“Ah—no, no, hyung. That’s not what I meant. I meant you’re impressive.”
I darted my eyes sideways like a flounder, gauging his reaction. Fortunately, Ki Tae-young didn’t seem particularly offended.
He scrunched up his face playfully and spoke with a voice full of laughter.
“Really? So I was annoying, huh.”
“No, that’s not what I said, hyung. L-let me guess your GPA again! Let’s see……”
I furrowed my brows and struck a full-body thinking pose, like a statue deep in contemplation.
“3.8?”
“No.”
“3.9?”
“No.”
“Holy shit. Don’t tell me you got over a 4.0?”
Shocked, I leaned forward and stared at Ki Tae-young. Resting his chin on his hand, he nodded modestly.
“Barely. I got a 4.02.”
“That’s insane. Are you really an engineering student? Wow. Hyung, please teach me your study secrets. I got a 3.61 and lost the grade bet with my classmates, so now I look like an idiot among them.”
Ki Tae-young suddenly burst into laughter, clapping his hands like it was the funniest thing he’d heard all day. Was my becoming an idiot that funny? When I grabbed my café mocha mug and shot him a cold glare, Ki Tae-young hurriedly waved his hands and obediently apologized.
“No, no. I wasn’t laughing at you. Sorry.”
“I’ll accept the apology this time. That was seriously too much.”
“Alright, thanks.”
I lifted my chin proudly and accepted Ki Tae-young’s apology.
“We just started learning about waves, but I have no idea what they’re talking about. Why are all the equations written in squiggly symbols…….”
“That’s true.”
“And also, hyung……”
…
That was how I ended up chatting with Ki Tae-young about everything that had happened over the past week.
KakaoTalk—
A notification sound rang out. Thinking it might be Do Jihoon, I glanced at my phone. Damn it—the sender was someone I absolutely hadn’t expected.
[21 Woo Hyun-woo: Hey, what are you doing?]
The sender of the message was none other than Woo Hyun-woo.
Does this bastard have no sense of basic decency? My face automatically twisted into a frown. The feeling of absurdity crawled all over my body, like seeing someone walking around in a padded winter coat in the middle of summer.
“…Would it be alright if I ask who made you frown like that?”
Ki Tae-young’s tone was extremely cautious, as if dealing with a prickly hedgehog. Usually, when we were working on assignments together, it was Do Jihoon who sent KakaoTalk messages. My sharp reaction this time must’ve made Ki Tae-young realize the sender wasn’t Do Jihoon.
“…It’s just someone I’m not really close with. But we keep running into each other everywhere—club activities, team projects, things like that. We’re not comfortable with each other at all, but he keeps contacting me. Like I said, we keep crossing paths, so I can’t really cut off contact either.”
“I see. That must be uncomfortable.”
Maybe it was because everyone around me was emotionally dried up, but normally they’d just get annoyed instead of sympathizing with the hardship I was enduring. So Ki Tae-young’s simple “That must be uncomfortable” oddly moved me.
“Wah… I’m touched.”
I squeezed out some emotion and put on an exaggeratedly happy expression. Ki Tae-young shot back that it looked fake and told me to just act normally. I insisted that it was genuine and appealed to him with my sincere feelings.
Since we’d met at 11 a.m., the sun was still hanging in the side of the sky without having set yet. Ki Tae-young was definitely an excellent listener. When I finally came to my senses and checked the time, it had already passed 6 p.m.
“…Hyung. I didn’t talk too much about myself, did I?”
“You did.”
“…Does that mean I only talked about myself, or that I didn’t?”
This was the problem with the Korean language. Unlike English, where it was simply yes if it was right and no if it wasn’t, things weren’t so clean-cut.
At my question, Ki Tae-young answered casually.
“It means you talked about yourself a lot.”
“…I was hoping that wasn’t the case……”
It felt like being a small-time investor staring at a completely blue stock chart. In other words, it felt absolutely miserable.
“Sorry. If no one stops me, I have this habit of rambling endlessly……”
“That’s nothing you need to apologize for. You tell your stories in a fun way, so I enjoyed listening.”
