Chapter 15

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Translator: penny

Chapter: 15

Chapter Title: 5. Looking Back, My First Love Jeong Minji (33/???)

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This broadcast was worlds apart from Han Jiwon's—the one I'd connected with before. Even though both were internet streams, the platforms they ran on were completely different.

< Bindda TV >

An underground platform reeking of blatant sleaze. Its mainstay was 19+ content: women's strip cams and cyber room salons featuring multiple girls dancing on stage in something called Excel rooms.

In other words, no matter what stream you clicked on, the women were always flashing their chests as a baseline.

"Yeah... Oh, someone just donated 10,000 won. Was that for a hand kiss? That's 5,000 won, right?"

Minji Noona had her massive breasts out, but she still wore her gym mask.

She seemed to avoid fully exposing her face—either that, or there was a big audience for that kink. I couldn't tell yet.

'Noona, how the hell did you end up falling this far...'

The shocking transformation of the girl-next-door noona had left me in a state of primary shock, rendering me a bit speechless.

I knew Minji Noona's family wasn't well-off financially.

But with a strict, patriarchal dad at the center of it all, I never imagined she'd sink this low.

Even Jiwon's femcam room wasn't exactly mainstream.

It was an underground femcam that only certain people knew about—visible only to those in the know.

And I was aware that beneath that lurked even darker, bottom-of-the-pit underground broadcasts.

I didn't think of them as dirty, though.

'This is making my head spin...'

Still, seeing someone like my first love from the past in that state hit me hard.

She was the gullible type who fell for people's tricks easily, and the thought of her scraping by in such a dangerous way filled me with dread and anxiety.

Just watching made my gut boil like it was about to burst.

< Jimin's Mom Strip Room♡ >

'......'

The real shocker was the "Mom" in the room title.

"Jimin" was probably just an internet nickname, and "Mom" might be her broadcast concept.

Even in the underground.

No, especially in the underground— to stand out in that mud pit, you needed your own unique flavor.

'Does she really have a kid?'

It terrified me.

I'd already taken a 20-ton truck to the face; peeling back another layer felt too scary.

It was like a big red [Warning!] sign slapped on a button that might explode if pressed.

Pressing it was agonizing, but I slowly clicked the login button, then moved my hands to the keyboard.

Tap tap. I typed the message agonizingly slowly.

It took forever to finish the message and hit enter.

Once I steeled myself and sent it, blasting it across the screen,

"Uh... Someone wants me to grind on an eggplant...? I don't have any today."

Minji Noona didn't react.

She was still as oblivious as ever.

She probably wasn't even glancing at the chat properly due to her scatterbrained nature, so I had no choice but to pull out the big guns.

A donation to grab aggro.

For reference, "bamboo" was Bindda TV's currency unit.

Unlike balloon donations with a 1:100 exchange rate, bamboo matched won one-to-one.

I didn't drop a massive sum right away.

I just slipped in naturally, urging focus on my message, and—

"Ah, oh! Thank you for the 10,000 won, MILF Gentleman! Yeah? You want to know if I really have a kid?"

She let out a faint sigh, as if it was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a question she got multiple times a day from the room title.

At the same time, it was a topic tough to address directly from her own mouth, so she stalled—but the money forced it out.

"Well...... yeah, I do!"

"A... aaaaaah!"

The moment I heard it, my mind blanked out like a power switch flipping off.

I flung myself back into the chair, covering my face.

It was a case of bad news piling on bad news.

There was a curse in this world: the more you learned about someone you cared for, the more it hurt.

First love doing underground streams.

And she had a kid.

Advertising that she had a kid while doing this kind of show? Her family life had to be a total trainwreck.

"I don't like talking about it much, but she's just about kindergarten age now... haha..."

Minji Noona even added unnecessary details.

Bringing up her kid in a place like this couldn't end well, but she couldn't even think to lie and hide it—she just spilled.

...Well, times had changed. The "mom" gimmick didn't seem to turn her off that much anymore.

Maybe there were a ton of guys with tastes like mine, but the chat was flooded with pure obsession over the mom strip room.

Regulations wouldn't allow showing the kid even in the underground, though.

Digging deeper was turning my stomach.

There was only one way to escape this gut-wrenching feeling.

I instantly dropped 1 million won.

But this wasn't just for aggro—it was to straightforwardly achieve my goal.

Not to differentiate from Jiwon.

The menu on screen listed [1 Million Won = Meal Date Ticket].

