NN 08

Chapter 8 That’s What Youth Is Like

Cambridge had more than a hundred libraries.

There were libraries in each of the thirty-one colleges, as well as in every faculty, department, and graduate school. The Central Research Library was an institution with the right to automatically receive books published in the United Kingdom.

Naturally, Cambridge students could use all of them. After Elias ran away, the place I ended up at was the library of King’s College.

Whenever I got a question wrong on a test, my mother often said that I always ruined things by acting recklessly.

Going to the King’s College library had been an impulsive decision. My thesis was already doomed anyway, so I had decided to get by with some theory and call it a day.

“I should’ve just gone to Emma College.”

Coming to the library in uncomfortable clothes had probably been a bad idea. A tight skirt and stockings that squeezed my legs. My shoes were binding my feet like the Golden Headband around Sun Wukong’s head.

Because of that, even though I had opened Foucault’s The History of Sexuality, which was closely related to the topic of my thesis, I couldn’t read a single word.

In the end, I took off my shoes and placed them under my feet like a footrest. Even though I had escaped the Golden Headband, my already swollen feet were throbbing.

What was I going to do on the way back? Was there somewhere along the way that sold slippers?

Just then, bzzzz.

The phone I had placed on the desk rang. Because it was vibrating against the wooden surface, it made a loud rattling sound in the quiet library.

I hurriedly grabbed the phone with both hands. I felt as if everyone inside the library was staring at me.

Ah, this was the worst. Who was it?

Annoyed, I scrolled down to check the notification at the top.

[Testosterone Mind Reader: When are you going to have coffee with me?]

It was a completely unexpected name.

“Come to think of it, did he say he would text me?”

I accidentally muttered to myself, and once again I felt the sharp gazes of the people around me.

“Sorry, sorry.”

I bowed repeatedly and quickly left the reading room.

I sat on a bench outside the reading room and checked the message from Teto Man again. It was because of the profile picture I had briefly seen in the notification bar.

“I didn’t see it wrong.”

There seemed to be strangely a lot of exposed skin. Sure enough, Teto Man’s profile picture showed him shirtless, wearing only swim trunks.

“Is this what they call chocolate abs?”

Below his broad shoulders, his pectoral muscles looked like the wings of a stingray. Under those wings, between his ribs, his abs were cracked like a drought-stricken field and carved into a clear six-pack.

Healthy skin, along with a refreshing smile with his eyes half-closed. Honestly, wasn’t this man closer to the social sexual signifier I was looking for than Elias?

As I quietly stared down at the picture, the Who’sApp notification rang once more. Teto Man’s name appeared in the message preview.

[Testosterone Mind Reader: Ah, getting ignored kind of hurts.]

He was blatantly asking for a reply.

A ray of hope appeared for the unreadable philosophy book and the thesis that had crashed without an answer.

They say to use a chicken instead of a pheasant when you cannot have a pheasant, but I actually liked chicken better. Pheasant meat was dry and tasteless.

“Let the player enter.”

I released my fingers over the phone and replied to Teto Man. It was probably the positive message he had been waiting for.

[Let’s have coffee. Right now.]

The reply came almost immediately after I sent the message. Not only that, we made plans in an instant.

[Testosterone Mind Reader: You’re at King’s College right now? Perfect. I’m at St. John’s College. I’ll be in front of the main gate by eight.]

St. John’s College had long been known as a place where many rich kids belonged.

In June, during May Week, they sometimes held parties with dress codes, as well as formal dinners where guests attended in proper suits.

The swimming pool from his profile picture came back to mind. Now that I thought about it, it had looked pretty nice. Was it somewhere in the Mediterranean or something?

I spent some time in the library hallway before heading toward the main gate of King’s College at the appointed time.

As soon as I crossed the barricade and stepped outside, I heard the voice I had heard that morning.

“Philosophy.”

I turned toward the voice and saw Teto Man standing there. He was leaning his hips against a black car, and as soon as he saw me, he waved.

His car was a black Mercedes. A shiny, large car that suited the sex appeal he showed in his profile picture perfectly.

Ha. But I really had a problem.

I was sure I had heard his name before, but what was it? Looking at his face made it even harder to remember. It had been a common name.

“What? Why are you dressed up so pretty? I almost didn’t recognize you.”

Teto Man smiled casually.

White teeth. White… ash.

I vaguely remembered that his name was something like Ash.

I limped over to him.

“Hi, Ash.”

“Why are you limping? Are you hurt?”

“Ah, my feet hurt because of the shoes.”

