Chapter 109: Ah, How Can I Resist Cheon Yu-hak’s Birthday Party! (10)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 109: Ah, How Can I Resist Cheon Yu-hak’s Birthday Party! (10)
“Just reject me clearly. Then I won’t attend the party.”
That was what I had originally intended to say.
It made sense. With what face could I possibly ask him to be my partner?
At one point, I thought there might be a chance.
He wasn’t the type to open his heart to others easily, and regardless of the method, I had ended up close to him.
But when that last glimmer of hope remained, instead of trying, I denied my own feelings.
What a stupid bitch.
He became famous just by changing his style, and his standing shifted in an instant.
I realized it when people far greater than me began showing interest in him, and even the Professor—whom I never dreamed would be a rival—asked him to be her partner.
Ah, now that I think about it, I don’t stand a chance, do I?
Whenever he put up with my tantrums and comforted me, a thought always lingered in my mind.
What if we had met differently?
What if we had met just a little sooner?
Everyone around him, even just his friends, had a dramatic story of how they met.
Lilac had the connection from the entrance ceremony. Kang Han-hee had the bond of being roommates. Cheon Yu-hak was apparently a childhood friend. Even the Professor who asked him to be her partner had the incredible experience of clearing a dungeon they were trapped in together, not to mention he recently saved her life.
And what about me?
Nothing. Far from a dramatic meeting, I left the worst possible first impression.
I was the one at fault, so much so that I couldn’t even make an excuse.
It infuriated me that I had rejected something that a person just standing still could never have, no matter how hard they tried.
I should have just endured it then.
If I hadn’t pulled those stunts, at least I wouldn’t be in the negatives.
But I went ahead and caused trouble, leaving the worst first impression imaginable.
I picked fights, made myself a nuisance, and even framed him. Even after all that, I couldn’t beat him and fell into the abyss.
Ironically, the ones who reached out to me in that abyss were him and his friends.
It was never an equal relationship to begin with, so his kindness should have ended the moment he treated me as an equal.
But he didn’t stop there.
He saved my life, comforted me when I was depressed, and never pushed me away when I approached him.
So, every time I tried to repay the favor even a little, the gap between us became glaringly obvious.
The lunchbox I made was worse than the one made by Han-hee, a guy. I couldn’t help him when he was in danger. When I thought he was dead, I tried to seek revenge, but I couldn’t even draw a villain’s attention.
What is this? There’s a limit to how different our starting lines can be.
Ah, it’s all my fault.
It’s so much my fault that I can’t even hate anyone else, and I’ve fallen so far behind that I can’t even call myself a rival.
But there was something even more disgusting.
What if he realized I was feeling this depressed?
He would undoubtedly reach out his hand again.
The fact that I imagined that, even for a split second, made me feel utterly loathsome.
So, let’s end it. I feel bad for Yu-hak, but I’ll get rejected one more time—pushed to the point where there’s no turning back—and then I’ll be rejected for good. It’s better to tidy up these feelings.
That’s what I thought.
“Hey, Butt.”
Until he suddenly called me by that somewhat random nickname.
* * *
It might sound a bit strange to put it this way, but unlike the other kids, I couldn’t easily predict what Ga-eul was thinking.
With the others, I had read countless times in the novel how they thought and reacted in certain situations, and I knew their personalities from the Setting Book. In contrast, Kim Ga-eul was originally just a passing extra.
A girl who paid a price far too high to be called poetic justice, dying a cruel death merely as a plot device to trigger the protagonist’s rage.
She wasn’t exactly good, but she wasn’t pure evil either, so she wasn’t even detailed in the Setting Book.
Therefore, I didn’t “know” Kim Ga-eul.
However, I could speak about the girl I had experienced firsthand up until now.
She’s more of a coward than she looks, and she’s incredibly stubborn.
She can be somewhat cruel to those who aren’t on her side, but once she considers someone an ally, she’ll take their side to a reckless degree.
She gets happy over the smallest things, and her smiling face is more charming than one might expect.
Above all, when an unexpected problem arises, she gets flustered to an almost extreme degree.
