Chapter 97
From a distance, someone raised a hand high toward Noeul. Noeul grinned and raised a hand back.
Why does that bastard introduce every girlfriend he changes every three months? Every single time.
Noeul stopped in front of Junki. Junki had his arm around a woman’s shoulder. Noeul greeted her.
“Hi! I’m Han Noeul, Junki’s friend.”
“Hello,” the woman replied with an awkward smile.
Noeul found it a little unexpected. She wasn’t as pretty as the women Junki usually dated. That didn’t mean she wasn’t pretty at all. She had fair skin, a round, cute look, and a fairly nice face. It was just that Junki had only dated strikingly beautiful women until now, so by comparison she felt a bit… less.
Noeul didn’t think too deeply about it. There must be some other reason, he figured.
“You should greet your friend first. Why are you so quick to greet the girl?” Junki said, playfully tapping Noeul’s shoulder.
“Oh, you were here, Junki? I just noticed. Almost didn’t see you,” Noeul shot back jokingly.
Junki laughed, shaking his head.
“This is my girlfriend, Yoonjeong. Kim Yoonjeong,” Junki said, gesturing to her.
She smiled faintly again.
“Nice to meet you,” Noeul said, looking at Junki. “Shall we go in?”
“Yeah.”
The three of them went into a nearby pork cutlet restaurant.
Once the food arrived, most of the conversation was between Noeul and Junki.
“Hey, what’s your GPA?” Junki suddenly asked.
Junki usually didn’t bring up grades in front of girls. His GPA wasn’t particularly high, so there was no reason to. He probably didn’t want to be seen as a guy who was just handsome and empty-headed.
Why are we suddenly talking about grades? Noeul thought as he answered.
“Me? Uh… around 4.2?”
“4.2? Oh, that’s close. Yoonjeong, you said you had a 4.4 last semester, right?”
Yoonjeong nodded shyly.
Noeul reacted with an appropriate level of admiration.
“Wow, 4.4? So basically perfect, except for occasionally running into weird people during team projects.”
“Right? Yoonjeong’s really good at studying.”
What’s gotten into this guy, suddenly dating an intellectual type? Noeul thought.
Guess he wanted to try dating all kinds. Or maybe he got tired of people saying he only dates pretty girls and wanted to change his image.
Noeul chewed on a piece of pork cutlet.
“Man, I feel so left out sitting between two academic elites,” Junki said, shaking his head.
Academic elite my ass. His word choices, seriously…
Noeul figured it was about time for him to do his thing.
Junki always introduced his short-lived girlfriends to Noeul because Noeul knew exactly when and how to praise him. Judging by the flow, this seemed like the moment.
Before, doing this had made him feel like shit. But today, it didn’t really bother him. It felt more like… donating a talent. Probably because he’d been in a good mood lately. There was also a small sense of superiority creeping in—No matter how insanely handsome you are, you’ve never been loved by Jiwoo and Hansol at the same time, have you?
“You don’t get to talk about feeling left out, you fraud. Do you even know what exclusion is? Everyone wants to hang out with you, come to parties you’re at, do team projects with you. …Honestly, team projects only get good grades when they’re with me.”
As Noeul kept talking, he sensed something was off. Junki and Yoonjeong’s reactions felt unfamiliar.
Whenever you speak, consciously or not, you expect certain reactions. But their responses were subtly deviating from what Noeul expected.
“Hey, why would everyone want to hang out with me? You’re exaggerating,” Junki said with an awkward laugh.
What is this?
Yoonjeong was a stranger, so fine—but Junki? Normally he’d react shyly, but with an undeniable hint of pride behind the smile. Today, though, his expression was stiff, his eyes unsteady… like he was fidgeting internally.
Did I say something wrong?
Noeul quickly replayed what he’d said, but nothing stood out. He figured he was just being overly sensitive. Maybe he misread things.
“I don’t exaggerate. I love facts. I’m an honest guy. …And your GPA isn’t even that low. Honestly, if the world were fair, you wouldn’t have even gotten into Goseo University.”
No—this really was strange.
The more Noeul spoke, the weirder their reactions became. Junki’s eyes wavered more, and Yoonjeong’s face grew darker.
Just moments ago, Yoonjeong had been smiling awkwardly, reacting with “Oh,” “Wow,” “Really?” Now she chewed her pork cutlet with a stiff expression, saying nothing.
Noeul shot Junki a subtle look. Junki frowned slightly and shook his head.
Noeul shut his mouth.
What did I do wrong?
Then Yoonjeong spoke.
“…Right. Your GPA isn’t that low, oppa.”
“Huh? No, it is. Compared to you guys, it’s nowhere close,” Junki said anxiously.
