I'll Give You a Free Hug
It’s fun.
It’s delightful.
It’s exciting!
Awakened are truly a bunch of lunatics, and drinking with lunatics is quite a fun experience.
I shouted while chugging a bottle of whiskey that cost over 500,000 won.
"Let's drink until we drop!"
The other Awakened raised their bottles high and shouted back.
"Let's drop!"
"Whether we die from an anomaly or from drinking, it’s all the same!"
"Just smash the remaining tables too!"
…I don’t know why, but the Awakened started smashing the three innocent tables left in the room.
If they keep this up, I won't be the only one getting in trouble; we’ll all get chewed out.
Is this what they call that "passionate friendship" among Awakened?
I learned one fact during the last gathering at Yoo Iseul’s private lounge halfway up the mountain.
I like whiskey.
A lot.
Of course, I’m not a person who enjoys drinking alone… no, I’m a Fervent Follower, so I don’t sip whiskey by myself at home.
Even if I had money overflowing, I still have that beggar’s instinct left in me.
I didn’t want to spend hundreds of thousands of won on alcohol that would just be digested in my stomach, so I’ve never bought whiskey with my own money yet.
But if it’s free alcohol, the story changes a bit.
When the drinking party first started, everyone was just guzzling down those violently colored green bottles—soju.
I don’t like soju, so I was barely drinking, but as the mood picked up, the Awakened started bringing out bottles of whiskey from their personal cabinets.
I don’t know why they have whiskey in their personal cabinets, either.
Anyway, if it’s free whiskey, I had no intention of refusing.
So, I’ve been gratefully accepting and enjoying it.
Even a Fervent Follower gets drunk.
As the buzz kicked in, the awkwardness vanished, and as the awkwardness vanished, my speech lost its filter.
"So, I’m asking, what cup size is it? Huh?"
The Awakened Seo Jiyoon’s face was flushed all the way to her ears from the alcohol.
Why on earth is she so curious about the size of these useless lumps of fat?
She should have given up by now, but she didn’t seem to have any intention of stopping.
Feeling a bit annoyed, I snapped at her.
"I don’t know. Even if I don’t know, it’s definitely ten times bigger than yours, Jiyoon-nim."
You teased me, so I’m allowed to tease you back, right?
"Ugh…"
At my words, Seo Jiyoon froze on the spot as if she’d been hit with a stun spell.
I wasn’t making things up.
Well, I’m not some internet expert on breasts, so I can’t measure her size with a glance, but…
Even to my eyes, Seo Jiyoon looked like a flat board.
Nothing there.
Flat.
Front and back are the same, just like that.
At my words, Seo Jaewoo, who was drinking next to us, started laughing like a maniac.
"Kuh, kehehehehehe! You’ve certainly got an eye for it, Jia-nim! Ten times? No, in my opinion, it’s probably twenty times. I’m not joking, I think my chest is even bigger than that rude bitch’s… glug-glug-glug."
But Seo Jaewoo couldn’t continue.
Seo Jiyoon is an Awakened who can manipulate "liquids."
She had used her ability to force a lethal cocktail of soju, beer, and whiskey into Seo Jaewoo’s mouth.
"Glug-glug-glug."
"Shut up, shut up, shut up, you roider!"
…She’s already poured nearly a liter into him; won’t he die of alcohol poisoning?
Well, Awakened have sturdy bodies, so he won’t die, but still.
Fortunately, Seo Jiyoon seemed angry at Seo Jaewoo, not me.
She only tormented Seo Jaewoo, and her attention shifted away from me.
Uh, um.
I need to watch my mouth.
Thinking about suffering that fate made me instantly polite.
There’s plenty of expensive whiskey around, but I should restrain myself from now on.
If I drink any more, I feel like I’ll make another mistake.
Just as I decided to stop drinking, someone caught my eye.
Kim Minchul.
An Awakened I’d shared a meal with once after running into him in the elevator.
His ability is marksmanship, allowing him to target and snipe specific body parts of a target…
Ugh.
I don’t care about his ability.
The important thing is that he’s a boy who looks about six or seven years old.
He’s freaking adorable.
Before I got drunk, I was too awkward to even look around, but now that I’m tipsy, I finally noticed him.
Creak.
I had just decided to "restrain myself as much as possible," but—
Gulp.
Gulp, gulp.
Defying my own resolution, I poured the remaining half of the 45% whiskey down my throat.
