BHB 102

“I was really surprised that day. And you two were doing it so erotically.”

“…Han Yeowon.”

“You’re right. I think I was jealous of Jeon Chaemin, that sunbae.”

“…”

“But it wasn’t just that pathetic and childish emotion. I felt strange because you seemed so unfamiliar. Like someone I didn’t know.”

The biggest reason for his surprise was Lee Taegang’s appearance when having sex with someone else. A look he didn’t recognize. Why it felt so disappointing, why it felt so unfamiliar and embarrassing. Perhaps he had thought of Lee Taegang as more than just a friend. But Lee Taegang’s confession only made him skeptical. His only wish was simply to go back to how things were before, but Lee Taegang had been destroying that one by one. What was also broken was his own value system that had considered Lee Taegang a friend, like family.

“It’s just so fucking funny.” Feeling as if sadness was about to well up, Yeowon abruptly stood up and sneered, “Two people who were passionately having sex here, and it turns out they both like me.”

“…”

“What the fuck, it’s not even a joke.” Yeowon looked directly at Lee Taegang. “That person said he likes me.”

He could see Lee Taegang’s stiffened neck area convulsing. And as he took a step forward, Lee Taegang’s figure was gradually revealed in the single, thin light.

“He said he slept with you because he liked me. I fucking don’t understand what that means.”

“…”

“You who knew all about it, and Jeon Chaemin, that sunbae, all just seem abnormal to me.” Yeowon stared at Lee Taegang accusingly. 

Lee Taegang, with his jaw tightly clenched, exhaled a short breath as if suppressing his anger and met the gaze that was confronting him.

“Curse all you want.” Lee Taegang said lowly, without any excuses. Such a detached statement further tightened Yeowon’s nerves.

“None of what I did because I liked you was normal anyway.”

He continued in a matter-of-fact tone that didn’t seek understanding.

“Right.”

“…”

“I don’t understand any of it. What you did to Seungha hyung, what you did with Jeon Chaemin.”

He found it ridiculous that he had momentarily lost his mind at the confession earlier that dawn.

“It’s beyond not understanding—it’s almost disgusting.”

Right now, Yeowon was only thinking about how to hurt Lee Taegang. He couldn’t help but think about how to take out his shitty feelings on Lee Taegang.

“Ha.” Lee Taegang, who had remained expressionless all along, suddenly burst into a hollow laugh. 

At the sound of laughter, Yeowon’s face grew even more grim. “What’s so funny?”

“It’s funny that you’re acting this way over just that.”

“What…”

“I even slept with your first love.”

“…What are you doing now?”

“If there were only one or two guys hanging around you saying they like you, that would be one thing.”

“…”

“It’s also funny that you’re acting like this over just Jeon Chaemin. How many girls who were dating you have I had sex with behind your back?”

As he spoke these words as if they were heroic tales, Yeowon’s face gradually turned pale.

“… You’re really crazy.”

“I told you.” Lee Taegang looked at him clearly with a face void of any guilt. “No one can have you. Even if it’s not me.”

He couldn’t even imagine how far his twisted affection had flowed. Lee Taegang, turning away as if declaring war, was crushed with anger. Even though he should be the angriest one, Lee Taegang’s anger level was higher than his own. And just as he was trying to gauge who that anger was directed at, the guy abruptly turned his steps, as if he had urgent business to attend to.

Yeowon regained his consciousness and followed Taegang, who had already left the building. Instinctively sensing something was wrong, his body moved before his mind could catch up. The guy who had been grinding his molars while speaking was clearly furious. He was overcome by a bad premonition that he was about to do something.

Yeowon came out of the building and looked around. From the department building, he had to push through crowds of people busy with the festival. Despite this, he kept scanning endlessly to find him. While he was searching, a loud crash of a table collapsing came from a nearby booth. Simultaneously, murmurs of surprised people spread as the area became chaotic.

Following his instinct, Yeowon ran toward the commotion and pushed through the crowd. People were backing away in surprise, surrounding someone. A cheap plastic table was overturned, and at the center were Jeon Chaemin sitting on the ground and Taegang rummaging through a bag.

