CHAPTER 275: WHO WOULDN’T BE ANGRY AT THAT?

I took in several deep breaths to calm down and then turned to them, barely smiling as I asked,

"Did you gain any satisfaction from watching me sleep?" Okay, that was a dumb question and I immediately regretted it when they all chorused,

"Yes."

Their faces were glowing, sparkling. Whatever word you want to use for it. But I can tell you that they were very much satisfied while I was pissed with veins twisting on my forehead.

"Right."

"Hyung looks upset," Min-Cheol said, and I curled up my lips. Thanks for stating the obvious, Little Min. It was very helpful.

"Why though?" Seo-Jun asked, suddenly poking my cheek with his index finger and adding to my anger index. "It’s not like we did anything. We just watched him sleep."

Exactly. You just watched me sleep when you were invited to a party.

Gosh, this was all ruined.

I sighed.

"Anyway, have you guys eaten?" I asked, my eyes rolling towards the dinner table, which still had the dishes covered up, and I shut my eyes. "Um, forget I asked. Why didn’t you guys wake me up when you arrived?"

My speech sounded less formal for some reason. Ah, maybe it was my anger that was getting the best of me. I couldn’t even pretend to be polite or respectful at this point.

Not that they’d care about the tone I used anyway.

"You invited us to a party, Jo-Pil," Jin-Yeok said. "But we found the host sleeping. Of course, it would be rude to suddenly wake up the exhausted host who worked so hard, don’t you think?"

He does make a point but I swear he came up with that excuse on the spot.

I couldn’t even reprimand them if he gave such an excuse. Once again, I sighed.

"Did we upset you by not waking you up?" Ki-hoon suddenly asked and I looked up at them.

It kinda upset me but... I shook my head.

"It’s fine. I’m just disappointed that I worked so hard, only to ruin the surprise by falling asleep." I said.

"A surprise?" Seo-Jun asked. "You prepared a surprise for us?"

"Uh, yes," I answered with a little uncertainty and looked at them carefully. Hadn’t they seen the preparations and everything? Didn’t it look like a surprise to them?

"Where is it?" Jin-Yeok asked and I raised my eyebrow.

They’re kidding, right?

I looked around and then got down from the couch, walking towards the light switch, and then turned it on to the brightest setting.

I thought maybe it was because the living room was dimly lit, that was why they didn’t notice anything but even when I had brightened the lights, they still hadn’t noticed the surprise.

"You’re telling me you can’t see all this?!" I yelled, a bit out of expectations but I was way more mad than I realized.

They looked around and that was when they began to notice the balloons, the confetti hanging on thin strings, and the cardboard I worked so hard to cut, saying, ’Great job at work.’

They didn’t notice all that until I pointed it out to them.

Who wouldn’t be angry at that?

"Ah, you did such a great work, Hyung," Min-Cheol said, rushing to hug me but I raised my hand, stopping him in his tracks.

I took in deep breaths, still trying to calm myself.

Cha Hyun-woo said it was a very great exercise if I wanted to control the excessive emotions building up but at this point, it wasn’t working.

"Just... Enough." I said.

They looked at me a bit puzzled and I wondered if they didn’t even realize why I was mad.

To have my efforts seem ’transparent’ to them made me feel like shit.

"I know it’s not the perfect decoration and it doesn’t hold a candle to the fancy stuff you usually attend but..." I raised my head, my eyes squinted in disdain and this caused them to flinch in shock. "...you could’ve at least pretended to have ’seen’ it."

With that, I started taking down the decorations that my hands could reach.

It was probably a waste of time. They didn’t need to see this when it didn’t even matter to them.

"Hey, stop," Ki-hoon called but I ignored them.

What was the use of keeping it up anyway?

"Jo-Pil, stop that!" I heard Seo-Jun yell at me but I yelled back.

"Why? It’s just junk."

"No, it’s what you made," Seo-Jun yelled back and I paused, panting heavily.

I felt awful and rubbed my face.

The awful feeling wouldn’t go away.

"We’re sorry we didn’t see it right away, but to be honest, it was hard to look at something other than you." I flinched.

Don’t make this about me.

Don’t use me as cover.

"It’s because we wanted to watch you. I’m speaking for all of us right now cause I’m sure we all felt the same thing when we walked in through that door. Nothing in this room could take our gaze away from you, Jo-Pil."

Oh, what a sweet excuse.

"It’s because we couldn’t look away from you that we couldn’t see anything else. Please believe me." He pleaded but I kept my head down. "You’re all we saw."

My toes felt like curling up even when I was still standing on my feet and my heart... It was racing like it was on a marathon.

Did he really have to say those words? Words that made it seem like I was the most important in the world and nothing more mattered?

Did he?

I raised my head, looked up at him, and revealed my teary eyes.

Now, I felt even more shitty for trying to tear down the decorations.

"Hyung," Min-Cheol called and hugged me, pressing my head to his chest. "Don’t take them down, please."

How could I do that now after hearing all that?

"Jo-Pil, we would never undermine your efforts," Ki-hoon said.

"That’s right." Jin-Yeok nodded, folding his arms. "Whatever you put up is far better than those fancy banquets we usually attend, and do you know why?"

I raised my head from Min-Cheol’s chest and asked with a silent voice,

"Why?"

"Because Jo-Pil did it all with our happiness in his heart. He did it for us and wasn’t moved by hypocritical thinking about how to benefit from us, just like the host of those banquets does." He explained and I buried my face in Min-Cheol’s arms, hiding.

His words made me blush. It was true that I did it because of them and not because I wanted to look good in front of them.

If they put it like that... I can’t just stay mad at them.

"Once again, I’ll apologize that I didn’t appreciate your work right away," Seo-Jun said. "But," he looked around. "You did do a good job so be proud of it, Jo-Pil."

I sniffed and then raised my head, smiling.

"I did, didn’t I?"

They saw that smile and laughed. It looked like I was back to normal.

It did pain me that my masters did not see the effort I put into arranging the things for the party, but it can’t be helped at this point.

According to them, I was just too much to look away from so that meant I held that much value in their hearts.

If I think of it that way, I don’t feel that bad about anything anymore.