NOVEL NEXT Chapter 5.1
A few days have passed.
My school life hasn’t changed much.
If anything’s different… it’s that I now exchange nods with the guys I played soccer with that day.
But just because we played soccer once doesn’t mean it’s easy for me to approach them, and it’s probably just as awkward for them to approach me.
If I kept participating in soccer, I’d probably get closer to them, but honestly, I don’t feel like doing that.
And so, my life as a loner continues.
“We’re recruiting for central clubs! Come listen to our explanation!”
Starting yesterday, a few booths were set up on the way to the lecture halls.
Central Club Recruitment for Freshmen!
Apparently, other clubs will begin their main recruitment next week… I have to admit, I’m curious.
‘Would joining one of these clubs help me escape being a loner?’
‘As if…’
I’m already too scared to join a department club, let alone these.
The thought of it makes me nervous.
People say that if you don’t join something now, you’ll be a loner for all four years. But that can’t be true… right?
I mean, having a cozy department lounge or clubroom to hang out in sounds nice.
But it has to be a place with not too many people.
Somewhere I can just lie down and relax like a rest area.
…Not that a place like that would actually exist.
What’s stressing me out the most right now, though, is having nowhere to go during my free periods.
Isn’t this the biggest difference from high school?
In university, you can’t just sit in the classroom endlessly.
Usually, other classes are scheduled back-to-back, so you have to keep vacating your seat.
Even if you find an empty classroom, it feels kind of weird.
When I end up staring at my phone endlessly, this thought creeps in: “What am I even doing here?” It’s like my soul starts to drift away.
If I lived nearby, I could just head to my place, rest a bit, and come back.
“Ughhh…”
But what else can I do? I just have to keep wandering around like this.
Lee Ju-ha hasn’t contacted me yet.
She said she’d reach out when it’s finished, but I doubt it’s something that can be done quickly.
She said she’d let me know when it’s done, but… editing? Hmm… I don’t think Lee Ju-ha is capable of that herself.
I can’t shake off the uneasy feeling that she might’ve outsourced it to someone else.
There’s no way she’d hand over footage of her having sex to someone else for editing… right? Even she’s not that reckless… I hope.
Anyway, that’s a problem for later. For now, where should I go?
Another three-hour gap between classes. I’m too lazy to head to the PC café again.
Should I at least check out the club booths for advice?
Ding!
Huh? What’s that?
A sudden chill ran down my spine.
Nobody ever messages me… Could it be one of those guys from the delinquent group?
[Yoo In-ha: Hey.]
[Yoo In-ha: Hey, you punk.]
…Chills. Well, it’s not like I was expecting anyone else to message me.
There are two delinquent from high school who ended up attending the same university as me.
One of them is Yoo In-ha.
How would I describe their personality?
I guess they’re the closest to being somewhat “normal,” relatively speaking.
Rude, quick to judge people based on their perceived status, and prone to overreacting if provoked.
But compared to some of the other wild ones, this actually makes them one of the more “reasonable” ones in the delinquent crowd.
That said, while their personality might straddle the middle ground, their thought process is far from ordinary.
Yoo In-ha had a strange curiosity about everything.
Like wondering how long a mosquito could survive after its blood supply was removed.
Or questioning how much endurance increases from getting hit repeatedly, and pushing it to see the limit.
Or suddenly standing up in the middle of class, staring blankly to see how the teacher would react.
And those are just a few of the dozens of odd ideas that come to mind right now.
Sometimes, they’d flap their arms, wondering aloud how many seconds a human could “fly” like an idiot.
Or when a wasp flew into the classroom, they’d dramatically claim they’d be the first to catch it, putting on a whole show.
Those antics were relatively harmless.
The most dangerous moments came when their curiosity turned sexual.
Once, they wondered if every breast had a different “taste” and tried to grope their delinquent friends’ breast. Even among delinquent, everyone labeled them as completely nuts.
Yoo In-ha once ended up in the hospital after doing 100 squats daily to see how big their butt could get, only to dislocate their hip.
Still, it was manageable when their curiosity was limited to girls.
