Chapter 2: Plaything Senior (2)

　　He didn’t even join in with the laughing and chatting classmates of his own year, whom even the student council found awkward to deal with. He just sat there quietly, keeping to himself. It was strange.

　　Offering him a drink was just a polite gesture. The man had been pouring his own drinks, so he probably wouldn’t accept, considering he had turned down a freshman who had awkwardly tried to pour him one earlier.

　　“Give me soju,” the man said.

　　Surprisingly, he held out his glass with confidence. Seongbin’s lips twitched upward before he quickly schooled his expression. The guy who had refused to let a freshman pour him a drink was now making demands of Seongbin.

　　Look at him. Acting like a sunbae.

　　Seongbin barely managed to suppress a sneer. He poured a decent amount into the man’s glass, just enough not to seem rude. He picked up his water cup to toast, but the man had already downed his shot alone.

　　Only then did Seongbin notice that the soju bottle next to the man was empty. He really had just wanted a drink.

　　There was nothing more to say to the man. Seongbin aimlessly scrolled through his phone. Should I just go home? There’s nothing left to see here. As he was openly spacing out, a slender arm wrapped around his shoulder, making him turn his head. It was Hyena, who was one class year ahead of him.

　　“Hey. What are you doing over here? You’re being boring,” Hyena complained.

　　Seongbin smiled faintly as she poked his cheek with her long, manicured index finger. Her comment effectively labeled the surrounding freshmen and the stuffy sunbae as “boring,” but Seongbin didn’t bother to correct her.

　　“Let’s go have a smoke,” Seongbin suggested.

　　“I didn’t buy any.”

　　“I’ll give you one of mine. Come on, hurry up.”

　　Feigning reluctance at Hyena’s whiny tone, Seongbin stood up. She naturally clung to his side and locked arms with him. College was such a small world, but despite how many rumors flew around, she still insisted on linking arms.

　　As they walked out of the bar, he noticed a group whispering while looking at him. Seongbin stared right back at them. Five or six sunbaes were sitting around, glancing at him and Hyena.

　　Among them was Changsu, Hyena’s ex-boyfriend. They’re going to talk so much shit. Seongbin scoffed.

　　The moment they stepped outside, Hyena pushed Seongbin into an alley. He quietly watched her light up.

　　“Aren’t you smoking?” Hyena asked.

　　“Hmm… give me yours, noona.”

　　“Hey. Stop flirting. It pisses me off.”

　　Seongbin let out a relaxed laugh. She slipped the damp cigarette between his slightly parted lips. Tells me to stop flirting, yet she still feeds me her cigarette.

　　“Did you see that bastard earlier?” Hyena spat, biting down on a fresh cigarette. “What does he have to be proud of, showing his face here again?”

　　With one hand behind his back, Seongbin exhaled a long trail of smoke. “Yeah. He glared at me when I walked past.”

　　“Fucking asshole… What right does he have? He’s the one who cheated. Who does he think he is?”

　　“But you slept with me too,” Seongbin pointed out.

　　Seongbin took a few more drags, then flicked the ash off with his finger. He tossed the butt into a can being used as an ashtray.

　　A heavy silence followed his blunt remark. He hadn’t meant to make her feel self-conscious. He glanced back at her. She was grinding her cigarette against the brick wall of the building. After tossing it aside, she took a large step toward him.

　　“Seongbin.”

　　“Yeah?”

　　Instead of answering, she wrapped her arms around his shoulders, pulling him down to meet her. Their lips collided. Seongbin parted his mouth, tasting her as she pressed herself flush against him.

　　Breathing heavily, they stumbled deeper into the shadows of the alley.

　　Their hands wandered, fueling the heat of a deep, messy kiss. Seongbin laced his fingers through hers, guiding her hands down from where they were tangled in his hair, shifting his weight so she could easily wrap her arms around his waist.

　　A few soft, wet pecks gave way to the heavy, slick sounds of their mouths sliding together again.

　　“Do we need to buy condoms?” Hyena asked, her voice thick and breathless. They spoke against each other’s lips, their breath mingling in the cool air.

　　“I have some back at the hotel,” Seongbin murmured, his voice low. “But we can hit up a convenience store if you want. You’re going to buy beer anyway, noona.”

　　The moment the words left his mouth, he slid his tongue back between her lips, eager to deepen the kiss. Their tongues were just about to touch when—

　　A sharp, deliberate cough shattered the silence. Their lips instantly parted. Seongbin pulled Hyena close, shielding her as she buried her face in his chest. He turned his head toward the sound, his expression instantly hardening into a cold, irritated glare.

　　Great. Another fucking rumor is about to start.

　　He wiped his wet mouth with the back of his hand.

　　The silence stretched, heavy and awkward.

　　“…Ha.”

　　Once Seongbin got a clear look at the intruder, a dry, incredulous laugh slipped past his lips. Seizing the distraction, Hyena quickly slipped out of his arms and scurried off into the shadows, hiding near the far end of the alley.

　　Seongbin shoved his hands into his pockets and stepped out. As he reached the mouth of the alley, he found the man standing there like a statue. It was the sunbae three years his senior, that nameless guy who had spent the entire meeting sitting by himself, quietly nursing his drink without a single soul to talk to.

　　He had looked so incredibly gloomy earlier that Seongbin had wondered if the guy had some kind of defect, but seeing him standing under the streetlights, he was surprisingly tall and decent-looking. Not that it mattered. Standing there like a creep proved he didn’t possess a single shred of tact.

