Chapter 124: Chapter 124
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“Just smashed me a few times. She told me that her heart almost fell off and never say such a joke like that… My heart was about to fall off too.”
Eun Jiho ended his story there then shoved his face into the arms placed on the bal.u.s.trade. As his silver hair swept down, he revealed his white neck under the moonlight. He was like that for a while.
Yoo Chun Young didn’t know what to say. He also had no idea why Eun Jiho opened this story up. It was then when Yoo Chun Young tried to figure out the reason while throwing his glance at the sea far apart.
“It would be tough.”
“What?”
Eun Jiho’s voice changed a bit from when he poured out his past into a lamentable tone. His deeper and darker voice made Yoo Chun Young turn his head to see him.
Eun Jiho was now looking at him. His face was as dark as ever with the moonlight giving him a vivid shade; however, he was still smiling.
“Having a crush on Ham Donnie. It’d be tough,” he said.
“What the…”
Yoo Chun Young tried to ask what the heck he was talking about, but as he saw Eun Jiho’s face, he closed his mouth. Just by looking at his dark face, Yoo Chun Young knew that he couldn’t fling a question like that.
Eun Jiho smirked, “Did you think we had no idea? Eun Hyung and Woo Jooin… they might have already noticed from earlier. Ban Yeo Ryung is slow at this kind of thing, so she may not know, though. If we had no idea we would have bounced off the wall when we saw your gaze at Donnie inside the video that we watched at her house.”
“…”
“Those things are hard to hide, you know…”
Eun Jiho then paused for a while. When he opened his mouth again. His voice turned lower and darker.
“I don’t know why, but she doesn’t see us as men at all. I really have no idea what kind of special reason lies within her head, but she doesn’t seem to believe that we’ll ever like her. Luckily, she applies that rule or standard to other guys who are handsome or unusual. For instance, Yi Ruda…”
“Then the reason Ham Donnie doesn’t respond at all when Yi Ruda hugs her is…”
“She doesn’t see him as a guy at all. I only looked at Donnie for a year and a half, so wouldn’t it upset me less to gain insight like this?”
“…”
While Yoo Chun Young remained silent, Eun Jiho slowly dropped his gaze at the floor and sighed.
“Mind control isn’t easy. When that happened, I decided to give up but still had a crush on her for over half a year. Woo Jooin hugging Donnie while calling her mama… Kwon Eun Hyung patting Ham Donnie’s head… and you gazing serenely at her sometimes when no one’s watching… Do you know how much I hate and get irritated to death when you guys act like that?”
Eun Jiho quietly smiled after his remark, but Yoo Chun Young could hardly do the same. Eun Jiho continued in a low and calm voice.
“If having a crush on her took place suddenly, my feelings should lessen quickly, or so I thought, but it doesn’t work like that. I was so annoyed at first, but the only thing that comforted me was this. No matter how many times you guys act like that to Donnie, she will never see you all as men. This… only this comforted me. I hate myself for being such a loser by relying on that to console myself. Still, how you guys acted like that is even worse, so I guess I’ve gone through my stormy period of adolescence quite enough.”
“…”
“The person you are now and the person that I was back then weren’t so different. You should get yourself well together.”
“What are you talking about?” Yoo Chun Young, at last, moved his lips quietly.
Eun Jiho smiled with a shrug as he continued.
“Ham Donnie wouldn’t see you as a man at all too.”
“…”
Although it was expected, listening to those words directly from Eun Jiho felt quite different. As Yoo Chun Young frowned his forehead, Eun Jiho, who was beside him, stood up straight.
Something like tobacco smelled through the breeze. Maybe someone was smoking. Well, there were always some high school students who smoked. Eun Jiho continued what he was saying.
“Why does she strongly believe that we won’t like her as a girl… I don’t know since I’ve never seen anyone among us break that wall yet. As a person who had a crush on her, I just wanted to say that you should prepare yourself to experience your inner struggles.”
