“You said it was nothing, so why have you been avoiding me like that?”
“U-uh, it’s r-really nothing. It’s just, he just helped me out with something, that’s all…”
“Helped you with what?”
“Uh, well, I got into a bit of a dispute. That’s how I got to know him.”
“Then why are you in contact? Isn’t it enough to say ‘thank you’ and leave it at that? What’s this about plans on Wednesday?”
I felt dizzy under the barrage of questions.
I was supposed to be protecting Joo Unyoung from Joo Hyeonje, but instead, Joo Unyoung was suspecting something between Joo Hyeonje and me.
Joo Unyoung was perfect in every way, but his track record with men was terrible.
He was so pretty that guys were always swarming him, but he really needed to learn how to weed out the bad ones.
I grumbled to myself.
Then again, all three of those guys were handsome, so I could see why he’d be conflicted.
Still, Joo Unyoung was clearly a ‘sunflower’ (someone who only loves one person) in the original work.
I guess even a sunflower turns dark if its love is rejected.
“On Wednesday, he… asked if we could grab a meal.”
“Why would you eat with him?”
“Because he asked me to…”
“If you can’t refuse, should I go for you?”
What kind of dangerous thing was he saying?
“No! No, no, I’ll go.”
“Do you two have something going on?”
“What? What could we possibly have going on?”
The way he was tapping my knee with an uncomfortable expression on his face made it seem like he was ready to devour me.
‘Ah, dammit. How do I get out of this? Why is he acting like this over something so trivial?’
“Just! He’s a senior who asked to eat, so…”
I shouted, then my voice trailed off.
I felt justified.
I’d been avoiding him on purpose until I was backed into a corner and forced to make that promise!
But because of Joo Unyoung’s attitude, I felt unnecessarily self-conscious.
“Don’t eat.”
“But… how can I refuse?”
“What do you mean, ‘but’?”
Was he displeased because the guy who rejected him seemed to be having a ‘some’ (flirting stage) with another man?
Or had something actually happened between them?
My behavior had been weird, sure, but Joo Unyoung was the most suspicious one right now.
Anyone could see that.
There was no friend on earth who would threaten you not to eat with a senior you’d happened to meet.
I could think of two reasons: either there had been some progress between them, or he was still into me.
I decided to rule out the latter.
It didn’t feel like he was still in love with me.
“We really don’t have anything going on. Nothing happened. I’m just going to eat with him once and be done with it.”
“If you’re going to be done after one meal, just don’t go at all.”
“I already promised, so next time—from next time on, I won’t eat with him.”
“…Huu.”
I wanted to blurt out, “I’m not gay, so it’s fine,” but I kept my mouth shut because Baek Jaehui was playing a game on his phone right next to us.
It didn’t seem like he was in the stage of passionately liking Joo Unyoung yet.
Since he only started aggressively pursuing Joo Unyoung in Volume 3, he must not have realized his feelings yet.
“So, what did he help you with?”
Back to square one.
It didn’t look like Joo Unyoung intended to end this conversation today.
I slid my body slightly toward Baek Jaehui and licked my dry lips.
“Just! I told you, I got into a dispute on the bus…”
“What kind of dispute could you get into on a bus?”
“I don’t know either. We just fought.”
“Just? Really?”
“…Yeah.”
Joo Unyoung, arms crossed, stared intently at me before letting out a deep sigh.
It was the first time I’d ever seen him express his emotions that intensely.
A terrible thought crossed my mind: what if he ended up with Joo Hyeonje instead of Go Yeol?
I… I really wanted to prevent the “imprisonment ending” at all costs.
“Wednesday. I’m coming with you.”
“Huh?”
“I said I’m going with you.”
“…Why?”
“I can’t just leave my friend alone with a guy like that.”
I blinked a few times. It was my turn to ask questions now.
“Why?”
“Do you even know what kind of guy he is to be hanging out with him?”
“No, well, he’s the one who helped me, so…”
“Do you have any idea how dangerous men are? You’ll get yourself into big trouble if you just meet anyone, you know.”
“I’m a guy too…”
Jingi pursed his lips, tucking them in and pulling them out, agonizing over it for a long while.
Then he made up his mind.
“Did you… sleep with that senior?”
For a moment, even though it was summer, the atmosphere froze solid.
Joo Unyoung—and even Baek Jaehui—stared at me blankly.
The game sound that had been blaring excitedly slowed down and shouted, “LOSE!” At that cute sound, Joo Unyoung’s gaze remained cold.
“Hey, hey! Wh-what are you talking about? Sleep with him? Sleep with who?! Are you crazy? Huh?”
“No, I mean… you were telling me men are dangerous and all that…”
“I get that, but why would you jump to that?!”
Instead of the calm Joo Unyoung, Baek Jaehui made a huge scene and grabbed me by the collar.
Seeing his face turn bright red and his body shake was pretty funny.
