Seol Yahhan (2)
What the hell was she talking about? This girl who looked like a junior from my school was Author Seol Yahhan?
I whipped my head toward the director, half-convinced I’d misheard—but his gaze was locked squarely on the young woman standing right in front of me.
Which meant this baby-faced girl was the very Seol Yahhan I’d been waiting and waiting to meet.
“……Huh.”
What kind of ridiculous coincidence was this?
Author Seol Yahhan was a junior at my school—and a woman, on top of that?
I couldn’t believe it. My mouth fell open and I just stared at her, dumbstruck.
While I stood there frozen solid, the director stepped up and clapped me on the shoulder.
“Right, you two haven’t met yet, have you? Introductions. This is Baek Hoyeong, who’s taking the lead role this time, and this is Seol Yahhan, the original author.”
“Ah—hello. Nice to meet you. I’m Seol Yahhan.”
“Yeah, nice to meet you. Baek Hoyeong.”
I managed the greeting, but the shock still hadn’t worn off. My head was spinning.
The director looked down at me blinking like an idiot and grinned.
“Alright, Hoyeong—I’m going to go drink with the staff. Chat with the author a bit, then come join us whenever.”
“……What?”
“You said you wanted some one-on-one time with your favorite author, didn’t you? You even had them set a separate table so the two of you could talk privately.”
“No, that was—”
I’d only said that because I had no idea Seol Yahhan was a woman. Like this, it looked like I was pulling some shady move.
Before I could even answer, the director gave my shoulder a couple more pats and hurried back to his seat.
Suddenly left alone with Author Seol Yahhan, I fidgeted, then stood and gestured awkwardly.
“……Your legs must be tired. Want to sit here for now?”
“Ah, yes…….”
Author Seol Yahhan sat across from me with the same hesitant, painfully awkward movements.
Up close like this, the design of the necklace peeking out from her collar stood out even more clearly.
The necklace Author Seol Yahhan was wearing—the same one that had been performing all those filthy acts on me. The exact same design.
……Just a coincidence, right?
There were countless accessories with similar designs out there.
I could have mistaken a lookalike necklace for the same one, or even if the design matched, the length could be different.
Of course, the surest way would be to pull up the DM screen and ask, “Did you send this photo, Author Seol Yahhan?”
“……Um, Author Seol Yahhan?”
“Y-yes?”
“Do you happen to go to the same school as me? The one on Gwanak-ro……?”
“Yes, that’s right! I just enrolled in Computer Science this year—class of ’23. Senior Baek Hoyeong is a year above me.”
“Ah, I see…….”
Show my pure, elegant junior—Author Seol Yahhan, a year below me at the same school—an explicit photo and ask if that was her?
With no solid proof, just because she was wearing a necklace that looked like the stalker’s?
Asking something that rude at first meeting didn’t feel right. No—it was unforgivable.
Besides, even if she was the same person it would be a problem, and if she wasn’t it would be an even bigger one.
If word got out that I’d shown a dirty photo and asked “Is this you?” I’d be finished in the voice-acting industry at minimum. At school I’d be branded the human garbage who sexually harassed a first-year female junior at a drinking party.
Risking all that just to satisfy personal curiosity would be pure idiocy.
After a long think, I reached my conclusion.
“……Wow, what a coincidence, huh? Running into a junior from school here of all places.”
Just don’t ask.
“I know, right? It’s so wild! I never imagined my favorite voice actor would turn out to be a senior at my school……. Oh—could I get your autograph? I even brought paper and a pen just so I could get Senior Hoyeong’s signature.”
“Of course. Would you mind signing something for me too? I’m a fan of Author Seol Yahhan. I’ve read Girlfriend TA and all your earlier works. They were incredible.”
“Ah, really? Thank you so much. Hehe…….”
Looking bashful and embarrassed, Author Seol Yahhan smiled with flushed cheeks as we exchanged signatures.
On the white paper, written in black ink: Hoyeong oppa, always be happy! — SeoL♡
Hoyeong oppa, always be happy!
— SeoL♡
“……?”
For some reason it felt strangely familiar, and that uneasy feeling—what was that about?
Something felt off enough that I rubbed the back of my neck, and Author Seol Yahhan clapped her hands lightly.
“Oh—shall I pour you a drink, Senior?”
“Huh? Ah, you don’t have to…….”
“Come on, meeting like this is fate, right? And I’m the junior. A junior should at least pour her senior one drink, shouldn’t she?”
“Mm, then…… just one, please.”
Making a fuss over a single year’s difference felt a bit much, but refusing when she offered also seemed rude.
With awkward hands she twisted open the soju bottle and poured with a soft glug-glug until my glass was about two-thirds full, then smiled brightly.
“Senior, shall we clink?”
“Sure, hand it over. I’ll pour yours too.”
“Ah, thank you! But Senior—you can speak casually with me.”
“Uh, is that really okay? Dropping the formal talk might make things weird…….”
“It’s fine. Business relationship aside, we’re school seniors and juniors, right? We can drop the formalities off the clock.”
Yeah, well. Like Seol Yahhan said, we were seniors and juniors in the same department at the same school.
Different years meant we wouldn’t run into each other often, but general-education classes might overlap, or we could pass each other on campus.
And—this was a little shallow—but even setting aside that she was my favorite author, what was there to lose by speaking casually with a junior this pretty, this cute, and this friendly?
