Chapter 341 (1/2)
.
‘Oh, my god! This is making me so uncomfortable!’ Pulling the giant teddy bear into my arms, I hid my face more onto Yeo Dan oppa’s back. Other people showed a weird expression on their faces.
I was almost about to cry. A couple wandering around the town on a weekend evening, especially the girl hugging a teddy bear in her arms… I also knew how this would look like in others’ eyes.
The boys were the first to burst into a loud cheer. Swarming into Yeo Dan oppa, they asked, “Dude, what’s going on? We heard that Kim Sun Woo let you go join the group hangout on behalf of him.”
One of the boys suddenly raised his hand to cover his mouth with tears in his eye. ‘Oh,’ I murmured, ‘I know that behavior pattern…’
Everyone then began to perform a soap opera again while holding the wall or prostrating themselves near the couch.
“Yeo Dan, mommy can… now die in peace!”
“Hey, get out of my face! Why are we a couple?”
“You all shut up. Honestly, I’m the one who raised Ban Yeo Dan since he was a baby.”
Listening to their craps, I wondered, ‘How did Yeo Dan oppa befriend these people?’ I had been thinking about a theory that Yeo Dan oppa’s friends acted frivolously in order to balance out the average temperature between them and Yeo Dan oppa, who was too calm. Was that theory happening to fit the fact?
If that also wasn’t… perhaps, wouldn’t this be the perfectly born Yeo Dan oppa’s only karma? Considering that Yeo Dan oppa’s life would run just so smoothly, God might have sprinkled some seasoning for him, which would be those friends.
Rambling such rude thoughts about the strangers, I looked back when someone suddenly tapped my shoulders. Two girls, who each had yellow and red hair shining under the karaoke light, were looking at me.
‘Who… Who are they??’ I tried to step back with a flinch. Before I was about to take that action, the two girls raised their hands and slowly brought them close to my cheek.
Having been through a similar experience, I came up with a bad thought instinctively. ‘Cheek? Are they trying to slap me in the face?’ I glanced at Yeo Dan oppa, but his friends were holding him with no way out, so he couldn’t look in my direction at all.
‘What should I do?’ That was when I closed my eyes tightly.
“Oh, my god, look how soft her cheeks are!”
One of the girls dropped that remark with no tension, which loosened up the strained atmosphere around my shoulders like a collapsing sandcastle. Feeling her finger poke me in my cheek, I opened my eyes with a blink.
Poking my cheek gently, the two girls, who wore student uniforms that belonged to a neighborhood high school, were looking captivated as if they were kids who saw a doll for the first time in their life. They exchanged words while touching my cheek.
“She’s such a baby.”
“We would have been like her during freshmen, right?”
“Nah, we didn’t, even in freshmen.”
What the heck was going on…? I squinted my eyes while looking at the two girls, who were perhaps the same age as Yeo Dan oppa and those whom I had never seen before. Why were they treating me so friendly?
This was, for real, a strange situation since most of the girls, who were close to Yeo Dan oppa, couldn’t avoid other girls feeling jealous of them. Even Ban Yeo Ryung, his sibling, had to be at the receiving end of the hate from envious people. I mean, what was the matter with brothers and sisters staying close?
As from having that long history, I was really prepared for being slapped in the face just now. However, I couldn’t get these people. They were fond of me as if I were a puppy or a kitten, instead of a human being. Receiving their love for a while, I was soon dragged to the middle of the couch.
This time, they made me sit down and handed me some snacks and juice on the table. It felt like I suddenly changed from a dog or cat into a Casanova, who had a group of women beside him.
“Try this. It’s good.”
“No, it isn’t. Can’t you see the leftovers? Have this one instead of that.”
“What beverage do you like? If you don’t have anything from here, I’ll get you one on my way to the bathroom.”
I couldn’t respond since I had to chew five different kinds of snacks that came into my mouth at once. Barely swallowing the lump, I detached my lips, at last.
“Uh… e… excuse… me…”
A moment of silence returned. Those who fought over feeding me first while holding some snacks in their hands turned to look at me altogether.
“Yeah, what’s up?”