The Semester Kickoff
The only hours Hong Ji-hyeon and Marcus shared on campus were their major classes. By some stroke of luck they overlapped in the electives as well as the requirements, so Mondays and Wednesdays they could run into each other from the morning on, and Tuesdays and Thursdays from the afternoon.
And now Thursday, four in the afternoon, was closing in—the moment their overlapping time for the week would end.
Ahh, it's over. Sure, I'm glad I sat next to him all through the first week, and glad we exchanged contacts in the middle of it... but we didn't actually talk that much, and when we did it was just games. Meals, too—after the first day, Wednesday lunch was the end of it.
The regret sat heavy on him. Even so, Ji-hyeon was clear-eyed enough to see the week for what it was. They had never quite climbed out of the awkwardness between them, and sitting at Marcus's side through those first days was as far as it had gone—and yet, for all that, the amount they'd talked had been overwhelming.
Isn't there some way to get closer? Ahh—of course I can't just selfishly go hoping Marcus is gay!
The professor's last words trailed off, and the lecture was done. Beside him, Marcus quietly gathered his things. Ji-hyeon kept turning the problem over while he packed his bag, and the two of them rose at almost the same moment.
"I'll head out first. Goodbye."
"Ah—yeah. Goodbye, Marcus."
Whatever he had to do, Marcus quickened his step and was out of the lecture hall.
Now that I think about it, he looked exhausted during Wednesday morning's class. Does he have a part-time job?
The thought caught another by the tail, and a fantasy unspooled in Ji-hyeon's head all on its own.
If it is a part-time job, what kind? Something ordinary—a restaurant, a convenience store? No. With a body that's nothing but raw talent, personal trainer would suit him. Ah, but that isn't really part-time work, is it?
He was still spinning that private loop when someone came up to him.
"Ah, um. Ji-hyeon-sunbae."
It was none other than Choi Mi-na, student council president of the Programming Department for the semester. A junior two years below him, and someone he knew only at a polite distance.
"Ah, yes."
The fantasy circuit cut out, and his mind snapped back to the room.
"Um... are you close with Marcus?"
"Sorry?"
"Ah, well, there's something we need to announce, and it turns out Marcus doesn't have CocoaTalk. He isn't in the group chat at all. So if you don't mind, I was hoping you could get in touch with him for us."
"Ah, sure, sure."
"Waaah~ thank you, really. You're pretty much the only person who's actually talked to him so far, Ji-hyeon-sunbae. Everyone on the student council is too scared of how huge he is to even give him a proper welcome..."
As she went on, a little grievance about her fellow council members slipped out.
"Ahaha... so what's this announcement?"
"Oh! It's the thing posted in the group chat!"
The semester kickoff.
Once a term began, it was a briefing that doubled as a welcome for the freshmen. In practice, of course, the real event was the drinking party that followed the moment that simple explanation ended. However much of an outsider Hong Ji-hyeon was, this was the one gathering he had never missed. This time, he had forgotten it completely.
Well, of course I did. Ever since I met Marcus I've been so worked up that all I do, every single day, is watch huge-Black-cock porn and read dirty manga!
What Choi Mi-na wanted was for him to tell Marcus about the kickoff and, if he could manage it, press him to come. As a foreign exchange student, Marcus was someone the university had apparently told the student council to look after with particular care.
Even better!
On the way home Ji-hyeon pulled out his phone in high spirits.
I was just agonizing over how to get closer to Marcus, and this is the perfect chance! Of course... the place'll be packed with social butterflies, and it's a drinking party, so I won't get to monopolize the seat next to him. Still—going to the same place! And the fact that I'm the one inviting him is definitely going to count for a lot!
With that in mind, he carefully typed out what he wanted to say in a translation app, copied both the Korean and the English, and sent a DM to Marcus's Outstagram. It was a rare hour of glory for an Outsta account he barely ever used.
"Haaah..."
Ji-hyeon let the reaction out under his breath.
Figures. He doesn't talk to anyone but me, so he basically doesn't seem interested in people at all. If he doesn't even like drinking, there's no reason for him to come to the kickoff...
While Ji-hyeon quietly despaired, Marcus went on typing.
It arrived only after a long stretch of typing. Ji-hyeon stared at the message until he could have burned a hole through it, and then a thought surfaced.
Is he actually really embarrassed, and hoping I'll go with him?
He hurried his fingers and sent the reply. The read receipt appeared, a little time passed, and Marcus answered.
A yes came back, English and Korean braided together.
Score!
He tacked on, as a bonus, the thought that he'd probably left a good impression with the student council, and between having invited Marcus to the drinking party and the prospect of it, satisfaction and anticipation both settled warm in his chest.
