I Don't Recommend a Blunder with a Male Friend (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 16

“What the hell!”

I jolted upright in shock at Ji Seo Jun’s approaching face.

‘Crack.’

Seriously, I heard a walnut-splitting sound, and everything went dark. I finally understood what “lightning flashing before your eyes” really meant.

“Hey! Why’d you suddenly— Ow… ow. It hurts! What if you stand up like that all of a sudden!”

The stars in my vision faded, and clutching my throbbing head, I shouted at Ji Seo Jun.

“It’s because you suddenly shoved your face in mine!”

He kept groaning, clutching his head for a long while. My pain was gradually fading, but Ji Seo Jun was still holding his head.

“You okay?”

“I think I have a concussion.”

“Why? Like, dizzy and nauseous?”

I grabbed Ji Seo Jun’s arm and shook him.

“Don’t shake me! My head’s still ringing.”

I quickly pulled my hand back and stared at him worriedly. We bumped heads the exact same way, yet I was fine while he looked so pained—it made me a little irritated.

“You’re faking it, aren’t you? Huh? Right?”

My inner anger flared up, but seeing his eyes, the flame instantly fizzled out.

“Does it really look like I’m pretending?”

Good grief. When he moved his hand, a bright red bump had formed right in the middle of his forehead.

“Isn’t that going to bruise?”

“What?”

At my words, he jumped out of bed, checked himself in the mirror, then glared back at me.

“Why, why! It’s not my fault! I got startled because you came at me like that,”

I decided to snap out of it. If I caved here, I’d get nagged relentlessly until that soon-to-appear bruise faded completely.

Ji Seo Jun, glaring at me silently, walked out. From the kitchen, I heard rustling—probably trying to get some ice for his head.

I got out of bed and quietly made my way to the living room.

Seeing me, Ji Seo Jun placed an ice pack on his forehead and muttered,

“Almost died using a wish token.”

His words jolted me back to my senses, and I demanded an answer.

“You! Why did you do that just now? Huh?”

“Ha! If you don’t know, forget it.”

Ji Seo Jun sharply turned his head away.

One side of the pants he’d rolled up had come undone and was dragging on the floor. I quickly rolled it back up and stepped closer to him.

“What kind of wish do you use for pranks? Huh? Do you know how much it meant to me that I reissued your wish token…?”

He still refused to look at me.

“Fine! Never mind. Forget the wish token… Ugh. Cancelled.”

I returned to my room and lay down on one side of the wide bed.

My heart was still pounding wildly—apparently, I hadn’t fully calmed down from the shock yet.

I left Ji Seo Jun’s officetel early to change clothes before heading to work. At the front door, Ji Seo Jun, with bedhead spiking up like a magpie’s nest, rubbed his eyes.

“Why leave so early when you could sleep more?”

“Well… anyway… I heard the car arrives next week.”

Why bring up cars all of a sudden? Was he bragging about getting his new car?

“It’s not bragging—I just thought if I had the car already, I could’ve driven you. Text me once you get home.”

Oh, so that was his intention. I rolled my flat eyes back to normal. Then I caught sight of Ji Seo Jun’s forehead.

“Hmm… Should I leave my foundation here for you?”

Realizing why I’d mentioned leaving makeup behind, Ji Seo Jun covered his forehead with his palm.

“No need. Don’t worry about it. Go on, hurry up.”

He pushed me out the door and slammed it shut. I snorted at the closed door.

“That’s exactly why you’re acting all cocky. Tsk.”

Just as I was about to leave after changing clothes at home, Mom came out of her room yawning.

“You good-for-nothing brat!”

“I-I’m heading out.”

Truth be told, I hadn’t told Mom I’d stayed out last night.

Whenever I stayed out, she’d unleash a barrage of nagging from every possible angle… Frankly, I couldn’t stand hearing it. Mom held a firm belief that sleep must happen at home.

