Chapter 64: Resolution
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 64: Resolution
"Yeah, I'm Anonymous 90."
I was actually a bit taken aback by how coolly Lee Eun-woo admitted it.
"And you're Anonymous 69. The Sex Master, right?!"
Moreover, her reaction was something you rarely see from a typical community user. Usually, if someone's identity is accidentally discovered, they tend to get offended or deny it. But the Lee Eun-woo standing before me was actually welcoming me.
"To think the day would come where we'd meet in person."
"No, wait a second. Why do you think I'm Anonymous 69?"
When I asked what grounds she had for that judgment, Lee Eun-woo gave a sly grin and placed her hand on my chest. Startled, I hurriedly pulled back, but she seemed to enjoy that too, licking her lips with her tongue.
"Ooh, that's a tasty reaction. How cute. You look like a freshman, so I'm just going to speak informally, okay?"
Is this girl crazy? Why does it feel like I keep running into weirdos ever since I started university?
"You look like you'd be delicious to eat."
"E-E-Eat?! I'm a human being!"
"Hmm? Or maybe I'm the one getting eaten?"
Seeing her drop sex jokes without hesitation, I could see exactly why she was a devotee of the Sex Master.
"No. Stop talking nonsense. I asked why you thought I was Anonymous 69."
At my words, Lee Eun-woo put her hands on her hips and shrugged.
"Because the only person who would come looking for me regarding the Bamboo Forest is the Sex Master."
"..."
"I hit the nail on the head, didn't I? Seeing how you only comment on posts related to the English Department, I figured it had to be you."
"..."
"I thought it was a pretty rational deduction. The post already got buried in the Bamboo Forest, but the person involved wouldn't be able to just let it go because their pride was stinging."
My head throbbed, and a sigh escaped me. Meanwhile, she kept sneakily trying to touch my body, so I needed to set things straight once and for all.
"It's not me."
"You're a lot shyer than you are in the Bamboo Forest, huh? It's always the ones like you who have a ton of sexual desire bottled up inside."
Wow, I really misjudged her. You truly can't judge a book by its cover. At first glance, she looked like a model student who did nothing but study, but listening to her talk now, she was practically oozing with lewdness. This wasn't the behavior of an amateur.
Lee Eun-woo placed her hand on my chest again. She even gave my nipple a firm press with her thumb as she pulled away—she was definitely no ordinary girl.
"Hey, cut it out!"
When I got angry and pulled back again, people nearby started staring at us. The reason she was approaching me so aggressively was probably because she thought I was the sex-crazed Anonymous 69.
"What's going on? Are they fighting?"
"Are they breaking up at the festival?"
"Whoa."
I heard the voices of the people around us. Since the commotion had drawn everyone's attention, I sighed and looked around before pointing behind the Physical Therapy Department's tent.
"I'll explain over there."
It would be ridiculous to keep talking about Anonymous 69 and the Sex Master here. Lee Eun-woo followed me with a suggestive smile. The thought that I might be walking into a tiger's den crossed my mind, but since I was stronger than her anyway, it shouldn't be a big problem.
"Hehe."
Lee Eun-woo, her face flushed perhaps from a bit of alcohol, leaned against a tree in the back. The timid character she had portrayed during our first meeting was nowhere to be found; in her place was a female blatantly flaunting her charms. Even the simple act of taking off her glasses felt like an overt temptation.
"I've never done it in a place like this before. Doesn't look too bad, though. I'll try my best to keep my voice down."
"I'd rather just kill you."
I pressed my hand to my forehead and sighed again. I didn't know where to start explaining, but first, I needed to make one thing clear.
"The Sex Master is a virgin, right? Usually, the guys who post that kind of stuff on communities are total incels."
"I told you, I'm not the Sex Master."
"Aww, why are you being so shy now that we're here?"
Is this what they call the 'composure of an older woman'? Even as she chuckled, her gaze kept drifting toward my crotch, making me feel like I was standing there naked.
"If you're not the Sex Master, then who are you? There's no one else who would come looking for me about the Bamboo Forest."
She continued to throw flirtatious glances my way, but before revealing my identity, I wanted to satisfy my curiosity.
"Why were you trying to meet the Sex Master? No, why did you make that fake call-out post claiming you'd reveal his identity?"
Did she think we were finally on the same page? She stroked her jawline with a finger and opened her mouth.
"To devour him."
"...Excuse me?"
"I said, to devour him. It's obvious he's got a high libido but he's a virgin, and there he is, posting stuff that's basically begging to be eaten. How could I just leave that alone?"
Wow.
"I have to start grad school and work as a TA soon, you know? It's a bit awkward to mess with the freshmen in my own department, and my tastes don't really align with guys my own age."
"And?"
"So, based on his activity, I figured I'd snag a freshman boy who doesn't know anything and keep him as a sex friend."
Holy crap. People like this actually exist.
Earlier, she said shy people have a lot of sexual desire bottled up inside. Looking at her, I realized she was talking about herself. Contrary to her timid appearance, her body was currently a ticking time bomb of sexual urges.
"And you thought responding like that would actually lead to something?"
"It was pretty fun in its own way. Like I was building up affinity points? If it worked, great; if not, oh well."
With that, she took another step toward me. She sneakily slid her knee between my legs and whispered.
"But it turns out I was right. And I hit the jackpot, too."
