By Zephyria 
“Anyway, thank you so much. I’ll eat well. You’re leaving now, right?”
I busied myself tidying up, wanting to send them away quickly. Lee Beom slowly nodded. His face was expressionless, but he seemed disappointed, making me doubt my eyes. I wasn’t good at reading people’s emotions, so I must have been exhausted from studying.
“Kuuul…”
Jeon Jae-hyung, who had been sitting demurely beside me, also nodded… no, that wasn’t it. I thought he was nodding, but looking again, he was dozing off. How much time had passed in the silence for him to fall asleep in that gap? Every time I saw him, he possessed an astonishing napping ability.
Lee Beom gently tapped Jeon Jae-hyung’s shoulder.
“Sleepyhead. Let’s go.”
“Umm… I just need to use the restroom…”
Jeon Jae-hyung, woken up groggily, mumbled and slowly headed towards the bathroom. Only Lee Beom and I were left in the living room.
“……”
“……”
Lee Beom and I.
This combination was even more awkward than Lee Beom and Jeon Jae-hyung!
The silence felt as vast and daunting as being lost in the middle of the ocean.
“I’ll put this in the fridge first.”
Lee Beom curtly gestured with his chin. I quickly darted into the kitchen.
Alone in the kitchen, I could finally breathe a sigh of relief. I shoved the things Lee Beom gave me haphazardly into the refrigerator, but I had no intention of returning to the living room where Lee Beom was. I’d wait in the kitchen until Jeon Jae-hyung came out.
Leaning against the refrigerator, I fell into thought for a moment.
Lee Beom bought Hallabongs? It felt so unsettling. I pondered where this strangeness originated. In fact, the suspicious kindness wasn’t just Lee Beom’s problem. It was the same for Yeon Su-hwan and the rest of the Four Heavenly Kings. (And even Do Yun-hyeok!) I couldn’t ignore the fact that they were acting unusually towards me.
At first, I thought they were showing me kindness out of admiration because they misunderstood that I endured bullying because I cherished Seong Hae-min so much. Later, I thought it was because I was acting as a bridge between Ban Pyo-ran. But now, since I’ve met Ban Pyo-ran, they should be busy hanging out and flirting, just like in the novel?
Although the Four Heavenly Kings and Ban Pyo-ran often hang out together, something felt off. This unease…
To find the source of this tangled knot, I traced my thoughts back.
‘Are they… really flirting?’
Suddenly, I realized I couldn’t give a definitive answer to this question.
Lee Beom, as the male protagonist, was supposed to fall in love with Ban Pyo-ran, but even though they met and hung out, he didn’t seem to show any romantic interest in Ban Pyo-ran. When I contacted Ban Pyo-ran before, their relationship didn’t seem very good, and come to think of it, Lee Beom had always been the most prickly towards Ban Pyo-ran. Is it because his personality is so bad?
This was the reason for my unease. I subtly checked for Lee Beom’s presence on the living room sofa. Come to think of it, now that the rest of the Four Heavenly Kings were absent, this might be my chance to probe Lee Beom.
Yes. Life is short. (Of course, I was living a strange second life, but let’s set that aside.) I couldn’t solve this kind of thing by agonizing over it with my intuition for a hundred days.
‘I’ll ask!’
For the sake of my peaceful future, I headed to the living room like a soldier defending the last bastion.
Lee Beom was leaning on the sofa with his legs crossed. His unusually long legs caught my eye first. His excessively long legs made the sofa look disproportionate. I cautiously called out to him.
“Um.”
“Why.”
“Are you getting along well with the kids these days?”
“…?”
“Like, with Pyo-ran, whom I saw that time. I was wondering if you were getting along well.”
The moment Ban Pyo-ran’s name was mentioned, one of Lee Beom’s eyebrows shot up. Lee Beom looked up at me as if asking why I was asking that. This aspect made it clear that he disliked me showing interest in Ban Pyo-ran.
If Cheol-su dislikes Yeong-hee showing interest in him, there are two reasons: he likes Cheol-su, or he likes Yeong-hee.
Without a second thought, it was the latter. The idea of Lee Beom falling in love with Ban Pyo-ran was as certain as the sun rising in the east.
‘Therefore, Lee Beom likes Ban Pyo-ran!’
As expected, the novel’s plot wouldn’t deviate. I dismissed my clumsy suspicions. Feeling relieved, I found Lee Beom annoying for making me worry unnecessarily.
I grumbled inwardly. That guy, instead of buying me Hallabongs, should just treat Pyo-ran well. What if Pyo-ran runs away because she dislikes him? Of course, since this is a novel, Ban Pyo-ran would never come to dislike Lee Beom.
