Chapter 48: Showdown
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 48: Showdown
"Hey."
(Seo Ye-rin)
"Hmm?"
Seo Ye-rin turned her head slightly toward Kim Woo-jin, who was calling her while chewing on some dried squid legs.
They had been gaming until they got tired and were now just doing their own thing.
"Give me one more squid leg."
"I ate them all."
"I only had one, though?"
"You should've said something sooner."
"Your teeth must be made of steel."
Watching Kim Woo-jin look disappointed, Seo Ye-rin glanced at the last remaining squid leg beside her.
It wasn't that she didn't intend to give it to him; she just wanted to tease him a bit.
'…'
Suddenly, she remembered Choi I-seo feeding Kim Woo-jin french fries yesterday.
Even if they had been drinking, the way they shared food so naturally...
'She, she said they weren't dating.'
That meant it was perfectly fine for normal friends to do things like that.
Seo Ye-rin gulped and shoved the last squid leg directly into Kim Woo-jin’s mouth as he sat there looking dejected.
"Gah!"
Kim Woo-jin immediately clutched his throat, struggling. A startled Seo Ye-rin panicked and began thumping him on the back.
"That hurts!"
"Does your throat hurt that much?! Do you feel like you're going to throw up?"
"No, my back hurts!"
"Oh..."
Seo Ye-rin slowly pulled her hand away from his back. She stared blankly at her palm, wondering if she had gained that much muscle from her recent workouts.
Kim Woo-jin glared at her while chewing the squid leg she had forced into his mouth.
"Are you an assassin? You just tried to deepthroat me with a squid leg."
"W-Watch your mouth!"
"Then put it in gently."
Watching Kim Woo-jin mumble while chewing the squid, Seo Ye-rin’s face turned bright red.
Ye-rin had received plenty of advances from men before, but this was the first time someone had dropped such a blatant sex joke right to her face.
To begin with, her aura was that of someone pure and innocent—the complete opposite of anything related to dirty jokes.
But.
'D-Deepthroat.'
To be honest, that joke was right up her alley.
Since she was hiding the "Sex Master" deep inside her, seeing Kim Woo-jin munching on the squid leg gave her a strange sensation.
'Woo-jin, you're good at this.'
She wanted to fire back with a joke of her own, but her lips wouldn't move.
No matter what, there was a clear line drawn between Seo Ye-rin and the Sex Master.
"Tsk, damn."
Clicking his tongue and chewing the squid, Kim Woo-jin scrolled down with his mouse wheel.
She peeked to see what he was doing; he was reading a webtoon.
It was a youth drama set in a school, and Kim Woo-jin was shaking his leg in irritation.
In the story, a guy was surrounded by beautiful girls but couldn't make a move, stuck in indecision.
"This guy has a pair between his legs but can't do anything right. If it were me, I’d have taken one of them to a hotel already."
"You really..."
"What? It’s the truth."
'Did he always talk like this?'
She didn't remember Kim Woo-jin being this type, but hearing him speak so crudely was honestly funny.
However, this was Kim Woo-jin’s own way of being considerate.
Since he was the Administrator and already knew she liked this kind of stuff, he was tossing out these comments for her sake, knowing she couldn't bring herself to say them first.
"Who would you pick if it were you?"
At Ye-rin’s question asking him to pick just one among the many girls, Kim Woo-jin swallowed the squid and answered.
"Her."
The mouse pointer stopped over a curvaceous woman wearing glasses.
On the surface, she was a character who looked pure and innocent.
"Don't you think the blonde over there is better than her?"
"Pure" was a nice way of putting it; the character actually looked quite plain, so Ye-rin chose a different one.
A character who looked tough but seemed like she’d be devoted to her own person.
A tsundere type, perhaps?
Personally, she was Ye-rin’s type, and she was beautiful enough that you could tell the artist had put a lot of effort into her design.
"Tsk."
But Kim Woo-jin’s reaction was the polar opposite. He clicked his tongue again and shook his head.
"You should never date a high-maintenance woman. It’s obvious you’ll just suffer."
"Really?"
"Yeah. They grill you about every single conversation you have with another woman. If you smile out of politeness, they nag you about it. And you have no idea how scary they are when they're angry."
"..."
"One time, I was looking around for a club to join, and I checked out the band club. Turns out it was all girls."
"..."
"I thought I was going to die that night. She was waiting in my room in nothing but her underwear..."
Kim Woo-jin’s mouth suddenly snapped shut. He glanced sideways to see Seo Ye-rin wearing an ambiguous expression.
She wanted to keep listening because the story was interesting, but the fact that it was Kim Woo-jin’s own experience made her feel unpleasant.
"Keep going."
Nudge.
Seo Ye-rin pushed Kim Woo-jin’s hand away with her elbow and claimed the armrest.
As she rested her chin on her hand and pressured him to continue, Kim Woo-jin gave an awkward laugh.
"...is the kind of webtoon recommendation I'm looking for."
"..."
Kim Woo-jin forced himself to look away and scrolled down. Ye-rin, feeling a bit sulky for no reason, watched the webtoon with him.
"What?!"
The characters in the webtoon had suddenly stripped off their clothes and started having sex!
"W-Was this an adult webtoon?!"
"I'm an adult, aren't I?" Kim Woo-jin replied calmly.
A flustered Seo Ye-rin stared at the screen with her mouth agape.
