Eighteen’s Bed Novel Completed - Chapter 38

When I returned, my parents weren’t home. It seemed they had gone abroad again while I was at school. The housekeeper also seemed to have gone out to buy dinner. It was truly an empty house.

First, I went into my room and put down my bag. My head had been spinning so much that I was exhausted. My limp body automatically stuck to the chair. I wanted to rest. I sighed, feeling a slight fever on my forehead. In a place filled only with my presence, a strangely suggestive feeling arose.

An empty house. A tired body. And eighteen years old. That combination sometimes gave me a unique sensation.

I glanced around for a moment. Surely no one was here. Only after checking two or three times did I gently grab my waistband. Then, after a moment’s thought, I took the tissue from the desk and placed it next to me. Locking the door on the way in was a bonus.

“……”

I pressed my hips tightly against the floor and caressed the buckle area of my pants. My hesitant hand soon went inside my pants. With a slight lift of my hips, my waistband was already right below my buttocks. Perhaps caught together, my underwear also came down. Looking down at the thin underwear under the black school uniform pants felt a little too explicit and uncomfortable.

I exhaled briefly through my nose and grabbed my lower body. At first, I only touched it with my fingers.

My thighs tensed up. My legs bent automatically. It felt like needles were pricking the back of my knees. Stimulating images continuously flashed through my mind. Just as I was about to reach the peak of excitement, a scene that invigorated me suddenly came to mind.

‘If it’s wet, I guess I’ll have to suck it?’

Damn it. With those words, my toes curled up.

“…Why did that come to mind all of a sudden?”

Why? I thought deeply as I threw the tissue into the toilet. I closed the toilet lid and flushed. The loud noise interrupted my thoughts. After long deliberation, my conclusion was that Go Yohan’s suggestive jokes were quite to my taste.

Just as the flushing water in the toilet swirled and was sucked into the drain, the messy whirlwind that had occurred in the classroom also subsided.

The classroom is a toilet. A dirty life where all kinds of filth are mixed in. From this summer, I started to detest the classroom. But even within it, something lovely emerges.

Like Go Yohan’s small, sharp canine tooth.

Today, I was a bit late for school. It was because I overslept.

Of all days, why did Han Junwoo come early on the day I was late? The moment the classroom door opened, my eyes met his dark, sunken ones. He looked at me, and I didn’t avoid his gaze either. There was a bit of defiance, wondering what he was looking at. I adjusted the strap of my bag. Not too fast, not too slow. I walked at my usual pace to my seat and put down my bag.

The closing ceremony for vacation was short. The principal’s mumbling over the broadcast for only 10 minutes during morning assembly was the entire closing ceremony. As soon as the broadcast ended, the kids who weren’t taking supplementary classes hastily packed their bags.

“Quiet! I haven’t told you to go yet!”

“Ah! Teacher. We knew it would be a 10-minute closing ceremony anyway, can’t you let us go early?”

“I have something to say, so sit down quickly!”

The homeroom teacher hit the desk with the attendance book several times. The teacher, who was initially just naive, had become quite skilled after experiencing the exasperating misbehavior of these eighteen-year-olds a few times.

“When you come back after vacation, you’ll be a third-year high school student, right? You’re now at the final stage of your long exam preparation. Don’t give up until the very end, and let’s finish strong. You guys are real troublemakers, but you’re still my students, so I won’t give up until the end either. If anything happens, be sure to call me. You all know my number, right? If you make a prank call, I won’t let it go, so be warned. I’ll either deduct points or inform your third-year homeroom teacher that you’re a student to watch out for. So, you know. Now! Have a fun vacation. Those who are staying for supplementary classes, take a short break and then do your supplementary classes, and those who aren’t, go home quickly without disturbing those who are studying!”

“Oh—. Teacher, how touching— Ahh!”

“Shut up. Go.”

Kim Minho, excited for vacation, whined disgustingly. The other students in the class pretended to gag, or followed Kim Minho, also saying, “Ahh! Ahh!” Dirty bastards.

“Goodbye!”

Following the class president’s shout, a half-hearted greeting spread loudly.

Anyway, that’s how vacation began.

“Now. If you substitute this formula into this number…”

Haaam. A loud yawn came from beside me. I turned my head and saw Go Yohan. As if by unspoken agreement, Go Yohan stuck to the seat next to me even during vacation. And the original owner of the seat hadn’t applied for supplementary classes. Therefore, since it was an empty seat anyway, there was no need to ask for permission. He had yawned so widely that there were tears in his eyes.

I poked Go Yohan’s arm with the back of my mechanical pencil.

“Sleepy?”

“If math doesn’t make you sleepy, then you’re crazy.”

I let out a small laugh at his shameless remark. He was right. Already a third of the class was nodding off. Go Yohan was included in that. A slight mischievous urge came over me.

“Want me to wake you up?”

Go Yohan answered with sleepy eyes.

“Mmm.”

He must really be sleepy, his voice muffled and mumbled. It’s not difficult. I placed the mechanical pencil next to Go Yohan’s arm, pretended to scratch the desk with my fingers, then grabbed his white wrist. I subtly twisted the grabbed wrist and hit an unguarded spot with my index and middle fingers.

“Ah!”

“Go Yohan. What are you doing?”

As if he had excellent hearing, the math teacher, who was writing equations on the blackboard, asked with an annoyed voice.

“I cut my finger on the book.”

He lied so shamelessly. Did he only lie every time he breathed? Why was he so natural about it? Heh heh. I covered my mouth to suppress a giggle. Go Yohan glanced at the math teacher and then protested to me in a small voice.

