Everything had gotten completely twisted. Plans, whatever—they were all pointless. Plan A, Plan B—every single one was a pile of crap. Right, like I’m the type to make plans anyway. I just live however life flows.
A self-deprecating laugh slipped out miserably. Sniff.
“So, Yuri. What exactly happened yesterday?”
“There’s a lot to say about that, so let’s go sit on the sofa over there and finish talking.”
With that, I stepped closer to grab his wrist.
“?”
But as much as I approached, Do Jihoon moved farther away.
“What are you doing? You wanna play tag at this age or something?”
“……”
“Hello?”
In the end, at Do Jihoon’s very firm insistence, the two of us sat at opposite ends of the sofa and talked.
I explained in great detail what had happened yesterday to Do Jihoon.
How he called me but kept not responding. How he held me and kept flooding me with pheromones. How he gnawed on the back of my neck like some damn dog. How he kept repeating that he was sorry like a broken answering machine. And finally, how he hugged me and passed out.
With every sentence I added, Do Jihoon’s face turned paler and paler, like a sheet of blank paper.
“So that’s what happened.”
“……”
“So that’s why I said it’d be better if you didn’t hear it. I even told you that once you found out today, you’d end up kicking your blanket in embarrassment. But you didn’t listen to me yesterday.”
“……”
“This is all karma.”
I looked at him with the benevolence of a solemn Buddha. Do Jihoon’s lower jaw trembled before he lowered his head deeply.
“Jihoon, Jihoon. You dead?”
I crept closer and poked his knee.
The moment I poked him, Do Jihoon jerked his head up. He suddenly grabbed my hand.
“Ah!”
Unfortunately, it was that hand—the one Do Jihoon had bitten.
Do Jihoon frowned. He opened the hand he was holding and checked my injury. Clear human bite marks remained on the back of my hand.
“……What the hell happened?”
Do Jihoon spoke in a self-mocking voice, like his vocal cords were scraping.
I was about to joke that he’d just taken a bite out of me, but… he looked unusually serious. The joke I was about to make slipped right back down my throat.
“Yuri. Will you tell me?”
“Uh… It’s nothing really—well, not exactly nothing.”
“Yeah.”
Now that I actually tried to say it, my mouth suddenly felt dry. Do Jihoon quietly waited for me.
“Wait a second, Yuri. Let’s treat your hand first.”
He stood up and brought over a first-aid kit.
Do Jihoon sat on the floor and gently took my hand. Over the dried blood on the back of my hand—shaped clearly like human teeth—he spread a thick layer of ointment. Then he placed gauze on top and wrapped it carefully with a bandage, dressing it thoroughly.
“Hey. Anyone who saw that would think my hand got completely smashed.”
“……”
Even though I said it with a grin, Do Jihoon didn’t respond.
He raised his head and looked up at me. His gaze dropped below my eyes—toward my neck. It seemed like he was checking the shoulder area he’d chewed up himself.
It was probably bruised all over. He’d really gnawed on it thoroughly.
“No… I think I already know without hearing it. You don’t have to say it.”
Do Jihoon lowered his gaze gloomily. It was the first time I’d ever seen that kind of expression on his face. Thick guilt was written all over it.
Seeing that, I awkwardly scratched the back of my neck and said,
“To be honest, yesterday was a little scary…”
“Yeah. I’m sorry.”
Hearing him apologize while completely sober made my skin crawl with awkwardness. A very reasonable suspicion arose that maybe the bastard wasn’t fully sober yet.
“Anyway. Even though it was scary, I got over it pretty quickly.”
“……”
He stared up at me blankly. His dark eyes trembled uneasily. To reassure him, I deliberately smiled wider, lifting the corners of my mouth and squinting my eyes.
“So it’s fine. I’m saying don’t feel guilty for no reason.”
Do Jihoon didn’t say anything. His gaze felt like it might cook my face alive. My lips suddenly felt dry and I swallowed.
This serious atmosphere was itchy and a little awkward. So I spoke to him jokingly.
“Oh right. So cancel two of my debts, Doji-doji.”
“Okay.”
The answer came immediately.
Hooray! Yeon Yuri was no longer a debtor! I wouldn’t get cursed out by creditor Do Jihoon ever again! What relief—pure relief.
“And while you’re at it, make me some food too, Do servant. Actually, should we just go out and eat? Let’s go get hangover soup.”