"Wo-Wow."
She covered her face with her hands at the graphic depiction of the act, but she peeked through the gaps in her fingers.
Her jaw remained dropped as if she were intoxicated by the erotic atmosphere of the webtoon, but then...
"..."
When Kim Woo-jin stopped scrolling, she snapped her head toward him.
"W-What are you doing? There’s only moaning right now, I haven't finished reading. Hurry up and scroll down."
"This is a paid chapter."
"..."
"Buy it with your own money."
When Kim Woo-jin looked at her with cold eyes, asking why she expected to read a paid work for free, Seo Ye-rin pouted and shouted.
"Tell me the name! I'll buy the whole series! But for now, just scroll down! I'm curious about what happens next!"
"They'll put it in, shake it, and finish. Just watch it with your own money."
"I said scroll down!"
Seo Ye-rin jumped up from her chair and started scuffling with Kim Woo-jin. Despite the excessively close distance, the two of them just grunted and struggled against each other.
"Excuse me."
A deep, resonant voice came from behind them.
Jeong Chan-woo, who looked like an actor even in casual clothes, warned them awkwardly.
"You shouldn't watch adult webtoons in a PC Bang."
"..."
"..."
In the end.
The two of them shut their mouths and sat back down, and Jeong Chan-woo walked away with a sigh.
"What's the title of that?"
Seo Ye-rin whispered the question.
"Have a Good Time."
When Kim Woo-jin answered nonchalantly, Seo Ye-rin immediately searched for it on her phone.
The way her lips were slightly pursed made it obvious she was full of anticipation.
"It's not here?"
When no webtoon with that title appeared, she looked at Kim Woo-jin again.
"Heh."
Kim Woo-jin let out a smirk and shrugged.
"No, I meant you should go have a good time."
"..."
Seo Ye-rin stared at Kim Woo-jin blankly for a moment before nodding and declaring:
"Let's settle this. Outside."
* * *
"So?"
Choi I-seo had been kicking her blankets all morning, agonizing over her behavior toward Kim Woo-jin after drinking beer the night before.
Since Min-ji, her roommate, had gone to do volunteer work, she was feeling bored when she received a message from Kim Woo-jin and headed out.
Surprisingly, Kim Woo-jin had asked to meet at the gym.
"What are you two doing?"
Seo Ye-rin was there as well.
When Choi I-seo asked again while looking at the two waiting for her at the gym, Seo Ye-rin answered with a look of grim determination.
"A showdown."
"A showdown? You mean you're going to fight?"
"Sigh, I-seo, listen to this."
Kim Woo-jin approached Choi I-seo immediately, acting as if he couldn't understand the situation.
"If you're a heavyweight champion and a little kid from the neighborhood challenges you to a fight, how do you feel? You feel pity, right?"
"..."
"That's exactly how I feel right now. I'm at a loss for words. It's absurd, right?"
"Bring it on, Kim Woo-jin."
"You're going to die."
"Scared?"
"S-Scared?"
"Kim Woo-jin is scaaared."
"Phew."
Kim Woo-jin swept his bangs back and grit his teeth.
"Come at me, woman. You think life is easy just because you have a pretty face?"
Choi I-seo thought they were both on the same level of maturity. Anyway, they said they were going to fight, but seeing as they were at the gym, it didn't seem like they were actually going to trade blows.
"Since Woo-jin has the advantage in strength, it’s probably better to do cardio."
Choi I-seo offered a compromise.
The two of them stood on side-by-side treadmills.
"Let's set the speed to 10. Whoever lasts the longest wins."
"I'm really good at this."
"You think you can beat me after I've trained with the human weapon, Choi I-seo?"
"Loser buys dinner tonight?"
"Dinner? Is that all the great CEO Seo can afford? Let's make it tomorrow's school meals too."
"Get ready to buy me sweet potato cheese pork cutlet and jjolmyeon."
"...Enough. Just start running."
After a brief war of nerves, the two began to run. Since she was bored anyway, Choi I-seo started running alongside them.
"Huff! Wheeze!"
They had only been running for about ten minutes, but Seo Ye-rin was already gasping for air.
Even if she was doing PT, she had only recently started exercising, so it was bound to be a strain.
Stamina isn't something that increases drastically in a short amount of time.
"Haa... Ahh...!"
'Th-This is a bit much.'
Hearing Seo Ye-rin running while making sounds that were practically moans made Choi I-seo feel embarrassed for her.
Men passing by glanced over, and some even blatantly took seats at nearby exercise machines.
'On the other hand...'
Kim Woo-jin was running quite stably. Perhaps because his legs were longer than the two women's, his long strides made him look like a running giraffe.
'He must have been working hard.'
Seeing Kim Woo-jin looking perfectly fine after running at this speed for ten minutes without a break made Choi I-seo feel strangely proud.
"..."
Beep!
Choi I-seo, who had been watching Kim Woo-jin closely, suddenly hit the emergency stop button on his treadmill.
"What? What's wrong?"
Kim Woo-jin looked like he wasn't tired at all. Choi I-seo stopped her own and Seo Ye-rin’s treadmills before speaking.
"Seo Ye-rin wins."
"What?! Why!"
Choi I-seo bit her lip as she looked up at the utterly shameless Kim Woo-jin.
"Your speed is set to 4, but you're really good at pretending to run fast, aren't you?"
"...Do I get extra points for acting?"