Free Web NovelAfter finishing the research with Sung Eunha, I headed straight home.
“Yehyun.”
I called for Do Yehyun the moment I opened the door, but it was Joo Seowon who answered.
“Do Yehyun isn’t back yet.”
“Yeah?”
When I arched a brow and nodded like it was nothing, Joo Seowon asked, sounding suspicious.
“You don’t know where he is? You two left together today.”
“I split off for a bit on the way.”
“Where to?”
“Neo Core’s lab.”
“Guess you had something to look up.”
I just answered with a nod. So was Do Yehyun still at the guild building? I figured he’d be done with his report by now and on his way back.
When I checked his location, he was indeed at the SH building.
“I’ll have to talk to him when he gets back.”
One unexpected thing after another—everything was grating on my nerves. Fun aside, the fallout was big enough that it was going to take work.
“Hm.”
By the way, did we book the plane tickets?
“Seowon. The flight to China?”
“Booked.”
“What time?”
“Red-eye on the way there. Leaves at one, and we’ll come back in the afternoon. We’re heading straight back after the auction anyway, right?”
“Yeah.”
And the schedule was awkwardly tangled. It was great that the day had finally come to shell out a small fortune and bring back Aquarion’s Heart, which I’d been chasing nonstop, but I couldn’t yank both Joo Seowon and Do Yehyun off their schedules at once.
In the end, I chose to take Joo Seowon instead of Do Yehyun.
It wasn’t really a choice.
This was something I needed Joo Seowon for, not Do Yehyun.
So my plan was set to fly out right before the auction day and come straight back the moment I had Aquarion’s Heart in hand.
I stared at Joo Seowon.
“...What?”
“Nothing. You’re doing good work.”
“What the....”
Watching him scowl on reflex reminded me of something I’d forgotten.
“Ah, right.”
“Huh?”
I’d hit the department store with Do Yehyun at year’s end and bought a present for Joo Seowon—only now did it come to mind. I’d completely forgotten thanks to that sly confession from Do Yehyun.
“Wait a second. I’ve got something for you.”
“What? What are you giving me? Hey, no? I don’t need anything.”
He throws a fit even when you give him a present.
A recipient’s opinion was never needed for giving gifts anyway. I ignored him, went straight upstairs, grabbed the shopping bag, and came back down.
With a nervous look at me, he clocked the bag hanging from my wrist and wrinkled his brow.
“What is it?”
“It’s nothing fancy. Not gonna take it? If you don’t, I will.”
“...What is it? It’s not weird, is it? There’s nothing weird in that bag, right? It’s not like the wrapping’s from X brand but inside it’s a tracker, a home cam, that kind of crap?”
Guy spends his life as a scammer and sees everyone else as scammers.
I ignored him again and set the shopping bag on the coffee table.
“It’s not expensive.”
“What is it?”
“A belt.”
I’d thought about buying clothes like I did for Do Yehyun, but unlike him, Joo Seowon had a mind of his own about what he wore. His taste didn’t match mine either.
‘If I tried to dress him, I could, but still.’
He opened the bag, undid the wrapping, and blinked in puzzlement.
“...It’s actually real?”
“Seowon. Just because you live like a scammer doesn’t mean everyone does.”
“Hey, I’m not a scam—!”
He started to argue, then clamped his mouth shut. I snorted and asked his opinion.
“It’s the most basic one. Like it?”
“Uh... it’s nice. ...But why give it to me?”
“Year-end present.”
“It’s January.”
“Then you’re getting it late.”
“If you get a year-end present late... doesn’t that defeat the point?”
Even getting a present, he has to backtalk like hell. My face went flat in an instant and I yanked the bag back. He had good instincts; he shot out a hand and snatched it from me again.
“Hey, hey! Sorry. I’ll use it well.”
“That’s it?”
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“Good.”
He took out the box and checked the contents, and his expression turned complicated again.
“It wasn’t much. Just over three hundred thousand won? Maybe four?”
“...Hey, I didn’t get you anything.”
“Figured.”
I don’t know what kind of employee buys presents for his employer. I’m the opposite, so I do.
I waited a beat while he looked over the belt in silence.
“Mm....”
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“I’ve never gotten a year-end present.”
“Not even from a girlfriend?”
His parents had died in an accident a long time ago—nothing to be done about that. But year-end gifts between lovers were a pretty common thing, no?
At my question, he squinted a little and said,
“I’ve never had a girlfriend at year-end.”
“A boyfriend then?”
“...You’re doing this on purpose, right?”
