"You do know you caused a shitload of trouble, right?"
That was the first thing he said.
So guy from my elective class, speaking to out of nowhere.
I was caught off guard, sure, but I had no choice but to keep my mouth shut—because, well, he wasn’t wrong.
"Who the hell just disappears in the middle of a group project?"
That was my cri.
Last sester, I bailed on an elective group project.
The reason? Go Yohan, obviously.
But college wasn’t the kind of place where personal circumstances earned you any sympathy.
My grades had taken a nosedive, and in the end, I had no choice but to retake the class.
And the guy glaring at right now, as if I were so clown, was Kang Suhyeon—the sa guy who had sat with Ahn Jisoo in that elective last sester, giving judgntal looks the entire ti.
So yeah. Kang Suhyeon had every right to hold accountable.
I bit the inside of my lip.
I had nothing to say.
"You have no idea how much shit I went through because you bailed, do you?"
Honestly, I never expected to run into him again.
Not in a university this big, with so many different elective classes.
And yet, here we were.
Just my fucking luck.
"Like I told you before, I’m really sorry."
"Damn right you are. Of course, you should be sorry. But don’t worry—I’m willing to let it slide if you co to the group blind date I’m setting up."
"A what?"
Where the hell did that co from?
I stared at him in disbelief, thrown off by the sudden topic shift.
Then, he held up four fingers.
At the sa ti, my face instinctively twisted in discomfort.
Ever since last sester, I’d developed sothing of a trauma.
For so reason, seeing normal fingers unsettled .
"Hey, can you—"
"Four-on-four. Yangyeong Pocha. I’ll send you the exact address later. Ti? This Saturday at 7 p.m. Oh, and bring a friend. Soone decent. Not so loser."
Yangyeong Pocha?
Who the hell holds a blind date at a bar?
Or… wait, is that normal?
I had never given it a second thought before, and now, I found myself questioning everything.
As my mind struggled to process this sudden bombshell, Kang Suhyeon cut straight to the point.
His self-satisfied smirk was damn irritating.
"If you don’t show up, I’m taking your na off our next group project. Out of pure spite."
"Wait, what? Why?"
"You just disappeared last ti—no calls, no attendance. And your friend, the one who transferred in? He dropped out before we even got to know him.
What the hell is up with people from your school? No sense of responsibility at all."
His gaze scanned with a look of pure disappointnt.
I averted my eyes and kept my mouth shut.
Because, well… I was guilty.
Feeling like I was being dragged into a trap, I nodded reluctantly.
"Good. If you don’t show up, I’m deleting your na off the PowerPoint slide mid-presentation. Got it?"
His fist clenched dramatically.
Now that I thought about it, Kang Suhyeon was our team leader.
And he was in charge of the PowerPoint.
Back when we first got assigned together, I’d been surprised by how quickly he volunteered for the position.
I thought he was just an overachiever.
Turns out, he was just a manipulative asshole.
"Oh, and give your number."
"My number? Why?"
"In case you try to bail again. The world’s full of flaky people, you know?"
"……."
I hesitated before reluctantly reaching for my phone.
Before I could even process what was happening, Kang Suhyeon shoved his own phone into my hand.
It wasn’t like I ant to ghost him last ti.
I was just… dealing with a lot.
But I didn’t feel like explaining.
Because it wasn’t my problem.
It was Go Yohan’s.
After I punched in the last digit, he practically snatched his phone away.
"Oh."
"Expect a confirmation call from ."
He shot a sharp glare, as if daring to ignore it.
A second later, my phone rang.
As if that wasn’t enough, he squinted at the caller ID on my screen, double-checking his number.
Satisfied, he pointed two fingers at his eyes, then at mine.
"Be there on Saturday. If you don’t, you’ll officially be worse than human trash."
With that, he turned on his heel and strode away—only to suddenly stop.
Then, in a flash, he spun back around and quickly jogged back to , lowering his voice to a whisper.
"Oh, right. I’m in the chanical engineering departnt."
One of my eyelids twitched.
Was he… winking?
God, I hoped not.
"Sa year as you. Sa age."
"…Great. Nice to et you."
The mont I said that, he took off in small, quick steps.
And just like that, I was left sitting there, staring at the aftermath of the storm.
****
"That Bastard's a Lunatic."
Look who's talking.
I narrowed my eyes at the shaless asshole sitting across from .
No self-awareness whatsoever.
Doesn’t he feel even a little embarrassed saying that?
Before calling soone else crazy, maybe he should reflect on his own personality first.
Just a thought.
"Yeah. He’s fucking nuts."
