Chapter 326: Summit
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 326: Summit
“…….”
With my mouth tightly shut, I was eating my school meal.
Eating while keeping your mouth shut sounds like a contradiction, but since there was already food inside, it wasn't impossible.
I felt like that was a lot like me.
Wasn't I turning a contradictory situation into reality?
Call it bullshit if you want; I didn't care.
Regardless, the current me was harboring such concerns.
“What are you doing?”
Oh Yun-ji, who was eating across from me, stared at me with pathetic eyes.
We weren't exactly eating together.
I was just eating alone when she came over and sat down across from me.
“Just thinking.”
I replied after finishing my mouthful.
To be honest, Oh Yun-ji was a distraction to me while I was grappling with these complex thoughts.
“You’re probably thinking about something useless again.”
Yun-ji took a bite of her pork cutlet, making it clear she didn't want to care.
“What do you know? I’m facing the biggest dilemma of my life right now.”
“Do you have any idea how useless your 'dilemmas' are every time you make that face? Back in the day, I actually worried along with you, only to find out you were debating whether your first outdoor sex should be in a restroom or a classroom.”
“……That was a very important matter.”
In the end, we concluded it wasn't outdoor sex because both were inside a building.
“You have the exact same expression now as you did back then. No matter how I look at it, it’s probably another useless worry.”
“Phew, fine, think what you want. I’m in the middle of a serious internal crisis.”
You could call it a search for self.
Isn't twenty-one an age where you're still allowed to search for yourself?
“Don't tell me your draft notice came?”
Yun-ji asked, just in case. I answered with a sigh.
“I’ve already prepared myself for that. There’s nothing to worry about. I’ll take a leave of absence and go as soon as it arrives.”
I’d thought that way before, but after seeing those two guys falling apart right before their enlistment, I became even more determined.
When the draft notice comes, I won't delay it; I'll just go.
Besides, I got Grade 1 on my physical examination.
“Then what is it? What’s the problem?”
“I thought you weren't interested.”
“You keep sighing right in front of me. It’s distracting.”
Come to think of it, Oh Yun-ji might be the only one I could vent these concerns to.
She knew everything about me, yet she could give me a cold, third-party perspective.
Even if she is my ex-girlfriend.
There were some awkward parts to it, but since she asked, I decided to tell her.
“Ugh, stop stalling. You’re going to tell me anyway.”
“Stop nagging me, damn.”
I needed time to steel my resolve.
With a short breath, I set my spoon down.
Whatever it was, what I was about to say was, in a way, a denial of the very foundation of my life up until now.
Finally, I spat out the inner thoughts I had been harboring alone.
“Isn't dating three women at once... ethically broken?”
“…….”
Clatter.
Yun-ji dropped the fork she was using to eat her pork cutlet and sat there with her mouth agape.
Frozen in that position, she stared at me with wide eyes before shouting.
“Y-You just—!”
Her voice trembled as she yelled.
“You just realized that now?!”
“Hey, quiet. People are looking.”
The people around us were staring.
Some who seemed to know about our relationship even started taking photos.
There’s been a lot of that lately.
There was so much noise regarding Oh Yun-ji over the summer break, and in the process of catching that illegal filming culprit, my face—as the youngest son of Uju Group—had been exposed.
So.
“Wow, no way.”
“Hope their love lasts.”
“If you post a picture of them on SNS, you’ll get so many likes.”
To the people around us, we probably looked like the protagonists of a drama reaching their finale.
I’d half-given up because people always took photos whenever I was with Oh Yun-ji.
At first, the three girls complained a lot, but now they just let it be, which was its own kind of punchline.
“Ugh, I wonder when they’ll stop doing that.”
Given the nature of college students, popularity tends to inflate quickly and cool down just as fast, so this behavior probably wouldn't last long.
“No, is that what’s important right now?! You just said something common-sensical at the most nonsensical timing?!”
“……I mean, I knew it before, too.”
I replied half-heartedly.
Did she really think I hadn't considered dating three women to be strange?
It’s just that my senses felt like they had been anesthetized for a while.
How should I put it?
It was like being a monk in a state of ecstasy who never wanted to leave.
Well, that was just a figure of speech.
“It’s not like there was a specific trigger. It just suddenly occurred to me while I was listening to a lecture today.”
“You’re making 'thinking about other stuff because I didn't want to listen to the lecture' sound like something grand.”
“…….”
“So? That thought suddenly hit you? That you’re a world-class piece of trash?”
“Hey, I didn't go that far.”
That actually hurt.
“Sigh, so what are you going to do? Are you suddenly going to choose one of the three right here?”
“No…… well, that’s also a bit difficult.”
Lately, the atmosphere had shifted to a point where it felt like all three of them had accepted the situation.
It was hard to just let go of that, but my guilty conscience was pricking at my chest.
“Then, how about another option?”
“Another option?”
Yun-ji muttered as she rested her chin on her hand, slightly averting her eyes as if embarrassed.
“Saying that we... we got back together.”
