Chapter 6

　　"An aggressively gay university…" Crap. I shouldn’t say that out loud.

　　Two years at Hankuk University? For some reason, this dream felt so incredibly tangible that my perception of time didn’t seem to differ from reality. Two years was a massive stretch of time. Was it even physically possible to remain locked inside a dream state for two straight years without waking up?

　　Then again, time in dreams usually operated on a completely different logic than the real world. Ugh, I don’t know.

　　"I have no idea how any of this works, but if I’m stuck here, I at least want to be reasonably happy," I grumbled to my screen.

　　There was no way I was going to spend the next two years constantly dodging hordes of guys looking to hook up. Hankuk University was apparently a place where the male student body popped a boner at the drop of a hat, and complete lunatics casually strolled around with vibrators rattling in their jacket pockets. If I stayed in a hostile environment like this, the sheer stress of it all would probably trigger a heart attack before I ever managed to snap awake.

　　Just then, my cell phone buzzed against the desk. The caller ID flashed the name Lee Junghyun. It was the guy who had walked me home the other night.

　　From what I’d gathered, he was supposedly my lifelong childhood best friend in this universe. And true to that role, he blew up my phone with messages morning, noon, and night.

　　—Lee Junghyun: Taewoon, did you sleep well? Want to grab lunch together today? I can swing by your place. You don’t have class today, right? (March 04, 08:10 am)

　　—Me: Ah, sorry. I just saw this. Let’s do lunch another time. (March 04, 11:19 pm)

　　—Lee Junghyun: Did you sleep well? Want to get dinner tonight? I’ll come over to your place. (March 05, 08:09 am)

　　—Lee Junghyun: It’s too late for dinner now. Let’s do it another time. (March 05, 10:09 pm)

　　—Lee Junghyun: Taewoon? (March 06, 08:11 am)

　　—Lee Junghyun: Are you asleep? (March 06, 10:12 pm)

　　—Lee Junghyun: Taewoon, are you busy? (March 07, 08:00 am)

　　—Lee Junghyun: Good night 🙂 (March 07, 11:59 pm)

　　—Lee Junghyun: Do you want the three of us to get food with Seongjae? My treat. Seongjae loves sushi, right? Let’s go get sushi. (March 08, 08:00 am)

　　—Me: I’m swamped today, so I’ll let Seongjae know. You two go without me! (March 08, 08:01 am)

　　—Lee Junghyun: Okay 🙂 (March 08, 08:07 am)

　　It was just a nonstop barrage of trivial, clingy nonsense like that. A blind man could have seen I was actively avoiding him, but Lee Junghyun remained aggressively persistent.

　　"The problem is, I barely know a single thing about the guy," I muttered, staring at the ringing phone.

　　Even when I had casually probed Seongjae for information, my brother had simply shrugged and said, "He’s your childhood friend." But then, with a deeply conflicted grimace, Seongjae had added:

　　"I don’t really like that guy."

　　"Why?"

　　"He hates me. And if someone makes it obvious they don’t like me, it makes me uncomfortable being around them."

　　Yet, if Junghyun was willingly inviting him out for sushi, they had to be somewhat close. Granted, I’d later heard that Seongjae had bailed on that specific dinner plan, claiming he was busy.

　　"It’s a massive liability having a ‘best friend’ who is effectively a total stranger to me."

　　In this twisted universe, Lee Junghyun might be my oldest confidant, but back in the real world, I had literally never heard the man’s name in my life.

　　If Junghyun caught on that I lacked two decades’ worth of shared memories, the resulting shock or break in the world’s logic might violently snap me out of the dream entirely.

　　That was precisely why my core strategy had been dodging his texts and avoiding him at all costs. To his credit, aside from that very first day, where he had dialed my number a psychotic seventy-two times, he hadn’t actually tried calling me in over two weeks.

　　"Is it an emergency?"

　　After a long moment of hesitation, I slid my thumb across the screen and accepted the call. Junghyun was intrinsically linked to Seongjae in this world. There was a chance this was about my brother.

　　—"Hello?"

　　—"Taewoon, it’s been a while. How have you been?"

　　His voice filtering through the speaker was warm, gentle, and suspiciously soft. Is this one gay, too? I’d been so thoroughly traumatized by my time at Hankuk University that literally every man I interacted with set off alarm bells. Gaydar, stand down.

　　—"I’ve been fine," I replied carefully. "What’s up?"

　　—"Nothing major. It just feels like it’s been ages since I’ve seen you and Seongjae. Let’s grab food together. I already asked Seongjae, and he said he’s down."

　　—"Seongjae agreed?" I asked, surprised.

　　My brother was fiercely introverted and incredibly picky about who he spent his free time with, and he actually said yes? Were they really that close? Still, I wasn’t about to let my guard down that easily. According to BL logic, the aggressive top always used the bottom’s beloved family members as bait to lure him into a trap.

