Despite Woojae’s crooked attitude, Gye Sajun adjusted his bag and tried to satisfy his curiosity. Even under the bright sunlight, his dazzling appearance was irritating. The gray sweatshirt draped over his large body was picturesque. Since it was oversized even on that huge guy, if spread out on the floor, it wouldn’t be lacking as a blanket. Woojae muttered in a half-resigned tone.
“He only says what he wants to say. So what are you going to do about it?”
“I’m going to buy you food.”
Is he possessed by a ghost who died from not being able to buy someone food? No matter how he thought about it, he was a strange guy.
“Why would you buy me food?”
“I ate your food, so I have to repay you.”
“That was me repaying you…… so why are you repaying me again?”
The good mood from just before began to draw an increasingly fluctuating curve. The cause was mentioning the fact that he was indebted to him with his own mouth. He’d heard often that he was hot-blooded, but in front of Gye Sajun, his temper seemed particularly sharper.
“We’re going to watch a movie together anyway, and if we go on the MT we’ll do even more together, so is it hard to have one meal together before that?”
“MT? Why would I go to a motel with you?”
Isn’t MT an abbreviation for motel? At Gye Sajun’s out-of-the-blue MT remark, Woojae, whose comprehension momentarily dropped, raised his voice in shock. A movie was already absurd, but now a motel. Moreover, the words “even more” added fuel to the misunderstanding.
“Motel……? What’s that?”
Woojae froze like a stone at Gye Sajun’s reaction that he couldn’t understand with his common sense. Because he’d hung out so much with his hyungs when working part-time, MT was a word that primarily brought to mind the meaning of “motel” for him. And he was shocked. A twenty-year-old chaebol young master apparently didn’t know what a motel was. Even if he was a chaebol, really, did he live without even watching TV?
“What is it?”
Woojae wanted to deny the fact that he was the first to bring up the situation involving the three words: himself, Gye Sajun, and motel. Belatedly, he could guess that the MT Gye Sajun mentioned was something like the college students’ friendship retreat he’d seen in youth dramas.
“Why would I watch a movie with you?”
Woojae rewound time with the calmest voice possible. Gye Sajun also seemed to have no intention of asking further and answered obediently.
“Assignment. We have to watch a movie related to ‘romance’ or ‘marriage’ and write a review.”
So that’s what it was about—the assignment. Only then did Woojae realize the reason Gye Sajun had followed behind him. He was talking about the assignment from ‘Modern Society Marriage and Family’ they’d heard in the morning. That shitty lecture had a fucking ton of assignments. It was in the second lecture that he confirmed again that Gye Sajun was his partner.
“We can watch it separately.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“The professor said to attach a verification photo of watching it together.”
There was absolutely no escape route. But Woojae came up with a scheme. Wouldn’t it be fine if they just took a photo together?
“Just take the photo, then!”
“Why should I do that?”
Because I don’t want to watch a movie with you. Woojae said with his eyes. Gye Sajun looked down at Woojae and wiggled his eyebrows. And soon he wore a strange smile.
“Why, are you afraid you’ll want to get close to me if you watch a movie with me?”
“What kind of nonsensical bullshit is that?”
Gye Sajun changed direction. It was because he realized that a frontal approach wouldn’t work to win over Go Woojae. He kept being strangely drawn to him. The betas he knew always felt like wallpaper, but this beta was quite interesting.
It was hard enough to eat one meal together, and even harder to watch one movie together. Gye Sajun had pondered throughout the lecture what movie would be good to watch with Woojae. But when he was flatly rejected, he became even more stubborn. He wanted to watch a movie with Woojae no matter what. Just the two of them.
“If that’s not it, then you’d have no problem watching a movie with me.”
“……When.”
The “You’ll want to get close to me?” tactic succeeded perfectly. Woojae asked about the date in a voice that had calmed down. Gye Sajun thought of the most reasonable time. If they were going to watch a movie, wouldn’t right before the weekend be appropriate?
“Friday evening.”
“No.”
But what came back was rejection again this time too. Woojae was confident. This rejection wasn’t simply because he disliked Gye Sajun. That day was when there was a group date that Minwook had arranged. He didn’t have an intense desire to date a girlfriend, but it was the first schedule he’d made since coming to college, and he had no intention of canceling.
“Why not?”
“I have plans.”
“What plans?”
Gye Sajun, as if displeased that things weren’t going his way, crumpled his dark eyebrows and interrogated Woojae. The corners of Woojae’s mouth twisted. He felt like he could win.
“Why should I tell you that?”
