Chapter 114: Terror
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 114: Terror
Day after day of night shifts.
Getting off work just as everyone else was heading in and having very little to do in the early hours wasn't bad, but I did feel a bit out of the loop.
Take yesterday, for instance.
"An assistant manager got sued for sexual harassment by a part-timer?"
Jegal Jae-min and Min Dong-geon, who had just returned from work, shared the fresh gossip while changing their clothes.
I didn't know why they were wearing the exact same pair of underwear, but since they were from the same neighborhood, I figured they’d bought them at the same place.
"Yeah, and of all times, it happened right when the Vice Chairman of the parent company was visiting. Oh, for fuck's sake, Min Dong-geon, we have the same panties on."
"Everyone wears matching ones in the military anyway."
"So that's why our department head was throwing such a fit."
I finally realized why Department Head Lee Chan-song had been acting like a lunatic when he showed up for work at dawn.
"Sigh, it’s a total mess right now, you know? You already know we aren't supposed to have company dinners with the part-timers, right? But now they’re saying we can't even meet them after work. I had plans to go to a ski resort with the assistant managers, but it’s all been canceled."
I’d heard that all sorts of things happened here, but this seemed particularly absurd.
"But where did you even hear all this?"
When I asked Jegal Jae-min, he pointed to Min Dong-geon next to him.
"He works at Black. Since only VIPs go there, rumors like this reach the staff in no time."
"The ramyeon there costs 100,000 won, you know?"
Min Dong-geon added with a goofy grin.
"Anyway, everyone’s on edge, so you’d better be careful too. If you get on the seniors' nerves for no reason, you’re going to get chewed out big time."
"...Did you get chewed out?"
When I probed slightly, Jegal Jae-min immediately began to writhe in agony.
"Ah, dammit! Just because I got one food order out of sequence! Did he really have to go that ballistic?!"
Min Dong-geon, who was currently binge-eating snacks, seemed to have had a similar experience.
Clatter.
Just then, Jeong Chan-woo and Dae-sang Hyung also returned from work.
"We're hooommme..."
"......Sigh."
Seeing them completely drained of energy and sighing deeply, it was clear that the staff's stress was trickling down and being dumped onto the part-timers.
Since everyone looked like they were drowning in fatigue, I hopped off the sofa and shouted.
"Go wash up. Let's go to karaoke."
When you're this stressed, karaoke is the best way to blow off steam.
* * *
It seemed everyone had the same idea about relieving stress through singing.
The karaoke bar in the basement of Building C was already packed. Since it was an unmanned karaoke bar, I couldn't even ask an owner how much time was left.
"Ah, what the hell."
"I already picked out my whole song list."
"That's a shame."
Just as we were about to turn back despite being fully prepared, I saw a familiar face through the karaoke room window.
"Cruuuueeeel! Woman!"
The moment I saw Han Bom screaming out high notes with everything she had, a smile spread across my face.
"Wait a second."
I peeked inside and saw Han Bom, Lee Seo-ah, Seo Ye-rin, and even Yoo Ah-rin.
They were all familiar faces.
"Hehe."
As soon as I opened the door and stepped inside, Han Bom, who had been singing, looked at me in surprise and pointed.
"It's Woo-jin!"
"Wow! How long has it been!"
Because I’d switched to the dawn shift, I hadn't seen Han Bom or Lee Seo-ah in about a week.
"Woo-jin!"
In Seo Ye-rin's case, our work locations were completely different, so maybe that was why her voice was even more nasal and flirtatious than usual.
"Is it okay if my roommates join us?"
"Oh, of course! Naturally!"
"Men!"
Han Bom and Lee Seo-ah welcomed them immediately.
Lee Seo-ah, in particular, started getting ready to take photos; it seemed her power struggle with her boyfriend was still in full swing.
"Come on in."
When I told them to enter, they all swarmed in with excited expressions—except for Chan-woo.
"...I-I'm a bit uncomfortable around them."
Chan-woo, who had been standing still, approached me and whispered softly.
"You came here to Gold One with them."
"I was uncomfortable then, too."
