‘Ah, did I mess up a bit?’

It was just as Dohwa was tilting his head and thinking that.

After staring at Dohwa for a moment, Lee Joon ripped his lips into a wide grin and shouted loudly enough for everyone to hear.

“Wow, look who it is! The guy who was protecting that whore bastard!”

“Sigh… I told you he’s not a whore…”

Dohwa muttered in an irritated voice.

Hearing those words, Lee Joon sprang up from the desk. He was so large that the desk actually rattled.

Stomping over to Dohwa, Lee Joon crumpled his already menacing face into something even more sinister. Looking at that face with a slightly disgusted gaze, Dohwa tilted his head and asked, 

“Do you have something to say?”

“Something to say? I have plenty, you brat.”

He spoke sneeringly, and as expected, his voice was disgustingly loud. Feeling his eardrums violently struck by a voice that wasn’t even pleasant, Dohwa reflexively frowned.

“The lecture is starting soon, so say it quickly.”

Lee Joon spat out a curse at the voice that didn’t hide the meaning of ‘say it and get lost’ at all. Regardless, Dohwa maintained a lukewarm expression throughout and turned his gaze to check the watch on his wrist.

“The lecture really is starting soon. Are you going to stay like this until the professor comes in? I don’t mind, though.”

Dohwa spoke in his characteristic soft, whispering tone. Contrary to the gentle manner of speaking, the gaze he cast upon Lee Joon was utterly cold. At the look that seemed to be viewing something deficient, a vein popped on Lee Joon’s forehead.

“You, you little…”

“Hmm… you keep calling me ‘little this’ and ‘brat that.’ It makes the person listening feel bad, so if you have nothing left to say, could you just stop?”

Regardless of whether Lee Joon was glaring at him, Dohwa spoke as he set his bag down on the nearest desk. Just as Lee Joon, whose patience had burned faster than a candle wick, was about to grab Dohwa by the collar, the front door opened and the professor entered.

Perhaps unable to bring himself to show the professor the sight of him grabbing a junior’s collar, Lee Joon disappeared to his seat after leaving the cliché line, “See you later.”

“What is he, some third-rate villain?”

Muttering in disbelief, Dohwa sat in the spot where he had placed his bag. He thought that he should head straight to his next lecture as soon as this class ended, since there was no reason to face such an ugly bastard.

Hekept the promise he made to himself before the lecture started. As soon as the lecture ended, Dohwa moved to his next class, leaving Lee Joon behind like a dog chasing a chicken. Of course, Dohwa didn’t give it a second thought.

The next lecture was a general elective, a class that Cherry Coke, that is, Chaei, also took. Chaei, who had likely been gaming until right before the lecture, looked not much different from Dohwa. Dragging her three-stripe slippers, she entered the classroom and immediately sat in the seat next to Dohwa.

“Hey, Peach.”

“I told you to call me Dohwa at school, Noona.”

“Peach, Dohwa, what’s the difference?”

“One is a nickname, and the other is my actual name.”

“Exactly! It’s the same thing. To us, a nickname is basically a name.”

It was the kind of talk that made him fear others might overhear. Not wanting to be lumped into the same category of person as her, Dohwa unconsciously leaned his body slightly to the side. However, as much as Dohwa leaned, Chaei followed.

“Ah, Noona, please stop coming closer.”

“What’s this, Peach? Why are you being so fussy today? Did someone bully you?”

Only we are allowed to bully our Peach!

At the words spoken without a shred of conscience, Dohwa made a gesture of covering his ears. Regardless of what Dohwa did, Chaei steadfastly poured out her words. The nonsense continued with no one else listening.

The way they bickered, both with their hoodie caps pulled down low, looked so close that anyone watching would think they were family. After listening to Chaei’s nonsense for a while, Dohwa touched the piercings dangling from his ear and asked, 

“Noona, do you have no friends in the Western Painting department?”

“What’s with you? I have friends everywhere.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. But why?”

“Then do you know a person named Lee Joon?”

