Hyun Woo

“How could you lose to him?” Soojin kept blurting into my ear, as annoying as Hana. ‘He dared to bet that you’d be his slave. Does he even know who you are?’

‘Who am I?’ I asked.

‘You’re my brother. Your father is one of the biggest businessmen in this country, one of the trustees of this college. You may have forgotten, but everyone else remembers.’

‘That’s all I am, right?’ I laughed.

‘Why are you laughing? Is it funny to be a loser?’

‘Fine. If you say I’m a loser, then I’ll agree to be his slave. I’m a man of my word. If I lost, I should keep to the terms I agreed to.’

‘Are you mad?’ she shouted.

‘What if I become his slave, and one day he becomes mine?’

‘What?’

‘Life has grown boring. I want something new. Let’s give this a try. He seems disinterested in everything — let me make his life colourful. And in the process, let me have fun. If he has nothing to smile about today, then I’ll give him a reason to cry. What do you say?’

She looked puzzled.

‘I’m thinking… let me be at his feet for two years. Once he starts depending on me, I’ll ditch him.’

‘What are you planning, to marry him and then divorce him?’ she sneered. She can be funny at times; I have to give her that.

‘Marrying would be too much. I am barely sixteen. I’ll make him my friend, my best friend. When everyone else leaves and he has only me, I’ll abandon him. By then we’ll be out of this college anyway. I’ll be gone abroad for further studies, and he’ll be left behind. Let him cry then. I can already imagine how fun it would be.’

She stared at me. ‘You’re a sadist… terrifying, even at sixteen. Why would you go to such lengths just beat him and get it over with”

“I am not some cheap bully like the other guys in our circle” which was true.