ACM | Chapter 3.6

Gyuseok hyung, who was close with Jinhoo hyung, and even Sungmin hyung, who was supposedly with them over the phone but was not actually here… These three sunbaes were known as the “three-person group from another world,” the kind of people who move together only among themselves. All three of them had outstanding looks, and on top of that, each had great family backgrounds and connections, making them famous campus figures that everyone envied.

The feeling of meeting one outstanding person one-on-one is very different from being thrown alone into a group of several outstanding people. I, who got tied up with hyung after falling for Jinhoo hyung and ended up occasionally joining this group, could not reduce the psychological distance at all as I kept realizing the gap between myself and the hyungs.

On the other hand, Chorong noona blended into this group well. That was natural, since not only was she hyung’s official lover, but noona herself was also an outstanding person. Since everyone in this group was so impressive, was it too low self-esteem of me to feel awkward and out of place?

Leaving gloomy me alone, Jinhoo hyung was chatting excitedly while making eye contact with Chorong noona. Just when I was thinking I should look for a chance to quietly go home, I felt someone’s gaze and casually looked to the side, only to meet Gyuseok hyung’s eyes. His face was as cold and indifferent as usual, but the look he was giving me seemed somehow different from before.

Huh? It looked like he had been looking at my face, but his eyes moved and swept over my neck before long. I unconsciously rubbed the neck where his gaze had gone and touched it with my hand. I did not have a mirror now, so I was only guessing roughly, but if I remembered right, it was definitely the spot where hyung had sucked hard with his lips at the hotel earlier. A red, embarrassing kiss mark had been left there…

‘Did he notice?’

Maybe it was the kind of look that meant, What is that? with some uncertainty. Even if he were sure it was a kiss mark, he would never imagine in his dreams that the person who made it was Jinhoo hyung.

I gathered myself and told myself not to get too scared. I had rushed out without paying attention because I was flustered, but from now on I should probably stick a patch on it or something.

“I’m going to head out first.”

“Yeah. Get home safe.”

“Stay a little longer~. We were going to go get late-night snacks later, so that’s a shame.”

“……”

As if he had been hoping I would leave, Jinhoo hyung quickly said his goodbye. Even if it was just casual talk, the only one showing any regret was Chorong noona. How long had it been since that hot, secret sex from before… Hyung had already become another woman’s man, not mine.

I was walking back to my studio with a sunk mood. Coincidentally, the route passed the boutique hotel I had been in with hyung earlier. I stopped for a moment, looking wistfully at the hotel sign, and then encountered an unexpected coincidence.

Lee Taegang was sitting by the window of a newly opened cafe right across from the hotel. Unlike my shock, he showed no change in expression even when our eyes met, as if he had been watching me from the start.

I did not know whether this was another chance encounter like before, or if it was just my imagination… For some reason, I had the feeling that he was hiding here waiting for me. He glared at me with a completely fed-up expression, then shook his head.

Since leaving the gamjatang place, Taegang and I had been acting like we were completely estranged and not speaking at all. Even so, this prickly rejection and the hostility radiating from his whole body were too unsettling to just ignore. Today was a rough day in many ways.

* * *

I was in the middle of grabbing an early dinner at the student cafeteria because it felt awkward to cook dinner and eat at home. Cheap as it was, it was the kind of tasteless meal I was just forcing down to get by.

‘Huh?!’

While eating that bland, flavorless meal, I thought I was glad I had come here. Jinhoo hyung, Gyuseok hyung, and Sungmin hyung were just coming into the cafeteria together. As I stared at Jinhoo hyung, who was dressed up in all black again today, he met my eyes. My lips naturally curved into a small smile.

Instead of lining up for meal tickets, the hyungs came straight over to me. With all three of them having nothing lacking at all, and with their tall heights and handsome faces, as soon as they gathered around me, all the gazes inside the cafeteria focused on me.

It was a kind of experience that made me feel proud, but also not easy to get used to. Even for me, who had gotten quite a bit of attention for my pretty, idol-like looks, it was just cute compared to the halo the hyungs had.

“Hyung, you’re here?”

“Yeah.”

Jinhoo hyung reached out with his large hand and patted my head as he greeted me. I felt even more uplifted because Chorong nuna was not beside him today. Feeling fully excited, I hurried to greet the hyungs beside him as well.

“Hello!”

“Yeah.”

“Hi, Doyun.”

Unlike Gyuseok hyung, who answered me carelessly, Sungmin hyung smiled warmly with his eyes and placed a hand on my shoulder. The more the hyungs came over first to greet me and acted friendly, the more my shoulders tightened up too.