“Ah, that absolute piece of trash? I don’t even go within a one-meter radius of that guy because he reeks of food waste.”

Dohwa chuckled at the words that poured out the moment the name was mentioned. Watching Dohwa smile behind his glasses, Chaei crossed her arms and spoke with a serious face.

“What’s up? Why are you mentioning that guy’s name? That’s weird… there’s no reason for you, Dohwa, to be curious about him. That guy hates Won so much…”

“Why does he hate Hyung?”

In the question that seemed to ask how anyone could possibly hate Won, a blind devotion bordering on ignorance was evident. Chaei, who was Won’s friend but didn’t view him through a purely flawless lens like Dohwa did, let out a hollow laugh. 

“Unbelievable. He can just hate him. There are tons of people who hate Won.”

“Why…”

“How should I know? I don’t. Hating someone is their own business. But that bastard Lee Joon hates him because he thinks Won stole his girl.”

“Suddenly a girl?”

“Yep.”

Chaei uncrossed her arms and slumped onto the desk. Pressing her cheek against the cold desk, she blinked slowly. With her eyes curving into a gentle smile, Chaei closed them and spoke as if humming.

“He’s a funny bastard… she wasn’t even a ‘some’ girl to begin with. He just imagined the whole thing, all the way to having grandchildren. He’s just a crazy guy.”

Having spoken indifferently, Chaei yawned wide, saying she was dying of sleepiness because she had gamed all night. When Dohwa felt a bit solemn seeing his own reflection in her, Chaei, smacking her lips, reached under her hat to scratch her head vigorously and continued.

“Anyway, don’t get close to a guy like that.”

“I have no intention of getting close.”

“Right. …But why are you asking about him?”

Muttering with her eyes closed while slumped on the desk, Chaei suddenly sat up as if she had realized something.

“Oh, damn it! That bastard badmouthed Won in front of you! He did! He did!”

Chaei shouted, her small body trembling as if she had been struck by lightning. With her pale skin and red hair, she looked like a Maltese that had its ear tips dyed red at an old hair salon. If Chaei had heard that thought, she probably would have barked like a dog.

Chaei, who would never know in her wildest dreams what Dohwa was thinking while looking at her, continued to chatter.

“Looking at it, it’s definitely true that he badmouthed Won in front of you. How did you fire back? Huh? Did you get angry? No. Did you be sarcastic? Or did you curse him out?”

“I did all of that.”

“This is driving me crazy!”

Chaei shouted in a shrill voice, gripping her hoodie as if she were about to tear it. Dohwa, narrowing his brows at the reaction, took off his glasses. Rubbing the bridge of his nose where slight marks remained, he took a lens cloth out of his bag. While he cleaned the foggy lenses, Chaei continued to shout and hop around.

Eventually, exhausted by her own energy, Chaei slumped into the classroom chair and let out a long sigh.

“I mean, Won wouldn’t care one bit about what a bastard like Lee Joon says, so why did you step in…”

“But he called Hyung a whore.”

“A whore? Ah, that’s a bit much. Our Won might be loose, but he didn’t sell his body.”

“Ah, Noona!”

At the outburst asking if that was what was important right now, Chaei picked her ear and laughed.

“Truth is always important.”

“The truth is that the son of a bitch insulted Hyung.”

“Sure, sure.”

“Aren’t you even angry? You said you’ve been friends since you were kids.”

“Angry? I’m not. That bastard Won is the type to just laugh even if someone calls him a whore to his face. Words like that are nothing to him. They wouldn’t even leave a scratch. Since he’s like that, why should I be angry on his behalf?”

Saying she saw no reason to do so, Chaei tilted her head and smiled with her eyes.

“How can Won hyung just laugh after hearing things like that?”

“He was just born that way.”

Chattering with a bright, tomboyish face, Chaei pushed her hoodie cap back.

“You have no idea how tough Won is. That’s why I like him. Because he’s the kind of kid who doesn’t budge no matter who tries to put him down.”

Isn’t that why you like him too?