“Are you still talking about Yunseo who you used to play with in kindergarten?”
“She was my first love, you know?”
Not an ex-girlfriend but an ex…… rival. Woojae squeezed his eyes shut. He only hoped the 30 minutes he’d set would pass quickly. Whoever Yunseo was, he thought she must have suffered a lot. Jeong Minho tilted his teacup and laughed, “Ah.” It was an ominous exclamation.
“Are you dating Woojae by any chance?”
“Ah…… Sunbae’s head must only work in that direction. I’m a bit disappointed by the lack of creativity. Of course, Woojae is very, very cute though.”
Woojae almost spat out his hot chocolate, but was even more flustered because Jang Yeonju’s grinning tone was blatantly picking a fight. He filtered out the part where she added that he was cute. It was better to pretend he hadn’t heard it. Besides, it wasn’t said in a cute tone at all.
‘But why is it so empty……?’
From earlier, he could see people who’d been on the outdoor terrace showing signs of discomfort or sending entranced gazes as they moved away one by one. He alone felt like an outsider. No, he was an outsider. Woojae only looked around with a renewed feeling.
“You two look good together, so I asked once.”
“Why? If I said I was interested in Go Woojae, would you try to take him away again?”
Soon a dangerous rally continued. Woojae witnessed an invisible ball going back and forth between the two. Why are these people fighting over me like this? Jeong Minho, who’d been exchanging fierce conversation with Jang Yeonju, turned his head toward Woojae.
“Should I? Woojae, want to date hyung?”
What kind of absurd…… Woojae sucked once on his lower lip with chocolate on it and answered more firmly than ever, word by word.
“I like women.”
Why Gye Sajun’s face flashed by at that moment was a mystery. It was quite amusing.
“Puhahak! What can we do when he says that, sunbae? What should we do? You got rejected.”
Before Woojae’s words even finished, Jang Yeonju burst into exaggerated laughter and wiped away tears that hadn’t even fallen. She even clutched her stomach as if she’d heard something very funny, but her eyes weren’t smiling at all. Her wide eyes resembled those of a gangster. You could believe she was the daughter of a mobster rather than a prosecutor.
“Really? You like women?”
“This kind of question is really awkward.”
“It’s okay. That can happen.”
Haha, Woojae laughed awkwardly. Really an unfamiliar conversation. Like the gradually cooling hot chocolate, his heart was also growing coldly cold. He wanted to escape from this stagnant situation.
The problem was that time was flowing terribly slowly. Chronos, the god of time, seemed to hate him very much. How much would he have to hate him to exert influence all the way to a distant foreign country? Bastard…… Just like the guy who cut off his father’s dick, such a vicious guy…… Of course, there was no disagreement that the father in mythology had committed a great wrong. Woojae cursed a god from another country while recalling a comic book he’d been impressed by in childhood.
“Hyung was very disappointed to send you away like that that day.”
“It’s fine.”
At the conversation returning to that day again, Woojae let out a low sigh. It seemed to be an unavoidable topic. It was utterly uncomfortable.
“Where did it hurt that day? From the middle, your expression seemed really bad.”
Woojae visibly avoided the hand approaching his cheek. What good would it be to be touched by a man? It was just unpleasant for grown men with dick hair to stick together. For a moment someone flashed through his unconscious again, but Woojae tried hard to shake it off. Why do I keep thinking about it, damn it?
“Obviously it was because sunbae acted like shit. Is this a problem you need to create a meeting to discuss?”
What should be called a helping hand or not, an ‘invisible fist’ passed Woojae and landed on Jeong Minho’s ear. Naturally, the owner of that fist was Jang Yeonju. It would have been better to just hit him.
“Yeonju-ya, oppa is talking.”
“Ah, oppa? Don’t put such a filthy word in your mouth. I want to completely wreck those pretty lips.”
Could it be that Jang Yeonju still liked that kid Yunseo? Woojae watched the outbreak of the fight with a shocked expression. Her momentum saying she’d wreck sunbae’s mouth was tremendous.
“When you were young you followed me around saying ‘oppa, oppa,’ but you’re really too much. Speak nicely. Father would be upset if he knew.”
“It’s famous that Father gave up on my speech habits, so why bother? Mother’s staying quiet too. And sunbae doesn’t need to worry so much, I take good care of my classmates myself, so do it in moderation. What’s so special about being vice president of the student council? Even Heemin sunbae is staying quiet, so who are you to be like this? Ridiculous.”
Jang Yeonju was provoking Jeong Minho as if she’d made up her mind. The problem was that Jeong Minho wasn’t backing down either and was scratching Yeonju’s temper. They’re really going to fight. No, they might already be fighting.
