Anyway, Baek Harin Is the Problem
Yujin couldn't hide her bewilderment. The reason was simple enough: it was because of what she had just seen.
Class had ended, and she was on her way back to her apartment.
"What should I make for dinner tonight... maybe some soy-braised beef? Donghyun would like that, wouldn't he... then I should buy a little more meat."
She was mulling over dinner as usual, thinking she might cook a little extra for Donghyun — her next-door neighbor, and now her boyfriend — when a bizarre scene unfolded in front of her.
The unbelievable sight that entered Yujin's eyes made her drop the bag she was holding straight to the ground.
"...Did something get in my eye?"
She wanted to believe something had gotten in her eye and she was simply seeing it wrong.
What she had seen was Donghyun, and a girl glued to his side, holding his arm as they walked. She rubbed both eyes and looked again, and the scene only came into sharper, clearer focus. She could tell who the girl was, too.
"That girl... Baek Harin...?"
Baek Harin. That was definitely a name that had come up during a student council meeting. She remembered the president sighing and saying, She's a freshman, and she's a bit of a brat. I heard she used to work as a model or something. It's hard to even say a word to her — too many of the fourth-years dote on her.
She hadn't thought much of it at the time, but according to the rumors that followed, Harin was known as a vixen among the first-year guys. Even then, Yujin hadn't paid it any real attention. She'd figured it had nothing to do with her. But now that vixen was clinging to her boyfriend, walking past on the other side of the street.
"...Don't tell me she's going after Donghyun too...?"
And what kind of game did a girl famous for her looks play? Obviously it was acting all friendly like that, reeling him in, then toying with him.
She wanted to march over and say something right then and there, but even from a distance Donghyun's face already looked like death, so he seemed thoroughly uncomfortable with the whole situation. And even though she was his girlfriend, it was an awkward moment for her to step into. If she went over and demanded to know who Harin thought she was, and it turned out they were just friends — or even if they weren't, if it put Donghyun in a difficult position — that would be truly uncomfortable.
Besides, she was bare-faced. And unlike herself, who had never had much confidence in her looks, this Harin girl was beautiful the way a former model ought to be, with a willowy, slender body — the picture of a typically gorgeous woman. She didn't want to step in only to come off as some unsophisticated girl.
"...It's probably nothing."
In the end, Yujin picked up the things she had dropped and walked back to her apartment, feeling hollow. In a corner of her heart, trust in Donghyun sat side by side with a restless unease.
Even after she got home, the anxiety refused to fade for a long while, and Baek Harin's face from earlier kept rising up in her mind. Striking eyes. Pink lips. A high, straight nose. A small, slender, willowy figure. A beautiful girl with the kind of body women dreamed of as an ideal. And unlike the makeup ordinary people like herself wore, it was the kind of professional, clean, exquisite makeup you'd call celebrity makeup.
"...Does Donghyun like that kind of makeup too? Should I try it...?"
Yujin immediately opened the cosmetics pouch that had been sitting neglected on her desk. Lipstick, eyeshadow, essence, false eyelashes — things she almost never used were packed inside. She picked up the ones that had caught her eye earlier and slowly began applying makeup around her face. If she normally only did basic skincare, what she was doing now was essentially a full makeup. Of course, she didn't have anywhere to go.
After a long session of tapping things onto her skin had finally come to an end, she looked in the mirror and found a rather beautiful woman looking back — not as pretty as the girl she'd seen, but lovely enough.
She'd put on false eyelashes, tried to make her nose look higher, and painted her lips fuller. But Yujin still didn't feel like she was more beautiful than Harin. And hadn't she always thought that, for a girl, she had a bit too much flesh on her, and her chest was too big, so she looked rather clumsy?
Of course, if anyone found out that she — who passed as a goddess among the third-year student council — was thinking this way, the people around her would absolutely tear her apart. But to her, these lumps of flesh attached to her body were simply disappointing.
"...I really do seem a bit worse than that girl..."
With worries like these circling through her head, she wiped the makeup off and put it on again, over and over.
"...Haa. So this is how you want us to walk around?"
A hollow laugh escaped me. The culprit was, of course, the crazy bitch standing next to me. Naturally, Baek Harin was pouting her lips, as if she couldn't understand why I was sighing at all.
"...You're not actually impotent or something, right? Harin-ie's the one personally asking to link arms, and I've never seen anyone who didn't like that."
Apparently this girl had only ever lived in an extremely self-centered world.
"I thought I made this clear yesterday. I have a girlfriend right now, and in that situation you want me to walk around linking arms with a girl I'm not even close with? Hell, it'd be a problem even if we were close!"
"That's a problem?"
Baek Harin looked at me with eyes that said she genuinely couldn't understand. A sigh came out of me on its own.
How much of a flower garden does she have for a brain to think like that...?
That was the kind of thing that couldn't be explained unless her head was full of flowers. And even though I was firmly against it, Baek Harin kept endlessly tugging on my arm, trying to cling to me. In the end I just gave up and offered my arm. All I could do was hope nobody would see us like this. If Noona caught us, there would be no way to explain it.
Fortunately, nothing happened while the two of us were heading to the motel, and I was extremely grateful for that.
"...We're not going to your apartment?"
Seeing the motel sign in front of her, Baek Harin furrowed her brow as if she didn't understand. Was I crazy enough to take this girl back to my place? If Noona saw her — or even if she didn't, given how paper-thin the soundproofing was in my apartment — if the sounds of sex leaked out, I'd be jumping in the Han River that very day.
In the end I dragged the grumbling Baek Harin into the motel. The owner looked at the two of us, quietly held out a condom, and smiled.
"Youth really is a beautiful thing."
Honestly, what else would a young man and woman be doing walking into a motel in the university district at this hour? And Baek Harin, who'd looked like she hated it when we first came in, was now taking the condom with a satisfied expression and heading upstairs.
A moment later, after getting the key and stepping inside, there wasn't much to the room. Just a window with the curtains drawn and a bed with white sheets sitting in the center — that was the whole of it. Even so, I was so flustered I couldn't move.
Come to think of it, this was the first time in my life I had ever been to a motel. And the fact that this first time wasn't with Noona, but with this shameless girl, made me want to cry without making a sound.
I was about to turn around with a look of utter despair when Baek Harin spoke first, telling me to go wash up.
"Go wash up...?"
"What, you wanna do it like that? Don't tell me you were planning to skip the shower — or is it that you've never even done it before?"
Of course one of those remarks shredded my heart to pieces, but I had something I wanted to say too, in my own defense.
If I'd just had a few more days, I definitely would've done it with Noona...! If it weren't for you... my first time would've been with Noona...
Tears suddenly welled up. I'd gotten myself off countless times, but I'd still been holding onto that classic forever-alone hope of wanting my first experience to be with someone I truly loved. That said, it was too late to come out with I don't want to do it with you! now — I was worried about how this crazy bitch would react.
In the end I resigned myself, went into the bathroom, and started showering. Even then, I couldn't begin to imagine what scheme this lunatic was plotting.
After finishing my shower, I came out with a towel wrapped around my dripping hair, only to find Baek Harin coming toward me and blocking my path, which immediately pissed me off.
"...What. I need to dry my hair. Move."
Every time I tried to take a step, Baek Harin followed and blocked me. I could feel a vein standing out on my forehead as I ground my teeth and asked her,
"Unless you want to turn me into some piece of trash who hits women, you'd better tell me why the hell you're doing this."
At those words, Baek Harin pushed me all the way to the bed, laid me down on it still wet, then flushed red and locked eyes with me.
At the sight that unfolded after that, I couldn't even close my mouth.
