Paper Friendship Chapter 28

“Yes, Lee Juun has an appointment, so he says he can’t come.”

“….”

“Yes, yes.”

“….”

“I don’t know? I don’t know what kind of appointment it is.”

“….”

“Lee Juun, Choi Juoon says to hand the phone to you.”

Jin Seyoung handed me the phone with a smile. I took it, and after repeating ‘yes, yes…’ to everything, I followed Jin Seyoung. As for the content of the call… I will not mention it for the sake of my human rights.

I followed Jin Seyoung into the building. An employee asked if we had a reservation. Jin Seyoung mentioned Choi Juoon’s name. Following the employee, we entered a private room. It was quiet and luxurious. It was my first time in a place like this.

Inside, Choi Juoon was on his phone. It had been a while since I last saw him. Choi Juoon was wearing white slacks and a navy shirt. He was wearing a watch, and his hair was styled upward. Seeing him in such a stark contrast to me—dressed in a white padded jacket, a purple hoodie, and jeans—made me feel strange inside. When Choi Juoon saw us—no, when he saw Jin Seyoung—he stood up from his seat.

“You’re here?”

He approached Jin Seyoung with a soft smile. Soon, he put his arm around her waist and lightly pressed his lips to her forehead for a brief moment. Afterward, he helped her take off her coat and took it from her.

I watched all of this. I genuinely thought I had misseen something. My heart sank. For a brief moment, it felt like I couldn’t breathe. My emotions, my heart…. I cannot express them accurately. A strange feeling kept settling in my chest, so I immediately averted my gaze and sat down. Jin Seyoung sat next to Choi Juoon, and I sat across from them.

I wiped my hands with a warm wet towel, and soon after, dishes started to arrive one by one. I felt strangely uncomfortable. To be exact, it was a mixture of guilt and discomfort. No matter how I thought about it, it didn’t seem like a place for me. I wondered if I should just pay for my meal and leave, but realistically, I didn’t have the money to cover this meal, so paying seemed difficult.

The two of them really suited each other well. They suited each other, and they suited this space. I felt like a stranger. No, not even a stranger—I felt like someone who had just walked in from a local grocery store. My attire was such that if an employee had walked into this room, they would have mistaken me for staff and dragged me away, asking why I was sitting there.

Or not? Is this my inferiority complex? At least it was a relief that I was wearing jeans instead of sweatpants. In my heart, I wanted to at least go home and change my clothes, but knowing I had nothing to wear at home anyway, I just silently ate my food.

The food was delicious. But while I was chewing slowly, I ended up biting my tongue. I didn’t make a sound, just closed my eyes tightly and lowered my head slightly.

“Be more careful.”

Contrary to the voice he used with Jin Seyoung, Choi Juoon scolded me. Since the food was still in my mouth, I just looked up and smiled. I was curious what the three of us would talk about, but unexpectedly, Choi Juoon started the conversation first.

“What did you talk about without me?”

“Obviously, we were talking behind your back. You can’t know what people who aren’t there are saying.”

Jin Seyoung answered, leaning her body against Choi Juoon’s shoulder with a laugh. Choi Juoon smiled once at her, then wiped his hands with a wet towel and said.

“Ms. Jang Mihyun wants to see both of us separately.”

“Really? Ms. Jang Mihyun does?”

Jin Seyoung said, looking delighted. Hearing this, it seemed she was their academy teacher. I sat there, existing but not really, a presence bigger than air. It was a very natural thing, but the conversation flowing between the two of them was effortless. I glanced at Choi Juoon.

Choi Juoon seemed to love Jin Seyoung very much. He kept looking at her intermittently, asking how the food was, refilling her water or getting her anything she needed, reacting to everything she asked, and even picking off something from her hair…. This wasn’t the Choi Juoon I knew.

Most importantly, the look in Choi Juoon’s eyes was one of someone who couldn’t bear how lovely Jin Seyoung was. I lowered my head and focused only on my food.

My head and heart were complicated. To put it simply, it was just my best friend showing off his affection in front of me. It was just that, but something was strange. What was strange? Only now did I understand what kind of emotions Choi Juoon must have felt when I was dating Joo Sunhye.

