Chapter 56: Caught Mouse
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 56: Caught Mouse
The moment my attempt at a witty joke fell flat, I had to calm Yoo Ah-rin down as she shrieked about reporting me to the police, eventually getting her to sit back down.
Still fuming, she let out a heavy huff through her nose and went back to sucking down the rest of her Chocomong.
I poked a straw into my Hershey’s and took a sip, subtly turning the laptop so she could see the screen better.
“Anonymous 90. We need to figure out how this guy found out about Anonymous 69.”
At my words, Yoo Ah-rin gave me a puzzled look and replied, “Huh? Did he actually get it right? Is the Sex Master really from our department?”
“Yeah.”
“Wow, who is it?”
Leaning back in her chair with her legs up on the desk, Yoo Ah-rin continued to sip her drink. Then, she furrowed her brows and glared at me.
“Wait a second. Do you know who the Sex Master is?”
“I do.”
“Whaaat? How? Is it someone I’m close with too?”
Extremely close. We’ve been friends since high school.
“You don’t need to know. Don’t try to find out who people are on anonymous communities.”
“I’m only asking because I’m curious.”
“There’s no need to be curious. The important thing right now is finding Anonymous 90.”
“Whatever.”
Yoo Ah-rin pouted, looking miffed. I’d seen that face a thousand times, so I ignored it and started checking the posts left by Anonymous 90.
[Anonymous 90’s Recent Activity]
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“Is this guy insane?”
After looking through the records for a bit, Yoo Ah-rin let out an annoyed groan, her face twisted in disgust. It definitely felt like this guy was even more over-the-top than the actual Sex Master, Seo Ye-rin.
It was almost like he was a devotee of some sort.
“He does seem to be taking it a bit far.”
“A bit? This is like a cult. He’s not just licking boots; he’s shoving his tongue all the way down their throat.”
“……”
“If it were this bad, even I’d ignore him. The Sex Master is basically being stalked.”
So Seo Ye-rin is being stalked here, too? I felt a pang of pity for her.
Come to think of it, the way she stubbornly ignored the only person on the board who practically worshipped her might have been a survival mechanism she’d developed over the years.
After all, Seo Ye-rin usually met any contact or advances from men with total silence.
“Let’s keep looking.”
Yoo Ah-rin leaned her body toward me.
“I can’t see.”
The scent of fruit wafted over, so I pushed her head away with my left hand while scrolling down with the mouse.
[Anonymous 90’s Recent Activity]
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“This guy... the posts just never end.”
“He’s really obsessed with the Sex Master.”
I didn’t know what had driven him to this point, but it was certainly tedious. Should I call him a cyber-stalker or something?
But as I looked, things began to click in my head.
Is he a freshman?
Most of the posts on the Bamboo Forest were focused on Anonymous 69. Other than that, he didn’t post much or leave many comments.
Considering Seo Ye-rin started her activities around the middle of the first semester of freshman year, it was likely he appeared around the same time.
However.
“Oh?”
Yoo Ah-rin suddenly shoved her face right in front of the laptop. All I could see was the back of her head, so I pushed her aside in annoyance.
“Hey, move! You’re gonna lick the screen at this rate!”
“This! Look at this!”
There was a post that allowed us to deduce something about Anonymous 90.
[Anonymous 90’s Recent Activity]
“Physical Therapy Dept. Fossil?”
It was a comment on a relatively recent post.
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“Whoa, everyone’s coming out for this one, huh?”
I saw a few familiar names in the mix, but I ignored them for now.
It seemed like he had jumped on the bandwagon because several famous anonymous users from the Bamboo Forest were popping up.
A fossil, huh?
My hypothesis that he might be a freshman was quickly discarded. Since he was a 'fossil,' I decided to check his older posts.
[Anonymous 90’s Recent Activity]
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I looked through a few more posts after that, but nothing else really stood out.
Regardless, looking at the continuous records, it was clear he was a senior student.
“The records go back almost four years, right? Then there’s a high chance he’s a senior now,” Yoo Ah-rin said.
I agreed, but...
“A senior is still active on the Bamboo Forest?”
And he was checking it constantly, given that he was almost always the first to comment whenever Anonymous 69 posted.
“Man, this might make him hard to find.”
