Chapter 4: You like me, you

“…”

“If you don’t want to, fine.”

Her face clearly showed her dislike, but when asked directly, Park Chaerin just bit her lip tightly.

Even her friend, who was usually chattering beside her, stayed quiet, reading the room.

In the classroom, only the silent wall clock, stripped of its ticking second hand, kept moving.

Then, Chaerin’s red lips, which seemed like they’d never move, finally parted.

“Let’s talk outside.”

With that, she walked out through the back door.

Only then did the classmates, as if released from a game of freeze tag, start talking.

“Wow… crazy bastard.”
“F*cking alpha male, huh?”
“As expected of the only Korean I respect…”

A barrage of curses echoed behind, but that wasn’t important right now.

‘She tells me to follow her and then just storms off…’

Hurrying to catch up, Joon left the classroom and followed her.

Exiting the school’s back gate and walking a bit led to a secluded alley.

A deserted place where hardly anyone passed through, with nothing much around.

‘The kids always smoked here, so it was one of the teachers’ must-patrol spots.’

In short, a hangout for delinquents.

Being a local, Joon had been here a few times, but he barely knew the area.

While following Park Chaerin, she suddenly stopped and spoke in a voice twice as sharp as before.

“What the hell were you thinking, calling me out like that?”
“Huh?”
“Trying to embarrass me in front of everyone?”

That wasn’t his intention.

Why would her talking to him be embarrassing in the first place?

‘Is my face so bad that just talking to me is humiliating?’

At 25, he’d still been decently popular with high schoolers…

Well, considering it was her, she might have high standards, so he let it slide.

“Talking to me isn’t embarrassing, is it?”
“…Ha, whatever, just tell me why you called me out.”
“…”

Joon fell silent, as if entranced.

Before he could say anything, Chaerin spoke again.

“Have we ever even talked before?”
“Nope.”
“Then why the hell did you call me out all of a sudden?”

To save you from dying, obviously.

‘But now that I’m here, I don’t know what to say.’

He wanted to blurt out everything about her funeral, but saying that would just get him labeled a lunatic.

‘Telling her to look both ways when crossing the street feels weird too…’

As he hesitated, unsure of what to say, Chaerin let out a sigh.

“Hey.”
“Yeah?”

She called him out and then threw out bluntly.

“I’m not interested in dating anyone, so get over it.”
“…What?”

What did he just hear?

Caught off guard by her preemptive rejection, he stared at her, dumbfounded, and for some reason, she dropped her serious expression and gave a sly smirk.

“What? Thought I’d say yes to someone like you?”
“…”
“If you’re gonna confess, at least talk to me first. Nothing’s more disgusting than getting hit on by a guy I’ve never even spoken to.”

Her words finally got his brain, which had been slow to catch up, moving again.

‘So… she thinks I called her out to confess?’

It was an understandable misunderstanding, but he hadn’t expected her to jump to that conclusion so firmly.

Before he could stop himself, his honest thoughts slipped out.

“Are you… delusional?”
“…What?”

A flicker of shock crossed Chaerin’s face.

‘Was “delusional” even a thing back then?’

Worried she might not get what he meant, he clarified.

“You know, thinking everyone’s into you.”
“…”

Chaerin stared at him, stunned, as if she hadn’t expected those words, her earlier confidence replaced by a blank expression.

But soon, as if finding something amusing, she flashed that same sly smirk again.

“Then why did you call me out?”
“…”

Right. Why did he call her out?

He’d called her without a plan, just wanting to start a conversation somehow, so he had no real reason ready.

‘Should I just say I like her?’

But he’d already denied it so firmly that backtracking felt awkward.

He could just play it off as a joke and say he did like her, but…

“Why’d you call me? Too embarrassed to admit you got rejected, so you’re saying you don’t like me?”
“…”

His pride wouldn’t let him go along with that.

‘What do I do?’

As he racked his brain, unused to thinking so hard, an idea struck him.

‘Cigarette butts…’

Seeing cigarette butts scattered on the ground, a lightbulb went off in his head.

The perfect excuse came to mind.

“Why’d you call me? Too embarrassed to admit you got rejected, so you’re saying you don’t like me?”

Chaerin’s words left Joon with a troubled expression.

‘Knew it.’

When he’d called her delusional, she’d been thrown off, but seeing his reaction now, she thought she had it figured out.

