NCBF Ch 46

“What do you mean ‘no’? If it was a ‘no’, why didn’t you say so earlier? Wow…. We hung out together like that every day, fuck.”

Ah, he’s swearing…. Yuwon looked up at Hyun Gyujin’s sensitive face, which was heavy with annoyance. Even amidst all this, his sensitive face looked so handsome.

“…Who did you do it with. A girl? A guy? Who did it first. Where…. Ah, never mind. Don’t tell me. I don’t want to know. Annoying.”

Just as he was about to properly explain that it was a joke, and that he had only done it with him in his dreams, the bell signaling the end of lunch rang loudly. Glancing at Hyun Gyujin’s face, which even looked hurt, Yuwon was about to open his mouth again when a low sigh echoed, looking as if the whole world were collapsing.

“…Let’s go.”

“It was a joke…. I didn’t do it.”

“…Got it.”

Looking at Hyun Gyujin, who didn’t seem to believe him at all even though he said he didn’t do it, a little worry colored Yuwon’s heart. This isn’t how it’s supposed to be…?

Even while heading to the classroom, except for seeming somewhat down and not looking in a good mood, Hyun Gyujin remained the same as always. He still climbed the stairs behind him as if protecting him, and raised his arm in advance to block the side and shield him in case someone ran down the hallway and bumped into him.

“I didn’t just say that, earlier all of that was really…”

Just as he was about to say once more that it was a joke, the teacher came in and tapped the podium. Yuwon had no choice but to go to his seat, sit down, and pull out his textbook. While the teacher prepared for class, he subtly glanced back, but Hyun Gyujin’s face, which should naturally be visible, couldn’t be seen. Seeing how he lay face-down abruptly after going several days without lying face-down in class, it seemed he was truly, deeply sulking.

“…”

He doesn’t even believe me when I say no, so how do I smooth things over for him…. Turning his body forward again, Yuwon pressed his lips hard with the tip of his mechanical pencil and fell into deep thought.

∞ ∞ ∞

Ignoring the warning to stop lying face-down and sit up three times, Hyun Gyujin was kicked out of the classroom alongside Choi Haeyoung, who had fallen into a deep sleep. After pretending to stand in the hallway for a short bit, they exchanged glances thinking it turned out well, and while the teacher was looking elsewhere, they went up the stairs and entered the art room.

As soon as Choi Haeyoung went in, he naturally pulled out a cigarette and put it in his mouth. Hyun Gyujin also desperately wanted to smoke a cigarette, but thinking Yuwon would dislike it, he merely stuck his hands in his pockets and sat down carelessly on a chair.

“Why do you have a dead face again? Did you break up with Spacey-Yuwon again?”

“Hey, when you’re dating someone, do you normally feel fucking great over nothing, and then feel fucking terrible again like this?”

“Of course. Emotional mood swings are fucking insane when dating. In the morning, seeing her text makes you feel damn good, but seeing her laugh with another guy immediately ruins your mood. Doing that back and forth all day long will smash your head in. You think just anyone can date? You can’t do it if you have a foul temper. For instance, a guy like you.”

“Don’t give me that bullshit. Fuck, if you can do it, why can’t I?”

Hyun Gyujin, who raised his middle finger and then lowered it, snapped his head back, staring meaningless at the ceiling where dust floated around.

“Why, do you have someone new?”

“No.”

“Then why are you asking that kind of thing?”

“Just because. A guy I know said he’s dating, but he’s acting like an idiot. He was grinning ’cause he felt good, then suddenly made it fucking obvious his mood plummeted.”

“If it’s so fucking obvious, it must be his first time. Acting pathetic like that making it obvious. Acting like a dick until he gets dumped.”

Since he didn’t say it was about himself, Choi Haeyoung wasn’t saying it directly to him, but it felt strangely dirty. Hyun Gyujin let out a sigh, trying hard to swallow the curses that kept trying to slip past his lips.

“…”

A kiss. That Jeong Yuwon had kissed someone. Who on earth could it be? There was no way to know who he did it with or when on earth he did it. No, he didn’t want to know, yet thoughts kept popping up, and even though he tried to erase the thought because he really didn’t want to know, like a broken machine, his head kept thinking only of that.

In the first place, Yuwon spent most of his time with him. Well, he wasn’t together 24 hours every single day so he couldn’t be 100% certain, but still…. Still, it made no sense that he didn’t know at all while Jeong Yuwon was going around doing such a loose thing.

