The Outsider Omega Wants to Be Alone! Chapter 5

He tried desperately to dismiss the gazes pressing against his back as excessive self-consciousness, but the appearance of the mysterious new student sitting beside Choi Jigu indeed captured the entire class’s attention. The fact that he had to repeatedly avert his eyes to avoid constantly meeting the professor’s gaze was also a major stress.

Moreover, Choi Jigu was an active guy even during class. Contrary to his slightly sharp, stylish image that seemed like he wouldn’t have anything to do with studying, he always raised his hand to answer when the professor posed a question to an unspecified crowd, and even asked questions two or three times.

“Then this is… right. The student sitting next to Choi Jigu. What’s your name?”

I want to disappear.

“…I’m Lee Yuseong.”

“Alright. Shall Lee Yuseong try answering?”

He couldn’t even remember what he had answered.

‘I’m terribly unlucky.’

The part-time job was three days a week: Monday, Wednesday, Friday.

His class schedule was packed five days a week: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. It was the sad fate of a new student.

On Monday, at the part-time job staff dinner, he had gotten completely wasted, passed out, lost his innocence, and woken up on Tuesday morning—yesterday.

Yesterday, Lee Yuseong had tried his utmost all day long. He entered every class at the very last moment, teetering on the edge of being late, with a cap pulled low and a hood over it, and bolted out like a bullet the instant class ended. Thanks to that, he was able to get through Tuesday without running into anyone… no! Without running into Choi Jigu.

‘Perhaps I might be able to get through school without incident from now on after all.’

But the hope he had briefly harbored couldn’t even last a single day.

As if mocking that sliver of sacrifice, Wednesday morning completely shattered his hope.

‘Why, why on earth… is he in the same department.’

Lee Yuseong couldn’t quit his part-time job either.

He fed me, put me up, took care of me… and on top of that, I’d eaten four grilled short rib patties—he couldn’t go back on his word now.

‘You’re not going to quit. We decided to work hard together, didn’t we.’

‘…Okay.’

If he gave his word, he had to keep it. It was Lee Yuseong’s principle.

So he decided to stick it out for at least one month first. He planned to say, after two weeks had passed, that something terribly busy had come up and he would have to quit after working just one month. That way, he would maintain the minimum courtesy while also giving them enough leeway to find a new part-timer to fill his spot.

Until then, no matter what happened, he resolved not to run into Choi Jigu within the department. After that, if it really came down to it, he was even considering taking a leave of absence. Then, wouldn’t he be able to gradually fade from Choi Jigu’s memory?

“Can I have one post-it.”

While he was lost in thought, the problematic Choi Jigu leaned his face in, and he almost screamed in the middle of the lecture.

He pressed down his pounding heart and pushed the entire stack of post-its over to him. He felt like he didn’t care if he took them all.

But Choi Jigu took exactly one sheet.

‘Please. Hurry. I hope this lecture ends soon.’

Regardless, he kept his eyes fixed solely on the professor and the screen, trying hard to ignore Choi Jigu, when a rustling sound came from below.

“…?”

Looking down, a post-it was stuck on his notebook. A messily written message was visible.

[ I wish this would end quickly ]

It was content that seemed to read Lee Yuseong’s very thoughts.

However, since 99 percent of this lecture hall, perhaps even 100 percent including the professor, was likely thinking the exact same thing, this was closer to Lee Yuseong’s excessive persecution complex.

‘Let’s ignore it. I can just ignore it. I should focus on the lecture.’

But under Choi Jigu’s stare, openly and blatantly looking at the right hand holding the pen, Lee Yuseong gave in. Lee Yuseong was too kind and soft-hearted a human to ignore someone staring at him like a dog needing to shit.

He moved his hand slowly. He fixed the pen tip onto the post-it, and made exactly one stroke. A circle.

[ ㅇ ]

That was the best Lee Yuseong could do for Choi Jigu.

“Pfft.”

Choi Jigu pressed his mouth, stifling a laugh. Why is he laughing? His face felt like it would flush red from some inexplicable embarrassment.

