Netkama Punch!!!

“…Don’t tell me you’re pulling this shit just to change my door passcode to your birthday?”
I said it to shame him, but Shin Heejae shamelessly replied as if he had been waiting for the question.
“No? But if you want to change it, I’ll let you know what it is.”

“……”
Then he fell silent again. It wasn’t like he hung up either.
I didn’t want to give him what he wanted, especially since his intentions were obvious—but ignoring him here might really come back to bite me. I had never experienced this kind of situation before, where I had to ask something I didn’t want to know and wasn’t even curious about.

I clenched my molars and forced myself to ask.
“…When’s your birthday.”
“August 25th.”

“……”
“Easy to remember, right?”
That was clearly a suggestion that I should remember it.

Would Shin Heejae still be tangled up with me by then? I bit down on my lip while mentally calculating the months left.
“But, when you got your birthday gift from me, you didn’t even ask me about mine?”
“……”

Well, that’s because I truly didn’t care. And while I had been grateful when he gave me that gift, it had also felt burdensome. Looking back, I’d just accepted the present and zipped my lips—should I be apologizing for that too?
“2580*. Just press it straight down in a line.”
I pretended I hadn’t heard him and blurted out my apartment’s door code to change the subject.

“……”
Right after I said it, I heard faint beeping through the receiver.
That meant the bastard was already in front of my house, which rubbed me the wrong way a little—but I didn’t really have anything valuable at home for him to loot, and I had to head into my department soon anyway.
“If anything goes missing, I’ll report—”

Click—
Just as I tried to tack on a token threat, the line went dead. I grimaced hard.
“…The hell is this bastard…”

Staring at the screen with Shin Heejae’s number still displayed, my mood instantly soured. Until now, he’d never been the one to end a call first. As far as I remembered, this was the first time.
“……”
It felt shitty, but reacting to something like this felt even worse. I pressed my lips tight and shoved my phone deep into my pocket.

* * *
I told myself it’d be fine—but as time went on, I got more and more uneasy. The biggest reason was that Shin Heejae completely ignored the messages I sent all the way until I got off work.
Hey, what are you doing

What’re you doing –_–
You’re not smashing anything, right?
I sent those three messages before 3 p.m., and they even showed as read. But he left them on read with no response.

–_–?
Why the read-and-ignore??
Don’t tell me you went to the landlord’s house?

Calling the cops, bye
And every message I sent after that went unread and unanswered. Because of Shin Heejae’s infuriating behavior, I couldn’t focus on my work at all.
In the end, I used a fieldwork excuse to clock out 30 minutes early. For the first time since getting hired, I hailed a taxi and raced home.

“Huff… huff…”
But when I arrived in front of my house, something felt wrong.
The front gate was wide open, and there were a couple of large boxes stacked at the entrance. I widened my eyes and stepped down slowly, one stair at a time, peering inside the house.

“…What the hell?”
And there, in the narrow little kitchen, were three huge moving boxes.
Next to them stood Shin Heejae, wearing different clothes than yesterday, unpacking boxes. When he saw me, he tilted his head like he was confused.

“Noona, off work already?”
The casualness of his tone threw me off so badly I stood frozen in my own doorway, hesitant, and asked:
“…What are you doing right now?”

“Unpacking.”
“What is this?”
“My clothes and laptop. Just grabbed the essentials for now.”

“…What?”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing—Shin Heejae had moved his stuff into my place like it was nothing. I rubbed my eyes several times.
But while I stood there, dumbstruck, he boldly opened up a fabric wardrobe and started hanging up his clothes one by one in the empty space.

I blinked, stunned, then burst inside without even taking off my shoes. I grabbed his forearm—loaded with about ten hangers—and shouted.
“Why are you hanging your clothes in there!”
“Huh? Why not?”

“Be—because this is my house!”
It was the most obvious thing in the world, but facing him like this made me feel small. His blank look made me flinch.
He stared down at me as I stammered, then lifted the corners of his mouth into a smirk. With a mocking tone, he replied.

