Eyes sparkling as he thrust his face forward, Lee Euishin looked at Kwon Yunsu with a blank face. Then he gently pushed him away, cupping his cheek. …You could just push him away roughly, you know?! Ahn Shinwook turned his head with a stunned face and discovered Shin Jaewoo watching that sight with a dubious expression. That guy was starting to catch on too. If so, then soon the other guys would too…! Seriously worried about the club’s future, he made a resolution then. To pray for Lee Euishin’s expulsion once a day.
However, now he was carefully cutting out the face of that expulsion prayer target, gluing it, and meticulously writing phrases like “Throw a balloon at this face! A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!” below it. Of course, he didn’t forget the most important precaution. “This face will appear as is!” The next phrase was written very small. “But other faces will appear too.” Lee Euishin, whose face was being sold, just watched what Kwon Yunsu was doing with an unconcerned face.
Finally putting down the brush, Kwon Yunsu let out an admiring “Kya,” then turned his head. And at the end of his gaze, he made eye contact precisely with Lee Euishin who was looking at him, and grinned.
“Euishin-ah, look at this. How is it?”
“Ugly.”
“Your face is going in here, you know?”
I should write the name too. Lee, Eui, shin…. Listening to Kwon Yunsu’s murmuring, Ahn Shinwook suddenly realized something strange.
Kwon Yunsu wasn’t surprised by Lee Euishin’s gaze constantly directed at him. No, he seemed to accept it as natural. …But doesn’t he notice those eyes that look like they’ll devour him? What relationship are these guys in exactly? No, why am I thinking about this…?
“……”
Stopping his thoughts, Ahn Shinwook hurriedly offered up today’s prayer.
“Let me organize again. One person guards the counter and money box, one person lines people up while attracting customers nearby, another person goes far to attract customers. When there aren’t many customers, two go out together to bring them in. After four people get hit with water balloons ten times each, rotate in order of money box, customer attraction 1, 2. Got it?”
“Yes!”
“We’ll set up the tent in the morning, so everyone come by 8. Just suffer for these two days, tomorrow and the day after, and let’s really go. Where?”
“Europe!”
“Camp Nou!”
“To see Man City!”
Each shouting only what they wanted to say, they disbanded.
Is this really going well? Will it make as much money as we think? Faces won’t get squashed just from getting hit with water balloons, right? We’ve sold Lee Euishin’s face this much, but won’t there be repercussions? Watching the back of the guy who kicked out of the club room first, Ahn Shinwook steadied his anxious heart.
As a student, he was so intimidated by the rigid school atmosphere that he didn’t think about mingling with others. If he could occasionally talk about the weather or grades, that was it. He’d drifted into college like everyone else, and though he still didn’t know what the department room was for, this place was different. This gathering of soccer fanatics with productivity infinitely approaching zero was a place he’d sought out for the first time himself.
Since they’d already started this venture, he hoped it would go well.
So he hoped to travel safely together with these soccer idiots.
And Kwon Yunsu, stepping forward excitedly, was thinking the same thing.
“I really hope we hit it big.”
Claiming to express Iron Man suit’s metallic red, he painted over the panels with pink and crimson, and calling it a jackpot—Kwon Yunsu had no conscience.
“As long as he doesn’t pull his face away scared of flying water balloons, the worst-case scenario won’t happen.”
Would that be the only worst-case scenario? Glancing at Song Taesu’s hopeful face, Lee Euishin smiled inwardly.
“As long as Lee Euishin shows up on time, it’ll be fine. I recently heard about this bastard even at the distant College of Humanities. The word of mouth must have already spread.”
Among the soccer idiots, Kim Younghwan seemed to have the most realistic sense. In those words, Lee Euishin read the clear intention of “I’m not sure if you’ll come or not.” And of course,
“8 AM assembly. Right?”
—He had no intention of going.
“I’ll mark Lee Euishin one-on-one until tomorrow morning and bring him just like that. No. I’ll dress him up prettily.”
He wouldn’t see that ugly country bumpkin face get even uglier and squashed either.
Waving his hands and greeting here and there next to Kwon Yunsu, Lee Euishin just nodded once and turned around. He didn’t forget to pull along the country bumpkin who still had a lot to say. When everyone’s happy, he’s not happy together, and even if everyone becomes unhappy, as long as he’s good alone, that’s all that matters—that’s his personality. He’d given them so many hints, yet they fell for it so nicely, so the rest was these idiots’ responsibility.