"Keep your distance. How many times do I have to tell you?"
I pushed her away and made a firm declaration.
"I'm telling you, it's not me."
Perhaps because I had denied it so many times, Lee Eun-woo finally started to take it seriously. I hesitated for a moment, but then...
"I'm not Anonymous 69."
Come to think of it, I was just a community manager. It wasn't like I was making money or gaining anything from this. I was just directing traffic on a message board.
"I'm the Bamboo Forest Manager."
I blurted out the truth, which wasn't as heavy as one might think. It was only people like Seo Ye-rin who I couldn't let find out; it wasn't a big deal for anyone else.
"The Manager?"
Lee Eun-woo stared at me with a bewildered expression, clearly not having expected this. She stood there with her mouth agape, stammering as if trying to say something, but the words wouldn't come out.
"Don't have some weird obsession with Anonymous 69. He's not the kind of person you think he is."
For starters, the Sex Master was a girl.
"And don't try to test people's identities for no reason. I came here today to give you a lesson. Don't go around acting up, trying to expose people's identities in an anonymous community."
"..."
"Because someone you've never met might suddenly show up like this. If it had been a real psycho instead of me, you could have been in danger."
No matter how much of a minimum threshold there is for a university community, the reality is that you never know when or where a weirdo might pop up.
"If you write about today in the Bamboo Forest or if word starts getting out, you'd better be prepared."
Having finally regained her senses, Lee Eun-woo took a calm breath, leaned against the tree, and crossed her arms.
"What are you going to do? Can you stop me just by deleting posts and blocking me? You're just a community manager."
Looking at Lee Eun-woo's mocking face, I let out a heavy breath. Finally, I took a step forward, looked down at her from right in front of her face, and warned her.
"Should I capture your logs and send them to your advising professor to show them what you've been up to?"
"...Huh?"
"Should I post a notice about it? If I've revealed my identity, you should be prepared to have yours exposed too. Should I tell everyone that Anonymous 90 is a sex-crazed woman who can't act her age and tries to lure freshmen to hotels?"
There's a famous saying, isn't there? When you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes back into you. Well, the actual meaning might be different, but it was a sentence that could be applied here. We both held the same card: 'each other's identity.' However, the problem was that I held the Ace of Spades.
"You said you're going to grad school and becoming a TA, right? Want me to make it so the Physical Therapy students whisper every time they see you?"
If she were graduating, she might not care. She could have just acted like she didn't give a damn. Of course, even then, she'd be the only one losing out.
"N-No... I-I wasn't planning on saying anything...!"
Thud!
I slammed my hand against the tree above Lee Eun-woo's head. Since she was on the shorter side, it was the perfect height to intimidate her.
"You know..."
Finally, the timid appearance from when I first saw her returned. Looking down at the trembling Lee Eun-woo, I gave her a smile filled with a sense of victory.
"It feels like absolute crap when rumors spread that you're a sex-crazed freak."
I could say that with certainty.
"Because I've already experienced it once, thanks to you."
At the start of the festival, I had to deal with strange looks from all over because of the rumors that I was the Sex Master.
"Shall we see this through to the end? In an all-out fight between a plain old university community manager and a sex-crazed woman who can't act her age and hunts freshmen while trying to be a TA, who do you think comes out on top?"
As the words poured out of me, it became clear in my head that I had nothing to lose. She must have realized the same thing, as she looked up at me with a tearful face and replied.
"N-No, I didn't mean I was going to do anything...!"
"Stop speaking informally."
When I warned her through gritted teeth to seize the momentum, she gulped and continued.
"I-I wasn't going to expose anything. I was just asking."
"..."
"I'll keep my mouth shut! I-I'll even post that everything I wrote in the Bamboo Forest was just my own delusion!"
"Phew."
"So... p-please. I still have to attend this school. My professor is very conservative; if he finds out about this, I'm really finished."
Her exterior and interior were different. If Lee Eun-woo had looked like a loose woman from the start, this kind of threat wouldn't have worked. But the fact that she had to hide behind anonymity to hunt for men meant she was maintaining a certain image at school. Since she had more to lose, she had no choice but to lose this fight.
"Fine, let's not make things unpleasant for each other."
I pulled back and took a deep breath. Thanks to the cold wind, the heated atmosphere felt refreshed. After watching Lee Eun-woo post in the Bamboo Forest that her call-out of Anonymous 69 was just her own delusion, I prepared to head back.
"E-Excuse me?"
Lee Eun-woo called out to me. I wondered what else was left, but she asked hesitantly.
"Does this mean I become Moderator No. 2 as well?"
"..."
"N-No, I just saw a post before saying that if you find out the manager's identity, you become a manager..."
Come to think of it, Yoo Ah-rin had written something like that.
"Why would someone going to grad school and becoming a TA want to be a manager? Just live your university life quietly and move on."
"A-Ah, yes! Understood!"
She said that, but she looked somewhat disappointed. However, that wasn't my concern, so I left her there and returned to the English Department booth.
'That's one thing settled.'
She was a bit of a dizzying person, but I felt a sense of pride that it had been resolved in its own way.
'I should go home.'
Since the pub wasn't running anymore anyway, I was about to sneakily pack my things and head home when I stepped into the main tent.
"Kim Woo-jiiiiin!"
For some reason, a heavily intoxicated Seo Ye-rin suddenly stood up from her seat and called my name.