Ki Tae-young waved his hand and refused my apology.
“Hyung……”
I was deeply moved. I’d thought this before, but Ki Tae-young really was both an angel and a pushover. In my mind, his image had long since become a snot-nosed kid who needed protecting.
With a rather serious expression, I looked him straight in the eyes. Resting his chin on his hand, Ki Tae-young smiled gently like an actor in some coffee brand advertisement and mouthed, “What?”
“Hyung. I’m saying this because I’m worried about you. If someone asks to borrow money or asks you for favors and stuff, don’t just say yes to everything.”
“What?”
It felt like a crooked line had suddenly been drawn across Ki Tae-young’s smile. He looked as bewildered as someone hearing breaking news that an elephant and an ant were getting married in the wedding of the century. Then, after a moment, he burst into loud laughter that seemed ready to lift the entire café.
“Yuri, what are you talking about…….”
“What’s so funny? Calm down first and I’ll explain.”
“No, it’s just……”
“I said don’t laugh.”
“…Khh.”
“Stop laughing.”
Ki Tae-young wiped the tears gathering at the corners of his eyes and apologized to me. He apologized as easily as he laughed. And he joked around just as often, which sometimes drove people crazy. In my mind, I made the sign of the cross and forgave Ki Tae-young in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
After laughing to his heart’s content, he said that since the assignment was finished, we should head back. I nodded and opened KakaoTalk to send Do Jihoon a message.
[Doji, baby, I’m heading back now.]
[Aren’t you crying because Yuri isn’t there?]
[♡My Doji♡: Stop talking nonsense.]
[…….]
[♡My Doji♡: Hurry back. You said you’d eat dinner at home, so I grilled fish.]
[♡♡♡♡♡♡♡]
Happily chatting with my baby on KakaoTalk, I pressed the back button—
And then I noticed a chatroom lingering at the bottom of the screen, barely visible before disappearing.
[21 Woo Hyun-woo: Are you not going to reply?]
“Fuck……”
This bastard had a talent for slamming my good mood straight to the ground in an instant. I genuinely couldn’t understand why he kept contacting me. If I tried to think from Woo Hyun-woo’s perspective, even giving him a hundred steps of leeway, I wouldn’t like some younger guy who snapped back at me like that.
I took a deep breath to calm the sudden surge of irritation. Then I thought about it. Maybe I had been too quick to label Woo Hyun-woo as a complete bastard based on a few isolated incidents. After all, sometimes in life people really can be late three weeks in a row, unbelievable as that sounds, and they might even ask a younger acquaintance they’re not very close to for a meal.
“……”
Bullshit. The more I thought about it, the more irritated I became. Whether I was overthinking or not didn’t matter. If I was pissed, I was pissed. At least right now, I didn’t like Woo Hyun-woo. But he was someone I would have to face anyway.
The Buddha once said that all suffering in the world comes from one’s own desires. I decided not to have any expectations whatsoever for that bastard Woo Hyun-woo—and if possible, for damn Ha Min-young too. I wouldn’t expect them not to troll. If I expected them to behave and they ended up trolling anyway, I’d lose my mind.
“Come empty-handed, leave empty-handed……”
“Why? Did something happen?”
Startled, my body jolted. Damn it. I had gotten so irritated that I completely forgot Ki Tae-young was sitting next to me. When I slowly turned my head, Ki Tae-young was looking at me with a concerned expression.
“No… it’s that team project guy from earlier……”
Embarrassed, I forced down the rising heat in my face and briefly explained the situation to Ki Tae-young. His previously relaxed facial muscles suddenly tightened as he spoke.
“That must be really tough.”
“No, it’s okay. I think I feel comforted thanks to you. Thank you.”
“I wish there was something I could do to help. I’m sorry that I can’t.”
“……”
Where exactly is Ki Tae-young right now? All I can see is light. The gentle glow coming from him was so dazzling that I raised my hand to cover my face. When he innocently asked why, I unleashed a full barrage of dramatic praise. Ki Tae-young burst into laughter again like someone with wind in his lungs. With a generous heart, I decided to graciously understand his fit of laughter this time.
