Chapter 6.17

Sangwoo greeted him with a bow and headed towards the school cafeteria. It had become a habit for him to look sideways in case someone were to sit down next to him. However, no matter how much he looked around the cafeteria, there wasn’t anyone that wanted to sit next to him. Sangwoo finished his meal at the usual time and left through the exit.

“Student! The coffee is in!” the owner of the snack shop cried out as soon as he entered.

“Ah… Yes.”

“There’s a lot, so pick a bunch.”

Without being able to control them, Sangwoo’s legs piloted themselves to the front of the third refrigerator. His hand opened the door and grabbed a canned coffee from the fifth row.

‘I already have seven at home.’

He popped up the lid while leaving the shop. Since it was ready-made, it was clear that it tasted the same as before. However, strangely enough, Sangwoo realized that it wasn’t delicious. Not everything had returned to normal.

return 0;

A week went by according to his routine. Everything was in place and all situations were normal. Sangwoo himself was the only one who had changed.

Sangwoo was depressed for the first time in his life, but he did his best to study even harder. However, cracks in his life were appearing everywhere. His concentration declined, and even if he was listening to what people were saying, he had to think for a really long time in order to understand what they were saying. Gaming was not fun and everything became bothersome. There were times when he suddenly stopped while he was brushing his teeth, reading a book, or walking down the street, just as if he were lagging behind. When that happened, he had to make an effort to turn his attention back to what he was doing. It was very tiresome.

He found himself in front of the classroom, at the stairs at the engineering and humanities colleges, in front of the school cafeteria, and by the library. He first thought that he was slowing his walking pace in places where Jang Jaeyoung haunted him, as he had gotten the habit of avoiding him. However, he couldn’t solve this problem even though he knew  he was 100% unlikely to appear.

Then a tiny problem appeared. There were terrible symptoms such as taking three chopsticks when he was going to eat at the cafeteria, wearing his clothes inside out, wearing mismatched socks, or just sitting around and doing nothing for ten minutes.

This continued until Tuesday, when he saw Jang Jaeyoung in front of the main gate.

He was wearing neither a red padded jacket nor a green coat. He was standing there in a baseball jacket Sangwoo had never seen before, smoking, and wearing glasses again. Two male students were happily playing in front of Jaeyoung, balancing on his skateboard.

Sangwoo pondered how odd it was that he had spotted Jaeyoung in the distance and among people. Perhaps it was because of his cocky swagger, or because he was tall. Or was it because of his lean and slender body? Or because his smiling face was pretty?

Sangwoo felt unfamiliar with himself, thinking such thoughts. He quickly passed by Jaeyoung, but the mere fact that he had seen him, brought back his boring slow-going days. The adrenaline-driven short term fever mode had arrived. Even if it hadn’t lasted for very long, Sangwoo had felt as if he had returned to his original state for a moment.

Chu Sangwoo – broken

That new fact pierced into Sangwoo’s thought circuit. He walked into his apartment hunched over as if he were the sole survivor of a defeated army that had gotten caught in the rain. He then washed his hands and sat down in front of his desk. When he checked his phone, there was a new message. Sangwoo felt his heart pounding, but when he checked it, it wasn’t what he had expected.

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Unsaved: Hi~ I’m contacteng you after seeing your advertaisment^^ I’m a Junior at the desain department I’m innerested in the game you’re planninng on produsing but what should I do to proseed?

16:52

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Having waited so long to receive a message from a potential designer, why didn’t he feel motivated about a project he had planned his entire semester around? It might have been because he had discovered seven misspelled words. Sangwoo put down his email address in the reply section and asked the person to send him their portfolio. It was then time to lock his screen, but his fingers were opening messages sent by another person.