Eighteen’s Bed Novel Completed - Chapter 170

“Because I want to see Go Yohan right now, that’s why I can’t.”

I looked at Kang Soohyun, who didn’t understand like an idiot, and grinned, stretching my lips wide. Well, what would a science major know? It suddenly felt like I had said too many useless things to Kang Soohyun, but then the thought of having to search for the address to send to Go Yohan made me let it slide.

I was annoyed earlier because he kept interrupting the call. I even managed to think of sending a different address in that situation. Yeah, what does Kang Soohyun know? Drunk, my foot.

I chugged the lukewarm soju I had been fiddling with all at once. And with a triumphant expression, I looked at Kang Soohyun and said,

“See? Not drunk.”

Putting aside Kang Soohyun, who was bustling around, saying he had to leave, and hurrying out of the store. I quietly looked at the all-you-can-eat ticket on the messy table.

How pathetic. Though I don’t know what’s pathetic about it. Is it the appearance of the ticket, or is it me? I didn’t even know which of the given answers was correct, or if the correct answer was even among the given answers, so I decided to just clear my mind. Finally, I moved my sluggish body and picked up the ticket. Where should I put this?

“Ah, my wallet.”

I can just put it in my wallet. Ah, I’m so smart. I shoved my wallet into my back pocket, stood up, and picked up my coat, which reeked of meat. This is truly the worst. But what can I do?

I put on my coat and left the store, heading towards the large intersection. Even though it was past 10 PM, the streets were still noisy. The nightlife of adults and high school students is so different.

The class that can enjoy culture and the class that merely longs for it are different. Looking at it now, there’s nothing more depressing and disgusting than the club flyers scattered on the ground, but when I wasn’t an adult, how much I longed for even the shabby symbols of adulthood. Cigarettes, alcohol, sex. It was like that then, and I still think it’s a terrible pretense now.

Alcohol not consumed to get drunk, but to show off to others. Cigarettes were not smoked because life was truly hard, but to appear tougher than others. Sex not because of true love, but because everyone else was doing it, because all the cool guys were doing it. What value was there in any of that?

There are times when my 12 years of desperate struggles become laughable in an instant. This is one of those times. Perhaps in a few years, I’ll look at my current self and say, “Are you a philosopher? You stupid bastard, you’re trying too hard to be cool.”

“How long am I going to act like a child?”

White breath escaped through my rising lips.

I arrived at the intersection where cars sped by. My hands felt like they were freezing solid, so I shoved them into my coat pockets and leaned against a dirty window. I vaguely saw a sticker on the glass I was leaning against. Pork intestines. Pork rind.

“What a shitty location.”

I straightened my back, moved my feet, and leaned against the pillar next to me. Thanks to that, the coldness of the brick transferred to my outer coat. As I shivered from the biting cold, the air that signaled the beginning of the night gradually descended onto the road.

At the same time, a familiar yet unfamiliar smell wafted. A cold, fishy smell. One corner of my mouth naturally curled up. I knew too well who had arrived.

“I hate myself too.”

“Wow, really?”

A figure that popped out from behind the pillar suddenly spoke. I turned my face and looked to the side. It was “as expected.”

Before I could even open my mouth, Go Yohan’s fingers hooked the edge of my coat between his index and middle fingers very gently. Just enough to feel a slight tickle, he pinched and shook it. And with that mischievous look in his eyes and an endearing tone, he complained.

“You came quickly.”

“It was right around the corner when I took a taxi.”

“That’s why I called you too.”

If it were too far, I wouldn’t have called him at all. I lifted my chin and boasted. It was strange, but I felt like I was treading on air right now. Go Yohan lightly tapped my cheek with the back of his hand and said,

“Smart, aren’t you?”

“I am smart.”

“Then why do you hate such a smart guy?”

“Well, because I don’t think I can keep the promise I made with you.”

“What promise?”

His eyes, which had been dripping with mischief, distorted. Then he asked, quite seriously. Wow, he said it himself. I was so dumbfounded that I let out a short, breathy laugh mixed with the cold air.

