Calibrating the NTR Drift in the Light Novel - MTL

What Han Seong-jin's gaze was focused on were Yu-ri Lee and Young-bae Gong, who were talking very passionately.

The moment she saw that, Choi Su-yeon's heart sank.

Because of the distance, I had no idea what the two were talking about, but it was clear that they were having a conversation.

And very actively.

Choi Su-yeon clenched her fists and trembled, threatening to bleed her palms.

'When I sent a message like that, the response was very dry… What, are you talking so hard to Yuri Lee? This is really… Too much…'

How hard did you try to win Gong Young-bae's heart?

As long as she was with Gong Young-bae, she took off her mask as the Iljin girl Choi Soo-yeon and showed her true self.

He tried hard to get over Gong Young-bae in order to overcome the gap between him and Lee Yu-ri, who were childhood friends of more than 10 years.

She also worked out really hard for fear of being compared to Jeong Eun-ji in terms of her body.

In order to find things that Gong Young-bae would like, she looked into a lot of dating courses, and there was no information that she didn't look for, including cafés, alleys, and restaurants with good atmosphere.

Nevertheless, after receiving Gong Young-bae's reply, she had no way of knowing what he thought of her.

Still, she appeals her presence like this, and at one time she thought that Gong Young-bae would look after her, and she actually went to a café with him a few times.

However, she did not appear as active as Gong Young-bae talking to Lee Yu-ri.

She just feels like she's continuing a minimal relationship.

Although I was heartbroken and saddened by her attitude, I tried to think that one day I would be able to push away Yu-ri Lee and Eun-ji Jeong and take Gong Young-bae's side…

'In the end, this is your heart?'

She thought she had an opportunity because she hadn't seen Gong Yeong-bae hanging around with Lee Yu-ri for the past few weeks.

Did she feel pressured because she sent messages too often?

Or maybe I just didn't like Gong Young-bae?

From the beginning, did Gong Young-bae not care about any other women besides Lee Yu-ri?

'No matter how hard I struggled… In the end, only Lee Yu-ri was important…?'

Choi Su-yeon bit her lip and looked away, barely holding back from wanting to cry.

Then she saw Han Seong-jin with a gloomy expression right next to her.

'Ah… Now that I think about it…'

There was a strong feeling that Han Seong-jin liked Yu-ri Lee.

So, is Han Seong-jin feeling the same way as he is right now? As a loser?

"Let's go somewhere else first."

"… Yes."

Seeing Han Seong-jin speaking with a dark expression, Choi Soo-yeon felt sympathy for her illness.

The two headed to the rooftop together, where no one came, locked the door, and sat down on the floor without saying anything first, leaning their backs against the wall.

Su-yeon Choi pretended that nothing was wrong and first offered her words of comfort.

"It's too bad, Seongjin. It seems like Yuri has more feelings for Youngbae, not for Seongjin."

"That's right. I decided to quit smoking and shake off my daily activities in order to somehow make myself look good. Was I making a useless effort?"

Han Seong-jin's words, sighing lightly, seemed to apply to Choi Soo-yeon as well.

She answered by pulling Choi Soo-yeon's knees to her chest and burying her face in her knees.

"It's useless… No. I only know what my senior was like before through hearsay… But I still think she's much better now than what I heard in the rumors."

"Haha, thank you for the comfort."

"It is also the junior's responsibility to comfort a heartbroken senior."

"I heard that you are one of the 2nd graders in our department, and you are much kinder than I thought. That idiot, Gong Young-bae, should have known this about you."

"That's what I'm saying! I've tried so hard to become a woman who doesn't lack anything… Huh?"

Choi Su-yeon, who was excitedly talking about her understanding of his situation, felt something strange about her and stopped.

"Seo, Senior Seongjin…? What do you mean? Why does the story about Senior Youngbae come up here?"

"Why are you coming out? You like Gong Young-bae."

"!!!!!"

"Look at my face. Whenever I'm bored at my part-time job, he pretends not to be and subtly brings up the topic of Gong Young-bae and asks me various questions. Did you think I'm not an idiot and wouldn't know that?"

Sooyeon Choi was so embarrassed that she suddenly woke up, and her pupils felt an earthquake and even her voice began to tremble.

"Oh, no, how can I do that… No, that's not it! I really didn't show it…"

"It seemed like I was trying my best, but I'm so cynical. Even if I fool everyone else, I can't fool myself."

"Uh… Ah… Ah…"

Choi Su-yeon, who was looking for an excuse with her mouth open, soon gave up and sat down on the pavement, leaning her back against the rooftop door.

"Ha… I've never heard that you're quick-witted… That's right. I had Yeongbae-senior in mind. But when I saw Youngbae-senpai and Yuri-senpai at the restaurant earlier… The efforts I've made so far didn't seem to be of much interest to Youngbae-senpai. I guess it was something I didn't need to worry about."

