I am not a Yandere chapter 137

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All he ever thought about was using Jihoon for his revenge, but why was that guy…?

Overcome with a dizzying frustration, Yeongdeok suddenly rose to his feet, causing Jihoon to blink, slightly puzzled.

“Forget it. I’m going home to sleep.”

“Not staying over tonight?”

“No.”

At the entrance, Yeongdeok began putting on his shoes, and just as he was about to leave, Jihoon ran over and handed him a packet of medicine.

It was an antacid.

“Take this, just in case.”

Yeongdeok looked at Jihoon for a moment before nodding slightly.

As he turned to leave, Jihoon added a last note.

“If anything happens, call me. Or just come by—I’m right next door.”

Without giving any sort of response, Yeongdeok shut the door and stepped out into the hallway.

Night had already settled over everything outside.

He gazed at the moon hanging over the railing.

He thought he had already decided what he wanted to do moving forward.

But now he felt stuck, neither here nor there.

A wave of melancholy hit him, and a troubling thought crept in—perhaps, as PetitRolang had said, no matter how hard he tried, wasn’t he ultimately just one of Roland’s characters?

He’d tried to break free from Cha Dowon, to step out of the obsessive role, but the core of him always seemed to remain the same.

He’d changed his style, his name, even opened a fried chicken shop; he’d made so many attempts.

But his manner of speaking, his dignified personality, his way of thinking—none of it really shifted.

He hadn’t completely let go of Cha Dowon. Had he even changed at all?

Even the idea that if the main characters deviated from the original plot, it might no longer be a novel was, in the end, just Yeongdeok’s speculation.

He knew he had to stay determined.

If he just gave up here, all he’d be doing was handing PetitRolang an easy victory.

Yet something in his mind felt like it was snapping.

ꔚ

From that day on, Yeongdeok threw himself into a busy life, feeling as empty as a hollow can.

This time, he focused all his efforts on completely abandoning Cha Dowon’s shadow.

He joined a dating app and even met a few women, or he’d spend entire nights at a PC cafe, gaming for 96 hours straight without a wink of sleep.

And then…

Beep beep beep. Beep beep beep.

The sound of an alarm roused him from his heavy sleep.

Blinking his tired eyes open, Yeongdeok sat up, only to realize he wasn’t at home.

“Mom! Why is that guy sleeping on the subway?”

“Shh, don’t ask things like that out loud.”

The innocent question came from a child who quickly disappeared from Yeongdeok’s sight, led away by their mother.

Sleeping on the hard floor with nothing but a newspaper under him had left him stiff all over.

He stretched out, checking the time.

He had plans to meet someone for drinks soon.

ꔚ

“To success, and progress!”

“Or in short, success and—well, ‘vigorous advancement!’”

With a cheerfully risqué toast, they clinked their soju glasses.

A clear, refreshing sound rang across the table.

The guy next to Yeongdeok downed his glass in one gulp, then looked at him with an odd, tipsy gleam in his eyes.

“I honestly didn’t expect to get close to you this fast, Yeongdeok hyung.”

The guy across from them joined in, grinning.

“Yeah, no kidding. When I first saw Yeongdeok, I thought he was a total bore. But man, were we wrong. You’re a blast, hyung.”

“Really? Glad to hear it.”

With a smile, Yeongdeok looked down at his soju glass, still trembling with the last remnants of their toast.

He took a shot alongside them, prompting a whistle from the guy beside him.

“Hyung can really drink! Let me pour you another one.”

The guy slung an arm around Yeongdeok’s shoulders, acting all chummy as he poured more soju.

Yeongdeok just kept smiling, and the man on the opposite side, staring off toward another table, mumbled.

“Check out that table. The women there look good, don’t they?”

“Send in Yeongdeok hyung. He’s a sure thing!”

Laughing, they nudged Yeongdeok, who obligingly got up and approached the other table.

As he neared, the women, mid-conversation, paused and looked up at him.

Yeongdeok greeted them with a smile.

“If you don’t mind, would you like to join us?”

“Huh? Ha… ha.”

They exchanged glances, seeming a bit taken aback at first, but soon answered with a playful smile.

“Alright, as long as you promise to keep it fun.”

“Of course.”

Yeongdeok grinned back.

ꔚ

Afterward, they kept drinking, eventually heading to a second bar and then a karaoke place before finally parting ways.

