Side Story 32: A Precarious Love Triangle?
Eunwoo had come on a date with his so-called first boyfriend.
"So this is what a date is..."
He'd more or less seen it coming, but still.
"What? You love games, Eunyul, lol."
He had not expected their first date to be at a PC café.
Fine. I can do this. I'm more at home in a place like this anyway. I can do this, it's just...
How to put it. Kim Minjun had turned out to be even more hopeless at dating than Eunwoo had imagined, and that was saying something.
Then again, expecting anything classy out of this bastard was my mistake. It's not like I wanted that kind of thing from him in the first place. That's the joke.
He swallowed the flare of contempt that wanted to call Minjun a loser to his face, and sat down like a well-behaved girl.
"You've got an ID, right, Eunyul?"
"Yep."
Good thing I made one ahead of time, just like Master told me to.
Logging in on his real account would have blown his cover, so Eunwoo had come prepared with a fresh one.
Play along for a bit, then do exactly what Master said...
He was running a quick mental rehearsal of how the day was supposed to go when someone spoke up behind them.
"Yo. Minjun. You here?"
"...?"
The voice came out of nowhere.
"Hyunwoo? The hell are you doing here?"
Lee Hyunwoo. Kim Minjun's so-called soulmate.
"What else would I be here for? Gaming. I come to this PC café all the time, you know."
"Ah. Right."
A perfectly reasonable answer. Hyunwoo parried his friend's suspicion without breaking stride, then dipped his head toward the girl.
"Hello, Eunyul."
"Hi~ hehe."
And just like that, he planted himself in front of his friend's girl and made sure she knew he existed.
Hyunwoo had spent the previous evening getting bragged at over text until his teeth hurt. He knew perfectly well the two of them were officially a couple now. Which was exactly why he did not back off.
"Mind if I hop in?"
Not oblivious. The opposite. He knew, so he pushed in harder.
"What? Obviously not."
Minjun didn't even try to hide the brush-off. The territorial spike in his voice was loud enough to trip over.
"Aw, come on. We talked about gaming together yesterday."
Hyunwoo, today, was not going to let go.
"When did we ever agree to that?"
"We were bonding over games, weren't we? I'm pretty sure we said the three of us should play. Right, Eunyul?"
Had they? Hadn't they? The memory was fuzzy around the edges, but—
"We did promise we'd all play together, hehe."
For Master's plan to work, Eunwoo needed a line to Hyunwoo too. So he took Hyunwoo's side.
"See? Told you."
"Urgh..."
Once the girlfriend piled on, Minjun had nowhere left to stand.
"Fine. Just log in already..."
"Yeah, one sec."
Hyunwoo did not take the seat beside Minjun. He dropped into the one right next to Eunyul.
Jesus Christ. This asshole...
Minjun's mood was already curdling, but then—
"I'm sorry, Minjun... let it go for me today, okay? Let's just have fun..."
"...Yeah."
His girlfriend's little act melted the anger right out of him.
Right. A real man doesn't sweat the small stuff.
"Ahem. Eunyul, you want something? My treat."
"Really? Then I'll just have some Jjapagetti!"
"Wait. You two dropped the formal talk?"
"Obviously~ we're dating, lol."
"..."
Minjun was not about to sit there and take it. He slipped the counter in light and clean, a pointed little you and I are not on the same level aimed straight at his irritating friend.
A few more of those and this bastard will get the hint and—
"Eunyul. Why don't you talk casually with me too?"
...Apparently he was going to cling even harder.
"Hey. What's with the tone?"
"What tone."
"You're picking a fight."
"Don't start something for no reason. And I wasn't talking to you."
He ignored Minjun trying to shut him down and leaned in toward Eunyul until there was nowhere left to look.
"Talk casual with me too."
He shoved his face in close enough to be a problem.
Has this bastard lost his mind?
Heat spiked behind Minjun's eyes. Then Eunyul smiled.
"Okay! We're all friends anyway, hehe."
"E-Eunyul..."
If his own girlfriend said it was fine, what exactly was left for him to argue?
"Great. Looking forward to it, Eunyul... hehe."
Something in Minjun's temple ticked.
His pride kept taking hits. Maybe that was why, the moment the food arrived—
"Oh, food's here."
—he went looking for ways to twist the knife.
"Eunyul. Say ahh~"
"Huh? O-oh~..."
He fed her bites she could have taken herself. He found sauce at the corner of her mouth that may or may not have been there.
"You've got something on your lip. I got it, hehe."
"...Thanks, hehe."
He staged every sticky-sweet little couple beat he could think of, all of it aimed at making Hyunwoo's stomach turn.
Holy shit she's cute. I'm finally the guy who gets to do this!
Of course, part of it was just that Minjun had always wanted to try it.
God.
He had no idea Eunwoo's interest was already dying on the vine. He was too busy wringing every drop of old resentment out of the moment, floating on how superior he felt in front of his friend.
This is disgusting to watch. He's doing it on purpose. Rubbing it in right in front of me...
The performance landed. Dark clouds piled up behind Hyunwoo's eyes. At the same time, something else settled into place.
I was right to come.
He was sure of it now. Last night had been the right call.
The night before, after taking Jo Eunwoo's advice, Hyunwoo had gone home alone.
"God... maybe I really shouldn't have just shown up like that."
His friend's sudden upgrade had soured in his chest, and he'd lain there chewing on it.
"No. This is an investment. For later. An investment."
Calling it an investment when he hadn't actually done a single thing was almost funny, but he couldn't think of another way to talk himself down.
