Unrequited Love Obsession Diary - Chapter 45
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 45
“What?!!”
“You get startled whenever you see me.”
Huh… I guess it was really obvious…
“You can’t even make eye contact properly.”
Well… that’s because…
‘You’re my senior.’
It’s Lee Do-han, of all people.
How could I just naturally accept the fact that my senior is talking to me and look straight into his eyes? When that senior is Lee Do-han.
But I couldn’t possibly tell Dohan all of this.
He might find it creepy and run away.
“Did I really act like that…?”
Yeon-jae brushed off the conversation with a pathetic response. She thought Dohan would stop asking at this point.
“Yeah. When I see you with Hyeonoh, you talk just fine.”
But Dohan went even further.
“I’m starting to feel a bit hurt.”
“H-hurt?”
“Yeah. I’m hurt, you know? Don’t tell me you dislike me?”
“N-no! That’s absolutely, really absolutely not it!”
“It doesn’t seem like it’s not though?”
“No, it really isn’t…”
Now Yeon-jae was almost on the verge of tears. But Dohan wouldn’t back down easily.
“Am I awkward to you, or do you dislike me?”
Instead, he gently teased Yeon-jae, playing with her. It was almost mischievous.
Finally, Yeon-jae shouted.
“There’s no way that’s true…!”
Yeon-jae looked into Dohan’s eyes for the first time.
Dohan was smiling. His face was full of mischief. Now he was even laughing with tears hanging at the corners of his eyes.
After doing this for a while, only when he realized that Yeon-jae was staring at him intently with a flushed face did Dohan catch his breath and tone down his laughter a bit.
And he said very casually.
“I was just kidding.”
Only then did Yeon-jae realize it. That all of this had been a joke.
Ah… Oh, really…!!!
For the first time, Yeon-jae felt toward Dohan an emotion similar to what she felt when dealing with Hyeonoh. She also realized one new fact.
‘So this is why those two are friends.’
While Yeon-jae was trembling with anger inwardly.
Dohan, who had completely stopped laughing, said.
“Good. Now you’re finally making eye contact.”
* * *
Hyeonoh clicked his tongue when he saw her face that had turned bright red because she couldn’t contain herself.
“What kind of imagination are you having to smile so lecherously?”
“It’s nothing.”
“Nothing my ass. Are you that happy?”
“Just let it be, senior…”
Hyeonoh quickly flipped through the printouts once more. Then he said with a troubled face again.
“You did everything, so there’s nothing for me to do.”
“Are you still worried about that? It’s really okay… It’s not just anyone, and you’ve helped me in various ways usually.”
“That wasn’t academic help though?”
“Let’s say we did an equivalent exchange with our respective strengths.”
“Then can I count that time when you went home with Lee Do-han as one favor?”
“What do you mean?”
“Hmm. That wasn’t really me helping you…”
After saying that much, Hyeonoh paused for a moment. It was because that suspicious, somehow subtle feeling from that day came back to him.
Hyeonoh still didn’t know the name of that feeling. What could it have been, he thought briefly.
“…Senior?”
When Hyeonoh remained silent for a long time, Yeon-jae, who had been quietly waiting for his next words, called out to him.
“Huh?”
“Why are you suddenly spacing out like that?”
“Oh. It’s nothing.”
“What are you thinking about so hard? And stopping mid-sentence too…”
“Maybe I’m not fully awake yet. Right, where was I?”
“About going home with Dohan senior on the last day of the festival.”
“Ah, right.”
‘They say even parents feel depressed when their child goes through the process of leaving them to find their own identity.’
His foggy mind finally reached a completely nonsensical analogy. Still, his heart felt much lighter.
“Anyway, wasn’t that a date you achieved on your own?”
“Was it…? I think it was thanks to you taking me to the Business Department pub. Oh right. You had the club after-party quite late that day. I saw it on Si-eun’s SNS.”
“Oh, until about 3 AM?”
“Wow. Really? You stayed really long. Si-eun seems to have really good stamina too.”
It seemed like the thought that she had done all the research by herself was no longer in Yeon-jae’s mind. She chattered on about Si-eun’s stamina and passion for a while.
Hyeonoh thought.
‘She’s surprisingly not resentful.’
And he changed his mind in one second.
‘Maybe it’s not surprising?’
Still, he felt sorry.
“I’ll make the PPT too. So good it’ll rival the design department. Should I present it entirely in English? How about it?”
Hyeonoh went completely overboard.
“Geez. I said it’s really okay!”
Then Yeon-jae was the one who got flustered by Hyeonoh’s attitude. Considering that usually Hyeonoh never showed any signs of being a Korean-American until he mentioned it himself, this was really surprising.
She had no choice. Yeon-jae pulled out her last card.
“And for PPT… I’m pretty good at making them… If I leave it to you, there’s a high probability I’ll tear it all apart and redo it…”
Half of it was sincere. Sure enough, Hyeonoh got angry.
“Hey! What do you take me for!”
