Chapter 116: Roadblock

Either way, I could no longer physically avoid Na Eun-hyeok, nor did I have any intention of doing so anymore. I had already felt the sheer absurdity of the situation while skipping school. It wasn’t like I was the one who had committed some crime, so why the hell did I need to skulk around as if I were the guilty party? Since things had already escalated to this point, my new strategy was simple: stop running, but completely refuse to engage him.

Refuse to engage him…… I could actually pull that off, right?

“You can do this, Chae Un-ha.”

I grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and took a long draft. The sensation of the ice-cold liquid sliding down my throat felt like a literal ritual to steel my resolve. Let’s strictly avoid harboring useless, ominous thoughts. Considering what Na Eun-hyeok had explicitly put me through, there was absolutely zero chance he would try anything crazy, right? I was only tense because the guy seemed to lack both a basic conscience and a fundamental sense of boundaries. Sure, I had spoken to him an immense amount in-game yesterday, but that was strictly because it was a logistical necessity to clear the dungeon. Yeah, exactly. As long as I kept my guard up in reality, it wouldn’t be an issue. As the old saying goes, even if you’re dragged into a tiger’s den, you’ll survive as long as you keep your wits about you. I just needed to hold onto my sanity. Feeling a strange wave of anxiety, I layered vow upon vow internally.

Why is it that ominous premonitions are always so terrifyingly accurate?

“Chae Un-ha.”

I was currently walking toward the shuttle bus stop to head to campus. Startled by a sudden, sharp honk, I whirled around only to see Na Eun-hyeok rolling down his car window and calling my name. The sunglasses sitting slightly low on the bridge of his nose looked frustratingly, infuriatingly good on him.

Come to think of it, I had run into Na Eun-hyeok at this exact same location once before. Back then, a mere accidental crossover like this would have made my heart flutter so violently I wouldn’t have known what to do with myself. Now, I was completely flustered, entirely at a loss for how to handle this overtly calculated encounter. Unable to take a single step toward either the shuttle bus or Na Eun-hyeok’s car, I stood frozen in place like a total idiot as he smoothly stepped out of the vehicle and walked over.

“Un-ha-ya.”

He delivered the words in his usual gentle tone, accompanied by that signature soft smile, but was it just my imagination, or did the corners of his mouth look exceptionally stiff?

“What.”

“Why did you avoid me?”

“I didn’t avoid you.”

“You didn’t reply to my texts.”

“What, am I your boyfriend or something? Am I contractually obligated to reply to every single message you send?”

Ah, damn it. The second the words left my mouth, a wave of raw sorrow washed over me. The fragments of that night’s memories rapidly surfacing in my brain only magnified the sting. I had genuinely, truly liked him—you absolute bastard. It wasn’t even like I was desperately begging for us to become an actual couple, so did you really have to take it that far?

“Yeah. Reply to them.”

“And why exactly should I?”

“Because I want you to reply.”

“What?”

What kind of absolute, dog-brained logic was that? If I had been caught completely off guard by how remarkably gentlemanly Na Eun-hyeok had acted while shielded behind his in-game helmet yesterday, today I was thoroughly dumbfounded by the kind of logical leap an actual elementary schooler wouldn’t even attempt, coming straight from his handsome, well-groomed face. This was a man I had always assumed only spoke with absolute rationality and precision, yet since yesterday, he was outputting nothing but pure nonsense. I had zero clue what was happening anymore.

“Get in.”

In the middle of my mental spiral, Na Eun-hyeok casually gestured toward the car.

“What are you doing?”

“Let’s go to school together.”

“I’m taking the shuttle bus.”

“Ride in my car.”

“No.”

“Ride in my car.”

“I literally just gave you my answer.”

I aggressively pushed back, but Na Eun-hyeok simply stood there with a perfectly serene expression, acting as though he hadn’t heard a single syllable. To make matters worse, his remarkably handsome face kept forcing its way into my field of vision, which made me violently angry. Did I actually just fall for his face? Of course, I loved his face. But what was the point of harboring a lingering attachment to a guy like him? He was nothing but a rotten watermelon—perfectly pristine on the outside, but completely decayed within.

