NOVEL NEXT chapter 129
“What… What even is this?”
“…I’m sorry.”
“Oh, seriously, what the fuck is this? ‘Meow-Meow Dumbass’—did you seriously write that to call me a dumbass?”
What is this, elementary school?
I burst out laughing, loudly, and kept looking back and forth at the paper. It felt like I’d stolen my bratty nephew’s diary and found the page where he vented about me. And not even just “Goyoung Dumbass” or “Honeybread Dumbass”—he went with Meow-Meow Dumbass.
The funniest part was, this couldn’t be the only one. I’d picked a butterfly at random, and Gang Jaegyung probably didn’t even know which note was in which one. The fact that he still freaked out and told me not to unfold any of them meant that multiple butterflies probably had stuff like this inside.
“You’re not really twenty-five, are you.”
“What would I even gain by lying about my age…”
“How can someone your age act like this?”
“You live young, you stay young.”
“Yeah, well maybe act your size, freak. At least try to match your build.”
“There’s nothing left to match. I already surrendered all of it to my food bills…”
What a ridiculous bastard. I chuckled to myself and muttered under my breath.
“Bet your friends treat you like a baby.”
And to that, Gang Jaegyung pouted and muttered,
“I told you—I don’t have friends.”
“You keep saying that. You’re telling me you have no friends? Come on. Even if you didn’t want them, I’m sure there’d be tons of people trying to hang around you.”
I waved my hand like cut the crap, but he just stared at me, still sulking.
…Wait. Seriously?
“…You? Really?”
“Why are you so sure I would?”
“Because someone who looks like you—doesn’t matter if you want them or not—people will cling to you.”
Guys like Gang Jaegyung, with that kind of pretty face, usually had popularity that transcended gender. Girls liked pretty people just because, and guys treated them like trophies to show off. Unless he was actively pushing people away, someone should’ve been orbiting him.
So it was hard to believe he didn’t have any friends. Sure, I’d never heard him mention any on stream either, but I thought that was just because he was private about his personal life.
“I got ostracized in high school.”
“…You? Ostracized?”
You didn’t ostracize the world?
I blinked at him in disbelief. Gang Jaegyung held my gaze for a moment, then let out a deflated laugh and kept going.
“What kind of rumors.”
“That I was a player. Leading people on.”
Ah. Yeah, I could kind of see how that would happen.
“A few of the girls I was close with confessed, and I turned them all down. Some people didn’t like that. She jumped on it. Started a rumor I was stringing all the girls along, and after that, no one came near me. Some believed it. Others didn’t but were too scared because the popular girls hated me.”
“You just let that happen?”
“I just… didn’t want to deal with it. Whether it was the one starting rumors, or the people blindly believing them and talking behind my back, or the ones who were too scared to speak up—I just found it all pathetic.”
That tracked. It sounded exactly like the kind of thing Gang Jaegyung would think. Still, wasn’t it unfair? If it were me, I would’ve tracked down the rumor-starter and beat the shit out of them.
“What’d that bitch have against you, anyway?”
“No idea. I never even talked to her.”
A true passive protagonist, huh.
Well, that was high school.
“What about college? You didn’t have any friends there either?”
“I kept to myself. The upperclassmen basically blacklisted me.”
What, was he a runway model or something? Why was everyone so weirdly hostile toward him?
“What’d you do?”
“They tried to throw their weight around with fake hierarchy crap, so I ignored it.”
“…Is that even allowed?”
“What’s stopping me? They didn’t even have the skills to touch me.”
So I ended up alone again. The classmates and juniors were too scared to hang out with me.
After hearing all that, it finally made sense that he didn’t have friends. So even with that face, it’s possible to end up with no one. Partly because of his personality, sure, but still… how the hell did not one person stick around?
Tsk. I clicked my tongue. Gang Jaegyung seemed oddly pitiful, especially right after crying like that. If he hadn’t had any friends since high school, that meant he’d been alone for nearly eight years.
And even I, who spent the last three years mostly hanging out with just Moon Seonhwa—or even less than that, since she was always out running errands—got lonely sometimes.
“Must’ve been boring. Repetitive.”
I muttered softly. Gang Jaegyung lowered his gaze slightly and nodded.
“Yeah, it gets boring. Even going out to eat, there’s no one to talk to. Going places alone feels pointless. It’s always either sitting home alone or going out to work.”
