Don't You Need an Omega Lucky Charm - Chapter 8.1
Ever since that day, Haon intentionally avoided Cha Jeongwon.
He rearranged his lecture timetable and made sure to check the department group chat before classes started. Whenever someone mentioned seeing Cha Jeongwon somewhere, he calculated the movement paths without fail and planned his daily schedule around routes that would not overlap.
‘Since it’s my final year anyway, this much effort is nothing.’
When classes ended, he left right away. Before turning a hallway corner, he kept his eyes glued to his phone screen. Just in case they might run into each other head-on.
He did not walk down the stairs all at once either, stopping at each floor to scan the upper floor, lower floor, and both side hallways.
Even so, the world was not on Haon’s side.
It was a library he had entered only after confirming that no one was inside.
The smell of dust and old paper pierced his nose. Haon walked slowly, running his fingers along the spines of the books.
“Here it is.”
Discovering the book he was looking for, Haon reached out his hand. But at the exact moment he pulled the book out, he heard the presence of someone else pulling out a book from the opposite side of the bookshelf.
Through the open space where the book had been removed, the other side became visible.
Black hair, sharp eyes.
It was Cha Jeongwon.
The eyes of the two met precisely through the empty bookshelf.
‘…Crazy.’
Haon felt like his heart had dropped into his stomach.
A soundless scream rose to his throat and sank back down as the dropped book slammed onto the top of his foot in shock. Cha Jeongwon looked at Haon with an expressionless face, then turned away with his book.
Haon quickly picked up his book, hugged it to his chest, and walked in the opposite direction. His heart was beating like crazy.
‘Why here of all places? Why now of all times?’
The entire time he was leaving the library, he felt as though Cha Jeongwon’s gaze was lingering on his back.
***
“What do you want to eat today?”
At Kim Hyeongyu’s question, Haon checked the school community forum on his phone and answered.
“How about kimchi stew? The weather is chilly today.”
“Sounds good.”
The two headed toward the student cafeteria. The moment Haon opened the cafeteria door after passing through the hallway, his feet came to a sudden halt.
Inside the cafeteria, by the window seat.
Cha Jeongwon was sitting alone.
On top of that, there were no empty seats anywhere except around him. Since it was peak lunch hour, almost all the seats were full.
“Huh? It’s Jeongwon senior. Should we go say hi?”
Kim Hyeongyu raised his hand, but Haon snatched his arm.
“Hyeongyu-ya.”
“Why?”
“I suddenly crave pork cutlet.”
“Huh? Didn’t you just say let’s get kimchi stew?”
“No. I want a pork cutlet.”
Haon practically dragged Kim Hyeongyu out of the cafeteria. He pinched his finger while hurriedly opening the door, but he endured the pain and moved.
In that split second, he felt like a cold gaze was pinning itself onto his back.
Haon did not look back. He felt like he shouldn’t look back.
***
Haon slumped onto a bench.
“Wow…”
Who knew avoiding Cha Jeongwon would be such exhausting work.
He tried hard not to run into him even by chance, but they kept crossing paths.
“Hey, Yoon Haon. Are you listening to me?”
When Hyeongyu raised his voice, Haon merely rolled his eyes over.
“You’re attending the welcome party, right?”
“Welcome party?”
“Yeah, we should see the freshmen’s faces.”
Haon scowled.
“We’re graduating soon, so what freshmen and welcome party? No way.”
A freshman welcome party held no attraction for Haon whatsoever.
Out in society, an age gap of four or five years might not be a big deal, but inside the school, it was different.
He was someone about to leave, while the freshmen were people who had just entered. Naturally, there was a sense of distance.
However, Kim Hyeongyu seemed to have no intention of giving up. Instead, he rested his arm on the bench armrest and leaned his upper body closer toward Haon.
“From now on, we’ll be busy with graduation exhibition prep and practical work and whatnot, so if not now, when else are you going to go?”
“What changes if I go look at their faces? And like you said, we’re going to be busy, so why bother going?”
Haon bit down on his coffee straw and cut him off sharply. But Kim Hyeongyu was equally persistent.
“It’s not like only 1st years are coming. Are you not going to use an assistant for your graduation work?”
At the mention of the graduation project he would be attached to for his entire 4th year, Haon’s momentum softened. Planning it was possible alone, but for the final output, the more people helping, the better it was.
“I might not need one. With your level of skill. But didn’t you see the seniors last year? Everyone saw that the difference between having an assistant and not having one was night and day. This welcome party is basically nothing short of an assistant battleground.”
There was not a single wrong word, so he could not refute it.
Kim Hyeongyu stayed quiet for a moment, then smiled meaningfully. Moving even closer, he spoke in a lower voice.