“Ride in my car.”

“Did you pre-record that or something? I’m leaving.”

Ignoring him, I took a firm step forward, but Na Eun-hyeok smoothly glided directly into my path. With his massive shoulders and towering height, it felt like a literal wall had ground into motion to shut down my trajectory.

“Ride in my car.”

“Hey.”

“Ride in my car, Un-ha-ya.”

Are you actually kidding me right now? I attempted to take another sharp step to the side, but Na Eun-hyeok mirrored my movement perfectly, cutting me off once more. We weren’t playing a game of chicken with an oncoming bicycle; whether I broke right or veered left, his steps followed me instantly without a single fraction of hesitation. It was a blatant, highly deliberate obstruction of my path.

“Move.”

“Only if you get in my car.”

“I told you, I’m taking the shuttle!”

“No.”

“No, listen to me, I am taking the damn shuttle.”

“No, you’re not. Get in my car, Un-ha-ya.”

Watching him execute this literal stalker behavior with a bright, cheerful smile plastered across his remarkably handsome face was the definition of absolute cognitive dissonance. If someone were to judge us strictly based on his gentle voice and immaculate posture, nobody on earth would guess the toxic reality of the conversation currently taking place. The entire world seriously needed to wake up and see what kind of person Na Eun-hyeok truly was. I felt incredibly suffocated, but a far more pressing issue was the raw reality that my morning lecture was about to start.

“If you keep this up, you’re going to be late for class.”

Na Eun-hyeok was perfectly aware of that fact. Glaring daggers at his deeply obnoxious voice, I attempted one final, experimental breakthrough, but I was shut down completely without fail.

“Let’s get in the car.”

Hearing that soft, gently coaxing tone that felt entirely out of place for the situation, I checked my watch once more. There were exactly fifteen minutes left before the lecture commenced. Looking at the immense length of the shuttle bus line down the street, if I stood in that queue now, I was one hundred percent guaranteed to be late. No, actually, before I could even think about standing in line, pulling myself away from this literal human leech was a logistical impossibility in itself.

“Ugh, fine. I’m riding with you purely because this situation is too damn disgusting to deal with.”

Whatever, riding in a luxury car is a win anyway. The moment I spat the words out in half-hearted defeat, a brilliant grin broke across Na Eun-hyeok’s face.

This marked the second time I had ever opened the passenger door of his car. The first time, I had felt incredibly small and overwhelmed with gratitude, but this time around, a completely different brand of dread gripped me. I felt as though if I accidentally managed to leave a single scratch on the interior, Na Eun-hyeok would aggressively hunt me down until the day I paid off the exact repair costs down to the final cent. While I doubted he would actually go that far, I couldn’t help but make my movements incredibly cautious.

The interior of Na Eun-hyeok’s car was still thoroughly steeped in a heavy, musk-based cologne. Chunks of deep wood notes laced through the scent, adding a distinct layer of elegance. It was a fragrance that matched ‘Na Eun-hyeok’ to absolute perfection. I cast a brief glance toward the driver’s seat.

“What is it?”

“Nothing.”

Looking back at me, Na Eun-hyeok’s face remained a flawless masterpiece of pure sculpting. At the very least, the fragrance matched his physical appearance to a terrifying degree. His vocal timbre, his scent, his expression—as those three sensory inputs harmonized beautifully, my lingering attachment began to beat like a violent drum against my ribs. Excuse me, Mr. Attachment. Are you seriously going to act this incredibly pathetic? I desperately tried to suppress my heart, which was currently hammering entirely against my own volition.

“Your face is completely red, Un-ha-ya.”

f*ck.

A swear almost slipped right past my teeth. Saying my face was red—he really didn’t need to explicitly point that out. No, actually, it wouldn’t have been an issue if my face hadn’t flushed to begin with. I desperately wished I had thrown on a heavy layer of makeup to mask my complexion. When I hurriedly pressed my palms against my cheeks, they felt blistering hot. Fortunately, I had a perfectly viable excuse lined up.

“It’s because you’re actively making my blood boil.”

