Eighteen’s Bed Novel Completed - Chapter 19

What is it, Go Yohan is needlessly pressing down on his plain rice with his spoon. His ears, visible for a moment, were red, as if he was shy.

Thinking about it, Han Junwoo was 32nd. And that was only because the other kids brought the average down for him to be 32nd. 32nd out of 36 people. Looking back, I realized that when I was obsessed with Han Junwoo, I didn’t even notice the small details unrelated to him.

And only then did I realize, clearly and to my utmost shame, that I had fallen into the pathetic state of being madly in love, a state I had so despised.

Conversely, Go Yohan seemed to have gained unexpected satisfaction from my words. His voice was different from earlier when he had hesitated to state his grade. This time, he spoke with a boastful tone, revealing his teeth.

“Right. Right. You don’t know, do you? I’m good at English.”

“Really? How much?”

“Perfect score. I’ve never had a single point deducted in English.”

“Cough!”

A completely unexpected word came out, and I ended up spitting out the water I was drinking. Go Yohan, in turn, scowled and pulled his meal tray closer to him.

“Hey, what? What’s that reaction?”

“No, it’s just, I was surprised.”

“Is that surprising?”

Go Yohan frowned one eyebrow and pouted discontentedly.

“Yeah. It’s because my Korean is at a 4th grade level, I guess.”

I answered his subtly self-deprecating remark with a playful tone.

“Read some books.”

“What are you talking about? I’m a total literary boy.”

“A literary boy, you say? I’ve never seen you read a book.”

“Well, that’s because I read secretly at home.”

“No, is there a need to read secretly?”

At my words, Go Yohan, who had been laughing with eyes curved, half-closed them and put a spoonful of rice into his mouth. And then he slightly covered the top of the spoon with his lips. Watching that, an uneasy feeling came over me, and I subtly bit the inside of my gums. Go Yohan looked at my face, then took the spoon out of his mouth, lowered his head, and kissed the tip of the spoon.

“Even adult novels are novels.”

It was clearly a joke. Damn it. I grabbed a crumpled tissue from beside my meal tray to hide my flushed face. And I threw the crumpled tissue at Go Yohan’s face. The tissue flew and lightly hit him below his long eyes, and the eye on the side where the tissue fell slightly narrowed.

Of course, it was none of my business, but I pretended to be sorry, just in case Go Yohan got angry.

“Don’t do weird, dirty things like that. Especially in a boys’ school, it’s disgusting.”

“Weird things? Oh. This? Han Junwoo’s thing?”

“Whether it’s Han Junwoo or whatever, just don’t do it.”

“Isn’t this what’s popular among us these days?”

“…”

I looked into Go Yohan’s eyes, unable to tell if he was teasing or serious.

My sleep had decreased. It was clear evidence that my body was feeling comfortable. The morning, which used to be stiff as if I had eye boogers, had turned into a quite refreshing and cheerful morning. This change was quite good, as the sins I wanted to avoid most were complacency and oversleeping. At eighteen, even sleeping can sometimes feel like a sin.

“Ah, damn…”

I frowned at the sound of my jawbone dislocating while brushing my teeth. Since being beaten by Han Junwoo, my jaw often clicked when I opened my mouth. Other than that, it was generally a satisfactory day. However, even in this peaceful life, there were times when I suddenly felt unpleasant. The cause of all that was Han Junwoo. More precisely, it was the incidents themselves that occurred because of Han Junwoo.

Most of those incidents happened at school.

“Oh, right. I saw Han Junwoo last night.”

Lee Seokhyun, who was eating a snack bar hamburger, rumored to be made from ground chicken heads or leftover meat scraps, said. Kim Minho grabbed Lee Seokhyun’s ankle and feigned hitting it with the side of his hand, then his eyes sparkled.

“Damn—right. Right. Seokhyun, you said it well. I was going to talk about that too. I heard it secondhand. You guys know Seungwan hyung, right? Right? Hey. That wandering gay guy. They say he’s at his hyung’s house?”

“Seungwan hyung? The pretentious Park Seungwan?”

Go Yohan asked, rummaging through a bag. His hand emerged with two small lollipops. And for some reason, he handed one to me.

“…”

I was flustered by the sudden candy in my hand.

“…What is it?”

When I looked at Go Yohan with a puzzled expression, he just lightly tilted his head. The one who reacted more strongly was Kim Minho, whose snack bag had been taken away.

“Damn it. I bought it, and you guys are eating it all. You damn bastards.”

