Money's Great, But That Label Scares the Hell Out of Me
The sharp, desperate slurping of an iced Americano that had long since lost everything but ice echoed across the table.
Seola and I were sitting across from each other in a quiet corner of a franchise café near our rented apartment, far enough from campus that we didn’t have to worry about running into anyone.
The area around school felt too risky right now. We’d ditched our afternoon liberal arts class without a second thought and fled here instead.
Twitch—!
“Haa……”
“Huu……”
Deep sighs escaped us at the same time. Seola crunched down on an ice cube, then finally spoke first, her voice hesitant.
“Well… at least no one saw our faces, so that’s something.”
The shocking truth we’d confirmed at the emergency exit earlier.
Luckily, the camera quality was garbage and the lighting had been terrible. By some miracle, neither of our faces had been captured.
Seola glanced at me again, eyes still full of unease.
“Are you okay with this?”
“Huh? I mean…”
I kept the straw between my lips and let my gaze drift to the ceiling. The sticky, insane sensations from last night flashed through my mind. Before I could stop myself, my honest thoughts slipped out.
“It felt good yesterday… Mm. Really fucking good.”
“…Yeah, it did……”
Seola had been nodding unconsciously, but her head suddenly froze.
Her face flushed bright red in an instant. Her eyes flew wide open.
“Th-that’s not—!!! Hey!!!!!!!”
“Whoa, you scared me! Shh, shh! Why are you suddenly yelling?!”
I lunged across the table and clamped my hand over her mouth.
“Everyone’s staring at us!”
At my frantic plea, Seola whipped her head around to check the other customers. She let out a muffled “Mmph!” and slapped both hands over her own mouth.
Then she dropped back into her chair with a heavy sigh, breathing hard.
“That’s not what I meant! Haa……”
She jerked her chin toward my smartphone lying abandoned in the middle of the table.
“Are you seriously okay with our video just floating around the internet like this…?”
“Huh? Well… as long as our faces aren’t out there.”
“…What?”
She stared at me like I’d lost my mind. I leaned in closer across the table and lowered my voice.
“Hey. How much do you make a month at your part-time job?”
“Me? Even working full-time I don’t break a hundred. Maybe eighty?”
She blinked at me, straw still in her mouth, caught off guard by the sudden question. I kept my voice low.
“I’m busting my ass at that Korean BBQ place and pulling in about the same. After splitting rent on a two-bedroom and paying for food, there’s basically nothing left.”
“……”
“But did you see the settlement money from that video? Two hundred and seventy in just a few hours. That covers next month’s rent in full. How long are we supposed to keep asking our parents—who are already struggling out in the countryside—for help?”
My cold, practical argument left Seola gaping, but she couldn’t quite bring herself to argue back.
“I mean… yeah, that’s true, but… isn’t that illegal?”
“Hmm……”
I rubbed my chin, momentarily stumped. Then a random article I’d read online popped into my head.
“Oh! I saw something about this once.”
“What? What is it?”
“We should delete everything from that Korean platform since it’s risky. Instead, upload the video to a foreign site and get paid in crypto. Apparently it’s untraceable in Korea and gets completely laundered.”
“…C-crypto? What the hell is that……”
To someone who’d only ever known savings accounts and fixed deposits, words like cryptocurrency and coins sounded like alien gibberish.
When Seola stared at me blankly, I pressed my advantage.
“These days, once you get a little famous, everyone’s making safe money overseas through OnlyPanty or whatever it’s called. Why couldn’t we do the same?”
“……”
“So what I’m saying is, if we set this up properly, we could—”
“I know! I already know that!”
Seola cut me off sharply, sounding frustrated.
“I know crypto or whatever can make money! But what if—what if someone actually figures out it’s us? We’d have that label stuck on us for the rest of our lives……”
Her voice was trembling slightly.
Twenty years old.