"You know it'll look weird if you're the only one who backs out now, right?"
"Sigh."
I figured he might be uncomfortable since the four of them knew about his embarrassing past from high school, but we were college students now.
I patted his shoulder, telling him to just let the past go, and headed inside.
"Woo-jin, over here."
Seo Ye-rin called out to me, patting the seat next to her.
Under the stinging glares of the Seshin Kang University duo, I sat down beside her.
Immediately, Yoo Ah-rin claimed the seat on my other side. She crossed her arms and legs, her face pouting as if she were dissatisfied with something.
"Woo-jin, let's do a duet!"
Seeing Seo Ye-rin for the first time in a while, she didn't seem much different from usual. As she looked for a duet song on her phone, I beckoned her closer with my finger.
She leaned in with a bright smile, and I whispered softly so the others couldn't hear.
"I told you to stop spamming the board."
"Hee."
When I got annoyed about her frequent spamming on the Bamboo Forest lately, she just grinned as if it were the funniest thing in the world.
Since it was winter break, the number of Bamboo Forest users had dropped significantly. Naturally, not many posts were being uploaded, so if she consistently posted two or three times a day, she ended up dominating the board.
In the midst of that, Seo Ye-rin was acting like a sex-crazed parrot as if she were trying to expand her territory. I’d told her to restrain herself, but she didn't listen to a word I said.
Still grinning, Seo Ye-rin gestured for me to lean my ear toward her this time.
"You know..."
The way she whispered was strangely sultry. I suspected she was doing it on purpose, but I pretended to be unfazed and kept listening.
"I took back my title as the Sex Master, didn't I?"
"...You're still hung up on that?"
She was surprisingly obsessive.
When I looked at her, baffled, she gestured for me to lean in again.
Thinking she had something else to say, I leaned my ear toward her, but this time—
"Mmm."
Slurp.
She suddenly bit my ear and then licked it with her tongue as if tasting it.
"......?!"
She hadn't bitten down hard, so I could pull away immediately, but I was bewildered by my now-damp ear.
When I glared at her, wondering what the hell she was doing, Seo Ye-rin held out her phone as if nothing had happened.
"Woo-jin! Let's sing this together!"
"Why didn't you become an actress... Ack!"
A sudden pain in my thigh made me reflexively look the other way. Yoo Ah-rin was glaring at me with an extremely displeased expression.
She was pinching my thigh as a warning, and it really hurt.
"With your grip strength, it feels like my skin is being torn off!"
"Kim Woo-jin, you're annoying."
I felt like I’d picked the wrong seat.
Just thinking about singing while being caught between these two was already giving me a headache.
"Hmph."
But surprisingly, Seo Ye-rin backed off.
It was clear she was avoiding doing anything to provoke Yoo Ah-rin further, and thanks to that, the time at the karaoke bar was relatively peaceful.
There were moments when she secretly stroked my thigh or touched my butt, but since it was done quickly enough that Yoo Ah-rin didn't see, we got through it without any issues.
Since Yoo Ah-rin and I were on the night shift, we left the karaoke bar first. It was only while I was changing my clothes that it hit me.
‘Wait... I feel like a secretary who just got sexually harassed.’
Only then did I realize I’d been harassed by Seo Ye-rin, and I scratched my head.
To be honest, it didn't feel particularly bad, so it wasn't a huge problem.
Seo Ye-rin, whom I hadn't seen in a while, was surprisingly pretty, and strangely enough, I didn't feel any repulsion from a pretty girl's touch.
If anyone heard this and called me trash, I’d just have to accept it.
For those working the night shift, the shuttle buses also ran at night.
I passed the people who had finished their shifts and boarded the bus with Yoo Ah-rin.
Yoo Ah-rin sat by the window, resting her chin on her hand and looking out as if she had something on her mind.
I was planning to watch some webtoons to kill time, but just then, an inquiry came in.
"Hm?"
Lately, there hadn't been any inquiries other than Anonymous 11 swearing at me and telling me to ban Anonymous 69.
Curious about what it was, I checked.
It was a familiar pattern, though it had been a while.
They must have disbanded from the karaoke bar, as the background was a dorm bathroom.