"Still... how do I even bring up asking her to introduce me to someone?"
That was the investment. Use Eunyul to get himself introduced to a girl in her league — someone just as pretty. Which meant he had to see her again. Meet her, and sell himself as the kind of guy worth introducing.
"They're not actually dating yet, so if I can get in front of her again soon and just say something..."
That was when his phone buzzed.
"Who..."
He looked at the screen.
A smug little victory lap from his friend.
"Al... already?!"
I didn't think it'd move this fast!
"Fuck."
His guts twisted. He had finally met the girl of his millennial dreams, and a friend with no right to her at all had snatched her away.
"Getting an introduction is the only move I have left...!"
If he didn't do at least that, the jealousy was going to kill him.
"But there's no way Minjun lets me anywhere near Eunyul."
Which left one option. An ambush.
"He's not gonna tell me where they're going, right?"
Then the only thing left was to tail him.
"Hide out in front of his apartment, then follow them..."
Just like that, his thinking slid off the rails and turned him into a stalker.
"N-no. That's too far, even for this..."
His phone buzzed again.
Something in his head snapped like a cut string.
"Yeah, fuck it. He's the asshole. He knows how I feel and he keeps poking me anyway..."
Once the thought had gone ugly, inertia carried it the rest of the way.
"We're friends. What's the big deal if I follow him a little?"
So no. It was not a coincidence. That was how he had ended up in the same room as the two of them.
The way he's been guarding her from me, he was never going to let us meet. Good thing I followed him anyway.
He had even gotten her to drop the formal speech. They were on a first-name basis now. Worth the risk.
"Ah—sorry. Eunyul, I'm gonna hit the bathroom real quick..."
And situations like this kept falling into his lap.
"Okay, go ahead, Minjun~ hehe."
Eunyul's face was all smiles. Inside, Eunwoo was staring at the vacancy Minjun had just left.
Wow. You're so busy guarding your girl from your friend, and you just leave her here to pee? I mean, sure, when you gotta go you gotta go. But if you lose her, you've got no one to blame, you dumbass. Lol.
Anyway...
Watching the two friends tear strips off each other, Eunwoo found Master's words rising to the surface.
Two males, all edges, circling a female. Master's assessment had been dead-on, and Eunwoo could only admire it.
Master called it. They bicker normally, but it's never gotten this nasty... lol.
While Eunwoo was turning that over, Hyunwoo seized the opening and went in close.
"H-hey..."
"Hm?"
"Could you maybe... introduce me to a girl...?"
No runway. He dropped the sensitive ask straight on the table.
"Introduce you?"
"Y-yeah..."
Oh, right. I did say something like that. Lol.
Eunwoo remembered telling Hyunwoo there might be a chance at a setup. He let out a long, considering hum, and last night with Master replayed behind his eyes.
"What's the other one's name again?"
"Mmph... you mean Hyunwoo, Master?"
He had been giving Master a devoted blowjob while feeding him everything he knew about his friends.
"Yeah. Him. Let's hook that one too, lol."
"Hahhh... how should I...?"
"Flutter at him. Kids like you are his type to begin with, aren't they? Lol."
"...Yesh...♡"
The memory settled, and Eunwoo smiled.
"Sure. I'd love to."
"R-r-r-really?! Thank you! Thank you so much!"
Hyunwoo looked ready to levitate. Eunyul shifted in, closing the gap until there was almost none left.
"But, um..."
"Y-yeah...?"
Hyunwoo froze. Eunyul ignored it, put his lips against Hyunwoo's ear, and dropped the bomb anyway.
"What about someone like me?"
"W-w-w-what?!"
Hyunwoo's face went so red it looked ready to burst. The panic on him was almost cute.
"Ah, sorry. That came out weird, didn't it? The people I could introduce you to all look and act pretty different, so I was just trying to figure out your type, hehe."
"O-ooooh! That's what you meant? God, I was thinking something else entirely... haha..."
Eunyul had called it a misunderstanding. And then those eyes lingered on him, slow and knowing.
"So... what type do you actually like?"
What is this mood...?
It felt like he was being reeled in.
N-no. Don't jump the gun.
He told himself that. He meant it. He even tried to soothe the thought back down. But then—
"Hm? Come on, tell me~"
That soft voice. The powdery sweetness of her perfume sliding into his nose. The slender arm, the line of her throat, the pretty features set just so in that small face.
He swallowed.
His head went loose and useless. Instinct climbed up over everything he was trying to hold down, and the truth came out of him before he could stop it.
"Y-you... you're my perfect type..."
Ah.
He'd said it. To his friend's girlfriend. You're my type.
I'm so fucking dead—!
He braced for disgust. What he got instead was a thoughtful little hum.
"Mmm~ okay. I'll keep that in mind, hehe."
"H-huh? Y-yeah..."
What? She doesn't look mad at all.
If anything—
"I see... so I'm Hyunwoo's type~..."
That fox-eyed smile slid over him like a hand around the throat.
Th-that look. No way...
It put a thought in him he had no business having.
Do I... have a shot too?
Going after another guy's girl — a friend's girl — was the one thing you were never supposed to do. And yet.
S-so what if she's my friend's girl? What was so great about that bastard in the first place...!
This was the same friend who had tried to drag him down the second he said he had a girlfriend. Normally Hyunwoo would have written that off as dumb friend-wrestling, WWE for losers. But this particular bastard had gotten under his skin for real.
So the rest was only a matter of time.
I like Eunyul more than he does...! I could treat her better...!