And then.
I approached Kim Minchul.
The total number of Awakened in South Korea is 200.
Among those 200, it could be said that there is not a single person who dislikes Lee Jia.
She solves anomalies, appraises items, is pretty, and has a great body.
Even if you’ve never watched Lee Jia’s stream, there’s no reason to dislike her; if anything, you’d like her.
…However.
Even if they don’t dislike her, there are people who feel uncomfortable around her.
Kim Minchul.
An Awakened specialized in marksmanship.
At 25 years old this year, one year older than Lee Jia, he feels uncomfortable around her.
Of course, Lee Jia is a very important existence to him as well.
He is a case whose appearance became younger due to permanent physical damage from an anomaly’s attack.
And for him to return to his original body—
[Omnia Wiki]
Only a "Fervent Follower" of [CENSORED] knows what Kim Minchul must do to regain his original appearance.
He needs information on a Fervent Follower.
It goes without saying, but the person who knows the most about Fervent Followers in this world is Lee Jia.
Therefore, since she essentially holds the key for him to return to his original body, he should have been trying to build rapport with her, not avoiding her. But after their last meal, Kim Minchul was certain.
Lee Jia is a dangerous existence.
…Don’t misunderstand.
He didn’t perceive her as a threat to humanity, but rather that the look in Lee Jia’s eyes when she stared at him was dangerous.
He already knew why Lee Jia looked at him with such strange eyes from lurking on the "Domestic Virtual Gallery."
She is a shotacon.
And not just as a persona, but a genuine one.
‘…I guess that’s average for an Awakened.’
Since a person with a normal way of thinking can’t easily become an Awakened, Kim Minchul could understand her twisted tastes, but—
Wouldn’t the story change if the target was himself?
Therefore, now that the after-party for the "Fervent Follower Countermeasure Meeting" was in full swing, Kim Minchul was seriously debating whether he should talk to Lee Jia or just avoid her gaze and mingle with other Awakened.
Because if he talked to her for no reason, he might hear her say, "Can’t you just hug me once?" again.
The result of his deliberation was the latter.
Fortunately, Lee Jia didn’t seem very interested in Kim Minchul.
‘Was I imagining it? No, that look was seriously dangerous.’
Even an hour after the drinking party started, Lee Jia hadn’t come looking for him.
Whew.
Thank goodness, it must have been my imagination.
I shouldn’t have trusted information from an internet gallery.
It wasn’t real; it was just a concept, just RP.
…Of course, it’s suspicious that her perverted gaze was so intense to be called a mere misunderstanding.
If Lee Jia were a real shotacon, she would have come over and talked to him by now.
In that case, I could approach her without burden and ask for information about the Fervent Follower.
Just as he was timing when to talk to Lee Jia—
Lee Jia suddenly chugged her whiskey bottle.
Creak!
After pushing her chair back with a loud noise—
Stomp.
Stomp, stomp.
She approached Kim Minchul.
"…?"
"Minchul-nim. Do you remember me?"
Déjà vu.
It’s that look.
The look she had when he ran into her in the elevator.
Feeling something was wrong, Kim Minchul answered her question.
"Of course I remember. We even ate together—"
"Minchul-ahhhhh, Noona will give you a hug!"
Soon after, Lee Jia lunged at him, arms wide open to hug Kim Minchul, whose height barely reached her waist.
Grab!
There was no time to dodge.
"Ah, shit…"
"Uheeheehee."
Some Awakened were flustered by the bizarre scene.
Some were envious.
For some reason, some female Awakened were blushing, and there were even some who were laughing while clapping.
Meanwhile.
Kim Minchul, his face completely buried in Lee Jia’s large lumps of fat, choked and thought:
‘As expected, she really is a dangerous, crazy bitch!’
When I opened my eyes, I was in a sleeping room located somewhere inside the Awakened Association.
The time was 1:00 PM.
A full day had passed since the meeting.
…Hmm.
I don’t remember what happened yesterday.
I remember chugging whiskey after seeing Kim Minchul, but after that, my memory is completely blank.
Well, could anything special have happened?
I probably just greeted Kim Minchul out of happiness.
"Ugh, bleh."
Was it because I drank too much?
My stomach felt bad, and my head was spinning.
Usually, experiencing such a terrible hangover would make my mood hit rock bottom, but—
"Uhehe."
Why do I feel so good that I can’t help but laugh?
…Seriously, I have no idea.