PAID

There was a difference between the way I had liked Han Junwoo and the way I liked Go Yohan.

Han Junwoo had wronged me.

And I had wronged Go Yohan.

Of course, Yohan got angry—I just hadn’t understood the way he showed it. That was why he was disappointed in me. That was why he came to hate me.

The common factor was my behavior.

Just like I had ignored Han Junwoo, I ignored Go Yohan.

Sometimes, I caught myself glancing at him without realizing it. But the moment I noticed, I would hurriedly, consciously, tear my gaze away. I didn’t want anyone to know I was paying attention to him. It was a matter of pride.

I had been abandoned—but I didn’t want to believe that I had been abandoned.

No, I abandoned him too. I agreed to this.

That false belief was what kept me going.

During the time when Go Yohan’s gaze never found me, I wondered why I had liked him in the first place.

First, he was good-looking. I cared a lot about faces.

Second, he was tall. I cared about build, too.

Third, he was rich—but so was I, so never mind. Scratch that.

Third—he studied a decent amount. But that was just a surprising trait, not a reason to fall for him. So scratch that too.

Third—he was kind to me.

Yeah. He had been kind to me.

And even after he learned my true nature, he had still been kind.

It took me five nights after realizing that before I finally started to regret what had happened at his house. Some nights, I was so ashamed of myself that I couldn’t sleep. The kind of shame that made me want to strangle myself to death.

Nights where I wished Kang Jun would just disappear. Die and be gone.

And then morning would come, and Kang Jun would still be here, indifferent as ever.

From then on, I stopped looking at Go Yohan—even consciously, I made sure not to. I forced myself. Over and over.

There were even days when I didn’t look at him once.

I was still hungry at lunch. The bread was still tasteless.

But the days passed, somehow.

Compared to what I found written on that desk in the science lab, they weren’t so bad.

“……”

The words had been scrawled onto a desk in the second row with a permanent marker.

I didn’t know when it had been written. I didn’t know who had written it. I didn’t even know for sure that the “Kang” in question was me.

But I knew.

Instinctively, I knew it was about me.

Until now, I had never cared when people insulted me.@@novelbin@@

Because I knew—really knew—that their hatred came from jealousy.

Their criticism was born from my success.

Of course, they hated the nerd who had never once fallen from the top rankings. Of course, they despised the brainiac who hung around kids at the top of the social ladder.

But this was different.

Just four characters—four strokes of ink—had captured my downfall perfectly.

More precisely, they had realized something.

The emperor they followed had abandoned me.

“…Pathetic little shits.”

I muttered, but my face was burning red with humiliation and rage.

The only saving grace was that the lights were off for the PowerPoint presentation.