The real trouble began when they became curious about men’s bodies.
Specifically, during the phase of “What’s it like for guys?”
Sure, they were close with the other delinquent guys, but even In-ha probably wouldn’t go as far as to tell them to whip it out.
That’s when they must have remembered me.
I still can’t forget the sly smile on Yoo In-ha’s face back then.
“Do men’s breast have a similar taste? Are men’s nipples sensitive too?”
“How big can it get down there? What if you pull on it—could it stretch to 30 centimeters and turn into a monster?”
“If I keep touching it, would it stay hard for 24 hours straight?”
The memory makes me shudder to this day.
I ran like my life depended on it.
“Just once! Let me touch it just once! Just once!”
At first, In-ha came charging at me relentlessly, but after a while, they got tired and gave up chasing.
“Damn it… you’re acting so uptight over something so small…”
“Stupid bastard… it’s so insulting…”
“Jerk… you’d probably enjoy it if I touched it, yet you keep resisting…”
The way their eyes burned with determination while muttering nonsense like that… I couldn’t hold out forever.
If I’d kept resisting, I wouldn’t have been surprised if Lee Ju-ha had jumped in at some point and shouted, “It’s not going to wear out, just show them already!” before tearing my pants off.
In the end, I figured it was better to cooperate than to be humiliated further.
That’s how I ended up having a one-on-one “private session,” giving in just a little to their bizarre curiosity.
That’s still a secret none of the other girls know about.
Or is it? For all I know, she might have been blabbering about it behind my back. Damn it.
Did I like it?
No, not really.
At first, I thought it might be okay, but her curiosity kept escalating into more dangerous territory…
Once it started to feel risky, I went back to running away like my life depended on it.
Thankfully, after her basic curiosity was satisfied, she stopped making requests altogether.
[Yoo In-ha: Hey, are you ignoring me, jerk?]
Snapping back to reality, I felt a chill down my spine as the memories resurfaced.
If Yoo In-ha ever finds out about the video I made with Lee Ju-ha… who knows what insane curiosity might awaken in her.
It’s better to keep it hidden at all costs.
[Me: Oh, yeah, what’s up?]
I stopped walking and replied to her message.
It’s strange—this is the first time she’s sent me a DM since we started college.
Still, it doesn’t feel like this is one of her weird curiosity-driven episodes.
Something about this… hm… feels off. My instincts are kicking in.
[Yoo In-ha: Hehe, lol. You’re taking the General Basic Lecture, right?]
Damn it, I knew it.
She’s probably going to ask about an assignment or something.
Even though we’re in different departments, there are common general education courses everyone has to take.
Especially the “General Basic Lecture,” a golden 4-credit class that only requires 2.5 hours of attendance per week.
I heard some people even managed to free up their entire Thursdays and Fridays because of this one class.
But the catch? The insane amount of homework. Especially when the assignments are math or physics—absolute hair-pulling nightmares.
I barely understand math or physics, but the assignments just pile up endlessly.
Of course, I managed to survive by digging through Google until I found answer sheets.
Still, many didn’t include detailed solutions, so I had to scour English websites for proper explanations.
And when all else failed, I used math Q&A apps or forums like Knowledge-iN. It’s exhausting. Am I here to study or to master advanced Googling?
[Me: Yeah, I’m taking it… why?]
[Yoo In-ha: Did you do the assignment? Hehe.]
Damn it, what’s with the out-of-character “hehe”? This feels fishy.
Yoo In-ha, who doesn’t even know how to Google properly, probably hasn’t solved a single problem.
Still, there’s no way she’d skip it entirely—bad grades would completely wreck her GPA.
But seriously, if she’s just going to bomb the exams anyway, what’s the point of doing the assignments?
…Yeah, saying that to her would probably get me beaten to a pulp.
[Me: Yeah, I did it… Want to see?]
Might as well act generous and offer before she even asks.
The reply came within a second.
[Yoo In-ha: OMGOMGOMG Where are you? Where are you? Where are you?!]
[Me: Engineering building, 5th floor lounge.]
[Yoo In-ha: Coming right now! Wait for me!]