Silent Conversation
The morning after I first shared a room with Wa Sol.
I had no idea how long I’d been pretending to sleep.
When it was about time to head to school, she started shaking me awake—like a mother rousing her son.
“Gachi, time to get up. You’ve got to go to school.”
“Mmm… yeah…”
Okay. Nailed the just-woke-up act.
“Heh, still half-asleep, huh?”
“Yeah… sorry. A little tired.”
“Aigoo. With a girlfriend like me right next to you, and all you do is sleep.”
“Haaah… just tired…”
There was a guilty little corner of my conscience, but saying anything now would kill the mood, so I kept quiet for the moment.
“Alright, I’m heading home.”
“Huh? Weren’t we going together?”
Honestly, I’d been looking forward to walking to school with her. Maybe that was just me.
“Of course we’re going together! I just need to get ready first…”
“Ah, right.”
True enough—my place didn’t have any clothes for her to change into, or toiletries, or makeup. She had no choice but to go back.
“Then meet me out front of the mansion around 8:40. Don’t be late. Mwah.”
“…Yeah. See you in a bit.”
She pressed a kiss to my cheek, waved, and left my apartment. After the way she’d freely touched my face the night before, this kind of skinship already felt a little more natural.
“Still makes my heart race the same way, though. Guess that can’t be helped.”
I finished getting ready while still feeling the soft imprint of her lips on my cheek. A little hungry, I grabbed a piece of bread from the fridge and headed out with it between my teeth.
When I came down the stairs, she was already waiting out front of the mansion, fully ready.
“What are you, a shoujo-manga protagonist? Going to school with bread in your mouth?”
“Isn’t it usually the girl who does that?”
“Oh, so I’m the male lead then? Hold on.”
With a mischievous look she darted over, lightly bumped my chest with her shoulder—
“Ow.”
—and toppled over in a theatrical (but surprisingly realistic) fall.
“Hehe, like this?”
“I think the one holding the bread is usually the one who falls…”
I held out a hand to her as she lay there. She stuck her tongue out for a second and shrugged. Was that also a shoujo-manga move?
When she took my hand I pulled her up with just enough strength not to yank her, and she rose with a faintly surprised expression.
“Oh… whoa. Definitely a guy. Got up way easier than I expected.”
“Ex-active duty, remember?”
“Kyaa, that’s my boyfriend. So reliable.”
She switched our grip to interlocking fingers as she said it. After holding hands for so long yesterday, this level of contact already felt natural for both of us.
“Shall we go?”
“Yeah. Escort me, please.”
“Leave it to me.”
Truth was, she knew the way to campus better than I did, so if anyone should be escorting it was her.
But this was a guy’s job, I supposed.
Walking to school hand-in-hand with Wa Sol, I discovered one thing.
She was even more famous than I’d expected.
“Why is every single person who walks by staring at us?”
“Ha, haha. Sorry. Guess that’s how it is.”
A few people even mouthed “Is that your boyfriend?” at her. She gave an awkward smile and nodded… but from where I stood, most of them didn’t seem like people she was especially close with.
“Haa… reacting like that even to kids I’m not really friends with is kind of exhausting.”
Just as I’d thought—the reactions from the people we’d run into on the street were weighing on her. She leaned lightly against me as we walked, saying she was tired. That only seemed to surprise the people around us even more.
I was starting to get worn out myself, so I decided to tune out the attention.
“Yeah, it must be tiring.”
“Mm, a little.”
“No—I mean me…”
Honestly, the person drawing the most stares in this situation wasn’t her—it was me. As a freshman I barely knew anyone, so they just didn’t talk to me.
Once they saw her holding hands with a guy, they kept glaring at me. Mostly the guys.
If we walked into the department classroom like this, what was going to happen?
…
..
.
And my worries became reality. We arrived with about five minutes to spare, stepped into the classroom, and—
“Oh, Wa Sol… ah?”
A few guys who clearly knew her started to greet her the moment they saw her face, then took in the full picture, eyes going wide as they looked back and forth between us.
She put on the polite public smile she always used, gave a little wave, and led me over to a pair of empty seats. The entire classroom’s gaze locked onto us like the law of universal gravitation had just been rewritten.
I honestly didn’t like the reaction. Having that many people focus on me is rough for an introvert.
And the stare that felt heaviest of all was—
“…”
“Quit staring.”
“Haa.”
—Cheon-u, sitting right in front of us, glaring daggers at me. He’d had a thing for Wa Sol too, once.
I’d debated telling him after we started dating. In the end I never did.
“Well… good for you, I guess. Date well.”
Surprisingly, Cheon-u backed off without a fight. Seo-hyeon beside him just shrugged and gave a light laugh.
