Eighteen’s Bed Novel Completed - Chapter 187

In the darkening room, Go Yohan picked up the straw whistle that had fallen somewhere on the bed. Then he held it between his fingers as if smoking a cigarette and blew air out as if exhaling smoke. Poo-woo—. His face, making a loud noise, was quieter and colder than anyone else’s. The inflated straw hit my cheek, and I instinctively closed my eyes.

Go Yohan dropped the straw whistle by merely parting his lips, without using his hands. In the world I saw through my slightly opened eyes, Go Yohan bit his lip slightly and scrunched up one nostril.

“You ruined the whole cake.”

“How is that my fault?”

“Just because.”

You’re so arbitrary. I slowly lifted my slightly lowered eyelids. That was the moment. Go Yohan stretched both arms forward, braced himself on the blanket, and brought his gloomy face close to mine.

“Do you need a present?”

“Am I supposed to receive it? You should be receiving it.”

“I don’t really want anything. I want to give it to you.”

“……Why?”

“I couldn’t celebrate your birthday. Things were hectic, and I was also… like that.”

How many people could truly get used to Go Yohan’s unpredictability? This confusing way of speaking was Go Yohan’s worst habit and his greatest talent. Sometimes people are drawn to incomprehensible beings so much that they want to dedicate their lives to them. Like the universe.

“Originally, Catholic baptismal names are the names of saints born on your birthday.”

“Yeah.”

“You choose a name you’ll use your whole life to commemorate that saint.”

“……Really?”

“But I can’t name my baptismal name Kang Jun.”

“……”

“So I’m giving you my birthday.”

Come to think of it, Go Yohan’s eyes resembled the universe. A faint gas enveloped his body, swirling around a black core. Indeed, Go Yohan seemed like a gaseous planet. So vast that one wants to approach, but the moment one does, one is pulled into a place with no ground to step on, drawn by immense gravity. Saturn, which melts and kills living things, was in Go Yohan’s eyes.

I swallowed, looking at my faint reflection in Go Yohan’s eyes.

“Then, did you prepare my gift?”

“Do you want it?”

“No.”

Whether there was a gift or not didn’t matter much to me. Go Yohan had clearly prepared a gift for me, but I deliberately broke away from his conversation. Judging by the soreness of my mouth, I was probably smiling.

There was no special reason. I just wanted to torment Go Yohan too. With a pure heart. That was all. Furthermore, words a good child would say flowed from my mouth.

“Who am I to receive a gift from you? I have no shame. I couldn’t even properly prepare for your birthday. Someone like me should die. I don’t deserve to meet you.”

“Hmm.”

At my words, Go Yohan nodded. His posture was exactly like a dog standing. It was so dog-like that I felt a little awkward. It wasn’t a human posture, but exactly like a dog’s. I grabbed Go Yohan’s shoulder and gently pushed him up, continuing to speak.

“So don’t worry about me. I won’t take a gift, and I’ll reflect.”

“Aha.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Jun.”

“Hm?”

“Do you want to die?”

“……”

Go Yohan, who had been pushed back by me, frowned one eyebrow and said,

“Just say you’ll take it while I’m being nice.”

“If your friends knew you were like this, they’d freak out and run away.”

“What? Let them run away.”

“I really don’t know why a bastard like you is so popular.”

“Why don’t you know? Because I’m rich and handsome, that’s why they like me.”

“……”

What am I going to do with this bastard?

As I clenched my fist slightly, Go Yohan, kneeling on the bed, subtly whispered.

“But I don’t think I’m that popular.”

“What are you talking about?”

Sorry, but I’ve heard things, so I can’t agree with your denial. I gave him a wry smile, barely visible, and playfully chided him. At that, Go Yohan turned his body to the side and made a face as if something displeased him.

“It’s true. I really wasn’t popular.”

“Yohan. Stop lying.”

“Ah, this is unfair. I was everyone’s boyfriend in middle school, I tell you.”

“Hey, what did you just say?”

Suddenly, the thread of my reason snapped.

What kind of outrageous nonsense was this bastard Go Yohan spouting now? All of a sudden, my mind felt numb as if I had been slapped. Was what he just said appropriate for me to hear? I absolutely didn’t think so. A piercing pain like a needle pricked my temple.

Ignoring my considerable confusion, Go Yohan merely chuckled at my reaction and said,

“When girls walked by, I was always the one they’d say, ‘Hey, your boyfriend’s walking by.’”

“You’re just saying whatever comes to mind because you think I don’t know.”

“It’s true. I definitely heard ‘Do you want to die? He’s your boyfriend?’ after that too.”

