Chapter 10: The Unseen Invitation

It turned out Yeon-chae had already been invited to the business administration group chat. However, he had simply turned off his notifications, leaving the chat icon buried and unseen beneath a red circle displaying ‘300+’ unread messages.

Yoonwoo finally located the chatroom and exclaimed, “Here it is! Wow, how long has it been since you last checked this?”

“Hmm.”

It seemed Yeon-chae hadn’t checked it even once since being invited. That explained the persistent ‘1’ notification that never seemed to disappear.

Feigning a scolding, Yoonwoo subtly grabbed Yeon-chae’s soft cheek, which he had been eyeing for some time. The skin stretched easily with each tug, feeling as yielding as a sticky rice cake.

With a sudden excuse, he stretched the other cheek as well. Now, there were two ‘rice cakes’ on either side of Yeon-chae’s face.

“Stooop ittt.”

“There are occasionally important announcements, so you really should check it. Are you going to check it from now on, or not?”

“I willll…” Yeon-chae mumbled, his words slurred from having his cheeks pulled.

When Yoonwoo released his grip, vivid red handprints marred Yeon-chae’s pale, wheat-flour-tteok-like cheeks. Even though it was just a light pinch, Yeon-chae’s ears and the nape of his neck flushed crimson, as if he was in pain.

“Oh, did that hurt?”

“No… not at all.” Yeon-chae replied, his eyes cast downwards, as he cradled his cheeks with both hands. It seemed it had hurt quite a bit after all.

Feeling a pang of guilt, Yoonwoo asked Yeon-chae with a surprisingly gentle tone.

“What about you?”

“Me?”

“Yeah. What are you doing during the break?”

“I’m planning to go to the summer MT too.”

The reply was unexpected. Yoonwoo had never heard of Yeon-chae participating in group activities before. He even doubted whether Yeon-chae was part of any club or organization.

Yoonwoo’s eyes widened.

“Which MT? You were in a club?”

“No?”

“Then what?”

“The Business Administration MT.”

“…Huh?”

‘Didn’t you not even know there *was* a Business Administration MT just a minute ago?’

The MT destination was a spacious pension located by the sea. On the express bus heading to the pension, Woo-jae, the class representative, took the microphone. ‘Surely he’s not going to make us sing or something?’ Yoonwoo inwardly gasped, but Woo-jae calmly announced that this MT was simply planned for everyone to relax, eat, play, and rest comfortably.

It was a far better plan than having a complicated and boisterous schedule of various activities.

“Perfect. I was already so exhausted.”

Yoonwoo whispered to Yeon-chae, who sat beside him, as he let his limbs go slack and slumped in his seat. Yeon-chae, perhaps excited about the rare trip to the sea, nodded with an animated expression.

Yoonwoo had always thought Yeon-chae disliked such group events, but it seemed he had been mistaken. He wished Yeon-chae had attended the spring MT as well.

“Why didn’t you go to the MT in spring?”

When he asked, Yeon-chae replied as if it were obvious.

“Because I was busy.”

“Huh? You? You were busy?”

Around that time, Yeon-chae would often come to the café where Yoonwoo worked and linger for hours without any particular agenda. Yoonwoo had often peeked at him, but Yeon-chae never seemed to be doing anything special. The day of the spring MT had been no different.

“You were at our café all day that day.”

That day, the café owner had gone down to their hometown, leaving Yoonwoo to manage the café all weekend. He had wanted to change the dates, but it was unavoidable as the owner’s mother had suddenly fallen ill. Consequently, Yoonwoo was tied to the café for much longer than usual, and Yeon-chae had even arrived before opening hours.

Yoonwoo distinctly remembered scolding Yeon-chae for bringing a large quantity of handmade chocolates from another café into their establishment.

‘Hey, outside food is prohibited here. What are you going to do with all this? Are you planning to eat it all here?’

‘Then, Senior, you should eat some too.’

‘Huh?’

‘This place is really famous. It’s incredibly delicious.’

‘…’

And so, Yoonwoo became an accomplice. Fortunately, it was a weekend with hardly any customers.

“…That’s what happened. Was that a busy thing?”

Listening to Yoonwoo’s unnecessarily detailed recollection, Yeon-chae’s expression crumpled, then quickly smoothed out. He then smiled brightly, his eyes crinkling at the corners.

“Was it? I don’t remember. I think I had something planned that was suddenly canceled.”

“Oh, really?” Yoonwoo replied without much thought, nodding his head. Turning his gaze out the window, he saw that the bus had already left Seoul and was cruising down the highway. Endless fields and rice paddies appeared alongside the road, swiftly passing by.

It was already late afternoon when they arrived at the pension. Students, packed tightly into two buses, slowly disembarked all at once. Having rented an entire building of the pension, they were free to chat loudly without worrying about disturbing others.

Yoonwoo, along with some junior students, unloaded the various boxes of food from the bus and carried them into the pension. Perhaps because he was already a third-year student, there were far more juniors than classmates or seniors.

“Almost no third-years came. I hardly see any familiar faces.” Yoonwoo looked around, feeling a slight twinge of disappointment.

The Business Administration department had such a large student body that most people were strangers even just one year below. Familiar faces like Woo-jae and the student council members were busy handling various tasks. Before he knew it, Yoonwoo was surrounded only by unfamiliar junior students.