“Who said I wanted to take it? I wouldn’t even if you offered.”
“Wh—”
His indifferent words made me scowl, and he watched with interest—as if he were waiting for me to snap.

“You little—!”
I raised my hand, aiming for his collar, but clenched my fist and backed off. The way he stood there, almost inviting me to hit him, made it clear it was a trap.
I glared at him, holding back my anger.

“This place isn’t meant for two people. What if we get kicked out—are you going to take responsibility?”
That part wasn’t a lie. When I signed the lease, the landlord had warned me—no pets, and if I planned to live with someone else, the rent would go up.
But Shin Heejae just dug into his ear and replied flatly.

“Yeah? She didn’t say anything.”
“…What?”
“She came by while I was moving stuff. I told her I’d be living with you now.”

“You son of a bitch…”
I was furious at both the landlord—who suddenly seemed oddly tolerant—and this bastard’s pretty-boy face.
Shin Heejae laughed while watching my face flush with anger. Then, finally, he shoved the last box up into the space on top of the wardrobe and turned to look at me.

“Noona, admit it. You’re kind of happy I came, right? Aren’t you?”
I knew it was a trap question. Shin Heejae was deliberately pushing my buttons. There was no way he didn’t know I was completely pissed—he was doing this on purpose.
Still, I couldn’t hide the frustration twisting my face. Would you be happy? A big-ass guy barging into your tiny-ass home?!

But I knew giving him any leverage would only make it worse. I gritted my teeth and answered as indirectly as I could.
“…Don’t you think… it’s a little too soon to move in together?”
“Noona, you're more conservative than I thought.”

“It’s just… common sense.”
“Common-sense people don’t dress like girls and date guys, do they?”
“Fuck you! I never crossdressed! You’re the one who kept calling me Noona and deluded yourself!”

But I couldn’t stay calm for more than five seconds.
Every time I said something, he’d bring up my netkama past again—I was sick of it. I finally snapped and grabbed him by the collar, but instead of pulling him down, it looked like I was just clinging to him.
Shin Heejae looked down at me without even blinking. For a second, there was a chilling sneer on his face—but then it vanished like it had never been there.

He pulled me in as I tried to recoil. I panicked and struggled to escape his arms, but his head dropped onto my shoulder faster than I could react.
Then came his fake-sweet voice in my ear.
“Noona, are you mad? It was just a joke.”

“……”
His soft, light brown hair tickled my neck and jaw. He clung to me like a child throwing a tantrum, then smiled and cupped my face in both hands.
I hated that pose—it ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) made my skin crawl. I immediately kicked him in the shin. He winced but backed off quietly this time, like he was trying to lower my guard.

Then he clicked his tongue and looked me up and down. His attitude was smug, his gaze sticky. Even as I scowled, he didn’t look away.
After a few seconds of silent staring, he opened his mouth.
“Noona, you’re being all prickly because… obviously…”

“…What?”
“You’re hungry. Am I wrong?”
“…What the…”

I tried to object, but the moment he said it, my stomach—empty from sprinting home straight after work—stabbed me with a sharp pang. It was embarrassingly honest.
Seeing my drained face, Shin Heejae gave me a knowing look and tapped away at his phone.
* * *

“Does it taste bad?”
Once again, we sat across from each other eating black bean noodles, and I was hit with another wave of existential dread.
Would you have an appetite if you were me?

I glared at Shin Heejae.
How long am I going to be stuck dealing with this bastard?
The truth was, Shin Heejae’s very existence was a massive source of stress. And the fact that he had moved his stuff into my house on his own terms was, without exaggeration, the second most horrifying experience of my life—after being born.

But the worst part?
This forced cohabitation happened barely two days after I first met him in person.
At this rate, I’ll be found dead in two weeks…

Watching him chew with his chubby cheeks puffed out, I felt like I was watching him eat up what little strength I had left.
Ever since I got involved with this bastard, nothing has gone right.