Chapter 5: The Perfect Facade

“…Cute.”

Jung Ban-ri savored the emotion, one a monster couldn’t possess, as he gazed intently at the spot where Ye-eun had vanished.

In-tae observed the monster, now stripped of its human guise, before calling out to him.

“Hey, Jung Ban-ri.”

Jung Ban-ri turned his head, his gaze fixed on In-tae.

In-tae meticulously scrutinized Jung Ban-ri’s expressionless face and eyes as dark as pitch. There was something he needed to confirm before they returned to the others in the dorm.

‘A moment ago, when Jung Ban-ri first approached Ye-eun and me, the expression I saw on his face in that fleeting instant was exactly like….’

In-tae struggled to decipher Jung Ban-ri’s ‘mood,’ the singular emotion a monster was capable of feeling. It wasn’t long before a realization dawned on him. It seemed Jung Ban-ri was currently…

‘…displeased.’

“Did something happen to you?”

A subtle tension briefly tightened Jung Ban-ri’s smooth lips. Not missing it, In-tae pressed on with greater certainty.

“Something happened after I left the dorm, didn’t it?”

He had only been gone for a few minutes. Before that, Jung Ban-ri had seemed perfectly fine. Could something have occurred in such a short time to displease him so noticeably? A strong suspect immediately came to mind.

“Was it Jo Gi-tae?”

Throughout the drinking party, Jo Gi-tae had been In-tae’s primary focus. He drank quickly and in large quantities, and as he did, his already lacking manners and etiquette rapidly deteriorated.

Not only did he make inappropriate remarks, but his voice grew louder and his tone became coarser.

More than anything, his excessive interest in Jung Ban-ri became increasingly obvious. Even as he moved around, drinking with various people, he sought out Jung Ban-ri with unusual frequency.

Thus, whenever In-tae sensed Jo Gi-tae approaching Jung Ban-ri, he would swiftly intervene, pestering him to drink together. He did this countless times.

Despite all that effort, he had still managed to cause trouble. Anger swiftly surged through In-tae’s mind.

“Did he perhaps make a slip of the tongue? No—”

Jung Ban-ri wouldn’t express such strong emotion over a mere few words. In that case—

“When he drinks, he gets really touchy. Did he—do that to you too?”

A vivid scene played out in In-tae’s mind. Had Jo Gi-tae, calling him ‘Ban-ri, my junior,’ clapped a hand on his shoulder as he had done to In-tae?

Or perhaps he’d praised his physique while roughly kneading him here and there with those sticky hands, reeking of snacks and alcohol. If so, it was no wonder Jung Ban-ri would want to rush to the showers and scrub himself clean.

“No.”

Just as In-tae was almost certain, Jung Ban-ri spoke. It was an entirely unexpected answer.

“…No?”

“Yes.”

No other suspect came to In-tae’s mind, no matter how hard he thought.

‘If that’s the case… he just got displeased for no particular reason? No way, that doesn’t make sense.’

A normal person might. Interacting with others naturally brings both joy and exhaustion. As emotions are shared, intertwined, and clash, it’s common to feel drained and dispirited even without a clear reason like an argument.

However, this wasn’t the case for Jung Ban-ri. He lacked the psychological mechanisms—expectations and disappointments, affections and burdens—that make human relationships taxing.

‘What on earth happened?’

To follow Jung Ban-ri’s thought process, In-tae recalled the explanations of the butler who had been in charge of his education since childhood.

‘For Master Ban-ri, choosing the correct answer on a test is no different from interacting with people. He reads people’s thoughts and chooses appropriate words and actions to form the relationship with them.

Simply put, he only does things that will earn people’s favor. You could call it a monster’s perfect disguise.’

‘So for Ban-ri, playing with friends is like studying? Wouldn’t that be too hard? No, Ban-ri doesn’t struggle with studying, but still…’

‘Well, dealing with people is tiring because it involves emotions, but Master Ban-ri doesn’t have those. And as you well know, Master Ban-ri is exceptionally brilliant, isn’t he?

‘You can understand it this way: You’ve seen Master Ban-ri play chess, haven’t you? For ordinary people, it’s a strenuous battle of wits, but he performs it as if it were trivial.

‘So, for Master Ban-ri, human relationships are similar.

They are all pieces on a chessboard. He can move them according to his intentions… and even if things don’t go his way, they are, at most, merely toys wriggling in his hand.’

The words, mixed with Chinese characters, weren’t easy to grasp, but young In-tae concentrated with all his might. Thanks to that, even the butler’s gestures and words remained etched in his memory.

When speaking of ‘toys wriggling in his hand,’ the butler had even placed a chess piece in his palm, emphasizing ‘something’—what was it again?

In-tae had always listened carefully to the adults of the Jung Ban-ri household, especially when they spoke of Jung Ban-ri, striving not to miss a single word.

Yet, the specific instruction the butler had given, even with the chess piece in hand, eluded him. At that moment, only one thought had filled his mind.

‘If something so hard keeps wriggling in Ban-ri’s hand, it must hurt.’

Thus, his concern for Jung Ban-ri had ultimately pushed aside the butler’s explanations and warnings.

Just as it was now.