Does the plot or fate change? Absolutely not.
How could an already completed novel change?
“Yeah. It seems you’re getting along well. Be kind to Pyo-ran. She’s a really good person.”
It was entirely sincere. I hadn’t seen anyone as kind as her in this novel. As I finished speaking and tried to leave, Lee Beom’s steady gaze stopped me in my tracks. It was a look that said he had something to say to me.
“……”
“……”
His pitch-black eyes, fixed on me, gleamed. His intense stare made me break out in a cold sweat.
‘What is it now…?’
Swallowing hard. Surely not, for giving such a trivial piece of advice, he wasn’t seeing me as a rival, was he?
So petty. Like all commoners facing power, I, too, grovelingly only in my mind, ranted about Lee Beom. Lee Beom’s lips moved.
“You.”
“Yeah?”
“What are you so curious about?”
“That’s…”
‘I need you guys to play amongst yourselves quickly so I can plan my future.’
I fell silent for a moment.
‘Honestly, I just wanted to see if things were really unfolding according to the novel.’
These thoughts arose because of Seong Hae-min.
Come to think of it, whenever I talked with Lee Beom, I always faced this same repertoire. Asking difficult questions was a talent in itself. Lee Beom always left me speechless, and this time was no different. I rolled various answers around in my mouth, but none felt right.
‘I’ll have to run to the kitchen again.’
As I struggled to come up with an answer, Lee Beom let out a short laugh, like a deflating balloon.
“Does it bother you?”
“……”
“You don’t like me being interested in him?”
“It’s not like that!”
Lee Beom tilted his head slightly, but whether it was his solid physique, his coldly handsome features, or his insufferable personality, I felt inexplicably intimidated. I might get hit if I wasn’t careful. What is Jeon Jae-hyung doing! I inwardly cursed Jeon Jae-hyung for no reason.
Jeon Jae-hyung! Hurry up and come out of the bathroom and take him away!
Thinking I needed to escape to the kitchen for a bit, I started to subtly plan my retreat. But the gaze that had been fixed on me dropped.
Glancing over, I saw Lee Beom had turned his head slightly to the side. His gaze followed the sharp line of his nose downwards. I heard him murmur softly.
“But I do.”
“Huh?”
“I don’t like you being interested in him.”
“……?”
“……”
Was this…
A threat?
Meaning, Lee Beom himself liked Ban Pyo-ran, so he was telling me not to take an interest in Ban Pyo-ran!
I broke out in a cold sweat from a direct warning that didn’t require any complex logical deduction. I shouldn’t have asked. This is what happens when a mere extra, completely unrelated to the main characters’ love lines, gets too bold.
“I’m not interested in Pyo-ran!”
“You’re not?”
“Yeah! I swear I’m not.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, really!”
“You’re not lying, are you?”
“Why would I lie about something like this!”
Should I show them I’d delete Ban Pyo-ran’s phone number right now? While I was seriously contemplating it, I heard a short “Pik” sound. Lee Beom, who had apparently been watching me again, met my eyes with a smile that lifted the corners of his mouth.
I knew he was handsome, but today was no exception; he was so excessively good-looking it gave me chills. Without realizing it, my lips pouted. Seeing me, Lee Beom crinkled his eyes and grinned. It was a rare, exceptionally bright smile for him.
“You look like a goldfish.”
“……”
“Well, you’re cute.”
“……”
“…Pik.”
…….
‘Is Lee Beom… crazy?’
The most absurd remark in history sent shivers down my entire body. I felt like I could transform into a chicken at any moment.
Lee Beom turned his head away as if he hadn’t noticed, covering his mouth. But it was obvious he was hiding his handsome smile underneath. Covering his mouth was pointless.
I stammered, unable to give a proper reply. I truly felt what it was like to be so dumbfounded that words failed you. I was utterly bewildered. For one thing, Lee Beom wasn’t the type to smile so broadly. More importantly, unlike Min Si-hu, Lee Beom wasn’t the type to call just anyone cute. The situation made no sense.
‘What was that? A death threat?’
Following the realization that extreme shock renders one speechless, I also experienced the trivial fact that my eyes blinked several times per second. But that wasn’t the important thing.
I needed to escape this life-threatening situation!
Yes, Jeon Jae-hyung. I quickly shifted my focus to the one person who could help me out of this predicament.
“Um, speaking of which, where’s Jeon Jae-hyung? Did he fall into the toilet and die? Why is he taking so long?”
I shuffled towards the bathroom, my legs moving like creaking hinges. Anything to escape being alone with Lee Beom!