Our Video Is Circulating as Highlight Clips

The next day.

"Ugh...... Fuck, my head......"

A splitting headache throbbed as I forced my heavy eyelids open.

The floor was a complete disaster—empty soju bottles rolling everywhere, clothes tossed aside like shed skin, and the awful aftermath of last night's animalistic thrashing that had left the mats soaked and sticky.

"Urgh...... Hey, Baek Seola. Get me some water......"

My voice was hoarse as I groped around beside me. In that instant, the scorching sensation of her fingers tightly interlocking with mine from last night flooded back to my fingertips.

That small hand trembling while clasped in mine.

......But all I touched now was the ice-cold bare floor.

"......Huh? Where did she run off to this time?"

I bolted upright and glanced toward her room. It was deathly silent, not a single sound.

The girl who had spent the whole night moaning and crying beneath me must have slipped back to her room at dawn—or maybe she'd fled the house entirely.

As I stared blankly around the empty room, trying to pull myself together, the smartphone lying on the floor lit up.

[ 09:42 AM ]

"......No way! What the hell! Why is it already this late?!"

My major lecture started at ten. I was screwed.

I didn't have a single second to waste feeling embarrassed about the insane stunt from last night. I sprang up like a jack-in-the-box, yanked on the pants lying nearby, and sprinted toward campus like a madman.

"Huff, huff......!"

After a full-out sprint that felt like my heart would explode, I barely managed to slip through the back door of the lecture hall. Still catching my breath, I scanned the room.

There, in a corner seat near the front, was a familiar curly head tucked under a ball cap pulled low. It was Seola.

She looked just as mentally wrecked as I felt, shoulders hunched up tight.

I was hesitating—should I go talk to her? What kind of face was I even supposed to make?—when the classmate next to me poked my arm with his pen.

"Hey, Lee Minjun. Stayed up grinding ranked games till dawn again? Look at that hair. Disgusting, dude. Go wash up."

The annoying jab at me while I was still panting from being late. I scrubbed my face with dry hands and waved him off.

"Ah, fuck...... It's not that. I ran the whole way so I'm out of breath—don't talk to me."

"Oh, for real? If it wasn't gaming all night, you must've been busy with something else, huh?"

The guy had been snickering, but suddenly his voice dropped into something sly as he leaned in close.

"Hey. Lee Minjun. You seen this?"

"What is it."

The smartphone screen he casually thrust at me.

"Pffft! Cough—hack—ugh!"

I choked hard and started coughing like crazy. On the screen, under cool blue lighting, a man and woman completely naked and drenched in sweat were frantically grinding against each other.

Fuck. It was me and Seola from last night. The live broadcast before the monitor fell over had been recorded after all, and the clip was already spreading everywhere!

"Crazy, right? Some platform had it as a live stream last night, and it's already blowing up as highlight clips all over the place."

My classmate swallowed thickly, eyes glued to the phone.

"Wow, but the girl in this video has an insane body, doesn't she? Tiny waist but those tits are next-level. And look at that pale skin. Even in the dark you can see everything—those pretty pink nipples are right there in full view......"

He shoved his face so close to the screen he looked like he might lick it, then frowned and clicked his tongue.

"Tsk...... Damn, but her face isn't showing. I really wanna see her face. The quality's too shit to tell who it is. Hey, you think we could figure out who they are??"

At those words, cold sweat trickled down my spine even as a strange wave of relief hit me.

'......The faces aren't visible.'

But the relief didn't last. Watching him actively trying to uncover their identities, my stomach dropped all over again.

"Hey, stop!! Stop looking, damn it!"

I lunged forward and slapped the screen shut.

"Whoa, you scared me! Why'd you hit it? You trying to keep it to yourself?"

"No, fuck, it's not that......! Just—I've seen enough, put it away. Turn it off already!"

I practically snatched the phone from him and killed the screen. My heart felt like it was about to burst out of my chest.

'I'm so fucked. Completely, utterly fucked.'

Face pale as a ghost, I kept scrubbing at it ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠with dry hands. Please, please, I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠prayed desperately that no one would realize the naked pair in that video was us.

"Class dismissed. Thank you everyone."

The moment the professor finished, I shot down to the front row where Seola sat. I needed to drag her out right now and figure out what the hell we were going to do.

But of course, some returning-student senior bastard was blocking her path and hitting on her.

"Seola. Why'd you leave early during the last department dinner? I told you I wanted to talk to you alone."

"Ah...... I'm sorry, sunbae. I wasn't feeling well that day, so I headed home early."

"Come on, that's a lie. Then how about making it up to me with a drink today? I'm hurt, you know. Hurt."

Seola forcing a smile as she tried to refuse, the senior clinging to her like a leech with zero awareness. I barged straight between them and grabbed her wrist.

"Hey, Baek Seola. Come with me a second."

When I tried to drag her away, the senior whose conversation I'd cut off frowned deeply and stepped in front of me.

"......Who the hell is this punk? Can't you see I'm talking to her?"

Normally I would've bowed and played nice. But right now my head was completely filled with that video—there was no mental space left for some sunbae.

I stared at the senior's menacing face with dead eyes and gave a small nod.

"Ah, yes. Sorry about that. But we're in a hurry right now. ......Hey, let's go."

"What?"

"I said let's go."

Without sparing him another word, I walked right past the stunned senior, yanking Seola along.

"Hey, you bastard! Who do you think you're ignoring?!"

