Semantic Error

He was on his way home from his part-time job on Sunday. Sangwoo had been in a terrible mood all day because of what had happened the previous day. He was tired, irritated, and exhausted at every trudging step. He entered the alley in front of his building, feeling desperate to lie down on his bed.

There was a person sitting in front of his building. Wearing gray training pants, a bright yellow jumper with a hood on his head while chewing gum, looking like an arcade fixture. The bubble swelled and popped in his mouth.

He couldn’t believe that he had put his lips on that thug twice. Sangwoo walked towards the entrance with a quick pace, not in the mood to talk at all. Just before he entered, Jaeyoung, who had been sitting there motionless, turned his body and raised his legs on the doorstep. As he tried to lift his leg over, he grabbed Sangwoo’s jeans by the back pocket and pulled them hard. Sangwoo was dragged back while staggering.

‘It’s sexual molestation.’

He wanted to say that his hand touched his hip, but unfortunately, Sangwoo didn’t have the right to say it out loud.

“Where are you just going? Are you nuts?”

Jaeyoung jumped up and blocked the door. He showed a kind of attitude and mood where it wouldn’t be strange at all if he tried to take his money. Sangwoo calmly looked at the crack. He thought that he could break through if he decided to, but he would probably be caught while entering the password for the door lock.

“How can a person be so unfair? If you bump lips with someone twice, you have to explain, don’t you? What’s the difference between you and a molester?”

“…”

How many times had he checked that he was sleeping? How on earth could he know? Sangwoo hesitated and then started speaking with difficulty.

“As for the first time… I have nothing to say. I was in the wrong. I’m sorry. As for the second time, both were to blame so please pretend it didn’t happen.”

“Both were to blame?”

“First, sunbae touched the face… and said something strange. Anyway, it was a mistake made after drinking. I’m usually not a reckless person. I was very drunk.”

Jaeyoung only stared at Sangwoo. He had a bright expression while smiling, but when he was expressionless, he looked insensitive. Sangwoo felt uncomfortable while looking at his cold eyes.

“Do I also have to apologize?”

“Yes. It’d be good if we apologize to each other and prevent a recurrence.”

Jaeyoung’s mouth was twisted. His lips were smiling, but his eyes were still cold.

“What to do? I’m not sorry one bit. And I can’t guarantee that I won’t do it again.”

He had gotten an unexpected response back. Sangwoo had thought that the other party of course would want to dismiss the incident as a mistake. He hesitated for a bit and then spat it out.

“Why the hell are you like this? What did you do so right that you so shamelessly…”

“It wasn’t a mistake so why do you want to just let it slide? You felt the same as me.”

“Who felt what? It’s merely abnormal lust.”

Jaeyoung rolled his eyes as if had heard something unexpected.

“Abnormal… lust?”

“The complex biomechanics of humans evolved into the form of sexual feelings in order to create a second generation. I think it’s an inefficient method, but it’s accurate that humans have survived and flourished through mating and complicated pregnancy processes. Lust between genders is just a meaningless illusion that doesn’t contribute to the mechanism of survival and evolution whatsoever.”

Jaeyoung loudly kept blowing and popping the gum. It was difficult to understand what he was thinking just by looking at his expression.

“What do you want me to do? Did I come here to take a biology class?”

He picked his ear, then cocked his head to one side. He must have not heard the explanation.

“You don’t have to say useless things. Just answer this. Did it rise yesterday or not?”

“Rise? What rose?”

“What do you think? Your external reproductive system, mister.”

Sangwoo didn’t expect to be asked such a private question. However, he also thought it wasn’t something he couldn’t answer. Sexual impulses are human instincts. It was expressed to the wrong opponent, but it wasn’t anything to be ashamed of in itself.

“I’m not going to deny my sexual desire. I often get an erection when I’m with you, sunbae.”

“…Look at your choice of words.”

“What’s the difference, though? There’s a zero percent chance that your Y chromosome will change to an X, sunbae.”

“Volt and volt, +pole and +pole, N pole and N pole. It’s an impossible thing,” Sangwoo sighed and continued.

“To be honest, it’s been a while since something like this has happened. It’ll be a temporary condition, so it’ll be okay later. But I can’t control what went wrong now. Perhaps I need a little time. Cause I’m always stuck to you, sunbae. Still, I don’t want to give up on Veggie Venturer.”

Jaeyoung snorted loudly.

“So you’re saying that you don’t want to see me and you want to keep using my design?”

“Since it’s fine even if we work on it remotely, I want to do it to the end. So please just don’t quit. I’m begging you.”