Eighteen’s Bed Novel Completed - Chapter 81

Go Yohan slowly shook his head. Go Yohan, who had let out an exclamation, said this to everyone:

“Honestly, Jun is being too kind here.”

What is he talking about, all of a sudden?

“You see it too, right?”

Go Yohan asked the guy sitting next to him. He was a guy with no presence. “Huh? Uh, well…” At that answer, Go Yohan raised one eyebrow.

“Hey, why aren’t you answering?”

“Huh?”

“You see it too, right?”

Go Yohan drew out his words and opened his mouth wide. His eyes weren’t smiling. It was a threat delivered to the guy who wasn’t giving him the answer he wanted. The weak herbivore caught in Go Yohan’s trap of coercion bowed his head deeply. His eyes subtly glanced towards the classroom door where Oh Yeonjun had left.

“Uh, yeah. I guess so.”

Go Yohan pointed at the guy who had just given the coerced answer and said this:

“See? I wasn’t the only one who thought so!”

That smile was genuine. Go Yohan scrunched his nose and clapped his hands rapidly now. Clap, clap, clap, clap, clap. Then he shook his fist and cheered. Only Go Yohan’s cheers echoed alone in Go Yohan’s classroom.

Suddenly, Go Yohan was defending Kang Jun? Everyone was flustered by this puzzling shift in atmosphere.

“…What is it?”

I couldn’t fathom Go Yohan’s true intentions. Then I thought it must be just another one of Go Yohan’s whims. Perhaps he was setting a trap to torment me.

Before something happens, the groundwork for it is laid. Sometimes, things I don’t think about, things I don’t force to happen, become that groundwork. I’m not an omniscient god, just a high school student whose brain works a little better than others, so I don’t know what will happen in the future, nor its groundwork.

“What, really… What is it?”

I even became a little timid. To be honest, I started to distrust my own mind. I, who likes—damn, saying it like this is a bit annoying, but I definitely become an idiot in front of the guy I like—couldn’t possibly make a wise judgment. Go Yohan’s puzzling and relaxed demeanor made me wonder if I had perhaps misunderstood. Had I perhaps just speculated what I wanted to think? Suddenly, fear washed over me.

Then lunchtime came.

Oh Yeonjun, who had been acting like a fool in front of me, approached Go Yohan when it was lunchtime. But Go Yohan, unlike usual, didn’t bolt out of his seat the moment the bell rang and head for the cafeteria. It seemed they really did eat lunch together, as Oh Yeonjun approached first and asked Go Yohan if he wasn’t going to eat.

“What are you talking about?”

That was all the answer he gave. At that moment, a cool sensation of pleasure shot up my spine.

Unable to contain my excitement, I subtly turned around and looked at Go Yohan and Oh Yeonjun. Go Yohan just stared intently at his tiresome rubber ball, kneading it. Throughout that trivial play, Oh Yeonjun failed to get Go Yohan’s attention. Then, my eyes met Oh Yeonjun’s.

“…”

It was absolutely not my intention. I wasn’t trying to tease him either. However, Oh Yeonjun looked at Go Yohan and me with a flustered face, and then, after thinking about something, his face turned beet red, and he left the classroom.

Of course, unlike when he was angry at me, he threw out a pathetic remark.

“Today’s lunch is tteokbokki.”

It couldn’t be more pathetic and miserable. Is that even something to say? I barely managed to suppress my embarrassment. Go Yohan didn’t even answer that remark. What he mumbled to himself much later, while throwing the rubber ball alone, as if for everyone to hear, was even more ridiculous.

“What? It’s tteokbokki, so what am I supposed to do about it?”

His tone genuinely conveyed a lack of understanding. At that, I couldn’t hold back my laughter and buried my face for a moment, shaking. When I finally cleared my throat and stood up much later, I felt a little tired, pretending to be so, in case anyone had heard me laugh.

As one or two people emptied out of the classroom, I swallowed hard. Sweat beaded on my palms. Honestly, I felt a sense of tension too. It wasn’t that I was thinking anything in particular; it was just the situation I was in.

“…”

At that moment, a strange image of Go Yohan and my legs intertwined popped into my head. I don’t even know why I had such a thought. That’s just how high school brains are.

Damn it. Of all things, that image made my stomach tingle.

What was most maddening was when Go Yohan, who had been fiddling with the rubber ball behind me, subtly got up and sat in front of me as soon as the classroom became quiet. That soap scent again. Go Yohan, who sat quietly in front of me as I naturally opened my textbook, was surprisingly quiet and well-behaved.

I pretended not to notice Go Yohan and silently solved problems in my textbook. There was a rustling sound.

“…”

“…”

We said nothing.

Unable to endure the silence, I raised my head. And our eyes met.

“You really study hard.”

Go Yohan was leaning on the desk, looking at me. I stiffened and gave a foolish laugh. Still, I think I managed to laugh quite well in front of others. Because Go Yohan was the first to avert his gaze. At that reaction, my thighs involuntarily trembled. Fortunately, there was no major change in my expression.