I immediately locked in a dinner date with Minji Noona.

Buying the meal date ticket with cash got me a message from the platform after the stream ended.

"MILF Gentleman! Thanks for buying Jimin's date ticket!"

"Send me your contact or meeting spot, and I'll make time!"

Noona had no idea it was me and fired off salesy personal messages.

Every time I read her words, they fit her image so perfectly it left a bitter taste.

For now, it was a date I'd impulsively set up out of pity.

Thinking back, it felt a bit hasty.

If the guy who showed up was me, how would Minji Noona react?

"Damn..."

I could already guess easily.

That reaction she'd fled from at the gym was clearly her way of not wanting me to know.

She couldn't feel proud of her work, and there were probably all sorts of complications.

'First... I have to meet her.'

Still, I had to do it.

We hadn't crossed paths at the gym since that day.

Now that I knew what she was doing, I couldn't just sit idle.

"I'm here! You're MILF Gentleman, right?!"

I'd arrived early at the meeting spot when she slid open the door and came in.

The private room at my usual high-end grill spot—the same one I'd gone to with Jiwon before.

Minji Noona burst in smiling brightly in revealing clothes, closed the door, and sat down.

She'd deliberately kept her head low at first, but as she slowly raised it, her expression shifted rapidly.

"...Noona."

".........Huh?"

Her smiling face hardened quickly.

Her heart must've been pounding—her face flushed as she frantically scanned the room.

"Y-Yeongung!"

"......"

"Oh, I must've gotten the room wrong! I had someone to meet today for work—"

"That was me, Noona."

As she clumsily tried to slip away again, I cut her off sharply.

She flinched in surprise, then slowly lowered her slightly lifted butt back onto the chair.

Unsure where to start, I went straight for it.

"I was curious how you'd been, so I did some digging."

"Ah...... yeah."

"You've been through a lot, haven't you?"

I knew the question was off-base.

Too direct, too rude—but I wanted to know.

And Noona's smile vanished completely.

She fiddled with the iced water in the metal cup nearby, gulped it down like soju, then answered.

"After graduation—no, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠after we moved house, a lot happened..."

She answered as if she had no choice.

But she lumped it all together vaguely, not wanting to get into details.

"All those hardships, money troubles, having a kid... that's what pushed you to that kind of stream?"

She flinched!

Still, I didn't back off.

It might be rude, but I pressed further.

"I dug a bit more. Your situation looks really tough right now."

"......"

In fact, I'd gotten the full picture through a private investigator.

Her credit check showed substantial debt.

Her husband was divorced on paper? No, not quite—but basically separated.

Noona was essentially a single parent raising the kid alone.

Shouldering massive debt and paying it off by herself.

When confronted with the truth, she just listened.

After quietly taking it in, she bowed her head deeply and muttered one thing.

"So... that's why you spent this money?"

It was a voice crushed by shattered self-esteem.

A low whisper utterly unimaginable from the endlessly sunny Minji Noona of old.

I gave a soft smile.

I'd stabbed deep with the blade of truth, but now I wrapped the wound tight—gently grasping the hand on the table.

"It's okay, Noona. Don't worry."

I reassured her.

Rubbing the back of her hand to calm her first.

"I got lucky— a few businesses succeeded."

"......"

"The debt and money stuff? We'll figure it out. We should cover the urgent things first."

"Yeongung... you have that much money?"

"It was kinda like a windfall, honestly.

And helping out? It's not pity. It's just—"

I couldn't finish laying it all out.

Because Minji Noona looked like she was about to cry.

"Ugh, uuu...!"

No, tears were already streaming down to greet me first.

Her body trembled as she snorted loudly, smearing her carefully applied makeup like a child wiping away tears.

Drag!

She swallowed a sob on the verge of bursting, shoved her chair back, and stood.

The hand I'd held slipped away.

"I... I should go."

"Noona!"

"Stop!"

As I started to stand after her, her voice barked out like a shout.

I hadn't known Minji Noona could yell that loud.

"Don't follow me..."

"......"

"Sorry. I'm just embarrassed.

You turned out so great, but I'm like this...... uuuugh...!"

Minji Noona pulled out a black mask, put it on, and slid the door open to leave.

The meal date be damned—she left in a funk.

Chasing after her any further would've been pointless.

Holding onto a noona who'd finally broken down sobbing would've just built up resentment toward me.

"......Fuck."

It was suffocating.

This time, it felt like money alone couldn't fix it.