Before I could refute, Baek Sahyun finished reciting.
“I’m worried. Last time too, when you posted that photo taken with him after getting cozy on your account, my heart dropped.”
Well, since the scam Chae Eunwoo pulled was not long ago, it was understandable to be worried about that. Ah, damn it. But worry? I ended up holding my head wondering if Baek Sahyun really had romantic feelings for me.
Not obsession or possessiveness, those sinister emotions…
“Hey, Sahyun-ah.”
Was it really ‘romantic feelings’? I mean warm feelings that come from wanting to care for and protect each other. I was about to seriously ask if he was really looking at me with such ticklish eyes, but I lost the initiative.
Baek Sahyun spoke as if feeling hurt.
“Don’t do that anymore. What good does stimulating my anxiety do for you…”
“……”
“Maybe getting your ankle broken and having to be carried on my back. That’s about it.”
Baek Sahyun, who had softened his sharp tone, warned me while hanging a chillingly pretty smile on his lips. Perhaps because he was thorough enough to install a location tracking app on someone else’s phone, it didn’t sound like a joke. But at the same time, I also had this thought.
…Why do I have to be so careful to this extent?
Isn’t that true? Baek Sahyun and I would have a blood-mixed child, and would unavoidably live tied together by the name ‘parents’, but we weren’t in a relationship where we loved or cared for each other. We weren’t even going through a dating process that was genuine to each other, even if light, so honestly we could be called complete strangers.
Just strangers tied by a child…, should I call it a more complicated relationship than others?
That’s why I ended up reproaching Baek Sahyun.
“Why are you expecting from me what you should only hope for in a dating relationship?”
“What?”
When I tapped his dress shoe with the toe of my sneakers, Baek Sahyun crumbled his cold expression as if dumbfounded. I explained triumphantly.
“That thing about revealing your destination every time you go somewhere, that’s something dating people allow each other out of goodwill. You seem to think you own my body itself because of our contract, but that’s not the case at all. The only person in the world who can demand that is the person who’ll be my lover.”
“…Right. That is true.”
“Good. Listen well to hyung-nim’s sincere teaching.”
“Got it. You’re saying something helpful for once.”
Baek Sahyun nodded as if surprisingly agreeing. I retorted.
“As expected, what an elder says is the best, right?”
When I was feeling secretly proud thinking my advice had gotten through, Baek Sahyun suddenly embraced my body again. He placed his chin on my shoulder as if acting spoiled and whispered.
“But…, you missed one thing. Woohyun-ah. We’re already in a dating relationship.”
At the dejected voice, I immediately pushed away his shoulders.
“…Dating? What kind of absurd talk is that?”
I asked back, unable to believe what I’d just heard. Then Baek Sahyun shrugged his shoulders.
“Never mind then.”
“Hey! Don’t make jokes like that again…”
“Then let’s start dating from now.”
Baek Sahyun, who grabbed and shook my hand that had dropped limply, said innocently.
“From now on I’m your boyfriend. You’re my boyfriend too. Wow, I’m excited. This is my first time dating someone.”
“Hey, hey! Wait a minute. Why is this suddenly happening?”
“You said it yourself, didn’t you? That this is what people who are dating do. Then we should be dating. Since it’s what we’ve been doing all along.”
The logic somehow oddly fit together so I couldn’t find a gap. Maybe it was because of the limits of my intellectual ability. Thinking refusal was the answer, I shook off his hand roughly.
“No. I don’t want to be in a dating relationship with you.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t have feelings of liking you.”
“Really?”
Baek Sahyun, who walked one step forward, thrust his smooth face right up to my nose and said.
“Can you really say you don’t?”
“……”
“You can’t lie, Woohyun-ah. You’re the type who shows it a lot when you lie.”
I definitely didn’t like him, but for some reason my mouth wasn’t willing to open. I felt very strange.
“…I don’t like you.”
When I barely opened my lips to speak, Baek Sahyun asked back as if he’d been waiting.
“Not even a little?”
“……”
“Not even a trace of interest? Does that mean there’s never been even one time your heart raced in front of me?”
There were many times I trembled from fear. But times I trembled from excitement were…
It was while I was thinking that.