Go Yohan, who had averted his gaze, gently stroked the corner of my desk with his finger. My attention was solely focused there.

“Jun, where are you going to eat?”

What should I say here?

I lowered my head again and scratched at my textbook. But all I saw was white paper and black letters. I meaninglessly crossed out number 3. Because it was in the middle. I drew lines across the answer for number 3, then suddenly lowered my gaze to number 5.

The speaker feels joy in the conversation with the person described in ㄱ.

The graphite slowly descended and circled number 5.

“Jun, you heard it all.”

“…Heard what?”

I replied, feeling my heart pound uncontrollably. It was impossible to pass this off without answering further. And I slowly raised my head. I had just raised it. I froze for a moment at Go Yohan’s face, which was incredibly close to mine.

“Tteokbokki.”

However, old habits die hard. Without realizing it, I replied stiffly.

“T-tteokbokki?”

“Didn’t you hear?”

I didn’t answer. In fact, I heard everything, but I acted a little mean because I didn’t want to be caught having heard it. I didn’t want to reveal that I was still paying attention to Go Yohan.

“…”

Go Yohan’s eyebrow subtly twitches. It’s an expression of dissatisfaction. Yet, he doesn’t pick a fight like last time. Something has definitely changed. At that reaction, I involuntarily got excited and played to my strengths. It was a habit. I’d lived my whole life like this, so it was hard to change. A slightly brazen and indifferent expression naturally appeared on my face.

“What?”

At the same time, my body, scared, clung to the very edge of the chair. I avoided Go Yohan, who was trying to get closer to me. Go Yohan lowered his eyes as if thinking something, then said just one word in a slightly dark and heavy voice.

“Hey.”

“Huh?”

To be honest, I was a little scared. But isn’t pretending not to be my specialty?

“…Damn it.”

Go Yohan finally ran his hand through his bangs and swore. And then he stayed still for a long time. The pressure of Go Yohan’s presence was heavier than I expected, and I sweated in my hands the whole time I watched him. I needlessly clenched and unclenched my hands. I swallowed hard out of fear of that pressure, yet I still acted bravely. I pretended not to be intimidated by this atmosphere, acting relaxed.

As expected, Go Yohan was troublesome. It was a dead end.

“…”

Fortunately, it seemed I was the winner of the starting contest, for now. Go Yohan bit his lip slightly, declaring defeat. No, he seemed about to declare it. Until Go Yohan raised his head again and leaned his face close to mine.

“I said that so you could hear it.”

Damn it… I pulled my body back sharply and blinked. It was an instinctive action to hide my bloodshot eyes.

“…What did you say?”

After taking a small breath, I gripped the innocent chair tightly. And then I added what I was curious about.

“Tteokbokki…?”

My finger joints tingled. It was because the uncontrollable surge of excitement had stiffened my body. Go Yohan looked at me, then replied in a subtly wet voice.

“That I said you were kind.”

“Huh?”

“And then I said, ‘What’s with tteokbokki?'”

Crazy, is this bastard crazy?

“All that, I said to you. You didn’t like that Oh Yeonjun bastard, did you? That bastard must have been embarrassed, right?”

And Go Yohan’s eyes sparkled, as if asking for praise. I unconsciously coughed lightly. Why is my body suddenly acting up like this? Damn it. To hide my face, which was reddening from embarrassment, I rubbed my cheek with my palm.

I saw his cunning attitude again and turned on the emergency lights. As expected, Go Yohan was a no-go. I hurriedly buried my head in my textbook. That rubber ball, which could bounce anywhere, was dangerous. I desperately tried to regain my composure and opened my mouth.

“…What’s gotten into you?”

“What do you mean, ‘what’s gotten into me’?”

Go Yohan pressed his upper body against my desk and leaned his face close. That pressure grabbed my neck and forcibly pushed it down. I pressed my lips together, closing my mouth tightly.

“You ignored me all this time, and now you’re being kind again, like flipping a switch.”

At my accusation, Go Yohan was silent for a moment. But I couldn’t see his face. He happened to have his head down. Fortunately, the silence didn’t last even 60 seconds. A cunning voice crept in from between the white stacks of paper.

“Jun.”

His voice was incredibly gentle and soft. I had never seen Go Yohan speak in such a voice before, so I was startled and stiffened.

“Don’t do this, please.”

Because of his inexplicable behavior, I ended up speaking a little harshly.

“I don’t understand why you’re talking to me like this now, and why you keep playing these tricks…”

“Ah, sorry, sorry. I’ll restrain myself.”

Restrain himself, my ass. I furrowed my brow and glared at Go Yohan.

Why did I glare at him then, of all times? Because of that, my eyes met Go Yohan’s again. Damn it. I was scared and instinctively lowered my gaze, but then I thought, ‘No, if I do this, I’m losing, aren’t I? How long are you going to live like a dog?’ That thought flashed through my mind, and I hurriedly lifted my eyes.

“Ah.”