Choi Jigu wrote a reply beneath the [ ㅇ ].

[ What’s your next lecture? ]

Now, not a single bit of the lecture was entering his ears. He was on the verge of going crazy because of Choi Jigu, who kept disturbing his concentration. Why on earth was he acting like this.

‘…Don’t tell me this bastard is the one who slept with me… no, is he ‘that bastard’?’

Let’s not think. Let’s pretend it never happened. Let’s forget.

All his various resolutions were rendered meaningless. Of course, it was precisely because he was a figure with over a 30 percent possibility that he was desperately trying to avoid him. He wanted to minimize the risk factors as much as possible.

Lee Yuseong chewed the inside of his cheek, agonizing. The next lecture was ‘Understanding European Culture.’ It was a liberal arts class. He wasn’t taking it because he wanted to; it was just that, after botching his first course registration as a new student, he had chosen what looked relatively better among the leftovers.

‘It should be fine to tell him honestly, right? There are so many liberal arts classes—surely it won’t overlap.’

With that complacent thought, Lee Yuseong wrote it exactly as it was.

[ Understanding European Culture ]

“Oh.”

Choi Jigu let out a low exclamation of admiration.

Ah. His instinct recognized it first and informed Lee Yuseong that he was screwed.

‘No way.’

However, Choi Jigu didn’t write any more replies on the post-it.

Having chewed his lips, pressing them firmly before releasing them, Lee Yuseong slowly glanced sideways at Choi Jigu. Where had that distracted demeanor gone? He was concentrating on the lecture with a serious expression.

‘Was it just my paranoia?’

The reaction had seemed like ‘Oh, I take that class too.’

Right. To be honest, Lee Yuseong was very oversensitive at the moment. His habit of unnecessarily assuming the worst and worrying in advance seemed to have flared up.

Suppressing his desperate desire to get a corner seat, he tried hard to focus on the lesson, but it was useless. One minute felt like an hour.

In the end, throughout the entire hour and fifteen minutes, Lee Yuseong could do nothing but fill his notebook with scribbles… not notes, that even he couldn’t recognize.

‘It’s a mandatory major class, I have to do well on the exam.’

With his energy utterly drained, he gathered and put away his notebook and writing utensils. It was self-inflicted suffering, but Lee Yuseong tended to be analog-minded. Electronic devices just didn’t suit him, so he didn’t have a single one of those common writing pads.

In contrast, Choi Jigu had a 16-inch laptop and a 12.9-inch pad. His hands moved so flashily that when he glanced over in the middle, what immediately caught his eye was the latest smartwatch wrapped around Choi Jigu’s wrist. Now that he looked, his laptop, pad, and phone were all the latest models.

‘Does he have a lot of money?’

Whatever. It had nothing to do with Lee Yuseong.

‘Let’s scram, fast.’

Before Choi Jigu could talk to him, he sprang up from his seat. However, his backpack strap must have caught on the desk, as he was yanked back strongly by something.

He turned around.

It wasn’t caught on the desk, but on Choi Jigu.

“Going to the bathroom?”

The truthful Lee Yuseong reflexively shook his head.

“Next lecture.”

“Then why are you in such a hurry. Understanding European Culture is just on the floor right above this one.”

He was right. The lecture room for ‘Understanding European Culture’ was located on the 4th floor of the same College of Business building.

But how does this bastard know that?

∞ ∞ ∞

A sad premonition is never wrong.

Lee Yuseong ended up sitting side by side with Choi Jigu to take ‘Understanding European Culture.’

As if that weren’t enough. Choi Jigu dragged Lee Yuseong to the center of the third row once again.

The words, now that it’s come to this, can’t we just sit in the back, rose to the tip of his tongue. But the threadbare hope that starting from the very next class, he might be able to escape him and bury himself alone in a back seat kept his mouth glued shut, as if pasted over.

‘I should have just spoken up.’

It was a moment of freshly realizing that you have to say what needs to be said at the time. Of course, people who have such thoughts are never able to say what needs to be said in time anyway.