Eighteen’s Bed Novel Completed - Chapter 57

He didn’t finish his sentence, but I understood what he meant. I stopped probing and shut my mouth. To be honest, I didn’t expect him to say that much. To be precise, I didn’t expect Han Taesan to notice. Han Taesan, knowing something I didn’t, without any evidence? It was surprising.

Thinking about it differently, perhaps this was an experience. Han Taesan, who had openly received sexual gazes from men, and I, who had only been beaten by Han Junwoo, must have lived lives with different perspectives.

“Taesan.”

-Y-yeah.

“You seem too sensitive.”

And Han Taesan and I, who lived different lives, made different decisions as well. Han Taesan’s flustered voice echoed through the speaker, as if he hadn’t expected me to react this way.

-H-huh?

“Things like this sometimes happen between friends, don’t they?”

-K-Kang Jun.

“Do you have any reason or evidence to think that?”

I asked with truly no ill intent, in an innocent tone. Can you tell me? I heard Han Taesan’s flustered breathing after hearing my question.

-His, his eyes…

“His eyes? That’s going too far.”

Han Taesan wouldn’t see my smile. I smiled brightly. His eyes, just his eyes? With just that? Without any evidence? I immediately became convinced. This was Han Taesan’s delusion of persecution. Han Taesan was certainly out of his mind sometimes. I recalled the way Han Taesan used to look at me. My bright smile gradually twisted. Han Taesan had every reason to hate Go Yohan. He definitely would.

-No. No. Kang Jun. I know. He… he’s strange. He’s a strange kid.

“Taesan.”

I firmly cut off Han Taesan’s words. How dare you call Go Yohan strange? To be honest, it would be a lie to say I wasn’t angry. I just endured it without showing it.

“I know you’ve been through sad things.”

• …

“But I don’t think this is it.”

-No. Really…

“Thank you for caring enough to tell me. Really.”

And who are you to spread rumors about Go Yohan? What if it gets into the wrong ears and he ends up like Han Junwoo? Listening to the upright but always reckless Han Taesan’s words, I expressed my dissatisfaction in a gloomy way. It was a warning, as in, stop meddling in my life.

“Taesan. Let’s do this. We’re in our last year of high school now, so how about we promise to study hard?”

-…Hm?

“It’s just my request for you. The remaining year is our last chance, isn’t it? We had a lot of bad things happen, even in our second year… You could have even been in our class, but you couldn’t because of those things. Now’s the time to pull yourself together and focus on studying. Both me and you. Right? We have to go to a good university and make Grandma happy, right?”

-…Kang Jun.

“Why?”

Han Taesan’s shallow breathing wheezed. I read his reaction and immediately realized what was going on. Ah. These bastards must have been doing messed up things to each other again. One obsessed and got angry, the other avoided and ran away. I shook my head at their patheticness.

This was enough. I wasn’t interested in their story. After much thought, I opened my mouth.

“Taesan, my parents just came in, so I think I need to hang up.”

“Huh?”

“I get scolded if the call is too long. I’m sorry I couldn’t listen to all your story. I’ll hang up quickly. Let’s talk next time, okay?”

-…Oh, oh… I’m, I’m sorry.

“It’s okay, nothing to be sorry about. Then, good night?”

I hung up without waiting for an answer. Deciding that from now on, I wouldn’t answer calls with restricted numbers.

“Harder, harder, harder, ha, haaah…!”

Naked bodies writhed within a small rectangle. A large hand violently slapped a plump buttock. The delicate flesh swelled red. I quickly scanned the figures in the video and swiftly turned off the screen. The loud symphony of moans abruptly ceased. I casually swung my arm, and the earphone cord hooked onto my ear. I pulled the earphone out of my ear with force. Then Go Yohan’s sullen voice was heard.

“I’m disappointed in you.”

I turned my head to see Go Yohan half-reclined on his bed. His body was slumped, buried in the blanket, but his expression was dynamic. I didn’t even acknowledge Go Yohan’s words. I moved the mouse to hide the video file deep, deep, deep within the drive and changed its name. ‘English Lecture.avi’. It was a light name, perfect for such a shallow trick.

“To think the best you could come up with was putting porn on the computer. Jun. I’m really disappointed in you.”

“Be disappointed. Who told you not to?”

“Do you think our family would fall for such a shallow trick?”

“No?”

Of course, they wouldn’t. I wouldn’t fall for it either. I looked at Go Yohan with the same pathetic expression.

“Would you fall for it?”

“Of course not? Absolutely not. Especially not our family.”

“Then why are you asking?”

“So why are you doing this?”

“Idiot. I’m not putting it there to fool them, I’m putting it there to prepare to fool them.”

I pointed to the ‘English Lecture’ file. The file whose original title was ‘Seductress Fucking Two Men’. At my words, Go Yohan pouted his lips. Grumbling to himself about whatever displeased him, Go Yohan then pulled the blanket over his head.

Soon, only a pile of blankets remained on the bed, not Go Yohan. Humph. The top of the blanket twitched from Go Yohan’s childish snorting. I turned the chair I was sitting on and quietly watched the gently twitching blanket, then said,

“Because people prefer perverts to gays. And 3P isn’t even that perverted, I guess.”

