Chapter 4.2

Their height difference is nice, and they look very youthful. Makes a nice picture, huh?’

Just as a thug would say, Jaeyoung muttered this line in his head. As Jaeyoung didn’t harass him today, Sangwoo looked like life was worth living. Jaeyoung expected Sangwoo to be distracted by Jihye and just walk past him, but surprisingly, he recognized Jaeyoung from afar. Jaeyoung felt a strange pleasure.

Sangwoo turned around immediately, but Jaeyoung caught up with him by running halfway, with the intention of sticking to him like glue. When there were about ten steps left, Sangwoo looked back with a nervous expression, and his eyes widened. Jaeyoung knew he was surprised, but running with all his might was an unexpected reaction. It was a swift move, as if Jaeyoung were a serial killer. Jaeyoung chased after him.

Fuck, why am I running?

How crazy would he look if other people were watching? Jaeyoung couldn’t understand himself, but his feet moved on their own. Sangwoo was extremely fast.

Because he had the impression of being a study bug,1 Jaeyoung had seemed to think Sangwoo would go weak at the knees. Despite running at full speed, Jaeyoung couldn’t keep up at all with Sangwoo, who was even running while wearing a backpack.

As he came to his senses, he found himself in front of the main gate. While squatting on the ground and catching his breath, Jaeyoung realized this was the first time since being discharged from the military that he had run such a long distance with all his might.

‘There’s no end to human greed.’

As Jaeyoung saw Sangwoo’s back quickly receding into the distance, he realized why he had followed him. He felt no joy in engraving his existence on Sangwoo’s mind. Although noise marketing may have been successful, Jaeyoung was just a defective product to Chu Sangwoo. Even if he might have momentarily taken pleasure in seeing Sangwoo’s face distort as soon as he saw him, that wasn’t able to give him any satisfaction. Jaeyoung felt the desire to become an amazing, competent, and fun senior to Sangwoo, just as other kids saw him.

‘Did you do a background check on her? She’s a kind girl who has nothing to do with me!’

Ryu Jihye was looking for clues to find Sangwoo on social media. There were many difficulties, as she didn’t know his name, department, or student ID number. As Jaeyoung roughly scanned the university’s bulletin board, it seemed like even if she wasn’t as extreme as Sangwoo, she seemed to be a sincere type. On the same date she had come to the restaurant with Sangwoo, she had left a message like that.

He’s a bit scary, but he doesn’t seem like a bad person. Is there another chance for us to meet?

#CuteOddball #FirstMeeting #Expectations

Of course, it was about Chu Sangwoo.

Ryu Jihye – Nice

Jang Jaeyoung – stalker, trash, psycho, scum, sadist, thug

Ryu Jihye was a fairy dressed in green, and Jang Jaeyoung was a red-cloaked devil with a hissing tongue in a hellhole. Jaeyoung didn’t like this good and evil comparison.

Given that he didn’t know Jihye’s surname or her department, Sangwoo didn’t seem interested in her yet. Even so, boys who have such an innocent side could come around, if someone treated them well. At this rate, if Jaeyoung left them unchecked, he’d bet the luxury watch he got from his grandfather on his graduation, that they would be dating within three months.

He felt a sense of crisis. About eight years later, on the day when Chu Sangwoo and Ryu Jihye got married, while holding the bride’s hands, Sangwoo would talk about how there used to be a person, Kim Youngjae or something, who had used dirty means to harass Sangwoo, because he hadn’t been able to graduate. At that time, he had been able to overcome this because Jihye was by his side. He didn’t remember that scum’s face, but he would remember that he always wore a red padded jacket.

‘I can’t watch that happen.’

Jaeyoung’s goal changed. Or should he say it’s been upgraded?

What are the conditions of a good sunbae? At least it was clear that there was no hope of becoming one now. The only thing he could use now was his own presence. It was encouraging that Chu Sangwoo actually knew his name, and now he seemed to know how to deal with him a little bit. However, Jaeyoung felt he should first do something about the equation, “Jang Jaeyoung = Red = Villain = Thug = Trash.”

‘I don’t know why I’m doing such a tiresome thing… It’s because I have a lot of time anyway.’

He thought about what kind of clothes he had in his closet.

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Footnotes