The Hiatus Declaration
Click-click-click, bee-beep-.
—Thud!
I unlocked the door lock and stepped into my studio apartment. The familiar living-room scene greeted me first. In the center of the living room that measured a little under five pyeong sat a folding table, and on it lay the remnants of yesterday’s leftover delivery food.
Dirty, yet a sight I had missed. Seeing the familiar things after escaping that strange place made the fact that I had successfully run away feel real at last.
Only then did the tension drain out of me; I let out a long breath of relief and slid straight down to the floor. The aftershocks of racing here like a madman seemed to crash over me all at once.
“……Hooo.”
I leaned my back against the front door and slumped right there.
Steadying my ragged breathing, I slowly closed my eyes and regulated my breath; the situation from thirty minutes earlier rose unbidden in my mind.
—Haang, Master……♡
—……What?
—Please, curse me more roughly……!
“Ugh, shit…….”
I had thought she was a pure beauty, a diligent junior from school, yet the reality was a full-blown masochistic pervert—the author Seolhwa clinging to me while calling me Master.
Even thinking about it now that I had cooled down a little, the sight was unreal. No—an actual situation so hard to believe it might as well have been fiction.
It would have been a relief if it had been a hidden camera prank, or some filthy delusion my brain had spun on its own……. But the cold sweat trickling down my nape and my heart hammering away told me this was reality.
“Wow, seriously…….”
It felt exactly like waking from a dream—and a nightmare of the worst kind at that.
Honestly I was still dumbfounded; I could only sit there with my mouth slightly open, muttering exclamations while I wiped the cold sweat away.
I’m scared it’ll show up in my dreams, for real…….
—Knock knock knock.
“…….”
My breath stopped.
That was no exaggeration—literally, for an instant my breathing simply halted.
Right after, my heart began to pound like crazy, and every hair on my body stood on end as if I had come face-to-face with a ghost.
……C-could it be?
Even watching a truly terrifying horror movie had never frozen my hands and feet this thoroughly; goosebumps rose along my spine and I couldn’t move.
……But I couldn’t just stay frozen like this either.
After what felt like ten years yet was only ten seconds, I wrung out the last drop of courage I had left. I tensed my lower body and rose silently from the floor. Then I swallowed hard and peered through the peephole set into the front door, looking past the wall.
“What is it……?”
Yet lo and behold—outside my studio apartment, which opened onto an apartment-style corridor, there was no one at all.
Just to be sure I pressed my ear to the door and listened; the sound of footsteps clomp-clomping grew steadily fainter.
“Hello?”
Creeeak-.
“……Ah, it was a package.”
I had gotten scared for nothing.
“Well, she couldn’t have chased me all that way right away…….”
With a hollow little laugh I finally collected myself and examined the package wrapping.
The shipping company was Tumblbug; the contents were the paperback set of My Girlfriend Hopes to Be a Teaching Assistant. Riding the work’s popularity they had run a crowdfunding campaign for the print release a few months back, and it seemed the rewards from that patronage had only arrived this morning.
Glad to see it, I tore the packaging open at once—then froze the moment the actual paperbacks came into view.
My Girlfriend Hopes to Be a Teaching Assistant – Combined Volumes 1, 2, 3
Author: Seolhwa
Because right there on the cover, in letters big enough to make anyone flinch, was that pen name.
“……Hmm.”
This left me feeling strangely conflicted. GF TA was a novel I truly loved—practically my life novel. Yet of all people, something unspeakable had happened with the very author who wrote it.
How to put it? It felt a little like being a fan staring at the work of an artist who had just been swallowed by a massive scandal…….
With complicated feelings I gazed at the paperbacks, then turned and carried them into the bedroom.
“Well, the work itself is innocent…….”
It was only right to keep the artist and the work separate.
Muttering excuses like that, I carefully set the paperbacks on the wooden bookshelf and tucked the accompanying goods into the drawer beneath. Then I took a step back and simply stared at the GF TA set.
“Hmmm…….”
Thinking about it now, wasn’t GF TA actually a novel that had poured Seolhwa’s lewd desires straight onto the page?
