“Ugh, where did my phone and wallet go?”
But Baek Sahyun was thorough. In a hotel room that had everything, only my phone and wallet didn’t exist. I searched everywhere for the missing items but couldn’t find even the letter ‘p’ of phone in the end. Same with the wallet, so I sat down on the sofa as if collapsing, exhausted.
Meanwhile, Baek Sahyun came out having freshly finished bathing.
“I borrowed your bathrobe, Nam Heejae.”
At his leisurely manner of speaking, heat rushed to the top of my head. That might be why I gained courage.
“Give it back.”
When I spat out as if threatening, Baek Sahyun stopped his steps approaching me. I shot back repeatedly.
“My phone and wallet. You hid them.”
It’s useless even if you deny it. Do the items have legs, do they have feet? Baek Sahyun, who had been staring at me blankly, soon rubbed his dripping wet hair with a towel to dry it.
Finding his nonchalant behavior absurd, I pressed him, cutting to the chase.
“We’re not filming the Weaver Girl and the Woodcutter, so what are you trying to do?”
“It’s the Fairy and the Woodcutter.”
Baek Sahyun slammed the dampened towel on the floor and slowly stepped toward me.
“I thought only your memory got worse, did your IQ drop too?”
“……”
“Really?”
The closer the distance with him became, the more rapidly my anger subsided. It was because Baek Sahyun’s eyes looked so eerie. Are those human eyes or beast eyes? It felt even more like a beast because the color happened to be dark.
“…That’s right. The Fairy and the Woodcutter. That’s exactly what I wanted to say.”
“I see.”
“You know how sometimes words get mixed up. This is what happens when you get older.”
I already had a strong feeling things had gone wrong, but I turned away with difficulty.
Nam Heejae is an intellectual figure who entered Korea University’s Department of Political Science and Diplomacy at the top of his class. But honestly, I was on the quite ignorant side. Naturally so, since I couldn’t learn when I should have been learning.
However, this place is inside a novel called *Excessively Brilliant*, and I am a supporting character there, Nam Heejae.
“There’s something I want to ask, Heejae.”
Baek Sahyun, who reached in front of me, slowly bent one knee and sat down. After that, he locked eyes with me who had been looking down, then threw a question whose intent I couldn’t fathom.
“What do you think of me?”
“What’s there to think about? Fucking scary and annoying…”
“Not that.”
“……”
“I’m asking how you evaluate our relationship, Heejae. I am.”
“H-how do I judge it?”
“Exactly as I said.”
Even asking again, I couldn’t grasp Baek Sahyun’s intent. However, I could definitely tell that he found me suspicious. Perhaps even if he couldn’t make a specific diagnosis of ‘possession,’ he might have intuitively realized that the Nam Heejae before his eyes wasn’t ‘Nam Heejae.’ His face looking at me was still unusual. Eyes that seemed distrustful.
Baek Sahyun, this bastard is an obsessive patient who can only be satisfied when someone who’s fallen out of his favor is perfectly eradicated. So if I continued to show suspicious behavior, I didn’t know what kind of hardship I’d have to walk.
‘Multiple personality disorder or amnesia.’
Slapping on such a label and admitting me to a psychiatric ward wouldn’t be difficult for him. But even someone as thoughtless as me didn’t want to be forcibly hospitalized.
I opened my mouth with a lot of mental preparation inside.
“Well, what. You’re my…, childhood friend. What else would there be?”
I answered honestly according to the original work. That Nam Heejae thinks of Baek Sahyun as a childhood friend was a setting value no one could deny. At first I was going to say sokkop chingu, but that seemed too cutesy so I changed it.
“…Right. We are childhood friends.”
However, Baek Sahyun’s reaction was dubious. He tilted his head back and giggled as if he’d heard a ridiculous wrong answer. Feeling anxious, I quickly traced through the original work.
‘Nam Heejae and Baek Sahyun are close enough to travel to a pension just the two of them.’
So no matter how much I thought about it, there was no problem with my answer. Wasn’t it repeatedly emphasized in the work that Baek Sahyun and Nam Heejae were childhood friends who got along well? It was a passive trait given by the creator, so it was impossible to be wrong.
Then the only conclusion was that Baek Sahyun was playing tricks.
Right. This bastard, last time he brazenly lied saying Chae Eunwoo was a beta or whatever. Maybe from that time he noticed the fact that I’m not the real Nam Heejae. So he’s throwing bait.
‘If I lose pace here, it’s all over.’
I confidently straightened my chest and said.
“Yeah. How many years have you and I known each other? We have so many memories, we’re childhood friends. Obviously.”
Like the original Nam Heejae does, I lightly pushed Baek Sahyun’s shoulder and burst into a hearty laugh.
“Last time we even went to that pension and stuff.”
