Chapter 362: We Are Robbers
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 362: We Are Robbers
“N-N-No, I don’t want to.”
Choi Jin-ah suddenly began to tremble, taking several steps back.
I wondered what on earth she was talking about all of a sudden.
Her legs seemed to give out as she slumped down and curled into a ball. She looked exactly like a turtle retreating into its shell for protection.
“What are you even talking about?”
“I-I don’t taste good. I’m a human being. I’m not food.”
“I mean, I know that. Why are you acting like this?”
Seeing her shivering like that made me feel like I was actually doing something villainous.
Dumbfounded, I was about to tell her to just get up, but Oh Yun-ji stopped me.
“Wait. I’ll handle this.”
“...The fact that you’re using the word ‘handle’ already makes me uneasy.”
Oh Yun-ji approached Choi Jin-ah.
As Jin-ah huddled against the wall, Yun-ji began to whisper something into her ear.
Every time she did, Jin-ah’s shoulders would flinch and quiver. In the meantime, I picked up a piece of chicken to eat.
Oh, it’s boneless.
I quickly took a bite and went to open a cola.
Pshhh!
“Ah, dammit!”
The cola must have been shaken when Choi Jin-ah dropped it earlier, because it sprayed everywhere the moment I opened it.
Thanks to that, the clothes I had just changed into were now soaked in soda.
“This is so annoying.”
Huffing in irritation, I opened the wardrobe.
I pulled off my wet shirt and looked for something else to wear.
“Eek!”
Just then, a scream erupted from Choi Jin-ah behind me.
Startled, I turned around to find her face bright red, waving her hands frantically in the air.
“I-I-I won’t do it! S-Something that big won’t fit!”
“What are you talking about?”
I glared at Oh Yun-ji. She was covering her mouth with her hand, but she was clearly laughing.
“Woo-jin, your physique has gotten quite impressive, hasn’t it?”
“Because I’ve been working out.”
“It’s a lot different from a year ago.”
“I plan to do even more.”
I had clearly understood what it meant to be dating three people at once.
I needed to exercise more and build up my stamina.
I was still a very lacking man.
No, more importantly.
“What did you say to Jin-ah to make her tremble like that? It sounds like she’s under some weird misunderstanding.”
“Misunderstanding? What misunderstanding? If a guy tells a girl not to think about leaving his room in the middle of the night, there’s only one way to take that.”
“...”
“Don’t worry too much, Jin-ah. It only hurts a bit at first, but after that, you’ll love it so much you’ll be begging him to keep going.”
“Eek?! N-No! I don’t want to be corrupted!”
“Once you entrust yourself to those sturdy muscles, you’ll actually feel a sense of security. It’s on a whole different level from hugging a teddy bear. Your body won’t be able to sleep without Woo-jin.”
“No! No! I absolutely do nooot want that! I want to live without Woo-jin!”
“Oh, seriously.”
I quickly threw on a shirt and snapped at them, but Oh Yun-ji just held back her laughter and scurried away.
I knew she was joking, but this was a bit much.
“Jin-ah, calm down and just eat some chicken. I’m telling you, I would never do something like that to you.”
“T-That’s what you say to lower my guard, isn’t it?! It’s exactly like Yun-ji said!”
“...”
Speechless, I looked at Oh Yun-ji, who just shrugged while stuffing a piece of chicken into her mouth.
“You’re so predictable, Kim Woo-jin.”
“Should I just hit her?”
The fact that she had predicted exactly what I would say and pre-emptively fed those lines to Choi Jin-ah...
It made me realize she really did have a good read on me.
It took a while to clear up the misunderstanding.
But eventually, the three of us ended up sitting around the chicken.
“Didn’t you say you couldn’t eat late-night snacks anymore because of Senior Ju-hee?”
“Today was just so hard. And all I’ve had to eat is chicken breast.”
Choi Jin-ah grumbled.
True enough, she had lost some weight in the few days I hadn’t seen her. At the very least, her double chin was gone.
Senior Ju-hee is really putting her through it.
“You’ve actually gained a bit since the last time I saw you.”
Apparently, to Oh Yun-ji, who was seeing Choi Jin-ah for the first time in a while, she still looked like she had some weight to lose.
“By the way, you don’t seem very surprised to see Jin-ah.”
“Jin-ah and I have been texting a lot since Hawaii. We’ve gotten pretty close.”
“That’s right. Whenever something happens, I consult Yun-ji about it.”
I see.
While I was marveling at the fact that the two had become friends without me knowing...
Vibrate!
A text arrived.
[Captain Ju: Is Jin-ah there by any chance?]
“...”
A very powerful sentence.
While I was debating how to reply, Oh Yun-ji happened to ask Choi Jin-ah a question.
“By the way, where’s Senior Ju-hee?”
“I snuck out. I came out to get the chicken, but then I got a text, so I hid in here.”
So that’s what happened.
But what do I do now?
It seemed Senior Ju-hee had already figured it out.
As I was weighing whether to tell her or not...
[Captain Ju: Confirmed.]
Even though I hadn’t replied, the Senior, seeing that I had read the message but remained silent, left a reply that sounded like she was certain.
A moment later.
Knock, knock, knock.
“Jin-ah, come out.”
Choi Jin-ah, who had been munching on chicken, froze and looked toward the door with terrified eyes.
“She looks way too scared.”
“Did you tell her?”
“No, I didn’t. But she figured it out immediately when I didn’t reply.”
Yun-ji and I became bystanders and went back to eating our chicken.