‘No, like, plenty of 18-year-olds do that kind of thing, so what? Whatever.’
Jingi recalled his high school days.
The guys there had mouths like sewers.
Throwing around X-rated slang during breaks was a daily occurrence, and I had to hear unwanted stories about what they did with their girlfriends.
Stories about how they went from physical to emotional were common.
Like, “We hung out at a karaoke room and then we did the deed and started dating.”
“You, you’re a minor too, and he’s a minor! And that senior is a minor! You, you shouldn’t do that kind of thing, you know?”
“…”
“That’s for adults! And besides, why would he do that with that senior? No, wait, both of you are guys!”
‘What is this out-of-place Confucian mindset?’
I scanned Baek Jaehui up and down with an absurd expression.
He looked like a thug, but he talked like an 80-year-old grandfather.
He huffed and puffed, saying, “Don’t you even think about doing stuff like that. It’s not something a kid should be doing!” before going back to his seat.
No, wait, he came back again, buttoned up the two buttons of my shirt that had come undone, and launched into a long lecture, saying, “Do you have an exhibitionist disorder or what? Seriously.”
“Jingi.”
“Hey, if… if it’s not that, I’m sorry. But, like, what! It could happen! If you, if you did, I’d be in the way, so, uh, that’s why I asked.”
“We didn’t.”
Joo Unyoung’s expression was icy.
It seemed there really was no progress in their relationship yet.
Were they just at the bickering stage?
“Right, you wouldn’t have! I was just wondering!”
“That guy is my hyung.”
I stopped waving my hands in the air.
Baek Jaehui did the same.
Joo Unyoung let out a deep sigh and cracked his neck from side to side.
Snap, crack.
I could clearly hear the sound of his joints popping.
Then, Joo Unyoung pushed his platinum blonde hair back as if even talking about it was annoying.
“We only share the same dad. He’s my brother on the family register, but I’ve never thought of that jerk as a brother, which is why I told you guys I didn’t have any siblings.”
“Oh?”
“I saw him occasionally when I was young. He only moved to Korea permanently last year. We have a relationship worse than strangers. Happy?”
‘Sometimes, a suspicion hits the nail on the head.’
Jingi imagined being crushed by a horse galloping through a snowy field.
I’d thought they looked alike when I first saw them, but I’d convinced myself it wasn’t true.
I’d believed that no matter how crazy that guy Kim Hyeyeon was, he wouldn’t go as far as to pull a “Ta-da, it’s incest!”
“Wednesday… come with me, okay?”
“Uh, …okay.”
Even if it was just a novel, still… still.
How could a brother do that to his younger sibling? Is, is that even possible?
Joo Unyoung didn’t seem to feel anything but hatred for his brother.
But in the original work, they acted like strangers who didn’t know each other, and he even kidnapped him.
In the novel’s synopsis, Joo Hyeonje was clearly described as “Sub-Lead 3.”
“Hey, hey, are you okay?”
“Yeah.”
“Did you get heatstroke? Should I call a taxi? Do you want to go home?”
“Yeah…”
“Wait here.”
Was this the episode that readers swore they’d be furious about?
BL novel readers might not know it well, but from my perspective, the setting was more than enough to justify being angry.
To begin with, I didn’t read web novels other than fantasy, so I didn’t even know that such… such indecent tropes were popular.
Jingi tried to pull himself together, rubbing his cheeks over and over.
It felt completely numb.
Thinking about it, I could have figured it out sooner.
I knew they looked strangely alike, and I knew they shared an uncommon surname.
I just never thought the author would use that kind of setting.
No, I didn’t care if he used it, but to catch readers off-guard later on as a plot twist?
“Hey, hey. Got one. It’s coming soon. Go and get in.”
“Uh…”
Still, that kind of setting is too much.
He didn’t even tell me, his friend.
Did he forget because he was drunk?
No way he’d forget such a shocking story.
Jingi walked in a daze, following where Baek Jaehui was pulling him.
Where I was going, how I was walking—none of it was registering in my mind.
So, here I am, acting like an idiot asking a brother if he slept with his sibling?
When Joo Unyoung doesn’t even have any interest in him yet, and I’m out here imagining “enemies-to-lovers” tropes?
So, like the original work… is Joo Hyeonje’s love just a one-way street?
Yeah, surely, Joo Unyoung hated him even in the original when he was kidnapped.
He shouted, asking what he was doing and why he was doing this to him.
He even cursed him, calling him a “son of a bitch!”
The only thing that bothered me was that in the original work, they acted like they didn’t know each other at all.
…Whatever, not my problem, they won’t end up together, right?
“Here, drink some water.”
“Ugh…”
A water bottle touched my lips.
Freezing cold water flowed down my throat.
By the time I came to my senses, I was leaning on Baek Jaehui’s shoulder, being supported by him.
I gripped the tumbler tightly in my hand and stiffened my shoulders.
