Chapter 121: Unpredictable

Na Eun-hyeok briefly summoned Ju Do-won’s face into his thoughts before instantly shaking his head to dismiss the idea. If he actually initiated a consultation, he would explicitly receive a barrage of criticism like: ‘You universally act like you’re the most intelligent prick on the entire planet, so how are you sitting there spouting this brand of absolute idiocy?’ He could effortlessly visualize every exact component of that scenario—Ju Do-won’s vocal delivery, his facial structure, and even the kinetic motion of him grabbing his glass to down his drink. It was absolute fact that it would merely incense him further, causing his chest to violently seethe with irritation.

More than anything else, the very reality that he could flawlessly predict Ju Do-won’s criticism meant the definitive answer had already formulated inside his own mind.

“…….”

Na Eun-hyeok continuously drew mental Xs over the answer anchoring his heart. Yet, despite those attempts, the conclusion remained starkly, brilliantly visible.

He was completely doomed.

The sheer mass of his past karma violently crashed into his brain like a sweeping tidal wave.

The exact second I cracked my eyes open, a string of text messages from Na Eun-hyeok greeted me.

Na Eun-hyeok: Un-ha-ya Na Eun-hyeok: Come out. Na Eun-hyeok: Don’t even think about executing an escape sequence.

If I boarded Na Eun-hyeok’s vehicle today, it would mark our fourth consecutive day executing a shared campus commute together. I had mounted an active resistance up until the second day, but by the third morning, I had completely yielded to the situation. Evaluating how he consistently stood waiting even when I attempted to log a departure time a full thirty minutes earlier than usual, it wouldn’t be bizarre if he was literally parking his car right outside my front door and sleeping inside it. I had briefly contemplated attempting a departure a full hour early, but the sheer terror of actually colliding with him at that ungodly hour forced me to abandon the sequence. Instead, I simply grumbled a storm inside my own head. What am I, your literal girlfriend? Coming all this way to personally execute a pickup service.

There was a distinct structural component to Na Eun-hyeok’s behavior that closely mirrored a petulant child who had been denied his desired toy. He had tossed me aside the exact second he decided he didn’t want to play anymore, so why the hell was he acting like this now? Despite that logic, every single one of his physical actions retained the delicate, gentle residues of the old Na Eun-hyeok. I thoroughly detested myself for actively remembering that physical warmth.

“Ugh. Let’s just wipe it from memory.”

Either way, it was a permanently terminated relationship. I simply needed to dance to Na Eun-hyeok’s rhythm for a microscopic bit longer, and then it would be over. Consolidating that thought, I pulled my body out of bed.

Standing right outside my house today, just like every other morning, was Na Eun-hyeok. He was decked out in a baby pink long coat paired with a sky-blue-tinted gray turtleneck. It wasn’t a color palette standard men frequently attempted to pilot, but draped over Na Eun-hyeok’s physical frame, it looked incredibly soft and well-suited. As I closed the distance to his position, his signature fragrance subtly drifted into my senses.

“You’re here.”

“Yeah.”

“Get in.”

His voice carried a distinctly rigid, pouting edge that matched his usual baseline. Or rather, it matched the exact Na Eun-hyeok of the recent few days. In fact, it felt as though his razor-sharp edge was turned up an extra notch today.

And yet, his actual physical behavior completely fractured his standard baseline. Na Eun-hyeok moved first to grasp and pull open the passenger side door. Still holding the door handle, Na Eun-hyeok’s gaze locked directly onto mine.

“Are you telling me to drive?”

“What on earth are you talking about?”

“……No, never mind.”

Caught beneath his intensely bewildered stare, a sudden wave of embarrassment hit me. Wait. So you’re saying you deliberately opened the passenger door for me just now? Why the hell is this guy continuously executing uncharacteristic behaviors to scramble my brain? Deflecting the blame entirely onto Na Eun-hyeok, I slid my body into the passenger seat. No matter how many times I rationalized it, the absolute abnormality of Na Eun-hyeok holding a car door open for me felt profoundly awkward.

Click.

After securely sealing the passenger door, Na Eun-hyeok circled around and settled into the driver’s seat. Throughout that brief window, I desperately mobilized my brain to figure out what structural malfunction had generated this baffling scenario.

“Chae Un-ha.”

Na Eun-hyeok’s voice violently pierced straight through my internal monologue.

“What.”

“Look over here for a second.”

“No.”