“Hey. That hurt.”

“You asked me to wake you up.”

“I asked you to wake me up, not make me scream?”

“You’re the one who screamed, why are you blaming me?”

“Hey, you…”

Go Yohan glared at me with a face full of dissatisfaction. As I flinched, Go Yohan quickly whispered into my ear.

“If you don’t play, you lose. Rock-paper-scissors.”

“Hey!”

Damn it, that expression earlier was all a strategy. He must have been trying to make me drop my guard. Go Yohan put out scissors, and I put out paper. I lost. Go Yohan, triumphant, raised one corner of his mouth and beckoned with his finger. I bit my lip slightly and rolled up my shirt sleeve. The math teacher was currently writing meaningless formulas on the blackboard.

Now’s the time. Go Yohan glanced around and hit my wrist.

I covered my mouth and bowed my head deeply. I tucked my struck hand between my knees. Ah. It hurts. I secretly looked at Go Yohan, who was resting his chin on his hand, pretending to look at his desk.

“Ahem. Turn off that local broadcast over there.”

The math teacher warned in a lowered voice, but no one was listening anyway. All the students in the class had lost interest in the lesson. The ones who were good at studying were self-studying, and the ones who were moderately good were hiding earphones in their arms and listening to online lectures. From the very back, you could see the lecture screen hidden under their desks.

“If you don’t play, you lose. Rock-paper-scissors.”

This time, I went first. But this time, I made a fist, and Go Yohan made paper. Go Yohan brushed my thigh with his palm just like I had done earlier. With each small brush, my thigh flinched. Go Yohan, who finally pulled out my wrist hidden between my knees, grinned.

“You’re dead now. I didn’t say I’d save you yesterday, did I? Huh? Right?”

“Hey. Gently. Gently…”

“Gently is what I’m holding. Clench your teeth. Got it?”

“N-no. Hit me lightly. Can’t you hit me lightly?”

“Jun.”

His playful voice deepened and became rich. My heart dropped to the floor, then bounced to the ceiling. I tried to suppress my overturned heart and lifted my head.

In front of me was the cause of my emotions. Eyes that pressed down on me with an intense focus. The Go Yohan who was as light as a feather had vanished like a lie. All that remained was the strange, strange Go Yohan. That fleeting change exhilarated me.

“Then it wouldn’t be fun.”

A low whisper tickled my ear. A long thumb slowly rubbed my reddened wrist. Two ironic emotions settled in my solar plexus. The instinctive joy and the rational fear. The beginning was joy, but in the end, fear consumed me.

The reason was always the same. It was because I didn’t want to be hated. The desire not to expose all my emotions seized my anxiety. I might get my heartbeat exposed like this. I hate it. I’d rather die than be exposed.

I desperately twisted my hand to pull it away. But I failed immediately. Go Yohan’s hand wouldn’t let me go. The strength was enough to make my wrist turn stark white. In my flustered state, I looked at Go Yohan as if pleading.

“Let, let go.”

“……”

Go Yohan’s dark eyes, devoid of playfulness, stared intently at me. It was even more flustering because his eyes seemed to be interrogating me. Why was he looking at me like that? It was such an unfamiliar expression that I couldn’t understand the reason at all.

My heart pounded as if it would burst. His long fingers still pressed and stroked my wrist. It was subtly coercive. Now, I might really be exposed. That anxiety stimulated me even more. Now, I clenched my teeth and tried to pull my hand away. My hand turned not just white, but pale.

“Let go…”

“You, why.”

Finally, Go Yohan’s mouth opened.

“On that Post-it note.”

“I told you to turn off that local broadcast over there!”

A shriek covered Go Yohan’s words. The math teacher threw the chalk. The chalk flew directly at me. This time, I wasn’t lucky.

“Ah!”

A stinging sensation landed on my cheek. I instinctively covered my cheek. I hastily looked up at the math teacher. The already furious math teacher pointed his finger at me and said.

“Next time, it won’t end with just a warning.”

“I’m sorry.”

Damn it. There were so many kids clearly messing around, why was he only giving me hell? As soon as he heard my words, he turned around and I glared at the back of his head as he wrote useless characters on the blackboard. It didn’t hurt much, but it felt bad. Why chalk all things? I gently rubbed my cheek with my hand.

Just then, a long, cold finger slowly intertwined with my fingers on my cheek. The hand, creeping in through the gaps between my fingers, settled there, covering the back of my hand and the part of my cheek my hand couldn’t reach. His remaining thumb very slowly caressed the part of my cheek near my nose.

Go Yohan tilted his head slightly. The sunlight was shining behind him. He said silently.

‘Sorry.’

I froze, unable to pull my hand away, bound by the atmosphere. Fortunately, my awakened reason hastily pulled my hand away and turned my head. But even though nothing was touching me now, I willingly became captivated by that strange sensation. So I didn’t have the presence of mind to ask Go Yohan what he had asked me.

Yes, this side of Go Yohan is subtly kind.

Damn it. I hate this side of myself too. I bit my lip tightly and looked at the blackboard. It was a very bad choice. I wish I had looked away just one more minute later. Because I ended up making eye contact with Han Taesan, who had openly turned his body halfway.

Han Taesan was looking at me. Specifically, at my emotions and actions.

“……”

To hide my emotions, I hastily picked up my mechanical pencil and buried my head in my workbook. My rapidly beating heart wouldn’t stop.