Chapter 61 – If You Cheat You’ll Disappear like Air

Yoo Hayeon stood still without moving a muscle.

Wasn’t there a saying that there was a calm before a storm?

She was incessantly still that for some reason she was giving me a sense of fear.

Mustering up my courage, I spoke to her.

“Yoo… Yoo Hayeon?”

“…”

She’s even scarier since she wasn’t saying anything.

No response came from Hayeon.

Ban Hana was clinging onto me paying no mind to Hayeon.

“Sijoon! That woman stole my phone!”

“Hana, now’s not the time…”

We could die if we slip up.

Our teacher, Shin Sihwa, was nearby, so we wouldn’t actually die, but I was terrified of Hayeon who was slightly emitting a murderous aura.

By the time the cold night breeze brushed my cheeks and I got used to the cold air, Hayeon spoke up in a fit of laughter.

“Ha…Haha… You were just going to lie to me until the very end, weren’t you? Haha…”

Hayeon’s voice sounded even scarier because she spoke without getting angry.

It seemed that she didn’t want to see the image of Hana and me on the cell phone screen anymore.

Crack!

“My… My phone!!”

“I bought that with my own money…”

Hayeon threw Hana’s phone on the floor.

Next to me, Ms. Sihwa was murmuring in a regretful tone, saying, “There was still time left in the installment period…”

I whispered to her ear, “Teacher. What should I do? I might die.”

“You…won’t die. Surely, Student Yoo Hayeon would not do that to her childhood friend?”

Ms. Sihwa was not aware of Hana’s background picture so she smiled as she let out an optimistic tone. 

No, Ban Hana and I are on that cell phone screen.

If I uttered that, Ms. Sihwa’s expression would change, so I judged that it would be better for the teacher not to know that fact.

In the midst of the chaos…

“Han Sijoon.”

Hayeon said icily.

The rims of her eyes were watery.

“You bastard!!”

“S-Sorry!”

Hayeon shouted at me with the intent to kill as she walked towards me.

In order to live, I decided to tell her the truth.

“I… I had no choice since I wanted to live…! I’ll explain everything…!”

“You’re bringing up an explanation right now? When the picture on the phone explained it all?!”

“It’s because I have a situation… Just trust me once!”

Situation.

A situation where I had no choice but to pick up Ban Hana.

I decided to confess to Hayeon that my years in life were numbered.

“I don’t have much time left to live. Two years? No, I’ll die in about a year.”

If I didn’t pick up women, I was really going to die.

My short remaining lifespan.

I had to tell Hayeon the truth if I didn’t want to be confined.

“What does cheating have to do with your lifespan? Don’t make stuff up, Sijoon.”

Hayeon dismissed what I said as an excuse.

“Say something that makes sense. Why would you die?”

“…No, Yoo Hayeon. What Student Han Sijoon says is true. Don’t you recall that day?”

“…Pardon?”

That day.

“Ah, this isn’t blood, it’s tomato juice.”

It was the day when I made an excuse for my bleeding saying that it was tomato juice.

Hayeon couldn’t smell blood due to her rhinitis, so she just moved on from it.

And the other days.

“What’s spicy?”

The incident when I didn’t react even after eating the spicy curry full of capsaicin.

“This is vitamins.”

I always take nutritional supplements after lunch.

In other people’s eyes, I was like a patient taking my pills in time.

“Han…Han Sijoon?”

Hayeon was demanding an explanation from me, as if to ask if what she was thinking right now was right while hoping it wasn’t the truth, wanting confirmation.

I don’t know either…

What else did I have to hide when I was caught in her yard anyway.

I had to tell the truth about my lifespan.

“That’s right. I’m actually terminally ill.”

When I uttered that out, Hayeon’s shoulders, which had been tensed up, completely lost their strength.

In her situation, the fact that I didn’t have long to live must have come as a shock.

“Sijoon is pregnant?”1

“No, terminally ill.”

Hana didn’t understand what I was talking about since she didn’t know the word terminally ill.

Hayeon approached me in tears.

Then she grabbed me by the collar and exclaimed, “Y-You’re lying, right? This is a lie, too! Why would you die?!”

“I’m not lying. I mean it.”

I didn’t know if Hayeon’s legs gave out from my voice, but she was about to fall on the floor.

“Are you okay?”

I grabbed Hayeon’s body so she wouldn’t tip over.

Her physical condition didn’t seem that well.

Hayeon’s head hung low as she stayed still.

When Shin Sihwa saw us like that, she let out an “Oh dear…” with a regretful tone.

If you as the teacher had helped in the first place, things wouldn’t have come to this…

But she did help me as much as she could in her situation.

I decided not to voice out my bitterness.

