ASIAH 15

I used to clean the top of the workbench when I cleaned, but since my classmates started working on their assignments, I don’t touch it anymore. This is because no matter how much it looks like junk, it’s often a work of art or materials.

When I glanced at Hyun Jaekyung, he was now putting a bandage on his left hand. For some reason, my eyes were drawn to the guy’s bare hands, stripped of all the rings he usually wore. The contrast of the scratches, like a red string ring on his pale skin, wasn’t aesthetically bad.

His usual style is heavy makeup, but his bare face looks like an innocent celebrity.

…Did my brain get muscle soreness too? Does the brain even have muscles?

Anyway, that ankle bandage looks so clumsy that I doubt it will even provide support. Has he never even had a half-cast before? The desire to do it for him and the thought of why I should bother wrapping a bandage for someone who’s not even likable were at war.

Just as my idle thoughts reached the story of Heungbu, who gets stabbed in the back after fixing a broken swallow’s leg, Hyun Jaekyung asked in a low voice.

“Do you have a pot of honey at your house?”

“A pot of honey? I don’t.”

“For your information, ‘pot of honey’ is not a dialect, it’s an idiom.”

“Ah, who do you think you’re calling a fool…”

“Who are you to blame for your subpar language skills.”

“……”

“There’s nothing special there, so why can’t I go? You were talking with Ha Wonjong the other day about going together sometime.”

That’s because the hipster said he wanted to see my figures. That guy knows how to respect hobbies, but it was obvious what kind of reaction I’d get if I brought Hyun Jaekyung home.

What did he say? Do I jack off onto a body pillow too? Am I crazy? First of all, I don’t have anything like a body pillow, and even if I did, I wouldn’t jack off onto it. I’m not Jjojjo (my family’s Maltese, 7 years old), who humps anything and everything.

“What would I be doing with you to bring you to my house?”

“Do you have to be doing something to go? This guy’s head is filled with nothing but lewd thoughts.”

“What…?”

“Jooyoon, do some meditation or something and detox your dirty brain.”

“No, ugh…”

Who’s the one with only those things in their head? As they say, you only see what you know, and he might have invited a lot of people over to his dorm room to play after his roommate disappeared. And that guy’s hypocrisy is nothing new.

I ignored him and left the student lounge, and Hyun Jaekyung followed, limping. I had just been cursing him inwardly, but being a human, my heart softened a little seeing him limp in front of me.

“What now?”

“What do you mean, what now? I’m going to the department office. Surely you didn’t think I was following you out, did you?”

“…No?”

“Of course you did. Our Yoonie is so full of himself, haha.”

He’s really unlikable…. It was true that I thought he was following me, so I was embarrassed too.

Hyun Jaekyung, who had disappeared into the department office, returned to the classroom just before class started. I had been lying face down due to yesterday’s fatigue, but I knew he had arrived as soon as it got noisy.

“Hyun Jaekyung, what’s wrong with your leg? Your arm is hurt too?”

“Something happened.”

That bastard’s answer was unnecessarily dramatic, leading to a flurry of speculation from our classmates.

“Looks like Jooyoon finally decided to get rid of Hyun Jaekyung.”

“I was waiting to see when he’d explode.”

“They say it’s the quiet ones who really cause trouble when they snap.”

Please don’t include me in this. But the fact that only Hyun Jaekyung and I had gone up to Cheonhabong Peak was something everyone knew.

“Did you really fight with Jooyoon? He doesn’t look hurt anywhere.”

“Hey, do you think I’d lose in a fight with Jooyoon? I could take on all seventeen of you at once and still win.”

“Ooh~ You delinquent~.”

There he goes again, pretending to be tough. Now, if they find out that I’m slow because of muscle soreness, they’ll think I got beaten up by Hyun Jaekyung. Hyun Jaekyung, even while hearing such things, enjoyed it as if it were a compliment. He is a person who is impossible to like, no matter how hard I try. He’s the one who’s being annoying and I’m just defending myself, so our relationship is more distant than oil and water. At least oil and water mix if you add soapy water, right?

Then we are… yes, a contradiction. It’s a showdown between Hyun Jaekyung, who tries to penetrate anyone’s AT field, and my damn thick AT field that allows no one’s intrusion.

As if to mock my thoughts, Hyun Jaekyung stuck to me all day, groaning in pain. But he didn’t hurry off to the hospital or the dormitory.

“Ya~ The low atmospheric pressure is making the leg I injured while saving Jooyoon’s life yesterday throb.”

“……”

“This is bad, my ankle hurts so much. I think I’ll have to crawl on all fours.”

“……”

“To think I’d experience such a tragedy as soon as I entered university.”

“…Haaah.”

In the end, I bought him lunch. My classmates probably thought it was a joke, but it’s not entirely untrue that this guy saved my life, is it? So I even held an umbrella for him and escorted him to the school cafeteria. Please, just get better soon.

While eating his meal, Hyun Jaekyung, perhaps intending to stimulate my guilt, even dropped his chopsticks. Wondering if his hand was hurt too, I brought him a fork, and he picked up the dropped chopsticks and handed them to me.

“You like trash, don’t you.”