Still, I didn’t argue further.
Because I wasn’t much better.
At least, I’d accepted that about myself.
That made slightly less shaless, right?
Even after graduating high school, my life hadn’t changed much.
I was still scraping the bottom of a al tray.
The only difference was that it was university cafeteria food now instead of school lunch.
Basically, no matter how much I grew, nothing really changed.
And that applied to my life as well.
I only had to look at the person sitting in front of to realize that.
Go Yohan.
Now officially 191 cm tall, finally done growing—a fucking giant.
The craziest bastard I knew.
And on top of that, an idiot who still sucked at using chopsticks.
A quail egg from the soy-braised beef kept slipping from his weak grip, tumbling down onto the table.
Or worse—the floor.
Pausing mid-bite, I scratched the bridge of my nose with my index finger, then put my chopsticks down and grabbed his hand.
Without a word, I stabbed the quail egg onto his chopsticks.
"Don’t pick them up. Just stab them."
"Damn, you’re smart."
"……."
Shouldn’t he be at least a little annoyed at ?
And yet, Go Yohan just popped the egg into his mouth and chewed peacefully.
anwhile, my insides felt like a war zone.
I kept my head down, tapping at the side dishes with my chopsticks.
From that day on, Go Yohan changed the way he held his chopsticks.
Not that it made him any less clumsy.
Just like how our relationship had beco awkwardly unsteady.
Scratching my neck, I snuck a glance at him.
As always, my eyes gravitated toward his lips.
I still hadn’t broken this habit.
The mont I caught myself staring, I quickly looked away, pretending to focus on sothing else.
Under the table, my legs curled inward.
"How’s class?"
"Fucking unbearable."
He spoke after swallowing his quail egg, chewing it down hard.
I clenched my hand against my thigh beneath the table.
On the surface, Kang Jun looked fine.
"They’re already forming cliques based on which elite high school they went to—foreign language schools, private academies, whatever.
It’s disgusting. These people are just learning to be assholes."
"Ah, yeah. I went through that too."
I nodded, recalling a similar experience from a few days ago.
So upperclassman from my departnt, who had apparently gone to my high school, approached first.
They must’ve heard about from the teachers.
They just patted my back and told to ask if I had any questions.
That was it.
No further contact.
Just the occasional nod in passing.
"…What?"
Go Yohan’s voice dropped.
His hand, still gripping the chopsticks, flinched.
His reaction was way too sharp.
I put my own chopsticks down and rubbed my arm.
Forcing myself to sound casual, I replied,
"Apparently, there’s a senior from my high school in my major.
Not sure if they heard about from the teachers or what, but they just said hi and told to reach out if I needed anything.
That’s it. We don’t really talk."
The tension around didn’t ease.
"Ah."
His short response was not satisfying.
It felt more like an obligatory reaction than an actual answer.
The clinking of utensils filled the silence.
"Is it a guy?"
"Yeah."
I quickly added,
"But we haven’t talked since."
Why was I explaining myself?
Even as I questioned it, I didn’t stop.
I kept glancing at Go Yohan, gauging his reaction, before picking my chopsticks back up.
Tried my best to act normal.
I shoved a bite of food into my mouth, but it felt rough going down.
The food wasn’t spicy, but my tongue stung.
Just as I reached for another quail egg, my chopsticks slipped, slamming against the tray with a loud clatter.
Startled, I looked up.
Go Yohan’s face was cold.
Snake-like.
"What’s his na?"
Ah.
I fucked up.
I bit my inner gums, hard.
"I don’t know. I forgot."
"How do you just forget?"
Pushing my food around on my tray, I muttered,
"I just… didn’t bother rembering."
"……."
The sound of my chewing filled my head.
It was that quiet.
I sat there, enduring the silence, waiting for Go Yohan to speak.
It wasn’t that hard.
He spoke faster than I expected.
"Who the hell forgets a senior’s na? You wanna tank your social life?"
"Then let it tank."
I glanced up.
Go Yohan had returned to his usual expression, biting into his food.
His voice was still heavy and low, and his chopsticks hovered idly over his tray.
He looked lost in thought.
For so reason, my chest felt tight.
Uncomfortable, but not unpleasant.
Under the table, I crossed my ankles.
Sothing jumped inside my chest, like a fish breaking the surface of water.
Forcing my mouth open, I said,
"I’ll be hanging out with you all the ti anyway.
Social life doesn’t matter."
"……."
I stole a glance at his eyebrows.
They didn’t twitch.
So… was he satisfied with my answer?
Or was he just holding back?
Like a midsumr night’s dream, his sharp expression flashed before fading away.