After all, the main heroine of GF TA, “Baekhwa,” was depicted as a severe masochist pervert on roughly the same level as author Seolhwa herself. She was so far gone that the moment the atmosphere with the protagonist turned steamy she revealed her true nature and even said, “Please ravish me roughly, Master♡.”
Fortunately or unfortunately the male lead was also something of a weirdo, so he played along with the sadist act to match Baekhwa. The two of them became an absolute dream SM couple right then and there and proceeded to conquer every kind of play in every kind of place—that was the main content of GF TA. But
the problem was that I was not nearly as far gone as the male lead of GF TA. No matter how pretty author Seolhwa might be, having extreme masochistic tendencies shoved in my face at our very first meeting only left me flustered; I couldn’t just go “oh yeah” and play along.
Of course, author Seolhwa’s plump little rear had felt fantastic under a spanking hand. Her body was pale and lewdly beautiful, the sort that would make any man’s eyes roll back, but…….
“……Aah.”
Anyway—what was I supposed to do from here?
I had never experienced anything like this in my life; I had no idea what the correct answer was. If I ran into author Seolhwa again, should I avoid her? Or should I play dumb, pretend this morning’s events never happened, and act like a normal acquaintance?
—Buzzz.
Just as I was about to seriously ponder it, the cellphone I had stuffed into my pocket rang.
I pulled it out and checked: a call. The caller was the Director.
“Hello, Director?”
“Ah, Hoyeong-ssi? Sorry to call so early. Can you talk right now?”
“Yes, of course. What’s going on?”
“Mm, well. It’s just…….”
He dragged the end of the sentence out; a strange hesitation colored the Director’s voice.
“This is, uh, a personal question, so it’s a little awkward to ask.”
“It’s fine, go ahead and ask. Why?”
“Did something happen last night between you and author Seolhwa?”
“…….”
For a second my mouth simply locked up.
Right after that the thought How did he know? flashed through my head. When I failed to answer, the Director seemed to catch on; his voice darkened.
“So there was.”
“Uh, um, Director. About that…….”
“I roughly expected it after seeing how well you two were getting along at the company dinner, and you’re both young so I figured it could happen……. But still—private issues between the two of you can’t be allowed to interfere with the work, right?”
“Sorry? What do you mean by that?”
“What, you haven’t checked the group chat?”
“Uh, did someone say something?”
“……Haa. Well, you’ll see it yourself, but since you still don’t seem to know I’ll pass the message along.”
The Director let out a heavy sigh.
“Author Seolhwa just posted a notice on the work’s announcement board a little while ago.”
“Yes, and?”
“And the content of that notice is that she’s quitting writing as of today.”
He said something I simply could not believe.
“……What?!”
The moment I hung up with the Director I frantically opened the announcement board. Sure enough, the notice Seolhwa had posted fifteen minutes earlier sat at the very top; its content, summarized, went like this:
I was dumped by the person I love today. Because the shock is so great, I will go on an indefinite hiatus until my mental state recovers.
The moment I saw those terrifying words—indefinite hiatus—my whole body broke out in goosebumps.
And for good reason: in this industry, authors who declare an indefinite hiatus and then actually return are practically nonexistent.
In other words, “declaring an indefinite hiatus” was as good as a de-facto “retirement declaration.”
As a devoted reader who loved GF TA far too much, and as the voice actor cast as the protagonist of the GF TA visual novel, Seolhwa’s “This is Seolhwa……” was simply too much of a shock.
“No, what is this…….”
The one small mercy was that the comment section under the notice was filled exclusively with messages praying for a swift mental recovery and a return to serialization. That was only natural—GF TA itself was quite a niche work, and the passionate readers who loved Seolhwa’s unique novel style were especially numerous.
But that wasn’t the important part right now.
Far too many things were riding on Seolhwa’s latest work, GF TA. There were additional paperbacks still to be produced, merchandise, and the visual novel scheduled for release at the end of this year.
So if the original novel’s progress simply stopped here and sales took a hit?
The people involved would probably dig for the cause of the drop in sales, and in the end wouldn’t they reach the conclusion that the cause was me……?
If I put myself in their shoes I would do the exact same thing. No—I would be one hundred percent certain. The circumstantial evidence was simply too thick to deny.
