Episode 77

At first, I’d meant not to get dragged in and just let it slide with a “yeah, yeah,” but then Gang Jegyeong straightened his back and started looking down at me arrogantly, saying he was sincerely congratulating me. He was clearly looking down on me on purpose. Did he think I’d bite if he provoked me like this?

The little punk’s getting cocky……. I slung an arm around Gang Jegyeong’s shoulders and put some strength into it, lowering him to my eye level.

“Go on, do it some more.”

“……Do you like being coddled like this, Go Yeong?”

Gang Jegyeong withdrew that provocative gaze in an instant and lowered his body exactly as I’d pulled him down. Then he widened his eyes and looked up at me, asking innocently as if he’d never acted up at all. If he was going to tuck his tail that fast, what was he trying to climb up for?

“Do I look insane enough to like that?”

“Then why did you tell me to do it some more? I was wondering if I should go study that kind of thing.”

Is he crazy?

“If you’ve got time to study that, go study how to play the medical officer better.”

“Wow, did you just tell me to study how to play the medical officer?”

“You did pick medical officer and lose.”

Gang Jegyeong grumbled with a face full of injustice. He must have felt wronged, but a loss was a loss, so he couldn’t openly refute me. This was the composure only the final victor could enjoy.

Gang Jegyeong, who had been muttering nonstop under his breath, grew even more dispirited when I ignored him as if I were only half-listening, then turned his head. Then, as if he’d found something, he abruptly stopped mumbling and took his phone out of the paper bag in front of him.

The screen was already on, as if something was coming in. Seeing the lit-up display, Gang Jegyeong tilted his head slightly, then opened the screen.

Since he’d taken out his phone beside me, my attention naturally shifted to my own phone as well. Just in case, I should check whether anyone had contacted me. My family or my uncle might have called.

I put my hand into my pocket and pulled out the phone I’d switched to silent before going onstage, then turned on the screen. The moment I did, my brow furrowed on its own at the countless icons that appeared as soon as the display lit up.

I’d only meant to check whether any important messages had come in, but the state of things was a sight. The top bar was plastered with missed call and text icons, and KakaoTalk messages had come not only from people I’d been close with, but even from people I thought I’d been a little awkward with.

[Hyung, if you’re doing okay these days, Octber reunion, u in?] (5)

[Is this hyung?] (16)

[Yeong-nim, do you stilll play Duskk??] (1)

[Is it hyung?] (4)

[Yeong-ppa, you play Dusk????] (2)

[Yeong-ppa, where u at?] (1)

[Yeong-nim, you there?] (1)

[ign] (4)

What was this about a reunion now? At this age, even if we held a reunion, it’d just end after everyone drank themselves stupid while talking endlessly about college, the military, and jobs. Were they calling me to brag because they’d gotten hired somewhere nice, or to borrow money……?

When am I supposed to reply to all this? Should I just invite them all to a group chat later and answer there? Replying one by one was a pain. By the end, I couldn’t even be bothered to think about it, so I just turned off the phone screen and shoved it carelessly into my jersey pocket.

If mine was like this, Gang Jegyeong’s must be no joke. Thinking of his phone, whose display had been lit up the entire time earlier, I looked to the side and saw Gang Jegyeong rapidly tapping through chatrooms and blocking the people who had contacted him. He even ignored the small pop-up windows showing incoming calls.

I glanced at him, a little surprised, and noticed he was giving off a fairly irritable air. He wasn’t frowning hard; if anything, his face was close to expressionless. But he was completely different from how he was when he was with me, making it painfully obvious that he was in a bad mood.

“……What are you doing?”

“Ah, I think people I know recognized my face and started contacting me.”

We weren’t even close. Because he muttered that under his breath, the question I’d been about to ask—“That’s not what I meant, why are you blocking them all like that?”—went right back down my throat. I guess he had his own circumstances too.

I knew he was the kind of person who would have already blabbered about it himself if he wanted to, so I didn’t bother asking. Instead, to at least divert Gang Jegyeong’s attention from whatever was annoying him, I brought up something else.

“So why did you wait onstage earlier and ask me to leave together?”

At that, Gang Jegyeong’s mood brightened at once as if nothing had happened, his face turning lively. Even the hand that had been busily moving to block people came to a complete stop.

“To hang out!”

He looked as though he had not a single doubt that I would definitely play with him. Seeing him change his expression completely, like he’d put on and taken off a mask, and look at me with such expectation made a strange guilt creep up inside me for no reason.

“Sorry, but…… I can’t hang out.”

“Why not?”

It was almost fascinating how instantly his face fell.

“I can’t stay out for long. I have some circumstances.”

“You were fine until now.”

“That’s because I had to play the match.”

“Hang out with me.”

“No.”

When I cut him off flatly, Gang Jegyeong pressed his lips together. No matter what angle you looked at it from, the shape of his mouth was firmly insisting, I’m dissatisfied.

