

“You have a lot of scars. It seems you often get injured while training.”

“Yes.”

“Even if it happens frequently, don’t neglect it.”

“Why?”

At Cha Yeowoon’s question, Tae Myeongha laughed as if he couldn’t believe what he had heard.

“Because it hurts my heart, you rascal.”

Why would Tae Myeongha’s heart hurt because of him?

Cha Yeowoon swallowed the question like a pill.

“I’ll apply the ointment properly.”

Cha Yeowoon felt as if a layer of the world had been peeled back to reveal its inner skin. He thought he had caught a fleeting glimpse of the translucent fruit’s shimmer.

Until now, all he had seen of Tae Myeongha were his tough, thick outer layers. After peeling them away slightly, sweet flesh was revealed.

Suddenly, everything didn’t seem so bad.

“Huh?”

Tae Myeongha, who was attaching bandages to each injured area, suddenly looked around.

“What?”

Cha Yeowoon asked, struggling to suppress his heart that felt like it might jump out of his throat. Was he discovered? Did Tae Myeongha even have such thoughts? Was his heartbeat so loud that he might have heard it?

“No, why is the buff message now…What is it?”

“What do you mean? Stop saying strange things by yourself.”

“Uh…Yeowoon, do you feel any different right now?”

“What kind of feeling?”

“Like your body has improved? Do you think your feet have instantly healed? Or your running speed has increased, or your mind has become super sharp and you feel like you’ll study really well starting tomorrow?”

“…Are you being serious?”

Cha Yeowoon’s heart calmed. Every time Tae Myeongha made these strange remarks with a perfectly normal expression, he would wonder if his senior was okay.

“Oh, what is it? What the hell?”

As Tae Myeongha scratched the back of his neck, he tilted his head from side to side.

Cute.

At first, Cha Yeowoon thought Tae Myeongha was rough and fierce in appearance, but the more he got to know him, the more he felt his cuteness. Especially at times like this.

His senior seemed to become more agreeable when he didn’t display the stubbornness his appearance might imply.

The horizontally long eyes rising upward, formed cute diagonal lines whenever he smiled.

He repeated in his mind that he was cute six times, but his senior was oblivious to his thoughts.

After Tae Myeongha took care of Cha Yeowoon’s feet, he volunteered to dispose of the trash on his way out.

He was still dragging his injured foot, but he didn’t seem to notice until it was pointed out to him despite having noticed Cha Yeowoon’s small wound. Tae Myeongha was a strange person, Cha Yeowoon thought.

Tae Myeongha’s figure, having gone down the stairs, now looked small. Cha Yeowoon carefully memorized the back of his senior, who waved his hand and turned around.

The farther Tae Myeongha got, the smaller his figure became. The surrounding buildings in the narrow alley soon concealed him.

Cha Yeowoon became impatient. He placed his feet on the edge of the rooftop.

The more he stepped forward, the more he saw. The idea of being scared never crossed his mind.

As he pondered the possibility that Tae Myeongha might have boarded a passing bus, he found himself gazing at the passing vehicles. Where could he be right now? He had probably reached the bus stop, and maybe he was already on board.

Once he arrived home, what would he do? Would he lie down in the room where they had spent time together?

Did he think of him before going to bed?

Cha Yeowoon bent his knees and sat on the rooftop edge.

The night view of Seoul unfolded. The colorful lights looked different. Since when did the city become so bright?

They could meet again tomorrow at school.

He dangled his injured feet and rubbed his feverish cheeks.

Maybe for the first time, he was waiting for tomorrow to come.

Volume 3: My Favorite’s First Love

“Gyeonghun, how are you planning to study for the midterm?”

“I-I’m planning to study alone.”

Hmm. I thought as much. Ahn Gyeonghun was a high school senior just like me, but he didn’t seem to go to cram school.

“Study with me.”

I pulled up a chair next to his desk and put my arms around his shoulder as he timidly closed and opened his eyes.

“Do you need someone to study with? M-Myeongha, aren’t you good at studying?”

“Uh, that’s true.”

Before I could mention Cha Yeowoon, there was a disturbance from behind me.