He could watch the movie with him because it was an assignment, and he’d eaten with him to repay his mistake. But there was no need to tell Gye Sajun the identity of his plans. At Woojae’s face becoming triumphant as if he’d seized victory, Gye Sajun tilted his head and threw out a question.
“What’s the reason you can’t tell me?”
“Because I don’t want to!”
Woojae answered very boldly.
Because I don’t want to! There was no more appropriate answer than this. He felt like he’d burst with happiness at being able to express his will as it was. But then,
“Then want to go to a motel?”
“What the, fuck. Are you crazy?”
A completely unexpected question came back. Woojae’s triumphant expression crumbled in an instant. He wanted to stone to death the version of himself from a few minutes ago who’d mistaken MT for motel. Of all things, why!
“I want to try going with you too.”
“Where……?”
Whether Gye Sajun knew Woojae’s insides or not, he made an incomprehensible proposal. Woojae looked at Gye Sajun with doubtful eyes. From those thin lips with good color, a word that shattered Woojae’s composure flowed out.
“Motel.”
“Ah, fuck. That’s not a place guys go together!”
His head was a mess. Why on earth had he mistaken MT for motel? Honestly, if he’d just said MT, he wouldn’t have thought of motel first. But because Gye Sajun was going on about watching a movie or whatever, he’d unknowingly thought of such a word. Honestly, it was also because the attitude with which the guy approached him was suspicious. It was quite different from the feeling of wanting to be close as same-sex friends. Even now,
“Then are you going with a girl? Teaching Assistant Im? Or Jang Yeonju?”
“What the hell are you even saying?”
Even the way he asked was strange. Despite not even knowing what a motel was, he had an expression of displeasure at the fact that he would go somewhere with someone. Woojae grabbed Gye Sajun, who had stepped closer, and whispered softly. It wasn’t a topic to shout about, and it was a place where people passed by, so even more so. He was quite anxious about the real names of surrounding women being mentioned.
“Don’t speak loudly. I’m not going. I’m not going to a motel. But do you really not know what a motel is?”
“I can just search it.”
“Agh, don’t!”
He shouldn’t know. At least not at this moment. Woojae desperately snatched Gye Sajun’s phone. His heart beat wildly. He hated whatever expression Gye Sajun would make when he found out he’d misunderstood with such a word. Whatever expression that might be.
“Did you just snatch my phone?”
“Don’t search it. I made a mistake earlier, so erase it from your brain.”
Gye Sajun was asking with the same indifferent face. He couldn’t figure out what on earth he was thinking. Woojae pleaded inwardly to Gye Sajun. Please forget it. Please.
“If you watch a movie with me.”
Gye Sajun seemed to be the type to focus on his objective. Was this fortunate if anything? Clouds covered the sunlight he’d felt was warm. Suddenly, cold arrived.
“I said okay! I said I’d watch it!”
“Watch a movie with me Friday evening.”
Ah, is this guy really crazy? Woojae tore at his own hair and answered as calmly as possible.
“I said I have plans.”
“What plans?”
He hadn’t been able to think clearly at all because of the motel thing. Woojae abandoned his attitude of not telling because he didn’t want to and answered obediently.
“A group date.”
“I want to go too, then.”
He shouldn’t have answered obediently. Gye Sajun was clearly a being born to piss him off. With the heat rising from inside, Woojae soon forgot even the cold wind blowing.
“Are you crazy? What? Follow me where? Do you even know what a group date is?”
“If it seems like I don’t know, you who knows well can tell me in detail. If you don’t answer, I can ask someone else. You’re going with Bang Minwook, right?”
“……How do you know that?”
“You don’t have any close friends besides him.”
It was an undeniable clear fact. Woojae let out a rough breath at his crushed pride. Nothing went his way when he was with Gye Sajun. And like a predetermined natural order, Nike, the goddess of victory, raised Gye Sajun’s hand.
“What are you guys doing here?”
There was no need for Gye Sajun to look for Minwook—at precisely this moment, Minwook appeared.
“Bang Minwook, you’re going on a group date with him Friday evening.”
“Huk, how do you know that? Did Woojae brag? Oh, Go Woojae. Even though you act like you don’t care, you’re excited and all.”
Woojae was at a loss for words. Despite Woojae’s miserable expression, Minwook kept grinning throughout.
“I want to go too, let me join.”
“You? Gye Sajun, you’re coming out to a group date?”
“Yeah, Go Woojae’s going too.”
There was no room for Woojae to intervene. He glared at Gye Sajun instinctively, but he saw Gye Sajun mouth the word ‘motel.’ That bastard knew all along, didn’t he?
