Chapter 68
I flipped through the notebook and checked the name written at the front once again.
Ryu Jeong-ha. The name written in round handwriting was clear.
Could it be that he’s interested in me? But he’s a guy?
All sorts of thoughts crossed my mind as I looked at the faces of me that Ryu Jeong-ha had drawn.
Is he gay or something? Or did he just like my appearance and draw it as a picture?
In all my life, this is the first time I’ve received attention from a male. From clothes to watches. He’s drawn all sorts of unnecessary things meticulously.
I roughly skimmed through the notebook and put it in my bag before going outside.
Maybe because I’d seen something strange, I didn’t feel like smoking anymore. I took out a cigarette, lit it, and sucked on the filter while thinking about what to do with this notebook.
But not long after, the very person who had complicated my feelings walked out of the building. I didn’t expect him to appear so readily on his own.
“Ryu Jeong-ha?”
When I called his name, Ryu Jeong-ha stared at me with a surprised expression.
He must have gone up to look for the notebook. I could tell from his pale complexion. Of course, I knew he wouldn’t have found it. Because that notebook was now in my bag.
Seeing him so restless, it’s clear that he didn’t fill that notebook with pure intentions.
I returned to my studio apartment and changed clothes. Not liking the messy kitchen, I quickly tidied it up, then rummaged through my bag to finish the assignment due tomorrow.
As I took out my books, an unfamiliar notebook came out with them.
“Ah.”
Ryu Jeong-ha’s notebook that I had picked up in the liberal arts classroom today. I had forgotten about it already.
I placed the pastel sky-blue notebook on the desk and crossed my arms.
What should I do with this? Should I just tear it up?
Part of me wanted to get rid of it quickly and forget about it, but I didn’t feel right just letting it go quietly. Wouldn’t that be doing Ryu Jeong-ha a favor?
If a girl had done this, I might have overlooked it, but it’s different with a guy. It’s definitely creepy. I don’t feel like carefully destroying the evidence with my own hands.
I opened the notebook, forgetting about the assignment I was going to do. When I first picked it up in the classroom, I didn’t have time to look at it closely, but looking again, it wasn’t just drawings. He had even written comments about me.
This is a fact.
This is also a fact.
Damn, pretty good observation?
I have a mole behind my ear? That’s news to me.
I fiddled with my ear for a moment before stopping, feeling foolish.
“Ha.”
Even though there was a girl who was particularly obsessed with me in my first year, now it’s come to a guy stalking me.
Anyway, he’s written all sorts of things in that round handwriting. Being an art student, he’s drawn from so many different angles. I’ve never looked at my own face this closely.
I closed the notebook and ran my hand through my hair.
Ryu Jeong-ha. What should I do to him when I see him tomorrow?
*
The next day. I deliberately took out the notebook during the liberal arts project meeting. Immediately, Ryu Jeong-ha’s face turned pale.
Biting his lower lip and not knowing what to do, he desperately avoided making eye contact with me.
Even in that state, he seemed to have heard all the meeting content as the ideas he suggested were quite useful.
“Ryu Jeong-ha, since you know this well, can you extract the overall theme and keywords and divide the table of contents for us? If we refer to that and research specific cases, I think we can finish quickly.”
Seeing the opportunity, I dumped a chunk of the assignment on Ryu Jeong-ha. Would he resist, saying it’s too much? He’d probably try to argue, pretending to be logical. These male bastards can’t stand losing out.
In such cases, you just need to step on them so hard they can’t even whine, and make them shut up. Once the hierarchy is established, it becomes much easier to handle them afterward.
“Oh, okay…”
As I waited to see how he would react, Ryu Jeong-ha meekly accepted to do all of that burdensome task without any fuss.
Is he just forcing himself to do it because he’s already intimidated? But I couldn’t find any trace of resentment or annoyance in his expression. He was just trembling in fear.
What the hell? This is making me feel like the bad guy instead.
What did I do? He’s the one who did the creepy thing, but he’s making me look like the weird one. Did I hit him? Did I yell at him?
Unable to make a sound properly and just whimpering inside, he looked just like a pathetic animal. What was it again? That white baby harp seal that girls would squeal over watching YouTube videos during breaks.
I was going to make him pay dearly for his creepy spying, but before I could do anything to Ryu Jeong-ha, I thought:
…Did I go too far?
“You said your major is sculpture, right. Then do you know another art student?”
I suddenly remembered that Kim Yong-woo in front of me was also an art major, so I asked while pausing my phone game.
“I don’t know much about other departments.”
“Do you know Ryu Jeong-ha? I heard he’s in the art department too.”
“Ah. Painting department?”
When I asked about Ryu Jeong-ha, he seemed to know who I was talking about right away.
Kim Yong-woo was a guy I met in a study group where we reviewed and gave feedback on each other’s resumes updated every few months.
Usually, students from arts and sports departments rarely join these kinds of study groups, but I remembered him saying that his current major, sculpture, didn’t suit him and that he was planning to get a job at a regular company right after graduation.
