Just A Friend

#62

Although the hat obscured the face of the man in the next seat, Nam Seonwoo could tell he was staring in his direction. The man had his outer arm propped up and his head turned openly towards him.

…Just ignore it.

Hiding his disgruntled expression under his hat and mask, Nam Seonwoo deliberately looked straight ahead, pretending not to notice.

“We’ll be experiencing an unusual form of exchange this semester. You can think of it as learning methods to express and elicit liking in various forms of communication.”

If this were high school, the professor would have pointed out the man’s improper posture, but unfortunately, this was university. The professor continued the lecture steadfastly, regardless of whether the man was leaning on his arm and looking to the side.

“It’s better to experience things firsthand rather than just explanations. Everyone, let’s take out a sheet of paper and a pen, shall we?”

Even as Nam Seonwoo fumbled to take out his notebook from his bag, the blatant stare continued.

“Has everyone taken them out? Now, let’s briefly greet the person sitting next to you. Come on, everyone say hello. Eye contact is fine too. We’ll be together for a semester, so we should at least familiarize ourselves with each other’s faces, right?”

Why did it have to be greetings with the person next to me?!

Unlike the frozen Nam Seonwoo, greetings could be heard from here and there. As always, these underclassmen were so obedient.

But ‘next to me’ didn’t just mean that strange man. As he was about to turn his body to greet Kim Minhwan on his other side, the professor approached the desk and said:

“Ah! In cases where we have an odd number, one person can move seats. Would our handsome student over there like to move to that table for a moment?”

The professor didn’t seem to be pointing at anyone in particular. But Kim Minhwan stood up with a “Yes,” and disappeared in the direction the professor indicated. Nam Seonwoo wondered if this was really the same guy who had told him to trust only him.

Nam Seonwoo had no choice but to turn towards the man next to him. The man was already looking this way, so he didn’t move at all.

“I’m sure many of you use online chat these days, right? That’s right. The form of communication we’ll try today is chatting. Of course, we can’t suddenly do online chatting here, so we’ll substitute it with written conversation.”

Following the professor’s instructions, Nam Seonwoo opened his notebook between himself and the man. Whether he didn’t have writing tools or just didn’t want to take them out, the man still looked apathetic.

“A characteristic of non-face-to-face communication is anonymity, right? Let’s each decide on a nickname, write it at the top, and begin.”

Cheerful laughter was already erupting from the back. In contrast to the friendly atmosphere of the lecture hall, silence had descended on the ‘chat window’ of this desk. Nam Seonwoo sighed deeply and handed the pen to the man. The man took the pen without resistance and moved his hand first.

“Han Gang”

…Han Gang as a nickname?

Of course, there was nothing wrong with it. But usually, people used common nouns like ‘sea’ or ‘lake’, so using a proper noun like Han Gang was a bit unexpected. It felt different from having ‘river’ as a nickname versus ‘Mississippi River’.

He thought the man wasn’t paying attention to the class, but that didn’t seem to be the case. As if he had thought about it beforehand, the man wrote his nickname right away and slowly handed the pen back.

Nam Seonwoo reluctantly took the pen and pondered for a moment. The professor casually said, “If it’s hard to decide on a nickname, think of your favorite food.”

The first thing that came to mind was the winter peach he ate last winter. Recalling the peach that was as hard as a block of ice, Nam Seonwoo scribbled:

“Ddakbok”

But he thought he heard a snicker from somewhere. When he slightly lifted the brim of his hat to look to the side, he saw the corner of the man’s mouth slightly raised on one side.

‘Did he just laugh at me…?’

“Alright. It seems everyone has more or less decided, so let’s begin. There’s no specific topic for conversation. Keep in mind the lecture topic I mentioned earlier, and we’ll proceed freely for 5 minutes from now.”

The corner of the man’s mouth was still diagonally raised. Thinking it must just be his natural expression, Nam Seonwoo tried to recall the lecture topic.

Methods to express and obtain liking… As he was pondering this, the man moved first again. As Nam Seonwoo stared incredulously at the pen the man had arbitrarily taken, neat handwriting soon appeared in the notebook.

“You seem to like peaches.”

The start of the conversation was more normal than expected. Moreover, contrary to his poor class attitude, his handwriting was very neat and pretty. It was the kind of handwriting that seemed familiar.

The man didn’t return the pen and moved his hand again. Suddenly, Nam Seonwoo’s gaze lingered on the back of the hand writing. The angular knuckles, the veins protruding over them, and the long fingers. His hands were quite pretty too.

“What year are you?”

