WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ My Platinum-Blonde Childhood Friend Is Too Pretty ◈

Chapter 95: 36. On the Matter of Being Envious of a University Classmate's Girlfriend for Being So Lovely and Pretty

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March. The time of year when freshman college students were still riding the thrill of being new, not yet beaten down by lectures and assignments.

Seoyeon University, which gathered some of the best students in the country, was no different.

Groups had formed among people who'd grown close at freshman orientation camp, and in true fashion for twenty-year-olds who'd only just become adults, new drinking plans were springing up every single day.

Kim Sung-jun stared blankly at Lee Do-yoon, the first real friend he'd made in college.

"Do-yoon, you're actually coming tonight, right? I used you as bait to get people to show up. If you bail on me it's going to be rough."

"I'll be there. Elli said I can go out tonight."

"Hah... Okay but why do you need permission from your girlfriend? Just be a man about it! Tell her you're going out for drinks and go! Is that so hard?"

"Sure, sounds fun. Bet Elli would get a real kick out of that."

"I don't know about a kick, but I think I'm starting to understand why Gang-chan is still single."

"What the hell, man."

Sung-jun watched Do-yoon laugh and chat with the other classmates nearby, and felt a fresh wave of admiration.

Setting everything else aside, Do-yoon was just a good person at his core. He always wore this easy, comfortable smile, and the way he talked with people was naturally smooth and rounded off at the edges.

Sure, he'd throw out rough words the way guys their age did sometimes, but even then it never left a bad taste in anyone's mouth.

On top of that, he was already gaining a reputation as a face genius, which made it impossible not to draw attention wherever he went.

'This guy is beyond the overachiever type.'

Smart enough to get into Seoyeon University, tall, good-looking, good personality.

And his girlfriend, who Sung-jun had only seen in photos so far, was honestly so pretty he could've believed she was AI-generated or some foreign top model.

So naturally he'd been envious from the moment he first saw the photos, but after spending a few days at university with Do-yoon, Kim Sung-jun had come to understand it.

A guy like him deserved a girlfriend like that.

All those reasons he'd just listed aside, what Sung-jun thought was Do-yoon's best quality was that he treated everyone the same no matter who they were. He never got drunk on his own good looks, and whether the person in front of him was a guy or a girl or anyone at all, he always met their eyes and talked to them with that same smile. It was impossible not to like him for it.

'Or maybe not? It kind of feels like he keeps a tiny bit more distance with the girls.'

Come to think of it, there was this faint, almost imperceptible line he drew when talking to female classmates compared to the guys.

But that quality probably read as attractive both to Sung-jun and to the other guys who'd picked up on the same thing.

It gave you the sense that his loyalty to his girlfriend was real, something you could feel in the way he spoke and carried himself.

"You coming tonight, Sung-jun?"

"Obviously. We were supposed to go drink at your place but that fell through because your girlfriend said no. At least let me get a drink in somewhere. This is all I've got."

"Sorry, sorry. She said having people over at home is off the table from now on."

"I mean, that's what happens when you're living together. But hey, is your girlfriend coming tonight?"

"If there aren't too many people... I could ask her to stop by for a bit."

Sung-jun felt genuinely grateful for his own luck.

Whoever had sat next to Do-yoon on that freshman orientation camp bus would've ended up close with him, that much was obvious. Fortunately it had been Sung-jun, and that was why they'd clicked so fast.

Coming up from Gangwon Province entirely on his own, he'd been quietly worried about whether he'd find anyone to eat at the cafeteria with, so it meant even more to him.

"Gang-chan, you heard him. Keep it manageable."

"We cut the guest list here. Anyone who tries to add more people gets flagged as a spy."

"How many are we at right now?"

"Right now? Let's see... roughly four?"

"Four not counting us? I used Do-yoon as the draw and that's all you got? Haven't you asked everyone yet?"

"Fourteen."

"Are you out of your mind?"

"What was I supposed to do, everyone said they were coming. And for the record, half of them are girls."

"Okay, that's good. That's what a class rep is for."