Naturally, there was a zero percent probability that this elementary school child would actively listen to my refusal.

“I said look over here.”

“Ah, why?”

“Look at my face.”

“I asked you why. I told you I don’t want to.”

“But you explicitly love my face.”

What the hell. What brand of tactical approach was he deploying now?

Setting aside how immensely frustrating it was, his statement was an absolute, factual truth. While the definitive catalyst for falling in love with him tracking back to the incident on the Social Sciences hill, my initial baseline attraction to Na Eun-hyeok was strictly generated by his facial aesthetics. Seriously, who on this planet could gaze upon a top-tier handsome face—rarer than a wild mountain ginseng—and fail to harbor positive feelings? As long as onlookers remained entirely oblivious to the reality that Sephiroth’s personality was piloting that physical shell, one hundred out of one hundred human beings would universally fall for him.

However, just because it was a factual truth didn’t mean this piece of trash was allowed to articulate it aloud.

“What does that have to do with…… Whoa!”

My sentence was violently truncated. Na Eun-hyeok had completely abandoned the sequence of fastening his seatbelt to abruptly lunge his physical frame straight toward my face. His gorgeously handsome face instantly saturated my entire field of vision. While the welfare of my eyeballs experienced a massive upgrade, the welfare of my heart experienced a catastrophic decline. Inside my wildly fluttering, startled chest, I felt completely disgusted by the reality that a microscopic remnant of my dead attraction was actively trying to resurrect itself. Hey. Read the room. Know your place. Is this seriously a logical timeline for you to be executing bottom-of-the-barrel simp behaviors?

“Since you love my face, I should obviously ensure it stays within your line of sight as much as possible.”

As he delivered those words, the bright grin painting Na Eun-hyeok’s face twisted into a subtly contorted shape. His entire demeanor looked intensely dissatisfied, as if he harbored a profound personal grievance against his own spoken words.

What exact scheme was this guy plotting?

“Did you consume something weird this morning? Or did you simply decide to revert to your original operational parameters?”

“Original operational parameters?”

“The strategy where you wear a mask of pure kindness explicitly to completely screw people over.”

“Absolutely not.”

“Evaluating your vocal tone, it certainly feels like a ‘no’.”

To categorize his current demeanor as ‘kind’ would be a massive stretch; his attitude was far closer to Sephiroth than a polite gentleman. Is Sephiroth the true default setting of Na Eun-hyeok’s real personality? I briefly weighed the variables to determine which side was authentic before violently shaking my head to clear the thought. Whichever version was the real one, the absolute fact remained that the Na Eun-hyeok standing directly in front of me was being an immense drain on my energy metrics.

“Move your face.”

I extended my hand to lightly press against Na Eun-hyeok’s forehead. I consciously suppressed the physical sensation of his smooth skin mapping against my fingertips. Precisely because a remnant of that dead attraction was still stubbornly lingering, I required an ironclad level of determination. I couldn’t allow myself to be continuously dragged around and manipulated by Na Eun-hyeok’s facial features forever. Why the hell does he have to be so uselessly, absurdly handsome? I bitterly complained inside my mind.

“Our Un-ha’s hands are freezing.”

Yet, whatever hidden button that physical contact had accidentally triggered, Na Eun-hyeok’s mood instantly skyrocketed into absolute euphoria. Humming a bright melody under his breath, Na Eun-hyeok reached out to activate a classical track. The buoyant, rhythmic cadences of a waltz instantly saturated the interior of the vehicle. Utterly failing to grasp his volatile emotional shifts, I voiced another query.

“……Did something incredibly positive happen to you today?”

“Yeah.”

“What is it?”

“Take a guess.”

“…….”

Seriously, what was this? What brand of psychological warfare was he piloting? While my brain was completely trapped in a state of pure confusion, the car scaled the crest of the hill and advanced toward the campus.

The exact millisecond Na Eun-hyeok executed the parking sequence, I popped the passenger door open and practically launched myself out of the vehicle. I harbored a highly rational suspicion that if I delayed my exit by even a fraction of a second, Na Eun-hyeok would somehow move to personally open the door for me. Stepping out right behind me, Na Eun-hyeok’s physical movements were incredibly elegant and leisurely. Did he seriously get the better of me again? I directed a sharp glare toward him, but Na Eun-hyeok simply closed the physical distance between us.

“Un-ha-ya.”

“What brand of trickery are you trying to execute now?”

“Let’s ensure we consume an incredibly delicious meal for lunch today.”