“Didn’t you steal and eat mine? You pig.”

This time, Lee Seokhyun feigned hitting Kim Minho’s neck with the side of his hand. Kim Minho quickly turned his body, grabbed Lee Seokhyun’s collar, and pretended to throw a hard punch. They always did that and never actually hit each other. That was the relationship between Lee Seokhyun and Kim Minho.

I took my eyes off their trivial antics and looked at the lollipop in my hand.

The candy wrapper had a small lemon, split in half, drawn on it. Seeing just that, I thoughtlessly grabbed the end of the wrapper, pulled it up hard to peel it off, put it in my mouth, rolled my tongue, and then raised my head, only to hear,

“How is it? The taste of first love.”

Go Yohan grinned.

“I don’t like the lemon flavor.”

My answer was a critique of Go Yohan’s prank. Moreover, I wasn’t happy about ‘first love.’ That uncomfortable and unpleasant feeling lingered in my head and even made me lose my appetite. In the end, I couldn’t even finish the candy and threw it in the trash.

“What a waste.”

Go Yohan cupped his cheeks with both hands. I ignored his unfunny prank and rummaged through Kim Minho’s black plastic bag again, looking for a new candy. They were all either lemon or lime. Lime was better than lemon, so I picked up a lime-flavored candy. I unwrapped the candy, put it in my mouth, and said,

“Anyway, Seungwan hyung, isn’t that just like Han Junwoo?”

“Why? Because they’re both sluts?”

It was Go Yohan again, throwing sharp words. Feeling uncomfortable, I stared at him silently, and Go Yohan rolled the candy in his mouth with a blank expression. The white stick slightly went in and out of his mouth. I briefly took the candy I was sucking out of my mouth. I felt very uneasy. But Go Yohan didn’t care at all and started holding the candy and poking it around in the air.

“That hyung manages his clients by playing around flamboyantly, without distinguishing between tops and bottoms. And if there’s a good ‘customer’ among his regulars, he immediately tips off Han Junwoo. They take turns screwing and getting screwed.”

“So Park Seungwan is gay too?”

Kim Minho suddenly interjected. I didn’t know when their playful fighting had ended, or if they had quickly stopped their antics because they heard an interesting story. He cupped his chin with his fingers as if thinking. Next to him, Lee Seokhyun burst into loud laughter. Lee Seokhyun stretched out his arm and said,

“He’s not gay, but he’s like a brother to a gay guy. They share everything.”

“Exactly. They’re practically screwing each other.”

Kim Seokmin chimed in.

And so, Kim Minho and Kim Seokmin’s comedy routine began.

“Honestly, Han Junwoo got screwed over. He’s an idiot. You can tell at a glance, a young kid paying for a hotel? Wow, damn, usually it’s motels. Who’s such a sucker to go to a hotel? Oh, right, here he is. Hahaha. He even takes him to a hotel and offers young, plump meat. What did he get in return? Isn’t Han Junwoo a total whore?”

“He got eaten by mature ladies.”

“Exactly. He got eaten perfectly. Ah, damn—envious bastard. He was squeezed dry not just of money, but even the sperm in his balls. When he gets married later, his wife will be given empty balls.”

“Wife?”

There was a sound of candy being bitten and crushed. The white candy stick bounced up from Go Yohan’s lips. The tip of the candy stick was so tightly pressed by his teeth that it had lost its original shape and was hideously frayed. The stick, which seemed like it would bounce endlessly, soon plummeted to the floor.

“Are you talking about Han Taesan?”

The innocent teasing suddenly turned towards Han Taesan. I took my eyes off the stick on the floor and looked at Go Yohan. Go Yohan opened his mouth and put his thumb inside. Go Yohan’s teeth were quite sharp, his canines were truly pointed like awls. He pressed his thumb against the tip of that canine.

Go Yohan had this childish side. Sometimes, if everyone’s attention wasn’t on him, he would make the atmosphere hostile. What a childish brat, so immature.

And there were no variables. As always, Go Yohan drew attention to himself as he intended. Lee Seokhyun was the first to notice. Lee Seokhyun sat tightly on his desk, stood up, and clicked his thumb and middle finger together, making a clear sound.

“Right. Right. He was gay too, wasn’t he?”

At that, Go Yohan laughed. And then he suddenly spoke to me.

“Let’s eat one more snack. The bag, please.”

