The Law of Webnovels - Chapter 187

Chapter 187: Chapter 187

.

A calm voice continued.

“It’s a little different from self-justification. Self-justification begins with the desire to believe in yourself, at least in your own right; however, he doesn’t.”

“That means…” With that said, I leaned myself a bit toward him. Eun Jiho kept on.

“I don’t get him at all. He’s too agile for me to get the hang of him.”

I furrowed my brows, and so did Eun Jiho as if he felt pained too. He continued his words.

“I’ve tried to have a conversation with him, but he surrounds himself with a few layers, some kind of a defense system. The system has the ability to answer all kinds of questions properly to make them look like what he wants. His brain can run several systems like that simultaneously and still maintains his everyday life as if nothing’s happening.”

“…”

“Though I try to approach him through conversations, it never works. He speaks this way and that way; still, what he says makes sense but sounds a little strange. It’s not cohesive, you know, as if a machine just chooses a proper answer to the situation. There isn’t any true heart in them, at least, from what I see.”

After the remark, Eun Jiho swallowed his breath in pain before slowly spitting out a sigh.

‘Khoff!’ With a cough, he turned his head to cast a glance at the air.

“I think he considers himself as the vilest person in the world,” said Eun Jiho slowly.

“…”

“Wasn’t he so calculative, but meticulous, affectionate, and generous too? You also sensed those things sometimes, didn’t you?”

I just nodded in silence.

I did feel those before. Based on Jooin’s specific action, there existed his sharp side that would suddenly appear like a monster in a nightmare after rending his usual, gentle, and generous character.

Sweeping his hair back, Eun Jiho continued.

“And the fact that he always marks the wrong numbers in every subject test means that he’s doing it on purpose. It doesn’t make sense that he always commits the same mistake after all, does it?”

“That’s true…”

I often wondered when Woo Jooin ran toward me and cheerfully spoke about his misnumbering in the test sheet after the exam. At some point, I even thought that Jooin might have attempted to mismark the answers in every subject test intentionally so that he could change his GPA, so I wouldn’t feel so low.

Biting my lips tightly, I waited for Eun Jiho to continue.

“He doesn’t even want anyone to know how smart he is, almost desperately. Maybe it’s either the two; he detests the fact that he’s just too smart or fears if others may exploit him again once they find out that he has a long head.”

“Gosh…”

“He doesn’t look into himself, nor does he try to do that. He’s just terrified of revealing himself straightforwardly to others. Since he’s considering himself as the vilest person in the world, how can he show his true color to others?”

A catastrophic silence hung inside the room for quite a while. I didn’t know what to say, so I just raised my hand and put it on my cheek while standing still.

How long did the silence take place? Eun Jiho then broke the ice. He finally directed his jet-black eyes on me and quietly detached his lips.

“I didn’t bring this up for you to sympathize or take care of him more… since you already would have a hunch.”

“Yeah.”

“I just want you to… geez… Khoff! Khoff!”

Heaving a sigh, Eun Jiho coughed again. ‘It has been quiet for too long,’ I thought. Looking at him bursting into a cough, I felt my vigor dissipating. I stretched out my hand and tapped his back.

When his coughing fit ceased, at last, he raised his head to see me. The glare inside his coal-black eyes was so desperate that I felt a bit strange when he did so.

His voice then scattered away heavily to the bottom of the room.

“In some way, you are the only person whom Woo Jooin saved with his superb memory that he loathes.”

* * *

The garden in Eun Jiho’s mansion looked like the way I imagined, an irregular mockup under the bright sunset. Snake-Like bent bushes, coniferous leaves rising sharply into the sky, and outlandishly colorful rocks placed here and there… A pool of broken air was on the lake that had a few caved-in parts.

Looking at the scenery with my hands shoved into my pockets, I took my step at a slow pace. Eun Jiho was still under the cold, so I was alone as I trekked their vast garden.

Recalling the conversations I had with Eun Jiho, I grimaced. Usually, I would understand his remarks clearly. We also had many things in common such as our characters and preferences; however, when he talked about something like that, Eun Jiho truly felt like a different person.

The only person whom Woo Jooin saved with his superb memory…

What passed by my sight was the memory of that cold and snowy winter day.

Eun Jiho was walking with Yoo Chun Young’s coat around his shoulders while feeling better in the freezing cold, whereas Yoo Chun Young moved his steps with an expressionless face regardless of the snow falling on his short-sleeved shirt. Eun Hyung was concerned about the shoes I was wearing, and Ban Yeo Ryung walked beside me while holding my arm tight. She was wearing the school uniform even until that evening. The memory that I finally reached after rewinding those scenes was a picture of me crouching in front of Woo Jooin’s house.

When I thought about the things that I thought would never leave my side and be part of me vanishing without a trace while only the voices of the ruins and the unknown were left behind, I finally confronted the horror and despair of complete solitude.

In front of Jooin’s house was the place where I was just crouching as I refused to check the last clue in my lonesome. When I heard Jooin’s voice, I saw that his face was so dimly visible that I thought it was all just a dream.

‘That day, I called you for six hours.’

The day before the high school entrance ceremony, he said those words to me under the bright sunset.

Jooin never told the other kids that he misnumbered the answers in every subject. It was when Eun Jiho said, ‘It ain’t your true ability,’ that Jooin finally confessed to only us what he actually did.

Woo Jooin’s character that others could see would differ from what lay within him. They would think of him as a normal, popular, and naïve boy who always made others smile with his grin and had a bright air floating around him as if he just got out of the morning kitchen. Perhaps that was what Woo Jooin might have expected others to perceive him as.

What would it mean if he couldn’t love himself regardless of acquiring everyone’s lovestruck look?

‘I never saw a kid as creepy as you! Don’t look at me as if you know everything!’

He couldn’t reveal his true colors but just surrounded himself with layers of answering machine-like things in discomfort to encase himself within his shell.

I clenched my fist.

‘I don’t get him at all.’

Eun Jiho’s words reverbed around me and were quietly fused into the evening sky. I suddenly paused my steps.

There was a shallow puddle right beside my foot. Dropping my gaze at the plash, I detached my lips.

“I… kind of get him…”

I murmured with downcast eyes.

Article 17. A Courage Test is Essential in Summer! (Part 2)

It was eight in the evening, but I found it a bit strange to see that there were many houses with their lights off. When Ban Yeo Ryung and I entered a dark alley, we began to walk while firmly attaching our shoulders to each other.

She was tightly grabbing my arm with a rarely pale face.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“It’s just too dark; I’m a little scared.”

With that said, Ban Yeo Ryung closed her pale lips. Standing beside each other in a dark alley, something struck me as I looked at her downcast eyelashes.