NTH 115

Sihun
Friends are supposed to vent to each other at times like this

Never mind

It’s annoying to type

Sihun
Then do you want to meet up and talk?

Sihun
I’ll go to a place that’s convenient for you to come out to

Never mind…

Sihun
Come on out~ I’ll really just listen

Sihun
I’ll buy you chicken and beer

Jin hesitated for a moment. If Jeha found out he had gone out to meet Tak Sihun separately, he might get very angry. Just then, the messenger notification he had set separately for Jeha rang. Jin looked down at his phone.

Jeha♥
Are you still very angry?

Jeha♥
It was all my fault. I’m sorry

Jeha♥
I’ll never say that again

Jeha♥
I guess I was sad because you haven’t been playing with me much

Jeha♥
Still, I shouldn’t have said that. I’m reflecting on it a lot

Jeha♥
I was planning to go home early today… but I ended up having dinner after a faculty meeting

Jeha♥
A retired emeritus professor is coming, and they said everyone’s attendance is mandatory

Jeha♥
Hah… I’m so sorry

Jeha♥
I’ll just grab a quick bite and get out of there as fast as I can

Jeha meets countless students every day. As it’s the top prestigious university in the country, they are all smart and excellent people. He also meets many professors, and although he dislikes it, he participates in academic society activities.

While he himself does all those things, why does he want to keep Jin locked up at home so much? If it were a matter of anxiety, shouldn’t Jin, who was far more lacking compared to Jeha, be the one more on edge?

Jin was angry. He felt an urge to rebel for no reason. He exited the chat with Jeha and went back to Tak Sihun.

Sihun
I’ll buy you chicken and beer

Where are we meeting

“Wow, he crossed the line. That really crossed the line.”

Outraged all by himself, Tak Sihun gulped down the remaining beer and placed the glass on the table with a thud.

Jin picked at the warm chicken in front of him with a fork. Perhaps because it was the first time the two of them were meeting outside alone, Tak Sihun seemed imperceptibly more excited than he was at the academy.

“How could he say something like that about something you do because you enjoy it? ‘How much do you even make’.”

Jin lowered his eyes, his face crestfallen.

“He does make a lot.”

“Even so, he’s probably just starting his career, how much could he possibly make. Do you know your boyfriend’s annual salary?”

“I don’t, but it’s probably a lot.”

Jeha was an assistant professor, the lowest rank among full-time professors due to his age and limited experience, but since K University, where he worked, was the top private university in the country, the compensation was exceptional. Of course, he was born with a silver spoon, so he had multiple pipelines of income, and ironically, the income from his main job, into which he poured the most time and effort, was the smallest.

Jin, who had no intention of explaining these circumstances, mumbled vaguely. Tak Sihun, nodding his head, opened his mouth again.

“How do you usually split the dating expenses?”

“My boyfriend pays for everything, and I don’t spend a single cent.”

“Does that person have a car?”

“Yes.”

“Who drives?”

“My boyfriend.”

Jin didn’t even have a license. It was a given when he was an unregistered person, and even after his resident registration, Jeha or Chief Jeong had always acted as his driver, so he had never even thought about getting a driver’s license.

“Can I ask how you two first met?”

Tak Sihun had a somewhat confused expression. From his perspective, summarizing Jin’s words, Jin’s boyfriend was someone with a high salary who did ‘cool work’ and owned his own car. Such a person was paying for all dating expenses and doing all the driving while dating a high school equivalency exam student with no money who didn’t even have a part-time job, for over a year. Was this something that made sense?

“I forgot.”

Jin spat out and put a piece of chicken in his mouth, mumbling.

We met when I got caught trying to steal Jeha’s things for the third time. Until then, no one had remembered my face, but we got to meet because only Jeha recognized me. And as it turned out, we were connected by a deep bond over several lifetimes. Actually, a thousand years ago, to save a sickly crown prince born under the sign of the Great Ominous Star eclipsing the sun, I first met that person while searching for someone born under the opposite sign of the moon eclipsing the Great Ominous Star…

No matter what he said, it would sound like he was out of his mind. To tell the truth, he had to give up on being understood.

“Do you remember what I said before?”

Tak Sihun asked, having skillfully mixed a new somaek in a 300cc glass and drunk it by himself. The somaek glass he had made for Jin was not even half empty. Jin replied with an indifferent face.

“You’d have to have said only one or two things for me to remember.”

