Eighteen’s Bed Novel Completed - Chapter 129 Side Story

“You know you caused me a lot of trouble, right?”

It was a sudden remark from a guy who was taking the same elective as me. It was so abrupt that I was dumbfounded, but since I was truly guilty, I simply kept my mouth shut.

“Did you really just disappear in the middle of a group project?”

This was precisely my crime. I was absent from a group project for an elective last semester. The circumstances might have been Go Yohan’s circumstances, but college wasn’t generous enough to understand such trivial matters. Thanks to that, my grades plummeted. I ended up having to retake the course.

And this guy, Kang Soohyun, who had looked at me as if I was making a fool of myself in the elective I took with Ahn Jisoo in my first semester of freshman year. He was that guy. So, Kang Soohyun had every right to hold me accountable. I bit my lip, tucking it into my mouth.

I had nothing to say.

“You don’t know how much I suffered because you suddenly bailed, do you?”

Honestly, I never expected to meet this guy again. In this vast university, among so many electives, to meet him again… The world really is small. And unlucky for me.

“As I said then, I’m truly sorry.”

“You’re sorry, right? Of course, you should be sorry. Instead, I’ll be lenient with you, so come to the blind date I’m setting up.”

“A blind date?”

A blind date? Why did that suddenly come up? As I was bewildered by this incomprehensible topic jump, four fingers spread out in front of my eyes. At the same time, my face scrunched up. It was something like a trauma that had developed since last semester.

Strangely, seeing intact fingers made me feel uneasy.

“Hey, could you move your hand…”

“Four-on-four. Yangyeong Pocha. I’ll send you the exact address later. Time is this Saturday, 7 PM. Oh, and you’re responsible for bringing one more friend. Someone decent, who fits the standard.”

Yangyeong Pocha? A blind date at a bar? No, are blind dates usually held at bars? I was contemplating a common sense notion I never thought I’d have to consider in my life. As I was trying to sort out my thoughts, which had been complicated by the sudden bombshell, a direct remark cut me off. The guy who had been rambling on about himself smiled triumphantly.

“If you don’t show up, this time I’m really taking your name off the group project. For being so despicable.”

“Wait, why? What?”

“Why did you suddenly cut off contact back then? Huh? You didn’t even show up for attendance, and that classmate of yours dropped out before even doing anything. Seriously, is everyone from your school like that? These bastards, really.”

He scrutinized me with a disdainful gaze, so I avoided his eyes and shut my mouth again. Regardless, I was indeed the culprit. I felt like I was being dragged into a trap against my will, and when I nodded with an uncomfortable feeling, he said, “Good. If you don’t come on Saturday, your name will… get the ‘fly away’ effect from the PPT list in the middle of the presentation.” And he clenched his fist firmly.

Come to think of it, Kang Soohyun was the team leader. He seemed to be in charge of making the PPT. I thought he was an amazing guy for readily volunteering to be the leader as soon as we met in an uncomfortable setting, but…

“And give me your number.”

“My number? Why?”

“To get a guarantee in case you bail again. It’s a dangerous world, you know.”

“…”

As I hesitantly held out my hand, Kang Soohyun swiftly placed his phone on it. I really didn’t mean to. I was just out of my mind. However, I didn’t want to explain the full circumstances. It wasn’t my situation, but Go Yohan’s.

After I pressed the last digit, my phone was snatched away as if it had been extorted.

“Ah.”

“I’ll call this number to confirm.”

He stared at me intensely with wide eyes. Soon, my phone rang. Not satisfied with that, Kang Soohyun even checked his own number displayed on the screen, then gestured by poking his eye and then mine, saying,

“Make sure you come on Saturday. Understand? If you don’t, you’ll be worse than trash.”

Kang Soohyun, who had been walking away majestically, suddenly stopped. And he quickly bent down and walked back towards me. It was a mincing walk. I don’t know why he did that, but as soon as he came next to me, he whispered in a small voice.

“Oh, I’m from the Department of Mechanical Engineering.”

One of my eyelids twitched. Is he… winking? I really hope not.

“Same year as you. Same age.”

“…Right, nice to meet you.”

As soon as he finished his greeting, Kang Soohyun scurried away again.

Sitting in the aftermath of the storm, I stared at the absurd reality.

“He’s a psycho, that bastard.”

Are you any less? I looked at the shameless guy with bleary eyes. He has no conscience. Doesn’t he feel ashamed saying that? No, before that, shouldn’t he reflect on his own character? I cautiously wondered.

“Yeah. He’s crazy.”

