There is Paradise in the Place You Fled (4)
There is Paradise in the Place You Fled (4)
There Is a Paradise in the Place I Ran To (4)
After that, I asked the Department Head-nim, who had put down her brush, if we could order delivery, and she nodded, having utterly ditched any trace of an independence fighter's gravity.
The menu was the classic jjajangmyeon and tangsuyuk.
Soon the delivery arrived, and we silently focused on slurping noodles.
With black bean sauce on our mouths and chewing, we looked exactly like hamsters.
I chewed on danmuji and casually opened my mouth.
"By the way, Bujang-nim, do you go to the military?"
In this world, women go to the military. For college students, it's usually the standard to take a leave of absence after finishing the first or second year and go.
To my question, she answered while chewing without breaking the noodle strands.
"I am exempt isinira."
"Uh... exempt?"
Instantly, I found myself asking back without thinking. A woman being exempt in this world...
"Perhaps you have some illness or something..."
Only after spitting out the words did I realize my mistake. It's rude to pry into someone's physical defects or illnesses on a first meeting.
But she answered indifferently with a completely unfazed expression.
"No. It's due to physical grade deficiency isida."
She lifted her chopsticks and tapped the empty air above her own crown.
"I received exemption due to height deficiency isinira."
"Ah......"
I understood immediately. Certainly, with that small build, if she had to carry a military pack and a rifle, she might get blown away by the wind during training.
We focused on inhaling the jjajangmyeon again. Then this time, Bujang-nim asked first.
"Jin-hyeok-ah, do you have any games you usually play eomneun-nya?"
"Games? I do."
"What do you play haneunya?"
I picked up a piece of tangsuyuk and said proudly.
"S-Gong."
"......?"
Bujang-nim's chopsticks stopped mid-air. She frowned and tilted her head.
"What is that thing? It's a never-heard-of, never-seen trick loguna."
"Ah... you don't know? It's called Storm of Time and Space..."
"I don't know neuni-ra."
"...It's just like Rel. Bujang-nim, what do you play?"
"I enjoy playing 'Legacy Era Legend' haneuni-ra."
"Oh... what tier are you?"
She dipped her tangsuyuk generously in sauce and lifted her chin with a deliberately arrogant expression.
"Platinum isinira."
"Huh?"
With those tiny hands, she managed to hit Platinum on the keyboard? If she did a shotgun, her palm would hurt more, I think?
"That's very high. Surprising."
"Hmm hmm, my support skills are quite outstanding hani-ra. Would you like to play together later neunya?"
"Sounds good. Please give me a ride later."
"Onya. Consider it an honor."
Having discovered an unexpected common interest, the atmosphere became even softer.
I rode the momentum and asked something I'd been curious about.
"But when was this club founded? Hanlim Classic Studies Society — just by the name, it seems like it has about 50 years of tradition."
"Was it the year before last...?"
Bujang-nim looked up at the ceiling as if searching her memory.
"You probably don't know, but there was a previous Bujang-nim isinira."
"Previous Bujang-nim?"
"Yes. That eonni tricked, deceived, and made a 1v1 mid-lane bet in the canyon with her friends..."
"......"
"This club was created by forcing those who lost to become ghost members isinira."
"Wow......"
Admiration came naturally. Far from tradition, it had no foundation, and the establishment process was a rigged game from the start.
"Where is that legendary Bujang-nim now?"
"Where would she be."
Bujang-nim calmly spoke while scraping up the remaining jjajang sauce with a spoon.
"She got her enlistment notice early this year and went to the military isinira. So I ended up wearing the hat in a daze."
"Ah......"
So in the end, this place is a shelter for victims of scam gambling, and a mess left by a senior who went to the army.
We ate the jjajangmyeon until our stomachs were about to burst, roughly washed the bowls and put them outside the door. Then we sprawled out idly again. With full stomachs and warm backs, this place is a paradise.
"Ah, right. Bujang-nim."
"Mmm... why are you like that neunya?"
Bujang-nim was buried in the sofa, fighting food coma.
"That computer earlier, can it run Rel by any chance?"