“Having just me is enough, isn’t it?” Yeon-chae, who had been following Yoonwoo like a shadow, blinked his eyes and uttered a surprisingly cute remark. Feeling like he was being half-teased, Yoonwoo pinched and pulled Yeon-chae’s cheek.

The skin, soft and yielding like glutinous rice cake, stretched with every pull, proving quite addictive.

“Are you teasing me about following me to an MT meant for the kids? Don’t you think you’ll be a senior someday?”

“It’s not like that! It isn’t!” Yeon-chae protested, his words slurring as he bristled with one cheek still in Yoonwoo’s grasp.

Nevertheless, it seemed the juniors were quite familiar with Yoonwoo’s face; several freshmen, who had been bustling around, approached and bowed respectfully. He wasn’t sure where he had seen them, but their faces were recognizable.

“Hello, Senior Yoonwoo!”

“Wow, Senior Yoonwoo is here too!”

“Senior, it’s really great to see you!”

A flurry of greetings welcomed Yoonwoo. He felt a bit flustered by the unexpected warm reception.

Yoonwoo bowed his head in return, mimicking their gesture. The freshmen excitedly waved their hands.

“Oh, oh, oh… Hel… Hello?”

“Come on, we told you to speak informally!”

“Exactly! You said you’d speak comfortably with us!”

Yoonwoo blinked widely. ‘I did?’

“That’s right. Hyung, Hyung, I can call you Hyung too, right?”

“Can I call you Oppa too?”

“Huh? Yes, uh, sure…”

‘But first, I wish you’d tell me your names.’

Though he was a bit flustered, the chattering young students were also quite endearing. He had expected to feel like an outsider with no one he knew apart from Yeon-chae, so this was a relief.

After a few more exchanges, Yoonwoo grew comfortable and adjusted to the juniors’ lively conversation. He chimed in appropriately and discreetly memorized their names. As he was keeping pace with the conversation, someone tugged at the hem of his T-shirt.

Turning his head, he saw Yeon-chae. His gaze, fixed intently on Yoonwoo, seemed tinged with disappointment.

Yoonwoo’s eyes widened. It was only then that Yoonwoo realized his oversight.

He hastily grabbed Yeon-chae’s wrist and pulled him, ushering him into the circle of first-year students. The first-years collectively looked back at them, appearing puzzled.

Yoonwoo offered them an awkward smile.

“Um, this is Yeon-chae. He’s in the same year as you all, and…”

“…”

“…”

“…Um, Hyung Yoonwoo.” After a brief silence, a dark-skinned, mischievous-looking freshman called out to Yoonwoo with an awkward expression.

When Yoonwoo looked up, wondering ‘Hm?’, the first-years exchanged glances and then burst into laughter all at once.

“Ah, what is it, Oppa? Are you playing a prank?”

“Who doesn’t know Yeon-chae, Hyung!”

“Ah… really? There must be over 200 first-years, yet everyone knows each other so well…” ‘I thought they didn’t know him because Yeon-chae was standing there looking so forlorn.’

Embarrassed, Yoonwoo needlessly turned to look at Yeon-chae. Yeon-chae’s light brown eyes, which held an unreadable expression, gazed steadily at Yoonwoo before he finally spoke.

“Let’s go inside and rest together now.”

Then, after a moment of hesitation,

“…Senior.” He called out, then frowned. His cheeks, which had been slender just moments before, were now noticeably swollen.

The pork belly, pork neck, and sausages, bought after ‘raiding’ the supermarket, sizzled enticingly over the charcoal grill. Yoonwoo, drawing on his experience from working at a charcoal-grilled meat restaurant, continuously held the tongs and expertly grilled the meat. The freshmen applauded his skillful handiwork.

“Wow! Hyung, you’re amazing!”

“Oppa, you’re so cool!”

“Wow, that looks incredibly delicious. How do you grill it like this?”

Yoonwoo picked up individual pieces of the succulent, sizzling pork with his tongs and placed them onto the plates of the clustered first-year students. One of the boys let out a groan of delight after putting a piece of pork belly in his mouth.

Yoonwoo also dipped a piece of pork neck in sesame oil and salt before tasting it. The meat, crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, melted gently in his mouth. He felt a swell of pride.

While he couldn’t cook anything properly, grilling meat was the one thing he excelled at, thanks to his part-time job at the barbecue restaurant.

Just then, Yeon-chae, who had been sitting quietly, merely staring at the grill without really eating, suddenly spoke up.

“Senior, I’ll grill now.”

“Huh? No, it’s fine. You eat plenty.”

Yoonwoo, delighted by the rare shower of compliments, tried to defend his tongs but couldn’t contend with Yeon-chae’s long arm. Even though he hid the tongs behind his back, Yeon-chae easily retrieved them and began the second round of grilling. This time, it was pork jowl.

“Yeon-chae, this one needs to be rolled constantly to prevent burning, so it’s a bit tricky…” ‘…so I’ll do it,’ the unspoken words were swallowed whole before Yeon-chae’s dazzling tong skills.

Yoonwoo blinked, and golden-brown pork jowl was already piled high on his plate. The first-year students flanking Yoonwoo cried out.

“Hey, give me some too! Can you only see Hyung Yoonwoo?”

“Yeah! Our plates are empty too! Fill them up!”

Yeon-chae merely pretended to grill with an indifferent expression. Even though all the meat was already cooked and there was nothing left to put on the grill, he busied his hands for show.