“……”
“It was really fun. Right?”
I brought up the pension story while acting like a face immersed in nostalgia. To be honest, it was half a gamble. I only knew the fragmentary fact that the two went there often, but didn’t know the details.
However, to escape Baek Sahyun’s suspicion, I had to find a method, anything would do. Let’s just throw whatever comes.
“The one we went to last summer?”
Fortunately this time there was some gain. Baek Sahyun went along with it. I inwardly cheered ‘rullu lalla’ and added a few more episodes for the purpose of increasing credibility.
“Yeah. There, you know, the natural scenery was nice and it was quiet so I liked it. And having a drink with you then was good too. Hey man, I was worried because you drank so much. With a body as big as a mountain, I wondered what would happen if you got wasted, you know?”
“I don’t drink with you though.”
“Oh, ah.”
A crisis where I almost bit my tongue came but I overcame it with mental strength. Damn it. I don’t think I sweated this much even as a private in the military.
“Y-you drank so much water, I was worried thinking you might be dehydrated.”
Along with my military days, I stumbled through my words drawing on my experience working at an insurance company.
“I see.”
Fortunately, Baek Sahyun nodded and agreed. But that was it. When I was anxious with nothing left to say, surprisingly Baek Sahyun threw a new topic.
“Then do you remember us swimming too?”
Finally, finally two-way communication was achieved!
“Huh? Yeah. Of course I remember! It was super fun.”
I answered confidently. Swimming isn’t even a tricky topic. What would be special about a situation where silver spoons swim at a pension? They probably just splashed around in a pool as wide as a water park.
“You said it was fun? You weren’t in a bad mood?”
But Baek Sahyun tilted his head. His neat eyebrows were raised as if something didn’t make sense. However, the one who didn’t understand was me. Isn’t the question strange?
What reason would there be to be in a bad mood swimming with your best friend? I hurriedly shook my head. I wondered if maybe Nam Heejae or Baek Sahyun disliked swimming, but there wasn’t a single word about similar content in the original work.
“What? It was just fun, why?”
“Your expression was really bad then. I wondered if I went too far.”
A deflated-sounding voice followed. Ah, I see. From the looks of it, he must have dunked Nam Heejae in the water as a prank. When young people play by the water, that can happen.
“Hey, absolutely not. It wasn’t like you did it on purpose. I understand everything. What’s friendship about?”
“Yeah. Then I’m relieved.”
When I buttered him up and appeased him, Baek Sahyun immediately looked pleased. This is quite unexpected. I only knew him as having antisocial personality disorder, but he knows how to consider others’ feelings too. He even cares about Nam Heejae’s mood.
“Anyway, it’s really fine. Why would a man be petty and get upset over something like that?”
When I spoke boldly, Baek Sahyun wore a faint smile. Now, is this it? I felt pleased that I seemed to have primarily avoided suspicion of being a mental patient. When I was inwardly relieved, Baek Sahyun suddenly pressed down firmly on my shoulder.
“Then, Nam Heejae.”
“Yeah.”
“Can you do it one more time?”
The hand touching my shoulder was heavy enough to be burdensome. Even though it didn’t seem like he put in that much strength, my bones were all chilled. I twisted my shoulder vigorously to escape his grip but it wasn’t very effective. Seeing how I kept being pushed back in power like this from earlier, there was a need to go to the gym starting tomorrow.
“Do, do what one more time?”
I continued half in resignation. Damn it. I’m disgusted.
I wish he would explain what he wants clearly, but I don’t know what Baek Sahyun learned in that good educational environment—he kept chopping off the beginning and end every time he spoke. It’s a speech pattern that needs to be corrected by going to a counseling center.
With good timing, Baek Sahyun released his hand.
“Swimming. You said it was fun?”
His two eyes sparkled beautifully. I don’t know what interest arose, but it was an innocent and good-natured face that seemed like it would droop its tail if I didn’t grant the request.
“So, it was fun but what am I supposed to…”
When I asked while avoiding eye contact here and there, two large hands suddenly grabbed my shirt collar.
“I’ll make it more fun than that time. How about it?”
As expected, a response whose true intention was hard to guess returned. I diligently analyzed his words. He’ll make it more fun than that time? Is he planning to rent out a water park or something?
“Hey, hey. Wait, what are you doing?”
After pondering, I belatedly noticed that the top button had been undone. When I glared at Baek Sahyun in shock, he raised both his hands as if innocent.
“You looked stuffy.”
“My clothes?”
“Yeah.”
“What are you saying, you perverted bastard…”
I was dumbfounded by the flimsy excuse.
While I was holding back the curse trying to burst out, Baek Sahyun pulled my shirt sleeve as if acting cute.
“Don’t be difficult and let’s do it, Heejae. I want to do that one more time.”