He glanced at my shoes and ran one hand down his face. Then he rolled his eyes and looked directly into mine.

“1.5 inches?”

He seemed to be talking about the height of the heels.

Four centimeters. They really were 1.5-inch heels.

When I nodded, Teto Man shrugged.

Did he think I was making a big deal out of such a small height?

My lips pouted.

“Get in first.”

Teto Man opened the car door for me. I felt a little uncomfortable about getting into a stranger’s car.

Teto Man quietly looked down at my eyes, gently pushed my shoulder toward the car, and said lightly,

“Don’t be nervous. I don’t bite.”

Was he really a mind reader?

In the end, I got into the passenger seat as if I had been swept away by a wave.

After closing the car door, Teto Man hopped over to the driver’s seat. Somehow, he was holding a large pair of sneakers.

“Put these on, at least.”

They were perfectly spotless white sneakers, just like his teeth.

Cambridge was a city where night came earlier than in Korea. If we wanted to drink coffee and talk at this hour, we had no choice but to use a bar.

Of course, there was no way I could have known that. That was just Teto Man’s claim.

He and I headed to a small bar across from Emma College. Fortunately, the menu also had non-alcoholic drinks.

“Milk tea.”

“Two milk teas.”

After ordering from the server, Teto Man placed both elbows on the table. One of his arms was about as thick as a tree trunk.

When that huge body leaned against the table, half of the tiny round table was filled.

“I was surprised when you suddenly asked to meet.”

Teto Man said it theatrically. I tilted my head.

“Were you really surprised? You don’t look very surprised.”

His thick eyebrows rose like mountains.

“No, I really was surprised. Most people try to contact me first in situations like this.”

“Really?”

What kind of situation was “like this”?

I was certain that Teto Man was romantically interested in me. He had come right away when I called him, and he kept trying to put his body close to mine.

Then was this a date?

“This is a date, right?”

I didn’t want to leave any doubts.

Teto Man’s eyes widened as he stood up to receive the milk tea from the server.

“You really are unusual, you know that?”

“I hear that a lot.”

I took the milk tea and took a sip. Its rich taste made my body relax.

Teto Man put his elbows back on the table and smiled with his eyes.

“Why did you want to meet today? Because you wanted to go on a date with me quickly?”

I nodded as I put down my cup.

“What? Really?”

He pulled the corners of his mouth up brightly, and his eyes began to sparkle. His expression became even more confident.

“Yeah. You’re romantically attracted to me, aren’t you? I wanted to respond to that. I’m kind of in a hurry.”

“Wow.”

Teto Man covered his mouth with one hand and quietly looked down at me. His eyes, curved into half-moons, were just as refreshing as they had been in his profile picture.

His face was definitely closer to the kind of social sexual signifier I was looking for. With someone like this, I felt like he could give me that strange, ticklish sensation I had felt through Elias.

“To be honest, I spent a lot of time wondering whether I should message you. You were so indifferent at Mutz. You didn’t exactly look interested in me. But you were in a hurry? You’re really cute.”

Teto Man chuckled and brought his milk tea to his lips. For some reason, it felt like he was treating all of this as a joke.

“I’m not joking. I really am in a hurry. I have to write my thesis.”

“Thesis? What does a thesis have to do with dating?”

“I’m not just looking for a date. I’m looking for a muse for my thesis topic.”

“Oh, that perfume. You said you were going to use it to pick up a guy, right? Did the plan work? Ah, if it worked, why would you be here with me?”

I shook my head.

“That’s right. It failed. But how did you know I was trying to buy perfume to pick up a guy? Are you reading my mind right now, too?”

No.

If he had been reading my mind, he would have noticed that I had been rejected. His question had made me think of Elias’s face.

It didn’t seem like he suffered from some tragedy where his superpowers were uncontrollable, like in science-fiction movies.

After hearing me, Teto Man stared at my face before suddenly clutching his stomach and bursting out laughing.

“Wow, this is killing me.”

“Why? What?”

“Philosophy, you really don’t know?”

“Know what?”

“When you were choosing the perfume, you kept talking to yourself. ‘Do guys really like this? No, I think they would like that one instead,’ and so on.”

Ding.

My head rang as if I had been hit.

I stared blankly at him, and he laughed so hard that he nearly fell backward.

“I thought guys would hate that perfume, but I was wrong.”

“Huh?”

After laughing for a long time, he finally caught his breath and wiped away his tears.

Then his bamboo-forest-green eyes stared straight through me.