Eighteen’s Bed Novel Completed - Chapter 138 From That Moment On

It’s a sad thing to say, but I was no different from Go Yohan. Unlike Go Yohan, who could at least take a leave of absence, I had practically thrown away an entire semester, so to recover my ruined grades, I couldn’t afford to miss out on good marks in any class.

That’s why meeting Kang Soohyun was hell.

I should have known when I saw the interim presentation results. This bastard was worse than a freeloader. Especially his “first experience theory” presented in the second assignment was, frankly, disgusting to listen to.

“For the first night, a luxurious hotel overlooking the city’s nightscape is perfect. On a romantic day, at least dinner should be a fancy steak and wine at the hotel restaurant. Two years seems like a good amount of time to have known each other. Two years is just perfectly romantic.”

Why two years, of all things? Unconsciously, I wrote “two years” on the A4 paper where the assignment was written, then poked it with my pen. Noticing my bewilderment, Kang Soohyun said with an air of complete confidence.

“One year is too short to get to know each other, and three years is too long.”

“What’s the big deal? There are people who get married a week after meeting.”

“That’s a special case. If it wasn’t special, would people be talking about it?”

That made sense. Convinced enough, I shut my mouth.

“After dinner, they exchange shy glances. Both know something and are anticipating it. Ha, I’m going crazy. At this point, the man has to lead first. ‘Shall we go up?’ Ugh! That’s it.”

“Are you kidding me? This isn’t a drama.”

“The moment the woman agrees, they take the transparent elevator with stiff movements up to the room. And in that elevator, they quietly feel the silence between them…”

Kang Soohyun closed his eyes and stroked his body with both hands, as if he were the one experiencing it. It was a sight so disgusting it made my stomach churn and almost made me vomit.

“After crossing the hallway while kissing, they open the room to find scented candles lit. The woman will be touched.”

Now he’s stroking his cheek with his finger. His acting, deliberately shining his teary eyes and showing off, was truly hideous. I couldn’t bear to watch. I averted my gaze and threw my pen onto the desk. However, Kang Soohyun’s performance didn’t stop despite my blatant disapproval.

“Oh, darling! When did you prepare all this? Then the man says, ‘I rushed up and prepared it when you went to the bathroom. It was so hard. I thought I was going to die.'”

“Wait. How could you go up to the hotel and set up scented candles in just a few minutes?”

“Shh, poetic license.”

“…”

“The professor is a very progressive person. They don’t want a rigid report based on statistics, you know? They’ll want a very romantic and interesting plan. And when it comes to romantic, that’s me, right?”

“Are you sure you’re a science major?”

“Is there a law that says science majors can’t be romantic? Huh? Have you called the police? Have you sued me?”

Kang Soohyun, romantic? Why, how, on what grounds? He didn’t seem romantic at all. The way “romantic” came out in an assignment titled “Sex and Gender” was also baffling, and his mindset was even harder to understand than Go Yohan’s. I pressed the tip of my pen against the center of my lips, my face disgusted, and Kang Soohyun, noticing my gaze, twitched and wiggled his butt.

“My mom told me that if I get married, I’ll go crazy for my wife and abandon my mother!”

“Ah, right.”

Ah, I think I understand why Ahn Jisoo dropped the class before even taking it. She must have thought Kang Soohyun was hopeless. When I saw Kang Soohyun’s interim presentation, maybe I should have just asked him to add a “fly away” effect. I had a foreboding feeling that “Gender and Marriage,” a class I only took because the schedule fit, would end in failure after a forced start.

“It’s good that you worked hard on the topic, but…”

Feeling helpless, I pressed my fingertips near my eyebrows and sighed. I ruined one semester, I can’t ruin another. First, I picked up the pen again and pointed to “First Night” written by Kang Soohyun on a scrap of paper.

“Let’s think realistically first. It doesn’t make sense for a couple contemplating marriage to have never had a relationship after two years of dating.”

“Why doesn’t it make sense?”

“Usually, even if they don’t plan to marry, it ends within 24 hours at the earliest, or within a hundred days at the latest.”

This was a statistic calculated from my acquaintances. I was almost certain. So much so that Kang Soohyun’s shocked reaction felt strange.

“R-really?”

“Yeah.”

“Everyone does that when they date? Just one day?”

“Uh, yeah.”

My face hardened before I could finish speaking. Kang Soohyun’s cheeks had visibly reddened. The two cheeks, blooming like ripe apples on his rather rough-looking face, were incredibly awkward. It was not a pleasant sight at all. Covering his mouth with both hands, he looked at me with sly eyes and subtly dragged out his words.

“What, how do you know that?”

“…”

“Have you dated?”

Well, it’s because the things those bastards with dicks blab about in the back of the classroom are all the same. Instead, I doubted that Kang Soohyun truly didn’t know. A man wouldn’t know. I frowned even more without answering his incomprehensible reaction, and Kang Soohyun misinterpreted my silence.

“You bastard. You’ve dated a lot!”

Suddenly, his two fists, covering his face, trembled, which was truly annoying.

“No.”

“In high school, you were with girls… not studying like you were supposed to…!”

“I said no.”

Kang Soohyun just heard what he wanted to hear, then raised his cheekbones and made a strange laughing sound. He was so incredibly happy that his nostrils flared, visible even from here. In the end, he even put his feet on the chair and hugged his knees, which was truly painful to watch. Kang Soohyun, swaying in that position, carefully pulled his face closer without erasing his hideous smile.

“Then give me an expert opinion.”

“…What?”

