I’m Too Lazy To Run away - Side Chapter 21

Yang Tae-Yang was a third-year sculpture major whom no one on campus didn’t know. The reason he was famous was simple: his dazzling looks. Some called him “the ten-million-view actor stolen by the sculpture department,” while others gave him childish nicknames like “the thousand-year idol stolen by Michelangelo.”

Of course, the person at the center of those rumors couldn’t care less. For Yang Tae-Yang, attracting attention was something he’d been doing since the womb. Today as well, while gifts and letters kept pouring in, his longtime friend—who had envied and been jealous of him since high school—grumbled with his lips sticking out.

“Sunshine, why the hell did you come to sculpture, you traitor? You should’ve just naturally become a celebrity.”

“But sculpture’s fun.”

“Get lost! At least become a tree no one can climb!”

“Oh, speaking of which, wasn’t the evaluation piece for the exhibition supposed to be a tree sculpture?”

“Argh!! That changed to stone ages ago!!”

“I know. I just thought you might not.”

“You psycho! Stop creeping me out!”

“Haha.”

The only friend Yang Tae-Yang could interact with somewhat comfortably rubbed his goosebumps-covered arms vigorously. Just then, someone approached Tae-Yang’s side. A junior, brushing long hair behind their ear and bending slightly at the waist, asked with a shy smile,

“Hello, sunbae. Is this seat next to you free by any chance?”

Yang Tae-Yang smiled brightly and answered,

“Yeah, there’s no assigned seating, so you can sit.”

“Thank you. Oh, by the way, sunbae, would you like this? I baked it yesterday…”

Seeing the appetizing cookies, his friend’s eyes sparkled.

“Whoa, cookies!”

But the junior didn’t even look at him. No, they were gritting their teeth and deliberately ignoring his existence.

“Give me just one!”

Yang Tae-Yang didn’t seem to care and let him reach for one of the cookies he’d accepted. Just as the friend stretched out his hand, the junior quickly protected the cookies first and said with a smile,

“I’ll give you one separately later.”

“No, it’s fine, I just want one!”

“I said I’ll give you one separately.”

“…Uh, uh….”

They were clearly smiling, yet there was an indescribable killing intent in the air. His confidence shrank instantly, and trembling, he pulled his hand back.

Then the junior beamed and gently offered the cookies back to Yang Tae-Yang.

“Please enjoy them, Sunbae Tae-Yang!”

At this moment, when one person had a “mouth” and another had a “snout,” the friend, having reached enlightenment, was once again crumbling into dust beneath Tae-Yang’s blazing sunlight.

Just then—

One by one, people entering the lecture hall began gathering around Tae-Yang.

“Tae-Yang, what are you eating all by yourself?”

“Tae-Yang oppa, are you coming to the department gathering today?”

“Tae-Yang, if you haven’t decided your exhibition theme yet, want to collaborate with me?”

Starting with the junior, people crowded around Tae-Yang, each giving him whatever nickname they liked. They wanted to show off that they were closer to him than everyone else. There were plenty of other seats, yet they deliberately surrounded him, and before long the lecture hall grew noisy.

One of them spoke up.

“Did you hear the rumor? That Pièphe came to see that entrance exam piece?”

“Huh? Wasn’t that just a rumor?”

“My friend said they actually saw him when they went to meet a professor. Here, look.”

In the photo she showed, there was a foreign man with curly brown hair staring fixedly at a painting. It really was the famous Pièphe Jean, still at the center of modern art for his distinctive color use, radical composition, and sharp yet delicate insight into the human interior. He never appeared in the media, yet he had come to Korea—specifically to see a freshman entrance exam piece.

“What’s the big deal?”

At Yang Tae-Yang’s one comment, everyone there turned to stare at him.

Even though he was famously indifferent to what went on around him, hearing similar topics come up often enough would make anyone curious. His friend knew his personality well, yet even he looked a little surprised this time.

He asked,

“What exactly don’t you know? Pièphe, or the entrance piece?”

“There’s no one here who doesn’t know Pièphe.”

“You’re probably the only one who doesn’t know about the entrance piece.”

At the friend’s words, the people around them nodded in agreement.

Yang Tae-Yang had been too busy with exhibitions and graduation work to pay attention to anything else. Once he started working on something, all his attention got funneled into it, so he was bound to be dull to rumors. Still, this was a bit much.

“Didn’t I tell you not to just coast by on your face?”

“Haha.”

“Don’t laugh. Bastard, when you laugh, everyone starts laughing too.”