‘He’s just protecting his pride after getting rejected before he could even confess.’

If he’d just admitted it and apologized, she’d have been annoyed but let it slide.

But his pathetic behavior made her cringe in disgust.

Naturally, it was all.

“Cigarette.”
“…What?”

Just a story Chaerin had conjured up in her head.

He still wore that shameless grin from before.

“I wanted to borrow a cigarette.”

Cigarette.

It satisfied his craving while giving him a way to connect with her.

‘I was dying for some nicotine, so this works out perfectly.’

This way, he could satisfy his nicotine fix and keep an eye on Chaerin.

A total win-win, like hitting two birds with one stone.

But she wasn’t convinced, her brows furrowing as she snapped at him.

“What kind of bullshit is that? You don’t even smoke.”
“That’s what everyone thinks.”

It was true he didn’t smoke at this time.

But before coming back to the past, Joon was a seasoned smoker, used to holding a mix coffee in one hand and a cigarette in the other while working construction with chain-smoking old-timers.

Of course, Chaerin had no way of knowing that, and she glared at him suspiciously with her sharp eyes.

“Can’t you just admit it? You’re so f*cking pathetic, I can’t stand it.”
“If you don’t want to give me one, just say so.”
“…Ha.”

In a battle of wills with neither backing down, she said.

“I don’t smoke.”
“…Huh?”

Park Chaerin wasn’t a smoker.

Her edgy look and occasional class-skipping gave her a delinquent image, leading to assumptions she smoked.

But in reality, Chaerin despised cigarettes so much she’d recoil at the mention of them.

‘F*cking annoying…’

Already irritated by the misconception, her frustration spiked at being called out just to ask for a cigarette.

“You really don’t smoke?”
“I said I don’t! Can’t you understand?”

Her irritated outburst finally seemed to convince him, and Joon’s face visibly fell.

Seeing this, Chaerin’s anger faded, replaced by disbelief.

‘He really called me out for that?’

She’d been sure he was going to confess or something similar, but a cigarette?

Still unconvinced, or maybe unwilling to believe it, she pressed him.

“You really called me out just to borrow a cigarette?”
“Yeah.”

His answer was firm.

His tone and behavior were so different from the guys who’d confessed to her that she already sensed it.

But still struggling to accept it, or maybe hating it, she started grilling him.

“Why me? You could’ve asked someone else.”

She had a point.

There was no need to ask someone he’d never even talked to for a cigarette.

“Most people here are from our middle school, so… I worked hard to build a good-student image.”

Calling himself a model student was a bit of a stretch given his usual antics…

But it wasn’t a lie.

Asking a delinquent for a cigarette could get him tangled up with the wrong crowd, which he wanted to avoid.

“I just want to smoke, not get mixed up with weird guys.”
“…So you secretly asked me?”

When he nodded at her question, she looked at him with an incredulous expression.

Then, she recalled what her friend had said during the break.

[But that guy never seemed interested in girls… guess your face did the trick.]

If Joon really had no interest in girls, maybe she had misunderstood.

Far from being charmed by her looks, his genuinely disappointed expression convinced her he was telling the truth.

‘He’s really not into me? But I…’

[I’m not interested in dating anyone, so get over it.]

[What? Thought I’d say yes to someone like you?]

She wanted to die.

Her embarrassment was so intense that her face flushed, her ears turning bright red as she looked at Joon.

It was a rare sight for the usually sharp and cold Park Chaerin.

“Delusional…”

Muttering to herself, Joon barely held back a laugh.

Her bright red face started to cool back to its usual icy demeanor.

“No way.”

Her tone, colder than ever, made Joon flinch.

‘…What’s with her?’

Sensing a dangerous shift in the mood, he took a step back as she spoke.

“Don’t lie, you bastard.”
“What?”

Self-defense.

Chaerin couldn’t accept the humiliating situation she’d never faced before.

So she decided his words were lies.

Despite all the clues and his expression being nothing like those of the guys who liked her.

‘Hiding behind that stupid grin… you think I’ll fall for that?’

To erase her shame, she started twisting reality to fit her narrative, and everything he said seemed like a lie.

With her cheeks slightly pinker than usual, she glared at him like an angry alley cat and said.

“You like me, don’t you, you f*cking bastard.”