Chapter 34: I’ve Been Watching You, Senior, For a While Now

Until they arrived at the escape room cafe,

Hyunwoo held Chaea’s hand tightly.

“Oppa, weren’t we supposed to treat our sister like a high schooler for the time being?”

Chaerin approached and whispered slyly, but

“I just want to do this today.”

It was unavoidable to keep Taeyang, who was following them while looking around, in check.

“If Yoo Chaea wasn’t so excessively pretty, this wouldn’t have happened.”

“…Did you just say that, Oppa? Did amnesia spread to you too?”

Chaerin, doubting her ears, frowned and moved away from Hyunwoo.

Of course, Chaerin’s reaction didn’t really matter.

“Hehe. I think this is the first time you’ve held my hand first.”

“Was it?”

“I always grabbed it first.”

Because Chaea seemed to be in a very good mood.

It was enough as long as he didn’t give Taeyang an opening like this.

And so, they arrived at the escape room cafe.

“You’ve never been to a place like this before?”

“N-No, nope. It’s my first time.”

“What’s wrong? Why are you so frozen?”

After giving Taeyang, who was unusually nervous, some escape room tips,

He paid for any room they could enter right away.

“Hyunwoo, shouldn’t this go in here?”

“I think so.”

Chaea skillfully solved the puzzles, and

“Oppa, can you get that thing up there for me?”

“That just looks like a prop.”

“Ah, is that so?”

Chaerin sometimes acted a bit clumsy, but

“Unnie, Unnie. I want to try solving that.”

“Huh? Okay.”

“Isn’t it done like this?”

“Oh… you’re surprisingly good at this?”

“Surprisingly? What do you mean, Unnie?”

After Chaea solved a puzzle they were stuck on, she adapted perfectly and flew through the rest.

“Why aren’t you solving anything, Oppa? Is it because I’m solving them too fast?”

“Yeah. Let’s go with that.”

Hyunwoo answered vaguely, watching Taeyang.

It seemed like it wasn’t a lie that it was his first time in an escape room.

“Wow… you can think of it that way!”

He couldn’t even approach the problems.

He just clapped and reacted every time Chaea or Chaerin solved something.

“Ugh… I’m not good at math.”

Then, when Chaerin was stuck on a complicated math problem,

“Wait, can I take a look?”

Taeyang approached her.

“Huh? Ah, uh… here.”

As Chaerin, who had absolutely no immunity to real men, shrunk back,

Taeyang chuckled.

“Why are you so surprised? We’re classmates.”

“…Classmates?”

“Ah, yes. I sit right behind Chaerin.”

Hearing something he couldn’t ignore, Hyunwoo glared at Chaerin.

“Don’t you even know who sits behind you?”

“D-Do I really need to know….”

Chaerin, who had been wary of Taeyang until just now, subtly avoided his gaze, as if she really didn’t know.

‘How is she going to survive like this?’

He was starting to worry about Chaerin now.

“The answer is 4097… I think?”

In the meantime, Taeyang solved the problem that Chaerin had been struggling with for five minutes in an instant.

“Yoo Chaea. Is 4097 right?”

“Wait, let me try. 4… 0… 9… 7….”

Click.

“Oh, it opened! Taeyang’s pretty good!”

The door to the next room opened when she entered the number.

Hearing Chaea’s praise, Taeyang scratched his head with an embarrassed expression.

“I’m a bit confident in math…. I’m glad I could help.”

“At this rate, you’re like a talented individual, Hyunwoo?”

“…Yeah, I guess so.”

Hyunwoo carefully observed Taeyang talking to Chaea before answering a beat late.

‘Look at him liking getting praised by Yoo Chaea?’

In fact, objectively speaking, he was just accepting the praise modestly, but

To Hyunwoo, who had already raised his guard, even the smallest things were annoying.

Squeeze.

While moving to the next room,

Hyunwoo grabbed Chaea’s hand.

“Huh? What’s with you all of a sudden?”

“You might get hurt.”

Making an excuse, he stared intently at Taeyang.

“Ahem. Chaerin. Is there anything there?”

“Uh, uh? Uh… I don’t know? I just came over too….”

Avoiding his gaze, she needlessly bothered Chaerin, who had no immunity.

Of course, he didn’t mean to bother her.

Anyway.

The same pattern continued after that.

“Ah! You turn it like this!”

Chaea and Chaerin worked hard to solve the problems, and

“Wow, you’re really smart!”

Taeyang just admired them, and then

“Ah, I think I can do this one.”

When a math problem came up, he solved it in an instant.

“Hyunwoo, why can’t you concentrate today?”

Chaea was worried about Hyunwoo, who was distracted by Taeyang, but

“I guess I’m not feeling well.”

Hyunwoo made a vague excuse for a more important task.

“Gasp. Then you should rest quickly!”

“It looks like we won’t be long until we escape, so whatever.”

“Then I’ll solve it quickly…!”

Clenching her fist tightly, Chaea ran to Chaerin’s side and glared at the puzzle.

“Aren’t you solving anything?”

He asked Taeyang, who was standing in the back, slyly.

“I-I’ll solve it.”

Startled, Taeyang hurriedly fiddled with another lock.