“That means…”
“Dude, do you know what’s really funny?”
Eun Jiho interfered Yoo Chun Young’s words with a grin. Yoo Chun Young lifted his blue eyes to look at him while Eun Jiho was still smiling.
“I was confused about whether I still like her or not, so one day in the morning, I went into her room and found out that she was asleep. I grabbed her hand, and… I really thought I gave up all my feelings on her, but…”
“…”
“My heart was still pounding fast and hard… you know what I mean? I’m still like that… I don’t know. Maybe my body seems to remember what I felt about her since I lived like that for so long.”
Yoo Chun Young didn’t respond. Eun Jiho showed a smile once again.
“Dreadful, it is. What’s so special about falling in love with a person anyway? How can I be so miserable like this even after I tried to give up my feelings for half a year?”
Eun Jiho, who spoke like that in a faster tone compared to earlier, turned back to open the terrace door and went back inside before Yoo Chun Young tried to respond. Yoo Chun Young, who was standing alone in the terrace, wondered whether he should follow him to go inside or not. He, however, closed the terrace door then leaned against the bal.u.s.trade.
He had a lot on his mind. It felt like he happened to open a drawer and discovered an enormous secret hidden within, although he didn’t mean to find such a thing.
He heard Woo Jooin and Eun Jiho laughing about something in the room. Kwon Eun Hyung was stepping out of the bathroom just now with a towel on his wet hair. Watching them from the terrace, Yoo Chun Young shoved his hand inside his pocket and took his phone out. He pressed the b.u.t.ton firmly to find Ham Donnie’s number from the contacts. His finger was on the send b.u.t.ton for a while. He then murmured, ‘I like you.’
‘Those things are hard to hide, you know… They might have already noticed from earlier,’ Yoo Chun Young repeated Eun Jiho’s words in his mind.
He also hated how Yi Ruda acted like he knew everything about Donnie. He was so mad when he found that there were only two of them together inside the empty cla.s.sroom and when he saw Yi Ruda holding Donnie’s hands.
Everything annoyed him. As Eun Jiho said, Yoo Chung Young hated those things badly, and it irritated him to death. There was a reason why he, who seldom used violence and was aware of the upcoming photoshoot that was scheduled that day, picked a fight with Yi Ruda. It was all because he really disliked Yi Ruda’s behavior. Yoo Chun Young raised his hand and slowly swept his hair back.
Yi Ruda, whom he met again at the nurse’s office, put a twisted smile on his face. So many conversations took place in a day, which seemed hardly memorable for one to remember every detail. However, only the conversation he had with Yi Ruda came across his head clearly.
“What you said sounds like you have a crush on Ham Donnie.”
“You have some sense compared to how you look, but isn’t it also you who’s being desperate about her? Who’s the guy constantly sticking up for the person who never opened her heart for the last two years?”
Sticking up… Yoo Chun Young reiterated those words. What Yi Ruda said wasn’t wrong. Yoo Chun Young’s gaze wandered at the nine letters, ‘Ham Donnie,’ on his call list.
Pressing the call b.u.t.ton was nothing but an impulsive action. He just wanted to hear her voice while looking at the cold ripples on the night sea. It was strange that his reaction wasn’t new to him.
He slowly burned up and gradually cooled down. It applied to everything. Sometimes, the process was too slow that he didn’t perceive it from time to time.
Yoo Chun Young, at last, recognized that every action he had done to her involved a certain degree of impulsiveness. It always did. At least for Ham Donnie, he behaved on a whim. Things with her always made him that way.
Quite some time pa.s.sed since he pressed the b.u.t.ton. Yoo Chun Young then regretted what he had done. It was over 2 in the morning, which was enough for her to be deeply asleep.
However, it happened when he was about to press the ‘end call’ b.u.t.ton. The dial tone disconnected, and at the same time, Ham Donnie’s voice came over the phone. It sounded half-awake as if she just got up from sleep.
“What’s up? Why aren’t you asleep yet?”