“No need. I’ll make it for you. You want hangover soup?”
“You were the one who drank like crazy yesterday, idiot. I’m saying it for your hangover. Let’s just make something simple like bean sprout soup.”
“Okay.”
“Get up, you brat. If you sit on the cold floor too long you’ll get hemorrhoids.”
“……”
The atmosphere became comfortable again. I held out my hand to Do Jihoon.
“Let’s go out and buy bean sprouts.”
“……I’ll go.”
“By yourself?”
“There’s no reason for both of us to go. It’s a hassle.”
“Right. I was wondering when you’d finally say that.”
Not like I had anything to lose. I nodded and watched Do Jihoon head out of the house.
He came back only a few minutes later. Do Jihoon carried the ingredients into the kitchen.
Wait a second. Didn’t he absolutely suck at cooking? The color drained from my face.
“Ah—Do Jihoon!”
I called out to him urgently.
“What?”
“I-I’ll cook.”
“It’s fine. I’m good at cooking.”
Unfortunately, Do Jihoon held an unwavering belief in his own cooking skills. For his sake, I squeezed my eyes shut and opened Pandora’s box. I’m saying this for your own good, Jihoon.
“……Now that I think about it. That pasta you made last time…”
“Oh, that.”
Do Jihoon smiled brightly. I couldn’t hide the pity I felt.
“That thing seriously tasted—”
“It probably didn’t taste good.”
“Yeah, it didn’t—… what?”
At some point, a crooked smirk had appeared on his lips.
What the hell did this bastard just say?
My brain completely buffered.
I stared at Do Jihoon with my jaw practically unhinged. He reached out and gently pushed my jaw closed himself.
Huh. This situation feels familiar.
“Yuri. That day, I specifically bought new pasta noodles for you.”
“……”
“I know myself pretty well. I told you before. I’m good at cooking.”
“You bastard. That means you…”
That meant the insanely terrible pasta from that day wasn’t because of his cooking skills!
He’d deliberately developed nuclear-level disgusting pasta just to mess with me. I was dumbfounded.
“……I forced myself to finish that garbage food so I wouldn’t crush your dreams and hopes…”
“Yeah. Thanks to that, I was able to protect my dreams and hopes. It was pretty fun.”
The scene from that day replayed in my head. His bright smile hadn’t been pride at ‘Yeon Yuri enjoying his cooking.’
It had been affection for ‘Yeon Yuri suffering while forcing down disgusting garbage food.’
An intense sense of betrayal surged up.
“Y-you bastard even Satan would step aside for…”
“Thanks for the compliment.”
“You think that’s a compliment? You crazy—”
Ignoring my colorful stream of insults, he started trimming the bean sprouts.
“You evil bastard… You’re definitely going to hell. You calculating psycho…”
For several minutes, I muttered like a religious fanatic while watching Do Jihoon cook.
Finally, a finished bowl of bean sprout soup was placed in front of me.
I scooped up a spoonful and put it in my mouth. It was insanely delicious.
The anger that had been settling down surged right back up again.
I aggressively devoured two full bowls of bean sprout soup and rice. I thought Do Jihoon would look at me like he was fed up…
…but instead he was watching me with clear satisfaction.
“?”
This bastard definitely ate something weird.
I slurped up the strand of bean sprout hanging from my mouth.
“Stop watching me eat and put a spoon in your own mouth.”
“You eat with such an appetite.”
“Yeah, I eat a lot. It’s not like you just found that out.”
I stuffed more bean sprout soup into my mouth.
Seriously, it’s so good. With cooking skills like this, how did he manage to make that garbage food… I honestly don’t know whether that makes him impressive or just insane.
“Thanks for the meal! Jihoon’s doing the dishes too~.”
“Yeah. I’ll do them today.”
“……”
Did someone else’s soul enter this guy’s body or something?
I squinted suspiciously at him.
“Yuri. You look ugly when you do that. Open your eyes properly.”
“Yep. That’s definitely Do Jihoon.”
Leaving him behind as he started washing dishes, I headed to my room. All my worries about things becoming awkward between us felt pointless—everything was the same as usual.
As I stared blankly into the air, Ha Min-young came to mind again.
If someone as playful and fun as him started treating me coldly because of Ha Min-young… I’d probably be really upset.
“This is bad….”
