If he was a student at the same school, they must have passed each other coming and going. But who Kang Hyun-woong was or whether they’d ever talked wasn’t an important fact to Jae-min. Lightly ignoring his words, Jae-min glared at Yun-ji again.
“You’re really dating?”
“Then would I be fake dating? Isn’t my Hyun-woong totally cool? Totally manly?”
Yun-ji blinked her eyes. Her long eyelashes fluttered, lightly scratching at Jae-min’s temper. Anger crept up. Finally worked up, Jae-min clenched his molars tightly.
“You’re really something too, Lee Yun-ji. You really bring a new guy right away? Still, there’s courtesy you should keep toward someone you dated.”
“Did you have courtesy? Honey, you tell him. Who did worse?”
Yun-ji asked while hugging Hyun-woong’s thick arm. Seeing Yun-ji’s large breasts pressed firmly against Hyun-woong’s arm, Jae-min scowled deeply. It was when Hyun-woong opened his mouth as if to say something in response to Yun-ji’s question.
“Forget it. Both of you fuck off.”
Jae-min, boiling over, spat the words and immediately turned around. Then he left the café with his footsteps echoing loudly.
The entire walk from the seat to the door, the bear dolls decorated here and there seemed to stare at him with pitiful eyes.
⁕⁕⁕
After rushing out of the café and going to school, Jae-min couldn’t concentrate on lectures all day, grinding his teeth while thinking of Yun-ji and Hyun-woong. His anger intensified even more because he’d belatedly realized who this guy Kang Hyun-woong was.
‘Kang Hyun-woong from Physical Education?’
Who was Kang Hyun-woong? He was famous even among Jae-min’s classmates despite not being in the business department. Searching his name in the department group chat just in case, it came up right away. There were traces of several female classmates having a whole conversation about how it was unfortunate that Kang Hyun-woong didn’t show up to a group blind date with the Physical Education department.
According to them, Hyun-woong was a man who had played soccer until high school but gave up his dream of being a professional player and switched to physical education—a truly ‘PE major’ type of guy.
In terms of height, Jae-min had nothing to be intimidated about. Jae-min was around 188cm too. But Hyun-woong was a man whose every other element besides height was truly the complete opposite of Jae-min.
Unlike Jae-min who grew out his light brown hair to a moderate length and wore it down calmly, he kept his jet-black hair cut short like an obvious sportsman, and unlike Jae-min who’d lived hearing he had large eyes with deep double eyelids that made him look like a deer, his eyes were long and slanted without double eyelids.
Most of all, what everyone noticed regardless of gender was Hyun-woong’s muscles that looked ready to burst. Though they were athletic muscles built through soccer and various training, he was also seriously into fitness, so people said his body seemed to get bigger every time they saw him. His usual outfit was wearing a short-sleeved shirt with one more shirt over it, but apparently all the buttons didn’t fasten so he just wore it draped over.
“Fuck…”
In a corner seat of a dimly lit bar, Jae-min vaguely recalled Hyun-woong’s appearance from the café and looked down at his own body. It wasn’t that he had no muscles, but his naturally thin build meant there was obviously no sense of that kind of bulk.
“Hey, honestly if I worked out hard I could build up to that level. I just don’t do it because it doesn’t suit my face.”
Seeing Jae-min muttering in an ominous voice, Yeong-gyu let out an empty laugh.
“I’m sure you could. Just hold out your glass.”
Yeong-gyu was Jae-min’s high school classmate. When Jae-min held out his glass, Yeong-gyu tilted the bottle and poured alcohol.
“Let’s blow away the pain of heartbreak with alcohol.”
“I’m not even that depressed, asshole.”
Jae-min ground his teeth and emptied the alcohol in one shot. Setting the glass down on the table with a loud thunk, Jae-min added with a sigh mixed in.
“Lee Yun-ji? I didn’t even like her that much.”
Yeong-gyu snorted. Jae-min glared at him sharply and picked up dried snacks to chew on.
“Even without her, girls who like me are lined up.”
“Yun-ji pushed all those girls away. Dealing with annoying ones in advance!”
“Once they find out I’m single, they’ll swarm again.”
Yeong-gyu stared at Jae-min answering confidently. Though he was annoying, it wasn’t a statement without grounds.
Even in high school, Jae-min had been outstandingly handsome, but now as an adult styling himself from head to toe, his beauty had bloomed even more. Wherever he went, there were many people asking if he resembled a celebrity or if he was that person.
