How To End a Crush - Chapter 48.2

“Then, noona, do you like someone who’s pretty or someone who’s handsome?

Was that something to ponder for so long?

I blinked severally before replying in a certain tone.

“Huh? Pretty people.”

“……”

“Okay, now I get it. You’re not happy because I said you are handsome, not pretty?”

I laughed, poking Arkhan in his side. He looked sullen.

“Do you want me to call you pretty? Just say the word.”

“Forget it,” Arkhan grumbled, shaking my hand off. There was a moment of silence, after which he spoke again, hesitantly.

“……about that person.”

It was clear who ‘that person’ was referring to. I didn’t even have to ask who it was.

“You are not dating, are you?”

“Ah, no.”

I shook my head slowly.

“Anyway if it were me, I would never leave the person I liked confused,” Arkhan said sulkily.

“If it were me, as soon as I realised I liked them, I would run to them, hug them and tell them just like this.”

By now, his voice had become as low as a whisper.

“I like you a lot.”

Perhaps because of the volume of his voice, it sounded like he was talking to me.

Run to them as soon as you realise it…… and say ‘I like you’.

“Uhh…… thank you for the advice,” I nodded slowly, looking like I had been enlightened.

Now I knew what I had to do.

* * *

“I like you, sunbae. Would you go out with me?”

It was a girl in the second year speaking, her cheeks flaming red. The pure look of love on her face perfectly matched the words she had just spoken. Behind her stood a couple of other girls, who looked like her friends; they were cheering her on.

Ah, I think I know who that is. Don’t we have the same maths class?

I had come upon the scene as I was walking past. Now I was standing behind a pillar, looking at them.

Confessions, confessions. Come to think of it, there were many people who liked sunbae. The number of female students who wanted to hold hands with Noah sunbae could fill two entire classrooms to the brim. He was good-looking, studious, kind, and of high status: basically a prince.

However, everyone knew that sunbae was introverted and quiet, and that he was a model student with no interest in the opposite sex. So they all maintained a delicate balance, only sending him letters and the like. To think that there were people like this that could confess so boldly.

Wow. Such an outstanding person likes me.

I swallowed as I looked at them. I knew sunbae would reject her confession. Funny enough, I felt a slight sense of superiority knowing that. But because I was curious about what exactly sunbae would say, I remained in my spot behind the pillar. My heart beat with a faint anxiety.

“I’m sorry.”

The moment I moved my head behind the pillar, Noah sunbae began speaking.

“I have someone I like.”

He looked quite troubled and sorry. If I’d confessed to someone I liked and got such a reaction, if I were that student, I was sure my heart would have felt like it had been ripped to pieces.

……Hold on.

When I confessed last semester, he wasn’t like this. When I confessed, he blushed and said thank you. Which is why I had thought he was embarrassed.

So that wasn’t the reaction he gave other people who confessed to him? He just rejected them outrightly?

At that time, did he already……?

“……who is it?” the girl asked, still wanting to try, it seemed. Her eyes were wavering. To that question, Noah sunbae replied, still with an apologetic face.

“Sorry, that would be tough to say.”

“……gasp!”

She turned around with tears in her eyes and walked towards her friends. Together they walked away as her friends comforted her. I too sent her some words of consolation in my heart.

Hey, I’m sorry. I cannot really be sad for you, but I hope you quickly shake off the rejection, get back on your feet, and find someone good.

“Ah.”

I had been shaking my head, when I lost my footing and moved forward.

“Uh, ah……”

Now that I couldn’t hide any longer, I held onto the pillar with one hand, awkwardly looking for what to say. Noah sunbae turned towards me. He smiled at me as if he had been waiting for a while.

“Hi.”

I truly didn’t want to build any castles in the air. I didn’t want to shoehorn sunbae’s actions into the box of my wild speculations.

I really didn’t want to do that. But…

The moment I looked up and saw sunbae’s smiling face, I felt my face grow hot. The now familiar thud of my heart rang once again in my ears. And a voice in my head whispered slowly:

Hey, we’re in trouble.

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