I asked just in case, but he really did know Ryu Jeong-ha, which made me more interested.
“Are you close?”
“We’re in different departments. I just know his face? But why?”
“We ended up in the same group for a liberal arts class.”
I put down my phone and said while spinning a pen. But it was surprising that a quiet guy like Ryu Jeong-ha was known to a student from another department.
“He was quite famous when he was a freshman.”
“Why?”
Did he get caught doing something weird back then too? Like drawing other people in his notebook without permission.
“His face stands out. The girls really liked him. Even the seniors found him cute.”
“Huh.”
“It’s rare to see a guy who looks like that.”
“Is that so?”
It was certain that Ryu Jeong-ha didn’t look as disgusting as the guys in all-boys schools. Even to me, who couldn’t care less about how guys look, he had a likable impression.
But whether he was as handsome as Kim Yong-woo said, I didn’t have a definite opinion to say yes or no. Just that his face was very white, he had long eyelashes, and he looked like a baby harp seal?
Because I had focused only on him being weird because of the notebook, I hadn’t properly observed his appearance beyond that.
“In his first year, he was invited to many places, but he didn’t seem to like partying much.”
Hmm, well. He did look like that.
“Even when we asked him to come to the club run by art students a few times, he always refused. I heard that even in art high school, he only drew. Just a model student, I guess.”
“Anything else besides that?”
“Besides that, well… Why are you asking so much? It’s not like you. Do you not get along with him?”
Kim Yong-woo seemed puzzled, probably because I had never asked about someone in such detail before.
“Well. He just seems unique.”
I shrugged, stopping the pen-spinning.
Should I just expose how weird Ryu Jeong-ha is right now?
I had that impulse for a moment, but I decided to specially hold back in case those big round eyes would get soaked with tears. It’s not even worth getting angry at.
“It is unique to waste a face like that.”
“Being in the art department, he must draw a lot in daily life too.”
Seemingly intrigued by my interest in the art department, Kim Yong-woo gave a long explanation.
“Sculpture and painting are different, but. Usually, their daily life is spent holed up in the studio because of project submissions. They have no choice but to draw a lot. Oh, Bae Yu-rim, was it? She’s been chasing you around, eager to draw you.”
“It’s not that serious. Has it become a rumor?”
“Yeah. She’s been going around asking about what you like and where you often go.”
“Haha.”
Well, when a girl does that… Even if she’s going around asking about me, honestly, I didn’t really care.
“Why don’t you just be her model?”
“I don’t want to. It’s annoying to sit still.”
“Ah. Or it could be that Bae Yu-rim is interested in you and is approaching you.”
“I don’t think that’s the case.”
When she first asked me to be a model for her project, I thought she might have been approaching me with romantic interest, but the more we talked, the more accurate Bae Yu-rim’s target became. It wasn’t me, but my shell. I could tell just by the look in her eyes as she scanned me as a ‘subject to draw’.
“She said she wants to draw my face. Saying it’s perfect for her drawings. Other faces don’t satisfy her, apparently.”
Kim Yong-woo laughed as if he understood.
“Even if they seem quiet, all these arts and sports kids are slightly off in their own way. You can’t do art without obsession and a bit of madness. If you’re not confident, you should get out quickly like me.”
Hearing Kim Yong-woo’s words, I wondered if Ryu Jeong-ha was just an ‘art student slightly off in his own way’ who loved drawing. Maybe he just drew out of curiosity since I was right in front of him during the liberal arts class.
Come to think of it, he didn’t write anything bad in the notebook. He didn’t write the filthy and dirty content that guys usually do. Writing about the location of moles or my drinking capacity isn’t really a big offense.
Drawing pictures and writing about me without permission is annoying, but maybe dumping the assignment on him was an overreaction.
The more I recalled Ryu Jeong-ha’s expression and reaction, accepting it as if resigned, the more uneasy I felt.
He probably reflected enough on that level. Maybe I should just give him a warning and return the notebook.
Yeah, right.
—(Photo) Ryu Jeong-ha suddenly dropped this drawing lol.. it has a vibe but he seems unsatisfied, looking gloomy..
Seeing Bae Yu-rim’s Instagram story that was uploaded that evening, I changed my mind about Ryu Jeong-ha again.
“What the hell is this?”
This is fucking shameless.
The drawing in the photo was clearly me. It was my back view from Ryu Jeong-ha’s regular seat in the liberal arts class.
Although my face wasn’t shown, I could tell from the angle. Moreover, looking closely at the drawing, he even marked the mole behind my ear. Just like he had written in the notebook.
So he’s been drawing this crap in the art department studio all this time.
Even after I scared him like that, he still hasn’t come to his senses? He certainly didn’t seem bold enough to do such an impudent act. Maybe I underestimated Ryu Jeong-ha too much.
I checked Ryu Jeong-ha’s Instagram that Bae Yu-rim had tagged in her story. I needed to properly find out what kind of guy he was.
