“What’s going on?”
“Oh~ these guys said they’re not drinking.”
“Hey, don’t force them to drink.”
“Tsk, that’s not what I meant.”
He only stopped pressuring them to drink after someone from the next table called him out.
“Mi-joo, your makeup looks pretty today.”
“Oh, uh… thanks.”
But instead of stopping, he just started another round of nonsense.
“Ye-ji, did you cut your hair? Don’t tell me… a breakup~?”
“Huh? No, that’s not it.”
He really had a talent for talking crap. And unfortunately, I had the perfect vantage point to observe every bit of it.
The guy kept targeting the younger girls at the table, and whenever the conversation hit a dead end, he’d down another drink. And, of course, he subtly kept pushing them to drink too.
“……”
“……”
“……”
After a few more rounds of that, a storm’s eye had formed in the middle of the packed bar on a busy Friday night.
“You’re all so boring, not even drinking.”
If that’s the case, he should’ve just gone to a table where people were actually drinking. The situation was obvious.
‘He must have his eye on someone there.’
And of all people, one of ours got caught in it. From what Sa-yoon knew, Sa Shin-jae wasn’t the type to smoothly slip out of a situation like that. If left alone, he’d be stuck there suffering for a long time.
Should I suggest going out for some ice cream? Wonder how he’ll react this time. Back then, I seriously couldn’t believe guys like this actually existed…
As Sa-yoon was lost in that memory, quietly chuckling to himself, he suddenly made eye contact with the very person in question. Because of the seating arrangement, their gazes met quite often.
Resting his chin on one hand, Sa-yoon gave a playful wink.
Shin-jae, caught off guard, immediately pressed his lips together. Then, as if making some grave decision, he blinked—both eyes at the same time.
Sa-yoon pointed to his own left eye with his index finger, then winked again. The message was clear: You can’t do this?
For the record, Sa-yoon could wink freely with either eye.
Shin-jae, having apparently understood the silent signal, furrowed his brows in determination and tried again. Once more, he blinked both eyes at the same time.
Guess I’ll have to teach him how to wink properly. Can’t have the lead actor messing up because he can’t wink.
Not that the graduation project they were filming right now had anything remotely close to a winking scene…
Just as Sa-yoon was about to justify his actions and give Shin-jae a playful wink with his right eye, someone suddenly said –
“Ah, fuck~. Disgusting gay bastards.”
The loud voice made Sa Shin-jae shift his focus slightly forward. The guy had turned his upper body, resting his arm on the back of his chair, staring in Sa-yoon’s direction.
Even in the noisy bar, his rough, grating voice was hard to ignore. As heads turned toward him, he cleared his throat as if trying to play it off and pointed a thick finger toward something.
“Look at that. No shame at all. I don’t get why these freaks come out acting all proud, making a scene.”
Following his pudgy finger, they turned to see a TV mounted on the wall. The first thing that caught their eye was the rainbow flag. A video of people marching through the streets, waving various rainbow-colored flags, was playing. It looked like a news broadcast covering a gay pride parade overseas.
“You call that normal? Fucking disgusting.”
“Ah, shit.”
Seo Yeon-hee, who had been chewing on dried pollack beside them, scrunched up her face in pure disgust. She shifted as if about to stand up, but Sa-yoon shook his head.
Guys like that usually weren’t worth reasoning with. Ending up at a police station over a drunken bar fight was the last thing he wanted.
Taking the silence as agreement, the asshole continued running his filthy mouth.
“Ugh, this is ruining my smoke. Senior, I’m gonna step out and grab some cigarettes.”
Finally unable to hold back, Yeon-hee shot up from her seat and left. Sa-yoon should have suggested going out for ice cream with Shin-jae earlier. If he had, they wouldn’t be sitting here listening to this gutter trash spew his bullshit.
“Aren’t those people just mentally ill?”
“You sure have a lot of shit to say.”
“What?”
Sa-yoon barely had time to register what he just heard before the guy turned his attention to the speaker.
“Hey, what the fuck did you just say?”
The guy shot up from his seat, blocking Sa-yoon’s view of Shin-jae.
“At your age, you should know what to say and what to keep to yourself.”
But despite the confrontation, the sharp words rang out crystal clear—delivered in a voice so pleasant it only made them sting more.
“I didn’t realize someone with such a low level of human decency could get into Korea University. Thinking about being in the same department as someone like you…”
Shin-jae, no.
“…is kind of embarrassing.”
“The fuck did you just say, you little shit?”
That was the final straw. Shin-jae stood up. His usual polite, public-friendly expression had vanished, and his gaze locked onto the table beside them.
“I’ll be leaving now.”
His words were sharp and firm, punctuated by a crisp, formal bow.
Meanwhile, Sa-yoon sat there, stunned.