“No… no one thinks that. Even your closest friend says it’s not,” Yoonjeong said, her voice restrained.
“Ah… right… Then… I guess it’s not that low,” Junki immediately conceded.
Noeul couldn’t immediately grasp what was happening.
Junki’s GPA wasn’t low… and she was angry because he said it was?
Is that really something to get that upset over?
Something felt wrong. But jumping in would probably get him burned, so he stayed quiet, pretending not to exist.
“Oppa, being too humble… that’s not great either.”
“Ah… right, right.”
“What do you mean ‘right’?”
“…Huh?”
“What do you mean by ‘right’? Are you just agreeing without thinking?”
“No, no. I mean… being too humble isn’t great.”
“Why?”
“Huh?”
“Why isn’t it great to be too humble?”
“Uh… because… it’s lying?”
“…You knew that and still did it?”
“……”
Noeul felt dizzy. It was like Junki’s sweat glands were connected to his own by Bluetooth—cold sweat ran down Noeul’s back too.
Did I cause all of this? Oh Lord…
Even when Junki failed two classes, he hadn’t looked pitiful at all. But now, Noeul almost felt sorry for him.
Why is he living like this? With that face, why is he being controlled by some weird girl who isn’t even that pretty? What kind of taste is this?
At the same time, there was a sense of schadenfreude.
So being handsome doesn’t mean you rule relationships like a king.
I always thought good-looking guys were always the dominant ones in dating.
Maybe this guy used up all his luck during character creation. Maybe after turning 21, he had none left.
Yoonjeong seemed completely oblivious to Noeul now. Not that it was surprising—when your boyfriend is that handsome, who cares about some other guy?
Anyway, fueled by pork cutlets, Yoonjeong unleashed her hysteria.
“I just… I want you to be honest. If you’re honest, everything’s fine. If there’s a girl at a drinking party, just say there’s a girl. If someone asked for your number on the way here, just say someone did. That’s all. Then I can just go, ‘Oh, I see,’ and move on.”
“……”
“…Why aren’t you answering? Do you think I wouldn’t be like that? Do you think I’d get mad if you said you met another girl?”
“No. I was just thinking. Thinking that I should do that from now on….”
“If you think I’d get angry just because you meet pretty girls, that really… really hurts.”
“No, I’ve never thought that.”
Noeul listened quietly. As he did, he gradually understood why Yoonjeong was acting like this.
She got angry over something trivial, then suddenly brought up other women. And that “other woman” quickly evolved into “pretty women.”
So the real reason Yoonjeong was angry wasn’t Junki’s GPA.
She had fallen for Junki’s looks. But she wasn’t the only one who would. She believed that countless other women—almost all women—felt the same way about him. That scared her. It hurt her pride.
But she couldn’t get angry at Junki over that. He hadn’t done anything wrong—he was just handsome. And Yoonjeong probably didn’t want to be the kind of girlfriend who lashes out at someone innocent.
So she endured it. Again and again.
Don’t get mad. Don’t care about other women. Trust him.
She must have told herself that repeatedly. And anger that’s bottled up like that always explodes somewhere strange.
Imagine stuffing rice into a cloth sack. If it’s already full and you keep adding more, pressing down from above, eventually the weakest part tears and rice spills out.
That was Yoonjeong right now.
For a moment, Noeul saw himself overlapping with her.
If I dated Jiwoo or Hansol… would I become like that?
He’d want to be a good boyfriend. Since he was unattractive—since his looks put the other person at a disadvantage—he’d want to make up for it by being a good person.
But was Noeul really a good person?
No. He was full of envy and jealousy. The kind of person who thought, That bastard is probably laughing at me for being ugly, just because someone glanced at him.
The gap between who he was and who he wanted to be was enormous.
Could he endure that gap? Or would he become like Yoonjeong—lashing out at an innocent partner, then hating himself for it, swearing never to do it again, only to repeat the same thing?
What would others think of him?
Probably exactly what he was thinking now about Yoonjeong.
Poor Jiwoo. Poor Hansol. She’s pretty—why is she living like that? Even being pretty doesn’t help. So unlucky…
Noeul felt a sudden surge of fear.
If even someone fairly pretty like Yoonjeong was like this… wouldn’t he be even worse?
He’d suffer every day. And yet, he wouldn’t be able to let go of Jiwoo or Hansol. They were too pretty. Too precious. He’d think, If only I could fix my heart. If only this pain would go away. And because he couldn’t, he wouldn’t break up.
Noeul looked at Yoonjeong.
He empathized with her deeply—and yet she looked pathetic, pitiful, foolish.
I must never become like that.
Blinking, Noeul lowered his gaze to the pork cutlet on his plate.
