NCBF Ch 12

Yuwon, after eating a few more french fries at the end, leaned his body back against the chair and sat. Having been forbidden from eating instant meals or fast food like this since he was young because his body was weak, perhaps that was why the flavorful, stimulating food he ate on academy days felt like a sort of rebellion to Yuwon. It was possible because his parents were busy and now he was quite grown up, so they no longer kept a personal supervisor at home.

Although his stamina was still weak and he fell ill much more easily than others, his health was still much better compared to before, so he was able to enjoy small rebellions like this. Yuwon smiled as he looked at Hyun Gyujin, who was popping the remaining last nugget into his mouth. Unlike himself, it was nice to see him eat anything with such gusto.

“You don’t have to wait for me until the academy finishes anymore. Nine o’clock isn’t even that late of a time…. The path home is all main streets, so there are plenty of people, it’s bright, and I can go by myself.”

“You’re a pervert magnet, so you can’t.”

“I’m not a magnet, honestly.”

“At that level, you’re a magnet. Back then, fuck, who was it? That perverted bastard from Gwonjin High was flirting with you at the academy too. He asked you to just watch him jerk off, didn’t he? Even back then, I went up because it was past the time you were supposed to come out and you weren’t coming out, and I caught it right then.”

When he was in his second year of middle school—that is, when Yuwon was even smaller than now, weak, and frail—it was no exaggeration to say that Yuwon was truly the target of all kinds of perverts. Because he was prettier and cuter than his peers, as well as looking fair and soft, there were ones who took a liking to Yuwon and tried to get with him somehow, and Hyun Gyujin had to deal with the perverts clinging to him at least once a week.

In that process, he had really seen all kinds of bullshit scenes. In particular, seeing those bastards getting hard just from looking at Yuwon while getting beaten up by him made him feel the most disgusted. He felt like he would go crazy from hating the fact that his precious friend had become the object of desire for such psychopathic bastards.

So from then on, Hyun Gyujin followed Yuwon around to the point where it wouldn’t be wrong to call it an obsession. Since there was no telling when or where a pervert might pop out, he accompanied Yuwon wherever he went and always kept an eye on his surroundings. The academy he went to study at was no exception.

Now that they had become high schoolers, and with word spreading around that he—known to be a crazy guy—was always by Yuwon’s side, the frequency of perverts appearing had decreased compared to before, but Hyun Gyujin knew that guys looking at Yuwon with strange eyes still existed here and there.

Because Yuwon’s gym clothes often disappeared, and things like drink cans Yuwon had set down after drinking or bread he had been eating often vanished during brief absences from his seat, he still couldn’t put his mind at ease.

“It doesn’t happen often these days.”

“Do you dislike me going?”

“It’s because I feel bad. Because you’ve been waiting for me to finish at the academy continuously for years.”

“It’s not like I’m standing outside the door waiting, I just play games and then go. Sometimes I go home for a bit and then go over to get some exercise while I’m at it. What’s so hard about that? Don’t say useless things, let’s go. Time is almost up.”

Standing up while grabbing both trays at the same time, Hyun Gyujin quickly cleaned up and went outside with Yuwon. Although it would be more convenient to keep an eye on his surroundings if he took classes at the same academy in the same class himself, he was holding out because he didn’t want to re-enroll after quitting previously following a huge fight with a guy who was talking trash to Yuwon at this academy. In any case, Yuwon had also said he would only attend this academy until this year and would increase the private tutoring he took with him or look for another academy in his 3rd year, so just two more months and facing this trashy academy pervert would be over.

“Call me if anything happens.”

“Yeah, see you later. Bye.”

Saying goodbye in front of the academy entrance, Yuwon went inside. Hyun Gyujin, who grinned at the cute farewell, pulled out his cell phone as it vibrated continuously. Over 100 KakaoTalk messages had piled up from Kim Junjae and Choi Haeyoung, who had gone ahead earlier to grab seats at the PC bang near Yuwon’s academy. He had no desire to read useless messages. Slipping his phone back into his school uniform jacket pocket, Hyun Gyujin entered the building next to Yuwon’s academy and got into the elevator. Then he pressed the 3rd-floor button labeled ‘Speed Zone PC Bang’.

∞ ∞ ∞

Cigarette butts were rolling around on the ground of the gloomy alley behind the building where darkness had completely settled. Looking at Kim Junjae and Choi Haeyoung exhaling cigarette smoke, Hyun Gyujin, who was merely clicking a lighter, perched on top of wooden boards piled up due to construction.

