ASIAH 7

Separately, the question itself was, in fact, absurd.

“What’s the concept? Why would I be scared of you?”

“Because I don’t know what you’re thinking about.”

But, unbelievably, it seemed like Hyun Jaekyung was walking on eggshells around me. I suddenly felt smug and tapped the back of his neck with my glove.

“Why do you keep trying to sound me out like that? Do you like me?”

“……”

“Sorry, but I’m not interested in guys.”

The smile completely vanished from Hyun Jaekyung’s face. Seeing that, I felt like I had gotten him back, even if just a little, and it was a great feeling.

After that, the guy’s words decreased dramatically, which made it much easier to work. I was deep in concentration for a while, and when I looked up, Hyun Jaekyung was asleep with his head on the workbench. I thought about telling him to go to the makeshift bed in the corner of the department office or maybe covering him with a blanket, but I didn’t feel like extending that much kindness.

But he must have been uncomfortable, because after about twenty minutes, he suddenly stormed out of the studio. I thought he might have gone to the bathroom, but he didn’t come back. When we used to pull all-nighters with other classmates, he’d say nonsense like the dorms were locked in the middle of the night and ask to sleep at my place. It was all just empty talk.

The next day, not only did Hyun Jaekyung not come to supervise my cleaning, but he also skipped the first class. He finally showed up in the afternoon wearing horn-rimmed glasses, and Yeom Hyejin, who spotted him first, shouted at a burdensome decibel.

“Hyun Jaekyung, are you not wearing makeup today?”

“Ugh, come on!”

“Does Jaekyung normally wear contacts?”

“I don’t, Yeom Hyejin is talking nonsense.”

Look how childish they are. Maybe because the number of students per grade is about the size of one high school class, my classmates still seem like high schoolers in civilian clothes. In the meantime, from a distance, someone else approached Hyun Jaekyung. He really is rarely alone.

“Jaekyung! Did you eat ramen before bed? Why are you so puffy? If you lose your looks, what’s left of you?”

“I ate, I’m puffy, there’s a lot left. Are we done now?”

“Haha, you’re extra sensitive today.”

Looking over at Hyun Jaekyung, his face was indeed a bit round. Did he sleep in and skip his morning class? Why did he lie about doing the hipster’s assignment for him? There are all sorts of ways to mess with people.

After that, Hyun Jaekyung didn’t show up for class or in the studio for a while. It was an unexpected move for a guy who not only partied hard outside of school but also hung out with people from other departments, not just Metal Craft, inside school. According to Eunha noona, he was still showing up at the department office, so it wasn’t a complete disappearance.

For the short time he was absent, it felt like a nagging toothache had finally gone away.

“……”

But then, I found myself getting strangely restless.

A humble citizen like me, who cherishes a peaceful daily life, has a tendency to become anxious when what they desperately wished for actually comes true. This was especially true since the source of my irritation was Hyun Jaekyung’s pestering.

It was quite shocking to realize that I had been constantly wondering why that guy was acting that way. It was because I felt like I had become subordinate to the atmosphere Hyun Jaekyung created. Simply put, I couldn’t admit that I had started to walk on eggshells around that bastard.

“Yo, Jooyoon.”

“Oh, hey.”

The hipster had a better attendance rate than Hyun Jaekyung. After being betrayed by Hyun Jaekyung who had told him to go home first because he would do his assignment, it seemed he had developed a sense of responsibility for his own work. Also, despite being afraid of being seen as an otaku loser, he seemed happy to have someone to talk about manga with, and on days when Hyun Jaekyung didn’t show up, he would chatter away even more excitedly.

“The author graduated from the architecture department. Is that why? The perspective is fucking amazing.”

“This isn’t the 20th century. Just because he’s from the architecture department doesn’t mean he’d draw everything by hand. You did the design entrance exam too, so shouldn’t you be good at drawing?”

“You have a way of saying things that subtly hurts, you bastard. Hah… I suck at 3D too.”

Would it have been like this if our workbenches weren’t next to each other? I have no idea. Anyway, the hipster’s brass plate badge was supposed to be a combination of the three katakana characters that have the same pronunciation as ‘AKIRA.’ But what he had cut out, even giving him the benefit of the doubt, looked like drunken seaweed.

“Stop being stubborn and just print out the design, or at least use graph paper to transfer it.”

“Doesn’t it look the same?”

“Does your eye for things have to get better for your skills to improve, or do your skills have to get better for your eye to follow?”

“You have a complicated way of cussing people out.”

“Loosen your grip and saw. This is a saw, not a knife.”

“I’m telling you I can’t do it.”

The hipster guy is a bit loud and overly conscious of what others think, but he’s quite sincere in how he deals with people. Maybe that’s why he can put up with a bastard like Hyun Jaekyung. If it were me, I would have just cut him off.

And even after Hyun Jaekyung stopped showing up to the lecture hall, he still seemed to act as his aide when they went out to party. The reason was this:

“I can’t help it. Hyun Jaekyung is the bait. If it’s just us without Hyun Jaekyung, whether we go to a club or a pocha, there’s no hope unless we’re shaking around Maybach car keys or something.”

