Cutting Hair Is the Most Annoying
Ha Yunseo first became hooked on Haneul the Cloudy by pure chance.
There was no special trigger.
Just a coincidence.
Nothing more, nothing less.
Three months ago—back when she hadn't even considered returning to Celt of Heroes.
One day, a video suddenly appeared in her YouTube recommendations.
It was gameplay footage of Celt of Heroes, something she never watched.
At the time, she avoided gaming videos entirely.
So among the usual mix of overseas sports clips, trending issues, and lighthearted content, Haneul the Cloudy's channel felt completely out of place.
Maybe it was some glitch in the algorithm. Looking back, that seemed likely.
A tiny anomaly.
The kind of small, everyday mishap that could happen to anyone.
But for someone named Ha Yunseo, it became the biggest turning point of all.
Because it showed a light to the person who used to curl up in the corner of her room, wasting time meaninglessly and secretly wiping away tears every night.
The thumbnail featured Lancer-Cartia's face with a Challenger emblem overlaid on it.
The video was from a year ago and had 1.65 million views.
The title read: "Even with the new character Cartia, my smurf account reached Challenger!"
She suddenly remembered how much fun she'd had playing the game years ago and clicked the video as if entranced.
And then—
She was completely captivated by her.
…That phrasing sounded strange, so let me correct it.
It wasn't the person Haneul the Cloudy herself who drew her in.
It was her playstyle that completely won Ha Yunseo over.
The reckless aggression. The way she never feared death.
The sheer determination to keep stacking damage and find a way out even in the direst situations.
The genius sense that could flip a losing fight in an instant.
The oppressive game sense that never gave the opponent a moment to breathe.
And—
Her overwhelming 1v1 skill.
All of it reminded Ha Yunseo of one person.
Someone with long black hair—
Thump. Thump.
Someone whose slightly cynical smile had been breathtakingly beautiful—
Thump. Thump.
Someone with soft black eyes—
Thump. Thump.
A woman.
Her heart began to race.
Blood finally flowed through her body again.
Her body desperately craved it.
The memories of those days.
The version of herself who burned with the desire to win and kept challenging others.
The thrilling 1v1 duels that made her heart pound.
The passion she once had, visiting every day to demand rematches.
Before she knew it, she was buying a brand-new computer.
By the time she tried to calm down and reconsider, she had already finalized the purchase of a VR headset.
That was how she returned to the battlefields of Celt of Heroes—something she had tried to erase from her mind for so long.
****
Shhhhhhhhhh.
Warm water poured over her head. It felt like her muscles might melt and flow straight down the drain.
Ah. This is the best.
She stood under the hot water with her mind completely blank for forty minutes.
Just as she started regretting not filling the tub instead, she turned the water off.
Even her long hair, which she usually left to dry on its own because it was too bothersome, got a thorough shampooing.
She had to pump the bottle so many times. Two pumps weren't nearly enough.
Honestly, this body was nothing but inconvenient.
She rinsed the shampoo out and grabbed two towels from the cabinet.
One towel was for her body. The other was for squeezing the water out of her hair.
She took out the hair dryer and plugged it in.
Vrrrrrrrrrrrr—
It roared as it blasted hot air.
While drying her hair, she stared blankly at her fragmented reflection in the cracked mirror.
…Not a bad body.
If she were still a guy, she probably wouldn't even be able to breathe properly.
Even now, she sometimes caught herself gasping in admiration when she wasn't paying attention.
Pale skin. A sharply cinched waist. Hips that made their presence known. A chest that rose noticeably despite her small frame.
Even through the shattered mirror, its beauty couldn't be hidden. It looked like someone had taken her body apart and displayed each piece in its own glass frame.
Every angle was a work of art. Anyone who had actually seen Ha Yunseo naked would say the same.
—Nngh.
The dryer blew her bangs into her eyes.
…Come to think of it, she really needed to cut her hair soon.
