A Wolf in the Rabbit's Hole - Chapter 10.2
Tae Seong closed his mouth, but his expression already said everything. The big dog that had been cowed until just now suddenly wore the face of someone who’d won the whole world. If he’d had a tail, it would have been sweeping the floor clean.
Seo In deliberately said coldly.
“Don’t get the wrong idea. Like I said yesterday, I’m not saying I’ll date you or anything.”
“Yes.”
“It’s just.”
Seo In picked his words, then tossed them out.
“There’s nothing to be so deflated about. That part of you was fine.”
Cha Tae Seong’s face relaxed at once.
“Really?”
“Don’t make me say it again.”
“Yes!”
“Your voice.”
“Yes…….”
Tae Seong clamped his mouth shut. But his eyes gleamed even more. It seemed even more dangerous than before. Seo In swallowed a sigh inwardly.
I’m screwed.
As they passed materials in the TA office, whenever Tae Seong shifted his posture, Seo In’s gaze turned downward by instinct, then hurried back up.
Whenever Cha Tae Seong leaned over to hold out coffee, his thighs caught Seo In’s eye for no reason.
Whenever the guy perched on the sofa stretched out his long legs, Seo In frowned without reason.
Tae Seong, not knowing any of it, or maybe pretending not to know, kept calling for his senior.
“Senior, did you have your coffee?”
“I didn’t.”
“I bought coffee too, just in case.”
Seo In unwrapped the coffee Tae Seong bought and the one remaining sandwich, swallowing a sigh.
He had to avoid Cha Tae Seong. Really. Because this was starting to go a little beyond the level of just funny and annoying.
And yet, the moment he bit into the sandwich, he had the thought that it was already too late.
Cha Tae Seong was still sitting in the TA office, and Seo In could no longer brush it off indifferently like before.
Because he kept thinking about it.
* * *
Rumors always spread fast from useless places.
Especially inside a school. Who slept with whom, which department’s TA fought with a professor, which PE student jumped into the fountain drunk.
You never knew who first spread such things, but before you knew it, they’d already made the rounds of a whole building. To someone, it was gossip to chew on, but to the person involved, it was an annoyance that clung like gum to the sole of a shoe.
Hong Seo In had been relatively free of such rumors.
There was the talk that he was wild and promiscuous, but that was mostly true. There was no reason to deny it, and no intention of hiding it. Except that it came with one premise.
‘Hong Seo In never gets serious with anyone.’
That was the conclusion of the rumors around Seo In. Whoever he slept with, whoever he drank with, he ended it lightly. That was comfortable, and it was actually true. A clean one-night stand was Seo In’s taste, over the messiness of mixed feelings.
But lately, the direction of the rumors had gotten a little strange.
“TA Hong.”
“What.”
“Are you dating a PE student?”
Seo In stopped the pen he was holding. The one who’d spoken from the front was the administrative TA from the same building. Seo In slowly raised his head.
“What?”
“No, the rumors are no joke lately.”
“What rumors?”
The administrative TA snickered. He leaned over the desk and lowered his voice.
“They say the statistics TA tamed a PE gangster freshman. The rumor’s spreading that you’ve got him completely on a leash.”
Seo In couldn’t say anything for a few seconds out of sheer disbelief.
“……What?”
“Or the opposite. They say a PE wolf is crazy about you and follows you around like a shadow. Some kids even say they saw him waiting for you behind the humanities building yesterday.”
“Who’s saying that crap?”
“The whole school is talking about it.”
The administrative TA shrugged, as if it were obvious.
“Honestly, I saw it yesterday too. Him standing in front of your TA office door with coffee. He really looked like a gangster, but his bluster only deflated when he looked at you? Like some big dog.”
Seo In drew a deep sigh.
That was the problem. Cha Tae Seong was too obvious. His size, his face, his tattoos, his gait, his gaze, everything he did was loud. On top of that, the way he attached himself had no intention of hiding.
Behind the cafeteria pillar, between the library shelves, on the TA office sofa, in the gym hallway. He seemed to think he was being quiet, but his existence itself was already a rumor factory.
“It’s nothing.”
Seo In cut in coldly.
“We’re not dating, and I didn’t tame him. Some lunatic just latched onto me.”
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