“Let’s talk later.”
“Yeah. But Hae-an’s not here yet?”
“Nope, haven’t seen him today. He’ll show up soon, though. Even in high school, whatever else he skipped, he never missed perfect attendance.”
True to Seo-hyeon’s word, Hae-an walked into the classroom at almost the exact same moment as Professor Yu Eun-yeong.
“Oh, no late students this time. Though it looks like we’ve got one who just barely made it.”
“Haa… haa… I’m not late.”
Professor Yu Eun-yeong eyed the out-of-breath Hae-an as she spoke. He scanned the room, spotted us, and dropped into a nearby seat.
“Hyung, hey. Ah—sunbae too… hello?”
Wa Sol answered Hae-an’s greeting with a light nod. She was still leaning against me while she did it, so Hae-an’s face went a little blank.
“That’s how it is. I’ll fill you in later.”
“Haha. Cool. Buy me a meal later. I’ll congratulate you properly.”
“Tch.”
“You said date well.”
“Shut up.”
“Pfft…”
Maybe because we were bantering more cheerfully than expected, Wa Sol beside me quietly stifled a laugh. Probably only I heard it.
She pulled out her notebook and started writing something with her pen.
You two really got close, huh?
“Really,” huh. So she hadn’t fully believed it.
I told you. We made up.
Yeah, but seeing it in person, you can really tell how close you got.
Turns out we click pretty well.
What was this? We weren’t speaking at all—just secretly talking through the notebook like texting. Even that alone made my heart race for no good reason.
How’d you get so close?
Thanks to Eve, of course.
Pinch.
“Ghk.”
“What was that?”
“Ah, nothing, Professor.”
Professor Yu Eun-yeong tilted her head at my answer, then went back to the lecture.
I shot a sideways glare at the girl who’d just pinched my thigh hard… but she turned her face away and tapped the notebook with her pen.
I looked down.
Eve this, Eve that, every single time!
…Yeah, that one was on me. When it comes to Eve I completely lose my sense of reason—it’s basically a passive skill, and it’s a real problem.
Even accounting for that, she was being pretty open about the jealousy. Something must’ve happened in that morning talk. The things she’d said to me then, too…
…A little embarrassing, but maybe writing it like this would smooth things over.
I thought back to what I’d overheard that morning, wrote out what I wanted to say to her, then—
Tap tap.
—quietly tapped the notebook. She glanced over, then gradually turned her head to read what I’d written.
Even if I’m an Adami… in the end I’m still yours, Noona.
Her eyes widened a little as she looked at me. Ah. She’d figured it out.
You were awake?
Well… ah, I really don’t want to shave my head, so could you maybe let it slide?
You were totally awake!
haha
Pinch!!
“Mmph…”
I’d braced myself this time and thought I could hold in the sound… but her face had gone completely red, and she pinched my thigh harder than before. I barely managed to stay quiet by biting my lip.
So annoying…
I liked it, though. Hearing your honest feelings.
Whoa… I could actually say things like that? Or maybe it was only possible because I was writing it down.
You heard everything?
Yeah.
“…”
She hung her head and covered her face with her hands. Thinking about the last things she’d said that morning, I understood.
So… give me proof that I’m yours too… I want you to touch me more. You didn’t even lay a finger on me… well, I was grateful for that too, but.
So that she wouldn’t be the only one embarrassed, I decided to share a secret of my own.
Actually… I’ve got something to apologize for.
Tap tap.
She peeked through her fingers at what I’d written, then carefully answered.
What is it?
The truth is.
Ah, now that I was about to write it out, it felt mortifying. Still… better to say it.
I did touch you… while you were asleep.
She finished reading and went completely still. Her whole body seemed to shrink in on itself a little.
Then her pupils couldn’t decide where to land; she avoided my eyes and wrote back in handwriting that had suddenly gotten a lot more wobbly.
…Where?
Of course she’d ask. So I told her.
First a kiss. And then… your earlobe a little…
She reached up and briefly touched the earlobe I’d touched, then—
—stared straight at me with the cutest face in the world. The kind of face where her cheeks were bright red, her eyes darted around yet kept sneaking looks at me, her lips were slightly pursed and lightly bitten, and she was still touching her own earlobe. She looked so adorable I almost forgot we were in the middle of class and wanted to kiss her right there.
Without meaning to, I was shouting 97 points! inside my head.
…Pervert.
Sorry.
Don’t apologize.
Okay.
I already knew there was no need to apologize. Right now she didn’t look angry at all.
And so the two of us carried on a quiet conversation only we could understand.
We didn’t listen to a single word of the lecture…
Hope that’s okay…