For a girl who had just become an adult, having her first time broadcast live to complete strangers was bad enough. The idea that the video was now drifting around the internet had to feel like pure terror.
“Money’s… nice. But that label scares the hell out of me.”
Her shoulders were hunched tight. Faced with such a real, grounded fear, I found myself at a loss for words.
“Seola, I’m not saying we have to—”
“I’m leaving first. My head’s too messed up right now.”
Before I could finish, she snatched her bag and practically ran out of the café.
Left alone, I could only stare at my now-watery Americano and bite my lip.
Fuck. Lee Minjun, you absolute idiot.
Time passed. Evening.
Chop. Chop. Chop. Chop.
I let out a deep sigh while slicing onions on the cutting board.
The small room was filled with the smell of stew simmering, but my mind kept spinning between the image of Seola’s cold back as she walked away from me at the café earlier and the two million seven hundred thousand won that would soon hit my account.
Alright. First, feed her a good meal and then try to talk her around gently.
I was setting the table to match her part-time shift end time, steeling myself, when—
Kakao—!
The phone I’d left facedown beside the cutting board lit up with a notification.
“…!!”
Two urgent lines, complete with typos. My heart dropped.
She would never send something like this at this hour.
I threw off my apron, didn’t even bother turning off the gas, and sprinted out of the kitchen. My destination was the convenience store in the alley where Seola worked.
“Huff, huff…!”
I arrived in front of the glass door, lungs burning, and the scene I saw through the window made my blood run cold.
The returning student creep who had been hitting on Seola in the lecture hall earlier, along with three of his buddies, had completely surrounded the counter.
All of them were red-faced, barely able to stand straight, clearly hammered.
“Please, just stop! If you keep this up I’m really calling the police!”
Seola was pressed against the back wall behind the counter, shouting with a voice thick with tears, but the bastards didn’t even flinch.
“Police? Heh. What the hell did we even do to get reported?”
“You’re sexually harassing me right now!!”
“What? Sexual harassment? Lolololol.”
The group burst into slurred laughter at her words. One of the bigger guys leaning against a shelf sneered.
“Hey, let’s be real. With tits that big, of course people are gonna look. She’s the one shaking them around for everyone to see. What the hell is she complaining about?”
“Kekeke, yeah I agree. Hic.”
The sheer audacity. The way they leered at her with disgusting, drunken eyes made Seola clench both fists tightly behind the counter.
Her face trembled with humiliation and rage. It looked like she might burst into tears any second.
These crazy bastards had actually lost their minds.
The thread of reason in my head snapped.
Ding—!!
I slammed the convenience store door open so hard it nearly shattered and stormed inside.
“Shut your filthy mouths, you fucking pieces of shit!!”
My roar echoed through the small store. The bastards who had been laughing and crowding Seola all turned to look at me at once.
“…Huh? You— you son of a bitch. Hic.”
The senior in the middle narrowed his hazy eyes, recognized me, and opened his mouth.
“The asshole who talked shit to me earlier… Wait, what the fuck are you—?”
“Shut the fuck up and get out, you bastard!!!”
Before he could finish, I bellowed even louder, putting everything I had into it.
The narrow store seemed to shake from the volume. The staggering thugs flinched and hunched their shoulders. Then the two unfamiliar big guys standing beside the senior suddenly burst out laughing.
“Pfft, what the hell is this guy?”
“Bro, he just told you to get lost. Lol.”
The senior’s already-red face twisted with humiliation at their snickering.
“This— this fucking bastard!!”
“Shut up, you moron!!”
I didn’t back down an inch and kept yelling.
“You’re not leaving?! I’m reporting every single thing you’ve done, you piece of shit!!”
The word “report” made the senior’s eyes flash with rage. There wasn’t a shred of reason left in those eyes—only alcohol and wounded pride.
“Report? Report?! Fuck off, asshole.”
And then.
Squeeze—!
He roughly grabbed Seola’s breast.
“Kyaaah!!”
