This World is too Cruel to Men – Chapter 64

Anyway, the entrance ceremony day and the first day of school passed like that, and in the blink of an eye, the second day arrived.

“Hey, are you ready?”

“Ah, just a moment.”

Hearing that, I leaned against the wall and waited silently, and before long, the firmly closed door opened, and something flew towards me.

I instinctively reached out and caught what turned out to be a snack covered in scribbled letters.

“What is this?”

Feeling taken aback, I turned to Yoonseo, who had just walked out, and asked. Her response was casual.

“No… You probably didn’t get to eat since you woke up early. So I brought you that.”

“Did you buy it because it looked interesting? Are you dumping it on me because it doesn’t taste like what you expected?”

“…You wanna die? If you’re not going to eat it, just give it back.”

As she said that while swatting her arm like a cat, I raised the hand holding the snack above my head to dodge her.

“I never said I wouldn’t eat it! Thanks. I’ll enjoy it.”

“Seriously… Can’t you just accept it without being so dramatic?”

I pretended not to hear her pouting grumbles as I opened the snack’s wrapper.

What popped out looked quite fancy.

You know, the kind where they put a stiff piece of paper between the ice cream sandwich so it doesn’t get squished?

That’s what was inside the snack Yoonseo handed me.

“Whoa… Is this some high-end snack? Where’d you get this?”

“I went to the mart with Dad yesterday, and they were selling it in the imported snacks section.”

Imported snacks section…

If I remembered correctly, there was only one mart nearby that had that.

“The One Heart Mart?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s kind of far, though. What’s the occasion to go all the way there?”

“Were they selling eggs? Anyway, there was a sale, but they said you could only buy one per person, so we had to go there.”

“Did you buy anything?”

“No, when we got there, everything was sold out.”

“Yikes…”

It does happen sometimes.

You go for a sale, and by the time you arrive, the items on sale are already gone, and you end up buying things that have nothing to do with the sale.

“…By the way, aren’t you going to eat it?”

“Ah, I should.”

As I popped the snack I had momentarily set aside back into my mouth, the soft and sweet taste reminiscent of cake melted on my tongue.

It was surprisingly better than I had anticipated.

“…Wow, this is good!”

“Right?”

I had felt a bit empty in my stomach after waking up so early, and it was exactly the kind of taste that would be perfect for snacking on each morning.

“How much was this?”

“Uh… I think it was about three thousand won for a box?”

“How many are in a box?”

“Ten. Oh, and they also had chocolate and strawberry flavors.”

The small size was a bit of a downside, but for this quality, three thousand won for ten is practically a steal!

That means it’s three hundred won each!

“Then, let’s buy a box of each flavor and stock them up so we can snack on one each morning.”

“One each…? You’re not just going to eat them all by yourself, are you?”

“No, you can buy them yourself.”

“If I eat a lot of those, Dad will have something to say.”

“Well, that’s…”

I was hesitant to say anything since it didn’t feel right to argue about it, but Yoonseo, seizing the opportunity, launched her attack.

“So you’re just going to selfishly eat them all by yourself, huh?”

“Oh, come on, I can share!”

“Hmph, you’re supposed to share.”

Thus began a back-and-forth that ended only after I declared my surrender.

With that kind of playful bickering, we made our way toward the bus stop following our familiar alley.

Just as I thought we were just a few steps away from the stop…

Suddenly, Yoonseo came to an abrupt halt.

“Why? Did you forget something at home?”

Honestly, I thought there was no reason to stop unless it was that, so I asked with a hint of disbelief, and what came back as a response was something I never expected.

“…Hey.”

“What?”

“Can’t we just… take the subway instead of the bus?”

“Huh? The subway?”

Out of nowhere, suggesting the subway?

*

As the surprise proposal caught Dogun with a puzzled expression on his face, Yoonseo was trying her hardest to hide her blushing face.

It couldn’t be helped; the moment we got closer to the bus stop, a memory from yesterday suddenly flashed in her mind.

That moment when Dogun had committed that particular act on the bus.

Of course, since it happened while he was asleep, it probably wasn’t intentional, and he likely didn’t even realize he had done it…

But from her point of view as the recipient of that act, it was definitely shocking.

How could she not be shocked? After all… something like that had happened to her.

So the honest feeling was that she wanted to avoid the bus at all costs.

Even though they hadn’t reached the bus stop yet, just the thought of it made her heart race, so if she actually got on the bus, what would happen?

And… even though it was just a possibility, what if Dogun happened to doze off again today?

So… what if things were similar enough to yesterday to repeat?

At that point, her heart might threaten to go on strike from all the pounding.