“It’s not like you’re the one who’s going to personally finance the bill…….”

“I’ll pay.”

Na Eun-hyeok smoothly cut straight through the middle of my sentence. The second he volunteered to finance it, my jaw completely locked up. Rapidly gathering my scattered cognitive faculties, I delivered a firm rejection.

“No.”

“I explicitly stated I am paying.”

“Still, no. Accepting a debt from you feels like it will trigger an immensely exhausting sequence of events.”

“It’s not a debt, I simply stated I am purchasing a meal.”

“It’s a psychological debt.”

“Then you can simply choose to carry a psychological debt.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Under normal parameters, a person would simply accept the free food.”

His vocal delivery was entirely saturated with dissatisfaction. Right as I was about to fire back another ‘I said no,’ a separate internal monologue violently disrupted my brain. Honestly, considering I’ve already been forced to dine with Na Eun-hyeok all week just to stabilize his volatile temper, letting him finance the bill a single time shouldn’t be an issue, right? He’s inevitably going to aggressively persist anyway, so isn’t mounting a meaningless verbal defense a total waste of energy metrics?

Fine. Let’s simply aim for a high-value target.

“Fine, I accept. But you’re buying me meat.”

“Steak? Or perhaps a high-end beef omakase?”

“…….”

I was literally planning to ask for pork belly. The golden rule flashed straight through my brain: Always maintain absolute vigilance against someone offering to buy you beef; pure goodwill strictly concludes at pork. I honestly could not decipher a single component of his true intent.

“……Just select whatever venue you want to eat at.”

Ultimately, the structural hunger of a broke university student living alone secured the absolute victory. At the mere mention of potentially coating my stomach lining with high-grade beef fat for the first time in an eternity, my internal organs mounted a violent rebellion. A loud, rumbling growl echoed out, causing a massive crimson flush to instantly paint my face. I should have consumed breakfast before logging out of my house. As I reeled in delayed regret, my eyes locked right into Na Eun-hyeok’s gaze.

“What are you staring at?”

“Because you’re cute.”

“Cu…….”

My speech centers completely locked up. Turning my back straight toward Na Eun-hyeok, I began executing a series of massive, rapid strides away from him. While the trajectory was technically leading back toward the lecture hall, my singular priority was to escape to any coordinates that provided maximum physical distance from Na Eun-hyeok.

“Where are you headed, Un-ha-ya?”

Na Eun-hyeok effortlessly trailed right behind my rapid retreat. The physical gap between us continuously threatened to widen, yet never actually generated true distance.

Ah, seriously.

Na Eun-hyeok always retained an incredibly cryptic, elusive component whenever he operated in front of me. I felt like I had already heard him categorize me as ‘cute’ multiple times by now. If that was the case, my emotional baseline should have thoroughly normalized to it, yet I couldn’t fathom why my heart continuously leaped and violently recoiled every single time, exactly like a person suffering a severe thermal burn.

Don’t you actually like Na Eun-hyeok?

Like him? Like hell I do.

Perhaps this entire sequence is merely a massive misunderstanding. If you execute a proper dialogue, couldn’t you decipher his true sincerity?

What brand of sincerity does he even possess besides absolute manipulation?

Evaluating his behavior today, it certainly doesn’t look like pure manipulation? Just cast your mind back to the afternoon Na Eun-hyeok actively moved to assist you when you fell.

The exact millisecond my emotional core recovered its energy metrics, it began violently scrambling the stabilized landscape of my brain. Driven entirely by blind emotion, a stream of meaningless expectations—which I believed I had successfully locked down—continuously burst through the surface. Despite holding a firm cognitive belief that every single action was merely a component of Na Eun-hyeok’s empty, meaningless amusement, I was still actively overanalyzing the underlying intent of his vocabulary.

“Stop trailing behind me.”

I fired a sharp, aggressive warning shot. A brilliant, clear chuckle chased right after my retreat. The physical gap between us remained dangerously close, perpetually threatening to widen yet never truly yielding distance.

The exact second the lecture concluded, Na Eun-hyeok loaded my body straight back into his vehicle.

“I have an upcoming class next.”

“I am fully aware. It initiates at two o’clock, correct? I will ensure you are dropped off safely before that threshold.”

📚 Also on NHV Novels

Who Exactly Climbed into My Bed in the Girls’ Dormitory?

Female ProtagonistRomancetransformation

Read Now →
Not interested