The wider the network the better; once you knew someone, it always paid off somehow later. I smiled and filled Seol Yahhan’s glass.
“Alright then—off the clock we speak casually. Starting now, okay?”
“Yes, let’s do that. Please speak comfortably with me from now on.”
“Yeah, okay. But you’re not gonna pretend you don’t know me when I say hi later, right? Starting next week I’m gonna brag to all my friends that I got a pretty junior, so if you act like a stranger I might cry on the spot.”
“Hehe, never! Whenever you see my face, just say hi comfortably. I’ll greet you whenever I see you too, Senior.”
“Deal. Cheers!”
“Cheers!”
We smiled at each other, clinked our soju glasses, and downed them in one go.
An unexpected connection—drinking face-to-face with a great junior who also happened to be my favorite author, Seol Yahhan—made the soju go down smooth.
After draining that glass that somehow tasted especially sweet tonight, I let out a small laugh.
“Wow, but seriously, this is crazy. How do you run into a school junior here of all places? Korea really is tiny.”
“Mm, I know. I was so surprised too. My favorite voice actor is a senior at my school, and he lives around here…….”
“Huh? Did I ever tell you where I live?”
“……No. I didn’t hear it from you directly—I heard it from the director at the pre-production meeting. Somehow the conversation turned to where people lived, and he mentioned that Hoyeong oppa lives nearby too. Said we should meet up and talk when we do a company dinner.”
“Ah, got it…….”
This damn suspicious streak of mine. How could I keep overlapping such a kind, pretty, multi-talented junior who even wrote great novels with that scumbag pervert?
I hadn’t shown it, but I’d still suspected an innocent person, and I felt weirdly guilty.
I poured myself another glass as a silent apology and knocked it back in one go again.
“Aren’t you drinking a little too fast, Senior?”
“Nah, I’m fine. I can hold my liquor.”
Guess I really was a guy. My actual limit was barely a bottle and a half, yet here I was talking big.
But I couldn’t make the pathetic confession that I was a lightweight in front of a pretty junior. What would Seol Yahhan think of me then?
Sometimes a man had to show off in front of women. To prove I could hold my drink, I poured another and downed it.
Gulp—
“Hoyeong, keep that up and you’ll be heading home in an hour. Pace yourself!”
One of the staff who’d worked with me a few times and vaguely knew my limit tried to stop me, but I waved him off.
“Come on, I’ve only had three glasses. I’m fine, really.”
Author Seol Yahhan stared hard at me, then covered her mouth with her hand as if amazed.
“Wow, Senior, you drink really well. I can’t handle much, so people who can hold their liquor always impress me. How much can you actually drink?”
“Me? If I set my mind to it I can knock back four bottles no problem.”
“Whoa, that much? ……Ah, your glass is empty. Shall I pour you another?”
“Mm, I’d appreciate it.”
“Here—drink up, Senior…….”
“…….”
Three glasses in a row already had a little heat rising, but a senior couldn’t look weak in front of his junior.
So I downed my fourth glass of soju in under ten minutes.
“Haa…….”
“Okay, let me pour you one more, Senior!”
……And before thirty minutes had even passed, I lost my mind.
“Hoyeong? Hoyeong?”
“……Nngh, yeah.”
“We need to head out soon—come on, get up. Can you stand on your own?”
“Yeah, of course I can…….”
Baek Hoyeong answered sluggishly and staggered. The director and a male staff member lunged to steady him, muttering in alarm.
“Whoa, careful! Careful!”
“Ugh, the smell of booze! Author, how much did Hoyeong even drink?”
“About three bottles of soju……? Counting the beer, at least four bottles total.”
“Aigoo, of course he’s wasted if he drank that much! Said he was drinking with the author and just polished it all off by himself.”
“H-heh, sorry…….”
“He’s too far gone to leave alone. Does anyone know where Hoyeong lives?”
The director scanned the entire staff. Naturally no one was close enough to know Baek Hoyeong’s address, and when silence answered him the director let out a heavy sigh.
“Man, this is a mess. I need to get home soon myself…….”
“Um, Director.”
Someone stepped forward in front of the muttering, troubled director.
Not a staff member on this project—the author of Girlfriend TA.
“I…… know Senior Hoyeong’s address. Shall I take him home?”
It was Seol Yahhan.
“Huh? You know Hoyeong’s address? Even I don’t—how?”
“……I heard it while we were drinking just now. Senior Hoyeong told me to take him home if he got too drunk, and gave me the address.”
“Oh, for real? Good thing he laid down insurance. I’ll call a taxi—want to ride with him? I’ll cover the fare all the way to your place.”
“Ah, n-no. It’s not that far, so you don’t have to. I can handle it…….”
“Then I’ll call a taxi and just help support him until it gets here. Sound director, really sorry, but could you order one…….”
“I-I’ll do it myself! I’ll support him too, so you can all go, Director. Everyone’s busy, right?”
“Uh…… you sure? It’s hard for a woman alone to prop up a guy. Better if a man stays until the taxi comes.”
“I’m fine. I can do it alone. Please hand Senior Hoyeong over.”
“What? Ah, well then…….”
Looking uncertain, the director and staff passed Baek Hoyeong over and gave Author Seol Yahhan a quick nod of farewell.
Author Seol Yahhan nodded back as she saw them off, then waited until the staff’s figures had grown distant and finally vanished from sight.
“Well then…… shall we get going too?”
She smiled secretly to herself.
“……Hoyeong oppa.”