“That’s because Heemin noona is busy. The student council president has the president’s role, and the vice president has the vice president’s role. Just like Heemin noona is busy meeting with professors and attending official events, I have to pay attention to internal department matters.”
“So what attention have you paid? Buying kids meals? Did you get hired as a nutritionist at school?”
“Because recently the atmosphere among freshmen is bad. Woojae is the center of that topic. So I’m paying attention, but you’re really being harsh. Were you that hurt when Yunseo said she liked me and wouldn’t hang out with you?”
Woojae, who’d been planning to close his ears to the fight unrelated to him and figure out how to escape, opened his eyes into triangles. See this? When his name was being openly brought up, his ears that couldn’t close were too sharp to keep his mouth shut.
“Why am I the center of the topic?”
Even though it was something he knew, hearing it from someone else’s mouth felt really shitty. When Woojae raised his voice, the brutal atmosphere stiffened awkwardly. Jeong Minho also laughed awkwardly.
“Hey, Go Woojae. Get up. It’s almost been 30 minutes.”
Jang Yeonju also changed the subject as if saying ‘oops.’ But only 10 minutes had passed. Woojae couldn’t do anything about his sharply honed feelings and asked back.
“Is it because I’m a beta?”
The surroundings would be empty anyway. Woojae didn’t hold back and stared at Jeong Minho openly. Asking while knowing. Say it again.
Strangely, from the moment Woojae opened his mouth, Jeong Minho shut his mouth tightly instead, but after pondering for a moment, he grabbed Woojae’s shoulder and began to speak.
“Woojae-ya, did you enter school not knowing it would be like this? No, you did. So stick by hyung’s side. That’s better. Yeonju and Sojeong will be in a difficult position too. The kids hate you, you know that. What power could they have?”
The voice was affectionate, but the words were like daggers. Being confirmed and killed by someone else’s mouth really felt dirty.
It was truly a cheap and cunning choice of words. Woojae’s lips trembled steeply. Since he brought up the classmates who were rarely friendly to him, even shitty Woojae couldn’t easily refute or question it. Inconsiderate words stabbed and tore into Woojae.
“Hey, Jeong Minho!”
If Jang Yeonju hadn’t slammed the table at that moment, he would have suffered the humiliation of showing his completely distorted expression as it was. Jeong Minho frowned between his eyebrows at Yeonju’s fierce reaction and asked in a troubled voice.
“Yeonju-ya, why are you getting angry? I’m saying this out of concern for you guys.”
“You call that fucking thing you just said……!”
“Stop it, Jang Yeonju. It’s not wrong either.”
Woojae stopped Jang Yeonju. Thinking that Yeonju and Yeon Sojeong might have also suffered the oppression and contempt that he alone should have endured, an unknown guilt washed over him heavily. Jeong Minho, who’d been examining Woojae’s expression thoroughly, smiled faintly. Yeonju looked back and forth between Woojae and Minho with contrasting expressions, gritting her teeth and trying to clumsily make excuses. Woojae shook his head at her.
“Hey, Go Woojae! You……! Hey, no. It’s not like that-.”
“Wait, let me speak.”
“Right, it seems Woojae has something he wants to say. Yeonju-ya, stay still for a moment.”
Woojae chose his words while pressing down on his trembling facial muscles with his fingertips. Yeonju spat out curses under her breath and only fiddled with her phone. Woojae pondered for a long time. Yeonju looked at him with anxious eyes and at Jeong Minho with murderous eyes, then abruptly stood up from her seat.
“Yeonju-ya, take care.”
At Jeong Minho’s greeting, Yeonju showed him the middle finger and left the terrace. It was actually better without Yeonju. After a long silence, Woojae began speaking to Jeong Minho, who was observing him to the end with an affectionate expression. Jeong Minho was smiling with his eyes folding.
“I understand what you’re saying, sunbae. But, according to what you said, you’re basically telling me to just quietly attend school. Without causing harm to the kids, like a lowborn bastard should.”
“Do you have to twist it in a direction that hurts you like that?”
“Isn’t that what you meant to say? That’s how it sounded to me.”
“That can’t be.”
Like hell it’s not. Woojae gritted his teeth. The hot chocolate was too bland to feel like drinking. Heat rushed over him as if he’d drunk alcohol, and lava-like anger sizzled and boiled inside.
“Woojae-ya, I’m just as vice president of the student council……”
“You know what?”
“Yeah.”
Woojae let out a deep sigh and said sharply.
“I know bastards like you well.”
It was the moment when Jeong Minho’s neatly folded narrow eyes snapped wide open.
