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Ask anyone in the present, and it is likely that the first thing that they would say is that it is a massive honor to be a student of the top universities in Korea. From when he was young, those are the words that have already been drilled to his head.
It’s the secret to success.
If you manage to do this, then you will become rich someday. Isn’t that the reason why so many students try their chances of getting into university?
Actually, it wasn’t all as glorious as it was said to be. Even the top universities in the country have their own issues. It was already a miracle that Cheong Myeong, branded a troublemaker even when he was younger, managed to get into one of them due to his discreet smarts. However, the endless workload and the frustrating professors have been leaving him with half a mind to forget about it and just drop out.
He really did consider it already. Multiple times. But he knows his brother was very proud of the fact that he passed the entrance exam that only has a seven percent passing rate and it was the only reason why he would just sigh heavily and barely manage to get into his classes before he misses too much of the lecture.
Even more miserable thing about this: university takes away his time. Too much of his time.
No! Because of academics, he can’t even play the games he used to play for endless hours in a day! It was really ridiculous! The day his ranking on the character he mains slipped from the top list, he agonized and spent the entire night trying to get back his position. When the next day came and he found his effort all for nothing, he deleted the app out of rage and vowed never to open it again until he had enough time in his hands again.
When that happens, those smug bastards on the top rankings better be prepared, goddammit!!
In other words, it means he would need a crazy commitment.
Thankfully there’s a little more time lately because midterms had just ended. During off days, Cheong Myeong would only laze around in the house, sneaking in alcohol once he was sure that his brother was out the house and drinking to his heart’s content until he passes out until the sun comes up again. He would get scolded the next day, but he would keep doing it anyway.
Tonight, though…it’s a little different.
Cheong Myeong licked his teeth as he quietly made his way down to the kitchen. Although the lights are all turned off, his eyes were easily able to see the interior of the house. He had no trouble moving past the couch and the table, heading straight to the kitchen door and pushing it open.
There was a dry feeling in his mouth. He knew it could only be solved by something sweet.
Grinning happily to himself, he opened the fridge to take a look at what was inside. From what he remembers, Cheong Mun had just done groceries the night before, which means that there could be something that he could have as a midnight snack. The cookies they pack with air and scam the customers with, maybe? If he was lucky, there could even be some brownies from the party that he attended a few nights ago.
Contrary to what he was expecting, there was a far, far greater price waiting for him inside the fridge.
Cheong Myeong’s eyes widened, almost sparkling as he stared at the small snack carefully locked inside an airtight container. He grabbed it with incredible speed and raised it up to get a closer look, with only the light from the open fridge as his light source.
It really was a mooncake! How lucky, ah!
Grinning happily to himself, he shut the fridge again and all but skipped away with the food in between his fingers. His hands were busy prying it out of the container. As soon as he succeeded, he headed to the living room and plopped down the couch, eating the mooncake as soon as he was able to.
It really was delicious. The sweet taste spread through his tongue to his mouth and got rid of the dryness of his throat. He let out a pleased hum and began chewing slowly to savor every bite.
Only after it was all consumed and he was licking off the lingering flavor from his fingers did he stop to think for a while.
Since it was in the fridge, it can belong to anyone. But no one else in this house is very fond of eating mooncakes, if he is excluded from the list. Then surely, it really was for him, right? Right?
Ah, no matter! If Cheong Mun asks tomorrow what happened to it, he will just say he got hungry in the middle of the night and ate it. He should know by now that leaving sweets in the fridge would automatically mean it belongs to Cheong Myeong as well. He is allowed to eat it whenever he feels like munching on something.
After having satisfied his cravings, a feeling of drowsiness crept up to him. Cheong Myeong briefly considered coming back upstairs to sleep inside his room, but he’s passed out enough times in the living room anyway so there was no reason for him to not just go sleep in this place again.
Having decided that, he shrugged and laid down on the couch to sleep.
The darkness embraced him so easily.
“Sahyung.”
Ugh…
And what’s with that weird name?
The call poked at his consciousness. He recognized that voice. It was his other brother, Cheong Jin, right? Cheong Myeong’s eyelids twitch slightly. But as soon as a little bit of the sunlight gets into his eyes, he lets out a heavy groan and tosses the opposite direction.
Since the sun was still glaring that harshly, then isn’t it still too early in the morning? Lately, he’s always had to wake before the sun was high up in the sky because of university. Then, shouldn’t he be allowed to sleep in as much as he wants during his free days?
“Sahyung! Why are you still sleeping in at this time, ah? Wake up!”
The sound pierced in his ears. Frowning with his eyes still closed, he grabbed onto the pillow under his head and firmly grasped it. Then, with shocking strength, they threw it in the direction of whoever was trying to wake him up.
“Aigoo, it’s too early!” he grumbled back, voice deep and laced with drowsiness. “Let me sleep!”
“Are you crazy? That Tang bastard is out here again! Are you going to leave Jangmun Sahyung to deal with him?”