Only her face up to her mouth was visible, but she was holding the hem of her top in her teeth, revealing everything from her navel to her bra. I felt a sudden surge of heat in my lower half.
‘Ah, shit.’
What was I supposed to do with Seo Ye-rin?
The photo was practically an act of terror, and I couldn't help but hunch forward.
If Yoo Ah-rin caught me by mistake, she’d beat me to death.
Her strangely relaxed chat was annoying. I considered giving her a one-day ban, but the last time I did that, she just started sending things via Tok.
"Whew."
As I took deep breaths to calm my lower half, Yoo Ah-rin, who was sitting next to me, glanced at me and asked.
"Hey, about Ye-rin."
"What about her, all of a sudden?"
"Don't you think she's become a bit strange?"
"How is she strange?"
Dammit.
Looking at what she was doing right now, she was at the top of her game. What did she mean, "strange"?
"She's been trying to cooperate with me..."
"Cooperate?"
When I asked what she meant, Yoo Ah-rin stared at me for a moment, then sighed and shook her head.
"Never mind, it's nothing."
In the end, Yoo Ah-rin kept her mouth shut. It was a bit annoying that she stopped mid-sentence, but I didn't have time to worry about her right now.
‘What is wrong with her?’
This time, it was a photo of Seo Ye-rin lying in bed under a blanket, wearing pajamas.
Again, she didn't show her face, but her pajama buttons were all undone, clearly showing her cleavage, and her pajama pants were pulled down slightly to reveal her panties—all in one shot.
Meanwhile, her nipples were perfectly hidden by the pajamas, making it the textbook definition of a tease.
My lower half was furious.
‘Seo Ye-rin...’
I wondered if this was some kind of final defense.
The composition was the same as before, but with one difference: she had taken her panties off entirely and was covering herself with her hand.
And the finishing blow.
I blocked her immediately.
Vibrate! Vibrate!
I even turned off the vibration for her chat room when she started messaging me on Tok. I thought she’d been quiet lately, but she was absolutely exploding today.
‘Is something going on with her?’
At this point, I was a little worried. When Seo Ye-rin exploded like this, it was usually because she was stressed.
Her activity as Anonymous 69 was a way to vent the desires she kept suppressed because of how others perceived her.
And Yoo Ah-rin had just said Seo Ye-rin was acting strange...
While I was lost in thought, we arrived at the Gold One Hotel in Building A.
"Hey, get off."
"......"
I was sitting on the aisle side, so I had to get up first, but the fire Seo Ye-rin had lit hadn't died down yet.
"You go first."
When I spoke while hunched over, Yoo Ah-rin looked puzzled but agreed and tried to pass me.
"Ah, move your head so I can get through."
Because I was hunched over, my head was leaning forward. Yoo Ah-rin, annoyed by it, pushed my forehead back.
"......?"
Thanks to that, my bent waist straightened, and my lower half was fully exposed.
To make matters worse, Yoo Ah-rin was right in front of me, and she stared at my member, which was standing tall as if to greet her.
She was speechless.
"Uh, uh? Wh-What... why?"
As Yoo Ah-rin pointed at it with a trembling finger, I crossed my arms and replied with a dead serious expression.
"It's a physiological phenomenon. Please respect it."
Since I’d already been caught, I might as well be bold about it.
"Ah, d-did... did something happen?"
"Sometimes, a man just wants to be angry for no reason."
"......"
"......"
It felt like time had stopped.
"I'm sorry, but could you just get lost? Fuck, I want to be alone."
I wasn't joking; I felt like I was going to die of embarrassment.
"Hey, you know."
"......What."
It was impressive that she could even talk to me in this state.
Glancing down, Yoo Ah-rin pointed at my pants zipper and asked.
"How about you at least unzip that to make it more comfortable?"
"Can you please just leave me alone?!"
"Hahaha! Kim Woo-jin, you animal!"
She seemed to be enjoying herself, which made me think she was misunderstanding something, so I shouted one last thing at her as she walked away.
"It's not because of you!"
"Fuck you! Just hurry up and come out!"