She was a character who fell short of being called a heroine or a villainess, and thus, she was an extra.
At first, I saved her simply because I felt bad for that ambiguity, but before I knew it, she had become a girl I was very close with.
That is the Kim Ga-eul I know.
And if I judged based on the human Kim Ga-eul I experienced, rather than a novel character, I felt like I knew what she was thinking.
“You know you’re worrying about something really fucking pointless right now, right?”
“…What? Did you not hear what I said?”
No, I heard you loud and clear. That’s why it’s so ridiculous.
I mean, if this were a web novel, some “Mind-Technique-Body Virginity Theorist” might show up and shout, “Silence! Purity is…!” and leave a 5,700-character rant in the comments. But honestly, failing after dragging out a childhood first love isn’t exactly a rare occurrence.
It’s not like she’s trying to two-time anyone.
It’s not like she can’t forget someone she used to like.
It’s just that she did like someone else before.
And because of that, she used to torment me.
And now, she finds the fact that she’s becoming attracted to me disgusting, so she feels sorry for liking me?
If I summarize it, that’s exactly what it is, but what the hell does that even mean?
I might not be some crazily sweet guy, but even I could handle that much.
If she hadn’t even reflected on her actions, I wouldn’t have given her the time of day.
But she apologized and reflected.
She’s even blaming herself because of it.
Surprisingly, in this life, that puts her in the top 20% of decent personalities.
“…But why ‘Butt’?”
“When you first met me, you were sitting on my desk, remember?”
“Uh…? Yeah.”
“You left a mark back then. So every time you picked a fight with me, I called you that in my head. ‘This Butt again,’ I’d say.”
Ah, damn, now that I think about it, does this count as sexual harassment?
“…Are you joking just to make me feel better?”
…She’s taking it that way?
“I’m not joking. You called me a loser all the time, too.”
But if I half-heartedly deny it here, everything will fall apart.
I might as well be brazen.
I have to put on a thick skin.
In these situations, the one who gets embarrassed first loses.
“Weren’t we in a really serious mood just now?”
“That’s only because you were being one-sided. Why do you only say what you want to say?”
“…So the thing you wanted to say was a ‘Butt’ confession?”
“No, not that. I’m just saying I’m not exactly a clean person either.”
“…Huh?”
“You’re talking as if you’re the only one who’s pathetic and strange.”
That wasn’t the case.
“But you’re not. Everyone makes mistakes. You can do wrong things because you’re young.”
Honestly, I’m a given, but even Cheon Yu-hak, Kang Ha-ni, and even Lilac, as I saw yesterday, all have their ugly sides.
How many people in the world live without making a single mistake?
So, the important thing was whether they had crossed the line, and if not, whether they could reflect and move forward.
At least by my standards, Kim Ga-eul had yet to cross that line.
“…Do you have any idea how much you’re overdoing it?”
“What? I’m trying to comfort you and you’re complaining.”
“If you say it like that, what does that make my resolve? It makes it feel like I was worrying over nothing.”
“We’re finally communicating, Ga-eul. Exactly. You were worrying over something completely meaningless.”
Well, it’s not actually meaningless. Everyone goes through that process during puberty to grow up and become an adult.
“Why are you so nice to me?”
Hmm, well. I didn’t really think I was being that nice.
If there was a reason…
— Hey, isn’t this Ga-eul girl who appears early on too disposable?
— Lately, it’s more popular to just coolly kill off characters who did something wrong.
— True, but it’s still a bit much. It’s not like she’s a villain. They should’ve used her more wickedly as an early villain instead.
— Then it would look weird for the protagonist to pity her.
— I guess so…?
Perhaps it was out of guilt and a sense of responsibility for the fact that her death was dismissed with a mere “I guess so?”
And while those feelings started from such selfish pity, at least now, that wasn’t all there was to it.
“They say you give an extra rice cake to the kid you dislike.”
“Liar.”
“I’m not lying.”
“…Loser.”
“Look at this girl, I try to be nice and she starts again.”
As she said that, Ga-eul’s expression was still dark.
I never expected a few words to solve all her worries in the first place.
