To Byul (Omegaverse)-Chapter 34: Do you like arcade games?

It turned out that after years of Hae-won's novel circulating around the country and the rest of the world, it ended up getting a movie adaptation.

The movie 'A.A.B', abbreviated from 'Alpha, Alpha, Beta', was a best-seller, and since it was such a popular series as a book, everyone wanted to watch the movie adaptation. Everyone aside Chin-hwa, of course.

For one thing, he had read and listened to the story so many times that he used his parent's faces to visualize the casting. So, seeing other people's faces play out the lives of his parents seemed a bit...

Anyway, it came out during the second year of his college life, when things were still a bit grim on his part.

He didn't want to watch it. After all, he knew exactly what was going to happen in the movie, so why bother sparing his busy college days to go and watch it.

And what were the odds that he would come to hate the movie after noticing that minor yet important details were clipped out? He was just that kind of picky person. So, he didn't want to watch it at all.

But since Yun-tae wanted to watch it and Kang-woo probably didn't know the story as well as he did, he decided maybe it was a nice thing to let them watch it while sitting next to each other.

Who knows? They might learn a thing or two from what they see.

They got to the cinema and an energetic Yun-tae went to book the tickets right away.

"How are you?" Kang-woo suddenly asked Chin-hwa when they were left alone and Chin-hwa turned to him, wondering where that question came from all of a sudden.

"Well, I'm doing great." Chin-hwa answered nevertheless. "And you?" He asked. "How are you holding up? You're joining the new semester, but I'm sure your school in the States was ahead of our curriculum, so I hope Korea isn't holding you back."

There was a bit of sarcasm in his tone and that sarcastic remark surprisingly got Kang-woo laughing.

"Not at all. Not at all." He said. "You know you were the brightest among us so even if they were ahead, I would still need a while to adjust to their hurried curriculum."

Chin-hwa looked at him and in his thoughts, he said,

'Liar. Everyone knows you were brighter than me, you just didn't shine too much so I could be bright enough to stand by your side.' he turned his head away. 'And I tried my best to fill up that position. But I guess...' he sighed. 'Even that wasn't enough.'

Lost, he looked at the sea of crowd flocking in and out of the cinema.

'It made me wonder if I slowed you down so much that you got fed up and decided to leave. Just what...' He glanced back at Kang-woo who had his gaze on him, but as soon as Chin-hwa caught him staring, he looked away almost immediately, looking awkward. 'Huh?' Chin-hwa's eyebrows tilted up. 'What was that just now?'

"I'm back." Yun-tae announced as he got back with all three tickets and a cheerful smile beaming on his face. "I got the tickets."

"Good. Then, let's..."

"Oh, but we can't go now." Yun-tae said and waved the tickets a bit with a little worried smile. "Unfortunately, there's only one showing today and it's in two hours. So, before then, we can pass the time."

Chin-hwa sighed, tucking his hands in his coat pockets.

Kang-woo once again had his eyes on him and Chin-hwa didn't know what he was trying to figure out, stealing glances at him so openly.

"So," Chin-hwa spoke up, raising his gaze to meet Kang-woo's, and because he had been caught a second time, he did not bother throwing his gaze away or pretending that he wasn't staring. "What do we do now?"

"Let's look around." Kang-woo said and raised his head, his gaze falling on an exit that led to an arcade. "Yun-tae," he called and Chin-hwa subconsciously flinched.

He blinked, surprised as to why he flinched when he heard Kang-woo call Yun-tae on a first-name basis so clearly.

"Do you like arcade games?"

"Arcade games?" Yun-tae asked, shifting his gaze to where Kang-woo had glanced at. He saw the arcade and exclaimed, "Ah, I do but... I'm a terrible player."

"Then, we'll just play for fun then." Kang-woo smiled politely. "Chin-hwa and I are very good at it so you can watch us and learn. How's that?"

"Wah, Hwa can play arcade games?" Yun-Tae looked so excited upon getting a new discovery of one of Chin-hwa's likes. "And you too? You two are such an amazing pair of friends. I wish I were good at so many things too."

"Oh, don't start." Chin-hwa said and laughed. "You're great in so many things too, Yun. So, there's nothing to be envious about."

"Yes, just knowing how to play arcade games is not a big achievement and I'm sure you know how to do so many extraordinary things." Kang-woo added, adding a layer of compliments that made Yun-tae blush.

"Jeez, when you two say things like that," he placed his palms on his reddened face while averting his gaze. "...it makes me feel so special."

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"That's because you are." Chin-hwa said, dropping his hand on Yun-tae's head. "Now, let's go play. We have to do stuff that will make two hours go by in a flash so you can get to watch A.A.B. that you want to watch so much."

He held Yun-tae's hand and then Kang-woo's hand and started walking to the arcade, but only three steps in, and he realized what he had done.

Out of habit, he had taken their hands. If it was just Yun-tae he held, he wouldn't have fussed over it but he held Kang-woo's hand as well.

'I feel so embarrassed that I can't even turn to see their reaction.' He thought, his heart thumping loudly. 'Their hands are warm. Kang-woo's hand is so big that it could envelope my own hand but he is...' he took a peek and found their fingers interlocked. Kang-woo did that. He interlocked their fingers.

And out of curiosity, Chin-hwa ended up raising his head to see the reaction on Kang-woo's face.

He was staring at their interlocked hands with a little smile and warm gaze but as soon as he noticed Chin-hwa was looking at him, he smiled even brighter and said,

"This feels so nice,"

Chin-hwa's eyes widened and then he stopped walking.

"Ah, I'm sorry but I think I need to use the restroom." He said, taking his hand out of Kang-woo's and then placing Yun-tae's in it. "You two head in first. I will join you shortly."