　　That’s exactly when some sweet, airheaded idiot labeled with hashtags like #NaiveBottom, #DorkyBottom, or #ObliviousBottom goes happily trotting after the top, and the very next scene cuts directly to them stripped down in a hotel bed.

　　Ugh. Just imagining it made my skin crawl.

　　—"Okay. If Seongjae is going, I’ll go with him."

　　I definitely needed to double-check with Seongjae first to confirm this wasn’t an elaborate lie. I still couldn’t get a solid read on whether Junghyun was an actual threat or just a clingy friend.

　　In this world, the "childhood best friend" was Target Number One to avoid. I had personally read well over a hundred novels featuring the Friends-to-Lovers tag. It was a massive, industry-dominating trope, meaning I had to be incredibly careful.

　　—"Great," Junghyun said smoothly. "Should I swing by and pick you up later?"

　　—"No need. Seongjae and I can just head over together."

　　Volunteering to pick me up? Was he planning to lock the doors and kidnap me? I rigidly maintained my mental defenses. My virginity was mine to protect. Front or back.

　　—"You don’t even have a driver’s license, though," Junghyun pointed out. "It’ll be way easier if I just drive you. The subway is going to be packed at this hour."

　　—"Wait, I don’t have a driver’s license?"

　　Ah, right. That makes sense. In this setup, I had to repeat a year and didn’t start college until I was twenty-one. A student repeating a year wouldn’t have had time to get a driver’s license, so I must be unlicensed. God, that’s unfair. I spent years working delivery jobs in the real world.

　　—"Huh? Did you get your license? When?"

　　Shit, I messed up. I couldn’t afford to look suspicious.

　　"No! I mean I’m going to get it soon," I quickly backpedaled. "Don’t worry. I’ll take a cab. Just text me the address."

　　Not long after I hung up, a message came through. I clicked the link, and it really was a legitimate, high-end restaurant. Wow—it’s this expensive? It was a Japanese place, and the prices were completely insane. A single meal there was basically my entire monthly food budget.

　　Setting the price aside, I needed to confirm the situation first, so I called Seongjae right away. Even as the line rang, I was more than half convinced it was a trap—but unexpectedly, what Lee Junghyun said was the truth.

　　—"Yeah. Junghyun said we should all grab a meal together."

　　"Yeah? Then do you want to just go, the two of you?"

　　If at all possible, I wanted to keep my distance from Lee Junghyun. Seongjae fell silent for a moment at my rapid-fire response, then sighed.

　　—"You said you’ve been avoiding Junghyun lately, right? He asked me about it, too. He wanted to know if something was going on with you, Taewoon. Seriously, what’s with you lately? You feel… different from how you used to be."

　　I quickly sucked in a breath, making sure he wouldn’t hear it through the speaker. Oh, crap. I didn’t see that coming. If I acted too out of character, I really could make them suspicious.

　　"No, nothing’s wrong. I’ve just been busy since starting college."

　　Busy avoiding gay guys, yeah.

　　"Now that you mention it, it’s been a while since we hung out. Let’s meet up—together."

　　—"Yeah? Anyway, see you later. Let’s meet right in front of the restaurant."

　　"Yeah. Got it."

　　The call ended, and I pressed a hand to my pounding chest. I seriously almost got caught. If Seongjae was getting suspicious, then the me in this world must’ve hung out with Lee Junghyun pretty often. I didn’t know anything about the guy, but I could probably just read the room and play along. Besides, Seongjae would be there, so it would work out somehow.

　　I opened my closet to get ready. I almost went with something safe like jeans, but then I pulled out a pair of leather pants instead.

　　Leather pants are notoriously hard to take off. If things went south, they’d buy me precious time to make a run for it.

　　I caught a cab. On the way to the restaurant, just as I was nearly there, Seongjae called again.

　　"Hey, Seongjae."

　　—"I completely forgot I have a group project. Sorry, but you two eat without me."

　　"What? You can’t just drop that on me out of nowhere! What am I supposed to do?"

　　—"What’s the problem? You two are friends in the first place. I’m the one who was just tagging along."

　　There are a lot of problems. Usually, this is the exact moment the bottom gets eaten alive by the top. I had a solemn duty to protect my ass.

　　"Fine. Got it. Good luck with your group project."

　　After I hung up, I shouted to the driver.

　　"Please turn the taxi around!"

　　"Huh?"

　　"Make a U-turn right up there."

　　"Ah, yes. Understood."

　　The driver looked puzzled, but like a pro, he did what I asked.

　　I have to avoid being alone with him.

　　I’d checked the menu link earlier: the Japanese place we were supposed to go to had private rooms. If it’s just two guys alone in a room, something’s bound to happen. No. Absolutely not.

　　I left Junghyun a message.

　　[March 17]

　　—Me: Sorry. I can’t make it today. (5:57 pm)

　　My conscience pricked at me, but I had no choice. If I ate alone with a guy, I might be the one who ended up getting eaten.

