That Face Is the Problem - vanish into fiction

“Jeong Mr. Jae-gyeong… no, Mr. Jae-gyeong.”

He had only dropped the surname and called him by his first name, yet he felt goosebumps rise all over his body. Even so, Da-sol did not stop. He wanted to say something nice. Something that would make Jae-gyeong happy to hear.

“…Do you want to go eat stir-fried pork and tonkatsu? I’ll treat you.”

However, these were things Da-sol liked, not things Jae-gyeong liked.

Wait, what does Jeong Jae-gyeong like?

As far as Da-sol knew, the things Jeong Jae-gyeong liked were… Seo Da-in, goddamn it, his sister, and his first love who he thought was a forest fairy, the middle-schooler Seo Da-sol.

“Thinking about it makes me furious. How the hell am I that similar to Seo Da-in?”

Others all said they looked alike, but in Da-sol’s opinion, he was much more beautiful. He had just stayed quiet because he didn’t want to admit that fact out loud. He also felt like, so what if he was prettier than his sister? But Da-sol being prettier was just a fact.

Now that he knew he was the first love, he felt less annoyed… but he didn’t like the fact that Seo Da-in was sandwiched in between. Da-sol crossed his arms and tapped his toe against the floor.

That wasn’t all. The fact that nothing else popped up when he tried to think of what Jae-gyeong liked also bothered him.

“What does Jeong Jae-gyeong like…?”

Stir-fried pork or tonkatsu were just things he ate because he followed Da-sol, and apart from that, he had never seen Jae-gyeong suggest eating anything first.

He would always just nod listlessly, saying “Yes…,” and let himself be dragged around by Da-sol; he had never once told him what he liked.

“…It’s something that I never even tried to know. To be precise.”

Suddenly, Da-sol’s mood soured. Why was Jeong Jae-gyeong happy doing everything I wanted to do anyway? I never asked him anything, never showed interest, and only cursed at him. But why does he like trash like me…?

He looked in the mirror one more time and realized the answer. A face as pretty as a painting, a lovely aura (whenever he wasn’t making a face), and a small, compact physique. Even though he worked out, the muscles hidden beneath his clothes only added to his “fairy-like” quality.

“…Because I’m pretty.”

The answer was in the mirror. Da-sol, feeling a sudden surge of irritation, kicked the mirror. The full-length mirror shattered from the bottom up with a crash.

The emotion he was feeling now was similar to the feeling he had when he realized Jae-gyeong liked Da-in. Should I just draw these broken mirror shards across my face? Even if my face were ruined, would Jeong Jae-gyeong still like me?

However, soon Da-sol irritably went to lie down on his bed. He didn’t even glance at the mirror shards scattered across the floor.

If Da-sol really showed up having self-harmed his face, Jae-gyeong would burst into tears first. He would scream, asking why he did it, who did it to him, and telling him to hurry up and self-heal. Jeong Jae-gyeong was the kind of person who, if Da-sol said he didn’t want to, would stubbornly set his jaw and bring a potion to pour over his face.

Was that all? He was a person who would firmly draw a line if Da-sol blamed himself, and a person who would squeeze out every possible good trait Da-sol had, beyond just being pretty, to tell him about. And once Da-sol seemed a bit calmer, he would probably make heavenly stir-fried pork to distract him.

Right, he didn’t know what Jeong Jae-gyeong liked. He didn’t know his tastes in food, fashion, perfume, or dungeon items, but Da-sol did know what kind of person he was.

Jae-gyeong was kind and tender. He cried a lot and had a soft heart. He was easily hurt (both inside and out, physically and emotionally). He was a tank who got injured more than anyone else in dungeons, to the point where it was a mystery why he didn’t carry a personal healer with him.

Even if his voice was small and faint, he said what he needed to say, and if there was something he swallowed and couldn’t say, his expression would turn sullen. He had very beautiful gray eyes, and even though he should have been popular because of his handsome, tall face, he was so shy that he didn’t even notice the seductive gazes directed at him.

He had low self-esteem, no confidence, and because of that, he was someone who whipped, polished, and refined himself all the more. That was Jeong Jae-gyeong. Da-sol had fallen for him slowly because Jae-gyeong was that kind of person.

He could just get to know his tastes from now on. Looking at it this way, Da-sol wasn’t exactly “trash” who had swallowed Jae-gyeong whole without knowing anything about him.

But there was still one thing that left him feeling uneasy. It wasn’t that Da-sol liked Jae-gyeong without knowing anything, but… what exactly did Jae-gyeong see in Da-sol that made him like him?

“Is it really just the face, that fucking bastard…?”

Da-sol jumped up from the bed again. His eyes turned toward the mirror shards scattered on the floor.