Yoon Minoh just stood there blankly, staring at Yeo Dowoon. His gaze wavered aimlessly. But Yeo Dowoon didn’t offer even a shred of loose sympathy and only expressed his fatigue.
Even if rumors spread that he was a bastard doing terrible things to a snot-nosed brat who was only twenty years old, he intended to let it be. There was no way he had the leisure to look into and care for someone else’s life when he was barely keeping himself together.
“Even though you stole my first kiss……”
When Yoon Minoh continued speaking, Yeo Dowoon agreed half-heartedly.
“Yeah, sorry for stealing it.”
He barely managed to swallow back the counterargument that if you really look at it, didn’t you force me to touch lips because you demanded it? But Yoon Minoh continued muttering as if seriously hurt.
“You seduced me completely.”
“Yeah yeah. Sorry for seducing you.”
“Does being handsome excuse everything?”
“Sorry about that too.”
“……Will you sleep with me?”
“Are you cra—crazy? You bastard whose head isn’t even fully formed yet!”
Only after Yeo Dowoon lashed out in shock did Yoon Minoh smile languidly as if satisfied. His stretching appearance looked more like a bored person rather than a hurt one.
Yoon Minoh, who opened his eyes mischievously into slits, imitated Yeo Dowoon’s indifferent tone and said.
“If the blood in your head dries up, that’s not a living creature but a Buddha statue. A Buddha statue.”
“Now you’re even insulting religion?”
“Insulting? I’m just reciting exactly what hyung said.”
Just how mindless did you have to be to act so carefree even after hearing harsh words—Yeo Dowoon felt discouraged once again, thinking that a thoroughly crazy bastard had come in as his junior.
As a rule, it was best to pass by crazy bastards as safely as possible without getting entangled with them.
“Hey…. Did you and I really have some grudge from a past life?”
But damn it, weren’t they already entangled!
The pairing condition that Yoon Minoh had demanded as a requirement kept pulling hard at Yeo Dowoon’s ankles. The fact that whether he liked it or not, he had to work in sync with him heated up his head again.
At Yeo Dowoon’s reprimand, Yoon Minoh went “haha,” deliberately laughing loudly while wiping the corners of his eyes. While at it, he also picked off some eye boogers.
“That’s the most boring thing I’ve heard all year.”
“I didn’t say it to be funny.”
“Really? I thought you threw in a joke because you were worried about me.”
He almost got swept up in that bastard’s dazzling way of speaking again. Yeo Dowoon breathed oxygen deeply into his lungs to regain composure. Calm down, calm down. While emphasizing it to himself several times.
Yoon Minoh, who had been standing still as if nailed down, stealthily took a step forward and pestered him.
“Forget all that, I’m hungry so buy me a meal. Hyung.”
When Yeo Dowoon turned around and started walking with long strides, he followed along like a long-legged herbivore.
He could tell he wanted to make his eyes sparkle brightly, but no matter how hard he tried, they only glinted ferociously like a wild tiger. Yeo Dowoon felt even more disgusted and increased his speed. Yoon Minoh also rushed forward, not losing.
“Ah, I’m asking you to buy me food. Hyung has a lot of money!”
“Fuck off!”
“They say people with money are stingier, was hyung that type too?”
“I said fuck off!”
The sight of ending up running as if in a race was ridiculous, and laughter inevitably burst out. Anyway, it was a problem that his heart softened. It was when Yeo Dowoon, who praised himself, suddenly stopped both the war of words and the running.
Thud! Yoon Minoh, who hit his nose on Yeo Dowoon’s back, went “ow ow ow” while half-covering his face.
However, Yeo Dowoon didn’t even look at him and only rummaged through his pants. Finding his wallet, he pulled out a card and handed it over indifferently. Only then did Yoon Minoh check, and his face was.
“……Hey, you.”
“Keu…, fuck. Heu-uk……”
“Are you crying?”
It was covered in chicken shit-like tears that seemed like they’d only appear in dramas.
***
“Are you done crying now?”
“…I cried because it hurt. Because it hurt.”
“But you’re done now, right?”
“I cried because it felt like my nose bone broke.”
“Where does it hurt to answer the question I’m asking?”
When Yeo Dowoon spoke earnestly, Yoon Minoh went “keung,” blew his nose, then rolled up the tissue and held it. Why the hell is he keeping that dirty thing…. Yeo Dowoon, who gestured toward the trash can with his eyes, pulled out a new tissue.
But before he could offer the tissue, Yoon Minoh struck first and snatched it away.
“I’ll use it well.”
And yet he was still dropping tears one by one, so Yeo Dowoon faced quite a serious dilemma.
Did all twenty-year-olds these days have no pride like this? If it were him, he felt like he would have held it back desperately, but Yoon Minoh had already been crying his heart out for an hour, going through tissues.
Keu-eung! Yoon Minoh, who blew his nose loudly, hiccupped and said.
“For suddenly lashing out, heu-uk, I’m truly sorry.”
“You don’t look sorry at all.”
“You’re perceptive, annoyingly so….”
