The Enemy Is Always Within
I stepped out of the house for the first time in a while. If I stayed cooped up at home any longer, my head would get too tangled up with thoughts of Chae-yeon. Meeting up with my friends should help clear my mind a bit, I figured.
As soon as I walked into the café we’d claimed as our hideout, four of my friends waved at me from across the room.
Since I write web novels as a hobby, it was only natural that the friends around me were fellow web novel authors. Somehow we ended up forming a writers’ group. I never dreamed that the novel I started at age twenty on Yong-ju’s suggestion—back when we were still high school friends—would lead to all this.
Why were these guys reacting like this just because I’d stepped outside? Was it really that shocking?
Just five of us throwing in one line each, and the place had turned into a noisy marketplace. Being surrounded by all that lively chatter actually helped untangle some of the mess in my head. Yeah, this was definitely the right call.
A natural silence fell over the table. This was the true nature of our writers’ group—authors who wrote the sweetest, most heart-fluttering stories but had zero romantic experience themselves. Or more precisely, couldn’t manage to have any.
Of course, not a single hand went up. Su-ho scanned the group, then locked eyes with me and stared for a long time. Whenever this guy stared at me like that, he was definitely about to say something ridiculous.
Everyone scooted closer to me, hanging on my every word. If even Ha-jin and Gyeon-woo were joining in with Su-ho and Yong-ju, I might actually get a little hurt.
Wait a second. Had I ever talked about Chae-yeon in this group? I had mentioned her, but only to Yong-ju. I shot him a glare just in case, but he quickly looked away and busied himself with something else. Got you, you traitor. So the saying “the enemy is always within” really was true.
I’d come to this meeting to get away from thinking about Chae-yeon, but it had somehow turned into a full-blown discussion about her. The four authors turned into four rabbits with their ears perked up, hanging on my every word.
The atmosphere had been against me from the start. It was unfair, but since it was basically my own karma, I had nothing to say.
I couldn’t exactly deny that. The first thing that had shocked me when I saw Chae-yeon again was how drastically her appearance had changed.
When I pulled out my phone and showed them the chat screen, the four of them huddled together like rabbits crawling into a burrow to hibernate.
At this rate, it was going to take a long time to get close to her again. But I had no idea how to speed things up. Even though it was a useless thought, if I could drink like Su-ho had suggested, we might get close faster. The problem was that ever since the surgery, my body couldn’t handle alcohol, so that option was completely impossible.
Maybe because we’d started the conversation on the topic of Chae-yeon, the calm that had settled in my head was getting tangled again. I wasn’t the type who could stand awkward atmospheres, so I really wanted to go back to being close like we used to be as soon as possible.
The moment those words left my mouth, no one continued the conversation. It was a natural reaction. Medical school was a place only the top students in high school could get into.
That was true. I hated horror movies more than anything in the world, but if it was any other genre, I liked movies enough to watch one together. But what if she liked horror movies? That would be an absolute catastrophe.
I had momentarily forgotten that the second-most evil person in the group after Su-ho was Gyeon-woo. My head was starting to hurt for a completely different reason.
The moment Su-ho spoke, a wave of anxiety washed over me. I sensed something was wrong and tried to run, but it was already too late. Yong-ju came running and locked my arms in a hold. Since when could this guy move so fast?
Su-ho snatched the phone from my hand and started typing like a madman. The second I saw that, my instincts screamed at me. If I didn’t stop him right now, something terrible was going to happen. I summoned every ounce of strength I had, broke free from Yong-ju’s hold, and snatched the phone back from Su-ho’s hands.
Before I could do anything, a single message had already been sent to Chae-yeon.
Why the hell did that lunatic add a thumbs-up emoji?! I tried to delete it before Chae-yeon could read it, but the “1” next to the message had already disappeared.
Huh?! What the hell is this situation?!