The way he held the reins and acted so composed made Giyun bristle more than usual today.
In a fit of pique, Giyun reached for the door handle but quickly changed his mind. His hand, frozen in midair, clenched into a fist.
He was resentful, but he didn’t want to get out. He knew there would never be another chance to be alone with him in a private space.
With a face full of grievance and dissatisfaction, Giyun spoke.
“I have no complaints….”
“If you’re going to lie, at least show some sincerity by controlling your facial expression.”
Seungjo let out a snort and started the car.
Giyun tucked his head down and fiddled with his hands, pretending not to have heard the response. The passenger door had been locked from the moment Giyun stepped into the car, but Giyun had no way of knowing that.
The car quickly merged onto the road. Giyun was quiet on the outside, but in truth, he wanted to talk to him. However, he didn’t know what to say.
The last time they had spoken was when he had blindly gone to find him in front of the lecture hall, and that conversation had ended disastrously.
Perhaps the alcohol was amplifying his emotions, but thinking back to that day, a surge of accumulated sorrow welled up.
It was likely a distant memory that the other man hadn’t given a second thought to….
Giyun stole a glance at Seungjo.
As always, his face was impassive.
Without even looking toward Giyun, Seungjo spat out a short sentence.
“What are you looking at?”
Look at that. Why did he have to talk like that? What had Giyun done wrong? Had he unknowingly stolen the man’s wallet or something?
Come to think of it, there was one thing he had stolen.
Rummaging through his pants pocket, Giyun pulled out a binch biscuit he’d taken from the breakroom and thrust it at Seungjo like a yellow card.
“If you keep acting like this… I’ll bring something even bigger next time.”
Seungjo glanced sideways at the snack Giyun had pulled out as a warning, his face looking incredulous.
“What is that?”
What else could it be? It was evidence of embezzlement.
With a determined gesture, Giyun tore open the wrapper and took a crunching bite. Crumbs scattered all over the tidy interior of the car.
Seungjo let out a huff of exasperated laughter. Aside from that, he didn’t show much of a reaction, so Giyun didn’t realize it, but he had unintentionally exacted another form of revenge.
The car sped down the road without any congestion. His driving skills were top-tier, heading toward the destination smoothly without any sudden stops or acceleration.
If Giyun hadn’t been on edge the whole time because he was so conscious of Seungjo, he might have drifted off to sleep thanks to the excellent ride quality.
“Distracting.”
Giyun flinched at the low sound of a tongue clicking.
He had been too busy stealing glances at the hand resting lightly on the steering wheel instead of his face to realize that his phone had been vibrating continuously.
Giyun cautiously checked his surroundings and switched the faint vibration to silent.
His younger brother must have finally checked his messages. Expecting a reply from him, Giyun carefully checked the screen, and his eyes widened.
It was an unsaved number, but the sender was clear just from reading the content.
[Giyun-ah,, it’s me Changgon hyung lol You haven’t forgotten me already, right??]
[Please pick up the phone,, how could u block me,.]
[U seduced me first,, and now ur acting like u don’t know me, it’s ridiculous and I’m rly hurt,, lol]
[Were u always this cold?? U weren’t before,,^^]
[I’m usually the type who doesn’t stop someone from coming or catch someone who’s leaving,, but strangely I keep thinking about u; lol Why is that??]
[If ur still pouting please forgive me, hyung was wrong. ㅠ]
[I miss ur skin scent,, I can’t even sleep lately… whew]
[If u block this number too I’ll just make another one and contact u]
Messages were pouring in from Changgon. It seemed he had realized Giyun had blocked him and created a new number to reach out.
Why go this far…? Giyun was reading through the messages with a stunned face when it happened.
“Whether it’s Changgon or some man-whore, he’s loud.”
Giyun trembled at the low voice vibrating near his ear. While the car was stopped at a red light, Seungjo was leisurely taking in the screen over Giyun’s shoulder.
“He says he can’t even sleep because he misses Eun Giyun-ssi’s skin scent.”
Changgon’s undeniably embarrassing messages were being shared in real-time. Giyun hurriedly covered the screen, but the belated action only deepened Seungjo’s mocking sneer.
“If he were dead, he’d be able to fall asleep easily.”
“Why are you looking at someone else’s phone…!”
“I saw it because it was visible, what do you want me to do? If you don’t like it, you should’ve covered it earlier, or gotten out.”
Having read everything, Seungjo now stared straight ahead with an utterly indifferent face. The car moved again as the signal changed at the right moment.
The atmosphere inside the car was nothing like its smooth departure. Giyun felt wronged and humiliated.
He was deeply resentful that the man had casually dug up things he didn’t want discovered, as if reading a gossip column.
“This is my private life. It might just be entertaining for you, Professor, but—”
“Entertaining, my ass. It was so pathetic it was painful to read, so keep that in mind.”
The voice laced with annoyance left Giyun speechless. Was this what they called the thief turning on the victim?
Far from apologizing, Seungjo laid bare his unpleasantness. As if Giyun were guilty of a major crime for receiving such pathetic messages.
“What did you even like about someone like that? I can’t understand it. Is it just that as long as they have a cock, you’re fine with anyone?”
“…”
“Then, do you happen to like me too?”
Seungjo curled one corner of his mouth into a sneer.
Even though Giyun knew it was an extension of his contempt and sarcasm, his heart dropped. Giyun clenched his fists tightly to hide his trembling fingertips.
“There’s no… no way that’s true.”
He kept his voice as low as possible for fear it would tremble.
Seungjo’s mouth tightened slightly.
Giyun struggled to maintain his composure and fixed his gaze on his knees.
He suddenly thought of the TA who was said to have confessed and been cut off. There was nothing more terrifying than having your true feelings discovered.
“Please don’t… mock me like that.”
“I’m saying this because it’s a big problem if my lecture assistant is playing around with a student.”
A cold answer came back, as if his words and actions, which infinitely looked down on the other person, were strictly for business purposes.
The car had already entered Giyun’s neighborhood. The vehicle navigated flexibly through narrow alleys that he must have been visiting for the first time.
His smooth driving skills seemed to represent his still-calm state of mind. Unlike Giyun, who was agitated by every single word he said.
“…Then I’ll just quit the assistant job.”
After hesitating for a long time, Giyun spoke as if he were about to cry.
Even though he didn’t really want to quit, it was as if he were making the first move because he felt like those words would come out of Seungjo’s mouth at any moment.
“Why, so you can go around hooking up without any worries?”
The reaction he got back was more devastating than before. Seungjo’s voice dropped low.
“You’re telling me this because you want me to quit voluntarily right now.”
“Don’t interpret it however you want. Firing one person like you is nothing to me in the first place.”
“Then how am I supposed to interpret it?”
Though they were already slow, the car came to its first sudden stop.
The car pulled up in front of the old rooftop apartment building where Giyun lived. An announcement sounded indicating they had reached their destination, but neither of them paid it any mind.
Taking his hands off the steering wheel, Seungjo turned to look at Giyun. The atmosphere was chilling.
“Did you sleep with that bastard?”
Setting aside the fact that he had suddenly switched to informal speech, it was an incredibly personal question.
Were he and Giyun in a relationship where they could ask such things?
No matter how much of an employer-employee relationship it was, no matter how young and insignificant he was….
He couldn’t understand why the man wanted to insult him this much.
he impact was even greater because it was the treatment he was receiving from the person he liked.
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