　　“You could’ve given us some space,” Seongbin muttered, his voice dripping with annoyance. “At least give a guy a chance to make an exit.”

　　Without waiting for a reply, he casually brushed past the sunbae.

　　Leaving the alley behind, Seongbin crossed the street and slipped into the building directly opposite the bar.

　　It was a drab, three-story structure. There was a public restroom in the stairwell, but it was usually deserted at night. The building was poorly maintained, which suited his purposes just fine.

　　Stepping inside the restroom, he caught his reflection in the cracked mirror. Smudged red lipstick was smeared across his mouth.

　　He twisted the rusty faucet, waiting for the water to sputter out, and thoroughly scrubbed his lips. He gave one of the stall doors a light kick. Sometimes there was toilet paper left behind, but today the dispenser was empty. With a quiet sigh, he roughly wiped the moisture from his chin with the back of his hand.

　　Should I head back to the bar? Refusing to touch the grime-covered doorknob, he used his foot to kick the bottom of the door, swinging it open.

　　“Jesus, you scared the shit out of me.”

　　Seongbin flinched, his heart leaping into his throat. Standing right outside the door like a ghost was the very same man he had just left at the mouth of the alley.

　　“What are you doing here?” Seongbin demanded, his brow furrowing.

　　There was absolutely no logical reason for the guy to be in this building. The restroom was shared by offices whose employees had long since gone home, along with a cafe and a restaurant that closed early.

　　Because Seongbin knew the area so well, he was thrown off by the sunbae’s sudden appearance. Even if the restrooms at the bar were packed to the brim, there was no earthly reason to walk all the way over to this abandoned hallway.

　　Actually, maybe the guy was just trying to get under his skin. Seongbin felt a surge of irritation that his hookup had been ruined, even if he hadn’t planned on actually doing the deed in a dirty alleyway.

　　What a pain in the ass.

　　Seongbin openly scowled, sizing the man up. He had never seen him before today. He couldn’t recall ever passing him in the halls of the public administration department.

　　Then again, maybe the guy was just completely invisible.

　　On a campus where everyone either dressed to the nines or at least put some effort into looking presentable, someone wearing such drab, unremarkable clothes could easily fade into the background.

　　A colorless man.

　　That was the only way Seongbin could think to describe this nameless sunbae.

　　As Seongbin flicked the excess water off his fingers, the man suddenly spoke.

　　“Did you wipe your lips?”

　　“Yeah, I did.”

　　Mind your own business, dude. Seongbin’s response was flat and utterly dismissive. Since there were no paper towels, he shook his hands dry, gave the sunbae a curt nod, and tried to push past him.

　　“Hey.”

　　The low voice made Seongbin halt. Weak, dusty light filtered through the grimy window of the stairwell.

　　From outside, the muffled, chaotic noise of the nightlife drifted in. The phone in his pocket began to buzz insistently. It was probably Hyena. He pulled it out to check.

　　Sure enough, her name flashed on the screen. He stared at the display, debating whether to answer. It was probably nothing urgent, but picking up might be the easiest way to handle this.

　　If I take this call, will he finally read the room and get lost? Seriously, what is his problem?

　　Before he could press accept, the man spoke again.

　　“You don’t have a good reputation among the guys. Stop doing stuff like that.”

　　Seongbin let the call go. A slow, mocking smirk spread across his lips.

　　Did this motherfucker really follow me all the way here just to give me a lecture?

　　He gripped the vibrating phone tightly, his knuckles turning white.

　　“And what exactly am I doing?” Seongbin asked, his voice dripping with sweet venom.

　　He stared at the sunbae, who couldn’t even meet his gaze. The guy didn’t even have the balls to look him in the eye, yet he had the nerve to run his mouth.

　　But the man’s voice remained surprisingly steady.

　　“Messing around with girls you have no intention of dating.”

　　“Hey, it takes two to tango,” Seongbin retorted, letting out a sharp laugh. “If it were one-sided, it’d be harassment.”

　　He didn’t need this stranger to tell him what the guys in the department said behind his back. He knew the rumors. That he was a homewrecker who stole his classmates’ and sunbaes’ girls, that he’d been caught hooking up in random corners, that he went through women like water, that he was practically living in cheap motels with a different girl every night.

　　The girls adored him, and the guys despised him. He was just that kind of guy.

　　Honestly, it had been like that since he wore a high school uniform. He had never lost a single night of sleep over the pathetic losers who tried to drag him down, calling him a pretty boy or a tease just because they were jealous.

　　The buzzing in his palm finally stopped.

　　Hyena’s call went to voicemail, replaced a second later by a text notification.

　　-Hyena: Where are you? I grabbed my stuff and left. I’m at the convenience store so I’ll buy some cigarettes too. They didn’t have the condoms you usually use. Come to the convenience store out back.

　　It was time to wrap up this pathetic little standoff.

　　Seongbin sneered, his eyes flashing with open contempt.

　　“Did you seriously stalk me all the way to the bathroom just to deliver that little PSA?”

　　The sunbae remained silent, his expression unreadable.

　　“Unbelievable,” Seongbin scoffed.

　　The absolute audacity of this guy, standing there spouting whatever self-righteous bullshit pops into his head.

　　Without another word, Seongbin swept past the silent man. As he headed down the concrete stairs, his phone began to ring once more. This time, he swiped to answer.

　　“Yeah, noona. I’m on my way.”