I don’t know for what reason I came to possess this body with such a bright future ahead, but I couldn’t repeat irresponsible actions and make an already unfortunate life even more of a mess.
Wasn’t that something truly terrible to do, judging both as an elder and as a reader of 〈Excessively Brilliant〉?
Nam Heejae’s only fault was not being the protagonist.
“Haa.”
But honestly, I really felt like kicking the real Nam Heejae.
Man, what did you like so much about dragging around that lunatic as your friend…? Thanks to you being friends with him, Chae Eunwoo’s life got screwed up, and your life became fucking hopeless too.
With a frustrated heart, I threw off the rash guard I was wearing. It seemed that returning to the pool coolly undressed rather than being wrapped up tightly would lower the intensity of the water torture.
Right, that bastard Baek Sahyun would become quiet as if he lost the will to respond whenever I showed a pathetic appearance. I planned to actively exploit that gap.
In other words, I would cause as much visual pollution to the guy as possible to guarantee my safety. If I frequently exposed my body to raise the guy’s displeasure index, I might be able to reduce what should be five beatings to three.
“Let’s go!”
I kept striking my white forearms, trying to awaken my fading will. While I was at it, I even sang a military song.
“Born as a man! There’s much to do!”
You can do it, Jang Woohyun! When you were even born with a dick, what’s the big deal about getting beaten a little? You’ve actually been beaten up in groups fucking lots of times!
“Haha. It’s not like he’ll hit me with a steel pipe, at most it’ll just be hands or feet.”
So there’s no need to be too scared.
Looking at Nam Heejae’s face in the full-length mirror, I spread out my hunched shoulders. It looked very good, dignified. If cynical Jang Haesu had been with me, she would have thrown me encouragement that wasn’t encouragement, telling me to walk around that confidently normally too.
“Phew.”
…But damn it, when I actually opened the door and came out, my feet just wouldn’t move.
I had to go down the stairs but my mouth was just getting dry.
No matter how much getting beaten was part of daily life, there was no way I could become immune to pain. It was natural for a person to hurt no matter how much they got hit.
“Ugh.”
I started going down the stairs one by one with a tearful face. I wished I would just twist my foot and roll down tumbling. Of course that would hurt too…, but if I at least fainted, I wouldn’t get hit by Baek Sahyun.
‘Wow, even I think I’m fucking pathetic.’
Admiring my own wretchedness, I moved my legs sluggishly. Unfortunately, the stairs ended quickly, and I had already arrived on the first floor.
“…Hasn’t that bastard Baek Sahyun come out yet?”
What? He really hasn’t come out? I, who had entered the pool first, looked around the quiet surroundings and felt inwardly relieved.
I thought I’d get punished as soon as I arrived, but still, I had some time to catch my breath.
“Alright. Quickly stretch. Stretch.”
Prepared to be thrown into the water, I loosened my arms and legs briskly and rotated my ankles round and round. I tried sitting down and standing up, and stretched my legs out too.
When I was gradually pouring water all over my body, this vague thought crossed my mind.
What if I just got in the water from the start?
“Right. That would be better.”
After deciding on my own, I slowly dipped my feet in. I was using my cunning, thinking that if I was already in the water, at least that bastard Baek Sahyun wouldn’t be able to roughly throw me in.
Finally, after plopping into the cold water, I trembled at the chill penetrating my bones. Damn, should I have stretched more earnestly?
Still, after enduring for a few minutes, it gradually became bearable to move, and after that, I could move around freely inside the pool. Breaststroke, freestyle, butterfly stroke, backstroke. As I churned through the water like a fish in water, a unique sense of liberation enveloped me.
After showing off the Jang Woohyun-style butterfly stroke that my junior soldiers used to give me a thumbs up for, I stuck my head out. Puha!
After properly loosening up my body, stress washed right away. It was when I was about to show off my breaststroke skills that my senior soldiers used to praise, saying “kid, you’re pretty good.”
“You really do like it, swimming.”
“…Baek Sahyun?”
I was startled to encounter the psychopath bastard crouching by the pool. It was Baek Sahyun dressed up in a rash guard so that even his upper body wouldn’t show.
Thanks to sitting with bent knees, the guy’s snow-white thighs were taut as if about to burst.
“Hey. Why are you wrapped up so tightly?”
The instant I asked, Baek Sahyun scooped up pool water with his palm and scattered it toward my face.
“Mmph!”
Since I happened to have my mouth open, I ended up swallowing water. Ugh, ugh. When I dry heaved, Baek Sahyun openly clicked his tongue.
“You, Nam Heejae, who came completely stripped, you’re the pervert. I don’t understand why you’re so anxious to strip.”