“You know. If I ask you to go with me now, you’ll be my partner, right? But that’s not because you like me. It feels like cheating. So…”
“Hey.”
I feel like I’ve been saying lines like this too much lately.
“Ga-eul. Just be honest.”
But originally, all good words are cringy. You should say what you want to say in this world.
Isn’t it much better than regretting not saying it?
“Do you want to be my partner, or not?”
That’s the point. Don’t go down some unnecessary “dark path” and just be honest.
Ga-eul’s gaze, which had been fixed on my eyes for a moment, wavered.
“I… want to go.”
“Good. Then we’re going together.”
“…Uh? Really?”
“Would I lie?”
I’m basically a person who says two different things with one mouth, but I’m serious this time. You can trust me, okay?
* * *
Snip, snip. The scissors trimmed my hair bit by bit.
“…So you want me to be your partner too?”
“Yeah. Won’t it be fun?”
“…So-hyun, sometimes I seriously suspect my friend might be a psycho.”
Ha-ni, who was cutting my hair, asked back as if she were truly dumbfounded.
“But is that even allowed in the first place?”
“Well, the invitation didn’t say it wasn’t allowed.”
“That’s true, but…”
The invitation said to come with a partner; it didn’t say I could only bring one.
That’s right.
I just decided we should all go together.
Based on the people I’m close with, I wrote down everyone who wanted to go with me in the partner slot.
But that’s one thing; honestly, I thought there would be a huge backlash if I openly said I’d go with everyone, so I prepared all sorts of excuses. Yet, everyone’s reaction was unexpectedly compliant.
First, the Professor.
— Hmm? Partners with multiple people? Sure, let’s do that.
— Huh? I know it’s a bit much for me to ask this, and I know I’m making a very irresponsible and crazy request, right?
— So-hyun wouldn’t make a request like that without a reason. Noona trusts So-hyun.
Her reaction was so naturally accepting that I was the one who felt sorry.
— And Noona is confident.
— …Pardon? Confident in what?
— Confident that I’ll make So-hyun look only at me in the end.
She said that while tapping my forehead at the end, and I almost died of embarrassment.
And Ga-eul.
— You loser, you’re really fucking mean. Really, really damn mean. My heart was fluttering so much…!
— Take this chance to talk properly with the others and make up. I’ll make it so you can talk to Yu-hak and Ri-ra.
— Do you think I’ll fall for it just because you try to beautify it like that?
— Yeah.
— You’re right, but…! Ah, damn! I really hate you, you loser…! No, I don’t hate you!
Well, she eventually agreed like that.
We can’t be awkward forever, so we have to clear the air and move on.
“…So I’m the last one?”
“Yeah. Cheon Yu-hak agreed while laughing like a villain, saying he’s looking forward to his father’s expression when we enter.”
It’s true.
The guy, who had been looking like he was at a funeral, regained his energy and laughed wickedly the moment he heard my proposal.
“Ri-ra’s going to want to kill you.”
“She liked it, though? Said it’s better than me going with someone else.”
In fact, Ju Ri-ra is also included as a partner.
Lilac was seriously considering, “Should I do it too…?” but I stopped him, telling him to get lost if he didn’t want to be killed by Yu-na. If I had left him alone, Lilac would have joined in too.
“…Does it really work like that?”
“Yeah. Anyway, there’s already another guy besides you, so don’t feel pressured and let’s go together.”
“…Hey.”
“Yeah?”
“Aren’t you actually trying to two-time everyone? Using me and Yu-hak as a smokescreen.”
“Ah, what are you talking about? It’s not like that.”
It really isn’t.
It’s not that there’s absolutely no personal desire mixed in, but I have a fairly decent reason.
…What? Why do I need a reason for such insane harem behavior?
Well, if I don’t do this, I think it’ll be quite difficult to draw that man’s aggro.
Conversely, doing this will definitely draw his attention.
Because the man who would never miss such an incident, even among those of the Cheon bloodline, is the head of the Cheon family, Cheon Mu-jin.
…Well, it’s about time I stop delaying the conclusion with various excuses.
I’ll reach a conclusion soon. In one form or another.