Eighteen’s Bed Novel Completed - Chapter 120

I unnecessarily tapped the mouse, wondering when it would be updated, and the person sitting next to me gave me a strange look.

“Ah, I’m sorry.”

It wasn’t a particularly quiet atmosphere, so why was I the only one getting the side-eye? Feeling embarrassed, wondering if there was something I didn’t know, I got up from my seat. Someone who had been waiting behind me quickly snatched my spot.

“…”

After that, I was still alone in the major courses I entered. Even before class started, people who strangely recognized each other took their seats. I was pushed back and sat in the very last row of the lecture hall, and while receiving the magnificent “course syllabus” and listening to the explanation, I learned something new. It was all because of a few people in front of me whispering behind the professor’s back.

To sum it up, ‘I was late.’

They had already exchanged numbers through the admissions information site, and groups to hang out with had been decided at the freshman welcome party. While I was agonizing, recalling the crazy things I did to Go Yohan overseas, they seemed to have already started their social lives.

I have no complaints. Because I was late.

What bothered me a little was that they kept glancing at me from the front row.

If you’re going to ostracize me, ostracize me. If you’re going to talk to me, talk to me. They seemed to be whispering among themselves, but since the seats were so close, I could hear everything. “Should we talk to him?” “You ask him?” It was a total mess. They seemed to have concluded that I was a freshman, so as soon as class ended, they turned around.

“Excuse me, are you a freshman?”

“…Yes.”

“Are you perhaps a re-taker…?”

“No, I’m a current year student.”

My answer seemed to be something, as they smiled brightly, relieved.

“So are we! We thought you might be, but we didn’t see your face at the freshman welcome party, and you’re not in the group chat, so we just thought we’d ask. Oh, can we use informal speech? You use informal speech too. We’re the same age!”

“Ah, okay.”

“But why aren’t you in the group chat?”

“Isn’t that only for people who went to the welcome party?”

“The class rep said he invited everyone?”

“When was the class rep chosen?”

“At the welcome party. The seniors chose him. Ah, this hyung isn’t doing his job properly.”

“Oh, I see. I didn’t know.”

“Ah, that’s strange. Why didn’t he invite you? But you didn’t come to the welcome party? Was something wrong?”

“Just, I was overseas with my parents for a vacation.”

“Wow, an overseas trip right after high school graduation? Your family must be rich.”

I hesitated how to answer, then chose to lie.

“It’s not like that, it just happened to overlap.”

I felt that there would be no benefit in revealing that my family was well-off. I guess I’m growing up a bit too.

“It would have been great if you had played with us too. We made connections with a few seniors then. I’ll introduce you too.”

“No, I’m fine.”

“Hey, what are classmates for? Anyway, I’ll invite you to the group chat. You need to be there to get announcements. Um, your phone.”

“Here.”

“Oh, unlock the screen and give it to me…”

“It’s a new phone, I haven’t set a password.”

“Wow, you’re going to have all your dating affairs exposed like that. You need to manage your privacy now.”

The two joked with me, then nudged each other and laughed. Dating, I thought about it for a moment, then shook my head.

“I don’t think I’ll be dating much.”

“Seriously?”

This time, a strange look mixed in. One of the two, who had finished their eye contact, smirked.

“Hey, did you go to an all-boys’ high school?”

“Huh? Oh.”

“See? I knew it.”

“What?”

“Even if you don’t want to, the girls won’t leave you alone.”

If they thought I would be happy to hear that, they were mistaken. I just stared blankly, unmoved by the uninspired compliment, and the two of them, in turn, became awkward.

“Why is he so unresponsive…? Him.”

Then they exchanged glances and made this offer to me.

“Have you had lunch?”

“No.”

“Want to eat together? They say the graduate school cafeteria here is good.”

Their eyes were expectant, and I felt bad refusing, but I shook my head.

“No, I’m fine. I don’t really feel like having lunch.”

Honestly, it was uncomfortable. The conversation wasn’t very interesting, and our reactions didn’t quite match. Their personalities seemed like they would be exhausting in the long run. In high school, I would have tried my best to stay with them. Now, I just watched the two of them leave and packed my own things.

But I met Ahn Jisoo in the most unexpected place. It was the last elective class of the day.

“Wow, Kang Jun, you.”

“Oh, you two know each other?”

“You were in Political Science and Diplomacy?”

Why did this class start with forming group project teams? If I had known such a familiar face would be in the randomly assigned group, I wouldn’t have taken the class. There were two group members from different departments whose faces I’d never seen before, and next to them was Ahn Jisoo, who was showing excessive interest in me. Why did the professor put us together to get to know each other first, then disappear himself?

I clenched my fist hidden under the desk. Damn it. Their overly familiar behavior, to the point of embarrassment, drew all the teammates’ gazes to me and Ahn Jisoo. It was mortifying for me, but Ahn Jisoo seemed to be enjoying it.

“We went to the same high school. Hey, I thought you were retaking! Why didn’t you come to graduation?”

“…”

As soon as he saw me, he said something that grated on my nerves again. Memories I had shoved into a mental trash can somewhere were trying to resurface vividly. I was barely trying to forget them. Damn it.

“…I just wasn’t feeling well, and I went to where my parents were for a vacation.”

“Oh, vacation? Overseas?”

“Yeah.”

“Wow, seriously… The level is just different. Ah, this friend is really rich, you know.”

“Really?”

“…He lives in [specific neighborhood]. Him.”

He covered his mouth with his hand and pretended to whisper, but I could hear everything. And why was he talking about my house’s location? The teammates who heard Ahn Jisoo’s words either widened their eyes in surprise or nodded indifferently. It was one or the other. The surprised one asked:

“Isn’t that an incredibly rich neighborhood? The land prices are super expensive. It’s on TV and stuff.”

