Unrequited Love Thresher-Chapter 26: Belated Confession

Knock knock—a sound tapped against the old wooden door, echoing faintly inside the supply room.

Ha Giyeon carefully opened the door. The room inside was just as dark as he remembered, not a single sliver of light cutting through. The windows were blocked by curtains, and one side of the room was piled with desks and statues coated in dust.

Confirming no one was inside, Ha Giyeon slipped in and shuffled toward the window.

“Cough...!”

The floating dust triggered a cough. He slipped between the desks, pulled back the curtains, and opened the window. A gentle breeze swept in, along with the warm rays of sunlight.

Ha Giyeon breathed in the fresh air and looked out over the schoolyard.

‘It’s spring.’

The trees surrounding the schoolyard were in full bloom with pink cherry blossoms. Seeing the seasons change again, he felt for the first time that he really had regressed. That realization filled him with a faint sense of relief.

He still didn’t know why—or how—he had regressed, but for now, he chose to focus on the present instead of chasing an explanation.

He would treat this as his final chance to live again.

“...?”

Growl. His empty stomach let out a low rumble. Rubbing it, Ha Giyeon took an energy bar from his pocket. He had grabbed it in a hurry from the convenience store in case he couldn't eat lunch.

It wasn’t much—barely enough to tide him over—but it couldn’t be helped. He’d already spent money on a cup rice bowl earlier. He didn’t want to waste any more money.

‘It’s just one meal anyway...’

He just had to endure until Nam Taekyung lost interest in him. Soon, it would be time to choose clubs, anyway.

Ha Giyeon bit into the energy bar.

And just then—

“......!”

Tap tap. Footsteps approached the classroom, and the door handle jiggled. Ha Giyeon quickly ducked down and slipped under the stacked desks. His knee knocked against the floor with a loud thud just as the door flung open.

‘Did they... notice?’

Whoever it was, it would be bad if they found him. But if it was another student—that would be the worst. If it was a teacher, he’d just get scolded. But a student? A classmate?

As soon as word got to Nam Taekyung that Ha Dohoon’s little brother had skipped lunch to hide in the supply room, he’d become that freak.

The guy who hid just to avoid eating lunch with Nam Taekyung. Just thinking about it made him sick. Ha Giyeon clamped a hand [N O V E L I G H T] over his mouth, silently begging them to leave. Please, just go. I’ll never come back in here again. Please.

Step, step.

Slow footsteps lingered inside the room, not retreating. It wasn’t a game of hide and seek, but his heart pounded like it was.

“...!”

The footsteps were drawing closer. Ha Giyeon shrank into himself and stared between the desk legs at the person’s shoes.

School uniform pants. Sneakers.

They stopped just in front of the desk he was hiding under—but thankfully, chairs were stacked on top. Unless the person was unusually tall, he wouldn’t be able to see in—

“Ha, Giyeon...?”

“...!!”

Startled, Ha Giyeon jerked upright. But he’d forgotten the desk behind him—thud, his back slammed into it, and the chair stacked above wobbled, tipping over onto him.

“Hey, watch out!”

He turned his head just in time to see the chair falling toward him. He shut his eyes tight. Even in a moment like this, what worried him more than the pain was the potential hospital bill if he got hurt.

“......”

But after a long beat, the pain didn’t come. Ha Giyeon slowly opened his eyes.

“What are you doing in here?”

The soft, familiar voice made him look up—and for a moment, the face looking down at him overlapped with a memory from the past.

Children playing in the yard.

Ha Giyeon had once sat far away, unable to approach Ha Dohoon, who was laughing joyfully under the shade of a tree, wiping sweat from his brow. Someone had approached him.

‘What are you doing here?’

That boy had brown eyes, calm and steady like a tree. He didn’t sweat, didn’t fluster. He had stood perfectly straight and clean, smiling gently.

The first person to ever give Ha Giyeon a warm smile—

“...Kwon Jongseok-hyung?”

It was Kwon Jongseok.

Rubbing his eyes, Ha Giyeon came back to himself. The small boy was gone, replaced by a tall teenager looking down at him. The only thing that hadn’t changed was the brown in his eyes.

Clatter. Kwon Jongseok returned the chair to the top of the desk and stepped toward him. Just as Ha Giyeon started to rise, a hand reached out.

“Take it.”

Kwon Jongseok extended his hand to him. As always, it looked endlessly kind. Ha Giyeon almost grabbed it out of habit, but instead pushed off the floor and stood on his own.

He glanced around—thankfully, it seemed Jongseok was the only one who had come in.

“Thanks... But, hyung, what are you doing here?”

“......”

Jongseok silently curled and uncurled the hand Ha Giyeon hadn’t taken. His face, as usual, held a smile.