That night, Kwon Yunsu was frantically busy. Lee Euishin, who had pulled out all the stops—skipping dinner preparation because of group project work, coming back late from a meeting with graduated seniors and not preparing for the next morning, eating lunch alone because of a meeting with a professor—made him do housework properly.
“You’re really petty. How can you do this before the event of a lifetime?”
“I’m making you exercise so you won’t be so excited you can’t sleep like an elementary schooler going on a field trip. There, stand that brush up and scrub hard. Ten times should clean it.”
Idiot. So when you slack off, you should just act cute and say sorry. But he seriously says “I’ll definitely do this and that that I didn’t do today next time, Euishin-ah. I’ll write it down” and even hooks pinkies to promise, so he’s creating work for himself.
“The helper ahjumma is coming the day after tomorrow, do you really have to make me do this…”
Right. The housekeeper who comes once every two weeks was coming this week. If he’d known, he would have done it halfheartedly at least. Kwon Yunsu had his bangs tied all the way up and was working his hands generously. His personality of not knowing how to cut corners isn’t always good.
At this rate, he’ll collapse and sleep until tomorrow afternoon, so with some conscience, he only made him clean the bathroom before putting him to bed. One-on-one marking? Even if it meant his plan would fall apart, he was ready to open his arms wide if the country bumpkin pounced on him saying let’s sleep together, but the country bumpkin just said “See you tomorrow” and went straight to his own room.
Thus, past midnight, Lee Euishin, wearing a black hoodie pulled down and carrying a large sports bag, quietly left through the front door.
He’d been too lenient. Not even limited to himself, had he ever obediently complied with anything involving several other bastards? He’d make him pay dearly tomorrow for overestimating his sociability.
***
Kim Cheolsu, an ordinary lab rat who felt uneasy leaving the research lab before midnight, was heading home that day too with a peaceful mind, looking at the pre-dawn stars. Tomorrow is the festival day. When he told the professor, the professor said there is no festival for professors. So tomorrow too, he was scheduled to peacefully spend a dog-like day. He would become strong without crying.
Whiiiiiiing…….
A strange sound piercing his ears was heard as he passed by Engineering Building No. 3. Gauging the direction, it seemed to be from the small sports field where the basketball court was. Unconsciously stopping and listening, this time he heard a drrrrrrrr sound. Sharp and rough, cutting something… A chainsaw murder? No, it was a sound he’d heard at the architecture department practice room where he’d gone to hang out with a friend. Kim Cheolsu, an ordinary lab rat suffering from sleep deprivation, walked toward where the sound was coming from without thinking.
A pitch-black figure hidden in darkness was cutting a large wooden panel this way and that. In the man’s hand was, as expected, a small chainsaw, and next to him was a hand truck commonly used when moving book boxes.
“…What are you doing there?”
With courage indistinguishable from sleep deprivation, Kim Cheolsu asked. The man who turned around in the darkness looked this way with a pale face, then replied in a very hoarse voice.
“I’m destroying my graduation project.”
“Huk.”
“……”
“Carry on.”
There’s someone over there carrying a greater wound and despair than mine. Kim Cheolsu quickly backed away. When he was so severely criticized by Professor Hwang that tears dripped down despite his military veteran status, what he needed most was other people’s “indifference.” Let’s be indifferent. I’m the magnanimous person of this era.
Magnanimous Kim Cheolsu followed the pre-dawn stars and went on his way again.
***
“…What do you think you’re looking at?”
“Well…”
“Hey, isn’t that Iron Man?”
“Why is the Iron Man suit like that…”
“Looks like it danced with Hulk.”
“Didn’t Thor smash it with his hammer?”
“So what does it look like?”
Kim Younghwan, approaching from behind, squeezed between Song Taesu and Kwon Yunsu and firmly put his arms on both their shoulders.
“What else, it’s that damn Lee Euishin’s work. Kwon Yunsu, read that writing.”
“Huh?”
Kwon Yunsu asked back with his eyes out of focus. Kim Younghwan stroked Kwon Yunsu’s still damp hair and said again.
“Read that.”
The wooden panel they’d worked on the day before dreaming of tomorrow’s jackpot, or rather what used to be a wooden panel—Kim Younghwan’s eyes pointing at it were full of laughter.
“…Will…compensate…”
“What about next to it?”
“……Lee, Eui…shin…… Lee Euishin…… Lee Euishin…, ……Hey you fucking Lee Euishin!!!”
Uwaaaaaaaa—!