“If I’d known it’d be like this, I should’ve gotten an answer out of you even if I had to lie down on the stage floor.”

“If you had, I would’ve never associated with you again.”

Imagining Gang Jegyeong lying on the floor and throwing a tantrum like a certain little girl from an animation made my head throb. He was just saying that, right?

I offered an alternative to Gang Jegyeong, who was thoroughly sulking and grumbling about something.

“Instead, I’ll wait until the signing event is over and take you home.”

“……Home?”

“Why? Is your place far from here?”

I’d heard he lived in Seoul. Was that wrong?

When I stared at him curiously, Gang Jegyeong slowly opened his mouth as if answering reluctantly.

“No, it’s not that far. From here, about fifteen, twenty minutes by bus.”

“Then why are you reacting like that?”

“Because it’s close, so I won’t get to be with you for long…….”

When I pressed him for an answer, Gang Jegyeong, who seemed to hesitate, lowered his gaze and confessed in a quiet voice.

I’m going to lose my mind. If someone heard this, they’d think we were dating.

“Then I don’t need to take you home, so I’ll leave first without waiting?”

“Ah, no, let’s wait and go together.”

As soon as I prepared to drive the point firmly home, he changed his tune in an instant. He really was a strange bastard. I couldn’t understand at all how attached he’d gotten to someone he’d met for the first time today that he was clinging like this. He wasn’t some puppy trying to follow me while whining at parting just because I’d petted him a little.

“You have luggage anyway, and public transportation will be inconvenient, so just get a ride.”

“Okay.”

Seeing him nod obediently as if he’d never whined, I smiled slightly and leaned back against the seat. Then I watched the stage for a moment as the final event proceeded.

Onstage, the MC smoothly carried the event along, and laughter scattered through the audience several times. Maybe because the tension had left me after the match ended, I couldn’t focus. I could roughly tell that the CEO had gone up and was doing a Q&A, but. ……The CEO.

I tried to focus on the event, but at the thought that came to mind, I looked back toward Gang Jegyeong.

“Was the signing event thirty minutes?”

“Thirty minutes, yes.”

“Then after the event ends, I’ll stop by somewhere and come back.”

“Where are you planning to go?”

That…… was hard to say. There was no way I could tell him the CEO of this company was someone my older brother liked, and that I also knew him in various ways, so I was going to say hello briefly.

I gave a vague excuse to gloss it over.

“Just to meet someone I know for a bit.”

“Aha. If that’s all, then it’s fine.”

“If it were something else, it wouldn’t be?”

“As long as you’re not abandoning me and leaving, everything’s fine.”

Gang Jegyeong chattered with a broad smile. As if there were any reason I’d abandon him and leave after we’d already settled everything.

Not long after, a staff member came to get him so he could prepare for the signing event, and while he cleaned up his seat, Gang Jegyeong wore the drooping expression of a puppy being separated from its owner. It was a magical face that made the person looking at it feel terribly uneasy. Obviously, I wasn’t the one leaving; he was the one going to work.

I waved at Gang Jegyeong as he left, after telling me to come back as quickly as possible. I kept my gaze fixed on the stage so I wouldn’t get attached to that dog-like face—not godawful, dog-like.

* * *

Holding a box of chocolate chip cookies and a row of macarons the CEO had packed for me to take, one in each hand, I returned to the entrance of the arena. They weren’t for me; they were snacks to give Gang Jegyeong. When the CEO kept readily pushing things at me, saying he’d give me something, I’d taken them because I thought Gang Jegyeong would like them.

I’d planned to hand them over once the signing event ended, but the line was still quite long. There was still plenty of time, but there was no way he could sign for all these people in that time. They’d probably cut it off midway.

More than anything, I was a little worried about Gang Jegyeong’s wrist, since he had to sign for that many people for thirty minutes. He needed to play games.

As I looked worriedly at the long line stretching out beside me, a staff member nearby approached.

“You’re Honey Bread, right? Retake asked me to tell you that you can wait over there.”

Following the staff member’s pointing finger with my gaze, I saw a chair placed at the far corner of the long Dura table where Gang Jegyeong was sitting. Seeing that it was near the signing table, of all places, made it painfully obvious that Gang Jegyeong had chosen the spot.

Even if it was a little removed from the actual signing area, it was a burdensome place to sit. But since they’d already brought the chair over, it seemed difficult to back out, and I figured it would be better to wait quietly than cause a commotion trying to take the chair away, so I only nodded to show I understood.

I was about to approach the table where Gang Jegyeong was sitting, just as the staff member had told me, when my uncle, who had been following me from the side, suddenly grabbed me and whispered in my ear.

“Yeong, someone behind you.”

At the words that someone had come close behind me, I took a brief deep breath and turned around. Then I saw a woman who was smiling but looked extremely nervous, and another woman right beside her pushing her forward by the back.