Huh?
Who…just who was this guy talking about?
Actually, Cheong Myeong has a friend in university, but they aren’t close enough to know each other’s relatives. Since he was his only friend due to how everyone would instinctively avoid his sour glare, he automatically assumed that this ‘Tang bastard’ that the voice of Cheong Jin was talking about was the same one from university.
“Tell him to leave.”
“Like that’s happening? That guy doesn’t listen to anyone else but you.”
“Kick him out and lock the door.”
“Sahyung! Just get up, you crazy malko!”
He knew that tone of voice. It was the same tone that Cheong Jin would use whenever he was about to really push him off the bed just to wake him up. Finding himself unable to sleep anymore, Cheong Myeong gave in with a heavy scowl, and opened his eyes.
“By the way, why are you calling me weird names like—”
He froze in the middle of his grumblings.
Cheong Jin’s familiar face stared back at him, arms crossed and looking unimpressed. His hair which he made sure to always cut whenever it was starting to get in his face was unusually long and put into a hairstyle that he’s never seen before. And the weirdest things about it all was the weird clothes he was wearing.
“...”
“Good, you’re up.”
“...Jin, I’m just a little curious, but did you eat something bad today?”
The older person’s face twisted in disbelief and confusion.
“What?”
“What?”
Cheong Myeong scratched his cheek. “Why are you wearing strange things and calling me like that today? Halloween is over, isn’t it?”
“...Sahyung.”
“Sa—what?”
Cheong Jin stares at him with a strange expression.
“Could it be that you’re sick after all?”
“No, but this guy?”
At that moment, Cheong Myeong took the time to look around the entire place and was forcibly shaken out of his drowsy, a bit dazed state that came from just having woken up.
In fact, it was structured in a way that was greatly unfamiliar to him. The window is oddly designed and everywhere seems to have a motif of plum blossoms. Even the outside is vastly different—He wasn’t supposed to be able to see what’s outside because there should be curtains drawn! Why is everything so old-fashioned?!
Everything in this place….doesn’t look like the living room. At all.
Gaping at everything, he slowly turned his head to Cheong Jin who was pondering if he had hit his head in his sleep or not.
Then, he jumped up from bed with such speed that surprised himself.
“Yah, you crazy bastard! How dare you kidnap me in my sleep!”
“What are you talking about, you—”
“Just what is this crazy situation?”
Cheong Myeong was pacing back and forth in the middle of a forest he doesn’t recognize at all.In fact, not only this place, he really doesn’t know where in the world he was. Earlier he asked, and everyone just looked at him strangely, so he ended up getting annoyed and hitting their heads. Worst part was that they all acted dramatic when he didn’t even hit them too hard in the first place.
“No…I should be home. Where is this…?”
Earlier, someone who looks too much like Cheong Mun had scolded him for hitting everyone. Even his way of speaking and moving was too similar! How can one person exist in two places? It doesn’t make sense at all. He tried to rationalize by thinking maybe his brothers had just gotten so tired of him lately that they decided to pull this prank on him, but he cannot imagine how they’d be able to move him from one place to another in his sleep without waking him up.
He lets out a frustrated noise.
“Mount Hua, right?” he mumbled. “That’s what Jin...Jin? Jin's lookalike? That's what he said earlier. This place is Mount Hua…”
If it was Mount Hua…he might not specialize with geography, but as far as he was aware, Mount Hua was a place that exists in China. It was a little too far from their house in Korea. No, it was an entire country away.
How come he’s here?
There’s one more option in his mind, but he doesn’t really want to consider it.
In the past, that university friend of his would tell him about the stories that his niece would share to him whenever she had the time. Tang Soso was someone who managed to find interest in reading men’s love stories. She gets so enthusiastic about them that she would really spoil the entire plot to her uncle, who would tell them to Cheong Myeong in turn, only because he finds the latter’s expressions hilarious when recounting them.
Anyway, one of the stories that was once told to him was about how the main character died in the first few pages due to eating expired food, and then being transmigrated to the world of the novel he was reading about.
It was impossible. In the first place, Cheong Myeong wasn’t passionate about any book at all, so it wouldn’t make sense.
But…if he was brought here because he carelessly grabbed that mooncake…
In the first place, he doesn’t know how long that had been there. He keeps his alcohol stash in a safer, more secure place. So he hasn’t opened the fridge in a long time.
No, that can't be it.
…Right?
Just then, there was some rustling from behind him.
“Uh?”
A figure appeared from behind the bushes. It was one that Cheong Myeong immediately recognized, but didn’t at the same time.
The face of his university friend, Tang Bo, smiled at him when their eyes made contact. But there was something eerily strange about his smile that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.
“It’s this guy now…”
“Dosa Hyung-nim, have you been avoiding me?” Tang Bo asks, taking a step closer to him still with that weird expression on his face.