‘It was a joke. I didn’t do it….’

Although he said at the end that it was a joke, perhaps because he didn’t say ‘no’ right away, it kept weighing on his mind.

Of course, it wasn’t as if he would come to dislike Yuwon or anything just because he had actually kissed someone else, but…. Still, still…. He felt a little hurt. No, in truth, a whole lot.

It wasn’t when they were dating, but when they were just friends, so there was no way he could know all of his friend’s dating history, nor was there any need to know, but still…. No, seriously, still. Hyun Gyujin let out a deep sigh again.

“Why are you like that? What is up with you lately?”

“What about me.”

“No, yesterday…. No, even up until eating lunch earlier, you felt damn good, so why the dead face all of a sudden?”

“Hey, how would you feel if Kim Junjae told you about him kissing someone?”

“I’d fucking kill him; why would I leave him alone? Ah, so goosebumps. Why do I need to know about whatever that bastard does? Isn’t that TMI almost on the level of knowing the brand name of the formula Kim Junjae drank when he was little?”

Looking at Choi Haeyoung, who scratches his arm furiously with a genuinely disgusted face, Hyun Gyujin let out a long breath again. Right, that reaction might be the normal reaction.

Most of the guys he knew didn’t particularly want to know about their friend’s private life, especially their dating history. It was because they knew all too well that the attitude of treating a friend and treating a girlfriend was very different.

Of course, his current situation was a bit different. Because Yuwon and he were no longer friends. Then, if he had found out when they were friends, would his heart not have felt strange like this?

“…”

No, even then, it would have been strange and felt terrible. Because it was Yuwon. It didn’t matter at all nor was he curious about who Choi Haeyoung kissed, but Jeong Yuwon was different. The fact that there was something he didn’t know about Yuwon was too much of a shock.

Kim Junjae, Choi Haeyoung

Kim Junjae

Hey literature teacher is fucking pissed off that you guys ran away

Tell him we died

Choi Haeyoung

Say Hyun died so I took him to the hospital

Hyun Gyujin, who typed roughly and put his phone away, walked to the window and sprayed the refresher once from a distance. Even though he didn’t smoke, he could be misunderstood because of Choi Haeyoung, so it seemed better to go through the basic procedure.

“Let’s go.”

“There’s still 10 minutes left until it ends, though?”

“If we go now and stand roughly around, we’ll get a earful and it’ll be over. Otherwise, we have to go all the way to the teachers’ office.”

“Ah, annoying. The problem is that he teaches so fucking sleepily.”

Choi Haeyoung, who threw away his cigarette butt, picked up the fabric refresher and sprayed it three or four times over his entire body with a chk-chk. Hyun Gyujin scowled at the artificial, heavy soap scent that even reached him. Thinking that a scent like this would come off him too, honestly, he disliked it a bit. It seemed better for him to carry around the perfume he used anyway. Since it suited him, and Yuwon also liked that scent very much.

“…”

His mood was still somewhat down, but he still missed Yuwon. What should he feed him for dinner tonight? Since they had eaten instant food, fried food, and stimulating things together too much lately, it seemed better to eat rice today. There was hamburg steak at home, so he should bring that over and eat it with Jeong Yuwon…. Having even thought up the dinner menu, Hyun Gyujin stepped out of the art room with Choi Haeyoung and went down the stairs.

∞ ∞ ∞

A heavy soap scent came from Hyun Gyujin. Yuwon recalled the fabric refresher he had seen when he went to the art room last time.

“Did you smoke?”

“No. I didn’t smoke. Only Choi Haeyoung did.”

“Then why did you spray it?”

“…To erase the smell Choi Haeyoung smoked, too. You don’t like it, the smell of cigarettes.”

Though he answered his question, he still didn’t seem to be in a very good mood. Standing in front of the crosswalk, Yuwon cast a subtle glance at him. He thought about properly telling him again that he was just playing a joke, but decided to postpone it for a little while later. Rather than doing it while walking outside, he thought it would be better to do it somewhat seriously when it was just the two of them.

Today was a day he had tutoring, so they would eat dinner together, and they could be together by themselves all the way until tutoring started. Telling him then that it was a joke and properly smoothing over his feelings sounded good.

“I’ll change clothes and go.”

“Yeah. Bye.”