It wasn’t entirely a lie. Na Eun-hyeok shot a brief glance in my direction before quietly locking his mouth shut and fastening his seatbelt. His demeanor heavily implied that my response had distinctly displeased him—an attitude that was incredibly rare to witness from him under normal circumstances.

I was completely done managing Na Eun-hyeok’s emotional states. Having firmly locked in that resolve, I voiced a question the old version of me would have absolutely never dared to utter.

“Don’t tell me you were actually standing out there waiting for me?”

“I was waiting for you, Un-ha-ya.”

“…….”

I had zero clue whether I should actively believe him. To be completely precise, I desperately wanted to lean toward the side of disbelief. Driving your luxury car all the way into this specific alleyway solely to wait for me—doesn’t that sound entirely like a literal psycho? Yet, for some inexplicable reason, my raw intuition whispered that his words were the absolute truth.

No. Stop analyzing it deeply.

Ultimately, it was a mathematical certainty that Na Eun-hyeok wasn’t overthinking any of this anyway. In this relationship, I had always been the only one who was genuinely invested. Both in the past, and right now. Na Eun-hyeok had always merely observed me from a detached, clinical distance, probably assigning arbitrary scores to my behavior inside his head. Novelty: 3 points. Amused entertainment: 8 points. The corners of my mouth contorted bitterly.

“Stop overanalyzing useless things,” Na Eun-hyeok’s low voice suddenly filled the quiet interior of the car.

“It has absolutely zero to do with you.”

“Zero to do with me?”

“Does it look like it concerns you?”

Our eyes locked firmly through the rearview mirror. For a fraction of a millisecond, Na Eun-hyeok’s expression seemed to harden completely, but it vanished instantly, reverting right back to his usual calm serenity. Since there was absolutely zero logical reason for Na Eun-hyeok to look genuinely angry, I concluded that my eyes had simply played tricks on me.

“Right. It has absolutely zero to do with either of us. We are nothing.”

For some reason, an immense weight laced through every single syllable I uttered. Each word felt like a literal needle, sharply stabbing right back into a heart I had assumed was completely healed by now.

Yeah. We have absolutely zero relation to one another.

Taking a long breath, I desperately fought to remain entirely indifferent. The past version of me who had loved Na Eun-hyeok had already shrunk down to a microscopic size, buried deep at the absolute bottom of my soul. While the room Na Eun-hyeok occupied still held a small corner of my heart, its structural territory was steadily diminishing day by day. Therefore, I was completely fine.

“See, the thing is, I actually want it to have everything to do with us.”

If only Na Eun-hyeok hadn’t delivered that exact sentence.

Rather than making my heart flutter, a wave of intense, blinding fury instantly spiked through me. There are things a human being can comfortably say, and things that should strictly remain unspoken. If Na Eun-hyeok possessed even a shred of basic human decency, he shouldn’t be uttering such utter garbage.

“Weren’t you the one who wanted us to have absolutely zero relation to begin with?”

A sharp, biting tone sliced out of my mouth.

“You were the one desperately wanting to sever any connection. That’s exactly why you told me you’d act as though absolutely nothing had happened between us. Seriously, what the hell has been your problem since yesterday?”

“That was then.”

“Hey.”

Fuming at a response that felt like a literal word game, I whipped my head around to glare at him, only to instantly flinch. The corners of Na Eun-hyeok’s mouth—which were normally consistently curved into a gentle smile—had dropped into a cold, rigid line. It was an expression I had practically never seen him wear in my entire life. But it made zero sense. Why on earth was he the one looking angry right now? I glared dead at his hardened mouth.

We crossed through the main campus gates enveloped in a heavy, suffocating silence. Na Eun-hyeok’s car glided smoothly across the asphalt like water before grinding to a final halt inside a parking space. The exact millisecond I confirmed the vehicle had stopped, I sprang up like a tightly coiled metal spring. Attempting to bolt out of the car as if escaping a literal crime scene, Na Eun-hyeok’s voice violently snagged my ankle, halting me in my tracks.

“You’ve gotten incredibly good at talking back, Un-ha.”

“……Hey.”

“See you in class. Don’t even think about avoiding me. And let’s meet up for lunch.”

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