Eighteen’s Bed Novel Completed - Chapter 89

I was speechless at Go Yohan’s absurd claim. Go Yohan, hearing me let out a bewildered puff of air, became even more excited and babbled on.

“You grew up pampered, didn’t you? You’ve never cleaned before, have you? What do you know, then?”

“Hey… What kind of window do you sanitize with sunlight?”

“You don’t know, do you? If you don’t expose them to enough sunlight, germs will grow.”

“What nonsense are you talking about? According to you, windows should be sanitized every day.”

“Right. So if I use a wet rag to clean the window, germs will grow on it again. If I leave it alone, it’ll sanitize itself. So not touching it is the best cleaning.”

“What kind of person is this…?”

Every time I tried to refute him, he came up with creative answers that left me dumbfounded, and I couldn’t even think of a comeback. I had never in my life encountered someone who so confidently spouted such illogical nonsense, and because of that, I had never won against such illogic. He subtly pretended to be logical, but when you listened, it was utter nonsense. I racked my brain and then gave up. That’s enough, it’s just giving me a headache.

“Judging by your expression, you’ve understood.”

“I’ve given up on understanding.”

“Giving up? Giving up is the first step to acknowledging other values. You can’t understand someone if you’re trapped by prejudice.”

“You, you, what on earth…”

“Me? What about me?”

“Who on earth taught you to be like that?”

At least, there were no psychos like this in Go Yohan’s family that I had seen. Who on earth taught Go Yohan to be like this? As soon as he heard my words, Go Yohan’s face hardened slightly, and he fell silent. The atmosphere grew heavy. Only then did I realize my mistake.

“No, I spoke wrongly. Please pretend you didn’t hear it. I’m sorry.”

Even as I said that, I scanned my surroundings.

“…I’m truly sorry.”

As soon as I said that, a few people subtly turned around with intrigued expressions. I bit my lip again, self-deprecatingly. I had once again bowed my head beneath Go Yohan’s feet. Pathetic Kang Jun.

“The world.”

Huh? I raised my head in surprise. There was Go Yohan, his back to the sunlight, wearing a slightly sad expression. This is crazy. I really must have said the wrong thing. An ice pick pierced the top of my head. I remembered Go Yohan on the day I made a mistake. My steps, soaked in apology and shame, moved one step closer to Go Yohan. And just as I was about to take a second step.

“The world made me this way.”

“…Huh?”

Was he serious? I didn’t know how to answer, so I just stared. I felt the muscles in my eyebrows droop downwards. Go Yohan looked into the air with a slightly sorrowful face, then at me, then suddenly sighed deeply and began to smile faintly. What? I straightened my body, which had been leaning towards Go Yohan. Go Yohan glanced at me out of the corner of his eye, then let out a mocking laugh with that playful expression of his.

“Oh, what. No one’s playing along, it’s no fun.”

While I stared blankly, he scratched the back of his head awkwardly, then lifted his butt off the windowsill and said,

“Cleaning finished.”

“…Is that really it? Really?”

“Of course, it’s real. When have you ever seen me lie?”

And then he walked over to his desk and picked up his bag. The familiar bag hung on one of Go Yohan’s shoulders. Really, really, is it truly over? When I looked at Go Yohan with suspicious eyes, he answered by shrugging his shoulders once. And then, with long strides, he stepped over the busy brooms, then went to my seat and picked up my bag.

“Hey, what are you doing?”

“What do you mean, what am I doing? We’re going home, aren’t we?”

Then he arbitrarily started stuffing pens and other things from my desk into my bag. Literally, he just threw everything on my desk into my bag. Finally, he slung my bag over his other shoulder and shoved his hands into his pockets. Go Yohan’s arrogant mouth opened. At the same time, Go Yohan’s sharp jaw subtly gestured towards the classroom’s back door.

“Let’s go.”

“…”

“Didn’t they say people who finished cleaning could leave?”

As I stood still, holding the broom, Go Yohan moved his long legs and strode over to me. And he gently took the broom I was holding. Uh… While I was spacing out, Go Yohan had already moved back to the rear of the classroom and put the broom in the cleaning supplies closet.

“Hey, you really. Why did you put that there?”

“What are you doing? Let’s go.”

At this point, I had nothing to say. I subtly scanned the classroom atmosphere. The children were all busy tidying up, chatting loudly as if they had no interest.

In this atmosphere, it should be fine to leave. My hesitant steps moved towards Go Yohan’s side.

Then, I suddenly realized that I had been worrying about something that the “extra-life” middle-tier kids I usually thought about would worry about. That realization, unfortunately, was completely forgotten by what Go Yohan said as he ran his finger down the back of my neck.

“Oh, good boy.”

And the master who tamed me wrapped one arm around my shoulder. I was involuntarily drawn into the liar’s warm prison. It felt exactly like being sucked into an irresistible black hole. Just as I was unintentionally being consumed by Go Yohan, the person who pulled me out of the swamp was truly an unexpected figure.

“Jun, are you leaving now?”

A timid voice called me. I turned around to see the homeroom teacher smiling, subtly pushing his bangs to the side. The hand that pushed his bangs swayed delicately in the air. That movement, from front to back, seemed to be calling me.

“Could you come here for a moment?”

“Yes?”

“You have something to pick up from the teacher, don’t you?”

“Something to pick up… Ah, yes.”

I naturally looked around and pushed Go Yohan’s hand away. Just one long arm that had been wrapped around my back disappeared, but it felt like a heavy rock had fallen off my back. Before heading to the homeroom teacher, I subtly glanced at Go Yohan’s face. Go Yohan moved his lips silently.

‘What is it?’

I lightly waved my hand as if to say it was nothing and quickly walked towards the homeroom teacher.

“I see, you were just going to leave, weren’t you? You weren’t coming, so I came looking for you.”

“I’m sorry. I’ve been a bit preoccupied lately…”

“Indeed, it is a time to be preoccupied. Here, take this.”

“Thank you for taking care of it.”

“Thank you? It’s just a repayment for what I’ve received from you. Now go quickly. That… Yohan must be waiting.”

“Yes, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Okay. See you tomorrow.”

The homeroom teacher’s small hand patted my shoulder, and I roughly folded the gray paper he handed me and stuffed it into my pocket. When I turned around and came back to Go Yohan, his gaze wouldn’t leave my pants pocket.

“What is it?”

“This? It’s nothing much. Just an early dismissal slip.”

“Why that?”

“Oh, I’m going to the hospital tomorrow. I got it in case I’m late.”

“Hospital?”

Go Yohan frowned slightly. What was there to frown about? I raised my right arm to show him.

“My right arm sometimes aches.”

No matter how much Go Yohan was, he surely wouldn’t ask beyond this. As expected, Go Yohan made an “Ah” sound and scratched his slender neck with a long finger. It seemed to be his way of expressing apology and embarrassment. Fortunately, Go Yohan didn’t ask any further.

It was truly the same as before. Go Yohan lay on the bed throughout my tutoring session, just like before. I felt unnecessarily awkward and made excuses to the tutor even though he hadn’t asked. Just like back then.

“My friend said he’d leave soon, but somehow we ended up together… Is that okay?”

“It’s fine as long as you don’t disturb. Did you finish all your homework?”

“Yes.”

This college student, who was teaching me simply because he attended Korea University’s business administration department, not because he was a professional tutor, didn’t seem to care much. As for me, I didn’t spend a long time worrying about a college student’s opinion, which had nothing to do with my internal grades, unlike a school teacher.