It's Only April
I had never really felt global warming. That was fair enough — it had always seemed like a story happening somewhere impossibly far away from me.
The ozone layer could get punched full of holes dozens of kilometers overhead. The Arctic could melt by the minute and the polar bears could die off. I only ever saw any of that in the news or in some newspaper article. Me, sitting in the corner of my room scratching my thighs — I never had a chance to actually feel global warming. In the end, it was just a story about some distant place.
But now, having escaped the hell-train of a commute and walking onto campus, I was feeling the damage of global warming with every fiber of my being.
It's fucking hot...
South Korea is a country with four distinct seasons. Around March through May, the weather stays pleasantly warm and flowers bloom across the land. June through August, summer begins — the heat rolls in and the plants grow thick and lush. September through November, autumn arrives and those lush leaves start falling one by one. December through February, winter finally comes and grants the leaves a temporary death.
That was how it went. South Korea had a distinct temperature for every season, and our ancestors used to boast about it like it was something to be proud of. Our four seasons gift us strength and diversity, they'd say. I vaguely remembered some old man shouting that from a park bench when I was a kid.
But that was all ancient history now. The climate, warped by global warming, had left South Korea with nothing but summer and winter — and of the two, summer had become an especially long, fucking hot one.
April.
Time had slipped by before I knew it, and we were already heading into mid-April. Normally this would be when the weather turned pleasantly warm and the lovely cherry blossoms, having finished their show, would start to fade. But goddamn it all — the cherry blossoms had bloomed and died a long time ago. And spring had apparently died right along with them, because the weather had already flipped over into early summer.
"Hah..."
Unable to take the blazing sunlight, I shrugged off my cardigan. Thankfully it hadn't gone full hot-and-humid yet, so I wasn't actually sweating — but the heat of the sun was more than enough to make me peel off a thin cardigan. Waking up in the morning was already a pain in the ass, and now I had the heat piled on top of it. What a cruel world.
Fortunately, the weather getting hotter wasn't all downside. The night air in summer tasted sweeter than winter's, and there was a weird kind of catharsis in feeling the temperature gap between an air-conditioned room and the outdoors.
And the best part of all? Women's clothes got thinner.
I saw them. Girls walking down the street in thin, light outfits.
"Whoa, what's with the weather all of a sudden? This is insane."
"Look at that — not a single cloud. It's so damn sunny."
Some of them wore short miniskirts. Some wore thin white tees you could see their underwear through. Crop tops that left the whole waist exposed weren't uncommon either. Even the women who'd misjudged the weather and shown up in thick short-sleeved shirts were grabbing their collars and fanning themselves, unable to beat the heat.
Flutter, flutter.
Every time those cotton tees shook, a little of the bare skin hidden underneath peeked through. Defenseless. Completely unbothered.
Ahem. Ahem.
I cleared my throat inwardly. Maybe it was because the concept of chastity had flipped. The women here didn't seem to care much about the eyes around them. The amount of skin on display had gone up a whole level, and they weren't even trying to be careful about it — using those thin shirts like fans. If anything, the only ones who looked like they were being careful were the guys.
Flap, flap.
Fabric fluttered, and soft, pale skin flashed into view. Every time it happened, my eyes rolled this way and that. My gaze would drift over there on its own, and then I'd force it away, trying to hold onto whatever scraps of morality I had left.
I was currently locked in a serious internal conflict. Where was I supposed to look? Was I allowed to just stare openly, or should I keep my eyes down and walk? The last little shred of moral responsibility and a massively swollen instinct were wrestling it out inside me.
I'm going insane...
I was already extra sensitive to stimulation lately — hadn't been able to take care of my needs. The little guy down below was starting to wake up. Still, just staring openly didn't feel right, so I turned my head.
Hah. Calm down.
I walked on, chanting inner peace like a mantra. The silver lining was that I wasn't the only one holding back desire.
"Whoa, look at the temperature — it's eighty-two degrees."
"Eighty-two? That's actually insane—"
In that instant, the two women who'd been chatting away this whole time suddenly went quiet. I glanced over to see why, and their eyes were parked right around my body. A moment packed with all kinds of feelings hung in the air.
"—not. This isn't even Daegu, and it's already trying to steam us to death. Right?"
"Ah— ah, yeah. Yeah, it is."
But that only lasted a second before the women picked their conversation back up. No — that wasn't a conversation. More accurately, it was a performance of having a conversation. They were desperately trying to make it look like their eyes hadn't just been glued to me. Of course, we'd already made eye contact, so the whole act was pointless... but I played along, giving them credit for the effort.