I had been carried, dead drunk, by author Seolhwa; the very next day she announced she was quitting writing because the person she loved had dumped her.
Anyone who wasn’t a complete idiot would assume I was the one who had dumped her. There was no other way to read it. In reality that wasn’t true at all, but from everyone else’s point of view that was exactly how the story looked.
“…….”
A rumor without legs travels a thousand ri…… This rumor—no, this scandal—would spread like wildfire in no time at all.
“……Damn.”
Once that thought hit me I couldn’t sit still any longer.
As long as the Director and every other person involved were under the misunderstanding that Seolhwa had gone on hiatus because of me, it was my job to set the record straight.
I immediately grabbed my phone. And then I realized.
I didn’t have author Seolhwa’s phone number.
……In other words, I had no way to contact her.
I checked just in case we had exchanged numbers while drunk, but of course we hadn’t. Shit. Whatever else happened I needed to talk to the person involved first if there was going to be any resolution at all, yet I was already stuck at the starting line.
I raked my hands through my hair and fretted. Should I go back to the motel even now? Maybe she was still waiting for me.
No, that was impossible. If she had been waiting she never would have posted a notice saying she had been dumped. More than that, far too much time had already passed; she would have gone home ages ago. It had already been well over thirty minutes since I left, and if I added the time I had spent fretting it was nearly a full hour.
“Ah, shit…….”
Was there any good way to get through this situation, this mess…….
—Riiing.
……Huh?
I reflexively looked at my phone and then deflated. For a split second I had hoped for a miracle—that Seolhwa herself was calling me—but it was only a junior from the same department, a guy.
“Hello? Hyung Hoyeong?”
“……Yeah, what.”
“Hyung, why does your voice sound like that? Did you drink last night? You sound half-dead.”
“Jehyeon. Sorry, but I’m really busy right now—can you just get to the point……?”
“Ah, sorry. It’s about this department MT. We’re leaving the Friday after next and I wanted to know if you’re coming.”
“Friday……. I can’t. Sorry, hyung’s booked solid Friday through Sunday.”
“Ah, right. You said you do weekend part-time work. Aww, too bad. The Class of ’23 goddess is coming to the MT too.”
My life was hanging by a thread and he wanted to talk about the Class of ’23 goddess? Jehyeon hadn’t done anything wrong, but my nerves were stretched so tight I was about to tell him to hang up if he was finished.
Then, in that exact moment, a thought flashed through my brain.
Jehyeon was the freshman class president of the Computer Science department.
Which meant he would have the emergency contact list. Wouldn’t he know author Seolhwa’s cellphone number?
“……Hey, Jehyeon!”
“Uh, yeah?”
“You, Seol…….”
Ah, damn it. I couldn’t just ask him straight out whether he knew author Seolhwa’s phone number. He would one hundred percent ask who that even was.
I swallowed the words and rephrased the question.
“You, what’s-her-name. Among the Computer Science freshmen, the girl with long hair who’s really pretty—do you have her number?”
“Hyung, are you that lonely?”
“……Jehyeon. Hyung is not joking right now. Do you know it or not?”
“Well, as class president I know most of them, but ‘long-haired pretty girl’ isn’t exactly a unique description. You know how it is, right? Almost every girl in this year’s freshman class is pretty.”
“I know that, but……!”
“Hyung, calm down. You have to tell me specifically who you’re looking for before I can help. Any visible features, body type, anything I might recognize?”
“Ah, sorry. I’m just a little frantic…….”
Right—calm down. The kid was being helpful and I had lunged at him in a panic.
I took a deep breath, settled my heart, and spoke more carefully.
“First, her hair reaches her waist, and she has big eyes. Long eyelashes too.”
“Okay, long eyelashes and?”
“And her smile is pretty. Even teeth, and she was wearing light red nail polish. And, and also…….”
“And?”
“H-her chest was big. No, huge, seriously. So big I wondered if that was even allowed.”
“……Uh, isn’t that the Class of ’23 goddess?”
“Who, who?”
“The Class of ’23 goddess. She looks exactly like you just described—big eyes, long lashes, long hair, and a seriously huge chest.”