“You don’t have one? Want me to give you one?”

“I have my own.”

“You’re not smoking because you don’t have Febreze? Afraid you’ll get scolding by Daydreamer Yu?”

“Yeah.”

“Seriously, what is Daydreamer Yu? Are you scared of him?”

“Yeah, I’m scared. When Jeong Yuwon really gets angry, I can’t even meet his eyes.”

The times Yuwon made a cold face and truly got angry could be counted on one hand, but about once every five years, there were moments when such a situation arose because he made a mistake. From the time they attended kindergarten to now—1 year and 10 months after entering high school—there had been exactly three such instances. Of course, the reason behind every single one was him.

Every time that happened, Hyun Gyujin begged Yuwon every day. After sincerely apologizing and apologizing again, if he acted cute, Yuwon would eventually soften up and smile for him. If asked whether he had adversity in his life, Hyun Gyujin would probably recall those three instances.

“Really? He doesn’t seem like it.”

“It’s fucking scary, really. He looks at me with eyes that say he has no expectations or anything left for me…. Ah, seriously, that feeling of my heart dropping right then…. Ah, I hate it so much.”

“You can just tell him to open his eyes straight.”

“Are you out of your mind?”

While he didn’t always use proper and refined words with Yuwon, excluding times when he was joking around, he could never use line-crossing vulgarities like that. How could he use such words toward Jeong Yuwon? Hyun Gyujin couldn’t even imagine it.

“Use that stamina on a girlfriend. Even if you do just a quarter of a quarter of what you do for Daydreamer Yu, she’d probably pass out from being touched. Ah, did you ignore Jin Suji’s DM?”

“What DM.”

“She said she sent an Insta DM, but she got ignored and was throwing a fit.”

“Who is Jin Suji? And I don’t do Insta.”

“Heol, you don’t know Jin Suji? We saw those Oseong Girls’ High School kids before. Back then… when Daydreamer Yu went on a family trip during break. At Min Jihoon’s house.”

Jin Suji, Oseong Girls’ High, Min Jihoon’s house. Nothing stood out clearly in his memory, but that one summer day when Yuwon went on a trip with his family remained vividly in his mind. Based on that memory, Hyun Gyujin began recalling things one by one.

He remembered going over to Min Jihoon’s house to hang out simply because he was bored with nothing to do after hearing his parents went on a trip and the house would be empty for a few days. Normally, he would have gone on the trip together with Jeong Yuwon’s family, but at that time, the two families’ trip fell through due to his dad’s business trip, so he had to spend a few days alone and was feeling extremely bored.

He recalled going to Min Jihoon’s house with Kim Jaejun and Choi Haeyoung, killing time while blabbering completely useless bullshit, when a bunch of girls showed up. After the girls arrived, the atmosphere grew loud, a drinking party started, and all the kids got drunk. And amidst all that, he remembered not drinking a single drop of alcohol himself and continuously exchanging messages with Yuwon. In his photo gallery, there was still a photo of the short ribs Yuwon had taken and sent him, saying he ate them for dinner back then.

“Ah, back then you guys drank among yourselves. I went home after a bit.”

“Don’t you remember a fucking pretty girl coming back then? That’s Jin Suji. I saw you two talking.”

“I don’t know. Maybe she asked for my ID? That’s all.”

“Hey, open up Insta.”

“I deleted the app.”

“Ah, just re-download it. I’m fucking curious what she sent in the DM.”

Glancing at the guys crowding around him, Hyun Gyujin downloaded Instagram. He didn’t bother with SNS or have any desire to do it, but because they kept throwing a fit telling him to do it, he downloaded it earlier this year, created an account together with Yuwon, posted exactly one photo, and logged out right away. Since then, he hadn’t logged in even once for over six months.

“What was my ID again?”

“Hold on. I follow you, so it’s there.”

Kim Junjae quickly logged into his account, found Hyun Gyujin’s Insta ID, and showed it to him. Hyun Gyujin looked at it and typed in the ID. It was obvious just from the ID how reluctantly he had made it, as it was slapped together lazily.

“Ah, got it.”

Logging into the account after six months, Hyun Gyujin checked the single photo he had posted. It was a photo he had taken and uploaded from one of the four-cut photos he took with Yuwon at the start of the semester, and for some reason, there were a lot of comments attached to it.