Engraved (6)

“Did you make up?”

Dawoon became silent at Jihye’s question. As she tilted her head at the question, a boy suffering from being bumped into in the middle of the auditorium suddenly came into view. It was a boy with thick, black hair that reached his shoulders. It was the boy I was looking for.

“Wait a minute.”

After apologizing and leaving… I walked towards Haru, who was being swept away by people.

Why was he in the middle of the crowd? Piercing through the crowd to pull him out, I grabbed his skinny wrist.

“…!”

Haru looked surprised by the sudden grasp. Yanking Haru by the wrist, I showed my face to him to reassure him.

“Haru-hyung.”

“Ah…”

After calling his name, Haru looked relieved and looked at me, though he probably still couldn’t see me because of his bangs.

“If it’s like that, can you still see? I don’t think there’s any point in wearing glasses.”

“Ah…”

As I spoke while staring at his long bangs, Haru lowered his head and touched his hair. When I urged him to raise his head since he had a habit of bowing a lot, he slowly raised his head.

“That’s…”

Ah, it’s probably too awkward to tease him. He lowered his head again. It seems we still have a long way to go.

I need to teach him not to stutter.

I still can’t face a single person properly, so I’m not sure what I could tell him anyway. With that in mind, I took Haru to where Dawoon was. Dawoon, who glanced at Haru, looked at me, as if asking for an explanation. I shrugged at her gaze.

“My partner.”

“…”

It was the same response that Dawoon gave earlier. Fidgeting, the wrist I held onto wriggled. Only then did I realize that I was still holding on to Haru and let go of his wrist.

“Ah…”

Just today, that was the third sound I heard come out of Haru’s mouth. When I turned my head to check on Haru, the auditorium suddenly became noisy with the sound of ‘Kyaa!’.

“There they are again.”

Looking at the students, Dawoon looked exhausted as she frowned, not understanding them. She was a strong-willed heroine who never fawned over the Four Great Heavenly Kings. Looking at the entrance door and sympathizing with Dawoon, I saw a group of colorful hair entering the auditorium.

It was the appearance of the Four Great Heavenly Kings, who drew attention wherever they went.

Looking at where the Four Great Heavenly Kings were standing while pressing the palms of my hands against my ears like I stumbled into an idol concert hall, I blinked at the platinum-colored eyes that turned to me.

It hasn’t even been two seconds since they entered the auditorium.

Yoo Seowoo’s gaze immediately landed on me, as if he had a radar. I was flabbergasted. First it was yesterday, and now today again. Is it just me or are his eyes directly looking at me? It made me think.

The corners of Seowoo’s eyes crinkled. In response, I thought it’d be worth it to test something. I quickly turned my gaze from Seowoo. It’s no use running into each other again and again. Yesterday, there was a lot of fuss about getting a partner, but today, it seems you have a partner too so there shouldn’t be an issue.

I didn’t want to get involved in the fuss, so when I saw Haru, his dark hair and invisible eyes brought stability to my body and mind. He was a person who didn’t seem to stand out no matter where he was. Although the class situation was quite scary, he remained surprisingly pure and naive, like a seven or eight-year old child.

Yeah, it’d be too much to compare him to a puppy.

When I looked at Haru, I often thought of him as a big dog, but I wondered if it was too much for me to make such a comparison to a person,

I don’t know what kind of life he lived, and I’m not good at relationships. He didn’t attract attention like the Four Great Heavenly Kings, though. And most of all, I was the one who brought him to where I sat.

It was a relationship I wanted to maintain because I started it myself in this strange place. Feeling a strong sense of responsibility, I took a breath. I hope that things like this will blossom nicely.

I will work hard to cultivate it.

“So you have to cheer me up.”

“Huh?”

Haru was taken aback by my words, which came out of the blue. Regardless of whether it was about that or something else, I stared at his thick-rimmed glasses as I held his wrist, determined.

I will help you.

I was thinking of helping him not stammer and raising his voice so he wouldn’t be ignored. Since a class was a class, it won’t come out right. Plus, there may be people who would just look at his appearance and ignore him. I’ll just deal with it instead.

While holding onto Haru’s hand and devising a plan, Haru’s head dropped. I thought I told you to raise your head a while ago…

The beginning is always difficult and clumsy, but it seems my training sessions have a long way to go.