Seniors usually stopped showing up to school around this time to focus on job hunting.
“This is tricky.”
The situation had become a bit burdensome. Even if I just blindly went to the Physical Therapy Department, I didn't know what I'd find.
A senior in Physical Therapy would likely be in the library preparing for the national licensing exam or out on a clinical rotation.
“I think we should just give up on this. I don’t know anyone in Physical Therapy anyway,” Yoo Ah-rin said with a shrug.
I let out a sigh and replied, “I already know you don’t have any friends.”
“I really want to kill you. Like you’re one to talk.”
“I have Chan-woo.”
At my words, Yoo Ah-rin immediately raised both arms like a cat and lunged at me.
“You’re dead!”
Seeing her react like that the moment Jeong Chan-woo was mentioned, she definitely seemed like a Taekwondo girl.
As I pushed her away, I started thinking.
“Hmm?”
Something flashed through my mind. Come to think of it, the guy was a senior who practically lived on the Bamboo Forest.
“The festival!”
“Ow!”
The crazy girl bit my arm, but I ignored her and kept talking.
“Won’t he show up for the festival? I don’t think a senior who’s still this active on the Bamboo Forest would miss the festival.”
The fact that he was constantly checking the board meant he had plenty of free time.
And if there was a university festival, he would almost certainly participate.
“S-so whut?” she mumbled with my arm still in her mouth.
“Let go, you’re getting spit on me.”
Personally, I thought the probability was quite high. Plus, since it was the festival, I could naturally approach the Physical Therapy Department booth.
The problem was...
The festival was still two days away.
And the guy was releasing one piece of information about Seo Ye-rin every day, while the festival itself would last for two days.
I’ll just have to hold out.
This was up to Seo Ye-rin.
* * *
Two days later, the day of the festival arrived.
Surprisingly, the time had passed rather uneventfully.
I let the second one slide.
Because Seo Ye-rin did tend to avoid men, so I figured he was just guessing based on that.
Up until then, Anonymous 69—who was under a lot of stress—had received a massive number of inquiries. Mostly people shouting about "sex."
But on the actual day of the festival...
I realized we had been taking this whole thing far too seriously.
“That son of a bitch.”
I couldn't help but curse. It was absurd that he was just spouting nonsense without knowing anything.
Now that I thought about it, how could a fossil from the Physical Therapy Department possibly know Seo Ye-rin’s identity? He probably wasn't even on campus that much.
Even as I was busy preparing the kitchen for our pub booth, the thought made my blood boil, and I smacked my forehead in frustration.
And naturally...
Anonymous 90 was getting torn to shreds on the Bamboo Forest. Since he kept spouting such vague nonsense, it was only natural he’d get cursed out.
Seeing that Anonymous 69 didn't even bother to react, people became even more convinced.
Perhaps because she realized Anonymous 90 didn't actually know her identity, Seo Ye-rin’s form today was at its peak.
Sigh, I guess this is just how anonymous communities are.
You just write whatever you want and then disappear if you're wrong. I felt childish for having taken it so seriously just because Seo Ye-rin was involved.
But funnily enough...
And surprisingly...
The incident wasn't over yet.
As I was organizing kitchen utensils and checking the workflow under the English Department tent, Senior Min Ju-hee approached me.
“Um, Woo-jin?”
She looked extremely troubled.
“Yes?”
I wondered if something had gone wrong with the kitchen prep. Ju-hee glanced at the students around us and whispered her question.
“D-do you happen to post on the Bamboo Forest?”
“Pardon?”
“No... it’s just that the other kids said you’ve been spamming some weird stuff on there. They said they feel uncomfortable being around you. If it’s a misunderstanding, I’ll tell them for you.”
“……”
In an instant, the characteristics Anonymous 90 had listed about the Sex Master flashed through my mind.
In short.
A man in the English Literature department who avoids people.
I was certain.
Anonymous 90 had just been spouting nonsense without knowing a thing. I didn't know how he got the English Literature part right, but I'd set that aside for now.
The fact that he got the gender wrong proved he knew nothing about Anonymous 69’s identity.
But, like a cow catching a mouse by accidentally stepping backward...
“Are you kidding me?”
I was the one who had been caught.