However, there’s a reason I didn’t say anything. It’s because my own character is equally shameless. But I’ve acknowledged and accepted myself. At least I have some conscience.

Even after graduating high school, my fate of scraping meal trays hadn’t changed. School lunch had just become cafeteria food. In other words, growing up didn’t change much. And my life was much the same. Just looking at the guy sitting in front of me proved it.

Go Yohan. A giant who finally stopped growing at 191 cm this year. The craziest person I know. And he can’t even use chopsticks properly. The quail eggs from the soy-braised beef kept tumbling onto the floor due to his clumsy chopstick skills. I stopped eating, scratched the bridge of my nose with my index finger, then put down my chopsticks and firmly grabbed Go Yohan’s hand. Then I speared a quail egg with a chopstick for him.

“Don’t pick it up, stab it.”

“You’re smart.”

“…”

Doesn’t Go Yohan hate me? His face, as he chewed the quail egg speared on his chopstick, was more peaceful than anyone’s. Only my insides were at war. I lowered my gaze and stared intently at his action of poking the next side dish. From that day on, Go Yohan changed the way he held chopsticks. Even so, it was still just as awkward. Like our ambiguous relationship.

Scratching the back of my neck, I secretly looked at Go Yohan, and as always, my gaze went to his lips.

It was a habit I still hadn’t broken. The moment I noticed my own gaze, I quickly averted my eyes and pretended to look elsewhere. My legs, hidden under the table where no one could see, twisted inwards.

“Is class manageable?”

“Manageable? It’s sickening.”

Go Yohan said, after chewing on the quail egg for a while and swallowing it. I lowered my hand and gripped my thigh tightly. Only Kang Jun on the table seemed normal.

“They’re already forming cliques, talking about being from foreign language high schools, Minjok Leadership Academy, or some private school. The kids only learn bad things.”

“Ah, I had that too.”

I nodded as a memory naturally surfaced. It was a few days ago. I don’t know how he knew, but a senior from my department, who was also from our high school, greeted me first and patted my back. He just told me to ask him anything if I didn’t know. That was all.

“…What?”

Suddenly, Go Yohan’s voice deepened. The hand holding the chopsticks twitched. His sensitive reaction pricked me. I put down my chopsticks and rubbed my forearm. I tried my best to answer as casually as possible.

“There was a senior from our school in our department, I guess. I don’t know if they heard it from the teachers, but they just greeted me and said let’s get along. After that, there hasn’t been much contact, just a greeting if we happen to run into each other in a major class.”

His sharp reaction lingered around me. “Ah-.” Go Yohan’s short reply wasn’t satisfying. It felt like he was giving an obligatory response, not a real answer. A short silence, punctuated by the clinking of dishes, flowed.

“Is it a guy?”

“Yes.”

I quickly added,

“But we haven’t really talked since then.”

Why was I making such excuses? I wondered, but couldn’t stop.

Constantly glancing at Go Yohan, I picked up my chopsticks again. I tried my best to act as if nothing was wrong. The side dish felt rough in my mouth. The side dish couldn’t be prickly, so it must have been my mouth. The chopsticks, which were about to spear a quail egg, slipped and violently jabbed the meal tray. I looked up at the loud noise. Go Yohan’s face was cold as a snake.

“What’s his name?”

Ah, I made a mistake. I bit my gums silently.

“I don’t know, I don’t remember.”

“Why don’t you remember?”

I continued, rummaging through the side dish I didn’t even want to eat.

“I just… didn’t remember.”

“…”

The crunching sound in my mouth filled my head. It was that quiet. I endured this silence, waiting for Go Yohan to speak. It wasn’t very difficult. It was surprisingly quick.

“Why wouldn’t you remember a senior’s name? Do you want your social life to be ruined?”

“Let it be ruined, then.”

I subtly raised my gaze. Go Yohan was, by then, chewing his side dish with his usual expression. His voice tone was still low and heavy, and his chopsticks remained still on the meal tray, not moving. He looked deep in thought. My chest felt subtly tight. It was uncomfortable, but not an unpleasant feeling.

I crossed my feet under the table. Fish were leaping in my heart. I opened my mouth, which didn’t open easily.

“Anyway, I’m going to keep hanging out with you, so who cares about a social life?”

“…”

Did he like my answer, or was he holding back? I secretly looked at his eyebrows; they didn’t twitch. Ah, he must have liked it. The face that appeared and disappeared like a midsummer night’s dream was etched into my memory, then vanished. His sharp voice became subtly gentle.

“Next time, let’s match our schedules. Let’s take electives together.”