“See? Hic. Walking around with these is the real crime. Don’t you think?”
“…Hey, you bastard.”
One of the laughing thugs suddenly stiffened, his expression turning serious. Even to them, this had clearly crossed the line. The laughter died instantly.
But I couldn’t see anything anymore.
“You fucking insane piece of shit!!!”
My mind went pure white. I roared like a beast and threw myself at the senior.
“Get your hands off Seola! I’ll kill you, I swear!!”
The moment I tried to grab his collar—
“Oh? Look at this punk.”
The big guys sauntered over and pinned both my arms in a crushing grip with their superior weight.
No matter how much I struggled, two drunk adults were too strong.
“Ah, he’s too loud. Hey, drag this bastard outside.”
The senior waved his hand irritably and let go of Seola. The thugs dragged my thrashing body out and threw me into the dark alley beside the store.
Bang—!
My back slammed hard into the concrete wall. Before I could even get up—
Thud—!
“Ugh…!”
A heavy kick landed in my solar plexus. The air was knocked out of me and I collapsed to the ground.
“Kekeke, this fucking idiot. Doesn’t even know to fear his senior, huh? You wanna die?”
The merciless kicks kept coming.
They stomped my ribs, crushed my back.
Curled up like a shrimp, I took every blow, but the only thing in my head was the image of Seola trembling after he’d grabbed her chest.
“Minjun!! No!!”
Seola came running into the alley after us, sobbing as she tried to reach me.
“Please stop! I’m calling the police! Somebody help— Kyaa!”
“Who told you to butt in, bitch.”
The senior swung his arm roughly. Seola crumpled helplessly to the ground.
The moment I saw that, my vision went red again.
“…Don’t you dare touch Seola.”
I forced my battered body up and clung desperately to the senior’s leg.
“Don’t touch her, you crazy bastard!!”
“This fucking piece of shit, still—!”
Slap—!
My head was yanked back by the hair, and a burning slap landed across my cheek. The metallic taste of blood flooded my mouth.
Slap—!
Thud!
More slaps and punches rained down. My vision spun. I wanted to crawl to Seola, who was crying on the ground, but my body felt like it weighed a thousand pounds.
It was a dark alley behind the busy streets. No one was passing by. Was this really how I was going to get fucked? Just as despair began to crush me—
CRACK—!!
“…!!”
A dull, heavy impact rang in my ears.
The thug who had been laughing while holding my hair suddenly had his head twisted at a grotesque angle. Without even screaming, he collapsed onto the asphalt like a rotten tree.
He was out cold.
“Wh-what the—?!”
The senior and the remaining thugs stumbled backward in shock as their friend dropped instantly.
The person who stepped out of the shadows was Jinwoo—the same boxing scholarship student who had cut through the hallway like a tank earlier that day.
He nudged the fallen thug with his foot, looking annoyed, then swept his gaze over my broken body and the sobbing Seola on the ground.
His usual blank face instantly turned ice-cold.
Hack, ptui.
He spat on the asphalt and growled in a low voice.
“…You fucking bastards. Real pieces of shit, the lot of you.”
That was the signal.
“You crazy fuck, I’ll kill y—!”
The closest guy swung a punch with a shout. But from that point on, I couldn’t really follow what was happening.
My ears were still ringing and my vision kept spinning.
All I could make out through my blurry eyes was Jinwoo moving like a shadow. Every time he did, one of the big thugs would drop with a thud, like weeds being pulled.
Thud—! Crunch!
Dull impact sounds filled the narrow alley.
I couldn’t tell who got hit where, but every time I blinked, another guy was on the ground clutching his stomach and foaming at the mouth.
Even through the haze, one thing was crystal clear.
The scholarship boxer’s movements were on a completely different level from these neighborhood thugs. Their wild swings couldn’t even graze his collar, while every heavy blow he landed on their temples or solar plexus produced a sickening crack.