Even now, chewing squid like a thug, he looked like a protagonist from a movie with a luxury cigar in his mouth. Yeong-gyu, who had been watching Jae-min with a tongue click, quietly brought his glass to his lips.
“You’re not thinking of trying to get your girlfriend back?”
To Yeong-gyu, it seemed like a simple lovers’ quarrel. Jae-min was just losing his reason right now, but if he thought calmly, it was strange that Yun-ji had made a boyfriend overnight like that. And if Jae-min used his pretty looks as a weapon to hold onto her, she’d probably pretend to lose and come back.
After all, most of Jae-min’s lovers had been “face-crazy” types weak to looks.
But Jae-min wasn’t so easy. The problem was his utterly useless pride. At the mention of holding onto her, Jae-min glared and slammed his fist on the table with a bang.
“Why would I hold onto her? Hey, I’m Lim Jae-min.”
“Crazy bastard.”
“Actually, I was thinking I should break up with her soon anyway. I just didn’t say it.”
Even at Yeong-gyu’s cold rebuke, Jae-min responded without budging. But no matter how much Jae-min pretended to be sincere, to Yeong-gyu’s eyes it was clearly a lie. Just a few days ago he’d asked with quite an expectant face what he should give as a one-year anniversary gift to his girlfriend.
But if he argued point by point, Jae-min would obviously throw a fit, so Yeong-gyu just quietly refilled his glass. Jae-min drank in one shot again and shook the empty glass over his head.
“I feel so refreshed now that we broke up!”
Jae-min shouted in a cheerful voice and smiled brightly. A flush spread over his fair skin from the alcohol. His large deer-like gentle eyes folded prettily. Jae-min had a pretty face that subtly resembled the center member of the most popular girl group these days.
Jae-min, who had been smiling broadly as if to show off and continuously drinking, suddenly collapsed with a thud. Did he finally die? Yeong-gyu was tilting his head and checking on Jae-min when suddenly wailing sounds rang out.
“Uheeeong!”
Jae-min, heavily drunk, burst into tears. Then he suddenly grabbed his phone violently. Spotting Jae-min looking for Yun-ji’s number, Yeong-gyu urgently snatched the phone away.
“Agh! Don’t make a spectacle of yourself!”
“Spectacle? What spectacle? Ha, I thought we might finally date for a long time. Hey, tell me. Honestly, who’s better, me or that bear bastard?”
“Huh?”
“I didn’t even have any big problems to begin with!”
‘Honestly you have tons of problems.’ Yeong-gyu barely swallowed the inner thoughts he’d almost spat out. No matter how you looked at it, Jae-min was definitely pretty trash.
Jae-min struggled to snatch his phone back from Yeong-gyu but it was useless. While Yeong-gyu drank one glass, Jae-min had drunk three on his own, so it was natural.
Completely drunk, Jae-min finally lost strength in his arms and collapsed again, crying.
Damn Kang Hyun-woong. Amid it all, he couldn’t remember the face at all and annoyingly only his robust upper body came to mind.
“What’s so good about a guy whose only feature is big breasts!”
A resounding shout echoed through the bar. That was what Yeong-gyu normally wanted to say to Jae-min. He wanted to die from embarrassment at his friend throwing a drunken fit.
⁕⁕⁕
Thud, thud.
Jae-min frowned at the noise of a ball bouncing that seemed to directly strike his brain and turned his head. On the campus athletic field, a group of dark-skinned men were playing basketball.
“Hyun-woong, pass!”
The man bouncing the basketball on the ground in a steady rhythm while slightly hunching his house-sized frame was Hyun-woong. Kang Hyun-woong who had snatched away Jae-min’s girlfriend overnight.
Girls were sitting on a bench near the athletic field. Among them with flushed faces, Jae-min spotted Yun-ji sitting with her legs crossed and clicked his tongue. His head, which felt like it would split from the hangover, seemed to hurt even more.
‘Basketball watching when we’re not even middle or high schoolers…’
His ex-girlfriend being there didn’t particularly make his heart ache, but it really pissed him off. His pride was deeply wounded. Jae-min ignored her, pretending not to see, and quickened his steps.
He still hadn’t finished the assignment due today. He needed to sober up quickly and finish writing the report.
At the student center café that sold coffee at much cheaper prices than franchise cafes, Jae-min ordered an iced americano and took a seat by the window. After quickly finishing sobering up by gulping down the cold coffee, Jae-min began continuing his unfinished assignment.