It felt like I had become a special existence, someone acknowledged as Jinhoo hyung’s person. He looked down at my tray, which I had only halfheartedly picked at because the food tasted bad, and frowned with one eyebrow twitching.

“What kind of thing are you eating? Doesn’t it taste bad? Let’s go out.”

“Today’s the day I said I’d treat you.”

“Can I come along?”

“Of course. The reason we came here in the first place was because Jinhoo said if he found you, he’d take you along too, so we stopped by.”

There had been a reason they had bothered coming to the student cafeteria even though Sungmin hyung was the one treating us and we did not need to come here in the first place. He wanted to take me with him even to places where I did not have to be included.

Because of that, hyung had personally gone looking for me. Maybe Chorong nuna would have been the more natural one to include instead of me, but even so. Today, at least, I felt like I had won over nuna.

As always, Sungmin hyung was kind, and even with one more mouth to feed, he kept smiling at me without any sign of annoyance. He even checked my food preference, asking, “Do you like lamb?”

‘But Gyuseok sunbae seems to be avoiding this.’

While we were moving together to Sungmin hyung’s parked car, I kept noticing Gyuseok hyung, who had been walking ahead without saying a word from the start. I had never exchanged many words with him, and we were not close, but beyond all that, I could feel a strange atmosphere from him that made me uncomfortable.

It was a different feeling from what Lee Taegang gave off when he openly shunned me, and I figured he probably did not like me constantly butting into their group. Because of that, not even Gyuseok hyung’s handsome face made me feel attracted to him even once.

‘Could he have noticed something that day?’

The memory of the kiss mark on my neck being discovered in front of the convenience store overlapped in my mind. It was possible his dislike for me had grown because he suspected something between me and Jinhoo hyung.

From Gyuseok hyung’s point of view, I, who had only met him a few months ago and had a much more fragile image than Jinhoo hyung, who was openly dating women without issue, might have seemed far less trustworthy. He would probably see me as the guy who had turned his friend gay.

I put aside those uneasy thoughts for now and got into the luxury British SUV Sungmin hyung was driving. Naturally, Gyuseok hyung sat in the passenger seat, and Jinhoo hyung and I sat in the back. On the way to the restaurant they had reserved, conversation came and went in bits and pieces, and then Jinhoo hyung, who still did not have a car of his own, suddenly said he was also planning to get one.

“I got my license early this year. I’m going to get a car soon.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, it’s more convenient for dating.”

Jinhoo hyung, who sounded as if he were bringing up a date with Chorong nuna, looked at me sitting beside him and murmured quietly with his lips.

‘I want to do car sex with you too.’

The hyung, who whispered in a low voice only I could hear, reached his hand toward my lower back. He slipped his hand into my shirt and rubbed the bare skin of my lower back, then soon slid it down to the waistband of my pants.

He even pushed his hand inside my underwear and groped between my buttocks, making my body tremble and jump on its own from the hot fingers. Sungmin hyung, from the back seat, met eyes with me in the rearview mirror while I jerked from the sudden movement and asked, “What’s wrong?”

“Ah… no, it’s nothing.”

Jinhoo hyung quickly pulled his hand back and acted nonchalant, looking out the window as if nothing had happened, while Gyuseok hyung, from the passenger seat, turned only his head back and watched me and Jinhoo hyung sharply. No matter where we were, when Jinhoo hyung pressed his body against mine, it was always thrilling and nice, but there were times like this when it became a little difficult.

The lamb restaurant we arrived at and went into was not the lamb skewer Chinese restaurant I had imagined, but a Hokkaido-style grilled meat place. Four of us sat in a row at the counter, and a dedicated chef was assigned to grill the meat and vegetables one by one and place them on our plates. Sitting between Jinhoo hyung and Sungmin hyung, I gratefully ate the well-cooked, quality meat.

Even while the staff divided the lamb onto each of our plates one by one, Sungmin hyung kept showing excessive care, sometimes even placing his own meat in front of me. Anyone could see that the three hyungs, who were tall and had good builds, should probably have eaten more in the first place, so when he went out of his way to push freshly grilled, nicely browned pieces of meat toward me and tell me to eat more, I felt grateful but also awkward.

Jinhoo hyung, who had been staring at Sungmin hyung and me, reached out with his chopsticks in a way that said he could not stand it and dragged all the meat in front of me back toward himself.

“Doyun’s my baby, not yours. Cut it out, Oh Sungmin.”

“You’re the one who’s feeding him because he’s too skinny. Then why are you taking all the meat that was originally Doyun’s too?”

Jinhoo hyung often used a sharp tone, but without any real malice, even with his close friends. But now the tense mood between the two of them felt really uncomfortable, and being stuck between them made me sweat like I was about to get sick.