NTH 108

Sihun
OMG. If you don’t get a job, how are you going to live?

My boyfriend said he’d provide for me

Sihun
Crazy… does that even make sense?

Sihun
The cost of living is so high, how can he manage earning alone?

Sihun
It’s because you’re too naive about the world

Sihun
And don’t you have any pride?

Sihun
You’re going to live by leeching off your boyfriend?

Yes

Sihun
I bet your boyfriend will be so happy with you living as a bum with no job

Sihun
He’ll probably say let’s break up soon because you’re incompetent and unattractive

What do you know

My boyfriend

said his lifelong wish

is for me to never leave the house ever again

Sihun
Sigh… Jin. Stop joking

Sihun
Giving you the benefit of the doubt a hundred times over, if he’s serious, your boyfriend’s mental state is really dangerous

Sihun
I told you before, he shows signs of gaslighting

Sihun
Jin

Sihun
Na Jin

Sihun
Are you sleeping?

Although it was a different ‘s’ and not the ‘sleep’ Tak Sihun had in mind, it was true that Jin couldn’t answer because he was ‘sleeping.’

The only days Jin could even manage to reply to Tak Sihun’s messages—late and with insincere, short sentences—were weekdays. On weekends or holidays, he was too busy clinging to Jeha, playing, going out, or enjoying their time as a couple to even look at his phone. There were quite a few times when he checked a message sent by Tak Sihun on Friday evening on Monday.

However, if one were to ask if Jin was completely unaffected by Tak Sihun, that wasn’t the case either.

The only people Jin had consistently met in this life were Jeha, Chief Jeong, and Cheonsagang, and none of them treated Jin within the bounds of common sense. Jeha and Chief Jeong overprotected and revered Jin in any situation, and Cheonsagang, not even being human, had simply exploited him.

Tak Sihun was the ‘one hundred percent ordinary person’ Jin had started interacting with for the first time after the parasitic spirit was annihilated and he began a normal life. While his private life could not be called particularly exemplary or ethical, he was nevertheless a person who possessed values and behaviors that fell within the category of an ordinary person.

Moreover, the words and actions of Tak Sihun, whose very profession was ‘teacher,’ seeped into Jin without his knowledge and made him anxious. It was from this point that Jeha began to feel that something was strange.

“You know, they said I can’t get into pre-veterinary medicine if I’m bad at math.”

It was Friday evening, so Jeha had taken Jin out for a rare French course meal, and his eyebrow twitched.

With Jin’s current grades, it was a given that he couldn’t get anywhere near the subway station of a school with a pre-veterinary program, let alone the veterinary school itself. What was important to Jeha wasn’t Jin’s grades, but ‘when, where, and from whom’ Jin had heard such a thing.

“Who said that?”

“An academy teacher. After I wrote pre-veterinary medicine on my desired university application.”

Jeha’s expression relaxed. The ‘academy teacher’ Jeha had imagined at that moment was a middle-aged man in his mid-fifties with a stiff, stern expression, lecturing students to study.

Seeing that Jin had finished his dessert, an apple pie, Jeha moved the plate of chocolate mousse in front of him to Jin. He had deliberately chosen a different kind in the first place to feed it to Jin.

“It is true, though. You have to get almost everything right on the CSAT.”

“I hate math, what should I do?”

Jin, who had been pouting, cut a piece of the chocolate mousse with his fork and put it in his mouth, his eyes curving into crescents. If Jeha kissed Jin now, he would be able to taste both his sweet lips and the chocolate, but it was obvious that stopping would be harder than starting. Jeha suppressed his instincts and forcibly brought out his professor persona.

“Do you like treating sick animals? What about taking care of them or researching them?”

“Do universities for caretaking or research not require math?”

“It’s not that it’s not required at all, but you don’t have to be as good as you would for a pre-veterinary program. There are related departments in mid to low-ranking universities, too.”

Given Jin’s personality, it was unlikely he would wish for a prestigious university. His scores in language, biology, and earth science were decent, so they could aim for a suitable university within commuting distance from home that matched his grades.

“What kind of departments are there?”

Jin, with chocolate smeared around his lips, looked expectant. Jeha, fighting the urge to lick his lips clean with his tongue, handed him a napkin.

“Animal Science, Animal Biotechnology, Companion Animal Science, Animal Welfare, Exotic Animal Science…”

“Oh, there are more diverse options than I thought. That sounds much more interesting than veterinary school.”

“If a four-year university seems tough, there are also junior colleges, so don’t feel pressured and take your time to think about it.”

Honestly, for Jeha, the most ideal situation was for Jin to do nothing and stay at home without meeting anyone. However, this was the first life in a thousand years that Jin was living freely, liberated from the parasitic spirit. He had to support Jin so that he could live happily, doing whatever he wanted.

“I suddenly feel like studying hard.”

Jin smiled shyly. Jin’s appearance was always different in each life, but his smile always felt similar, making Jeha’s heart ache at times.