“Oh, Senior Ju-hee!”
“I really want to swap the positions of Kim Woo-jin’s left and right brain.”
Ignoring the murderous glare Yun-ji was sending my way, I called out to Senior Ju-hee, who was holding a tray.
The senior sat down next to Yun-ji without a word. Judging by the hat she was wearing, it looked like she had just woken up.
“Did you just wake up?”
“Yeah, I don't have any classes today. I came to save money by eating a school meal.”
Sure enough, the senior’s tray held the cheapest item: Hot Pot Bulgogi.
“Didn't you make a lot of money from your part-time job?”
“I have to save. Thanks to that, I don't have to work during the semester.”
I suddenly remembered when the senior collapsed while working at the cafe.
Certainly, as long as she didn't have a financial crisis, her scholarship wouldn't be an issue.
“You came at the right time. There was something I wanted to ask.”
“Sure, go ahead.”
The senior listened casually as she opened the lid of her rice bowl.
I spat out what I had been thinking about all this time.
“Even for a bodyguard, isn't it abnormal to have sex with the client?”
Clang!
The senior dropped her rice bowl.
Just like Oh Yun-ji earlier, she stared at me with wide eyes and her mouth hanging open.
She looked like she wanted to say something, but her lips were trembling from embarrassment.
“W-Why are you bringing that up now?! I’d finally forgotten about it!”
“You forgot about it?”
Oh Yun-ji, sitting next to Senior Ju-hee, smirked.
The senior pretended not to hear the teasing look that asked if she had really forgotten.
But that wasn't what mattered.
“No, think about it. Looking back, Yoo Ah-rin was weird for making you jump in, and you were weird for actually jumping in, Senior.”
“…….”
“And wasn't I weird for doing it with you, Senior?!”
Senior Ju-hee, trembling, tried to say something but closed her mouth again.
After a few attempts, she finally spoke.
“F-First, let me ask one thing.”
“Yes?”
“Why are you suddenly asking that?”
Why?
“The thought just hit me. That I’ve been living a very strange life until now.”
“It took you... 21 years to realize that.”
“Should we buy a cake today? To celebrate the day Kim Woo-jin’s brain finally started working.”
“The cafe where I used to work makes really good cakes.”
The two of them suddenly started clapping, trying to designate it as an anniversary. While I felt like it was somewhat deserved, it also felt strangely insulting.
“First of all. I’ll tell you just one thing, Woo-jin.”
Senior Ju-hee, who had been clapping, glanced around and whispered quietly.
“If you mention that night one more time, you’ll die a more painful death than you can possibly imagine.”
“……Yes, ma'am.”
“It was a vacation spot, and there was alcohol involved. Yes, that’s why it happened.”
“Senior, you didn't drink any—”
Thump.
The senior’s hand clamped over my mouth.
She seemed to be holding it lightly, but it felt like my teeth were about to be pulled out.
“I drank. I was absolutely wasted.”
I didn't nod, but the senior forced my head to move up and down.
Only then did she let go.
She began eating her now-lukewarm Hot Pot Bulgogi, so I returned to the original topic.
“Anyway, that’s why I’m worried. I feel... guilty, I guess.”
In the past, Seo-ah from the film department had asked me something similar.
She asked if I didn't feel any remorse, and at the time, I told her that all such feelings vanish when you have a girl on each arm.
I was a piece of trash.
How could I have said such a thing? I began to doubt my own humanity.
“Sigh, I can't even get the food down.”
“You ate it all, though.”
“The dishwasher is going to have an easy time with your tray.”
Ignoring their comments, I stood up from my seat.
It was impossible to ask someone else to solve this problem.
However, since I felt like I had to do something now that I’d voiced it, I left the cafeteria and pulled out my phone to find the girls.
* * *
“Senior.”
After Kim Woo-jin made a fuss and left with a look of resolve, Oh Yun-ji, who was finishing her pork cutlet, called out to Min Ju-hee.
“Yeah?”
Min Ju-hee, who was busy inhaling her Hot Pot Bulgogi, turned her head to look at her junior. Oh Yun-ji spoke with a strangely hollow expression.
“Want to make a bet?”
“What kind of bet?”
“Whether that bastard brings a girl to the dormitory today or takes one to a hotel.”
“…….”
Min Ju-hee stared in the direction Kim Woo-jin had left for a moment with her spoon still in her mouth.
“Is 'not doing it at all' not an option?”
When she asked just in case, Oh Yun-ji let out a scoffing laugh.
“That bastard is one hundred percent doing it today.”
Whether it would be with one person or two, she didn't know. But looking at him, he was definitely going to do it.
“Hmm, hotel?”
“Okay. Then I’ll take the dormitory. The loser buys the school meal tomorrow.”
After that, Oh Yun-ji silently dipped her pork cutlet into the sauce again.
Look at that bullshit.
As the person who had spent the most intimate time with Kim Woo-jin, both physically and mentally, she knew.
I give it half a day, tops.
She simply shoved the pork cutlet into her mouth with an irritated look.