“There were quite a few kids from that neighborhood at our school.”

I couldn’t understand why he was wearing such a proud expression. Was he feeling vicarious satisfaction or something? His own family wasn’t even poor, but he acted like that, which was even more exasperating. But I shouldn’t have been surprised just there. The questions that followed were even more absurd.

“So you drive? No, you haven’t gotten your driver’s license yet, have you?”

“He has a car too?”

“No. I just live nearby.”

“Wow, parents who buy a house in the same area. Where? An apartment?”

“I just live in the dorm.”

“Nah, Kang Jun’s level, a dorm? No, before that, how did you even get in? Oh, no. Someone like you, your parents probably already bought several houses in the provinces. Hey, I’m jealous.”

Was this bastard trying to mess with me? What was his intention in bringing this up here? I frowned, utterly bewildered. Surely it wasn’t because of my Suneung score. Had rumors about my grades spread? Or did the homeroom teacher only tell Ahn Jisoo?

No, no way. He wouldn’t be that petty.

“It’s not like that.”

“Hey, don’t lie. Then how did you get into the dorm? Right, how much do your parents earn a month?”

His voice was so loud that even the surrounding gazes were drawn to me. It was truly a hellish moment.

“I don’t really know either.”

“It’s true. Rich people don’t know their assets or how much they earn.”

“Is your family that rich?”

One of the group members asked cautiously. The one who answered proudly was Ahn Jisoo.

“There are quite a few kids like him at the high school I attended. It was a school in a wealthy neighborhood with a good school district for generations. He probably doesn’t even know how much the bus fare is.”

“Hey, no.”

“No? Go Yohan didn’t know.”

Go Yohan.

“…”

The moment I heard that name, all my thought processes stopped. After that, everything Ahn Jisoo babbled turned into white noise. How Go Yohan, an equally formidable rich kid, was in the same class, how all his belongings were luxury brands, how we didn’t even know the names of true luxury brands. It wasn’t those embarrassing words that woke me up.

“But do you know that Go Yohan was looking for you like crazy?”

In those words, the white world instantly regained its color. As if someone had broken a hypnosis, I blinked my eyes sharply and said something stupid.

“Uh, huh? What?”

“Go Yohan was looking for you like crazy. Your homeroom teacher really had a hard time. He was always asking why you weren’t picking up, saying you weren’t home when he visited, begging you to contact him. He said it was because of your college entrance exam stress, but why did you do that? I’ve never seen Go Yohan act so anxious. You two used to be super close, right?”

“…”

“He even borrowed other kids’ phones to call you. He said you definitely blocked his number, and… Anyway, it was crazy. Did you two fight again?”

“I’m sorry, but please don’t mention him in front of me.”

Because I couldn’t listen anymore.

I think I’ve endured enough. The group member who had been silently nodding probably thought I was being ridiculous, judging by their bad expression. I thought the same, so I pushed back my chair and stood up.

“I’ll hear about the assignment next week. See you next week.”

Only after I left did I realize I hadn’t given them my number, but we would meet again next week anyway. I decided not to pay it any mind.

Checking the time, it was already afternoon. The last elective class ended early, so it was only 4 PM. My phone screen was already full of accumulated notifications from the department announcement board, which I didn’t even know when I was invited to.

After that, I ate alone, returned to the dorm alone, and prepared assignments alone. Honestly, it was easier than I thought. So easy that I wondered if I had lived all this time unable to do something so simple. Instead, I found it suited me well. Looking back, I never had a best friend.

Best friend. As I searched for an assignment topic, my fingers, resting carelessly on the keyboard, moved. Familiar consonants and vowels intertwined and appeared on the blinking cursor window.

‘Who is Jun closest to?’

‘Han, no. Go Yohan.’

Go Yohan.

Damn it, as soon as I came to my senses, I slammed my fist on the keyboard. That wasn’t enough to quell my anger, so I threw the mouse next to me at the wall.

“Please, just get out of my head already!”

But even throwing every object on my desk didn’t solve my torment. My confused mind only sought an escape.

Sleep. Just sleep and forget everything. Like someone possessed, I walked towards the bed.

That wasn’t enough, so I pulled the blanket over my head. When I closed my eyes and tried to sleep, my hand again instinctively fumbled for my lips. I pressed the center of my lips firmly with my middle and index fingers. The slightly protruding flesh softly indented. Not satisfied with that, I moved my fingers deeper inside. The moment I bit my fingernail with my front teeth, I finally came to my senses and pulled my finger out of my mouth.

“Crazy…”

I must be crazy.

“Why does that bastard, who I’ll never see again anyway, keep popping up?”

At that moment, I shouldn’t have acted on impulse. I regretted and regretted that irreversible act, then finally managed to fall asleep.

I fell asleep too early. When I opened my eyes, it was only 7 PM.

“This is driving me crazy. Seriously.”

Today was truly trash. It was the worst of the worst first university experiences. To think this was the twenty I dreamed of. My mood didn’t just worsen, it plummeted.

I turned my head and saw that my roommate still hadn’t arrived. At this rate, I really wondered if I was using the room alone. I looked at the empty mattress and felt hungry.

“Dinner…”

Looking at the time, the dorm cafeteria was cutting it close.

“Should I just starve?”

But then, if it became dawn, it might truly be irreversible. I forced my tired body to get up. If I bought something, I’d eventually feel like eating it.

I grabbed my wallet and walked in the direction I remembered seeing a convenience store. I bought a few edible items and some water. I put everything in a bag and headed back to the dorm. The walk felt so awkward. It felt like I was living a life that didn’t suit me, or like a new life was about to get tangled.