“Well, if nothing bad happened, then that’s a relief, but….”

“………”

“But to my eyes, you look….”

‘Why does he look so displeased? And I simply can’t pretend not to notice it.’

“In your eyes, I look…?”

Jung Ban-ri suddenly leaned closer. His direct gaze felt as if it would pierce In-tae’s pupils, penetrate his brain, and scrutinize every inch of his thoughts.

“…Well.”

As In-tae hesitated, Jung Ban-ri spoke first, his tone devoid of any playfulness, or indeed, any emotion whatsoever.

“…So pretty you could die?”

‘Shit, how did he know? No, that’s not it.’

“What are you talking about?! You crazy bastard, what is that supposed to mean? When did I ever—”

“You always said it whenever you drank.”

“Hey! That was just because it was my first time drinking at the start of the semester… I was drunk, okay? That’s my drinking habit. My drinking habit! Didn’t you know that yet?”

The thief, caught red-handed, babbled incessantly.

Was this the moment when it was fortunate that Jung Ban-ri had no emotions?

That his persistent, clinging unrequited love hadn’t been discovered was likely less due to In-tae’s meticulous hiding and more because Jung Ban-ri simply couldn’t comprehend what love was.

“It didn’t look like a drinking habit.”

“It is too! I always do that. Anyway, what I was trying to say definitely wasn’t that—”

“You don’t have to speak so loudly; I can hear you.”

In-tae, who had been flailing in his excitement, snapped his mouth shut. His face burned hotter with embarrassment. Regardless, Jung Ban-ri’s expression remained utterly unchanged.

“So, what were you trying to say?”

A surge of irritation made In-tae glare at Jung Ban-ri before him.

“Do you even care to know?”

“Yes.”

“Yeah, right.”

“It’s true, tell me.”

For Jung Ban-ri, curiosity had no relation to interest in the other person. It was a form of information gathering, or perhaps merely an intention to conclude an unfinished conversation.

Because Jung Ban-ri was that kind of monster…

“What do I look like in your eyes?”

‘You’re clearly that kind of guy, but….’

“Huh?”

‘But then….’

“…I’m a little worried about you.”

…he still couldn’t shake off the feeling of worry for Jung Ban-ri.

“Worried?”

Jung Ban-ri’s brow furrowed as he echoed the word. It was a perfectly reasonable question: ‘Why on earth would you worry about me?’ After all, Jung Ban-ri was always, in every conceivable way, utterly perfect.

Had he spoken needlessly? This entire predicament stemmed from harboring feelings for someone who had none. Loving a man who would never know love, worrying about a man who had no need for worry.

In-tae sighed at himself, then tried to make light of the situation.

“Yeah, I guess this older brother got nostalgic from drinking. What a pointless thing to say, right? There was a time when our little Ban-ri would cling to me and follow me everywhere when he was a baby.”

Still, as he concluded the conversation, he asked one last time. There was no harm in being careful.

“Anyway, Ban-ri, if anything happened, you have to tell this older brother, okay?”

“…It’s a bit hard to say.”

“Why?”

“………”

No answer came, even after waiting. Something *had* happened, but he couldn’t talk about it?

“Could it be… someone other than Jo Gi-tae… displeased you?”

Jung Ban-ri remained silent this time too, merely staring intently at In-tae.

“Who was it, then? Tell me, huh?”

Even as he pressed, In-tae knew the man wouldn’t speak. The monster was one who always kept his word. To understand the monster’s inner workings, In-tae once again recalled the butler’s words.

‘If something happened, and there’s a reason he can’t say….’

‘For a monster to live in society like a normal human, they must, above all, thoroughly internalize the rules. Since they cannot discern for themselves what to do and what not to do, they must be meticulously taught.’

The void left by Jung Ban-ri’s absent emotions was filled by social rules. Not only mandatory ones like laws but also implicit matters like etiquette and manners were tightly ingrained within him.

Thanks to this, Jung Ban-ri had lived as a ‘perfect student’ until now, and even today, he acted as a flawless college student, classmate, and friend.

‘A flawless friend….’

‘Right, good friends don’t badmouth others.’

Badmouthing a classmate during an MT was not only inappropriate but could lead to bigger problems if someone overheard. From that perspective, remaining silent now was a rational and correct choice.

“Alright, well, if something can’t be said, then it shouldn’t be said.”

Swallowing the bitter taste in his mouth, he stopped pressing for answers.

His immediate priority was to protect Jung Ban-ri from experiencing any further unpleasantness. To do that, he needed to get him out of the drinking party.

Jo Gi-tae or other classmates might try to drag him back, but In-tae could handle that. The biggest problem was that this ‘model student’ might try to endure the party until the very end.

“Anyway, you look a bit unwell to me. How about you go inside and rest?”

“………”

In-tae knew he wouldn’t agree immediately. He took a deep breath, deliberately lightening his tone.

“Honestly, there’s no rule that says you have to drink and endure until the very end at an MT, you know? Even if Jo Gi-tae or others, being drunk, try to force it as ‘manners,’ the truth is, if you’re tired, you can just go to bed early, right?”

In-tae tried to loosen the grip of social conventions that tightly bound Jung Ban-ri’s mind.