Now that he thought about it, this wasn’t the first time. Shin-jae had always been like this—keeping up his polished, well-mannered image, only to suddenly snap and charge headfirst into a situation he couldn’t ignore.
“Hey, you little shit, sit down! I said sit the fuck down!”
Right now, everyone at that table was probably thinking the same thing: What the hell just happened?
While everyone was still frozen in shock, unable to react, Shin-jae walked out the door and disappeared. The moment he left, murmurs spread throughout the bar. Sa-yoon’s table was no exception.
“Wow, what the hell was that?”
“That was intense, seriously.”
“He was badass…”
The general mood here was positive.
“Why did he suddenly go off like that?”
“I don’t know. These MZ kids are scary nowadays.”
On the other hand, the conversation over there was the complete opposite. Just imagining the mess this would cause later was already giving Sa-yoon a headache.
“That little shit thinks he can walk all over his seniors?”
At least the idiot throwing a fit didn’t seem to have the guts to actually follow him outside. A physical fight wasn’t likely to break out.
“Why’d that bastard blow up like that? Huh? Maybe he’s the real dirty gay freak.”
Instead, he just sat there spitting out filth. Some of the people who had been agreeing with him earlier started to shut up, but that didn’t mean they looked kindly on the junior who had just chewed out their senior.
That was enough for Sa-yoon. He turned toward the door.
“Ah, fuck…”
Maybe it was because he’d rushed up too fast—suddenly, a sharp pain shot through his knee, as if someone had slammed a hammer into it. He had to pause for a moment.
By the time he made it up the stairs, using the wall for support, Shin-jae was nowhere to be seen.
Bzzzt.
His phone vibrated in his pocket. Checking the caller ID, Sa-yoon quickly picked up.
“Hyung.”
“Where the hell did you go?”
“Hyung should leave too. No reason to sit there listening to that trash.”
For someone who’d just caused a scene, Shin-jae’s voice was surprisingly calm.
“What were you thinking, doing that there?”
“That bastard kept talking shit about us.”
“Us?”
“You and me. I like hyung, so that makes me gay too.”
There was such a thing as bisexuality, but it seemed Sa Shin-jae had automatically decided that liking a guy made him strictly gay.
“Uh… Shin-jae…”
“Honestly, I’m used to getting shit for it, so it doesn’t really bother me.”
“…?”
“If hyung wasn’t there, maybe I wouldn’t have reacted. But hyung was sitting right there, listening to all of it.”
His voice might have sounded steady, but he was clearly not in a calm state. Realizing this, Sa-yoon spoke quickly.
“Let’s talk, alright? No matter what, you can’t just go off on a senior like that in front of everyone.”
“How the hell was I supposed to sit there and take it when they were insulting someone I like?”
“……”
“I barely even said half of what I wanted to.”
Sa-yoon had no response to that. Why does he just come right out and say things like this? Is it because he’s only twenty?
And yet, out of all the things Shin-jae had just said, the part that stuck with him was I’m used to getting shit for it. Was that really what he should be focusing on right now?
“But, you know…”
While Sa-yoon was still trying to process everything, Shin-jae’s voice came through again, this time quieter, more composed.
“Yeah, Shin-jae?”
“I think I left my car keys at the table earlier. Could you grab them for me?”
Of course, fuck. Like hell he was going to let Shin-jae go back in there. It wasn’t even a hard request.
“Yeah, I got it. I’ll say bye to the others and bring them to you. Wait for me at a nearby café.”
“Okay.”
The bell above the bar’s entrance jingled loudly as Sa-yoon stepped back inside. A few people glanced over before turning away. The place was still buzzing with tension.
It looked like most of the group had taken the opportunity to leave, because the asshole was now sitting alone at the table. Amidst the scattered dishes and empty bottles, a familiar car key stood out.
Sa-yoon moved toward it silently.
The homophobe had his head down, entirely focused on his phone.
Perfect. Just grab the keys and leave.
That was the plan—until a certain set of words caught his eye.
Business… S-s-j…
Wait. Wasn’t that referring to Sa Shin-jae?
Feeling something was off, Sa-yoon carefully shifted behind him.
The guy’s phone screen was ridiculously zoomed in—either because he had bad eyesight or just had weird preferences. It was the kind of font size you’d see on someone reading smut on public transit.
Thanks to that, Sa-yoon could read the contents clearly even from a slight distance. The interface was unmistakable—it was their university’s online community.
[Business S-S-J, Utterly Rude Little Shit
Just Caused a Scene at North Gate Bar
Told a senior to go fuck himself lol
Dude’s gone completely nuts just ‘cause he’s good-looking]
The fuck is this?
Before he could think, Sa-yoon reached out and snatched the phone right out of the guy’s hands.
The moment he reread it, he knew he hadn’t been mistaken.
The homophobe was posting shit about Shin-jae online.
