Heart-Fluttering Literary Club (1)
"Don't hang around with Kim Hyeongmin."
"...What?"
The news came out of nowhere.
After more than ten years of doing this, she was suddenly supposed to stop?
It was an ordinary evening when her mother handed down the order. She understood her own role perfectly well, and so she also understood her mother's, even if only by implication.
"...Okay."
Kang Hyeona was not a clueless child. She was already a legal adult, and though she might still be immature in places, she knew how to tell right from wrong. So she did not ask out of mere curiosity. She knew whatever answer came back would not be pleasant. She swallowed her curiosity and accepted the words as they were given.
Of course, she did say a few more things over dinner. Stern legal professional or not, the woman was still a mother. She explained enough of the reason that her child could at least accept it, even if not everything was laid bare.
"I see."
The summary was this: next year was the presidential election, so they needed to keep their heads down until then. No wonder her mother had seemed out of sorts lately. Kang Hyeona quietly nodded. The faint sense of newfound freedom felt strangely awkward.
A few days later, April arrived, and Kim Hyeongmin and Kang Hyeona drifted apart as if they had made a silent pact. They spoke more to complete strangers than to each other. Without exchanging a single word, they went about their separate lives.
It was Kang Hyeona who had fallen away from the group. Kim Hyeongmin's followers remained exactly as they were. Each of them had simply been ordered not to hang around with the other, so the outcome was only natural.
In an instant she found herself without a single friend. She did not mind in the slightest. Had she ever considered them friends to begin with? No. Their natures were simply different. Unlike Kang Hyeona, who had merely assisted in Kim Hyeongmin's games, the factions that followed him took genuine pleasure in every act and joined in fully. Someone who treated it as work versus someone who treated it as play. Of course they would never be the same.
Anyway. Burning Friday arrived, and a new wind blew through Hoerang in April. Club activities, they called it—every Friday, periods five, six, and seven were given over entirely to it.
Kang Hyeona slipped quietly out of class and headed for the literary club room. A secluded corner with almost no foot traffic. The campus was large enough that there were quite a few spaces you had no reason to visit unless you were specifically looking for them.
The Genre Literature Arts Club. A newly formed club, created for Kim Hyeongmin's convenience. Founded in early March, a place no one knew existed. The promotional flyers had been posted where no one's eyes would ever fall, so ordinary students would never come.
Creak.
Kang Hyeona opened the door. The atmosphere was half library. The space was a little larger than a classroom, with several room-like alcoves, plush sofas and furniture, wooden desks. Truly a luxurious space that piled luxury upon luxury. If a reading café with this vibe ever opened, it would thrive.
Even so, she walked in with quiet steps, slowly sat on the sofa, and then lay down. She could have tried to sleep, but she didn't. Empty surplus time. The literary club had been created for legitimate slacking—Kim Hyeongmin, Kang Hyeona, and a few kids from the group. A place made with only their names on the roster had become a space used solely by Kang Hyeona. Because of the adults' circumstances. With the relationship left hanging, she was left alone to guard this place in solitude.
The other members were probably drinking by now. On paper they were doing club activities, so there wouldn't be any real problem—attendance and activity records included.
"Haa."
A short sigh settled over her. Loneliness had arrived from an unexpected place. She had made this club because she liked novels, yet there were no members left to share that joy with. It had become a ghost club for people who needed the pretense.
As she lay with her eyes closed—
Knock knock.
"…?"
Kang Hyeona slowly sat up. After a brief silence, she saw the figure opening the door and stepping inside.
"Oh."
"What the."
She rubbed her eyes. How had he found this place? Why was Han Sein here… Her open mouth couldn't finish the sentence. It was literally Why the hell are you popping up here?
"This is the literary club… right?"
"It is, but why…"
Han Sein, lips softly closed, looked around the room.
"You're alone, so are you the president?"
"Yeah. But why did you come…"
Kang Hyeona stood up properly from her seat. She didn't want to show herself sitting awkwardly, and her first impulse was to stand tall and drive him out. Because the moment he entered the club room, a ripple had stirred through the loneliness that had been soaking her heart.
Whether he knew that feeling or not, Han Sein approached with bold steps and stood right in front of her.
"I came to join. You said it was the literary club."
"……."
"Where's the application form?"
Why was he so bold? The frightened Han Sein from before had vanished far away. Standing in front of Kang Hyeona was a figure without a single hint of being cowed—just like the way he had talked back to Kim Hyeongmin the first day they met. The atmosphere itself was completely different.