The thought made her stand in front of the largest shard and pull her bangs down with her fingers.
They were almost covering her eyes.
"……Haa."
So annoying.
With that thought, she took out a razor blade. She grabbed a section of her bangs and carefully snipped them off with practiced, delicate movements.
Anyone would ask what the hell she was doing, but she had no choice.
This was the only way she could cut her own hair.
There were no scissors in the house. She'd thrown them all away back in middle school—kitchen scissors, craft scissors, everything.
The reason was simple.
She didn't like scissors.
Pathologically so.
That was why beauty salons were the worst place in the world for her.
Sharp scissors and huge mirrors.
It was a miracle if she didn't panic and burst into tears the moment she walked in.
She focused carefully, trimming her hair bit by bit.
The first few times had been embarrassing enough to hide from the world, but now the results looked fairly natural.
Well, she'd been doing it this way ever since middle school. It would be strange if she hadn't gotten the hang of it by now.
Snip. Snip.
She trimmed just enough from left to right so her bangs wouldn't poke her eyes, then put the razor away with the hair dryer.
She put on an oversized casual outfit—a simple T-shirt from when she was still a guy.
Wearing it now made her look like some trendy girl who lived for fashion.
Someone who acted tough but had a fragile mentality. The kind of menhera girl who—
…Maybe she should buy a Kuromi plushie. It might actually suit her.
A black mask would be nice too. And a pink ribbon, if possible.
She chuckled to herself at the joke.
She pulled a white baseball cap low over her head, threw on a thin black hoodie, and slipped on her shoes.
At the front door, she took a slow, deep breath. Then another. Only after several rounds of breathing did she finally gather the courage to open the door.
The sunlight was blindingly bright. She had to squint against the rays stabbing under the brim of her cap.
The temperature was warm, but the wind was chilly.
It was hard to believe this was the same cold night air from yesterday. Spring had arrived in full force.
She walked down the street, letting the gentle warmth of the sun be stolen away by the cold breeze.
"…The weather's really nice."
She muttered the words and looked up at the sky. A few clouds drifted lazily across a clear, pale blue expanse.
It had been a long time since she'd seen such a pretty sky. The corners of her mouth lifted slightly.
The large supermarket she reached after a ten-minute walk was almost empty.
Weekday morning. The perfect time for avoiding crowds. She hated busy places, so she deliberately came at this hour.
The employees looked relaxed. A few tried to greet her, so she pulled her cap down further and slipped away.
She wandered the aisles with a plastic basket. Most of what she picked up were frozen instant meals.
Cooking properly was too much trouble. Fresh ingredients also didn't last long.
For someone like her—an extreme shut-in who only went shopping once every few weeks—the most important thing was how long the food could be stored after buying it all at once.
Everything else was unnecessary.
She circled the frozen food section for a long time, filling her basket until it was heavy. Just thinking about carrying it home made her sigh already.
Then her eyes landed on the ice cream freezer. Rows of ice cream sat neatly inside, waiting to be chosen.
She knew immediately.
—Ah.
This was bad.
By the time she came to her senses, she was already bent over the low freezer, pulling out all kinds of ice cream.
Mostly chocolate flavors. Or ones with vanilla cream.
She also grabbed a few fish-shaped ones with red bean, some with chestnut pieces, and a couple of green melon-flavored ones.
How was she supposed to carry all this? she asked herself—then immediately gave up.
At that point, she had reached a state of resigned abandon and was just following her instincts.
Well, she hadn't eaten anything sweet in a while. Last night's chocolate cake must have been the trigger.
It felt like dynamite had blown open the dam she'd been holding back.
She grabbed whatever caught her eye.
She told herself she'd stop there, but when she looked down, the ice cream had already piled up like a mountain in her basket.
Even she thought it was ridiculous.
This wasn't even a shaved ice. What was she doing?
While thinking that, her body naturally drifted toward the chocolate aisle.