But how could she easily get on the bus?

Knowing it might sound absurd, the reason she suggested taking the subway was all that worry.

However… amidst this, there was something that was bothering her—

“No, if we take the subway, we’ll have to walk down again. You were the one who insisted we take the bus.”

Yes, that was the issue.

It was she who proposed taking the bus as the means of commuting.

So it made sense that Dogun was looking at her in confusion.

She had just declared that the bus was the way to go, only to suddenly switch to the subway.

“Uh… that…”

With reality being what it was, there was nothing particularly clever to say.

And she couldn’t openly express the reason why the subway would be fine while the bus wasn’t, after all.

So, she fell silent and just fidgeted with her lips when—

“Why? Did you think it was a bit much since it was crowded yesterday?”

“…Sort of? And also… maybe it was just the morning, but the traffic was a bit clogged.”

“Yeah, it was a bit like that yesterday.”

“Right? Since we usually go out a bit early, it’s not an issue, but what if we overslept and we were cutting it close?”

Being stuck in traffic when you could have arrived on time if it weren’t for the jam?

Is there anything more frustrating than that for being late?

After putting forward a pretty convincing argument to Dogun, it didn’t seem to go unnoticed.

“Hmm…”

With those words, a look of contemplation passed over Dogun’s face before he slowly nodded.

“You’re right. So should we take the subway from now on?”

“…Yeah, at least we don’t have to worry about traffic jams.”

To be honest, how I felt was…

At this moment, anything would be better than the bus.

“Hmm… the subway… Well, it’s not bad, but there are going to be tons of people in the morning. Are you okay with that?”

“Yeah.”

Didn’t I mention?

Right now, anything would be better than the bus.

And frankly, what would be the difference in crowds?

In terms of crowding, isn’t it pretty much the same on both the bus and subway?

I’m pretty sure I thought that way once.

“Wow…”

“Whoa…”

As the loud sounds filled the air, I entered the train platform, realizing just how wrong I was.

That was all sheer bravado and a misconception.

Is that why they call it hell train?

Because inside, it was absolutely packed—

‘Can we even get on this?’

Because of that thought, I started to have doubts.

At least that’s what I was thinking, while Dogun, who was amazed beside me, seemed to have a different opinion.

“What are you doing? Aren’t you getting on?”

“No, it looks like there’s no room at all…”

That aside, I was worried if this was even okay.

If someone with some deadly talent were to pop out here and start causing chaos—it would be a disaster.

‘Ah, so that’s why…’

That explains why so many heroes are stationed on the subway.

While realizing that bizarre sense of enlightenment as I was dumbfounded by the scene around me, I felt myself being pulled by Dogun’s hand toward the train.

And once inside, it was pure chaos.

It felt as though I had become a grain of sand on a beach in a fierce wave, surrounded on all sides by people.

Each time the train moved even a bit, my body swayed like a drowning swimmer in a sea of passengers…

In what felt like an instinctive reaction, I shut my eyes tight.

“Hey, take off your bag and hand it to me.”

It seemed that the struggle with the crowd was not so different for Dogun, as his voice sounded strained near my ear.

Feeling puzzled but obliging, I unbuckled the bag from my back and offered it to him—

“Excuse me, just a moment. I’ll squeeze in. Sorry, sorry.”

The moment my hand was detached from the bag, I felt my body being pulled as if guided by some kind of hand.

As I followed along, I was soon pressed against the wall.

Perhaps because of being stuck like that, every time the train jolted, my body shook along with it.

Even though it was a familiar voice, it whispered sweetly, making it sound slightly unfamiliar in my ears.

“Even if it’s uncomfortable, just bear with it a bit. Don’t forget to ask for your bag back when you get off.”

After having had my eyes tightly shut since being crammed against the wall, I cautiously opened one eye—

“…!”

I locked eyes with another ‘me’ reflected in the darkened train window.

And thanks to that eye contact, I realized.

That being… the way I was positioned next to Dogun made it look like we might as well be stealing a kiss from a distance!

That’s how close we were, and it was quite the… odd posture we had.

That’s when it dawned on me.

The subway was just as dangerous as the bus, if not more so.

The moment that fact struck me… my heart began to pound fiercely.

Just as quickly as the day before.

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So, to avoid repeating what had happened yesterday, Yoonseo had chosen the subway over the bus, but in the end, her choice was not the right one.

In a way, the subway was just as dangerous as, if not more so than, the bus—

“Ugh, what the heck… why are there so many people?”

“…Huh?”

“Uh…?”

If Yoonseo were to see this, she would have felt frustrated and beaten the ground in disappointment over this ‘coincidence’ she never asked for.