A lie. It was clearly a lie, but Go Yohan’s expression was as clear and transparent as someone who didn’t know how to lie. So, of course, I couldn’t help but be confused. It couldn’t be true, and I had never heard such a rumor, but still, a thought even crossed my mind that it might be possible.

I parted my lips and cautiously asked.

“Go Yohan, were you severely obese in middle school?”

“Jun, I’ve never lived an ugly life.”

“Then why?”

“How would I know? Maybe it’s because my personality was trash. I was in a terrible puberty for three years.”

“……”

Well… Go Yohan’s puberty… doesn’t seem to be over yet…

However, Go Yohan seemed to think the opposite of me. He was patting his chest with a faint smile, as if he had fully grown up. He even hummed a tune, so pleased with himself.

“I got hit a lot in middle school, and I became much calmer in high school. I matured.”

“You got hit?”

At the sudden remark, my body instinctively leaned sharply towards Go Yohan.

“You got hit?”

The first words I heard vanished into thin air as if scattered by the wind, and only the latter words remained in my mind. The fingers of Go Yohan, who had been stroking his neck, suddenly stopped. And then he looked at me, smiled even wider, and said with feigned innocence,

“Don’t make a fuss. I was hit with a very hot kiss. They said I was a lovely son.”

Go Yohan repeated the action of blowing kisses into the air from his palm. It was absurd, and clearly a lie. My lips trembled slightly in shock, then trembled again from the rising heat. My tightly clenched fists became sweaty. I was so angry I couldn’t control myself.

It was true.

I often remembered Go Yohan acting like a dog trained by his father. “Go Yohan in his unpopular days” is an incorrect sentence structure. The subject “Go Yohan” can never be unpopular. Similarly, “Go Yohan” and “fear” can never be attached. After all, Go Yohan was a peerless madman who had pulled out his own healthy teeth with his bare hands just for a performance.

“Seriously, why are you like this?”

But Go Yohan was still grinning, sprawled on the bed. As if nothing was wrong at all. I couldn’t drop my expression until the very end, and Go Yohan, who had been rubbing my ankle for some time, continued in a flat tone.

“Jun, I don’t worry about myself, so why do you worry about me?”

“Of course. Because.”

“You know.”

Go Yohan cut off my anger. With a still cool and calm face.

“I never lose.”

I’ve never lost once. There’s been no defeat in my life. I’m a person who will achieve victory by any despicable means. His eyes, light in color and unusually cool, spoke volumes.

I swallowed and nodded, but at the same time, I countered.

“But that—”

Sometimes, you have to admit facts you don’t want to acknowledge. That’s the case with Go Yohan and his father. I still feel uncomfortable seeing Go Yohan’s father. I don’t think they resemble each other, but sometimes, their appearance, speech, voice, and even habits are so similar that the two momentarily overlap.

I wrapped my arms around my bent knees. Go Yohan’s hand slipped off my ankle. I looked down at Go Yohan’s fingers, then raised my head, met his eyes, and said,

“Your father.”

“Father?”

“Yeah.”

There are times when I feel like I understand why Go Ro-sa says Go Yohan is the most loved child. After all, parents are naturally drawn to the child who resembles them the most. Like Go Yohan’s father, who suppresses Go Yohan but ultimately doesn’t let him go.

“He’s your parent.”

Could the current Go Yohan overcome a father who uses even the child most similar to him as a racehorse? How? There’s still no answer. I countered because of such worries.

However, Go Yohan didn’t seem anxious even after hearing my words. As if he was confident.

“That’s why I don’t lose.”

“On what grounds?”

I asked out of genuine anxiety and curiosity, but strangely, I ended up chuckling along with Go Yohan. He was so confident, it felt like there was a plausible reason. Honestly, my ears perked up. I leaned in and looked at Go Yohan, and Go Yohan narrowed his eyes and smiled.

“Don’t you know? The saying, ‘No parent can beat their child.’ Do you know what that means? It means I can never lose. Father started walking down the path of decline in his life after he decided to have children.”

Absurdly, Go Yohan’s answer was always dog-like logic. His slender face quickly buried itself back in the blanket. Through the stirring blanket, I could see his eyes looking at me. And a truly confident smile.

“From the moment I was born, Father’s destiny has been heading towards defeat.”

His shoulders, sprawled on the bed, slowly rose and fell. His face, half-exposed above the blanket, explained the reason. Go Yohan was laughing so hard he was making noise.

“I’m definitely going to win.”

“You’re talking nonsense again.”

“You shouldn’t ignore the wisdom of our ancestors, Jun. It’s a saying left by the collective intelligence of a long and venerable history. Wouldn’t they be smarter than us?”