His voice, once cutting, had softened ever so slightly.
"Let’s sync up our schedules next ti. Take electives together."
"Alright."
"And don’t just randomly pick classes again like you did this ti."
"Hey, randomly? I put a lot of thought into this.
Unlike you, who took a gap year, I had to fix my GPA."
"First-year grades are ant to be trashed. It’s a long-standing academic tradition."
"Then you should’ve trashed yours first.
Even skipped the required electives while you were at it."
"What the hell are you saying? You're not even planning to jump into the job market anyway."
"And you are?"
Neither of us had anywhere to go.
I shot him an incredulous look, only for Go Yohan to mirror my expression perfectly.
Then, he smirked.
"Of course not. My competition’s ready to tear each other apart just for a chance."
"Ah…."
"What was it again? ‘Siblings are a gift from God’? Give a break. In the end, the one who laughs last is always an only child."
Go Yohan grinned, baring his teeth like a wolf.
I let out a short, breathy chuckle.
"Then you should only have one kid too."
"Damn, Kang Jun."
He cracked his neck once before flashing a lopsided grin, half amused, half mocking.
"Making history with your grand ambition—to get pregnant as a man."
"……Hey."
"Relax, I’m joking."
He waved his hand lazily before muttering, avoiding my gaze.
"Don’t take it seriously."
"……."
Our relationship was ambiguous.
Not distant, not close.
Just floating at this level of proximity, stuck in so weird, undefined space.
Go Yohan had spent most of his ti in a depressive fog, only to suddenly bounce back into his usual mischievous self.
Or rather, his playful attitude only returned when I started responding to his jokes again.
Ever since then, we kept things this way—this precarious balance of playful jabs and transparent walls.
The mont I started playing along was the sa mont Go Yohan changed how he used his chopsticks.
I was watching his awkwardly crossed chopsticks when he suddenly spoke.
"Oh yeah, take to the group blind date."
"……?"
I must’ve misheard.
But his expression was calm, almost too natural.
I asked, just to be sure.
"What did you just say?"
"You need to bring a decent friend, right? No need to think too hard—I’m obviously the best choice."
A breath of disbelief escaped .
Seriously, this bastard…
In so many ways, he was fucking ridiculous.
"Saturday at seven, right? Let’s go together."
"Wait, why the hell would I take you?"
Why there?
Why now?
I was so thrown off, I started stamring.
Go Yohan… does he actually want to go to a blind date?
I had only agreed to this thing in the first place because I was trying to find a way not to go.
So why was he—
An uncomfortable feeling, like moss creeping over damp stone, spread through .
What the hell?
Irritated by his baffling thought process, I pressed my lips together.
Go Yohan set his chopsticks down and stared at with a twisted expression.
The hell?
Why was he the one looking at like that?
"What? Why are you looking at like that?"
"You’ve got so nerve. Were you planning to go without ?"
"No, I wasn’t planning to go at all."
"Why not? You’re already struggling with this retake—you wanna completely screw over your grades too?"
"……."
"You’re out of your fucking mind."
Go Yohan scoffed, looking at like I was the dumbest person alive.
"You think grades are a joke?"
Oh, I’m the dumb one?
Says the guy whose GPA got absolutely plowed by his professor last sester?
He got a whole field of Cs, man.
If farrs could harvest grades, they wouldn’t have to worry about crop yields this year.
It’d be a damn good season.
This—
This guy…
If we were living in dieval Europe, he would’ve been burned at the stake for heresy.
He was probably executed in his past life for insulting Jesus or sothing.
Trying to cool down, I let out a slow exhale.
This ti, I slamd my chopsticks down onto my tray.
The stainless steel trays from high school had been replaced with cheap, white plastic ones in university.
Probably so we could all eat microplastics and die faster.
Whatever.
I glared at my tray for no reason.
Go Yohan picked up his chopsticks again—crossed in that stupid X shape.
Goddamn it.
I leaned back against the worn-out cafeteria chair.
"Am I seriously going?"
"Yeah, you’re going."
"Are you sure about that?"
"Who’s stopping you? Just go."
I absentmindedly picked up a side dish, then dropped it back onto my tray.
Except half of it missed and scattered onto the floor.
Fucking hell.
"Ah, shit…."
Go Yohan clicked his tongue, brushing the fallen food off his thigh.
The scraps tumbled onto the already-dirty cafeteria floor.
This bastard.
Who the hell was gonna clean that up?
The floor was already nasty, but that didn’t an he could just casually add to the ss.
Unbelievable.
Go Yohan was always a pain in the ass.
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