“What about that art college sunbae?”

“That sunbae is my ideal type. But am I supposed to just dream of the ideal and let all the good times pass me by?”

Strangely realistic, but still a bit gross… Instead of affirming a different kind of human being, I separated myself and nodded. The hipster nodded along and added.

“Anyway, Hyun Jaekyung likes hanging out with girls too, so it’s a win-win.”

“……”

“But he’s been a bit weird lately. He didn’t like girls that much before. And he’s been drinking way too much.”

So that’s why he had dark circles under his eyes whenever I ran into him at the department office. He was always suffering from a hangover.

Well, I’ll be. In that case, the times he called me whenever he drank before and threw those fits weren’t drunken habits, but just a way to bully me. It’s not like a drinking habit would suddenly disappear.

Of course, it’s not as if the calls have completely stopped recently, but he doesn’t collapse drunk and shout “Tell Yoonie to come!” like before. He just says nothing and lets me hear his breathing like a pervert for a bit before hanging up.

To avoid any misunderstanding, I’ll add that Hyun Jaekyung didn’t actually do anything perverted over the phone.

It takes an extraordinary mind to put that much effort into pissing someone off. And while he had no problem getting all touchy-feely when he was teasing me, and even insisted that I save his number with some strange logic, he has never sent me a single text separately.

This part shows what kind of guy Hyun Jaekyung is very well. Because he can’t put himself in other people’s shoes, he gets all serious and throws a fit over a single joke I made. Of course, I’m busy these days and I wasn’t hoping for him to contact me, so it’s a relief.

And even if I didn’t save it, I’ve already memorized the number! When someone is that annoyingly persistent, it’s only natural to memorize it if you have a certain level of intelligence.

“Honestly, though, I’m so jealous I could die…”

The hipster’s sudden mumble pulled me out of my own thoughts.

“He’s got the looks, he dresses well, he’s got money, he’s got a big dick, and I want to curse him out for being bad at technique, but he’s good at it. He’s got everything. If I were a girl, I’d be hitting on Hyun Jaekyung.”

How do you know Hyun Jaekyung is good at that…? Did you try it?

I barely managed to swallow the question that instinctively popped into my head. It’s a well-known fact that he’s handsome. He has money and he’s good at that too. Wow, I’m learning the fact I’ve been most curious about in my short life.

“The other day, he fucking disappeared all of a sudden, so I asked around and they said he left with two girls. Hyunjoon and I ate haejangguk together that day like good friends and went home on the first train.”

Wow, if you’re good at that thing, you can even get two at once. Since they were people he had just met, they wouldn’t have known yet whether he was really good or not. From now on, whenever I see Hyun Jaekyung, I think only the word ‘threesome’ will come to mind.

So he was the type of character who always walks around with a grin on his face and women on his arm. Right, guys like that always act like they have a screw loose, but when an important moment comes, they get serious and get things done. Hyun Jaekyung is protagonist material too. But aren’t we living in reality?

This is crazy, when I think about it, he’s like an American high school playboy. I hope he always uses condoms so he doesn’t cause any trouble for the girls.

Ah, so gross!

…Right, sex is not a dirty thing. I don’t want to imagine it, but aren’t my own sister and I products of it? Sex is beautiful and sacred.

No, honestly, I don’t want to sanctify it to this extent. It makes you look pathetic if you treat it as something too special…

Well, that bastard Hyun Jaekyung, since he partied in high school too, he probably started doing that stuff even before he was of legal age. What kind of lines does he use to pick up girls? Girls usually hate it when guys get all touchy-feely like Hyun Jaekyung did to me.

Hmm, according to my sister, she wants to kill an ugly guy if he touches her hair, so for a handsome guy like Hyun Jaekyung, it might be a “thank you.”

Anyway, that Hyun Jaekyung guy, since his head is filled with nothing but that stuff, he even tried to frame a perfectly healthy sunbae-hoobae relationship as a romantic one. Like how he tried to ship me with Geum Juri sunbae and all the other girls. That bastard probably thinks I’m a complete loser, so he might have been insulting both me and the girls at once.

He acts all friendly to the girls in front of them but pulls that shit behind their backs. What a two-faced bastard.

Why did he ask if I’ve ever had a girlfriend? Is he looking down on people who aren’t interested in dating, saying they can’t do it because he dates around so much? Does he think I’ll be ashamed? Does he enjoy feeling that cheap sense of superiority?

So, has he been doing that stuff since high school? No, it might have been since middle school. What a delinquent. I should avoid getting involved with him as much as possible. I have a bad feeling.

But what’s really annoying is that even the other classmates have started asking me about Hyun Jaekyung. Since Hyun Jaekyung acted friendly on his own, then grew distant, playing both the drum and the gong, only the innocent people started to worry.

“Jooyoon, is something wrong with Jaekyung?”

“How would I know?”

“Oh my gosh, I guess you guys really fought…”

No, we’re not close enough to fight, and we never have. And if you have eyes, shouldn’t you be able to see that our relationship until now wasn’t a friendship, but Hyun Jaekyung’s one-sided bullying?