“Kang Soohyun went home.”

“Ah!”

Only then did Go Yohan open his mouth wide in understanding and clap his hands loudly. The sound of flesh strongly hitting flesh was swallowed by a motorcycle speeding by. Go Yohan’s left index finger, which had left his right palm and moved upwards, lightly tapped below his curved lips.

“Just kidding. I just said it. If he had been with us until now, I would have half-killed him.”

“You were just kidding?”

“Yeah, have you ever seen me lie?”

I’ve seen it a lot. I just shrugged, and Go Yohan lightly bit his lower lip.

“Jun-ah.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“You were cursing with your eyes just now.”

Busted. I just stayed still without saying anything, and Go Yohan suddenly burst into laughter. White breath rose towards the sky. As I stared blankly at him, Go Yohan stopped laughing and said,

“Guess whether I’m lying or not right now.”

What? A sudden, strange quiz show unfolded right in the middle of the street. Strong winds slapped my cheeks every time cars, clearly speeding, brushed past. Go Yohan lightly flicked his front teeth with his fingernail and finally spoke in a low voice.

“Go Yohan is hungry right now.”

“…”

An unbloomed flower fell heavily onto my collarbone. What else could this be but intentional malice, messing with someone’s heart like this? I forced strength into my stiff, hard-to-move jaw and answered.

“It’s a lie.”

“Wrong.”

Go Yohan lightly played with me. Then he twitched the corners of his mouth and scoffed at me.

“You can’t just judge arbitrarily when you can’t even be sure if it’s a lie or not by yourself, Jun-ah?”

“Hey. You really.”

Just as I was dumbfounded by his unexpected reaction, Go Yohan suddenly extended his right hand. Seeing his finger approach my eye, I panicked and instinctively closed one eye.

Go Yohan’s index and middle fingers pressed firmly on my eye area. His fingers, chilled by the winter wind, touched my eyelid and pulled with very gentle force. Only then did I realize that Go Yohan had grabbed my eyelashes.

“Ah, ahh.”

Perhaps due to his middle finger not having much strength, it didn’t hurt, but the sensation of my eyelashes being pulled was so unfamiliar. I leaned my face forward as if being pulled, and as soon as I saw Go Yohan grinning down at me, I hastily tilted my head back. And reflexively, I touched the area near my eye that he had grabbed.

“…What did you just do?”

“Touched your eyelashes.”

It’s always the same Go Yohan, saying things that make no sense. I wasn’t asking that. The lingering tension on my eyelashes made me rub my eye area hard, and tears welled up automatically. Seeing that, Go Yohan said,

“Because the shadow cast by the streetlight was pretty.”

I abruptly stopped rubbing my hand hard. But Go Yohan never gives me time to think.

“Poor thing. You’ll never be able to see your eyelash shadow your whole life.”

What he said next was as nonsensical as usual. I was too busy staring blankly at the ground illuminated by the streetlight to hear it at all.

And on the way back, I secretly touched my eyelashes with my finger. It was so ticklish.

All the way home in the taxi, we were silent in contrast. The car was filled only with the sound of the engine and the heater running.

When I rode alone, I always met talkative drivers, but strangely, when I rode with Go Yohan, I only met quiet ones. Do they talk to me because I look easy, and not to Go Yohan because he looks difficult? I pouted my lips. The suspicion, “What if,” soon turned into an inferiority complex. I knew it was a bad habit to delve deep, but today I was childishly so.

Anyway, Kang Jun, still a child. Honestly, Go Yohan and I are six of one, half a dozen of the other. My earnest self-reflection turned into self-reproach. I think I’m pretty good at self-loathing.

The air was already dry, and thanks to the heater, the roof of my mouth was stinging. I rolled my tongue to moisten my dry palate, but even with saliva, my cracked mouth roof remained the same. The only thing wet were my three fingers secretly held by Go Yohan, hidden from the driver. Leaning my chin on my hand and looking out the window, pretending not to be playing a trick.

Even though I was dumbfounded by his shameless behavior, I also didn’t pull my hand away. I just looked out the opposite window, chin propped up, just like him.

