In the explosive situation, Minwook, who had been moving his head this way and that, urgently stopped Woojae.
“Ya, don’t fight. What’s wrong? Get along, you’re friends in the same department.”
“Friends? That’s ridiculous. Why would that bastard be my friend?”
Woojae, who had suddenly become friends with Gye Sajun, raised his voice with an absurd expression. Gye Sajun just stood there blankly, neither affirming nor denying, only looking at Woojae.
“I don’t understand. Is going to the opening general meeting together something to get this angry about?”
“Yeah, fuck off. Anyway, even if I go, it’s obvious I’ll only get looks like ‘what’s that bastard doing here,’ so who am I doing it for by going there? If you want to fuck me over, just hit me. You fucking bastard.”
It was an emphasized intonation that would have dug deep if written on paper. Woojae hated Gye Sajun. He couldn’t help but hate him. The first impression was the worst, and nothing after that was much different. Moreover, the attitude of showing off his superiority to him in this manner couldn’t possibly be likable. Gye Sajun looked at Woojae, who was glaring at him as if to kill him, with puzzlement.
“Then I can’t go either.”
“What?”
It was a truly incomprehensible answer. Along with the dumbfounded Woojae, this time Minwook also opened his eyes wide. It was nothing short of a farce.
“Are you crazy?”
Woojae broke the silence and asked incredulously. Gye Sajun tilted his head and stared at Woojae like that. His expression, which didn’t easily reveal joy, anger, sorrow, or pleasure, made Woojae even more irritated.
“Because you’re like that, I don’t want to go anymore.”
What do you mean I’m like that? He had only said he wouldn’t go to a place he wasn’t invited to, so he couldn’t understand why such an answer came back. Moreover, he was the one who had clearly said he even hated him. Woojae couldn’t understand Gye Sajun. It had been that way since the moment he first saw him. He couldn’t even understand why he had to engage in such a meaningless war of words. He felt like an idiot.
“Uh, I’ll… give you guys some space. That would be right.”
“Ya! Why are you leaving!?”
“Talk comfortably. I have plans too, plans. Hey, Sajun-ah, come in and talk. I’ll make space for you.”
“Ya, Bang Minwook!”
Minwook tried to slip away by creating plans that didn’t exist. Woojae reached out his hand, but Minwook had already hurriedly put on his red padding and gone outside. Gye Sajun naturally entered as if taking turns, completely removing what was left of Woojae’s composure.
“What are you?”
“I came in because I thought it would be boring.”
“Won’t you fuck off?”
It was like a confrontation between someone incapable of anger management and an attention seeker. Woojae suppressed the surging anger and asked Gye Sajun seriously.
“What the hell are you to act like this toward me?”
“Do I have an obligation to answer?”
“Did the sunbaes dump me on you? Did they say they’d beat you up if you didn’t bring me?”
Woojae threw out the most plausible question he’d thought of.
“Beat? Me? That’s an interesting guess.”
Gye Sajun looked around Woojae’s room and shook his head. At the utterly incomprehensible behavior, Woojae’s head was on the verge of exploding.
‘This is no different from a pigsty.’
That was the thought that came to Gye Sajun’s mind the moment he first entered Woojae’s room. Whether his roommate was a similar type, it wasn’t a corner of a room but rather believable as a garbage dump. How many days had it been since the semester started for the room to become this state? While Woojae was wracking his brain unable to figure out Gye Sajun’s intentions, the person in question was having such thoughts.
“You, don’t you clean?”
“What?”
“The room is too dirty.”
At the out-of-the-blue words, Woojae flinched. It did look dirty because of the scattered boxes and Minwook leaving clothes everywhere as if having a fashion show every morning. Woojae, who was momentarily embarrassed, raised his voice.
“What the fuck? Mind your own business.”
This is all because Bang Minwook is dirty. At least his own desk and bed were dirty with their own rules. Looking at Gye Sajun openly frowning as if it were dirty, Woojae said irritably for no reason.
“That’s not my area. No, what the hell are you doing in someone else’s room? Won’t you leave? Ya, fuck. Fine. I’ll leave.”
“We should go together.”
Gye Sajun blocked Woojae and said. Woojae, who had been holding back as much as he could, asked threateningly in a low voice.
“You have a grudge against me, right? Are you doing this to me because I interrupted you trying to fuck that time? Then just fucking go do it. I’ll pretend I didn’t see that, so mind your own business and fuck off!”
It wasn’t the sunbaes who made him do it, and no one threatened to beat him up if he didn’t bring him. Then that was the only conclusion. Gye Sajun just wanted to fuck with Go Woojae, and as the surest method, he was mocking and tormenting him. According to Woojae’s deduction.
“Same age, same department, next door room… we take a lot of classes together, and we have to do group projects together, so can’t we get along?”
Gye Sajun calmly explained his position. At the calm voice, Woojae instead felt like he was the fool. Woojae was glaring at Gye Sajun with unabated anger.
