ASIAH 9

It was from the afternoon that Eunha noona’s jar of citron tea began to weigh on me like the weight of my conscience. My concentration kept wavering, and I almost cut my finger with the jeweler’s saw. Then, I even found myself imagining Hyun Jaekyung dying alone from a high fever in an empty dorm room.

I came to the new realization that I don’t own a single outfit to wear to weddings and funerals, so I should probably get one prepared.

Of course, the reason Hyun Jaekyung was staying out of sight was obviously a hangover. He probably had sex after drinking.

Ugh, disgusting.

But now that I had imagined young Hyun Jaekyung’s sad funeral, I couldn’t help it. My cautious nature is a strength, but the fact that it easily develops into paranoia might be a weakness.

Alright, let’s change my perspective. This is a main quest. I have to get it over with, even if I don’t want to, to move on to the next chapter.

It’s a huge hassle for an outsider to enter the dorms, but I decided to stop by solely to grant Eunha noona’s request. I thought I had heard all sorts of miscellaneous information within the department as a studio totem, but I couldn’t for the life of me remember who else, besides Hyun Jaekyung, lived in the male dorms.

I considered asking the hipster or the group chat, but I didn’t want to broadcast to the whole world that I was going to see Hyun Jaekyung. And I would rather die than contact him directly.

“Ah, excuse me, I’m also…”

In the end, I tagged along, pretending to be a poor dorm resident who had forgotten his key card. Fortunately, the entrance to the male dorms was far from the management office, so I didn’t feel too conspicuous. I didn’t want to go straight to Hyun Jaekyung’s room, so I took the stairs instead of the elevator.

But no matter how much I dawdled, I steadily got closer to my destination, and Eunha noona’s citron tea also seemed to be rushing me. In fact, even without thinking about the main quest and all that, my creed, having lived diligently, is to finish the things I don’t want to do first.

My last hesitation was stalling for time by looking at the memo app Eunha noona had written on. I knocked exactly three times on Hyun Jaekyung’s door.

“……”

But not only did no one answer, I couldn’t even feel a presence. He’s not here after I came all this way? Don’t tell me being sick was just an excuse?

Well, I heard that later on, there will be a lot of people who skip school by selling out all their perfectly healthy relatives and robust grandparents. What if Hyun Jaekyung being sick is a complete lie and he’s been out at a club since the middle of the day? Do clubs even open during the day? I’ve never been, so I wouldn’t know.

The imagination of a diligent guy like me can’t even stray from the excuse Hyun Jaekyung gave. Pathetic.

But it’s better if he’s not here. We’re not on good terms with each other anyway, and while it’s a shame for the citron tea to be returned, it’ll be delicious whenever it’s eaten, right? The bad timing is just his bad luck.

Even as I was disappointed, I continued to knock on the door, three times in a row. I came all this way while going through a storm in my heart because of someone… Is he really not here?

I kept knocking, and then a sudden surge of anger made me kick the door with a loud bang.

A huge noise echoed, startling even me, the one who did it. I really hope the next room didn’t hear that. Well, even if they did, it would be embarrassing for Hyun Jaekyung, not me…

“This fucking bastard, what kind of son of a…”

“…You were in your room.”

But Hyun Jaekyung, who flung the door open, was in a terrible state. It was the first time I had ever thought he was ugly, and I doubt I ever will again. His face, puffy and flushed red, looked, with a little exaggeration, like a picture of an ugly deep-sea fish I had seen before.

There’s probably only one thing that could make a person’s face look like this overnight.

“Hyun Jaekyung, are you allergic to alcohol?”

“…Yeah yeah, I’m sensitive here and there. High-performance things are usually sensitive.”

On top of that, he was rambling incoherently. So it really was a hangover? It could also be that he was just being like that because he was too lazy to answer.

“Wait a second.”

Hyun Jaekyung seemed to have come to his senses a bit as he said that and slipped back inside. I heard the sound of splashing water, as if he were washing his face, along with the sound of him blowing his nose. When he came back out, Hyun Jaekyung was wearing those same horn-rimmed glasses.

“I heard you’ve been out and about so much lately. I guess you’re really sick.”

“Who told you, Ha Wonjong?”

“Who else would I talk to about you?”

“Whoa… looks like you’ve gotten real close with Wonjong? What, you’d hate me even if I came back without my dick, but you think it might work with Wonjong? Do you like Ha Wonjong?”

What is this bastard talking about?

“The otaku couple, Ha Wonjong and Jooyoon? Our department’s first campus couple.”

“Hah…”

Someone somewhere can pay off a thousand nyang debt with a single word, but this bastard is racking up a loan shark’s debt. I shouldn’t have come. The good mood I was in from seeing the ugly version of Hyun Jaekyung plummeted in an instant. The skill he has for pissing people off even when he’s not feeling well is a real talent; he should patent it.

Hyun Jaekyung, with his red face, looked out into the deserted hallway. Then, his gaze fixed on the area around my armpit. The moment I became anxious, wondering if the sweat I’d worked up while climbing the stairs was noticeable, Hyun Jaekyung blurted out.

“…You know.”

“You know what?”