<Turn right in 300 meters, then you’ll arrive at your destination.>

The turn signal blinked, and a ticking sound was heard. It was as if it was urging us to get out quickly. Not that we were trying to resist leaving.

The taxi stopped, and Go Yohan pulled out his wallet from his pocket and accidentally dropped it.

“Ah, damn it—.”

At that moment, Go Yohan’s face seemed to turn a little red in the darkness, and I knew it when I saw his three fingers that hadn’t unfolded. I quickly moved, secretly watching the scene with a sidelong glance.

I gently pulled my held hand free and put it inside my coat. Ah, I had put my wallet in my back pocket earlier. It was a relief that I remembered right away. I wouldn’t have to do the slapstick comedy of patting my innocent coat to find my wallet.

“Can I pay with a card?”

The driver silently pressed the number buttons on the card reader above the heater.

“Wait a minute.”

“Mister, please charge this.”

“I said wait a minute!”

Go Yohan’s left hand grabbed my wrist, but I ignored him and held out my card. Since Go Yohan’s body was already leaning forward to pick up his dropped wallet, it wasn’t difficult at all. The driver, who didn’t care who paid anyway, pulled my card.

Go Yohan, who frantically reached for his wallet on the floor, belatedly pulled out his card, but it was already too late. A payment complete message arrived on my phone, and he lost the chance to pay.

I put the card, which had returned to my hand, back into my wallet and said,

“What does it matter who pays? Arguing about who pays here is more of a nuisance.”

“I could have paid first. You interfered.”

Those were the words I heard as I stepped onto the frozen ground. I turned around, and Go Yohan slammed the car door shut. I wondered if he’d get scolded for closing it like that, but contrary to my thoughts, the taxi silently drove away. Wow, what is this preferential treatment? I let out a hollow laugh. Huh, really.

“Next time, don’t lose to me, and I hope tomorrow is a quicker day than today.”

I said, looking at the back of the receding taxi. Staring at the fading red dot, I turned my body. And before taking a step forward, I added to Go Yohan.

“It’s cold, let’s go inside quickly.”

“That’s because your skin is thin and you get cold easily, but you only wear this rag.”

I felt a light tap on my frozen cheek with the back of his finger. Oh, what? Just as I was fumbling a bit, Go Yohan, who had quickly approached my side, chuckled. And then he suddenly took off his jacket. If I had any sense, I wouldn’t fail to know why he was taking off his clothes.

“No, don’t take it off. Don’t do that.”

“How do you know what I’m going to do and tell me not to?”

“You’re going to take off your jacket and put it on me.”

Then Go Yohan raised one eyebrow and stopped in the middle of taking off his jacket. The expression he made then, even I, with no talent for literature, could describe. ‘Busted.’ More blatant evidence was his slow movement of his eyes, as if trying to come up with an excuse or a lie.

Go Yohan, who lightly raised and lowered both eyebrows, said without a change in expression.

“No, I’m not.”

In the end, it seemed he decided to deny it.

“Then why did you take it off?”

“Because I’m hot.”

“But it’s cold.”

“Isn’t everyone’s standard different? Just because you’re cold, do I have to be cold too? Is this communism?”

He was truly shameless. I let out the same hollow laugh I had earlier when looking at the taxi.

“Hey, am I an idiot?”

“…”

Something feels wrong. I tried to recall what I had said, then stopped thinking because my head felt too light, as if it would fly away, and said again.

“Am I an idiot?”

But Go Yohan’s face was changing strangely. In fact, it looked like he was desperately trying to hide a bursting laugh. It’s just that his face looked like he was teasing me.

“Why is your expression like that?”

“What’s wrong with my expression?”

“It’s annoying.”

“Did you drink?”

“Yeah. I drank. There’s nothing I can’t drink. You puff on cigarettes too. I can drink a little too.”

I’m an adult too. Besides, if a person wants to run a big business, even if they can’t smoke, they should be able to drink a little. Isn’t that obvious?

“I drank nearly two bottles.”

“You drank two bottles and you’re fine? Wow.”