“……So right now you’re asking to be friends with me?”
A chaebol? An alpha? A bastard who lacks nothing? Woojae openly frowned. To him, Gye Sajun was a truly incomprehensible existence.
“That’s a bit much. Why I’m doing this—you figure it out yourself.”
What the hell is that supposed to mean? Gye Sajun threw a task at Woojae. It was a task to understand an incomprehensible existence.
***
The snow had stopped, but the night air was freezing cold. Minwook, who had to take a walk in the park inside the dormitory on a cold night because of his roommate and his uninvited guest, turned on the heater as soon as he entered the room.
“You didn’t go? Really?”
“……You’re just coming back now?”
It seemed Gye Sajun’s plan to take Woojae to the opening general meeting had failed. Opening general meetings usually go until 5 AM with a third round, so if Woojae had followed Gye Sajun to the opening general meeting, he couldn’t be here right now. Woojae was staring out the window with a heavily frowning face.
“What are you doing……”
“Thinking.”
At the brief answer, Minwook closed his mouth and took off his coat, placing it on the bed. Woojae suddenly spoke in an irritated voice.
“Clean up a bit when you live. Put your clothes in the closet.”
Suddenly? Minwook made a slightly wronged expression. Hey! The boxes rolling around on the floor were clearly Woojae’s. Also, Woojae wasn’t the type to fold clothes neatly either. The shirt stuck between the doors of Woojae’s closet that wouldn’t close properly was proof of that. While Minwook grumbled and roughly folded his clothes, Woojae, who had finished his contemplation, opened his mouth.
“Gye Sajun, does that guy have no friends?”
“Today was my first time talking to him too, you know? Umm…… Does he not have any?”
“Did you know him originally?”
“I’ve seen him a few times at social gatherings and such. But I’ve never talked to him. I only saw his face from a distance. He just shows his face briefly and leaves, so even more so.”
The more he heard, the shittier it sounded.
“Social gatherings? It’s not like we’re nobility in a monarchy era.”
“If you consider it, my family is nouveau riche, so to call them nobility……”
“I don’t care.”
To Woojae, both Minwook and Gye Sajun were people from a different world. Woojae, who gave up on pondering whether Gye Sajun had friends, let out his inner thoughts close to a monologue.
“What’s the big deal if I don’t go to the opening general meeting. Everyone ignores me anyway.”
“Probably not everyone hates you. There are more kids who don’t think about anything, right? They’re just swept up by the kids leading the atmosphere.”
“It still feels bad just the same.”
Woojae was displeased that Minwook said such things without even looking at him. The stares pouring down every time he walked around campus here and there were far beyond a level that could be ignored.
“That’s true but…… Why is Gye Sajun really like that? It’s confusing.”
“Could it be worse than me?”
Woojae, who was already reminded of the conversation he’d had with Gye Sajun earlier, answered irritably.
“……It would be good to get along, so what.”
“When did you say not to get involved with him?”
“I meant don’t get involved with him in a bad way. Honestly, if you become close with him, who would dare give you shit?”
“Ha…… Fuck, I’m so fucking honored. Absolutely not.”
It was when Minwook, who had nothing more to say, came out of the bathroom after finishing his shower. Woojae, who should have been in bed, was putting on his shoes at the entrance with a completely hardened face.
“What, where are you going?”
“Opening general meeting.”
“Huuuh?!”
Woojae answered with eyes soaked in defiance. Just what happened while he was showering? Minwook couldn’t follow Woojae’s change of heart. In any case, the clock was pointing to 11:40, so first he had to stop that tyrant.
“The dormitory door closes soon!”
“I know. Go to sleep.”
But there was no way to stop Woojae, who had already made his decision. Minwook had to stand there blankly for about 3 minutes, alone in the room heated up by the heater.
***
The bar where more than 100 people had gathered was nothing but noisy. It was a beer hall near the school, but calling it a beer hall—it looked closer to a bar.
The bar, which looked grand even from the outside, provoked Woojae’s sneer. This neighborhood, including the school and the surrounding scenery, all looked fake. Even though it was clearly different from a typical university district, it somehow looked clumsily imitated. It was like the feeling of rich people coveting even poverty.
‘Why did I come here?’
Woojae let out a deep sigh while looking at his worn wristwatch pointing to 11:59. Honestly, it was an impulsive action. If Minwook had stopped him more forcefully, would he not have come out?
– Come out even if it’s late. Beer hall in front of the main gate. They said they’re doing the second round there too.
– I’m not going, you fucking bastard.
– Why……, do you think that too? Like a place where someone like you doesn’t fit in?
Gye Sajun’s last words from earlier ignited Woojae’s defiance. The result was this very situation. Woojae fell silent in front of the bustling bar. If Gye Sajun hadn’t told him the location, this was a place he couldn’t have come to even if he wanted to.
Already drunk or something, a male student who burst open the glass door and came out started vomiting on the ground. Woojae found himself instinctively hiding deeper into the alley.