At the time, I thought Choi Juoon’s emotions were excessive, but looking at it now, it was a perfectly natural reaction. No, I even started to think that Choi Juoon had been more mature back then.

Did Choi Juoon feel this way, too? When he saw me walking with Joo Sunhye? When he saw us kissing? I had held a strange sense of pride. That Choi Juoon liked me more than anyone else in the world…. And that I was the person Choi Juoon liked the most…. People around us said that too, so I really thought it was true.

But Choi Juoon was the complete opposite of me. From head to toe. While I only knew a tiny fraction of Choi Juoon, I thought I was the only one who truly understood him. I felt incredibly ashamed for speaking behind his back, pretending I knew something about him. To be frank, even his girlfriend, Jin Seyoung, was humble, so what on earth was I blabbering about? My head bowed on its own.

“Lee Juun, do you not have a girlfriend right now?”

Jin Seyoung asked me. I lifted my head to answer, but since I happened to be chewing some tough meat, I couldn’t spit it out immediately. I just shook my head frantically.

“Lee Juun broke up, with Joo Sunhye.”

Choi Juoon answered for me. Jin Seyoung said, Ah—Joo Sunhye, and drank some water. Judging by her voice, it seemed the two of them weren’t very close. Then she put down her glass and continued.

“Should I introduce you to someone?”

I…. Ah, I should spit out this beef I’m chewing. I’d chewed it so much it had become like a clump of gum. I tried to swallow it with water, but it was so large I felt like I would choke. But it was an awkward situation to spit it out, so I just shook my head again like before. Then Jin Seyoung crossed her arms, furrowed her brow slightly, and asked.

“Why? I have a friend who is currently asking to be introduced to a guy. I’ll do it for you.”

Now even Choi Juoon was resting his chin on his hand, looking at me. Their combined gazes felt burdensome. Just as I was about to swallow what was in my mouth to answer, Choi Juoon pulled out a few tissues and handed them to me.

“Spit it out.”

I shook my head to say it was fine. Then Choi Juoon said it once more.

“I said spit it out.”

Only then did I take the tissues and spit it out without a word. He certainly wasn’t getting annoyed because Jin Seyoung was there. If Jin Seyoung hadn’t been there, he looked like he was about to shove the tissue into my mouth. Jin Seyoung took out her phone and said.

“It would be so great if we went on a double date together.”

There was no trash can here, so I left the tissue in the corner of the table, as hidden as possible. Then Choi Juoon went out of his way to take it and put it next to him. It must be so dirty…. As I watched that with a slightly dazed look, Jin Seyoung showed me a photo, asking what I thought of her. It goes without saying that she was naturally pretty.

However, I was still thinking of Joo Sunhye, and in many ways, I didn’t want to date right now. So I answered with an awkward smile.

“Since I only broke up a little while ago….”

“Lee Juun, you forget a person with another person.”

“No, right now it’s just….”

“Still….”

Whether because she was worried about me, Jin Seyoung asked me this and that, wondering if something was wrong. When I kept repeating that I was okay, Jin Seyoung said playfully.

“You don’t happen to like guys, do you?”

“Lee Juun really likes girls.”

He didn’t express himself in the third person; Choi Juoon was the one who answered. It sounded a bit like mockery, but there was no laughter in his voice. But since I was in a state of having a bit of a persecution complex, I just let it slide as much as possible. Then Jin Seyoung reached out her hand to me and said.

“Oh, me too. I’m a total girl-crazy (yeomisae).”

Jin Seyoung and I laughed, but Choi Juoon didn’t laugh and just quietly drank his water. After finishing the water, he just rested his chin on his hand and stared into space.

∞ ∞ ∞

Coming outside, the night air was very cold. Jin Seyoung linked her arm through Choi Juoon’s and leaned against him slightly as she asked.

“Lee Juun, want to come with us?”

“No, I really have to go home now.”

I answered, putting my hands in my pockets. They didn’t stop me anymore. We parted ways with a simple goodbye.