Eighteen’s Bed Novel Completed - Chapter 84 Han Taesan's Discretion

I gave a small nod amidst the bustling crowd. Now, there was no longer any need to feel guilty about building a friendship with Shin Jaehyun. Because I wasn’t an outcast anymore. On the surface, it seemed as though my war with Go Yohan was over, so there was no need to be cautious anymore.

Why did I end up reconciling with Go Yohan? It was all for this safety.

Perhaps he miraculously saw my nod from that far-off place, as Shin Jaehyun immediately flashed his characteristic refreshing smile and rose from his seat. I took out the key from my pocket and prepared to hand it over to the approaching Shin Jaehyun. The yellow key, held between my thumb and forefinger, was embarrassingly lukewarm. It was just like a chair someone had sat on and just gotten up from. Recalling that unpleasant warmth, I needlessly shook the key in the air. It was Shin Jaehyun’s hand that snatched the key, moving like an insect.

“Finally, I got it back. You have no idea how inconvenient it was when you suddenly took it.”

Wasn’t it lent to me to use? I looked back and forth between the departing key and Shin Jaehyun, flustered. The key, which had been carefully hidden in my pocket, was now heading into Shin Jaehyun’s pants pocket.

“……I forgot. Sorry for giving it back late.”

“No, it’s fine. It was just a mistake.”

“Thanks for it. I used it well.”

At my blunt expression of gratitude, Shin Jaehyun still wore his usual pleasant face and merely shrugged his shoulders. Was it affirmation, or denial? I couldn’t tell at all. His expression clearly seemed positive, but strangely, I kept doubting him. All this suspicion over minor things was all because of Go Yohan.

“Did you makeup?”

“Huh?”

“With your friend.”

Shin Jaehyun tilted his chin in the direction Go Yohan had left. Ah, a stupid sound escaped my lips.

“Yeah. It just kind of happened.”

“Good for you. Now you can live with a bit more peace of mind.”

“Peace of mind?”

“I was worried.”

Shin Jaehyun continued, subtly scratching near his chest with his finger.

“I was worried something big might happen for no reason.”

Was it that serious? I felt inexplicably uncomfortable being equated with someone who had the strange value of not making friends to avoid discrimination. It would be a lie to say I wasn’t offended.

“Uh-huh.” A short, sigh-like sound came from my hesitant lips, and Shin Jaehyun seemed to notice my feelings. Well, it wasn’t a pleasant thing to hear. Both of his hands, which had somehow slipped out of his pockets, were now placed before my eyes. But this guy, every single one of his actions, always had a foreign vibe to them.

“Still, I think it was a little different from what I imagined.”

“What was it?”

“A subtle feeling that can’t be explained in words…”

Pfft. Shin Jaehyun, who had exhaled air with pursed lips, instantly pulled back both hands he had extended towards me. It seemed to mean he wouldn’t say any more.

“No, this is too much like prejudice.”

Prejudice, a suspicious nuance. I tend to react sensitively to anything suspicious.

It was all a defense mechanism to protect myself. Sometimes, I felt that I shouldn’t miss the true meaning of what I had just heard. This was a “hunch” that arose just before I experienced something dangerous. I immediately imitated the fools who had just heard an interesting story. It was an act of minimizing suspicion and aggressive language as much as possible.

“Prejudice? Why? What is it?”

I asked with a forced, sulky smile. I even wiggled my butt as if I couldn’t contain my curiosity. The fools I’d seen did it this way. Then, usually, the ones being played would be overjoyed that their topic of interest had come up, and they’d blabber on with unnecessary nonsense. I looked at Shin Jaehyun expectantly.

“That.”

“That?”

“Hmm.”

Shin Jaehyun’s refreshing lips carefully parted. I naturally followed his movements with my gaze. However, what I heard from Shin Jaehyun was below expectations. He acted as if he was about to say something, then just blurted out this:

“No. Pretend you didn’t hear it.”

For a moment, my body, which had been moving in anticipation, almost swayed. Damn it. Then just keep your mouth shut from the beginning. It felt cunning how he threw out a strange topic to make me curious, then completely backed out. But Kang Jun wasn’t one to give up here. I was practically dying to hear anything related to myself.

“Ah, ah, it was an insult, wasn’t it?”

I pushed my body back as if I wasn’t curious at all. In truth, I was dying of curiosity. This method was what I used when I was truly dying of curiosity but the person who brought it up wouldn’t start talking like that.

“Okay. It’s fine if you don’t tell me. I absolutely won’t tell Go Yohan.”

I was forcibly framing him. If I said this, anyone would think I was going to tattle on him to Go Yohan, saying that guy insulted him. Then, usually, they’d blabber anything to explain themselves. If you arbitrarily decide that their words might be offensive to someone, most people usually get scared.

At least among the third-year students in this high school, it was a reasonably effective method.

In my first year, I used it by inserting Han Junwoo’s name, and it worked surprisingly well. I whispered softly to Shin Jaehyun, expecting the same result.