The senior's face twisted with rage. Me glaring back without flinching, the senior still pathetically refusing to let go.

The air was so thick it felt like curses were about to fly at any moment—and that was exactly when it happened.

Slide—.

"Coming through."

A massive shoulder rudely shoved into the narrow gap between us.

It was our department's resident beast, boxing-team classmate Jinwoo. He looked down at us blocking the aisle, shot us a single annoyed glance like we were obstacles on the sidewalk, and continued on his way without a second thought.

The overwhelming physique and indifferent aura that radiated in that brief moment. Both the senior who had been ready to swing at me and me with all my false bravado instantly shut our mouths and quietly stepped aside.

Thud—!

"Ow!!"

In the awkward silence that followed, fire exploded in my right shin.

I screamed, clutching my leg, and spun around to find Seola—who had somehow slipped behind me—glaring at me with murderous eyes. She'd mercilessly kicked my shin with the toe of her shoe.

"Ugh, seriously!! So embarrassing...!"

Under the ball cap pulled low, Seola's face was burning crimson with shame. On top of two grown men acting like idiots in a packed lecture hall, her patience had finally snapped.

In the end, Seola shouted once and bolted for the back door, abandoning the dumbfounded senior and me.

Caught off guard by the sudden turn, I looked around awkwardly. By now, sharp gazes from classmates all over the room were pouring in, watching the spectacle with keen interest.

"Uh, hey! W-wait up!"

I limped after Seola, clutching my throbbing shin.

An empty emergency stairwell. Seola, who had run here like she was escaping, stood with hands on her knees catching her breath. Then she slowly lifted her head.

"Why...... why did you call me."

Her pronunciation was slightly off, like she was flustered. But not even a second later, her eyes suddenly widened and she exploded at me.

"What the hell! Why did you call me?!"

"Ah, you scared me! Damn it! My ears are ringing! Shh! Shhh!"

I quickly pressed a finger to my lips, trying to calm her down.

"Hey, that's not what's important right now. We're completely fucked......!"

The moment I urgently turned my smartphone screen back on—

Ding! Ding! Dingdingdingding—!!!

"......Huh?"

The phone started vibrating so hard it felt like it would explode. A nonstop barrage of notifications.

What filled the entire screen was the 19+ live streaming platform app we'd opened last night. The highlight video's view count was climbing at a terrifying speed, and right alongside it, the [Estimated Settlement Amount] was skyrocketing.

"......What is it? Why do you look like that?"

Seola, noticing something off from my frozen expression, leaned in to look at the screen.

And there it was, smack in the center—the 'Estimated Settlement Amount' total, so large it was hard to process at a glance.

"......"

"......"

A suffocating silence fell. We looked up at each other with identical dumbstruck faces.

Then, without needing to say a word, we both rubbed our eyes vigorously with our fists, took a sharp breath, and glued our gazes back to the screen.

One, ten, hundred, thousand, ten thousand...... hundred thousand, a million?!

"This...... no way!!!"

An exclamation laced with shock. Seola's mouth ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠fell open again as she prepared another dolphin-like scream.

"Waaaaah—!!"

"Ah, shh! Shhh! Hey, hold on a second."

I quickly clapped a hand over her mouth, then clicked the detailed settlement page with trembling fingers.

And there it was—the confirmed truth.

"......It's real. Yeah. This is the money we made from that...... live stream yesterday. It's still before final settlement, but in a few days it'll actually hit our account."

Seola swatted my hand away and shouted, face drained of all color.

"Hey!! The money isn't the problem right now! Didn't our faces get completely exposed yesterday?!"

"Ah, come on! Keep it down!"

I covered her mouth again. After quickly checking that no one was on the stairs, I finally let out the breath I'd been holding.

"......Luckily that's fine. Earlier in the lecture hall my classmate showed me that clip, so I know. But he had no idea the woman in it was you."

"......Mmph? Really? He didn't know it was us?"

"Yeah. We did it with all the lights off yesterday. Plus the camera quality was garbage and only the monitor light was hitting us...... so only our naked bodies were captured in filthy detail, and our faces were hidden in shadow so they didn't show at all."

Only then did Seola's rigid body slowly loosen.

"Th-thank god......"

She let out a long sigh, leaned back against the wall, and slid down to the floor.

But unlike the relieved Seola, my eyes stayed locked on the numbers on the screen like they were nailed there.

Tuition, rent, food costs. With this money, all the shitty stress crushing my life this semester would vanish in one shot.

Possessed by the money, I unconsciously felt the corners of my mouth curling into a grin.

Thud—!

"Ow!! Why are you kicking me again?!"

Seola, who had spotted my obnoxious expression like a ghost, shot up from where she'd been leaning and kicked my shin once more.

"What's with that face right now! I just thought my life was over and my heart fell to my stomach, but you're over there grinning by yourself?!"

"Ah, I get it!! From now on let's not do live streams—maybe just recordings or something!"

The unfair protest slipped out while I rubbed the kicked leg.

But the insane assumption of a 'next time' had come out way too naturally. And surprisingly—

"......"

Seola bit her lip hard, face bright red, nodding up and down as if hypnotized by the numbers on the screen.

Then, exactly three seconds later.

Her head suddenly froze in mid-nod as sanity slammed back into her.

"......Huh?"

Slowly, Seola whipped her head toward me. Her eyes widened so much they ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠looked ready to pop out. From the mouth that had just surrendered to the sweet taste of capitalism came a belated scream of horror.

"What?! N-n-n...... next?!?!"