“Yeah. Let’s go together. It’s funny running into each other outside like this, so buy us a meal. This is what friendship between classmates is for, right?”
You shameless bastard.
A surge of rage flared up from deep in my core. I could vividly understand both how thick a person’s skin could become and how Gandhi must have felt as a man of peace. The facial muscles I’d definitely learned could be controlled by willpower began slipping past my brain’s command and falling under the rule of my chest instead. Damn it—my face kept trying to twist into a scowl.
Buying a meal itself wasn’t difficult. But the fact that he’d fought with me before, acted all high and mighty as a hyung, and was now asking me to buy him food was simply absurd. Still, I didn’t really have a reason to refuse, so I was just about to nod reluctantly—
“I’m a bit shy around strangers. If I eat with people I don’t know, I get indigestion.”
Do Jihoon spoke lazily. That same polite, fake smile was plastered across his face. There was something soft yet impenetrable about the atmosphere surrounding him—like you couldn’t slip a single needle through it.
Woo Hyun-woo’s face twisted into a scowl, but he couldn’t force the issue.
“…Alright then. See you later.”
“Yes, hyung. See you in a few days.”
“Yeah.”
Woo Hyun-woo’s group turned and walked away. We held hands again and headed toward the sundae gukbap restaurant. Only after we got inside safely and ordered three bowls of sundae gukbap did I finally sigh and vent the irritation that had built up.
“Damn it. The guy we ran into earlier—that’s the villain I told you about. The lab report villain.”
“Yeah. I figured.”
Do Jihoon nodded calmly.
“Does that bastard have no conscience? How does someone like that even manage to ask for a free meal? Even Kwon Jisoo, Lee Daeju, and Shin Gi-hyeok—those guys can count on one hand how many times they’ve asked me to buy them food.”
And even then, strictly speaking, it had been because they’d lost grade bets and bought meals in a perfectly reasonable way. Or when we couldn’t agree on what to eat, we’d make a deal: we’d eat what I wanted, and I’d pay.
“When things like that happen, just ignore them. There’s no need to bother dealing with it one by one.”
“…As expected of Robot Do Jihoon. Cold to everyone else but warm to his own people. Something like that, right?”
It was a shame we were sitting at a two-person table, so I couldn’t move over beside him. It might sound selfish, but every time I saw Do Jihoon drawing clear lines with other people, it reminded me how kind he was only to me, and it made me feel good.
We’d definitely had a lecture in a humanities class during the first semester saying you should see your partner as a subject, not an object. But if it were that easy to control your feelings, would there be any couples in the world who fought?
I loved the way Do Jihoon treated me as someone special.
Our food arrived, and I poured rice into the clean broth and mixed it before eating. To truly enjoy the variety of flavors in sundae gukbap, you had to first eat rice soaked in the clear broth, then add chili paste to another bowl to taste the spicy broth.
Damn, it was good.
I was happily eating when—
“Yuri.”
Do Jihoon suddenly spoke.
“Yeah?”
The tone of his voice didn’t sound normal. I lowered the spoon that had been just about to enter my mouth back into the stone bowl and looked at him.
As expected, Do Jihoon’s face was slightly stiff while he stirred the soup with his spoon.
“I don’t want you to have a hard time because of people like that.”
“You’re worried about me? I’m touched.”
Pouring out concern for me with that stiff expression of his. Seriously, Do Jihoon really had a talent for doing the cutest things.
I grabbed his hand, kissed the pale back of it, and was just about to resume eating when he frowned and continued speaking, as if he wasn’t done worrying.
“Listen carefully, Yuri.”
“I’m listening very seriously right now.”
Do Jihoon’s expression was extremely firm. He pressed his lips together, as if choosing his words.
“I’m saying I wish you were a little more decisive about where to draw the line with people.”
“…? What do you mean?”
It seemed like he was trying to phrase things gently in his own way. The problem was that he had circled around the point so much that it was hard to understand what he actually meant.