Suddenly I recalled the strange pounding I felt when Baek Sahyun came to catch Chae Eunwoo and me. Not only that, but the moments walking through the campus with him, eating cafeteria food, and participating in the festival also flashed before my eyes. Baek Sahyun tightly grasping my hand in front of the stage swarming with crowds.
The whisper heard through the gaps of the loud singing…
“I like you.”
The three-character confession Baek Sahyun had delivered taking advantage of the commotion floated in my memory. At that time, Baek Sahyun had definitely confessed he liked me. When I just looked at the stage pretending not to hear, he burst into a chuckle.
“I won’t do things you’d hate anymore.”
It would be a lie if my heart hadn’t pounded then. But I couldn’t even tell myself whether I’d been like that from being surprised by the sudden confession attack, or if I’d felt real excitement.
At the settled silence, Baek Sahyun proposed as if he’d grant permission.
“Fine. Let’s do it this way.”
“……”
“Let’s try dating for exactly 100 days. How about it?”
“…Are you Ungnyeo? What 100 days. And, I told you I have no intention of dating you in the first place. How many times do I have to say it before you understand?”
“We have to make a baby within 100 days anyway so it’s not a bad proposal. If we spend that time as a dating couple, I think I can treat you more gently too.”
His voice was suspiciously sweet and soft.
“Until now I did torment you a bit because I was anxious. But after getting confirmation that we’re dating, I’ll find some composure too.”
“What do you have to be anxious about?”
“What if the person who’s about to become a baby daddy goes around flirting here and there and dates someone else? What if instead of coming to my bed you go into someone else’s bed, and instead of having my baby you bring someone else’s baby?”
“That won’t happen!”
“Besides, Woohyun, you promised to listen to everything I say. Don’t you remember?”
At the following threat, I had no choice but to press my forehead.
“Crazy bastard.”
Baek Sahyun seemed intent on alternately using carrot and stick, and whispered while grasping the hem of my knit.
“It’s only 100 days. I’m just asking you to be a faithful spouse candidate for 100 days, you can’t even do that?”
“……”
“You couldn’t come out like this unless you had something bothering you, right?”
“Fine, fuck.”
The consecutive provocations were enough to crumble my reason. Even my will to think deeply disappeared as I answered vaguely.
“After 100 days, we break up.”
“Yeah. Let’s date sprinkling sesame salt.”
“Sesame salt my ass. But.”
Still, I had to make this one promise.
“After 100 days pass, don’t you dare think about pulling tricks like saying we need to extend the period because I’m pregnant. Got it?”
Baek Sahyun, who nodded, agreed saying “of course.” He curved his eyes leisurely and added.
“I definitely won’t beg to extend it so don’t worry. But…”
“……”
“If you ask to extend it, I’m not planning to stop you.”
❖ ❖ ❖
After that, Baek Sahyun, who pushed me into the passenger seat while spreading the logic that ‘since we’re dating we need to go on dates,’ started driving straight away without revealing the destination. I could only be astounded at the sight of him driving while humming.
Anyway, when I asked why he specifically set a time limit of 100 days, Baek Sahyun answered like this.
“100 days is the period even a beast can become human.”
“What does that have to do with dating?”
“In 100 days, you’ll also reach human-level intelligence and come to like me, I thought.”
“…Are you crazy?”
“I am crazy about you though.”
“Ugh! Stop saying things like that, it gives me goosebumps!”
The guy who only gave answers that made people’s blood pressure rise turned the steering wheel gleefully. Seeing his upturned corners of his mouth, it seemed his intention was just to have fun making me angry.
Right. It would be best not to react at all to these tricks.
Instead of getting angry asking if he saw people as complete idiots, I asked a different question.
“Baek Sahyun.”
“Yeah.”
“Why do you keep Chae Eunwoo in check?”
“……”
“Honestly, you feel it too. That I don’t have even a speck of interest in him. So why do you keep treating him like a rival and being wary? Don’t tell me…”
“……”
“Really, do you think I’d do something improper with him?”
When I finished speaking slowly, Baek Sahyun took the opportunity of a red light to turn his head toward me. He stared at me intensely with an emotionless face, then when the traffic light turned green, looked forward again and said.
“Guess.”
“……”
“Why I’m acting like this.”
“……”
“Jang Woohyun, I’m curious what you think.”