And then the two of them walked past like nothing had happened.
"Holy shit... did you see that just now? So fucking hot."
"I think I just got a little wet down there."
I thought I heard them whispering something at the back of my head. That was roughly the vibe. I kept catching looks like that the whole way. Not as blatant as those two bitches just now, but there were plenty of women sneaking glances when they thought I wouldn't notice. Every single one of them was packed full of desire — instinct kicking in before reason ever had a chance.
I'd just thrown on a short-sleeved shirt and long pants. Even that, apparently, was enough to get someone going.
The upside was that these blatant stares weren't entirely unwelcome. No — they actually felt pretty good. Someone was looking at me with interest. Sure, most of that "interest" was just horniness, but being wanted by someone was still a good thing. It was like my value was going up, or something.
A phrase suddenly popped into my head.
Is this what they call eye-rape?
Oh... eye-rape. Not bad, actually. For a second, I almost understood how flashers felt. Showing off your body and enjoying the other person's reaction. There was a certain entertainment value to it.
Still, I should put the cardigan back on.
However people were looking at me, those stares were still a lot to deal with, so I pulled the cardigan back on. It was a little warm, but I wasn't sweating anyway, and I was almost at school.
As always, the lecture hall was already packed. That was partly on me for showing up late. I'd stayed up late drawing last night and hadn't gotten much sleep. I found an empty seat and sat down. Not long after, the professor walked in.
"Good to see you all. Let's begin class."
And so began the long grind of just enduring it.
"Good work, everyone. See you next time."
The professor left the lecture hall with a warm smile. The students shot up from their seats like they'd been waiting for this exact moment. Their faces were screaming Freedom!
A three-hour block of major classes on a Monday morning was always brutal.
A stampede. The students bolted out barely after the professor had left. They were moving fast.
"Hahh..."
I watched them for a moment, then stood up myself. I hadn't even been awake for five hours and I already felt exhausted. It was all the lecture's fault. Trying to cram terrifying things like numbers and theories into a person's head was making my brain throw side effects.
Goddamn Lee Se-won, you son of a bitch...
As always, I took a moment to trash the original Lee Se-won who'd lived in this world. If you just hadn't gone to college, none of this disaster would've happened. That said, the lecture content was solid enough that I felt a little proud of myself. Unlike yesterday, when it all sounded like alien language, I'd heard it enough times now that I actually understood a few things. The process of stuffing things into your head was miserable, but gaining knowledge was a good thing.
I stepped out of the lecture hall into a quiet hallway that greeted me like an old friend. By now, most of my classmates had already cleared out. I always timed it this way on purpose. Leaving a few minutes earlier wouldn't have gotten me home any faster, and I didn't feel like walking down with everyone just to sit in that awkward silence. Trade a few minutes for some peace of mind. Pretty decent value, if you asked me.
"Ah, oppa!"
I was trudging down that empty hallway when it happened. Just like last week, someone called out to me in a loud voice. The owner of that voice was, of course, Lee Eun-byul. I turned my head. There she was, bouncing toward me.
...Hup.
And I couldn't help but be startled for a second. The outfit Lee Eun-byul was wearing right now was pretty damn provocative. A thin crop top that left her waist completely exposed, the navy-blue underwear faintly visible through the fabric. Tight jeans that hugged every curve of her body. The whole outfit was tight, and it put her well-maintained figure on full display.
That slim waist scrambled my brain, and the large chest contrasting against it swallowed my gaze whole. If it weren't for the blue cardigan she had on over the top, I would've just stood there staring, completely checked out. The only thing that was the same as before was the baseball cap on her head.
"Hee, you're finally out. I've been waiting for a while."
She grinned at me as I stood there staring. I snapped back to my senses.
"Ah— uh, yeah."
What is this. What's going on all of a sudden. She was the type who usually dressed pretty baggy, aside from the leggings she wore all the time. She was a big-boxy-t-shirt kind of girl. Why the sudden change of wardrobe? Was it because of the heat? The thought crossed my mind for a second.
"What's up?"
I asked first. Standing there like an idiot would just make it obvious I was flustered, and the more flustered I got, the more my brain would lock up. Better to say something than just stand there. There had to be a reason she'd gone out of her way to wait for me.
"Ah, it's nothing big."
She opened her mouth as I was thinking that.
"Wanna go grab a drink together?"
It had been a while since I'd heard someone invite me out for drinks.