“……”

I want to punch him in the face! Hyun Jaekyung twirled the fork in his left hand and grinned, then used his right hand to pick at his food. The fact that he dropped them earlier was just him pretending to be weak.

“I’m ambidextrous, you know. Aren’t I perfect?”

“Your soup is getting cold.”

“If you’re going to help, can’t you just feed me? Oppa will wait with his mouth open.”

“Just eat quickly.”

“Alright, it’s so lonely and difficult, but I guess I have to eat by myself.”

He should have done that from the start. And if he wears rings like that, he’s going to sprain his hand even if he just falls somewhere. It’s also extreme of him to put on a bandage and then insist on wearing a ring over it, instead of letting it heal.

Who knows, maybe they’re meant to inflict injury during a fight, disguised as accessories. He’s reaping what he sowed.

Hyun Jaekyung, who had a small appetite for his height, also picked at his food. He passed the side dishes he didn’t eat to me, and surprisingly, he only gave me the ones I liked, so I ate them happily.

“I can’t even drink because of you, I’m screwed.”

“You drank dongdongju just fine.”

“No, I have to go out far from the university to drink. I get really lonely, so I need to make friends. You can only become friends after getting drunk together.”

They do say that people who get lonely easily are prone to becoming attention seekers.

“Not friends, but fuck buddies, right?”

“Are you the type who can’t be friends with someone you’ve slept with?”

“……”

“You’re a virgin, right?”

My appetite is completely gone. This guy doesn’t know when to stop. I had slightly regretted being too harsh with him before, saying I hated him to his face, but all that feeling has disappeared. I said those things because he deserved it. I scowled as much as I could, but Hyun Jaekyung didn’t know when to back down.

“What’s so great about it that you won’t even tell me? I won’t make fun of you. Virgin? Not a virgin?”

“Shut up, for a bit. You’re so dirty…”

“As if you’re so clean…. I tested clean for all STDs, you know?”

“Ugh.”

I got into some serious trouble after just one hike. I should have just let that guy go to Cheonhabong Peak and gone to Guunbong Peak myself.

“Even Ha Wonjong pretends not to know me and doesn’t hang out with me as soon as I get a scratch. Did you see what Wonjong was wearing today? That slut, if he’s going to go around like that, he shouldn’t even say he likes that senior from the College of Arts.”

“You’re describing yourself.”

“Describing myself? A slut?”

“……”

“…Hmph.”

“……”

“Suddenly, it’s strange.”

“What is?”

“You eat with any random senior, but this is the first time you’ve eaten with me.”

What do you mean random senior… And what do you mean first time?

“You’re not counting the drinks we had yesterday?”

“You wouldn’t have eaten with me if I hadn’t smashed my body on the stone floor. It’s the same now.”

“Well, that’s true.”

“You heartless bastard. I’m going to try to become friends with you before this semester ends.”

“I don’t get drunk, so that’s not going to happen.”

“We’ll have to have another go at it until you get drunk.”

“I doubt it.”

As I continued to put up a wall, Hyun Jaekyung pulled on my sleeve. Normally, I would have found it an incredibly annoying action, but for some reason, it felt like a childish plea, and I was a little flustered with myself.

“Hey, look at you putting up a wall again. I know you’re a warm person.”

For a moment, goosebumps ran all over my body. I was trying to mull over what he meant when there was a loud screech of a chair being dragged. I lifted my head, and Hyun Jaekyung was standing bolt upright in the middle of his meal.

“Hey, you’re not eating anymore?”

The rims of Hyun Jaekyung’s ears were red as if they would burst. Did he get pissed off by himself again? If so, timing-wise, he would have stood up when I cut him off sharply. Unbelievably, for once, it seemed like that guy was embarrassed.

Did he just blurt it out and then realize how embarrassing it was? If so, that’s a lot of progress. If he’s embarrassed because that statement was actually true…. Hyun Jaekyung is a guy who lives on his own ego, so he might have thought that showing he wanted to be friends first was admitting defeat.

As I thought that far, suddenly, that guy’s words and actions didn’t seem so dog-like. Perhaps, they were just incredibly childish. Like a stupid elementary school kid who gives a noogie to the person he likes.

For someone who’s trying to bully me, he seems to remember things about me quite well. Like the alcohol I don’t drink…. Honestly, if it were me, I wouldn’t even talk to someone who had told me to my face that they hated me, just like I did last time.

But he’s really not eating much. What kind of food does this guy eat well? Does he even have any?

When I came to my senses, I had also stood up and was emptying my tray, which still had a lot of food left, into the trash can. I hate wasting food, but for now, following him was the priority.

But when I stopped Hyun Jaekyung, the face that turned around was clear and shameless. As if it had never been red.

“What?”

“No, you just stood up so suddenly.”

“Ah, the school food is so bad. I’m going to the bakery.”

“……”

Then couldn’t he just explain the reason and ask me to go with him? I stopped eating in the middle of my meal because of someone. For some reason, I was greatly disappointed, and the words to follow him to the bakery didn’t come out. The annoyed, expressionless face Hyun Jaekyung had made when I stopped him a moment ago even felt cruel.

I parted ways with Hyun Jaekyung there and walked aimlessly before heading to my club. I got a bit of a scolding because I hadn’t shown up for a while, saying I was busy.