“Yeah, I don’t know for sure but that sounds like the girl. Do you have her number?”
“Nope. She’s an absolute ice wall; I doubt anyone has her number.”
“Huh? You don’t have her number?”
“Yeah. Whether it’s seniors or classmates, she never exchanges a single word with guys. So nobody’s ever managed to get her number. You didn’t know?”
“……?”
That absolute pervert, author Seolhwa, never exchanged a single word with guys? This was a completely different story…….
The Seolhwa I had seen was nothing but a masochistic pervert, yet the picture coming from a junior who actually knew her was totally different. The gap was so huge that I was still reeling when Jehyeon suddenly shouted in surprise.
“Hyung! Hyung Hoyeong!”
“Y-yeah, what?”
“That girl you just described—she’s walking over there right now!”
“……What?”
I shot to my feet without thinking.
“Where, where is she going? Give me the exact location!”
“Our department building, Building 301. I just saw her go in through the back entrance.”
Department Building 301, entering through the back—she was probably heading for the seminar rooms. I locked the information firmly into my head and immediately slammed out the front door.
“Ah, got it. Jehyeon, thanks! Hyung’ll buy you a meal later for sure!”
“Hyung! Forget the meal—if it goes well, introduce me to a friend of hers later…….”
“……Hang up, you brat!”
Fifteen minutes. In just fifteen minutes I was already on campus grounds. My studio apartment was near the university to begin with, and I had sprinted at full power without any thought of pacing myself, so it was possible.
“……Hoo, I’m dying.”
In a single day I felt like I had already run a full month’s worth of distance. On trembling legs I barely kept myself upright and looked straight ahead.
Right in front of me was Computer Science Building 301—the place Jehyeon had reported spotting author Seolhwa.
I would have loved to rest longer, but every second counted. Without further hesitation I headed for the back entrance.
“Huh?”
Yet lo and behold—the face I was looking for wasn’t at Building 301 at all. More precisely, she was a short distance away, right in front of the main entrance of Building 302, where the practice rooms were clustered.
The distance was just far enough that if I ran I would be too late. So the correct move was to shout right now and stop her, but unfortunately I didn’t know author Seolhwa’s real name.
Yes—it was a truly idiotic fact. I had drunk with her, dropped formal speech, even spent a night in the same bed, and I still didn’t know the woman’s actual name.
If I had known this would happen I would have at least asked her name. Regret hit me, but it was already too late. Author Seolhwa was about to step into Building 302. With every step she took my heart raced faster and my pulse hammered wildly.
“Seol……. Ah.”
I needed to call out to that woman, author Seolhwa, but I didn’t know her name. Time was of the essence, yet like an idiot I just stood there frozen, lips flapping uselessly.
—Creeeak.
Then, right before author Seolhwa’s figure disappeared inside the building…….
Ah, whatever……!
With a devil-may-care resolve I shouted at the top of my lungs.
“──Hey, Seolhwa!”
Using a voice actor’s full projection, I gathered every scrap of air in my lungs and let out a tremendous yell; every single student’s gaze snapped toward me. Author Seolhwa was no exception—she had been about to enter the building, but she stopped dead, eyes going wide as she stared at me.
I seized that opening and sprinted straight to her. Looking like a startled rabbit she watched me pant roughly for a moment, concern flickering across her face—then she realized every pair of eyes around us was locked on the two of us and scolded me instead.
“Ho, Hoyeong oppa……! A-are you crazy? Calling me by my pen name where everyone can see……?!”
Being called a pervert was fine, but being called by her pen name was not? She really was a pervert of a completely different caliber. The things that shamed her were wildly different from normal people.
—What? What’s going on?
—Did he just say “Seolhwa”? Did I hear that right?
—Are they fighting? They’re fighting, they’re fighting!
Students from every department, ours included, were all staring at me and author Seolhwa and whispering among themselves.
“Th-this……. Let’s get out of here.”
“Huh? Get out where? We’re already outside.”
Author Seolhwa must have been mortified; the backs of her ears had turned bright red as she grabbed my wrist.
“Ah, seriously……! Is that what matters right now? Anywhere is fine, just let’s go somewhere without people staring at us……!”