“I see you as my senior…”
“Wow, that’s unfair? Do you know what the three elements of the Business Department are?”
“What are they?”
“Team projects. PPT. Presentations.”
“Ah.”
“That means I’ve done them so much I’m sick of them. I’ll show you a different class of PPT that starts with at least thirty slides, unlike other departments.”
“If you insist, then let’s meet and make it together.”
Hyeonoh’s eyes narrowed. Yeon-jae thought he seemed annoyed about meeting in person for the group project…
“Great!”
…but actually Hyeonoh answered happily and readily.
“When? Do you have any free weekdays?”
“Whatever’s convenient for you, ah, that won’t work… I have a mountain of assignments from my major piled up right now.”
Suddenly, countless reports flashed through Yeon-jae’s mind.
“Is the weekend okay too?”
“Weekend?”
“Yes.”
“…I guess weekends are a bit bothersome to come out, right?”
“Not really. I’ll come out. I live in front of the school anyway.”
* * *
And a few days later.
Digital marketing class time, which Yeon-jae loved most.
It was the first time seeing Dohan’s face since they went home together recently.
Actually, before the digital marketing class came around, she had hoped to run into him by chance at the apartment complex at least once, but that never happened.
In the end, she arrived at digital marketing class time without seeing Dohan even once.
Thanks to that, Yeon-jae was still holding onto that flutter from that time in one corner of her heart.
During that time, she had worried countless times.
What does Dohan think about her?
There had been more than a few times when she felt the urge to tell Hyeonoh, or even if not Hyeonoh, then Si-eun, about everything that happened that day in detail and hear their interpretation of Dohan’s intentions.
But…
‘Somehow I couldn’t bring myself to speak.’
It felt like something that shouldn’t be carelessly revealed, an intimate moment between just two people – Dohan and herself.
And one more fact she hadn’t told anyone.
Another reason why that day was special.
By now, the number of times she had encountered Dohan at the apartment complex had accumulated quite a bit. Going home together wasn’t the first time either. However, the buildings they lived in were different, and they always parted ways at the fork in the road where the buildings split within the complex.
But that day…
‘Dohan senior walked me all the way to my building.’
As large apartment complexes typically are, the entrance and end of the complex were quite far apart. And Yeon-jae’s apartment building was located quite deep inside the complex.
Dohan, who lived relatively on the outer side, had walked Yeon-jae near her home even though his own house was right there.
“It’s too late today.”
…he had said.
This is inside the apartment complex, and there are CCTVs everywhere inside the complex!
But the person who would consider this time an incredibly joyful stroke of luck that suddenly came in the middle of the night was Yeon-jae, not Dohan.
She couldn’t let it slip away.
Even while her lips trembled as if she were in the bitter cold of midwinter, she walked with Dohan.
A time that would be at most about 5 minutes.
During those 5 minutes, Yeon-jae was as excited as someone going to collect lottery winnings.
When they arrived in front of Yeon-jae’s apartment building, Dohan said goodbye.
“See you next class.”
That next class was right now, this very time.
From that day on, Yeon-jae searched for various things on portal sites.
【Mind of a man who says let’s go together since we’re going the same way】
【Mind of a man who buys hangover cure】
【Mind of a man who says now you’re finally making eye contact after I kept teasing you】
Agh…!
【Man who walks you to your front door…】
Hmm, correction.
【Mind of a man who walks you to your front door and goes back even though his house is right there】
Aaaagh! Really, what should I do…!
No matter how much Yeon-jae was a lifelong single, inexperienced, woman with no interest in men whatsoever (= only interested in Dohan), it was difficult to accept that as really… a simple action with no room for interpretation.
So Yeon-jae finally searched for a few more things.
【Men’s standards for having a crush】
【The moment when something starts】
【Something conversation】
In addition to that, out of literary curiosity, she even searched for the etymology, origin, and history of the innocent word “something.”
After doing that for a while, she finally came to this point.
【Definition of something】
The definition of “something” that came up from internet searches was this:
A relationship where you’re not lovers yet but stay close as if you’re dating. Or a relationship where there’s romantic interest but the relationship hasn’t been defined.
“…Neither applies.”
They weren’t staying close as if dating, and even if she felt that way, she couldn’t know if Dohan had romantic interest in her.
‘…And what’s the point of knowing. With high probability… no, 99.99 percent probability, he has no interest.’
Sigh. Yeon-jae finally exited the portal site.
…That had been just yesterday. And today.
So she came to school a whole hour earlier than class time. The previous class hadn’t even ended yet – she paced in front of the classroom with plenty of time left.
Sometimes Dohan senior also comes much earlier than class time…
Please let today be one of those days…
Yeon-jae wanted to gain certainty about Dohan’s behavior from last time as quickly as possible.
So please…
I’ll live a good life…
She was thinking such thoughts and praying with her hands clasped tightly together when someone tapped Yeon-jae’s shoulder from behind. Yeon-jae’s head slowly turned around.
“Yeon-jae, hello.”
It was Dohan.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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