“Okay.”

“And don’t just pick whatever you want like this time.”

“Hey, what do you mean, ‘whatever I want’? I put a lot of thought into it. Unlike you, who took a leave of absence, I had to recover my grades.”

“First-year grades are always a mess. It’s a time-honored academic tradition.”

“Then why didn’t you mess up first? You even skipped all the required electives.”

“What harsh words are those? You’re not even thinking of entering the job market anyway.”

“Aren’t you?”

We’re both in the same boat, having our paths decided. I looked at him with a bewildered gaze, and Go Yohan looked back at me with the same expression. Then he raised one corner of his mouth.

“Not me. My competitors are glaring at each other, ready to devour one another.”

“Ah…”

“What? ‘Siblings are a gift’? Tell them to cut the crap. The one who laughs last is the only child.”

Go Yohan bared his teeth and laughed. Seeing him, I also let out a hollow laugh.

“Then you should only have one child later too.”

“Wow, amazing Kang Jun.”

He lightly cracked his neck once, then chuckled with a half-joking, half-mocking expression.

“You’re even expressing your ambition to get pregnant with a man’s body.”

“…Hey.”

“Just kidding.”

Go Yohan lightly waved his hand and, avoiding my eyes, said softly,

“Don’t take it seriously.”

“…”

Our relationship was ambiguous. Without needing to say anything, we maintained just this much distance.

Go Yohan, who had been depressed all this time, hit rock bottom at some point, then returned to his playful self. To be precise, it was from the moment I started playing along with Go Yohan’s jokes. After that, we continued to maintain this atmosphere. A playful banter that made my feet twist on their own, and a thin glass wall between us through which I could see the other side. When did I start playing along with Go Yohan’s jokes? It was from the moment Go Yohan’s chopstick-holding changed.

While staring intently at his criss-crossed chopstick grip, Go Yohan suddenly spoke.

“Oh, and take me to the blind date too.”

“…?”

Did I hear him wrong? But Go Yohan’s face remained perfectly calm. I asked again, just in case.

“What did you just say?”

“You said to bring a decent friend. That’s me, without a doubt.”

I tried hard to suppress the sigh that escaped my lips. Good grief, Go Yohan really is an amazing guy in a different sense.

“You said Saturday at 7 PM, right? Let’s leave together.”

“Me, you… why?”

No, why there? Now? I was so flustered that I even stammered. Is Go Yohan… perhaps he wants to go to the blind date? I had said I didn’t want to go in a roundabout way. Why are you saying that?

An unpleasant feeling, like moss growing in the damp shadows, rose up. No, why? I bit my lip tightly, annoyed by his incomprehensible way of thinking, and Go Yohan put his chopsticks down on the meal tray and looked at me disapprovingly. It was absurd. Why are you looking at me with that expression?

“What, why are you looking at me like that?”

“You’re unbelievable. Were you planning to go without me?”

“No, I wasn’t going at all.”

“Why aren’t you going? You’re already struggling with retaking courses, are you determined to screw up your grades completely?”

“…”

“This crazy bastard…”

Go Yohan narrowed his eyes and looked at me with disdain.

“Are grades a joke?”

Is college a joke? Your grades last semester were a professor’s personal farm. You planted a lot of C’s. Farmers this year won’t have to worry about crops. They can just harvest from your grades. It’ll be a bumper crop, won’t it?

This…

This infidel bastard who would have been executed in medieval Europe. This bastard must have been burned at the stake in his past life for insulting Jesus. I exhaled sharply to quell the rising heat.

This time, I slammed my chopsticks onto the meal tray. The stainless steel tableware had turned into white plastic since coming to college. It’s like they’re telling you to eat environmental hormones and die quickly. This. I casually cast a crooked glance at the innocent meal tray. Go Yohan picked up the chopsticks he had put down. Again, in an X shape.

Damn it. I leaned back in the worn-out chair.

“Am I really going?”

“Yeah, go.”

“Can I really go?”

“Who said anything? I told you to go, didn’t I?”

He carelessly picked up and put down the greens. However, half of the side dish he picked up scattered onto the floor. How messy.

“Ah, damn it…”

Go Yohan frowned and brushed his thigh. Dirty side dishes fell to the floor. Bad bastard, who’s going to clean all that up? Even if the floor was already dirty, can you just throw it away so naturally?

He’s unlucky. Go Yohan is always unlucky.

“Wow, friend…”

Kang Soohyun reached out his hand and made a gesture of scanning Go Yohan’s tall body. Clear admiration was etched on his face.