CBR 16

Even when the theme stock he ambitiously invested in with his hard-earned money back in his freshman days crashed, he didn’t think he had been this stressed, but the throbbing pain in his head felt dangerous.

“Is that why you approached Min Yerin too? You’re really a terrifying person, Hyung.”

“So do you hate me now?”

Jaewon replied with an air of complete resignation. He felt like if he regained his sanity right now, he would give up on life. Hearing the question, Ma Chayun wore a caught-off-guard expression, then scratched the back of his head.

“…I’m not really sure.”

He mumbled with an uncharacteristically unclear pronunciation, then wiped his dry face as if confused.

“To be honest, watching you is uniquely entertaining, Hyung. How should I put it… I think I understand why my dad watches makjang dramas….”

“Then that’s fine. As long as I have you, that’s all I need.”

Finding a good property in the stock market was like a treasure hunt, so insider information was no different from a fortune. As long as he didn’t lose his informant, he would be able to catch another opportunity.

“By the way, is it really okay if I keep calling you Hyung?”

Fidgeting as if something was uncomfortable, Ma Chayun asked cautiously. Not understanding the question, Jaewon knitted his brows.

“What are you talking about? Then are you going to call me Noona?”

“But Hyung, you are the King’s Man….”

“Argh!”

Before Ma Chayun could even finish his words, Jaewon screamed and slammed his desk. Bang! Along with the roaring noise, all eyes focused on him. The secretive whispering grew louder, and the gazes of suspicion deepened further.

“Huh? Hyung, where are you going! Hyung!”

Jaewon stood up from his seat indignantly. Ma Chayun called out anxiously behind him as he stormed out of the classroom, but he didn’t stop.

He couldn’t take it anymore. Amidst the rumors that had snowballed in an instant, Jaewon had filmed Wuthering Heights, Pride and Prejudice, and Jane Eyre with Kim Dojun. Because of that, he was saddled with the extremely dishonorable stigma of being ‘the King’s Man’ and had to be put on display for the entire student body during every break. Moreover, there was an even bigger problem.

A male lead swept up in a scandal with a man—it was an unprecedented situation unheard of before. Tear-jerking flaws in the male lead should be more than enough, but Jaewon had not imagined in the slightest that his sole flaw would become himself. At this rate, he would have to watch the stock price plunge before he could even put the timber he had painstakingly found into his portfolio. He had to extinguish the situation quickly and make it as if it never happened. However, what drove him crazy was that the person responsible was sticking to non-response regarding the current situation.

Kim Dojun remained silent without giving any explanation to the pouring questions. He kept a poker face the entire time, and it was a common occurrence for him to frown in annoyance and disappear out of the classroom. Naturally, such behavior fueled the rumors, and even if this side cried out at the top of his lungs that it wasn’t true, there was no way it would work. Jaewon was surrounded by souls born in a kingdom of curiosity and pelted with questions to the point where the Holy Spirit was about to descend upon him. Before he dawdled into becoming a divorced couple with Kim Dojun, he had to use any means necessary.

Kicking open the rooftop door, a clear sky unfolded, and under it, delinquently dressed students were standing sparsely, puffing up tobacco smoke. Among them, reminiscent of pressure cookers, there was a figure that stood out like a crane among a flock of chickens. Leaning against the wall, smoking like a fashion shoot model, Kim Dojun spotted Jaewon and let out a hollow laugh.

“How did you know I was here again? You stalker bastard.”

“The shelter for nicotine addicts is obvious.”

Jaewon immediately fired back a response and marched straight forward. Approaching right up to Kim Dojun’s nose, he estimated the length of his arms and legs and took two steps back. Then he raised his head quite resolutely.

“I was wrong. Let’s forget everything and make a fresh start.”

It was a line like an uncle facing divorce papers right in front of his eyes, but nothing else came to mind. Looking mournfully at him, who lacked a single grain of reflection and was only full of desire to overcome the situation, Kim Dojun opened his mouth.

“Don’t you feel like you dropped something?”

At the out-of-the-blue question, Jaewon fell into a stunned state for a moment. He couldn’t help but be flustered by a comment not in his expected answers. Then, suddenly remembering the cash in his pocket, he flurried to look around his feet. There is no tragedy as great as losing money. While he spun around in place and scanned the floor, Kim Dojun’s voice continued.

