WTFUDLS 43

Chapter 43

The girls were chatting noisily with Noeul.

Jiu thought, “Fine, you can chatter all you want. I’ll just focus on what I need to do.”
She opened her tablet — only to realize there wasn’t much to do.

She aimlessly scrolled through the lecture curriculum, but nothing really registered.

The girls’ laughter and chatter grew louder and louder. Sure, talking before class was fine, but wasn’t there a limit? It was still a classroom — shouldn’t they at least keep their voices down?

Jiu recalled how she herself sometimes talked in class, but brushed that thought aside.
“I was never this loud.”

“If a senior’s sitting here doing something, shouldn’t they at least be a little considerate? They’re totally ignoring me. Seriously, why is the professor so late today? Is it okay to be late to the very first class? Is his time the only one that matters? What about ours? And these girls — why are they still hanging around here instead of going to their seats? We haven’t seen each other in a while, we could’ve talked too. Kids these days have zero sense of consideration.”

Jiu jabbed her tablet’s screen with her pen in irritation.

Just then, one of the girls grabbed Noeul’s wrist and shook it playfully like a puppet.

“You still owe us a meal, senior! A promise is a promise.”

“Alright, alright. Now go sit down.”

“We’ll go when the professor gets here~ Why are you so eager to chase us away?”

“Because he’ll probably be here any minute.”

The girl pouted.

“Fineee… we’ll go now!”

They waved at Jiu and Hansol.

Jiu smiled sweetly like a kind upperclassman and waved back.

“Finally.”

Once the girls left, the room quieted down.

Jiu casually asked Noeul,

“You seem close with them?”

“Ah, I worked with Yeonsu on a group project once. Met the others at the department welcome party.”

“Just once? You looked pretty close.”

“Not really. They just act comfortable around me.”

“Isn’t that the same thing?”

“Hmm… maybe.”

“…Still, grabbing your wrist and stuff after meeting once feels a bit much, don’t you think?”

“Well… yeah, I guess.”

Noeul gave a vague nod and opened his laptop.

Jiu blinked.

“That’s it? Just ‘yeah, I guess’? No follow-up?”

She felt a strange heaviness in her chest.

“Don’t you dislike that? People being overly familiar?”

“I just think, ‘Ah, they’re sociable,’ that’s all.”

“What? Why’s he suddenly acting so chill about this?”
She sighed inwardly.
“Is Han Noeul… actually enjoying it? Does he like it when cute underclassmen cling to him calling him ‘oppa’? Is that why he didn’t say anything? Wow. Guess he’s just like any other guy after all. I really thought he was different. What a disappointment.”

Jiu’s irritation bubbled.
“Fine. He can like whoever he wants. No one hates getting attention from cute girls. It’s not my business if he hangs out with them. It’s just… disappointing, that’s all. Yeah. Disappointing. I thought my friend Han Noeul was different. Guess I was wrong.”

Then, a message popped up from one of the girls who’d been there earlier.

[Yeonsu: Unni, do you happen to have the Introduction to Advertising textbook? If you do, could you pass it down to me? ㅜ]

“Excuse me? Who is she to ask like that? Whether I give it or not is up to me.”

For some reason, Jiu found the request annoying.
But then she thought, “Well… those books are expensive.”

It wasn’t the underclassman’s fault, she admitted — she was just mad at Noeul.

So she replied:

[Jiu: Yeah, I have it! I’ll give it to you, hehe.]

[Yeonsu: Omg~~~~ Thank you ><]

Jiu, still wanting to say something, typed another message:

[Jiu: By the way, you seemed pretty close with Noeul earlier?]

[Yeonsu: Noeul oppa and I are total besties! ]

“Besties? Really? That’s funny. Who decided that? Even I don’t go around calling myself Noeul’s best friend. Hansol and I hang out with him all the time, so when did she even have time to become his ‘bestie’? She’s not even at the letter ‘B’ of ‘bestie.’”

[Jiu: Oh really? When did you get that close? hehe. I’m always with Noeul.]

She subtly emphasized her own closeness with him.

[Yeonsu: We promised to be besties when we were drinking last time, lolol.]

[Jiu: Haha, I see.]

[Jiu: Still, isn’t holding his hand a bit much? lol]

She tried to make it sound offhand, casual.

[Yeonsu: Eh, what’s the big deal~ It’s Noeul oppa ]

“…What’s that supposed to mean? So it’s fine to hold his hand? Why?”

While Jiu puzzled over it, another message came.

[Yeonsu: Zero chance of misunderstanding, haha ]

“Zero chance? What does that mean? Is she saying no one would mistake them for a couple? Why not? What the hell is going on — does Noeul have some weird rumor or something? …Wait. Don’t tell me… people think he’s gay?”

[Jiu: What do you mean? Why zero?]

[Yeonsu: C’mon, unni~ You know~ That’s why you and Hansol hang out with him too, right? ]

[Jiu: Huh? What are you talking about, haha.]