Though puzzled, Do Jihoon didn’t continue speaking. So I started thinking about what he meant.
“I mean that you’re unnecessarily lenient toward other people.”
Before I could come to my own conclusion, Do Jihoon calmly added that explanation.
Only then did I understand what he was trying to say. He had labeled the way I dealt with Woo Hyun-woo as “unnecessarily lenient.”
“…You’re worried about me, right?”
“Of course.”
Do Jihoon answered firmly.
But strangely, it didn’t make me feel very good.
It sounded almost like the uncomfortable situation with Woo Hyun-woo was my own fault. I tried to examine myself, wondering if I was jumping to conclusions. Do Jihoon was just worried about me being stressed—that’s all. I tried to think of it that way.
But once my thoughts started drifting in a negative direction, they kept going that way.
And suddenly, the idea that I should be “more decisive about cutting people off” started sounding like it extended to Ki Tae-young as well.
“Doji. I get what you’re trying to say. But honestly, it doesn’t feel that good to hear.”
“What do you mean?”
“You might not have meant it that way, but it sounds like you’re saying the stress I’m feeling right now is my own fault.”
“That’s not what I meant. Don’t twist my words.”
“I’m not twisting them. I’m just saying that’s how it sounded to me.”
“….”
The bright mood sank noticeably. As we stopped talking and picked up our spoons again, silence settled over the table.
The soup that had been hot and delicious earlier had cooled to lukewarm. The grains of rice rolling around in my mouth felt strangely rough.
I lost my appetite and could only eat half of my second bowl. Do Jihoon finished his cleanly.
We left the restaurant in a slightly awkward state and began walking back toward the university together.
Neither of us spoke along the way. Normally, silence with Do Jihoon was never uncomfortable. Whether we talked or not, it usually felt warm and soft.
But today, this moment, felt strangely awkward.
It seemed Do Jihoon felt the same way about the silence. For once, he spoke first.
“Yuri.”
“Hm? What is it?”
“…About earlier.”
“Yeah.”
“I really didn’t mean it like that. It’s just that a lot of things are tangled together right now…”
Do Jihoon trailed off, frowning slightly.
I knew he was worried about me. But strangely enough, that didn’t make me feel better. It felt more like a small irritation—like a hangnail at the tip of your finger or a faint crack across a phone screen.
“…A lot of things?”
“Yeah. Every time you tell me about difficulties you’re having in relationships…”
“Yeah.”
“I feel like you’re unnecessarily exhausting yourself in them.”
“…Unnecessarily.”
I repeated the word quietly.
Without noticing my reaction, Do Jihoon continued.
“Remember when I told you before why I didn’t feel much anger toward Ha Min-young? It’s because I didn’t have that level of interest or expectations.”
“Right. I remember.”
“In my opinion, you seem to pour too much affection into relationships. If you take some of that away, things become a little easier. That’s what I wanted to tell you.”
“….”
The more he spoke, the more my face tightened.
I clearly understood the point he was trying to make. And honestly, it wasn’t surprising that Do Jihoon—who thought like a robot made of cold steel—would see things that way.
Still, something irritated me.
“Yeah. I get it. Thanks for worrying about me.”
“….”
Maybe because of the strange irritation I felt, my words came out colder than I intended.
I didn’t even know why I was annoyed, so there was no way Do Jihoon could know either. He pressed his lips together and stared at me with a slight frown while I kept my eyes fixed straight ahead.
“Your next class is at the College of Business, right?”
“…Yeah.”
“I’m going to the Engineering Building. There’s only ten minutes left. Because of Woo Hyun-woo earlier, I have to run now. I’ll go first.”
“Alright. See you in a bit, Yuri.”
Leaving him behind, I ran toward the Engineering Building.
For some reason, Do Jihoon’s concern felt like it was sticking uncomfortably to my back.