"Hm. This'll do."
He said it to his reflection in the studio apartment's mirror. Light jeans, a beige sweatshirt—an unremarkable outfit that gave off a soft impression. On Ji-hyeon's thin frame, the medium sweatshirt hung loose.
He dabbed on just enough all-in-one foundation stick not to be noticed, pocketed his phone and wallet, and left.
The kickoff was being held in the wide auditorium of the Engineering Main Building. Ji-hyeon took an inconspicuous seat in a corner, and he had been spacing out for only a moment when someone came up beside him.
"Sunbae."
Student council president Choi Mi-na.
"Ah, yes."
"Did Marcus say he'd come?"
"Ah, he said he would."
"Waaah! Thank you, sunbae! Thanks to you, every exchange student is attending!"
Thrilled, she cheered under her breath and wagged a thumbs-up in each hand.
"Seriously, thank you!"
She got the thanks out and zipped off toward the front.
Look how happy she is. I'm really glad Marcus is coming. Hehe... he said he'd come because I said I was coming! Hehe. Heheheh.
A strange little sense of superiority warmed him, and he giggled to himself. He was sitting there with that faint smile when a murmur rose behind him, and he turned toward it.
Of course it was Marcus—jeans, a black short-sleeve tee, a thick jacket over it. At the appearance of someone that big, a handful of students whispered among themselves, but between their numbers and the shape of the auditorium the murmuring reached everyone. Marcus paid it no mind. He looked around, caught Ji-hyeon's eye, and came toward him.
"Hello."
"Ah, Marcus. Come on over."
Marcus gave an easy nod, shrugged off the jacket, laid it across his knees, and sat down beside him. The auditorium seats weren't especially narrow, but Marcus was so plainly bigger than everyone else that his arms kept bumping Ji-hyeon's as he settled in.
"Oh, sorry."
"No, no! It's fine!"
Ji-hyeon answered the immediate apology with a smile. In truth he was pressing down, hard, on a laugh that wanted to burst out, holding it to something appropriately mild.
God, he really is huge~ I just touched that thick, muscular arm! This gorgeous muscular Black man cut past everybody and sat right next to me! Ah, calm down. I cannot get hard here. Calm down, you maniac.
His head was flooded with dopamine in an instant.
The kickoff itself went smoothly enough. A department introduction, a welcome for the freshmen, introductions of the professors and the student council, and after that a long string of announcements. Neither Marcus nor Ji-hyeon was really listening.
Marcus was turning something over in his head. Ji-hyeon was—
Waaah~ even if I just sit still, he's so big his muscles are touching me~ That hand on the armrest... whoa, the veins and the muscles in it are insane... his hand has to be twice the size of mine!
—manufacturing an endless supply of dopamine all by himself.
The kickoff wrapped up quickly, and people started moving on to the drinking party. In the flow of bodies heading for the bar, Ji-hyeon and Marcus fell in side by side as if it were only natural. Ji-hyeon asked whether there were any department clubs he was interested in; Marcus said not particularly.
Aside from games, the two of them still hadn't found a real point in common, and the conversation hovered in an awkward in-between—seeming to continue, seeming not to. Ji-hyeon, never much good with words, was part of the reason. Marcus's taciturn nature took up a share of it too.
And then, before he quite noticed, they had arrived at the bar, and the news that met him there was a bolt from a clear sky. To get people mingling, seats had been assigned by student number and year. To keep the foreign students from clustering only with one another, their places had been scattered all over the room—and so Ji-hyeon and Marcus were split apart.
This can't be happening! My whole plan to get closer at the drinking party!
The seats filled in around him. Ji-hyeon managed an awkward "Hello" to the freshmen sitting across from him, and then he froze solid. While he sat there at a loss, someone came up to the chair beside his.
"Sorry, mind switching seats with me?"
"Huh? Sure, yeah, no problem."
Whoever it was swapped with the person next to Ji-hyeon and sat down. At the shift of presence Ji-hyeon turned, and it was Park Yu-seong—one of the very few friends he had in the department.
"What, clammed up like a total loser again?"
"Hey—Yu-seong!"
Yu-seong had extended his leave of absence for the semester, so he hadn't shown his face in the lecture halls.
"A guy on leave still showed up because he wanted to drink?"
"I'm on leave, so of course I came to drink!"
With his friend there, the tension in Ji-hyeon finally let go. Park Yu-seong was a smooth-talking social butterfly, and the moment he sat down the table actually started to have a conversation. Ji-hyeon could leave the carrying of it to him, and that was a relief.
Little by little, the mood at Ji-hyeon's table brightened. A short distance off, at another table, Marcus sipped his water and stared, unblinking, at the back of the smiling Ji-hyeon.