“As, as an expert, I mean. What should you prepare for the first night?”

Expectation glittered towards me. It was quite burdensome. I didn’t hide my openly disgusted expression and pushed Kang Soohyun’s face with my palm. His face crumpled significantly, yet he kept pushing forward like a bulldozer, and the oiliness of his skin when it touched me was so repulsive I almost ran to the bathroom.

“Please, stop pushing your face so close. Please.”

“Ooh? Tell me. Huh?”

“Ugh…”

His nauseating aegyo made me involuntarily gag. If I didn’t throw something, he seemed poised to keep pushing his face closer. I swallowed my pride. Leaning back as far as possible from Kang Soohyun, I gave the most plausible answer. First, I let out a sigh of exasperation.

“…First, you’d have to prepare condoms, right?”

At least my acquaintances did. Of course, it wasn’t out of awareness for healthy sexual activity, but rather a boastful superstition that keeping condoms in your wallet brings good luck. Luck was just an excuse; those bastards wanted to show off their confidence as “men capable of using condoms anytime.” Worthless bastards. I instinctively frowned. But Kang Soohyun’s reaction was even more terrible.

“Oh my god, co-cond…!”

A hand as big as a pot lid suddenly smacked my back hard. Startled by the sudden impact, I opened my eyes wide and looked at him, and Kang Soohyun, who had been fidgeting on his chair, blushed and scolded me in a small voice.

“How can you say something like that where everyone can hear? This is a lecture hall, you know. You are immodest… shameless!”

“Ow, ow.”

My body swayed precariously from his fists hitting my shoulder. I couldn’t even think of dodging and just exhaled in disbelief. After hitting me a few times, Kang Soohyun cautiously looked around and continued with an anxious gaze.

“Ugh, you just seemed so perverted.”

“What the hell is wrong with condoms, ugh!”

He suddenly shoved my shoulder with his fist as if scolding me, and I bit my tongue. I tasted a trickle of blood, and a stinging sensation swirled around my eyes. Writhing in pain from my aching tongue, I cursed hundreds of times inwardly. If I ever associate with Kang Soohyun after this class, I’m not human. Kang Soohyun, still red-faced, said.

“Hey, then let’s do this.”

“Do what?”

“Since you’re experienced, you’d know the realistic errors that arise when executing the plan, right?”

“I’m not experienced…”

I was about to answer heatedly but stopped mid-sentence. Why should I shamefully blab to this guy that I had no experience? It was embarrassing enough to say I was ignorant about sex with my own mouth. I frowned and pressed my brow at the rush of embarrassment, and Kang Soohyun took that opportunity to blab.

“So, fairly, let’s correct the plan I made by having you execute it.”

“What are you talking about?”

I stuck out my stinging tongue slightly and inhaled. Then I glared at Kang Soohyun, who was speaking such pathetic words.

“Why on earth would I do something like that?”

“But I don’t have a lover.”

“Do I?”

“Don’t pretend you don’t. You are a popular guy. You and I are different. My school was so strict, you know? You’d get demerits just for making eye contact with a girl!”

I scratched the side of my head with my pen. I’m just realizing it now, but Kang Soohyun is from a pretty famous high school. A private high school whose name everyone knows. Truly surprising.

“I went to an all-boys’ school.”

“What’s wrong with an all-boys’ school? Look at soldiers, don’t you know they still go on blind dates and date during their leaves even when they’re in the army?”

“Then why couldn’t you? You should have dated during vacation. Your high school was co-ed.”

“You petty bastard.”

A resentful gaze shot at me from a thoughtless remark.

“Do you really need to… huh? Reveal the truth!”

Kang Soohyun’s voice trembled violently. His voice, openly soaked with tears and shaking, evoked a strange sense of guilt. I subtly turned my head and cleared my throat.

“And you said you have a lot of money. That all the land around Cheongsong is your family’s land? That you’re a local big shot who came to Seoul to study abroad. Then you can easily book an expensive hotel, right?”

“Ah, I told you, my family doesn’t own an apple farm.”

“Then what was that about selling apples? What about honey apples?”

“That was…”

How could I explain Go Yohan’s doing? But because of that one incident, I had somehow become the fourth-generation only son of a prominent family from the Cheongsong region.

“And I know you’re ignoring all the messages Park Soyeon is sending, you know? Be careful.”

I didn’t answer this time either. There was no need to explain; it was indeed intentional disregard. I didn’t have the generosity to converse with someone I wasn’t interested in and who wouldn’t be of any help. Especially if that person was coveting “mine.”

“Do you know how much swearing I’ve gotten from Soyeon? She’s been cursing me out for being a rude bastard who ran off after the meeting without a single contact. No matter how many times I tell her I don’t have your friend’s number, she doesn’t believe me. How many meals have I had to buy as a result? My allowance is all gone now, I’m broke. I even pack my own lunch.”

“Ah.”

“Ah? Ahh?”

Kang Soohyun looked at me as if I were a traitor. Indeed, I think he has lost weight recently. The way Kang Soohyun, whom I met in every lecture, looked haggard and said things like, “I have to eat rice with soy sauce,” or “Salt is my side dish,” must have been sincere.

“You ignored Gahee’s calls too, didn’t you?”

“Gahee? Oh, her…”

“‘Oh, her?’ Aren’t you truly a bad bastard? You acted like you were going to date her right away, then ignored her calls?”

But what did that have to do with me? I genuinely didn’t care if Kang Soohyun was dying or if Park Soyeon was angry about her calls being ignored.

“Did I do that with her?”