A Wolf in the Rabbit's Hole - Chapter 11.1
The administrative TA didn’t believe it at all, even hearing that. His eyes lit up, as if finding it even more amusing.
“But TA Hong, if you really hated it, you’d have called the police long ago. With your personality, there’s no way you’d stay still with a bodied guy like that hanging around.”
Seo In didn’t bother to answer and turned his gaze to the monitor. The administrative TA’s face said he had more teasing left in him, but then the TA office door burst open.
“Senior.”
It was Cha Tae Seong. Today, as ever, he stood filling the TA office doorway.
In his hand was a coffee carrier, and he’d thrown his department jacket loosely over a black hoodie. He’d just cooled down from exercise, and heat wafted from his neck.
The administrative TA’s eyes went wide.
“Wow.”
Inside that exclamation was “oh, that’s the guy from the rumor.” Seo In furrowed his brow.
“Hey. Why don’t you knock?”
“I had no hands.”
“You kick the door in if you’re holding coffee?”
“Wouldn’t that be scarier?”
The administrative TA burst out laughing. Cha Tae Seong, as if only now noticing there was someone else, very slowly shifted his gaze. Then his expression froze in an instant.
It was a completely different expression from when he was looking only at his senior in the TA office. A cooled gaze, an indifferent mug, frighteningly so.
“Who’s this?”
The administrative TA reflexively straightened up.
“Ah, hello. I’m from the admin office-.”
“Why are you with senior?”
Seo In cleared his throat.
“Hey. He’s the administrative TA. Don’t interrogate him like that.”
“Ah.”
Cha Tae Seong’s expression relaxed just a little. The administrative TA’s face now said he was half-convinced, in these few short seconds, that the rumors might be true.
“I-I’ll be going. TA Hong, see you later!”
He gathered his file folder and quietly retreated. Just before the door closed, he looked at Seo In once and raised the corner of his mouth. A wordless message of “we’ll talk later.”
The moment the door closed, Seo In let out a sigh.
“See. This is why rumors spread.”
Cha Tae Seong set the coffee on the desk and asked.
“What rumors?”
“The rumor that you follow me around.”
“Isn’t that a fact, not a rumor?”
Seo In raised his head where he was.
“Cha Tae Seong.”
“Yes.”
“You really don’t know how to keep your mouth shut.”
Tae Seong’s face said he didn’t know what he’d done wrong. He stared at Seo In with the expression of a wronged wolf pup.
“No, it’s not a lie, is it? I follow you because I like you, Senior.”
“Even if it’s true, why would you go admitting it yourself, you crazy bastard.”
“Why?”
“Why do you think so? Because it’s embarrassing, that’s why.”
At those words, Cha Tae Seong closed his mouth for a moment. Then he asked, very seriously.
“Is being associated with me that embarrassing to you?”
Seo In was momentarily at a loss for words. This was the problem. This bastard always took the words he meant to brush off lightly and met them head-on. If you dodged, he followed the dodge. If you struck hard, he swallowed the strike and bit back.
Avoiding Tae Seong’s subdued gaze, Seo In fumbled it away.
“That’s not what I mean.”
“Then what do you mean?”
“I mean it’s too obvious. It bothers me that everyone at school only looks at us.”
“I’m the type that’s just naturally obvious. It shows even when I try to hide it, so what do I do?”
With that body and that face and those tattoos, he couldn’t hide. On top of that, he couldn’t hide how his expression relaxed the moment he saw Seo In. What was more infuriating was that, even knowing that, he didn’t seem to have much intention of hiding it.
“Haa…….”
Seo In swept a hand over his face.
“Anyway, tone it down a bit at school. At the cafeteria, in the hallways, at the library.”
“I was being quiet.”
“Half your body sticking out from behind a pillar isn’t quiet. You were behind the humanities building yesterday too, weren’t you?”
“……Then I’ll hide completely.”
“That’s scarier, you know? What are you, on some undercover misison?”
“Then I’ll hide just visibly enough.”
Seo In closed his mouth for a few seconds. He wouldn’t listen. No, he listened, but interpreted it however suited him.
“You really have a gift for driving a person crazy.”
Tae Seong smiled, just barely. Like a kid who’d heard praise.
“Is that a good thing?”
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