DPLO Chapter 13

I gestured for Baek Jungyung to sit here. Since I lacked the willpower to leave the seat next to Kang Euihyun on my own, I had to take measures to slot someone else in. That was the only way I’d be able to maintain my resolve for long.

Baek Jungyung, who had been hesitating while holding a bottle of cola, eventually took the seat opposite me. A look of determination, ill suited to his face, was etched across his features. He seemed to think he was supposed to be the neutral party here.

“Wrap the meat in lettuce and perilla leaves too.” 

I had been chewing on a piece of pork neck like it was my last meal, but when I shifted my chopsticks toward the sausages, a reprimand immediately came from beside me. Silently, I layered a perilla leaf and a piece of meat onto a lettuce leaf and stuffed it into my mouth.

“Eat some rice, too.” 

Kang Euihyun handed me a bowl of warmed instant rice. However, I shook my head and pushed it away.

“Why?” 

I wanted to maintain a dignified silence, but barely a few minutes had passed and I was already about to betray my own intention. When he asked like that, I had no choice but to answer.

“Are you full already?” 

“My stomach feels heavy.”

 “That’s because you’re only eating meat.” With a light sigh, Kang Euihyun stood up and walked toward the grill. When the man returned, he was holding a bowl of kimchi stew. Looking at the spicy, red broth, my churning stomach seemed to settle a bit.

“Try eating this with it. Once your stomach feels better, eat some rice. Don’t pour alcohol into an empty stomach later; fill up on something hearty. There’s digestive medicine in the car, so tell me if you keep feeling unwell.”

“But, Hyung.” 

Baek Jungyung, who had been quietly shifting his eyes, interrupted in a voice as small as an ant. 

“Is Hyung always this naggy?” 

Though Baek Jungyung’s voice was quiet, he possessed the ability to summarize the scene he had just witnessed in a single line.

“…Naggy?” 

Kang Euihyun repeated the key word. His expression was that of someone hearing such a thing for the first time in his life.

“Yes. Yoo Chaewon isn’t a child, but you’re telling her to eat this, eat that. I’m the one feeling suffocated.” 

Kang Euihyun quietly set down his chopsticks. Then, as if chewing over the meaning of Baek Jungyung’s words, he stared silently down at the table. The stiffness of his eyes and his tightly closed lips revealed just how displeased he was.

Flustered by the serious reaction, Baek Jungyung shifted restlessly in his seat, and I glared at him silently. It was my fault to begin with. I shouldn’t have grabbed the sleeve of someone like Baek Jungyung, who has no tact, and forced him to sit here.

Finally lifting his gaze, Kang Euihyun turned his head to face me. 

“Suffocating?” 

“No.” 

I shook my head instantly. This had been Kang Euihyun’s way since the moment we first met, for long enough that what sounded like suffocating nagging to someone else felt like cozy care to me.

Baek Jungyung was correct that he treated me like a child, and I too wanted to be treated as an adult woman like Jeong Sujin, but I still hated it when an ignorant outsider stepped in to give advice. Whether or not I received this care was for me to decide; I didn’t want Kang Euihyun to stop all at once just because of some presumptuous comment from another person.

“Hey, who do you think you are, telling Euihyun Oppa this and that?” 

And so, I scolded Baek Jungyung loudly. “Oppa has taken care of me like this since I was little. If it’s suffocating, then get lost somewhere you can’t hear it. Why are you meddling in other people’s business?”

Baek Jungyung’s mouth fell open. He looked as if he wanted to protest about who exactly had put him in this seat. However, I ignored him and mixed the rice into the kimchi stew Kang Euihyun had brought.

“Oppa, I want more pork. It’s delicious.” Forgetting my resolve to distance myself from Kang Euihyun, I whined like a child. A smile that crinkled the corners of my eyes was an added bonus. Right now, my only thought was to soothe his mood and restore his sense of efficacy as the person responsible for me.

“Alright. Just a moment.” 

Without any sign of annoyance, Kang Euihyun approached the grill once more. Watching his back as he plated meat just for me, the resentment I had built up since last week vanished completely. It certainly felt like we had returned to the old days now that Jeong Sujin wasn’t here, back to the time when Kang Euihyun, who wouldn’t even keep a woman by his side, cared only for me.