At that moment, Hayeon, whose head was down, spoke up.

“Han Sijoon.”

“…What?”
 

I wondered what she was going to say to me, who didn’t have much time left to live.

She raised her head and asked me, “But what does having a short lifespan have to do with cheating?”

“About that…”

“If you don’t have much time left, you should be sticking together with me everyday. It’s a waste of time. But why cheat?”

“Hayeon, I’m scared, so loosen your face and talk…”

She was releasing her malice with a resentful demonic expression that I couldn’t properly look her in the eye.

I propped Hayeon up and said, “I had no choice because it was a treatment method for me.”

“…So you can cure it? Just what is the method…”

“It’s hard to believe, but I have to kiss girls in order to extend my lifespan.”

“…”

Hayeon just looked at me and blinked.

I must’ve misheard him, right?

It was that kind of expression.

“No. You heard me right.”

I gave her a confirmation.

“S-Sijoon… I wasn’t the only one you kissed?”

“Even so, that lie is a bit much, Student Han Sijoon. How can kissing girls cure you?”

Hana spoke to me with a look of betrayal, while my teacher didn’t look like she believed me.

“Hey.”

And the same applied to Hayeon.

“Sijoon. In what world is there an illness that can be cured by kissing girls? You just wanted to date a lot before you die, didn’t you?”

“I’m not some maniac for girls, why would I do that before I die?”

“You are crazy about girls, aren’t you? Ugh! You did those things to me while fooling around with another girl! Who did you kiss first? Her or me?”

“…I can’t lie.”

I turned my head and refused to answer.

In terms of order, Hana came first.

Because it pricked my conscience, I couldn’t lie to Hayeon anymore.

Hayeon wore a blank expression in response to my reaction, then charged at me with a murderous look in her eyes.

“How about dying right now, Han Sijoon? I’ll do it for you. No, let’s die together.”

“W-Wait…I’ll explain the reason, Hayeo…”

Smack!

My voice trailed off due to her head-butting me.

I could sense my vision blurring from the impact.

Why are you still throwing a fit when I told you the truth?

I regretted not being able to say that at the end as I lost consciousness.

 ***

Where am I…?

Having barely come to my senses, a brightly lit room came into view.

Based on the structure of the room, I assumed it to be the dormitory.

It was dark outside the window, but there was only one person I knew, who would keep the lights on this bright in the evenings.

“Hayeon. Untie this.”

“No. Why would I?”

Hayeon was sitting on a chair staring at me as my arms were tied to the bed.

I could guess that I had been transferred over to her after I passed out.

What did she say to the teacher?

Did Shin Sihwa allow Hayeon to take me?

She liked watching our current situation which was like a trashy drama, so I had an inkling that she would’ve allowed her to take me.

What was the last thing I said…?

I was plainly caught cheating on Hayeon while making excuses.

Then we talked about my lifespan.

That’s right. Lifespan.

I had mustered up so much courage to say it.

Hayeon believed what I said about my lifespan, but only half of it.

“Hayeon. You’ll regret it. I’ll actually die if I don’t kiss girls.”

“Say something that makes sense, Sijoon. You think about it and see if you can believe it?”

Um…

It was unbelievable.

Certainly, kissing someone else to increase your lifespan was less convincing.

I asked Hayeon, “So what are you up to tying me up like this?”

I didn’t have time.

My body would return to normal soon, so I had to target Seolha before that.

Hayeon smiled as she said, “You didn’t keep your promise. An important promise.”

She also added that I even went as far as to lie. 

She sat down on top of my body which was lying on the bed.

“I don’t forgive you for cheating on me.”

“I was forced to do it because I didn’t want to die…”

“I was also forced to tie you up because you cheated on me.”

Hayeon took my words childishly.

Only at times like these, she’d speak in an irrefutable manner.

There’s only a week left… What should I do?

I tried to escape by shaking my arms, but it was physically impossible by how meticulously she tied it.

She peered down at me as she called my name.

“Han Sijoon.”

“What.”

Her long black hair brushed my cheeks.

Then she whispered in my ear.

“I don’t forgive you, so repay me for the amount of times you cheated on me.”

…It’s going to be really long though if it’s based on the times I cheated.

I swallowed those words and kept it to myself as I replied with an “okay.”

And while I was tied up by Hayeon, there was only one thing I needed to do.

I had to convince Hayeon, who didn’t believe in the method to increase my lifespan, until I succeeded, and get her approval.

To cheat legally and consensually.

“The things you did with that pink girl. Do it to me too.”

To Hayeon, who was like the incarnation of jealousy…

I had to convince her.

Footnotes

1Terminally ill and pregnant sounds similar in Korean which was why Hana got it mixed up.