That was true. When Yang Tae-Yang let out an awkward little laugh at his friend’s words, the people around them started laughing too, as if it were contagious. Some of the more absorbed ones just stared at him blankly…

Luckily, the teaching assistant came in at just the right time. As the crowd gradually dispersed and returned to their seats, his friend quietly asked again,

“You seriously haven’t seen it?”

“I’m too busy doing my own assignments. When would I have time to go look at an entrance piece?”

“And someone like that goes to the pub without even telling me?”

“They were practically begging me to go with them. What was I supposed to do?”

“Don’t leave openings like that. What if they confess to you? Are you gonna date them again?”

“If they like me, then whatever.”

“You crazy bastard, did you already forget getting slapped and dumped last time?”

The conversation had drifted way off track, but Tae-Yang didn’t bother pointing it out. The story behind the “got slapped and dumped” incident was this: one day, when his partner said they wanted to break up, he simply answered, “Okay.” Thinking it was a clean breakup, he accepted a junior’s confession the very next day—and that’s when things exploded. His ex slapped him hard across the face for getting a new partner as if he’d been waiting for it, then cried that he’d toyed with their feelings.

Yang Tae-Yang felt wronged.

“They were the one who said we should break up first.”

“Even so, there’s something called common decency. How do you get a new partner the very next day?”

“I didn’t know there was supposed to be a grace period.”

“I heard that person did boxing too. Be grateful they didn’t knock your teeth out. And live your life being filial to the parents who gave you such healthy teeth.”

A few days after that, he broke up with the junior in a similar pattern. At that point, you’d think nasty rumors would naturally spread—but instead, people started saying Yang Tae-Yang was “public property,” and even more people flocked to him.

His friend grumbled like he truly couldn’t understand it.

“What exactly is so great about this bastard? What are you, huh?”

“Oh right. Didn’t you say you wanted some marble last time?”

“Huh?”

“You said you needed it for the exhibition.”

“D-don’t tell me… that, that stuff from Tuscany?”

“Yeah, that Calacatta one. I heard the order arrived today. Let’s go look after this.”

“You insane bastard, my heart’s pounding like crazy right now.”

“You like it that much?”

“I love you. Take me now.”

With a bright smile, Yang Tae-Yang shoved a cookie into his friend’s mouth to stop the nonsense. His friend, lost in ecstasy just imagining the beautiful white marble, gulped down the sweet cookie. He stared fixedly at Yang Tae-Yang. Even knowing that Tae-Yang was a Type 1 dominant constitution, his heart still pounded at the sight of such a generous person freely sharing expensive marble. Thankfully, because they were the same constitution type, there was an instinctive aversion that kept it from becoming anything beyond friendship. Otherwise, he would probably have ended up just like the smitten junior next to them.

(*Type 1 dominant constitution: dominant alpha
Type 2 dominant constitution: recessive alpha
Neutral constitution or Middle: beta
Corresponding constitution: a sex that corresponds to another one.
For example, the sex corresponding to alpha is omega. The sex corresponding to omega is alpha. The sex corresponding to beta is beta.*)

Lowering his voice even more, his friend whispered,

“Be honest—have you ever been confessed to by a neutral or dominant constitution too?”

It was half a joke.

“Haha.”

If Yang Tae-Yang hadn’t made such an awkward face, he would’ve laughed it off. His friend hurriedly lowered his voice even more and asked again,

“For real? You really have?”

“Hahaha.”

“You bastard, don’t tell me you’re pan-all…!”

(*pansexual + all: pan-all, an alpha who is possible with every secondary sex.*)

The friend covered his chest with both hands and recoiled in suspicion.

“I’m about to sink that marble order into the ocean.”

“Ah, damn, sorry. My bad. Don’t be mad. …But really, did you actually date one?”

“No?”

“You actually know how to reject people?”

His friend was a little shocked. Even he could tell that among the people swarming around Yang Tae-Yang were all kinds with ulterior motives, across different constitutions. Since Tae-Yang never stopped those who came to him and never chased those who left, he’d assumed he’d just say, “Sure!” no matter who confessed. But apparently not.

Yang Tae-Yang had gotten confessions from the same constitution type even back in middle and high school. Back then, he hadn’t thought much of it. But once he became a university student, the intensity went way up. People would suddenly say they liked him and try to kiss him out of nowhere, or touch him in suggestive ways, trying to wrap themselves around him with obvious sexual intent—even though they knew it would have almost no effect.

That was the first time Yang Tae-Yang ever experienced true revulsion.

After that, he had no intention of accepting confessions from the same constitution type or from neutrals.

“That side is just… anyway, I don’t think that’ll ever happen in my life.”

He was sure of his sexual preference.