"I have to return the exact words you said to me. I don't know exactly what kind of person you are, but Jeong Ji-ah… Uh… I'm sorry for criticizing your friend. I liked you a lot better than Jeong Ji-ah."

"It's rude to say something like that to a broken woman."

"Is it okay to do this to a broken man?"

The two made eye contact for a moment.

There was an indescribable atmosphere, and then Han Seong-jin burst into laughter first.

"Puh-ha-ha!"

"Why are you smiling?"

"It's funny what we're like. The woman who liked each other and the man who liked each other were just seeing each other on their own, but we, who didn't even know that, were on the rooftop, comforting each other's wounds."

"That's right. We looked funny, and Seongjin was really unexpected."

"Why me?"

"It's just… She said she heard a lot of rumors. She heard that Seongjin senior says that if there's a girl he likes, he doesn't care if she has a lover or not. But looking at her now, she seems surprisingly pure."

"Well, the rumor wasn't completely wrong."

"Wow… Trash…"

Choi Soo-yeon, whose psychological distance from Han Seong-jin had become quite close, criticized Han Seong-jin to her heart's content.

She didn't know that just a month ago, it would have been unthinkable for her to hear someone say those words to Han Seong-jin.

"I told you. I don't want to live like that anymore. So I guess that's why I came up to the rooftop and was in trouble with you."

"Why am I in such a difficult situation?"

Choi Su-yeon looked up at the blue sky and grumbled that she and Han Seong-jin were jealous.

Another moment of silence.

And this time, Han Seong-jin was the first to break the silence.

"Hey, Choi Su-yeon."

"Yes?"

"All the rehearsals for the date course you were planning on finding out were all useless."

"Oh, I guess so. Too bad, senior."

"So this is what happened…"

Han Seong-jin began to look directly into Choi Su-yeon's eyes, and Choi Su-yeon also looked into his black eyes.

"Would you like to skip afternoon class to let off steam between the people who got cheated on?"

___

5th period after lunch.

The subject teacher who entered the class with the third grade class found two empty seats and tilted his head.

"What are those two empty seats? Is there anyone there?"

"The front row here is Yuri Lee's seat. She left early during lunch because she wasn't feeling well."

"The window seat at the back is Han Seongjin… I don't know where he is."

"What? No, then it's just a ding-dang? Oh, my… Okay, let's start class."

___

Surprisingly, Suyeon Choi quickly accepted my offer.

I became emotional because I saw with my own eyes that the man I liked was only paying attention to another woman.

Choi Soo-yeon and I, who had skipped afternoon classes, headed to Jinsu Station, a subway station near Jinsugyo Bridge, instead of the originally planned, famous date spot that requires a short subway ride.

Around Jinsu Station, there were many places to play, such as PC rooms, escape room cafés, PlayStation rooms and DVD rooms, and there were arcades that are hard to find these days, and the streets were lined with street vendors selling all kinds of food, desert cafés and snack bars.

Me, nominally suffering from the pain of a broken heart… Choi Soo-yeon, suffering from the real pain of a broken heart, walked down the streets of Jinsu Station together and shopped around in various stores.

"Wow! Senpai, are you really doing this to a weak and helpless girl like this and not caring about her?!"

"She said she was good at air hockey and told me to go at it with all my might…?"

Play air hockey in the arcade,

"Wow, the fish are gorgeous. Why is this my first time coming to a place like this?"

Walk through the underground shopping mall selling ornamental fish,

"It's just been our lunch break. Is that going to happen again?"

"What don't you know? A woman has a separate stomach for food and a stomach for dessert!"

Have snacks at a dessert shop.

We wandered around Jinsu Station doing things that exactly fit the meaning of the word 'dang-daeng'.

There is no set course, no destination or where to go.

I just go wherever my feet take me and stop by wherever I see.

Like typical delinquent students, we wasted all afternoon and only when our academy classes were over did we sit down on a bench on a nearby walking path and lean back.

"In the end, there was no such thing as a planned rehearsal of the dating course that I mentioned in the beginning. It was just a subway station near the academy, and the location was not famous."

"But it was nice to hang out with you like this."

Suyeon Choi's body, which had been stretching at my words, momentarily stopped.

Then she smiled and nudged me with her elbow.

"What is it? Are you trying to seduce a woman who was also broken-hearted just because she was broken-hearted? Isn't she recovering too quickly?"

"Did it sound like that? I just wanted to do something, but I wondered if you felt the same way as me."

"Um, senior, do you use mind reading?"

"If that were the case, I wouldn't have gone through something like today, right? I want it, mind reading."

"Phew, that's true."

"Anyway, thank you for going along with my insistence that we hang out together."

Choi Soo-yeon, and I's gaze crossed in the air once again.

Sooyeon Choi turned heads as she trimmed her signature side ponytail.

"What is it? It tickles. And it says 'it suits me'… Well, it's not like that at all."

"Oh, really? We hung out voluntarily? So are we that much closer now?"

Su-yeon Choi looked at me again at my joke and laughed.

"Sir, it's strange as expected."