Who's That Guy? | Yuta [Book 1] ✓

28 | 'wow, most guys would have never admitted that.'

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HIS BRUNETTE HEAD GETTING FUZZED up by reality brought about Kim Doyoung's acceptance that he was screwed. More than Dad the day he'd showed up late for the meeting with the lawyer, and Mom asked why he was late, and Dad made the audacious confession that he was held back by a date. Jaehwan was unashamed until the closing minutes of their marriage, when Seohyun pounced on him. Many many years of etiquette flew out the window that day. It was the first time Doyoung pitied his mother, almost to a point of crying. It had not been the first time he discovered he might hate his father.  But yeah, screwed. Down to the last of his savings, there was enough for the trip to Incheon.

   Doyoung sprawled himself out across an uncomfortable piece of furniture. A bed. He wasn't above complaining that the thing digging into his spine was probably a dislodged mattress spring, but didn't. He was jetlag anyways. When he sat up, his joint screamed with fatigue—not the bed. Stale and all kinds of spent, Doyoung still indulged himself. No better way to do that than witness two boys arguing over Monopoly. (One wasn't a boy, but he looked like one. We'll just call him the twenty-one-year-old boy, reasoned Doyoung.) At this point it was difficile differentiating between healthy and unhealthy argument. However, it was safe to say the echoes of I'm going to kill you, you fricking cheater was fast approaching.

   Even though it didn't mean Jungwoo was the vindicated one because he yelled all the threats in the book. Among the three of them, placid Taeil, with the twitching eye and ominous smile, was the one with murder in his nearest future. Jungwoo felt cheated each time Taeil bought a plastic house with his paper money. Not once had Taeil raised his head to object. Giving the game his undivided attention must be helping.

   'So if Chance says I go to jail, I go to jail?' Jungwoo screeched. The walls were thin, the neighbors might come knocking soon. 'You're trying to bamboozle me, aren't you? I may be new to this but even I can tell when you're lying.' To Doyoung: 'He's lying, isnt he?'

   'I didn't sign up for this.' Taeil was finally caving. His arms were flung towards the ceiling, in reverence to his exasperation. Then his thumb and fore finger worked on his itchy eyes. Taeil, likely contemplating that murder, counted to five, dropped his hand from his face, regarded the two teenagers. Doyoung knew what he was thinking—How? Why? What? Doyoung was mildly tolerable and Kim Jungwoo was not tolerable at all. He bet Taeil still could not fathom his reasoning behind welcoming them into his life. 'I'm done.'

   Jungwoo smiled a sly smile, saturated in Taeil's dismay as if it expounded gratification, before shifting to pointless taunts. 'You can't handle the heat? Are you scared out of your mind that I'm going to beat you? Look at you, you're on the verge of bankruptcy.' Jungwoo was the one on the verge of bankruptcy, but it looked like he thought he could taunt until he made it.

   'It's just a board game.' Taeil didn't like when you try to get into his head. Then again, who did? 'And you're a little too stupid to understand it. If it did make people rich, we won't be having this conversation.'

   Doyoung rose to his feet. Choosing to sit out of their squabble made him feel out of place and as he stood, the walls feelings like they were hemming in because this apartment was what a college student could afford without parental input, Doyoung gunned for a role to play. He stretched a few then faced Taeil, smiled—I will get out of your hair now. No doubt he and Jungwoo had left the redhead at an inconvenience these last three days. They had shared the enthusiasm over on-stage Eric, came home to Seoul together—it was midnight, and Moon Taeil had looked over the two boys and called them his responsibility.

   He invited them to stay the night ('It's not all that,' Taeil had said before he unlocked his front door, in a manner that left no room for criticism over his living conditions. 'You two can decide between yourselves who gets the floor and who gets the sofa. I assure you, the sofa has nothing on the floor.') Right now marked the third night. Taeil proffered a swift lip-tug, hardly a smile, and regarded Doyoung (now his only source of brainfood). Jungwoo, in the background, continued with his rants.