Yeonsu didn’t reply for a while.
Jiu could see her across the room still fiddling with her phone.

“Did she just leave me on read? Really?”

Jiu sent another message:

[Jiu: Tell me, I’m seriously curious~]

[Jiu: If you don’t, I’m not giving you the textbook ]

She added an angry bunny emoji.

A moment later came the reply:

[Yeonsu: I mean, it’s not like anyone would think you and Noeul oppa are dating, right? haha. No one would imagine you like him anyway~ I mean, he’s not exactly… the type anyone would, you know, like ]

Yeonsu added a bear scratching its head emoji.

“….”

Jiu’s face went cold.

“She was acting all friendly to Noeul earlier, but this is what she really thinks? And she thinks Hansol and I hang out with him for that reason?”

“What, does she think we’re like her?”

Jiu’s fingers flew over the keyboard:

[Jiu: There’s no such thing as a face people ‘shouldn’t’ like. Maybe you think that way, but Hansol and I don’t. We hang out with Noeul because he’s a genuinely good person.]

[Jiu: Honestly, he’s always busy studying, but we’re the ones begging him to hang out.]

[Jiu: So maybe don’t go spreading that kind of talk when you don’t know anything, okay? ]

She glared at her screen, waiting for the little “1” to disappear.

After a while, it did — then came the reply:

[Yeonsu: Ah… sorry ㅎ;;; ]

A bear emoji appeared again, rubbing its paws together.
And that was it.

“That’s it? Really? Unbelievable. And what’s with that stupid bear she keeps sending — it’s not even cute.”

Later that evening.

“So that’s how the first day of the semester ends, huh.”

Noeul sighed.

Hansol handed him a can of beer from the convenience store.

“Yep.”

Noeul cracked it open with a hiss.
The evening air was cool — just right for drinking outdoors.

All around campus, students sat outside bars and street tents, laughing and drinking.

Noeul noticed that he joined those gatherings much less often now. Maybe because he’d finally built a stable circle of friends — people he felt comfortable with. He no longer feared being left out.

He was grateful for that.

When he was a freshman, everyone clearly avoided him. He pretended not to notice, playing the clown at every drinking party just to be liked. If he had to go through that again, he wasn’t sure he could.

Freshmen aren’t that different from high schoolers — for twelve years, they’d lived centered around their classroom group. Having good relationships in that group feels like a matter of survival. So, in college, they desperately try to form those bonds again.

Especially since it’s their chance to reinvent themselves — to shed their past mistakes and start fresh. To create a new me that’s better liked. That’s why everyone’s so obsessed with good impressions and connections.

And for unattractive people, that’s twice as hard.
No one wants to include someone “ugly” in their new social circle.

Noeul thought about those early days like a celebrity reminiscing about their hungry trainee years.

“Hey.”

Hansol’s voice snapped him out of it.

“Remember back then? When I asked if you’d still be friends with me even if I were ugly?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you remember what you said?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you still think that way?”

“Hmm…”

“What if one day I suddenly got really ugly — like my face swelled up like I got stung by bees, I gained a ton of weight, just… hideous. Would you cut me off right then?”

“Hmm…”

Noeul hesitated.

Maybe good-looking people carry that kind of insecurity — the fear that people only like them for their looks. That no one truly likes the real them.

But “the real me” doesn’t actually exist. Personality, looks, behavior, skills, wealth — they all mix together to form one whole. You can’t separate which part is “authentic.”

Besides, a beautiful person suddenly becoming hideous — that’s fantasy. Just as Noeul couldn’t suddenly become handsome overnight.

So worrying about that felt… indulgent, to someone like him.

Still, he answered:

“No, I wouldn’t.”

“Why? You said before you wouldn’t be friends.”

“That was before we were friends. Now we are.”

“Hmm…”

“When you don’t know someone, all you can judge by is their looks. If everything else is zero, being unattractive makes your score negative. And no one wants to befriend a negative score. But now, you’re not a zero anymore. Even without your looks, you’re close to a hundred. So even if your looks dropped, your total wouldn’t go negative. No reason to end the friendship.”

Hansol stared at him.

“You… have a way of making warm words sound cold.”

“…Do I?”

“You mean I have other qualities that matter as a friend, right?”

“…Yeah.”

“You could’ve just said that.”

“…Ah.”

Noeul gave an awkward laugh and took a sip of beer.
Hansol did too.

After a pause, Noeul said,

“Actually, thinking about it now…”

Hansol looked at him.

“Even if you got ugly, I don’t think it would change how I feel as a friend.”

“Why not?”

“…I don’t know. It just… feels that way.”

Hansol didn’t reply.

Noeul genuinely meant it — though he couldn’t explain why.

He still believed that everyone judges others by appearance — himself included.
And yet, somehow, he felt that with Hansol, that rule didn’t apply.

Was he lying to himself? Being hypocritical?

He tilted his head slightly, lost in thought.