“So you’re going to make me a pervert?”

“Yeah. Isn’t that better than being gay?”

“No. I don’t like it.”

“Why again? Where’s a better way to lie than this? So, are you just going to go to your dad and tell him you’re not gay without any evidence? Isn’t that even stranger? You have to plant the seed of ‘what if’ and then push forward. Or do you have a better way? If you do, tell me.”

“…”

The blanket, rising like a mountain range, remained silent. He had nothing to say himself.

“Then I’m turning off the computer now?”

Moreover, this act wasn’t just for Go Yohan. While copying the prepared video, I checked all the videos on the computer. Fortunately, there was nothing, so Go Yohan’s words weren’t a lie. I pretended to be nonchalant and pressed the close button.

“Oh, turn it off.”

Go Yohan stomped his foot. Thanks to that, the bed vibrated, and the bottom of the blanket twitched violently.

I shook my head and turned the chair back around. After pressing the screen a few times, the computer turned off with a loud noise. With no hard drive spinning, the room was as silent as night.

“…”

Now that he accepted it so readily, I felt a little sorry. Was ‘pervert’ a bit too much? But I thought 3P was a mild option. It must not have been from Go Yohan’s perspective. I glanced at the quiet Go Yohan, then subtly turned my head.

“Hey. Yohan.”

I called, but there was no answer. I scratched above my eyebrow.

I’d rather he grumbled like before. Since he’s covering his face and hiding under the blanket, only wheezing, his attitude somehow feels strangely pathetic, making my heart heavier. I forcibly moved my creaking joints. I cautiously approached and grabbed the blanket over Go Yohan’s head.

“Are you mad?”

I tried to lift the blanket out of worry, but Go Yohan, like a ghost, immediately sensed it.

From inside the blanket, a large hand pulled the blanket tightly. How prickly. At that action, my lips naturally jutted out.

“So narrow-minded.”

“It’s not narrow-minded.”

A muffled grumble from under the blanket answered my jab. My jutting lips retracted. I preferred complaints to no reaction. I felt subtly excited. But not wanting to reveal my excitement, I deliberately lowered my voice and said,

“If it’s not narrow-minded, then what is it?”

“If you think about it, it’s true.”

“What’s true?”

When I asked, Go Yohan’s long finger suddenly popped out from under the blanket. Before I could prepare, Go Yohan’s hand lifted the blanket. Go Yohan’s body scent wafted from the fluttering blanket. A soft yet heavy scent.

I quickly turned my head to avoid revealing my excited face. Because of that, I didn’t see what expression Go Yohan made when he said this.

“Imagine you and I are sleeping together, and a woman is in the middle. Of course, it feels disgusting.”

As soon as I heard this, my excited mood plummeted.

What? Relationship? Who with whom? Why is the example you and I, of all people? I glared at Go Yohan in disbelief. Go Yohan, who was burying his head in the blanket and looking up at me, stared at me with a face full of complaints, then suddenly burst out laughing.

“Look at your face. Crazy.”

He laughed so hard that I could see his fangs for the first time in a long while.

“Jun, stop falling for it. You’re really too funny. This is driving me crazy.”

Go Yohan overtly teased me. I pressed the space between my eyebrows with my finger and said,

“Are you kidding me right now?”

“I’m not the eldest son, I’m the second.”

“Ah, really!”

I forgot I was angry at his absurd joke and slapped my forehead, collapsing onto the mattress and letting out a hollow laugh. It was so absurd it was funny. So absurd. Go Yohan, who bit his lip after seeing me laugh, slowly crawled over and gently bumped my thigh with his head.

And as he looked up at me, his sparkling eyes seemed to be saying,

‘Can I put my head up?’

Then, without even asking permission, he secretly lifted his head.

I put strength into my trembling thigh and pondered and pondered. Should I let him off? Should I let it slide? But at that moment, I saw Go Yohan’s hair tangled in the white blanket due to static electricity.

“…”

If I start letting him off just once, I’ll never stop at just one time.

I knew that from my experience of having a crush on Han Junwoo. The sight of Kang Jun foolishly running to the hotel was a nightmare I never wanted to see again. I moved my leg. Go Yohan’s head, trying to invade my thigh, lost its place and bumped into the innocent mattress.

“Ow.”

Go Yohan, with a slightly frowned face, looked at me with a resentful expression.

“It hurts.”

“It doesn’t hurt. You just lightly bumped it on the mattress.”

“My heart hurts. My heart.”

He pouted his lower lip and whined. He lifted his head, which was sprawled on the mattress, and tapped my thigh with the top of his head. I put my hand on Go Yohan’s head to stop his cute antics.

“Who told you to put your head on my leg without permission?”

“You’re really heartless.”

Go Yohan, who had been smiling slyly, suddenly stopped smiling and turned his head away. He was sulking again. Damn Go Yohan. This makes my heart soften again.

“You’re just too brazen.”

I turned my head, trying not to look at the back of Go Yohan’s head. I also clamped my mouth shut. I was afraid I might say something rash if I said anything at all. Like, ‘Fine. You can put it up,’ or ‘Are you sulking? Don’t be angry.’ Looking at that small back of his head, those words seemed to burst out.