That’s probably why I clung to streaming. And games.
Hearing that, I felt a strange sense of kinship. I got it. That sense of loss when your social life collapses. I was the kind of person who filled that void with games too, so his words hit me harder than I expected.
“I’d honestly given up on meeting anyone. I stopped expecting things… I just thought I’d live quietly with games and streams. But then I met you, Goyoung, and it was so much better than I expected… So I tried to get closer. But you didn’t want anything to do with me.”
As Gang Jaegyung took this chance to spill his complaints, I started to realize why he’d been so desperate to keep meeting me. (Not that that excused the fact that this little shit trolled the hell out of me.) Still, somewhere in the back of my head, it did feel a little flattering that someone as intense as Gang Jaegyung really, truly liked me that much.
“Do you have to know someone’s situation to accept them?”
He sounded genuinely hurt. Fair point. Even if I had known, I probably would’ve turned him down just the same.
I stared at Gang Jaegyung, still whining about how hurt he was. And maybe because of all that, I started feeling sympathy. His eyes were still red, and that just made the pity hit harder. But more than that, it was the sense of kinship—the way he said he’d “given up”—that stuck with me.
I pushed aside the flood of irrelevant thoughts and suddenly spoke.
“Next time you want to eat something or whatever, don’t think about baiting me with teabagging. Just send a message. If I’m in the mood, I’ll hang out.”
It’s not even hard… I trailed off, but Gang Jaegyung understood perfectly. He stopped talking and his eyes lit up like stars.
“Really? If I just ask, you’ll actually come with me?”
“I don’t like crowded places. Just somewhere decent to hang out.”
“I don’t like crowded places either. Just, like, good restaurants or places like that shooting range we went to—where you can have fun in a small group.”
“…Yeah?”
I’d wanted to go outside again anyway. I just didn’t have the guts for it. But as long as we avoided big crowds, and if I focused on talking to Gang Jaegyung when we had to walk anywhere, it should be fine. Besides, he wasn’t hard to get along with. If we were hanging out, I could probably enjoy myself.
Perfect. The quiet anxiety I’d been carrying started to ease a little thanks to his answer. And with it came a small sense of satisfaction—my heart began to beat just a bit faster. It felt like I was going to start enjoying the outside world again, like before.
But at the same time, I felt a creeping fear—like I was repeating the past and setting myself up for regret again. I said I’d given up… so was this okay? It’s not like I’d magically be able to start wandering around alone again. What if I ended up disappointed and shut myself in again? Maybe I shouldn’t even start this...
“Then later, um… do you like brick oven pizza? Or should we go somewhere else? Is there anything you’re craving? I actually have a list of places I want to try—should I send it to you?”
As soon as I said I’d meet up, Gang Jaegyung lit up and started rattling off places. He pulled out his phone and started naming dishes one by one, ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ telling me which were famous for what, which places had what kind of interior… His face was bright and full of life. I couldn’t even remember the expression he had earlier when he was grumbling at me.
Seeing that face completely melted my tension. Watching him wag his metaphorical tail like that—how could I not go for a walk with him?
Besides, I was the one who said I’d hang out. I couldn’t just backpedal now. It’s not like he’d drag me around town like Moon Seonhwa. Gang Jaegyung still had to stream, so it’s not like we’d stay out that late.
“…I want pasta. It’s been a while since I had vongole.”
“Pasta? There were a lot of good pasta places! Hold on.”
I watched him flip through his phone with that dopey smile on his face and felt myself smiling too—probably for the first time in a while. Sure, it had been kind of funny seeing him cry because he thought I hated him. But honestly, this version of him—just happily grinning like a dumbass—was a lot nicer to look at.
And really, what am I gonna do with a guy who follows me around all lovestruck like that?
Guess I’m stuck bringing him along.
Thinking that, I took a long sip of my orange ade, the ice just slightly melted.
**「 Hatred
He’s so annoying...
Visualized the time I was ignored and showed it to him, but he didn’t even look guilty. (Outrageous.)
Scrunches his nose when he laughs (deeply infuriating)
Smarter than he looks
Asked for the butterfly box first. Also asked for a signature at the offline event → definitely likes Retaking a Class
Doesn’t tease to be mean—genuinely treats me like a kid… → Why?ㅠ
Lonely, bored
Vongole pasta
ミ^·ω·^ミ 」**