“I’ve received a lot of grateful help from you, after all.”

And I gently curved my eyes into a smile. Come on, open your mouth now. With that thought, I looked at Shin Jaehyun…

“Hey.”

“Huh?”

“When I asked you to pretend you didn’t hear it, I meant it because you shouldn’t hear it.”

That perpetually pleasant face, without a hint of change, scolded me with unexpected firmness. Of course, Shin Jaehyun wasn’t scolding me; he was merely expressing his words clearly. But I felt like a kindergartner being scolded by a kindergarten teacher, listening to Shin Jaehyun’s reprimand endlessly.

“I know you’re not the type to talk.”

“……Ah, yeah.”

“Still, I don’t think this is something to say to others… Ah, I should get going.”

“Huh?”

“I’m going. See you in the classroom later.”

Wait, just a moment. My efforts to hold him back just lingered in the air and crumbled away. In the end, I heard nothing.

Shin Jaehyun turned around without a moment’s hesitation and slipped away, cutting through the small tables next to the snack bar. Of course, I could have immediately gotten up and grabbed Shin Jaehyun. Even though his steps were strangely hurried, he wasn’t running. His gait was like a gazelle on the savanna, trying to appear relaxed in front of a predator. Even as a herbivore, it was trying to show the demeanor of an alpha male gazelle.

“……What the.”

The bell hadn’t even rung yet. Why did Shin Jaehyun suddenly disappear? As I thought that, a cold hand touched my cheek from behind. The chilling temperature soaked my cheek, making me shiver.

“Ah, cold.”

“Were you surprised?”

I turned around to see Go Yohan. I pushed my body back to avoid Go Yohan’s hand, then looked again in the direction Shin Jaehyun had disappeared. So, the direction Go Yohan came from and the direction Shin Jaehyun went were in a straight line. Did Shin Jaehyun see Go Yohan coming? Then did Go Yohan see Shin Jaehyun too? As I thought, my ear stung sharply, and I reflexively turned my head.

“Ah, ah!”

“Why?”

For a moment, I couldn’t figure out what had happened. It was only after a few seconds that I realized. Go Yohan had grabbed my ear and forcibly turned my head. My face turned red, and the thought process that had been speculating about Shin Jaehyun came to an abrupt halt. My attention returned to Go Yohan.

“What did you do?”

“Huh?”

“You, right now, why did you grab my ear…”

“Ah, ah—.”

Go Yohan playfully wiggled both eyebrows. He was acting as if he was naive.

“It’s just a joke.”

“A joke?”

A joke, he says. I was offended. I felt like a pet dog being scolded by its owner. Go Yohan, seeing my face automatically flush, covered his mouth slightly with a finger and made a troubled face. Then, as if making a decision, he slowly lowered his hand and said:

“You know, but let’s be clear about this.”

“What? What are you saying?”

“We didn’t just reconcile, did we?”

His lips, unusually pink from slurping on pink ice cream, pouted forward. And his narrow eyes were resentful of me. His still cold hand tightly gripped my earlobe, not letting go. It didn’t hurt, but embarrassment washed over me. Go Yohan subtly touched my ear until my face felt like it would burst, then, as soon as I raised my hand to grab his arm, he finally released his hand, committing a cunning act. His cold fingertips pressed my earlobe regretfully before pulling away.

“I was the one who reconciled with you.”

“What?”

Go Yohan raised his hand to point at himself and me, wearing an aggrieved expression.

“You know you couldn’t have done anything if I hadn’t said ‘let’s reconcile’ until the end, right?”

“……”

I was about to retort but then heard Go Yohan’s next words and shut my mouth. It was unfair, but it was true.

“When you think about it… you sometimes, no, surprisingly often, forget important facts.”

The biggest predator of my logic-filled reason was clearly Go Yohan’s self-centered values. Go Yohan, for whom the world revolved around him. Go Yohan, who, despite holding the weakness of liking men like me, was as confident as someone born a king and dying a king.

“……”

What was truly upsetting was that I had no counter-argument. I lost to Go Yohan’s absurd logic. When I fell silent, Go Yohan clasped his hands again as if in prayer and spoke in a tone full of regret.

“But don’t take it too seriously. Touching your ear didn’t have any special meaning. There was no malice. You know I play these kinds of jokes a lot, right?”

This time, it wasn’t a lie. Go Yohan certainly played worse pranks on his friends than what he had just done to me. He would grab their chests as if to rip them apart and torment them, and he would treat his friends as human trash, using them as playthings. So, this action was just one of Go Yohan’s ordinary daily occurrences. Likewise, I was just one of the props in Go Yohan’s ordinary daily life.

Go Yohan smiled, lightly spread both hands, and said,

“So, that settles it, right?”

Furthermore, the fact that I was a middle-class swimmer in Go Yohan’s pyramid remained unchanged.

“……Right.”

So that’s it. This is why Go Yohan gave me a superficial victory.