"But with that many people, is it okay to invite your girlfriend? Please tell me it's okay."

"It is a lot. But I'll give her a call and see."

Honestly, as a guy, he was envious in all kinds of ways. But not in a way that crossed any line.

That was about the extent of what Sung-jun felt toward Do-yoon, and he figured the other guys who'd been drawn in by Do-yoon's easy warmth probably felt the same.

That was true, at least until after class that evening.

At the drinking get-together.

"Hello, everyone. I'm Alisha, Do-yoon's girlfriend."

"......"

"......"

"......"

"......"

Until they saw Lee Do-yoon's girlfriend for themselves.

Every single person there lost their composure. Sung-jun couldn't believe it.

Even in photos he'd suspected editing or AI, but seeing her in person was somehow even more than that.

Platinum-blonde hair the likes of which he'd never encountered before in his life, a shade so beautiful the only word that came to mind was beautiful itself.

Delicate yet strikingly defined features, long lashes, blue eyes, pretty lips.

The look of her in a knit and a light coat, the tall, slender frame and the absolutely insane figure visible even through her clothes.

She captured the gaze of the guys, the girls, everyone in the room, all at once.

"Elli, sit here."

"Sure."

"Do you want something to eat?"

"I had a little while I was out with your mom earlier."

"Oh right, you said you went to the department store with her."

"Yeah. So eat plenty yourself. Oh, that's your favorite, isn't it."

She settled quietly beside Do-yoon and with a natural, practiced ease started looking after the food for him, while casually calling his mother "mother" as if it were the most ordinary thing in the world.

Watching it, Sung-jun felt an envy so deep it welled up from somewhere inside him, and he nearly teared up.

'Wow......'

If forced to choose between a pretty girlfriend and Do-yoon's face, he would've picked the face before tonight.

But now that he'd seen Alisha, Do-yoon's girlfriend, his heart had tilted completely toward the pretty girlfriend side.

If a girl with the kind of beauty you only saw in movies, not quite a foreigner but a Northern European beauty, looked at you with that much affection in her eyes and took care of you like that.

How happy would that make a person.

Sung-jun couldn't even begin to imagine.

He'd never had a girl like that in his life.

"This is Sung-jun. I mentioned him before, right?"

"You said he looked after you a lot on the orientation camp trip? Nice to meet you."

"Oh, yeah, yeah. Nice to meet you... I've heard a lot about you."

She didn't come across as someone who was openly bubbly, but even that slightly sharp set of her eyes and the way she held her expression was charm in itself.

Cool was the word for it.

Alisha, who had dropped by the gathering and in an instant reduced the noisy room to near silence, was

-scanning the room

looking at the girls more than the guys, making eye contact with each of them one by one.

Sung-jun had been single his whole life and spent most of his time outside studying glued to games, but somehow he understood why she was doing that.

It was probably a small warning. A way of letting everyone know that the guy sitting beside her was hers.

But even with that open show of territorial intent, the female classmates who'd come along couldn't find anything to say.

They just caught her eye and looked away, cheeks going faintly pink.

He understood that too.

'I don't think I could hold her gaze either...'

Staring back into those beautiful eyes was something Sung-jun didn't have the nerve to do either.

As a result, all the anticipation everyone had built up amounted to nothing. For the roughly fifteen minutes Alisha was there.

The fourteen or so classmates couldn't bring themselves to talk to her easily, and the table had settled into quiet murmurs, when.

"Do-yoon."

"Yeah?"

"...,...........,..."

"Oh, you want to? Okay."

Alisha whispered something in Do-yoon's ear and then stood up. She seemed to have decided that the atmosphere had gotten awkward because of her.

"I was just passing through on my way home, so I'll get going."

At the sight of her stepping aside to free up the mood, Sung-jun raised his voice before he knew what he was doing.

"Hey, hey, Do-yoon! Your girlfriend's leaving, just go with her. It's about time to wrap up anyway."

"What? It's still a bit early to..."

"What are you talking about, it's getting late, go home together! This guy was about to let his girlfriend walk home alone."