When friends invited me for drinks and suggested staying over, I’d say I didn’t want to ask for permission, and they’d tease me:

“Moon Da Yul, you’re more sheltered than I thought.”

The supposedly sheltered Moon Da Yul quickly fled before getting a smack on the back.

My phone kept ringing, but I figured I’d get hit anyway—might as well face it in the evening—so I headed straight to the office.

“Assistant Moon!”

As soon as I arrived at work, Baek In Ha, who’d been unusually attentive to me lately, hurried over.

“What, what is it?”

She glanced around the office, then whispered quietly to me.

“What happened to Researcher Ji Seo Jun’s face?”

Ji Seo Jun’s face? I tilted my head in confusion.

“There’s a huge dark bruise right on his forehead! On a face so handsome it should be designated a national treasure—what on earth happened?”

Does the country even have time for that? National treasure, my foot. I clicked my tongue inwardly.

“Assistant Moon, you don’t know anything about it?”

“Huh?”

Startled by the sudden question, I flinched.

“You and Researcher Ji Seo Jun are close friends, right? I just thought maybe you knew…”

“How would I know? We’re not that close that I know every little thing about him.”

I’m the one who caused that bruise.

I desperately held back the urge to blurt it out and firmly insisted I had no idea. She looked disappointed but nodded and returned to her seat.

My forehead, reflected in the small mirror on my desk, was just shiny. I pulled out oil-blotting sheets from my bag and pressed them firmly.

Because I’d woken up unusually early today, I couldn’t focus at all in the morning. Sneaking glances at the team leader, I finally picked up my phone.

There was a message.

[Lend me that foundation.]

It was from Ji Seo Jun.

Didn’t Baek In Ha also grab me this morning, making a fuss? Apparently, Ji Seo Jun was quite bothered by the bruise drawing everyone’s attention.

Though I’d really rather not meet him at lunch, I still had a conscience—I made plans to give him the foundation.

“In Ha, I’ll have lunch separately today.”

“Huh?”

We didn’t always eat together, but usually, I joined her. So I asked for her understanding about this sudden lunch plan.

“Could it be… with Researcher Ji Seo Jun…?”

“Well… yeah, I guess so.”

“Um, Assistant… Can I come along too?”

Her request made me a little uncomfortable. Eating together wasn’t an issue, but Ji Seo Jun was the problem.

Whenever I brought someone to meet him, he’d usually ignore them completely, as if they didn’t exist.

Even though he was the one in the wrong, I always ended up apologizing for him.

“Um… I think it might be tough. Sorry, In Ha.”

“Oh, no! I suddenly asked you—that’s my fault. Ha ha.”

She smiled brightly as if it didn’t matter, but Baek In Ha couldn’t hide her disappointment.

“Aren’t you coming soon?”

I spotted Ji Seo Jun sitting at a table in the restaurant, covering his forehead with one hand as he called for me.

I shot him a quick glare and walked toward his table.

“Here.”

As soon as I sat down, I opened my makeup pouch and handed him the foundation I carried in small amounts for touch-ups.

“Got a mirror?”

I passed him the tiny mirror from my pouch and asked.

“Are people staring a lot? You should’ve just taken it when I offered it this morning.”

He seemed to hear me—he squeezed out a generous amount of foundation and smeared it thickly all over his forehead.

“Hey! You can’t do it like that!”

I stood up and sat down right next to him.

“Put your forehead closer.”

I held his face and gently patted the foundation over the bruised area.

“It hurts!”

“That’s how you make it not noticeable!”

Luckily, Ji Seo Jun’s fair skin matched my foundation shade almost perfectly. So focused on blending it seamlessly that I forgot our food had arrived, the bruise now looked completely natural.

“Look. All fixed! Handsome as ever!”

I held up the mirror to show him his perfected forehead.

Ji Seo Jun turned his head this way and that, then nodded in satisfaction.

I returned to my seat and scooped up some kimchi stew.

“Now you get it, right? My head’s thicker than this pork!”

