This World is too Cruel to Men

After neatly taking care of things and leaving the pension, the sight that greeted me made me inwardly gasp.

Unsurprisingly, the tent was still not set up.

Four people had been working on it for hours, so why was it still in that state?

Exasperated, I approached Jinho, who had come over to tease me, and asked what he’d been doing all this time instead of setting up the tent. His reply was spectacular.

“Ta-da···”

“‘Ta-da’ my foot… Did you get heatstroke in the middle of winter or something?”

“Ah, I don’t know how to set it up, so what am I supposed to do?”

“Is there, like, an instruction manual or something?”

“There was… but honestly, I didn’t understand it.”

“What? What do you mean…”

Is this the end result of the “Do it for me” generation?

Unable to set up a tent even with the instructions included.

“Hey, you’re looking at me like I’m an idiot for not being able to set up a tent, but can ‘you’ even do it?”

“Something like this is a piece of cake with the manual.”

“For ‘something like this,’ that tent is pretty huge, don’t you think?”

“Well…”

He had a point.

While we were picking out equipment from the storage room, Ms. Oh, intoxicated by the allure of the gear, had chosen something a bit excessive.

“Hey, should we just… go back down and exchange it for a different tent? We’re all going to sleep inside anyway, that one’s a bit… overkill, isn’t it?”

“Nope. Not changing it. Go back.”

“Why not!”

“Because… that’s the ‘vibe.'”

These days, thanks to advanced technology, there are one-touch tents that inflate and set themselves up automatically without the need for tedious assembly.

Considering the storage room was overflowing with all sorts of camping equipment, I figured we might find one if we rummaged around.

But honestly, where’s the fun in that?

Those are for veterans who camp so often they no longer find it novel.

Therefore, for newbies like us who don’t even know the “C” in camping, this was the right way to go, both emotionally and in every other way.

Of course, it would be a bit… difficult, but as they say, hardship builds character, right?

So—

“Come on, let’s finish this.”

“Ugh…”

“Once we set this up, we can relax for a bit and then have some delicious barbecue.”

“Relaxing and ‘then’ eating sounds even more delicious.”

Despite some minor resistance, I somehow managed to get the two dummies to work on setting up the tent.

While the three of us guys were engrossed in setting up the tent, the girls weren’t just sitting around either.

They’d disappeared with lettuce and other things, saying they’d prepare for the evening barbecue.

‘Really…’

Seeing that, Yun-Seo sure knows how to pick her friends.

If it were other girls?

They would have been busy doing their own thing, whether or not the guys were struggling with the tent.

They’d probably be fiddling with their phones.

Or watching us struggle and suffer.

How can I be so sure?

Because that’s the norm in this world.

So, I can’t help but be certain.

‘Come to think of it…’

It’s strange.

When I was younger, I mean, even in elementary school, I felt some discrimination, but it wasn’t as blatant as it is now.

Could people change so much just by getting a few years older and their heads a little bigger?

Thinking about it, I started to worry a bit about starting high school.

Even now, when I talk to other girls besides Yun-Seo and her friends, I can clearly feel them looking down on guys.

I can’t even imagine how much worse it’ll be in high school, which is a step up.

Since we’ll be going to different schools, I won’t be able to rely on Yun-Seo’s protection, which has served as a sort of breakwater.

Would I end up being completely ostracized there?

As I was imagining the not-so-distant future—

“…Hey, hey!”

A voice calling me pulled me out of my thoughts.

“…Huh?”

“What are you thinking so hard about?”

“Ah, just… this and that? By the way, why did you call me?”

“I was going to ask if this goes here.”

“Huh? That? Wait a minute… Ah, you’re right. You put it there, then hammer it into the ground to secure it.”

“Really? Hmm… Come to think of it, I saw something that looked like a hammer earlier…”

While the men were busy setting up the tent on the ground instead of their pants, some sort of scheme was brewing at the sink, which had been taken over by the women.

***

“So, what exactly ‘is’ this Plan B?”

I was genuinely curious, so I asked.

The response was a rare serious expression.

“Yun-Seo.”

“Yeah?”

“What do you think is the biggest obstacle to progressing your relationship with Dokgun?”

“That’s…”

I couldn’t easily answer that question.

It wasn’t that nothing came to mind.

On the contrary… there were too many things that came to mind.

“If you had to pick just one?”

Just one…?

Then there was only one real answer.

“…He’s clueless.”

Yes, that was the biggest hurdle.

He’s usually not like that, but when I try to create a mood, his awareness suddenly evaporates.

If it weren’t for that, things wouldn’t be so frustrating.

On the other hand, I wondered if that was the reason why we were able to maintain our current relationship.

What if, just what if, Dokgun ‘wasn’t’ clueless in those situations?

He would have noticed my feelings long ago.

Then… things would have been resolved one way or another.

Thinking about it like that, it was hard to simply label it as an obstacle.

That was my true feeling, but since she asked me to pick just one, I chose that.

“Yeah, he does seem… a bit like that.”

I wasn’t sure if I should be relieved, but she seemed to agree with me.

And following that reaction—

“But, have you ever considered this?”

What possibility?

“What if he’s not clueless, but ‘pretending’ to be clueless?”

“Pretending to be clueless… Why would he…”

“Why do you think he wouldn’t?”

“Because…”

“Think about it. What’s the reason you hesitate to confess to Dokgun?”

“That’s…”

There was only one reason.

Because I’m afraid of ruining our current relationship.

If my confession is successful, I couldn’t ask for more, but if it fails, I won’t even be able to enjoy the relationship we have now.

“Right, that’s it. But, why do you think you’re the only one who feels that way?”

“…What?”

The moment those words reached my ears, it felt like I had been hit hard on the back of the head with a blunt object.

Not only had I not considered that point… but if it were true, it felt incredibly cruel.

If, as Sanga suggested, Dokgun was deliberately pretending to be clueless for that reason?

Even if I mustered up the courage to confess, it wouldn’t be accepted.

I had been feeling down because of that very reason, but—

“No, no one knows until we actually confirm it.”

Sanga, who had raised the possibility, seemed to have a slightly different idea.

No one knows until we actually confirm it?

Did that mean it wasn’t over just because he was putting on an act?

“Well… if you think about it normally, that’s true… but the human heart is like that, isn’t it? It seems simple, but it’s actually quite complicated…”

“…So?”

“So, we have to find out. What his true feelings are.”

But how?

No matter how much I thought about it, nothing came to mind.

It goes without saying, but even if I asked Dokgun to tell me because I was curious, I didn’t think he would.

If it were something he could reveal so easily…

He wouldn’t have bothered to hide it with an act.

“Have you ever heard of this saying?”

What was she talking about?

If she skipped the context like that, I couldn’t pretend to know even if I wanted to.

“In vino veritas.”

“…What?”

In vino veritas?

I’d heard of it, but… wouldn’t that require getting Dokgun drunk first?

Realistically, that would be impossible.

We weren’t old enough to buy alcohol.

Where would we even get alcohol to get Dokgun drunk?

I was about to dismiss it as nonsense, but… when I saw the devious, scheming look on my friend’s face, I realized.

Ah, she’d been quiet for a while, but her madness was acting up again.

“You know what my mom always says? To find out someone’s true feelings, you first have to get them drunk.”

“You, don’t tell me…”

“There’s a thermos in the pension’s refrigerator, right? I wonder what’s inside?”

“No, even if you say that…”

My conscience, which had been unusually active, was telling me that it wasn’t right.

Just as I was about to say something,

“…Don’t you want to check, just once?”

A sweet whisper, impossible to refuse, flowed into my ears.

“How Dokgun really feel about you?”