Tak Sihun chuckled. Jin did not like the way his eyes looked at him as if he were cute. The occasional hint of lust he saw felt disgusting.

“You said it once. That your boyfriend said you didn’t have to get a job.”

“Yes.”

“Back then, I asked if you were going to live by leeching off your boyfriend, and said your boyfriend would be so happy that you were living as an unemployed person without a job, and that he would soon want to break up because you were incompetent and unattractive.”

Jin didn’t answer, but he remembered what Tak Sihun had said. Gaining confidence from Jin’s dispirited expression, he lectured him energetically.

“That’s just the way of the world. If your boyfriend is an office worker, he’ll see countless competent people at his company, do you think you, as you are now, would even measure up in his eyes? That’s probably why he said, ‘how much do you even make’ while you were knitting so hard.”

It was nonsense. Jin knew well that although Jeha had misspoken, he had never intended to look down on him.

The reason Jin was sad and upset right now was less because he was mad at Jeha and more because his current self felt shabby compared to Jeha. Jin, shaking his head gloomily, protested.

“That’s a misunderstanding. My boyfriend loves me very much, regardless of my job or income.”

That, at least, was so obvious it could not be doubted in any situation.

Jeha was the kind of person who, if Jin wanted, would purchase an entire five-story building and decorate it as a space solely for knitting. Why wouldn’t he know that Jeha had acted out of spite because they already had so little time together, and yet Jin was refusing even to sleep with him and was only knitting? He knew it all. It was just that it took some time for the matter, having been approved by the brain, to be transmitted to the heart.

“Of course he would say that while gaslighting you, but no couple can withstand that kind of gap in the long run. There’s a reason people say birds of a feather flock together. You’re being overly naive.”

What do you know? Have you ever seen Jeha? Have you been with us for even a fraction of our thousand-year bond? You, who knows nothing of the many hardships and adversities we had to overcome to finally be together like this, why are you taking your pathetic yardstick and presumptuously measuring our relationship?

Jin stomped down hard on the urge to pour out his resentment and argue back.

“It seems you date your partners based on their job or income, teacher.”

Jin’s voice turned cold, but Tak Sihun, who was tipsy, did not notice the change.

“To some extent, yes, but since I’m a man, it’s a bit less so.”

“Why if you’re a man?”

“Because I have a steady income, it doesn’t matter if the woman’s side is a bit lacking. A woman being too capable, successful, and earning much more money than the man is not a desirable situation in a relationship.”

“Why is that?”

“Because the woman looks down on the man. In the opposite case, the man doesn’t look down on the woman, but women tend to be like that.”

Jin tilted his head.

“Isn’t it that you think that way because a smart and capable woman is difficult for you to control as you please?”

“Hey, you don’t know what you’re talking about. Those kinds of women are so damn headstrong that they’re arrogant as hell and look down on men.”

“Is that from experience?”

“Yes.”

“Then you must have said or done something worthy of being looked down on back then.”

“Ugh, you’re so frustrating. If you don’t know, then just don’t say anything.”

There was no way a wise and competent woman would have failed to filter out a human being with such ideas. In his heart, Jin sent praise to the nameless, wise woman who had looked down on and ignored Tak Sihun.

Mr. Chief Jeong
I am sitting across from teacher Tak Sihun at a place called ‘Chicky Chicken Hof’ near Gangnam Station.

Mr. Chief Jeong
I have the youngest member of S-Team, whom Mr. Jin has not seen, seated at a diagonal table to monitor.

Mr. Chief Jeong
He is being served somaek. The portion is a 300cc beer glass filled two-thirds with beer, with a shot glass of soju added. The side dishes are fried chicken, chicken radish, and pickles.

Mr. Chief Jeong
Tak Sihun has had three glasses of somaek, and Mr. Jin has had about half a glass. There is music playing indoors and it is loud, so the conversation content cannot be heard, but it appears Tak Sihun is mostly speaking animatedly while Mr. Jin gives short answers.

Mr. Chief Jeong
(Photo)

Mr. Chief Jeong
Mr. Jin still appears to be sober.

Jeha zoomed in to look at the photo sent by Chief Jeong. It was a photo secretly taken and sent by the youngest bodyguard of S-Team to Chief Jeong, who was waiting in a car parked near the pub. Jin’s face, not his usual bright and smiling appearance but close to expressionless, showed a hint of boredom.