"Even so..."

"Sung-jun's right. Just go, Do-yoon."

"Yeah, go with her!"

"Wait, aren't you going home together anyway? Since you live together?"

"Oh, true. Just go ahead~"

Honestly the night probably had another hour or two in it, but he was more worried about Do-yoon's pretty girlfriend walking home by herself than anything else.

The other classmates clearly felt the same, because they all piled on in agreement, and Do-yoon looked a little sheepish but broke into a quiet smile and slipped out of his seat.

"Sorry about this. Let's go again next time. Sung-jun, you were collecting and paying tonight, right? Send me the total over chat later."

"Will do. See you tomorrow... wait, tomorrow's Saturday. See you Monday."

"Get home safe!"

The two of them left the bar, and the moment they were gone the rest of the table erupted again.

"I honestly have no words."

"The energy in here was insane. I could barely look her in the eye the whole time."

"No wonder Do-yoon doesn't make drinking plans much. I'd just stay home too if I were him."

"They really do say birds of a feather... haaa..."

"Did you give up?"

"I gave up..."

The awe and shock over Do-yoon's girlfriend refused to die down, and the conversation kept circling back to the two of them.

It ended up fueling the table, and the night stretched on longer than anyone had planned.

Eventually the dorm curfew forced everyone to call it, and on the walk back Sung-jun found himself thinking.

'...I want to see her again.'

It wasn't exactly falling for someone romantically. It felt more like seeing a celebrity for the first time and getting starstruck.

The idea of actually dating that platinum-blonde girl was something he couldn't even begin to entertain. And it was a different feeling from when he'd seen Do-yoon's female friends from his old school at the freshman orientation camp.

He just wanted to see her again, the way a fan wants to see their favorite idol in person one more time.

'Well, probably won't happen again.'

From what he could tell, she didn't seem to go out much, and they clearly didn't invite many people to their place either. Seeing her again seemed unlikely.

Sitting with that small disappointment, Sung-jun returned to the dorms and slept soundly until Saturday lunch.

"...huh?"

[ 23Do-yoon: you getting some rest? ]

[ 23Do-yoon: remember how you said you wanted to come over and drink ]

[ 23Do-yoon: come hang out sometime ]

[ 23Do-yoon: Elli said you seem like a solid guy and to invite you over lol ]

"Ha, seriously..."

He let out a laugh the moment he woke up and saw the messages.

His first thought was, could this be because he'd pushed them to leave together? He lay there turning it over and quickly arrived at yes, almost certainly.

Of course he was happy he'd get to see Alisha again.

But.

"Aaagh...! I'm so freaking jealous, damn it!!"

Sung-jun yanked the covers over his head on his dorm bed and writhed with an envy he absolutely could not contain.

Yep.

Way too jealous.

Of that pretty girlfriend, and of the university classmate who was loved by her so much.

* * *

"Was it Seong-hoon? He seems like a good guy."

"It's Seong-jun, not Seong-hoon..."

"Anyway."

"You left so they all told me to go with you?"

"Yeah."

"I thought he seemed nice from the start. And the other classmates too, everyone's friendly, easy to get along with."

"That's a relief."

"It is. Oh, right."

"What."

"Elli, you wanted a drink earlier, didn't you?"

"...Not really."

"Your hands were fidgeting the whole time..."

"No they weren't."

"Hey, what if we ordered a few different kinds of alcohol online and tried them together?"

"Lee Do-yoon. Did I or did I not say I'm not drinking anymore? Want to die?"

"No, not like actually drinking, just tasting. One bottle each. What do you think?"

"......"

"I'm a little curious too, honestly, and drinking at home with just you is way more comfortable than going out. You feel the same way, right? If it's just the two of us you don't have to worry even if you get a little tipsy."

"...If you want to buy some, I don't care."

"Okay. Let's look tomorrow morning when we wake up."

"Do whatever you want."

"Should we go shower?"

"Yeah. Take my clothes off for me."

"Spoiled. Come here."

"I'm not spoiled... mmm..."

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