　　—Lee Junghyun: Really? That’s too bad. I was going to introduce you to my girlfriend. (5:58 pm)

　　What? A girlfriend?

　　I thought fast. It could be a lie to lure me in. I’d read plenty of BL novels under the "Friends-to-Lovers" tag where a love-struck top dates a woman just to stay "friends" with the bottom.

　　My phone buzzed again.

　　—Lee Junghyun: She’s in my department. She’s seriously gorgeous.

　　Then a photo came through. It was a picture of the two of them with their faces pressed together affectionately. But something else entirely caught my eye.

　　"Did he go to Y University?"

　　They were both wearing department varsity jackets with the Y University logo stamped on them. I shouted to the driver again.

　　"Driver, please take me back to where we were going earlier!"

　　"What? Look buddy, I’m not some mutt you’re running drills with."

　　He grumbled, but he turned the car around once more. I felt bad, but at the same time, I was thrilled.

　　Maybe he’s actually normal!

　　From what I’d observed over the past few days, it wasn’t that gay guys were everywhere—it was just that Hankuk University had an unusually high concentration of them. Everywhere else was like real life: hardly any gay people at all. Outside of Hankuk University, everyone dated women, got married to women, and had kids.

　　The fact that Lee Junghyun wasn’t a Hankuk University student strengthened the hypothesis that he might not be gay. Finally, I’m meeting a man who isn’t gay. Maybe it was because I’d been so lonely without any real friends for days, but even the littlest things moved me.

　　Meeting a man I didn’t have to be on guard around—someone who wouldn’t look at me sexually—was close to impossible at Hankuk University. Thinking back on the grueling ordeal of the past few days made my throat tighten all over again.

　　If you want to have sex, do it at a motel. Why do you have to do it in the department lounge, the library, the classroom, the bathroom—even in a random alleyway? What is this, some depraved gay university?

　　Clutching my excitement, I headed toward the restaurant, but since it overlapped with rush hour, traffic was even worse than before. I was already ten minutes late. If I made him wait any longer, I’d feel terrible.

　　"I’ll just get out here."

　　I paid the fare and hopped out. It was about a ten-minute walk to the restaurant, so if I ran, I’d get there fast. I tightened my shoelaces and was just about to sprint when someone grabbed my arm.

　　When I turned around, an elderly man stood there in an ochre-colored, modernized hanbok, sporting a long white beard. What was this? I was about to ask if he was lost when he opened his mouth.

　　"Son, do you know the way of Dao?"

　　Ah. A cult weirdo. I instantly withdrew my kindness and wiped my expression clean. My motto was to be kind to people whenever possible, but there were exceptions—and cult freaks were at the very top of the list.

　　If you’re nice to these people, they won’t leave you alone. I spoke coldly.

　　"I don’t believe in that stuff."

　　I tried to pull my arm free, but it wouldn’t budge. What the hell? I’m not exactly weak, but I couldn’t shake off this old man’s grip.

　　"The Dao, you say? Dough is good, though. Soft and chewy."

　　"…What?"

　　I thought he was a cult weirdo, but was he just completely insane?

　　"Don’t divide this world from that world. This or that—it’s all the same. If everything is an illusion, that means everything has meaning. If all humans die, that means all humans live."

　　I didn’t have time to listen to this nonsense. I needed to get to the meeting spot. A non-gay male friend was waiting for me! I strained, trying to yank my arm free.

　　"What… Sir, could you please let go? I’m busy."

　　"You’ve got a younger brother, don’t you?"

　　"How do you know that?"

　　A chill raced up my spine. How the hell did he know?

　　"You look like a firstborn."

　　"What, are you a psychic or something?"

　　"I can’t read faces. I just took a shot in the dark."

　　Yeah, he was definitely just crazy.

　　"…I’m busy. Let go."

　　"Even in death, your little brother couldn’t find peace. Tsk. That’s why you get dragged to where he is. At least here, atone and live."

　　He clicked his tongue in disapproval and shook his head. My irritation started boiling over. He didn’t know a damn thing about my brother, but he was running his mouth like this. Who the hell says Seongjae dies? Not here, thankfully.

　　Seongjae was alive.

　　As long as I didn’t wake up from this dream, Seongjae was alive.

　　"Over there or over here, people are all the same. Your dead brother is the same as your living brother. Emptiness means everything ends up having meaning."

　　For some reason, it felt like an answer to my innermost thoughts—but listening to a lunatic could only hurt me. I pulled harder than before.

　　"No, seriously, let go! How are you so strong?"

　　"There’s only one way to atone."

　　No matter how much I struggled, he didn’t loosen his grip, and I finally gave up. With a heavy sigh, I nodded reluctantly.

　　"Fine. Okay. What is it? If I listen, you’ll let go like you promised?"

　　The old man half-lidded his eyes and stared straight through me. What—what is it? Feeling pressured, I took a small step back as his wrinkled chin moved slowly.

　　"Get fucked."