He couldn’t just leave and abandon him either. Yeo Dowoon hesitated before offering clumsy comfort.
“At your age, you should experience getting dumped and such.”
He didn’t bother adding the explanation that even at his age, he was constantly experiencing heartbreak. Yoon Minoh, who had been tossing the rolled-up tissues into the trash can one by one, replied in a manner befitting his age.
“No thanks, I’m not accepting old man talk.”
“…Brazen bastard.”
“I’m telling you I really cried because my nose hurt.”
“Who said otherwise?”
Since the situation itself was starting to get annoying, Yeo Dowoon answered in a noticeably crankier tone than before. Yoon Minoh seemed deflated as he crumpled his beanpole-like body and sobbed.
At this point, Yeo Dowoon seriously worried whether he should call an ambulance.
“You’re going to get dehydrated at this rate, man.”
“I’m, heu-uk, hungry……”
While calculating when to dial 119, Yoon Minoh carefully tugged at Yeo Dowoon’s clothes. Having those reddened eyes right in front of him made Yeo Dowoon feel like he was sitting on a bed of nails for no reason.
“So hungry……”
His voice was completely hoarse too, making him sound inhuman. Yeo Dowoon made a decision within extremely reasonable bounds. After pulling out a few more tissues and roughly wiping Yoon Minoh’s face, he bluntly let it flow out.
“Get up. Let’s go.”
He was getting sick of the situation of squatting in front of the beverage vending machine anyway. When Yoon Minoh just stared at him blankly, he disheveled the curly bleached hair in various ways.
“I’ll buy you food and clothes, and anything you want, so stop crying. Okay?”
There were roughly three hours left until his guiding turn, so that seemed enough to coax and soothe Yoon Minoh and send him back to the dormitory. Yeo Dowoon flicked the car keys with his hand and took the lead.
“If you don’t follow, I’m leaving without you.”
***
Yoon Minoh’s wish was much more modest than expected.
After getting in the car and looking around for quite a while, when Yeo Dowoon asked where he wanted to go, Yoon Minoh answered that he wanted to eat non-spicy tteokbokki. When Yeo Dowoon found this odd, he added without hesitation.
“If I eat spicy food, my stomach hurts and I get heartburn.”
“The guy who was bawling just now wants to eat tteokbokki?”
“…What’s weird about it?”
“Just quietly eat a meal. Do you like beef?”
There was a Korean beef restaurant nearby that he frequented. Since they grilled the meat separately too, there was no need to bother with tongs, making it perfect to take Yoon Minoh there. But Yoon Minoh firmly shook his head.
“I want to eat tteokbokki.”
Yeo Dowoon asked, genuinely curious.
“Do you think I’m reluctant to spend money on you?”
He felt unnecessarily worried, wondering if he was being seen as such a worthless bastard. But Yoon Minoh instead jumped up and passionately argued. The seat shook heavily.
“Is hyung embarrassed to spend money on tteokbokki? Where is there high and low when it comes to food?”
“I’ve been thinking this since last time, but you must have been good at studying when you went to school.”
Then Yeo Dowoon completely changed the subject of conversation. The steering wheel naturally turned toward the Korean beef restaurant. While also pressing the accelerator hard, worried he might whine again about going to eat tteokbokki.
“The words you use seem educated.”
“You said before that it was obvious I wasn’t properly educated.”
“That was because you seemed to lack social skills.”
Yoon Minoh collapsed back against the seat as if unable to refute. Haaah, an artificial sigh filled the car.
Yoon Minoh, who had been stealing glances at Yeo Dowoon concentrating on driving, fiddled with the seatbelt that he had personally fastened for him just before getting in the car and said.
“……I was actually class president too.”
“Class president? You?”
“In middle school, though.”
When the light turned red, Yeo Dowoon stopped the car and looked back at him. Yoon Minoh, somehow flushed, was staring beyond the car window while reddening his ears. Yeo Dowoon lightly touched the steering wheel and asked.
“That’s impressive…. Student council president, didn’t you do something like that?”
“I didn’t run because it was embarrassing to give a speech in front of the entire student body.”
“I guess you didn’t give speeches as class president.”
“I did, but that much was okay.”
Yoon Minoh, chattering about his school days, looked his age for the first time since Yeo Dowoon had met him. A fresh twenty-year-old kid who would have been walking around school in a uniform until not long ago.
Yeo Dowoon drove smoothly according to the traffic light and asked.
“Were you class president in high school too?”
“……”
But for some reason, this time no explanation mixed with bragging came back. As quiet silence lingered, Yoon Minoh rested his chin against the car window and frowned. His scratched eyebrows crumpled heavily.
“What should I do, I think I’m screwed.”
At the sudden outcry, Yeo Dowoon also became flustered. After roughly parking the car in a visible spot, he quickly examined Yoon Minoh. He felt afraid that he might be experiencing aftereffects of going berserk.
“Why? Are you hurt somewhere?”
If Yoon Minoh was hurting alone, that would be fine, but if a secondary berserk episode came, he would be in trouble too. To that, Yoon Minoh answered as if he was upset too.
“It hurts down there.”