All except Yeongdeok were beyond drunk by then.

“H-hi, Yeongdeok… I really like you. Could I have your number?”

“Me too! Me too!”

At the end of the night, the women, slurring their words, held out their phones, asking for his number.

He didn’t refuse and typed in his number for each of them.

“Thanks… We’ll reach out, so let’s hang out again sometime.”

“You made this night so fun!”

Those who were still sober enough took taxis back home, while those who’d blacked out collapsed on the sidewalk.

He almost found it pitiful but pushed the thought aside and called a taxi.

Even though they’d spent the entire night together, he barely knew anything about them.

Not even where they lived, so he decided to take them to his place.

Usually, he would’ve just left them there… but he shook his head at the thought.

There was no “usually”—there was only now.

Soon enough, the taxi arrived, and he lifted the first guy, leaning on a trash bag for support, onto his shoulder.

“…Sehee…”

The guy muttered a girl’s name, wrapping his arms around Yeongdeok’s neck and nuzzling his shoulder.

Yeongdeok felt an unsettling discomfort but kept going, loading him into the taxi.

Next, he hauled over the other guy who’d fallen asleep sprawled in front of a utility pole.

With both unconscious guys loaded in, he climbed in himself, and the taxi started moving.

After about an hour, they reached his building.

Carrying one guy on each shoulder, Yeongdeok struggled up to the fifth floor, feeling his strength nearly drained.

At his apartment door, he set them down.

As he caught his breath, one of the guys, who he thought was out cold, suddenly sat up and smiled sleepily.

“Yeongdeok hyung…”

“What?”

“You’re really good-looking, you know that? I feel so lucky…”

The guy’s voice trailed off as he slumped back down.

Watching the back of his head, Yeongdeok reached out to unlock his door.

Unlocking his four-digit passcode, Yeongdeok was shoving the drunken men into his entryway when, amid the clamor, his next-door neighbor’s door opened—even though it was already past 4 a.m.

Turning his head, Yeongdeok saw Jihoon emerge, leaning against the wall in a slouched posture.

With a cynical tone, Jihoon eyed him and asked:

“Hey, what the hell are you doing?”

Though Yeongdeok already knew what prompted Jihoon’s question, he pretended otherwise and responded directly.

“As you can see, just letting some drunk friends into the apartment.”

Jihoon glanced at the men, who were only halfway in, with their faces and feet sticking out into the hallway, then let out a mirthless laugh.

“Let’s talk.”

Ever since Yeongdeok quit his job, Jihoon had noticed a growing strangeness in him, as if he was becoming a completely different person.

Where once he used to occasionally crash in Jihoon’s bedroom for a good night’s sleep, he hadn’t been to Jihoon’s place once in the past two weeks.

He had ignored Jihoon’s texts and barely even went home himself.

Jihoon had been wondering just what he’d been up to, and now, as he faced Yeongdeok, he was overwhelmed by the strong smell of alcohol, cigarettes, and even a faint trace of women’s perfume.

Jihoon felt a bitter knot twist inside him.

“Nothing I need to talk about,” said Yeongdeok dismissively, avoiding conversation.

Jihoon gritted his teeth, the grinding sound escaping through the tight line of his jaw.

“Well, I have something to say.”

As Jihoon strode closer to close the distance between them, Yeongdeok shoved the men all the way into the entryway and slammed the door shut, leaving Jihoon alone in the stifling summer air of the hallway.

“Damn it…” Jihoon ran a hand through his hair in frustration, glaring at the firmly closed door as if he could bore through it with sheer willpower, though he knew it was useless.

Seeing this sudden change in Yeongdeok, Jihoon felt a strange sense of deja vu.

He thought back to when he first knew him: a distant, unfeeling man who seemed almost inhuman. Jihoon had once thought Yeongdeok was too high and cold to ever even look his way.

But then, out of nowhere, Yeongdeok changed—suddenly seeking Jihoon out and acting in reckless, bizarre ways.

At first, Jihoon had chalked it up to Yeongdeok just being a bit of a madman.

But now he wondered if something had been going on even back then.

Fuming at how oblivious Yeongdeok was to his feelings, Jihoon crouched outside his door, unable to leave, worried that something might happen to him with those guys inside.

He resolved that if he heard any ruckus, he’d break down the door or call the police, whatever it took.

But as the minutes passed in silence, he finally rose and headed home.

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