What is this? Why is this so weird, ah? Someone who has the same face as Tang Bo, the younger brat that would cling to his arm whenever their free times would match, looks at him with impossibly soft eyes that he almost threw a punch to his face and ran away.
He takes a subconscious step back, noticing how the movement made the other person pause.
“...Hyung-nim? Is there something wrong?”
Every single bone in his body was telling him that if he allowed that person to move another step, he would greatly regret everything in his life and would end up biting off his own tongue to kill himself.
“Stay right there.”
“Ah? But Hyung-nim, we haven’t seen each other in a while! Didn’t you miss me?”
“Crazy….”
This person seems clingier than the one he knows? Cheong Myeong doesn’t know how that was even possible, but he found himself taking another step back.
“...Dosa Hyung-nim?”
“What?”
“Is everything okay?”
He tried not to flinch, surprised at how it was immediately picked up on. Cheong Jin took a few minutes of talking with him before he noticed something was going on, but this lookalike got it so soon?
Thanks for asking, by the way, but no. He woke up somewhere that he cannot understand, of course nothing is fine!
Much to his surprise, Tang Bo suddenly appeared next to him, grabbed his hand, and planted a kiss on the back of his hand.
“...”
Tang Bo grinned a little, oblivious to how Cheong Myeong’s thoughts just came to a screeching halt, loud alarms of HUH???? repeatedly playing in his head.
“Hyung-nim seems more insistent on avoiding me today. Did this little brother do something wrong?”
“...”
“I promise I will try to fix it, so just tell me.”
“...”
“If it’s because I’m taking too long to convince the sect leader to allow me to date Hyung-nim, then I promise I will really try my best to hurry up even more.”
Go…go out with who?!
No, who’s trying to ask out who, you bastard?! Repeat that again? Who? Who?!?!?!?!?
Bang!
He promises he really doesn’t think much about what he was doing whenever his body would move. But at that time, he really didn’t consciously try to do it when his arm shot out to hit the other person’s face so hard that he was sent flying back to the trees with a loud crash.
“...”
“...”
Tang Bo slowly and shakily got up from the cloud of dust that burst around him due to the impact. He smiled at Cheong Myeong as if the entire exchange was a daily occurrence.
“I see Dosa Hyung–nim is in a foul mood today.”
“...”
What a creepy guy!
He didn’t wait for too long. He turned on his heel and ran back to the direction where he came from earlier.
“What?!”
“...”
“NO! Reject it! No matter what, reject it!!”
Cheong Mun and Cheong Jin stared at him blankly, which they’ve been doing ever since he entered that room. The moment they told him about how Tang Bo’s purpose here was to gain there blessing just to…to…….
Date? Daaaaaaate?
Date who? Him? Him and Tang Bo? That guy? That?!?!?!?
No! Have they lost their minds!?
“Absolutely not! I don’t know what’s happening, but never let it happen!”
At that moment, someone barged inside the room again, jumping straight at Cheong Myeong and wrapping his arms around his waist.
Goosebumps rose all over his neck.
“Let me go, you leech-like bastard—!”
“Hyung-nim! What are you doing, ah? I thought you told me to get their blessings first—”
“No! I’m not that crazy! Let go!”
“Hyung?! No, did you finally lose interest in me?!”
“Quit talking and let me go! I will really hit you again!”
“Dosa Hyung-nim!!!”
Cheong Mun and Cheong Jin shared tired glances at each other.
“Did we run out of painkillers?” The sect leader asked.
“Last time I checked, there’s still at most five left. I would see if we can get more though.”
“Thank you, Cheong Jin.”
Cheong Myeong, Tang Bo…truthfully, the other two Mount Hua members don't know what kind of lovers’ quarrel you two got into again, but if you’re going to squabble like this, at least do it outside Cheong Mun’s house? Are you really trying your best to be a pain to everyone else in this sect, ah?
As for Cheong Myeong, he was too busy trying to fight off the sticky overgrown man that managed to stick himself as much as possible to him, eyes teary and pouting heavily.
This place…he can’t deny it anymore, since it’s the only explanation that made sense.
Still, why does the world he ended up in have to be this messed up? Dating his university friend like this? Really?! Are you crazy?! Who made this story, ah? Cheong Myeong would like to have a long and peaceful talk!
No, at this rate…he was afraid that he might forever lose his love for mooncakes!
Cheong Myeong has never really been religious, even when he first took the entrance exam to prestigious universities.
But at that moment, he really, really prayed with all his heart that someone please take him back to his own universe! Please!
Tang Bo lets out another pitiful sob, burying his face in his clothes and crying about how he really was sorry, even though he doesn’t know what he did wrong. The strange combination of herbs, something toxic, and something that was strangely calming (NOT!!) scent that he could not figure out left him lightheaded.
Hyung, Jin…Someone save him!!
He really isn’t ready to be forced into a relationship like this! He swore he would really focus on his studies this time, just…
He’s not ready to be in a relationship, not with such a creepily clingy person, please!
-
End.