“If Jin-ah leaves, that’s one less mouth to feed. Total jackpot.”
“If Jin-ah leaves, it’s just me and Woo-jin. Total jackpot.”
“...”
“...”
We were exchanging dry, playful banter while watching to see how Choi Jin-ah would respond.
Knock, knock, knock.
At the summoning knock, Choi Jin-ah nervously crept toward the door and replied in a whisper.
“I-I’m busy right now.”
“Jin-ah, you’ve lost so much weight until now. You said you wanted to lose it, too. Are you really going to eat a late-night snack?”
“I’m not eating a snack. I’m exercising.”
“Exercising?”
“I’m doing an exercise with Woo-jin that you can only do at night.”
Is this girl crazy?
I was about to give her a piece of my mind for dragging me into this.
However, what came from Senior Ju-hee’s lips was a scoff filled with a sort of mockery.
“If you were doing that with him, you wouldn’t be able to talk this calmly right now.”
“...”
“It feels like your body is being torn apart.”
Oh Yun-ji glared at me.
Choi Jin-ah also looked at me as if she were looking at something disgusting.
“Ahem, Senior?”
When I approached the front door and let out an awkward cough, the Senior was silent for a moment.
“...Could you pretend you didn’t hear that?”
Feeling embarrassed, she offered a secret proposal.
* * *
Back in my room.
This time, even Senior Ju-hee was joined in, eating the chicken.
However, Choi Jin-ah, the one who had actually bought the chicken, was just crunching on a few pieces of chicken radish by herself.
She couldn’t even lay a finger on the chicken.
“Jin-ah, you shouldn’t eat too much chicken radish either.”
“But I’m the one who bought it...”
Despite her grumbling, Choi Jin-ah sat on her knees. I wondered when she had become so broken.
After cautioning Jin-ah, the Senior glanced at me and Oh Yun-ji.
I had changed my clothes, but Oh Yun-ji was still only in her underwear.
“Yun-ji, do you work out separately? Your body is very toned.”
Senior Ju-hee spoke as if she wanted Jin-ah to hear, and Yun-ji replied with a shrug.
“I work out with the broadcasters under my management when they get their PT. I realized that if you want to work sitting down for a long time, exercise is a must.”
“Yes, that’s true. In the end, no matter what you do, exercise is essential.”
Senior Ju-hee offered some awkward advice.
She kept glancing at me and Yun-ji, looking as if she felt she had intruded on a strange atmosphere.
“Sigh.”
Eventually, Senior Ju-hee let out a sigh and put down her chicken.
Usually, when a situation arose, Senior Ju-hee was the type to push forward rather than back down.
“Are you two dating again?”
The Senior didn’t back off and asked directly.
“No, we’re not.”
“Not yet.”
In contrast to my firm answer, Oh Yun-ji added to the confusion with a vague “not yet.”
Senior Ju-hee glared at me and rebuked me somewhat sternly.
“Woo-jin, you are dating the girls on Ye-rin’s side, right?”
“...Yes.”
“Then isn’t it wrong to let other women into your room like this?”
“Ahem, you’re right.”
It was a perfectly logical point.
However, I hoped she would take into account that there were unfair circumstances.
“I also woke up to find Oh Yun-ji here. I am a victim in this incident.”
“Jin-ah said you wouldn’t let her leave. What was that about?”
“I wanted to keep her here as a witness that I didn’t do anything with Yun-ji.”
“Sigh, is this why they’re a chaebol family? How is their way of thinking so extraordinary?”
Was that a compliment?
“Anyway, I’m glad you’re here, Senior. Thanks to you, I won’t be misunderstood anymore.”
“I wonder if that’s true.”
Senior Ju-hee replied awkwardly, as if she couldn’t quite guarantee it.
Just then.
“Wow, this is interesting.”
Oh Yun-ji, who now looked more natural undressed than dressed, clapped her hands together.
“All of our first loves are right here.”
“...”
“...”
“...”
A momentary silence fell over the room.
Just as Yun-ji said.
Yun-ji and I were each other’s first loves.
And both Senior Ju-hee and Jin-ah had told me before that I was their first love.
We all glanced at each other.
The window was definitely open, and the weather outside was cold with a biting wind.
So why did it feel like sweat was trickling down my back?
I couldn’t figure it out.
“Why are you causing so much trouble today?”
When I snapped at her, Oh Yun-ji gave a smirk and began to crawl toward me.
“I just had a thought.”
In the eyes of Yun-ji, who was crawling on all fours like a cat, there was a deeper sense of mischief than usual.
“If the timing had been just a little bit faster... wouldn’t it have been the three of us by your side, instead of those three?”
“What kind of—”
Nonsense is that?
I tried to retort.
However, the eyes of Senior Ju-hee and Choi Jin-ah, who were looking at me, were trembling slightly.
“Why are you talking about things that are already over?”
I replied, pushing her away to make her stop.
But Oh Yun-ji didn’t back down; she pushed me over and climbed right on top of me.
“Even if it’s over, it’s not really over.”
That thing called a first love that remains in one’s heart.
“It’s always like that.”
I didn’t even have time to respond.
Yun-ji, who was on top of me, suddenly forced a kiss onto my lips.
“Mmph?!”
Startled, I hurriedly pushed Yun-ji away. No matter how you looked at it, this wasn’t right.
“Hey! What do you think you’re doing?!”
She was so good at kissing that it actually caught me off guard for a second.
As I wiped my mouth and backed away as if fleeing, Oh Yun-ji grinned and replied.
“I’m a robber.”