“Crazy bastard. When you swim, you’re not supposed to wear things loosely like you, you know?”
When I complained irritably, asking if he’d never even swam before, Baek Sahyun scratched my pride.
“Acting all superior just because you can paddle around in the water.”
“What? Superior?”
Superior! Is that something you can say to someone who had been swimming hard until just now? I splashed the water and fumed.
“Just looking at you, you bastard, you don’t know how to swim.”
And you were going on about water play and whatnot? Setting aside my true feelings, I smiled smugly and proposed.
“I’ll teach you, so hurry up and come down. There’s a truckload of bastards who wanted to learn swimming from hyung.”
“…You’ll teach me?”
“Yeah. But you have to take off what you’re wearing. With swimming, you have to reduce resistance to increase speed, so it’s easiest to do it naked.”
“……”
“But we can’t swim showing our bottoms to each other, so just the top…”
But what’s this? Baek Sahyun threw an unexpected question that perplexed me.
“…Do you have it?”
“What?”
“Have you done it, Nam Heejae?”
“So, what?”
“Have you swum while showing your bottom, Heejae-ya?”
The guy added with a sulky expression.
“I’m getting a bit jealous.”
At the shocking statement, I got goosebumps. Jealous? So that means, he’s really saying this to me, not to Nam Heejae, right?
“…Fuck. Why would you be jealous?”
Of course I’d never swum naked…, but still, I was curious.
“You’re not seeing me as gay too just because you’re gay, are you?”
Because I was confused whether this bastard might be treating me as a romantic target.
Baek Sahyun’s eyes suddenly narrowed. It seemed like he wasn’t in a good mood, but I straightened my shoulders confidently.
“Get a grip and live, Sahyun-ah.”
“……”
“The only gay here is you.”
If this bastard really had marked me as his homo partner, I had to cut it off cleanly so he wouldn’t harbor vain hopes.
“Hyung, you see, unlike you who’s a homo bastard, is someone who really, really likes women.”
“……”
“My dream is to meet a smart wife and live harmoniously while raising rabbit-like kids.”
I would take care of all the cooking, cleaning, and dishwashing, so I just wanted to build a harmonious family. I also wanted to give piggyback rides to little children running up to me shouting ‘Dad!’
So I didn’t want to have any kind of special relationship with Baek Sahyun. I didn’t want to walk around wearing couple outfits, and I fucking hated being embarrassed while holding hands.
Goddammit. That was an embarrassing scene even just imagining it.
Grown male bastards doing lovey-dovey dating with each other…. Wouldn’t parents’ hearts collapse? Of course, not my parents, but Nam Heejae’s parents’ hearts.
Hyung-man-ssi seemed like a fine person with a hearty personality, so I couldn’t commit such unfilial conduct. Moreover, he didn’t even welcome Baek Sahyun that much. Even if I made a fuss saying I’d live well with that bastard, it would be settled with a single stroke at Hyung-man-ssi’s level.
That was the moment. Baek Sahyun, who had scooped up a lot of pool water with his large palm, mercilessly poured it on my face and asked.
“Why are you so confident?”
“Glub!”
Having gotten a lot of water up my nose, I couldn’t help but be very angry. This bastard seemed to get itchy if he didn’t act like a thug for even a minute. When I conveyed that thought exactly, Baek Sahyun said, “Hmm.”
“No. The thug is you. I came on a trip in a good mood but you’re just ruining the atmosphere.”
“What are you saying, crazy bastard?”
Did there even exist an atmosphere between us to ruin in the first place? Anyway, Baek Sahyun’s bizarre way of thinking had many aspects I couldn’t understand even considering he was a novel’s protagonist.
The one who always hit was that bastard, and the one who always got hit was me. Then obviously the thug isn’t me but Baek Sahyun, right! But why is he acting so shamelessly like that?
I wanted to refute him logically but closed my eyes tight and gave up. As time passed, I was learning one truth. That the answer was to ignore crazy bastards.
“…Whatever. Anyway, Baek Sahyun, you go over there and just watch me swim.”
Doesn’t the saying go that even Mt. Geumgang comes after a meal? Setting aside the tiresome water torture for now, I wanted to loosen my body first and organize my thoughts.
Moreover, it was nice as it reminded me of old times to be splashing around in the water after so long. The junior bastards, although they didn’t listen to words at all, all followed me well, calling me hyung hyung….
It was when I was reminiscing without realizing it.
“Hold my hand.”
Baek Sahyun suddenly held out his hand to me. The guy even demanded in a sulky voice.
“Don’t dawdle, hurry.”
“Are you sick somewhere?”
Therefore, I had to look at the guy questioningly. Because I was worried whether his head had broken down from driving for a long time.