"Aren't you scared?"
"Of what?"
"Me. Aren't you scared of me?"
"I already told you."
Heat flooded her face. Recalling the past, Kang Hyeona whirled around, afraid her reddened cheeks would be noticed. She started rummaging through the desk drawer for the membership application form.
"Here it is. Take it."
"Mm."
Scratch scratch.
Name and class number. After a simple signature, Han Sein looked at her.
"What."
"What do we do now?"
"Huh?"
It was Kang Hyeona who was flustered by the bold voice. Unlike the past, when she had only ever seen him from a work perspective—harassing him or harassing Jeong Ayeong—now it was purely person to person. Just Han Sein and Kang Hyeona. That might be why it felt even more awkward, to a degree even she herself wasn't fully conscious of. Or perhaps she was simply awkward with that version of herself. Not perpetrator and victim. Friends in a club. It was the first time she had ever spent time that way.
She forced a question-and-answer into the uncomfortable feeling.
"Just rest. Sleeping's fine. Doesn't matter what you do."
"Is that okay?"
"Yeah."
She immediately launched into the reason. Yeah—better this than uncomfortable silence and an awkward atmosphere.
"It's originally that kind of place. A place that exists for the sake of having a reason? You can go outside and hang out too."
"Then what about you?"
"...Huh?"
Kang Hyeona's body froze. An unexpected question. Awkward conversation still hung in the air with lingering discomfort, yet for the first time she began to speak the words that had been sitting in her heart. Perhaps this became the prelude to growing closer as human beings.
"Me… well. Because I like books."
"I see. Even when you were looking at your phone every day?"
"Yeah."
"Unexpected."
"What?!"
Her heart surged up as if irritated. Not from anyone else—hearing those words from the man she had feelings for made her pride react. Regardless of the truth, that was simply how it was.
"Pfft. Well, it is, right?"
"……."
The surging pride subsided. A laugh. Just one laugh from a man—bright and warm. Not a crumpled expression or a painful groan. Just a bright smile. Something ticklish welled up from deep in her heart.
I want to see more. I want to protect him. That man—Han Sein. I want to make him smile more, and I want to protect him.
Leaving qualifications aside, at the very least the emotion she felt right now was saying exactly that.
"You're sharp, and scary when you're scary, but what you like is novels."
"……."
"Unexpected, but I like it."
Like. It was clearly a meaningless word, yet the ripple one single word gave was tremendous. Kang Hyeona's mouth clamped shut.
So this—this was how easy it was. The thing she had wished and wished for. It was this simple. Laughing lightly, chatting, smiling. That kind of everyday life had been simple all along.
"Alright. I'll look for some books."
Han Sein moved. He should look for books at least—that was what the club was for. On the other hand, strength drained from Kang Hyeona as she plopped down on a nearby sofa. Even so, the end of her gaze stayed fixed on Han Sein, quietly announcing her interest.
He moved slowly into the bookshelf area. Was it just her imagination that even his gait looked cute?
"Hmm..."
"What?"
How long had it even been since he went in? Han Sein was looking around, searching for something.
"Is there a ladder?"
"...Probably not."
Kang Hyeona slowly stood. She felt like she knew without asking. Approaching him, she asked,
"What are you looking for."
"Here."
Inside the bookshelf area, in a somewhat dark space, Han Sein was pointing upward. His fingertip was directed at a book on the topmost shelf, but Kang Hyeona's gaze was looking somewhere a little different. She had been watching him from beginning to end. Her eyes held his moving body.
He stretched upward as if doing a stretch. Because spring had come, his clothes were relatively light. The not-quite-tidied uniform moved in the direction his hand went. Naturally the school uniform top rolled up. The line of his ribs was revealed—snow-white skin, and the soft flesh of his side fully exposed.
"Hyeona."
"Y-yeah."
An answer thick with guilt. The heart that had plummeted for a moment was relieved when she saw those innocent eyes. A strange sense of sin pressed down on her chest.
"That one. Get it for me."
"Okay."
Had he not noticed? Han Sein was still moving his finger, demanding the book.
"Here you go."
"Wow. You're really tall."
Jump, jump. As if comparing heights with her, Han Sein hopped in place. Even jumping as high as he could, their eyes almost met—or didn't quite. That sight was so stimulating that Kang Hyeona began managing her expression without even time to feel the guilt rising from deep inside.
Afraid a motherly smile would slip out. Afraid the fluttering emotion would show exactly as it was.