He had even resolved to set aside half of his desire to monopolize him and let him fly free, to let him enjoy campus life like others, making friends and participating in club activities. Of course, this was only a thought in his head; his true feelings were still closer to imprisonment.

Until this point, Jeha had not noticed Tak Sihun’s existence. Jin, as before, would look through Jeha’s phone in detail when he was researching in his study, but Jeha did not rummage through Jin’s phone. He was receiving all the necessary reports through Chief Jeong, so this was to avoid seeming too restrictive.

But then, things happened where Jin said things he would never have said normally. Kwon Jeha, whose five senses, as well as his sixth, were twice as sensitive as others, would not miss it. For example, it was like this.

“Jeha, why do you hate it when I get things from other people?”

When he heard these words, even though Jeha was holding a stark-naked Jin tightly in his arms, his heart rate quickened with anxiety.

Who was Jin? Even if you considered that he had made a living by pickpocketing and theft due to the wretched fate he was born with because of the parasitic spirit, he was a human who, from the moment he first met Jeha, had shamelessly begged for food and parfaits.

Now he carried Jeha’s unlimited-credit card, but Jeha was afraid that if someone offered to buy him something, he would unconsciously follow them out of old habit. That’s why Jeha usually admonished Jin as if to brainwash him, saying, ‘Never accept anything from others.’ Jin had never once seriously asked for the reason until now.

“I don’t like it when someone other than me tries to gain your favor with such things. I’m worried they might harbor ulterior motives.”

Jeha coated his true feelings with a suitable excuse. Jin nodded his head as if in agreement.

“True. In the past, I used to think that anyone who bought me food was a good person, no questions asked.”

“But why so suddenly? Did someone offer to buy you something?”

“The math teacher at the academy.”

“The math teacher? Is she a woman?”

“No, a man. He said he would buy me coffee if I studied hard because I hate attending math class. That teacher’s classes are really boring, so maybe he’s worried the students will complain, but he buys them food often. He also offers mobile coupons for the yellow cafe on the first floor as a prize.”

The cafe on the first floor of Jin’s academy building was a franchise with numerous branches nationwide, and an Americano cost fifteen hundred won. It was perfectly understandable for a teacher to use low-cost coffee coupons as an incentive to make students study, so Jeha was somewhat relieved.

“So did you get a coupon?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“I said my boyfriend told me not to accept things from others. If I asked Jeha, he would buy me ten parfaits at once, and I didn’t want to force myself to study math just for one cup of Americano.”

It was the right thing to say no matter how you looked at it, so Jeha laughed. His anxiety assuaged by Jin’s satisfactory response, Jeha buried his face in the nape of Jin’s neck and stroked his smooth back and waist.

“Still, the teacher’s effort is commendable. What did he say after hearing you say that?”

“…”

In any situation, Jin’s silence was not a good sign. Cupping Jin’s cheeks and lifting his face towards him, Jeha said with a serious expression.

“Na Jin. You’re not answering?”

“No, it’s just… the teacher said something a bit strange.”

“What did he say?”

After hesitating for a moment, Jin finally confessed reluctantly, looking down, only after Jeha squeezed his cheeks and furrowed his brow.

“He said my boyfriend gives off a slightly weird vibe, and that it seems a bit like he’s gaslighting me.”

The strength drained from Jeha’s grip. It was dangerous that there was someone around Jin who could grasp the situation so well with so little information.

Jeha quietly thought it would be better to have Chief Jeong investigate this ‘teacher’ rather than pressuring Jin any further. A high school curriculum math teacher at the qualification exam academy Jin attended. That one clue was enough of a target for Chief Jeong.

There was a possibility that he was actually a very ordinary person with no ulterior motives toward Jin, so it would be better to watch a little longer and give the instruction then, if the teacher was mentioned several more times.

“But you know, I really don’t care if Jeha gaslights me, or grooms me, or stalks me.”

Jeha, who had been organizing the instructions for Chief Jeong in his head, was jolted back to the present by Jin’s following words. Jin pressed his cheek tightly against Jeha’s firm pectoral muscles, wrapped his arms around his lean waist, and mumbled.

“I don’t know if it’s because I’m an immoral person, but I’m happy that Jeha interferes, doubts, and tries to restrain me in every little thing. I think it would be harder to bear being left alone and neglected with indifference, no matter what I do or where I go.”

“…”

“So I wanted to say that if Jeha wants to gaslight me, he can do it as much as he wants, but I hesitated because I thought I might look like a mentally strange person.”

As soon as he heard those words, a jolt went through the depths of Jeha’s chest. His cock instantly grew heavy and swelled in size. Laying Jin down properly and getting on top of him, Jeha lowered his upper body and whispered.

“If we’re talking about being mentally strange, I’m a hundred times worse than you.”

“How so?”

“Because I’m not in my right mind after finally getting together with someone I’ve been obsessed with for a thousand years, loving them like crazy. I tremble in fear every day that you’ll abandon me, that you’ll leave me saying you’ve found someone you like more.”