“Y-you— I’m your senior! You crazy bast—!”
The last one standing, the senior, was shaking as he screamed. Before he could finish, a horrifying crunch echoed.
BAM—!!
At the edge of my fading vision, I saw him fly into the air before slamming into the concrete floor, mouth hanging open, jaw clearly broken.
In just a few dozen seconds—while I was still too dazed from the pain to even think straight—clean, efficient violence had completely ended the situation.
“G-get lost, you fuck!!”
The only one still conscious among the broken group dragged his unconscious friends away while cursing. Then he ran out of the alley without looking back.
“Ugh… it hurts……”
I clutched my throbbing ribs and somehow managed to sit up, groaning. Every breath felt like a knife stabbing into my side.
After panting like that for a while, I finally had enough strength to move my busted lip.
…They’re the ones who got their asses kicked and ran away, yet they’re telling someone else to get lost.
I swallowed the curse. Seola had already rushed to my side. She grabbed my face with both hands and burst into loud sobs.
“Huuu… Minjun! Are you okay?! You’re bleeding……”
“Ow! Ugh… I’m fine. Not dead yet. So stop crying.”
I forced a grin despite my wrecked face. That only made her cry harder.
My chest ached at the sight, but this wasn’t the time to dwell on it.
As I struggled to my feet, a small figure hurried out from behind Jinwoo and crouched beside me.
“A-are… are you okay…?”
A soft, delicate voice. When I looked up through my blurry vision, the first thing I saw was long, flowing hair.
Eyes that caught the streetlight glowed mysteriously. They were a clear, striking purple—probably contacts. Those worried eyes looked down at me.
Then the delicate person turned to Jinwoo and asked urgently, clearly worried about the aftermath.
“Jinwoo… wasn’t that a bit too much just now…?”
Jinwoo, hands still in his pockets, stared indifferently at the bloodstains the thugs had left. He answered in a dry voice.
“…Was it?”
He added one more thing.
“Looks like I broke his jaw. That’s fucked.”
A completely calm remark that didn’t match the bloody scene at all. Jinwoo suddenly tilted his head and glanced up at the utility pole above the alley.
“Hey. There’s a CCTV here—”
Slap—!
“Ah, seriously!”
The person with purple eyes smacked Jinwoo on the back and scolded him. Then they quickly leaned toward me again.
“Are you okay?! You look really hurt……”
“Hic… Y-yes… Thank you so much for helping us……”
Seola kept bowing her head, face covered in tears. I held my throbbing cheek and forced the words out.
“Th-thanks. It must’ve been scary for a girl to see something this ugly… You’ve got real guts.”
At my words, those purple eyes widened in surprise. The person scratched the back of their head and smiled awkwardly.
“Ah, haha… Um, I’m not a girl. I’m a guy. We’re in the same department. My name’s Yeonwoo.”
“…!!”
“…!!”
Both Seola’s and my mouths fell open at the same time.
That long, silky hair, those delicate, beautiful features—and he was a guy? Not only that, but a classmate?
While we were frozen in shock, forgetting even the pain in our bones, Jinwoo looked down at us with his usual blank expression and said flatly:
“You two should head to the hospital first.”
“Huh? Oh, yeah……”
“Sorry, but try not to report this to the police if you can help it. It was self-defense, but if they find out I’m a scholarship athlete it’ll be a massive pain in the ass.”
Even though it had been legitimate self-defense to save us, smashing someone’s jaw would cause him more trouble if the case got filed. He was looking out for himself even now.
Slap—!
“Ah, come on! You can’t say that right now!”
Yeonwoo smacked Jinwoo’s shoulder again and glared at him.
“I’m sorry! Don’t mind him. Please go to the hospital and take care of yourselves. You’re really okay, right?”
Yeonwoo apologized frantically while fussing over us. Jinwoo clicked his tongue in annoyance at the scolding but stayed quiet, saying nothing more.