“What did I do?”
I honestly had no clue what bullshit he was on about, so I asked back. He shut his mouth again. What’s with him?
“I don’t... like men.”
“Ahh....”
“For fuck’s sake, stop steering the conversation there. I haven’t done that to you since then.”
“Who said you did?”
He’s the one going off the rails and somehow I’m the bad ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ guy. When I just stared blankly, even he seemed to realize he was being weird and quieted back down.
“It’s just, you know, in life, shit. You can get... confused sometimes.”
“Sure. That happens.”
“...What kind of reaction is that?”
Ha... I have no idea what rhythm I’m supposed to match here.
Lounging back into the sofa, I only turned my eyes to him and shrugged.
“I know you don’t like me.”
“......”
“Given how many guys hit on me, maybe it was just paranoia?”
“Guys... hit on you? You?”
“Guys too.”
When I corrected him, his expression got odd. He probably thought it was nonsense.
“...Seriously?”
“Yeah.”
“Why? How?”
“What do you mean how. It just happens.”
His face twisted into something bizarre, then shifted toward mild disgust.
But it was true. Besides that ridiculous thing Do Yehyun spouted recently, to be frank, starting in high school through the military and into college, I had a decent number of guys buzzing around me.
A few were even memorable.
“Since high school, maybe?”
“...Your taste is freaky.”
“Right? At first he hated me like hell....”
“...Hated you?”
It had been so far from romance that I’d forgotten it for a long time—he was a truly insane bastard.
“Yeah. He was one of the rare transfer kids in high school, and he swore in my face, even dragged in his family situation, so at first I thought he just fucking hated me. Then it turned out he got transferred by force or something....”
“Forced transfer?”
“Yeah. So, well, while we were at it—be nice and all that—there was a brief fight.”
“...I don’t even have to see it to know it wasn’t a fight. You just beat him one-sided.”
Smart guy, quick on the inference. There were stupid rumors going around too, and since we were about the same size, I figured it’d be a decent fight, but when I actually hit him he turned out to be a chump.
“Anyway, that part doesn’t matter.”
“Beating someone up is kind of important, no?”
“He attacked first. Self-defense.”
“...You’ve been using ‘self-defense’ weirdly since last time.”
“What can you do. Gotta obey the law.”
“You’re not wrong, but why do you saying it make it....”
I ignored his nonsense and dragged up the memory. I didn’t even remember the guy’s name anymore.
We didn’t fight in a gym storage or a back alley or anything; it was after school in some science room with no one around. Maybe because it was far from the teachers’ office, no one came to stop us even though it got pretty loud.
And then he... peed himself?
Whatever—by the time he’d messed up the floor, it was about over. He’d conveniently passed out too.
Couldn’t exactly make the kid who wet himself clean up, so I took off his pants, put him in gym clothes, slung him over my back, took him to my place, let him sleep it off, and we went to school together the next day.
“After the beating, he was too scared to show his face for a while, then time passed and suddenly he said he liked me.”
“...What? You didn’t skip something in the middle?”
“Not really? Guess he was just a maso.”
“......”
Back then I was a pretty naïve high schooler, so I couldn’t understand why he started clinging to me saying he liked me. With time, it was obvious he had a masochistic streak.
“Or maybe he picked a fight because... he liked you?”
“Why pick a fight if you like someone?”
“......”
“You treat them well.”
Well... guys’ brains might be rotten enough that that happens.
From what I’ve learned, guys are ridiculously emotional. They have intellect, but they’re obsessed with pecking order to the point of hanging themselves on it—yet hilariously, if someone’s even a little bigger than them, they won’t charge, and instead they sort out hierarchies with weird criteria.
“...Why are you laughing?”
“A funny thought.”
He chewed his lip and tossed out some nonsense.
“Anyway, those guys who liked you—kinda pathetic. How did they end up liking... this kind of bastard....”
This bastard.
“They could’ve taken one look at your face and given up. You don’t exactly look like you’d date men.”
He said it so vaguely I couldn’t tell if he was talking to me or to the air.
‘Is he asking for an answer?’
Whether he wanted a reply or not, what he said was crap.
“That doesn’t matter.”
“What doesn’t?”
The romance dopamine had been pulled and used up years ago, but honestly, gender wasn’t the point.
“I dated men too.”
“What?”
How much fun they add to life—that’s what matters, isn’t it?
I kindly added for the shocked Joo Seowon staring at me,
“Don’t worry. I have preferences.”
“You son of a bitch....”
Not that preference is the only issue.