The ambiguous speech style, neither formal nor informal, felt very natural. Nam Seonwoo took the pen back and just wrote ‘1’, then remembering the lecture topic, he kindly added more:

⤷”1st year”

⤷”What major?”

⤷”Mathematics Education”

As they took turns using the pen, the man didn’t take it when it was his turn. As if to prompt him, who was just staring blankly at the notebook, Nam Seonwoo added one more sentence.

“And you?”

Only then did the man take the pen and roll it in his hand once. Then, after a moment, he scribbled something.

⤷”Why math of all things?”

⤷”Because I’m good at math”

⤷”You seem like you’d be good at English”

…Why suddenly talk about English? He wondered if the man was picking a fight, suggesting his Korean was lacking, but that didn’t seem to be the intention. As it was a common question asked to education majors about why they chose that subject, Nam Seonwoo casually gave his answer.

⤷”I tend to like things that are certain”

When he put down the pen, the conversation stopped. The man just stared at the letters like before. So this time, Nam Seonwoo asked a question.

“So what’s your major?”

⤷”What do you think it is?”

⤷”I don’t know. I’m not that curious, so just tell me”

⤷”That’s harsh.”

With a small laugh, a meaningful answer came back.

“It’s a major that deals with certainties”

It felt like he wanted to play twenty questions. As Nam Seonwoo was staring blankly at the letters, another sentence was written below.

“I came here because someone I like said they were coming here”

‘…What am I supposed to do with that information?’

Nam Seonwoo quickly scanned the conversation history above. It seemed like the man had given the same kind of answer as when Nam Seonwoo had explained why he chose math education.

But he couldn’t care less about someone else’s love life. As he was pondering how to respond, Nam Seonwoo recalled the lecture topic once more and picked up the pen.

Liking. A conversation to gain liking…

⤷”I see.. I’ll cheer for Han Gang’s love”

“Pfft…”

The man shook his shoulders, trying to hold back laughter. Thinking he might be laughing at him again, Nam Seonwoo looked at the man’s mouth and froze.

The corners of his mouth lifted cleanly, forming deep dimples.

…Why did it feel like he could picture the rest of the face?

“By the way, Ddakbok.”

The frozen Nam Seonwoo lowered only his eyes to follow the scratching sound.

“When are you going to return my lighter?”

“Wha-“

Nam Seonwoo reflexively tried to deny it but quickly shut his mouth.

‘Damn.’

…Kang Jihan, why is he here?

His eyes moved busily, but thanks to his face being completely covered, Nam Seonwoo appeared not to have made any movement at all. Nam Seonwoo immediately picked up the pen, trying to appear calm.

Stay calm. Kang Jihan still didn’t know ‘who’ he was. To Kang Jihan, the person wearing this hood was just a thief who threw the lighter and ran away. For a moment, he wanted to bow to the professor. Making them do pair activities with nicknames instead of real names, he was truly woke when it came to personal information security.

‘But wait, how does everyone recognize me right away?’

He had deliberately worn different colored clothes from yesterday, but come to think of it, Kim Minhwan had recognized him right away in this large lecture hall too.

After glancing around, Nam Seonwoo soon realized his own stupidity. He had succeeded in completely covering his face, but he was the only one walking around so suspiciously. Of course, he would be easily identifiable.

He wanted to hit his head repeatedly for his brief thought, but now he had to continue the written conversation as if nothing was wrong. Nam Seonwoo moved his hand as slowly as possible, feigning ignorance.

⤷”What do you mean?”

When he glanced at Kang Jihan’s cheek, clear dimples were still visible. He still laughs a lot. As he was having such an idle thought, the professor returned to the podium.

“Five minutes are up. Even though it was a short time, I can see that our students’ faces have softened nicely.”

He didn’t understand why the professor was looking this way while saying that, but Nam Seonwoo steadfastly looked straight ahead.

“Now then, is there any student who would like to briefly share their thoughts on communication based on anonymity?”

He wasn’t the type to avoid presentations, but the situation was different now. Ask him to share his thoughts on the conversation with Kang Jihan? And on the topic of ‘liking’ no less?

Moreover, if he spoke at length, his voice would be immediately recognizable. As he buried his head on the desk, hoping not to be called on, a savior soon appeared from behind.

“I’ll do it!”

It was Kim Minhwan.

“Good, our handsome student. What’s your nickname?”

“Yes. It’s Millstone.”

He chose a nickname that really suited him. Nam Seonwoo couldn’t help but laugh at the silly, grinning voice. But that laughter stopped abruptly when he saw fingertips tapping on the desk.

“Why are you laughing?”