Taegang, who was searching through someone’s bag as if he would tear it apart, seemed to find something. He grabbed a handful of items and threw them at Chaemin’s face. One sheet that fluttered down landed at Yeowon’s feet. It was none other than a photo of himself—taken from somewhere unknown, as if secretly captured from a distance.

“Well, try explaining this nonsense too.”

People who recognized what the photos were began to murmur again. Chaemin, still sitting on the ground, hurriedly gathered the photos. With more urgency than ever before, he scraped up the fallen items while glaring fiercely at Taegang.

“What are you doing…”

Someone who had always seemed quiet and shy, Chaemin’s appearance as he glared and shouted at Taegang was surprisingly different. But Taegang, neither surprised nor finding it surprising, squatted across from Chaemin like a thug and tapped his face with a few photos.

“You’re the one taking stalker photos.”

“… Stop it.”

“And spreading strange rumors around school.”

“I said stop it!”

Though he couldn’t understand exactly what was being said, Yeowon could roughly grasp that there was more to this than what he already knew. He could estimate that there were more things Chaemin hadn’t told him earlier.

“Do you know why I’ve been putting up with all your nonsense?”

Taegang, seeming unwilling to let things slide today, grabbed Chaemin by the hair and slammed his head onto the overturned plastic table. At this violent act, some onlookers screamed, and spectators began one by one to take out their phones to record. Simultaneously, something raced through Yeowon’s mind—the absolute certainty that this scene must not spread.

“Kuh…”

Chaemin, having his head slammed, groaned and gasped for breath while roughly glaring at Taegang. His eyes, which seemed to say he was wronged and that Taegang was despicable, had burst blood vessels. Those eyes even revealed intense contempt. 

But Taegang, disregarding this, trampled on him and added slowly and deliberately, “I told you to keep your mouth shut.”

“…Ha…”

“I played along just so you’d keep your mouth shut in front of Han Yeowon.”

“…”

“You know it. You secretly enjoyed me putting up with you.”

“No. That’s not…”

“Don’t deny it. You couldn’t get close to Han Yeowon, so you approached me instead.”

“Let go!”

As if interrogating a debtor who had taken an illegal loan, Taegang again grabbed Chaemin’s scalp with even more force, as if to tear it, and forcibly pulled the sitting opponent to his feet.

“What’s this? What’s going on!”

As if he had just found out, Do Youngjae rushed over urgently. Confused on many levels, Yeowon quickly asked Youngjae before properly explaining, “Phones… stop them from recording with phones.”

“Huh?”

When Youngjae seriously asked what he meant, Yeowon repeated fiercely, “This situation, make sure no one records it.”

“But…”

“If this spreads, we’re dead.”

“…What?”

“Taegang might die.”

Youngjae couldn’t understand these abrupt instructions. Not breaking up the fight, worrying about videos first, and suddenly warning about death—none of it made sense, but seeing Yeowon in such a panic and acting so frighteningly for the first time, Youngjae decided to follow his words. He had his juniors stop people who were trying to record videos one by one. Moreover, he began to push people away to prevent them from watching the fight any further.

After watching people retreat, Yeowon urgently turned his gaze back to the two. Suddenly, he wondered how far Taegang would go. Watching Taegang—who had committed all sorts of acts behind his back and was now using violence to oppress someone who appeared much weaker than himself in this crowded place—Yeowon suddenly felt a sense of detachment.

“Then what did you do right?!” Chaemin, breathing heavily, roughly rebutted Taegang. 

He too seemed quite excited, showing none of his usual demeanor. Or perhaps he had a lot bottled up, as Chaemin’s face was filled with indignation as he tried to counter. The two were even more hostile than he had imagined.

“Play along? Ha…, who was the one who eagerly jumped into bed?” To make matters worse, Chaemin had also lost his reason and was spewing words carelessly. 

Yeowon felt a sharp pain in his head and grabbed his forehead. Whether there were people around or not, Chaemin had also lost his bearings and glared at Taegang with malice in his glistening eyes.

“You fucking whore…”

Thanks to that, Taegang’s eyes, grinding out a savage curse, went wild. 

Sensing this unusual situation, Yeowon quickly grabbed Taegang’s arm as it was rising.

“Stop it.”