“You…” 

Across from me, Baek Jungyung struggled to speak.

 “You’re kind of weird. Do you know that?” While calling me weird, Baek Jungyung’s gaze was fixed on Kang Euihyun. In his narrowed eyes, the light of admiration for Euihyun had vanished. Instead, only traces of hesitation and suspicion remained.

What did it matter? I didn’t care if I looked like a fickle, crazy bitch to others, as long as my name was the only one on Kang Euihyun’s protection list. I didn’t simply want to be his girlfriend. There was no need to broadcast to everyone that becoming the only person to Kang Euihyun was the goal of my lifetime.

***

After finishing the meat and before the drinking party began in earnest, I sat facing Baek Jungyung. While playing random games split into two teams, my opponent was the classmate who had just accused me of being weird.

“Now, please wait comfortably!” 

The senior acting as the MC slid a piece of white paper between my face and Baek Jungyung’s, blocking our line of sight. I closed my eyes and waited for the signal. “Start!” 

The moment I lifted my eyelids, the white paper was removed. My focused eyes locked onto Baek Jungyung’s face. His eyes did the same.

We engaged in a fierce staring contest. As the murmuring from the surrounding crowd grew louder, Baek Jungyung’s eyelashes began to tremble. His nostrils flared incessantly, as if he were on the verge of laughter. The man’s ridiculous expression was a foul in itself.

“Huh? You can’t sneakily close your eyes.” The MC monitored Baek Jungyung’s eyes with a strict voice. The man, staring intently at me, grew redder and redder in the face. Following his eyelashes, the muscles around his mouth began to quiver. 

“Team B wins!”

 The MC, who had been judging closely, raised my hand. Baek Jungyung collapsed to the side like a deflated balloon doll. He belatedly covered his bright red face with both hands, but he couldn’t hide his chest heaving with rapid breaths.

Feeling proud, I stood up and returned to where I had been sitting in the back. However, my seat, specifically the seat next to Kang Euihyun, was occupied by Seo Minji. When our eyes met, Seo Minji turned her head away, pretending to talk to someone else.

There’s another one who doesn’t know her place and acts out. For a very brief moment, hesitation bloomed between the resolve not to linger around Kang Euihyun and the greed to reclaim the seat that should rightfully be mine. However, the feeling of not wanting to let it slide after having something that originally belonged to me stolen became heavier.

I slid one foot between Kang Euihyun and Seo Minji’s knees. Then, twisting my ankle back and forth, I pushed Kang Euihyun and Seo Minji’s thighs apart. As soon as a small space opened up, I quickly wedged my hips in and turned my body diagonally, presenting my back to Seo Minji.

“Ha.” An incredulous sigh escaped from behind my shoulder, but I didn’t look back. Who told you to covet someone else’s seat? I had already made a great effort to distance myself from Kang Euihyun lately, and it was infuriating that small fry like this, not even Jeong Sujin, were sniffing around in that gap.

“Jungyung’s face is still red.” 

While I was fuming alone over my tangled thoughts, Kang Euihyun’s low voice cut through them. Baek Jungyung, with his head hanging low befitting a loser, was walking toward where Team A was gathered. 

“Is he very shy?” 

Kang Euihyun tapped his knee with his fingertips, speculating on why Baek Jungyung’s complexion hadn’t returned to normal. 

“He says he gets intimidated just looking at you, but his face doesn’t look like that at all.” 

After spirit critiquing Baek Jungyung to himself, Kang Euihyun suddenly looked at me.

“What were you thinking?” 

“Huh?”

 “I asked what you were thinking while you were in a staring contest with Jungyung.” Kang Euihyun asked me seriously, as if questioning a professor about something he didn’t know. I didn’t understand why he was curious about such a thing, but I answered honestly. 

“That Baek Jungyung is ugly. And that I absolutely must not laugh.” 

At my answer, Kang Euihyun merely nodded. As he applauded the students entering the next game, his profile appeared impeccably composed, yet touched by a faint indifference. Even so, I was certain my answer had reassured him. He was the type to keep probing if he wasn’t satisfied, so the fact that he let it pass without a single follow up question meant I had earned his trust.