“Didn’t I ask first? What are you doing here, Giyeon?”

“...I had an errand.”

Jongseok slowly scanned the room—starting with Ha Giyeon and drifting to the open window, the energy bar on the floor, and the place where Giyeon had been hiding.

First-years didn’t have art classes, which meant the supply room wasn’t somewhere he’d logically have a reason to be. The flimsy excuse fell apart immediately.

‘Unbelievable.’

The sight of Giyeon dodging his eyes and lying annoyed him.

Hadn’t Ha Dohoon said he was going to the study room these days? Jongseok had laughed out loud when he heard it. A guy who neither studied nor had the brains for it suddenly going to a study room?

Lately, it felt like every time Ha Giyeon opened his mouth, it was to lie. Jongseok was curious what the brat had been sneaking around doing—but more than that, he was curious how long this pathetic little performance would continue.

“Did you eat? I didn’t see you in the cafeteria.”

“I didn’t have an appetite...”

“Oh, so you were eating this?”

He nudged the energy bar on the floor with his foot. Giyeon quickly bent down and picked it up.

“It fell on the floor. You should throw that away.”

“...Yeah.”

He answered obediently, but he had no intention of throwing it away. The wrapped part hadn’t touched the floor, so he could just rip off the front and eat the rest.

“Want me to toss it for you?”

“No, it’s fine.”

“Really? I could do that for you, you know.”

“......”

Maybe it was just his imagination, but it felt like Kwon Jongseok was trying to keep the conversation going. The last time they had spoken alone like this was in the kitchen before school started. And before the regression, they hadn’t seen each other for years. Facing him like this was uncomfortable beyond words.

Ha Giyeon moved past him toward the door.

“Giyeon.”

“...!”

As he brushed past, Jongseok suddenly grabbed his arm. The grip was firm enough to throw him off balance, and the energy bar slipped from his hand and hit the floor with a thunk. Before Giyeon could even stoop to retrieve it, Jongseok stepped on it.

“Didn’t I tell you not to eat this crap? If you’re hungry, just eat what we give you.”

Ha Giyeon stared up at him in shock. But Jongseok’s face didn’t so much as twitch. He pressed his foot down again, slowly crushing the bar.

“I’ll go to the snack shop and buy something else. Let’s go.”

His tone was calm—too calm. There was even a strange pride in his voice, like he’d done something right. That look on his face dragged a buried memory back to the surface.

‘But I picked this out for you, Giyeon... it’d be a waste not to eat it, right?’

Back when they were kids, Kwon Jongseok had brought cookies as a “gift” and dropped them in the dirt—then insisted Giyeon eat them. It hadn’t been a suggestion, it had been pressure. Afraid of making him angry, the younger Giyeon had forced the dirt-covered cookie down. Later, he got sick—but what stuck with him more than the pain was Jongseok’s expression.

Blank. Unblinking. Staring down at him.

Giyeon had been too young to realize that the gleam in his eyes was excitement.

“Forget it.”

He pulled his arm free and picked up the crushed energy bar. If it had to be thrown out, he would be the one to do it. He made his way to the front door and reached for the handle—

“Giyeon.”

A large hand suddenly slammed against the door, blocking it.

The surprise lasted only a second. What truly froze Ha Giyeon was the voice that came from right behind him. Jongseok leaned in and whispered slowly against his ear.

“Are you really gonna keep ignoring me and running away? That hurts, you know.”

“......”

“You like me, don’t you? So why are you running?”

His heart plummeted at those words. Without meaning to, he turned—and saw Kwon Jongseok smiling softly, lips curled in a gentle grin. But everything went dark.

A terrible ringing filled his ears.

‘Sorry, I’ve never thought of you that way. I never will.’

‘But you’ll still stay with me, right?’

‘You’re not gonna let something like this come between us, are you? We’re closer than that.’

Kwon Jongseok had dismissed his confession like it was nothing.

Only now could Ha Giyeon read that expression he’d seen back then. The face of someone holding back a laugh. You? You dare confess to me? Disgust, excitement, amusement, all mixed together. A face barely masked by a false smile. Only now did Giyeon realize it.

His clenched fists trembled. Blood welled between his fingers.

He remembered what Son Suhyeon had said.

‘People change the moment they want something from you.’

He’d gotten his hopes up on his own. But the betrayal still made his skin crawl. Somewhere inside, he hadn’t been able to completely erase his feelings for Jongseok. The person he’d once liked.

But even that was gone now. Crushed—like the energy bar in his hand. Kwon Jongseok had never once liked Ha Giyeon. If he had, he couldn’t have said it like that.

His mind cleared, cold and sharp. His lips moved of their own accord.

“Hah... You think I like you?”