“Oh, oh. Hey! Wait, you guys! Yohan, Kang Jun. Don’t do that shitty stuff. Didn’t your teacher teach you not to steal, or your hands will get cut off before hair grows on your dick? Damn it. These bastards don’t know morals. Morals!”

“Morals my ass. It’s the fault of the one who wasn’t paying attention. Minho. I’m taking sausage bread.”

Lee Seokhyun also joined in the obvious theft. He snatched the bag I was holding and took out a sausage bread. The bag had already passed into Go Yohan’s hands. However, Kim Minho was more enraged by Lee Seokhyun taking the sausage bread than by the bag.

“Hey! Lee Seokhyun! You’re dead if you take that. Oh, crazy, really!”

“Oh. Yeah. Thanks, I’ll eat well.”

Amidst the ruckus, Go Yohan quietly peered into the bag, then took out a chocolate bread and a small snack. And he just threw the remaining bag on the floor. It was absurd. If you look closely, that bastard is the most selfish.

“Ah! Damn it! Stop it!”

Kim Minho shouted, looking at the scattered snacks on the floor. And like playing soccer, he used his left and right feet to gather them all between his legs.

“Minho. Just give in. Look at them. Aren’t they at the age when they’re always hungry?”

“Seokmin, you shut up. If you’re hungry, buy your own food! And you, Go Yohan, you shameless bastard. You and that goody-two-shoes bastard, spit out the candy you ate.”

Kim Minho reached out his hand towards Go Yohan, but Go Yohan just rolled his eyes in a circle and subtly smiled as if he didn’t know. And then, as if to show off, he gave me a chocolate-flavored bread.

“Here, this is yours.”

“…”

“What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“No. Thanks. I’ll eat it well.”

It was gratitude utterly devoid of sincerity. However, at my answer, Go Yohan slightly pouted his lips and feigned blowing a kiss at me with his palm. I again watched him, meaninglessly tearing at the bread. And the reason I unconsciously fidgeted my thigh was due to the fluctuating emotions of an adolescent boy who didn’t know what he was saying.

I left the bread on the desk and, sucking the lollipop in my mouth, replayed the conversation with Go Yohan, which had actually been uncomfortable. I knew well why that conversation was uncomfortable, but I didn’t want to admit it. I could see it clearly without looking, and it felt like I could grasp it if I reached out, but all I grasped was a thick, uneasy fog.

I held the stick and spun the candy in my mouth.

Was he really with Park Seungwan? Park Seungwan, who had no reliable connections, spent his school days like a hooligan, and after graduation, worked as a nightclub tout. Honestly, he was like a future Kim Minho. Weren’t Lee Seokhyun, Kim Minho, and Park Seungwan all living lives that were no different? It was utterly ridiculous.

“You bastards who ate my snacks, give me the money back! Ah, give me the money!”

Kim Minho shouted loudly. He showed no consideration for the students remaining in the class to study. The others were the same. Lee Seokhyun punched Kim Minho’s arm and yelled,

“You son of a bitch. The money you borrowed from me and ran off with could buy a hundred of these hamburgers.”

“Ah! My money!”

The back of the classroom became a chaotic mess with the screams of Lee Seokhyun and Kim Minho. They seemed completely engrossed in their wrestling match. Unpleasant glances from the front of the classroom drifted to the back.

“That bastard’s annoying these days.”

I turned my head at the words carried by the wind. Go Yohan was the source. For a moment, my eyes met Go Yohan’s, who was sitting in his chair.

“…”

Go Yohan looked at my face, then suddenly slowly extended his hand towards me. My gaze was drawn to his well-trimmed fingernails, and I sat stiffly in my seat. I just watched as Go Yohan’s long fingers approached and coiled like a snake around the white stick resting on my lips.

Go Yohan’s hand slowly pulled with force. The sticky mass slid down my tongue and brushed against my lips. And then, with a pop, the hot, heavy lump came out of my mouth.

“I’ll eat it well.”

The melted lollipop was shoved into his obliquely smiling lips. And Go Yohan, who stuck out his tongue and rubbed it as if wiping the saliva from my candy, smiled and said,

“Why?”

Go Yohan smiled a lot. But not all of his smiles were as pleasant as his humor.

“It’s gross.”

“Don’t you know? Exchanging saliva boosts immunity.”

“…You’re really gross.”

I tightly closed my lips, which were cracked and hard like dry earth. Go Yohan placed his hands on his thighs, then straightened his back, sliding his hands all the way to his knees, making his clothes rustle. I curled all my fingers and hid them in my palm.