I picked up a modest piece of pork from the kimchi stew with my chopsticks.

“So if you pull that prank even once more, I won’t let it slide.”

Still annoyed by the bruise, Ji Seo Jun pressed the spot repeatedly with his long fingers, then shamelessly opened his mouth.

“What prank?”

Play dumb after eating kimchi stew? Or did he know all along that I couldn’t bring myself to say those words?

“That— yesterday. You. That.”

“Yesterday? What?”

His utterly innocent face made my insides boil.

“You suddenly shoved your face into mine yesterday!”

I could still hear my heart pounding from the shock.

“That? That wasn’t a prank.”

I lowered my spoon, which had been piled high with rice.

“Haha. That’s way too harsh of a prank.”

Ji Seo Jun frowned.

“Haven’t you seen that movie?”

“No.”

What a boring guy.

I’d tried quoting a famous movie line to avoid awkwardness, but he hadn’t even seen it. Embarrassed, I picked up my spoon again.

“It wasn’t a prank. I’ve never used a wish token as a joke—not even once.”

The kimchi stew had boiled down so much it was almost reduced. Ji Seo Jun turned off the portable burner and piled a generous helping of pork into my bowl.

“Eat first. I can’t let you leave hungry—what if something bad happens to Moon Da Yul who thinks skipping meals is the end of the world?”

Delicious kimchi stew, generously served by Ji Seo Jun, sat before me. Without thinking, I began shoveling it into my mouth.

After that, we ate silently—me focused solely on the stew, not even glancing his way.

Leaving the restaurant, I watched Ji Seo Jun’s back as he turned away coolly, saying we’d meet again in the evening, and suddenly wondered about his true intentions.

If it wasn’t a prank, then what exactly was his act yesterday?

Why did he attach a wish token to such a thing?

With this brain of mine, I doubted I’d ever figure it out.

[People who do that kind of thing as a joke deserve a good beating on a rainy day.] [What if it wasn’t a joke?] [Then it probably means he’s interested.] [But what if there wasn’t a single sign of interest?] [Agh, I don’t know!]

While drafting a travel itinerary for a researcher attending a seminar in Europe, I took a break and messaged Dr. Know-It-All, Love Expert Lee Ra.

I’d disguised my colleague’s story as my own, but only got unsatisfying answers. After my endless questions, Lee Ra posted an angry emoticon and vanished.

“How should I know something even the doctor doesn’t know?”

“What doctor?”

Baek In Ha, stretching beside me, had overheard my muttering and asked.

“My friend’s basically an expert in love… So when I asked her something and she said she didn’t know, I started wondering if my question was some legendary unsolvable mystery.”

“What did you ask?”

We’d known each other for a while, and once, during a game with friends, they made a bet. The guy who won used the wish token as an excuse to suddenly try initiating physical contact.

After my brief explanation, Baek In Ha put a hand to her chin, listened seriously, then nodded.

“That’s definitely it.”

“That’s what?”

“That guy likes her. Right?”

“But the guy showed absolutely no signs of it.”

“Hmm… isn’t that girl totally oblivious?”

“Huh? Oblivious? That’s kind of harsh…”

“What?”

“Oh, nothing! Haha. Go on.”

“Maybe the guy’s liked her all along, but she never noticed. Then something ‘clicks,’ he decides to make a move, and only then does that utterly clueless—uh, I mean, that girl go, ‘Huh? What’s this?’ Or worse, she still doesn’t catch on. Tsk tsk. Poor guy.”

Her reasoning sounded so plausible, it really caught my attention.

Should I be laying out a welcome mat?

When I stared at her, wide-eyed, Baek In Ha suddenly looked apologetic.

“Wait, that girl isn’t someone close to you, is she? Did I say something too harsh? Ha ha.”

“No! Ha ha. I’m just really perceptive, so I can’t even imagine being in that kind of situation. Ha ha.”

She grinned at my words, and all I could do was stupidly grin back.