“Fuck, you’re the kind of country bumpkin who would say ‘what do I know’ if I said ‘you know’… No, you guys also say ‘you know,’ right? Are you a dumbass?”

He got angry all by himself and berated me, mixing standard Korean and dialect in every other phrase. In the midst of it all, it was fascinating how even his English had a strange dialectal intonation. No, that’s not the point.

“Why are you suddenly cursing? Are you really sick?”

“I didn’t say much to Ha Wonjong, so it must have been Eunha noona. So why has our expensive Jooyoon come to such a humble place?”

“Eunha noona told me to give you this.”

When I held out the citron tea, Hyun Jaekyung didn’t take it and just stared at it for a long time. If the citron tea had a personality, it would have been incredibly embarrassed. Even though he looked ridiculous with his swollen face, the redness at the tip of his nose and the corners of his eyes made him look a little pitiful. To think I can still see Hyun Jaekyung like that. It’s new to me, but I really am a kind person, myself.

Solely to uphold Eunha noona’s sincerity, I pushed the citron tea into his chest as if to impale him with it. Hyun Jaekyung, as if giving up resistance, meekly took it and turned it over and over, examining the contents.

“…So you came on an errand for Eunha noona.”

“Why else would I be here?”

“Right.”

“……”

Wondering what kind of conversation this was, I was staring blankly when Hyun Jaekyung banged his forehead against the doorframe. What kind of self-harm is this? I watched, at a loss for words, as Hyun Jaekyung muttered like a madman with his head still down.

“You didn’t even eat the birthday cake, you refused everything even when I offered to treat you, but you eat well when others treat you. So even when you get money to eat together, you split it in half and give it to me.”

“You’re being weird.”

“What is?”

“It sounds like you’re throwing a fit at me because you didn’t get the attention you thought you deserved.”

“…Fuck, can’t you cut me some slack when I’m sick?”

Am I a doctor? To see a patient. He said before that he was upset when I asked what my friendships had to do with him. He really thinks he can say anything just to avoid losing an argument.

“There, I saw you. Are you happy now?”

“……”

“If you’re really sick, stop taking your anger out on me for no reason and get some rest. I’ve done the errand, so I’m leaving now.”

I was about to make a fresh departure, but he suddenly grabbed me by the collar. I tried to gently pry Hyun Jaekyung’s fingers off, but it wasn’t easy. For someone who’s sick, he’s full of energy.

“You really seem to like girls. I’ve never seen someone who likes girls as much as you do.”

“What?”

I heard a strange comment, but since he had his head bowed low, I couldn’t see his expression.

“Right… You’re not interested in guys. Of course, I’m not either. Not at all, but.”

Muttering, Hyun Jaekyung immediately added obnoxiously.

“You’re just a pervert who loses his mind and pants, pant, pants at any girl’s request!”

“What did you say?”

Hey! What is a harem, harem, one-night stand, threesome, slut bastard saying to a pure, white practitioner of premarital chastity?

Of course, I was angry, but I held it in as much as possible and spoke in a serious tone. Since I was being held by the collar, I probably didn’t look very dignified.

“I don’t want to stoop to your level, so I’ll speak rationally. Please, really stop taking your anger out on just anyone. For your own sake, not anyone else’s.”

“For my sake? What are you… a school disciplinarian?”

“We’re not high school students anymore. And you’re not a delinquent smoking on the rooftop after skipping class. Do you think I’ll be scared if you act tough? It just shows how shallow of a person you are.”

“Hah, this bastard is on the same level as me and he’s talking like a liberal arts major.”

“Anyway, I’m saying this because I feel sorry for you. If you weren’t so on edge like this, I wouldn’t have disliked you this much.”

The sound of Hyun Jaekyung sucking in a breath was as sharp as the screech of metal.

“Goodbye, you ‘good’ guy. Go on living your life, wagging your tail only for your female classmates and female sunbaes.”

“Hyun Jaekyung…”

“Piss off if you don’t want to get beaten up!”

See, trying to talk nicely to that bastard is completely useless. I watched helplessly as the dorm room door slammed shut, my back hitting the windowsill in the hallway. The door closed with a louder bang than when I had kicked it earlier.

Crazy bastard….

I wasn’t expecting Hyun Jaekyung’s spirit to be permanently broken by what happened in the lobby that day. But I also didn’t expect a sick guy to act like such a stirred-up ground wasp.

It really is a question that comes to me now, a new and surprising one, but I have no idea what prompted Hyun Jaekyung to start bullying me. Did we have a long conversation at the beginning of the semester? At the welcoming ceremony, I saw so many new faces that I don’t remember much about Hyun Jaekyung other than that he was a bit loud.

I did notice a bruise on my stomach the next day, but don’t I always have a bruise or two of unknown origin? Like a shin that you bumped on a corner somewhere without realizing it.

Anyway, if you remembered every single thing about that guy, would you be a freshman or a psychic? How many months has it even been since we met? Maybe he’s a delinquent who has a scheme to pick on and beat up a guy he dislikes at first sight.

Hah, so in the end, it’s going to be settled with force. Does he think I’ll chicken out?

But the back I hit earlier really hurts. I should buy a pain relief patch on my way.