“I think you have to solve something else first before you can touch that.”

“Ah… I’m sorry.”

“No, you don’t have to be sorry.”

It was to the point where anyone would think he was cracking down on discipline.

Taeyang was especially polite to Hyunwoo.

“…!”

“?”

How long did he make eye contact with Taeyang, who was glancing at Hyunwoo?

“Done!”

“Did we escape?”

Thanks to the sisters’ carry, they succeeded in escaping with about 10 minutes left.

“So this is what escape rooms are like… You even paid for me. I’m sorry for just being a burden.”

“It’s your first time, so it’s natural for the club president to pay. And you were really good at math.”

“Ah…! Thank you for praising me!”

He couldn’t exactly say he was glad he knew he was a burden, so he said something insincere, but

Unexpectedly, Taeyang was so happy that he was flustered.

“I’ll take a picture to commemorate your escape~ Decorate the board and let me know!”

He didn’t particularly want to take a picture with Taeyang, but

Chaerin and Chaea were already excitedly decorating the whiteboard.

“Um… I’ll buy you a meal next time.”

“What? It’s okay. I just brought you along to test you.”

“B-But it wasn’t cheap….”

Escape rooms weren’t a cheap hobby, but

It wasn’t to the point where Hyunwoo couldn’t afford it with his allowance.

In the first place, it was a cheap price to pay to figure out the intentions of a suspicious new member.

“Okay, say cheese~”

Click.

After taking a commemorative escape photo at the escape room cafe,

When they came outside, it was already getting dark.

“Sorry. I was going to buy you dinner too….”

“Oh, no! How could I ask for more here! And I should probably go home soon.”

He sincerely wanted to have dinner together and figure him out a little more, but

Taeyang stubbornly refused.

“Okay, okay. Then go home safely today. Think about joining the club and tell me tomorrow….”

“W-Wait a minute, Senior.”

Just as they were about to part ways and go home,

Taeyang cut off Hyunwoo’s words with a apologetic expression.

“Why?”

“Um… well….”

“If you have something to say, feel free to say it.”

“W-Well, it’s a bit difficult to say it here. Can we talk separately for a moment?”

Taeyang looked at Chaea and asked for her understanding.

Hyunwoo’s brow furrowed.

‘Is this guy?’

He thought he was hiding it well until now, but

He was finally revealing his true colors at the last minute.

Unlike what he had expected, he was so polite that he was considering accepting him as a member, but

He couldn’t do this already.

Just as he was about to shake his head,

“Okay. I’ll wait.”

Chaea nodded.

“?”

Hyunwoo, who didn’t understand for a moment, looked at Chaea.

“Why are you waiting?”

“Huh? Isn’t Taeyang saying he has something to say to you? I’ll wait with Chaerin.”

“……Me?”

Hyunwoo turned his head back to Taeyang.

He didn’t have something to say to Chaea, but

To him?

“Yes. It won’t take long.”

“…You’re not going to take me to some back alley, are you?”

“Huh? I just need Chaea Senior and Chaerin to leave….”

He wondered if he was going to drag Hyunwoo away and beat him up, but

It didn’t seem like that was the case.

“Yoo Chaea. Here’s my card, go have coffee with Yoo Chaerin.”

“Thank you, Oppa!”

“Hmm… don’t keep Hyunwoo for too long, Taeyang?”

After Chaerin, who was simply excited about the free drink, and Chaea, who was worried because Hyunwoo said he wasn’t feeling well, left,

“So what do you want to talk about separately?”

Hyunwoo crossed his arms and tilted his head.

…Just in case, he prepared to run away at any moment.

Chaea and Chaerin had left, but

For a while, Taeyang just hesitated and didn’t open his mouth.

At this point, he wondered if he had some serious worries, but

‘What? Why is this guy doing this?’

He wouldn’t usually confide in a senior he was meeting for the first time, so

Hyunwoo’s gaze towards Taeyang became increasingly suspicious.

“Are you sure you don’t have to go soon? I don’t know what you want to say, but….”

He was prepared to kick him out even if the club was shut down if he had impure intentions, when

“Um… please take a look at this.”

Taeyang handed Hyunwoo a white paper folded into a rectangle.

‘It looks like a letter… wait a minute, a letter?’

Hyunwoo, who was trying to figure out the paper relying on the streetlight, paused.

‘Words that are difficult to say when Yoo Chaea and Yoo Chaerin are around….’

Once he was aware of it,

The words and actions Taeyang had made today flashed through his mind.

He had found the club after seeing ‘Hyunwoo’ and Chaea’s names.

He hadn’t tried escape rooms, but he wanted to get closer to his senior.

He got strangely nervous whenever Hyunwoo spoke to him.

He subtly avoided eye contact throughout the escape room.

He was overly happy when he praised him at the end.

Thinking about it calmly,

Taeyang didn’t seem to be very interested in Chaea.

-I’ll buy you a meal next time.

If anything, he was interested in Hyunwoo.

“Actually, I’ve been watching you, Senior, for a while now.”

To the chilling speculation, the words that put the finishing touch on it.

‘He wasn’t after Yoo Chaea, but me…?!’

The blood drained from his body.