“Your conscience.”

“…”

Jaewon’s busily moving body came to a dead stop. As he slowly raised his head to glare at Kim Dojun, he also countered with a icy gaze as if he had been waiting.

“When was it that you mugged someone playing in Jongno and dumped them in the Han River, and now that you’re falling in together, you’re asking to act like it never happened?”

“If I had known you were this handsome, I wouldn’t have done that. If you want to blame something, blame the sun. Because of the backlighting, I couldn’t see your face properly.”

It was a position where he had nothing to say since it was all true, but Jaewon, as always, had plenty to say. Damn backlighting. If he had known he had a face like that, even if he reported him, he would have filed a report for moving into his heart. When Jaewon burst out in rage over his grievance, Kim Dojun was speechless with an absurd face. He regained focus in his eyes only after the burning cigarette ash fell to the ground.

“What are you talking about? What does appearance have to do with anything?”

“It does. Nothing is more important to me than that.”

Jaewon seriously emphasized the importance of appearance. The most ideal form of investment that Jaewon thought of was value investing. Value investing is a method of investing in stocks that are traded at significantly lower prices compared to their intrinsic value—so to speak, picking out ugly ducklings from among a flock of ducks. In other words, it was a method where only investors who work tirelessly could achieve success.

However, when on earth would one invest and bear fruit if they had to look into which one was a swan and which was a duck one by one? The market is vast and properties are countless, whereas time is limited. ‘Choice and concentration’ are essential, and a promising tree has a different appearance from its cotyledon days. Time is tight just gathering guys who look like they’ll make it at a glance and measuring their intrinsic value, so how could appearance not be important?

It is often said that one should look at a person’s inner self, but the inner self is the inner self because it is invisible. As the saying goes, a good-looking rice cake is good to eat; shouldn’t what is visible be wonderful first for one to feel like looking inside? Only when the external appearance is equipped does it become worth looking into the inner self.

“What… ah, I’m going crazy. Why can’t we communicate when we’re speaking in Korean?”

Kim Dojun, who had attempted to say something several times, mumbled with an expression fallen into skepticism. As if confused, he wiped down his face, then menacingly raised his eyes.

“From now on, don’t speak and only answer.”

“What kind of noise is that, like an Open Church closing its doors…”

“Shut up and just answer what I ask.”

He protested against the contradictory order, but was blocked by a rough shout. Sensing that the atmosphere was unusual, Jaewon demurely shut his mouth.

“Do you know Kim Jonghak or not?”

“I don’t know. Is he handsome?”

He couldn’t understand what on earth that paper-crepe-like guy was for him to torment a person like this. When Jaewon promptly answered, Kim Dojun’s face distorted absurdity. Not knowing which one would grow into a flower, he had asked with the mindset of watering every weed, but seeing his reaction, it seemed to be a garbage stock. He immediately erased Kim Jonghak’s name from his temporal lobe.

“If you had just one of either a conscience or eyesight, you wouldn’t be able to ask that?”

“Then I don’t know. I only remember handsome guys.”

Jaewon proudly expressed his belief. Looking at him dumbfounded, Kim Dojun sneered with one corner of his mouth raised.

“So screwing me over like that wasn’t a plan, but a ridiculously exquisite coincidence?”

“Of course. It was just part of embodying social justice. Pure youths who shouldn’t know the taste of nicotine are ruining their environment and health, so how could I just stand by?”

“…Embodying social justice?”

Jaewon nodded his head sharply with a smile. Usually, by this point, the other person either loses their mind and rushes in or gets persuaded by logic and becomes quiet, and Kim Dojun looked closer to the latter.

“It’s the same thing as punishing Ahn Doo-hee with the Stick of Justice. I had no personal hard feelings against you.”

“You sure work hard to utter bullshit.”

‘Was I seen through?’

He thought he had almost won him over, but listening quietly, he turned grim, and Jaewon clicked his tongue in disappointment.

“I wondered what you were talking about with that open mouth, but I just wasted time. Get lost.”

“Ehey. It’s troublesome if you act like this, as someone who should know better. I have my standing too, you know.”