PP Chapter 12

“Are you really going to go to the military like this? Are you joking? You said you liked me! You said playing with me was fun!”

-I said I liked you because I thought you were a girl.

“You crazy, girl-crazy bastard!”

-Yeah, I am a girl-crazy bastard, babe.

Dohwa clutched the back of his neck at the indifferent voice that was no different from before.

He had never felt his blood pressure rise like this before, but today, he finally understood what it meant.

The more he talked to Won, the more he felt like his head was going to explode.

“Hyung, you’re seriously annoying!”

-Sorry.

“Argh!”

While Dohwa was clutching his neck, unable to contain his rage and disbelief, it wasn’t as if Won was completely unfazed.

To think that the cute and lovely ‘Peach’ was Dohwa.

Won blinked in bewilderment and pointlessly brushed his hair back.

“This isn’t some kind of prank to surprise me, is it?”

After a moment of silence, his muttered question was met with a sharp cry: “As if!”

Won winced at the words and soon accepted the reality before him.

This absurd and bewildering situation where Peach was Dohwa, and Dohwa was Peach…

No, how could a situation like this even happen? Won let out a silent, hollow laugh and lightly brushed his lips.

The girlfriend he had briefly dated before meeting Dohwa was someone who loathed the smell of cigarettes.

Because of her, he had quit smoking and had maintained it well up until now, but this situation was so absurd it made him crave a cigarette for the first time in a while.

“Wow, this makes me want a smoke.”

Won fell into thought while rubbing the back of his neck.

Over the phone, Dohwa was huffing and puffing, asking, ‘How can you cut ties the moment you find out I’m not a girl?’

With that breathing as background noise, Won contemplated what to do about this mess.

After a long deliberation, only one answer came to mind.

‘I feel bad for Dohwa, but it’s still better to cut contact.’

And since saying this would obviously only spark Dohwa’s resistance, Won hung up the phone with an apologetic expression that Dohwa couldn’t see.

He even went as far as blocking Dohwa’s number.

“Sorry, but I’m really not into guys.”

Leaving an apology that Dohwa would never hear, Won quietly stared at his silent phone before getting up from his chair.

Now that things had turned out like this, he couldn’t even dream of logging into Betting Bad until he was discharged from the military.

“Ha, how did I mistake a guy for a girl?”

Won was usually able to spot almost all Netkama, but this time, he had guessed completely wrong.

​Ah, of course, it wasn’t like Dohwa was blatantly pretending to be a girl like actual Netkama did.

In fact, thinking back to his demeanor at the cafe, he realized Dohwa had just been honest and acting like himself.

​It was just that Won’s girl radar had completely malfunctioned and failed to do its job.

Because of that, Won didn’t have any major complaints toward Dohwa.

​He was just half-disappointed that he wasn’t a girl, and half-bewildered wondering how things ended up like this.

Continuously muttering “How strange,” Won sheepishly scratched the back of his head.

And today, a few days after that.

Contrary to his resolve not to contact Dohwa, Won was preparing to meet him.

​It might sound like an excuse, but from Won’s perspective, he genuinely, absolutely had no choice.

​Because that sly, crazy guy Dohwa went as far as changing his phone number just to keep contacting Won.

If he blocked one number, a call would come from a new one the next day; if he blocked that one, another call would come from yet another number the day after that.

He really was an impressive guy in many ways.

Even now, as he prepared to go out, he couldn’t help but let out hollow laughs.

It was a level of persistence that would move the heavens to bring Won before Dohwa.

And Won obediently offered himself up to Dohwa, just as the heavens seemed to command.

Of course, it wasn’t like Won behaved completely obediently. Unable to hold himself back upon seeing the beautifully dressed-up Dohwa, he had asked:

“Dohwa, do you happen to have a sister?”

Which only provoked Dohwa’s anger.

And it wasn’t just any anger—it was an immense fury.

Unable to contain his rage at Won asking if he had a sister as soon as they met, Dohwa hadn’t been able to calm down since.

In fact, it was inevitable. He had been left out in the cold because of that damn gender issue, and now Won was asking if he had a sister.

From Dohwa’s point of view, it was a situation that warranted going beyond great anger straight into extreme, furious rage.

While Won humbly accepted his sins and quietly drank his coffee, Dohwa furiously crunched on the ice in his drink right in front of him.

Occasionally, he would glare at Won, his gaze clearly saying, I’d chew you up too if I could.

Perhaps because it was only a few days before his enlistment, Dohwa was acting much more docile than Won had anticipated.

​’On the phone, he acted like he was going to breathe fire from his mouth.’

Now, Dohwa was crunching on ice to swallow that fire down.

“……Hyung.”

Dohwa, who had been chewing ice until his head throbbed, called Won in a calm voice.

Won, who had been leisurely drinking coffee while looking out the window, turned his gaze to meet his eyes.

“Yes, Dohwa.”

Dohwa’s expression turned strange at the sweet reply, which made it hard to believe this was the same man who had abruptly cut contact just because he wasn’t a girl.

In the past, he would have blushed at that gentle response.

But now, perhaps because he knew the man’s true nature, his face didn’t turn red; he just felt a bit uncomfortable.

Won, who couldn’t possibly miss that change, laughed out loud as he looked at Dohwa. At that clear laughter, Dohwa’s expression became even more complicated.

After looking at Won with a complicated face for a long time, Dohwa’s shoulders slumped as he weakly muttered.

“……Can’t we keep staying in contact?”

Even though he knew Won was a severe, irreversibly girl-crazy bastard, Dohwa still liked Won.

His habitual kindness, the beautiful smile he gave out of habit. He just liked everything.

His parents were so busy they barely came home once a month, and his older brother had become just as busy after joining their father’s company. Having been left alone, Dohwa was desperate for someone’s kindness.

Perhaps that was why he sought Won out every day.

Dohwa needed Won. Not just a friend, but someone who was kind to him……

Staring intently at the sullen Dohwa asking if they couldn’t keep in contact, Won abruptly asked.

“Answer me honestly, Dohwa. Do you just need someone by your side right now, or do you want me specifically to be the one there?”

As expected, Won was unnecessarily sharp.

After a brief flinch at the question, Dohwa answered after a moment of thought.

“Both……”

Won watched the ‘kid’ who answered ‘both’ so gloomily, before finally sighing as if he couldn’t win.

Just as Dohwa’s face began to brighten, sensing a positive sign in that sigh, Won spoke first.

“First of all, you know I’m going to the military, right?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll find you someone to play with while I’m in the military.”

His tone sounded as if he were looking for a babysitter. Before Dohwa could protest, Won beat him to it.

“From what I see, I think you just hate being alone. So, think carefully about whether it’s me you like, or if you just like having people around. Join my guild and hang out with the others while you figure it out.”

“What if I realize I like playing with you?”

Feeling a bit stubborn at Won’s dismissive reaction, Dohwa challenged him.

Won, who was sipping his coffee, paused for a moment at the question.

Then, just like when they first met, he whispered with a beautiful, yet distant smile.

“Then I’ll have to take responsibility for you.”

“……Really?”

“Yeah. What else can I do when such a pretty young kid says he likes playing with me.”

His voice was so soft that one couldn’t even get angry at being treated like a child.

Dohwa knew it was a lie, but he said nothing.

To be precise, he couldn’t.

Because if he asked if it was a lie, he felt like Won would say yes and cut ties right then and there.

Dohwa repeatedly parted his lips before dropping his head low. Following the movement, his hair tumbled down, hiding his face.

“Hyung, you’re mean…… You’re really, really mean. How can you be so nice to me and then say we should keep our distance just because I’m a guy. You’re really mean.”