"Of course it runs. I even played my Platinum promotion matches on it isinira."
"Oh..."
"Later, once I organize the data inside... you can use it as you please hageora."
"Thank you."
As expected, this place is awesome.
Originally, they say that when you go to college, it's good to join at least one club no matter what.
Of course, it's different from high school.
In the Korean college entrance exam scene, clubs weren't about "Youth! Friendship! Effort!" like in Japanese manga, but just tools for building specs to fill in GPA and one line on the student record.
On the other hand, university clubs are the wild.
If you join the wrong one, you might end up with a higher attendance rate at bars than lecture halls for all four years, and a catastrophe where you get fatty liver before your diploma.
If you get caught in a so-called "drinking club", your liver won't survive.
But it's worth joining even taking that risk.
Honestly, I don't care about the activities; the real purpose is the "club room".
It's beneficial to have a membership even just for the club room.
For pitiful souls like me who have nowhere to go during ambiguous free periods, a hideout where I can stretch my legs and sleep is practically a lifeline.
Then a thought suddenly occurred to me.
"Come to think of it, we haven't exchanged contact info. Could you give me your number, Bujang-nim?"
"Uh...?"
She, who had been drowsily closing her eyes, was startled and opened her eyes wide.
"Th-that... you mean my phone number mari-nya?"
"Yes. We're fellow members, so we should know each other's contact."
"Ah... th-that's right... ahem.. wait a moment hageora..."
She fumbled around in her pocket.
Does she not know where she put her phone? No, why are her hands shaking like that?
There was a strangely flustered look unmistakably on her face.
"Here... it is... no, it is isinira."
On the smartphone screen she held out, numbers were written in large font. Is it the filial phone setting?
"Okay, I saved it. Let's play games together later."
"Oh, onya. Understood isinira."
Her answering voice seemed to crack a little, but I pretended not to notice.
I put my phone in my pocket and started thinking about other things.
"Later, I should gather people and try a queue session."
There's Bujang-nim, me. Hyun-woo, would he play Rel too? Don't guys with glasses usually play Rel?
Well, that's just my prejudice though.
"Then I have a class, so I'll go. Rest well."
"Yes, go safely hageora."
I left the club room behind, with Bujang-nim waving awkwardly.
After that, I endured the remaining major classes while listening to the professor's lullaby sound. That's how the long, eventful day ended.
Teobeok teobeok.
I dragged my tired body towards home.
.
.
.
I came home and sat in front of the computer without even washing up.
I stared blankly at the monitor and then habitually opened an internet browser. The place I accessed was the largest domestic community.
That place where all kinds of human figures and idiots gather under the name of a gallery.
Usually I would just lurk and turn it off, but today, for some reason, my fingers were itching.
Suddenly out of nowhere, I impulsively wanted to do something stupid.
I placed my hands on the keyboard and pressed the "Write" button without hesitation.
"Ah, whatever. I'll just consider it as shitting out one shitpost comfortably."
──────
Title: I came from another world. Is there anyone in the same situation as me?
Author: Boradori
I roughly woke up from sleep, and it seems the world has changed a bit strangely.
First of all, the biggest difference I can feel on my skin is that there are fucking lots of women on the streets in this neighborhood.
Whether I go to school or downtown, it's just a world of women. Men are almost nowhere to be seen.
Looking at the news, this place is a crazy neighborhood with a sex ratio of about 1 to 9... By any chance, is there anyone among the gallery users in the same situation as me?
I thought it might be a dream, so I pinched my cheek, but it hurt like hell, so it's not a dream. This doesn't seem like a hidden camera either.
Still, the thing that makes it barely livable is that, maybe because this is also a place where people live, Rel and S-Gong are still here. Is S-Gong always thriving everywhere or what.
──────
[Submit]
Click.
With one mouse click, the post went up.
Honestly, from the locals' perspective here, it would sound like the nonsense of a crazy schizophrenic patient or a concept troll, but if there is someone who came over to this side like me...
Maybe they might react after seeing my post.
A sliver of hope that I might find a fellow hometown person.
But apart from that hope, I feel a sense of shame.
Fuck... Unless I'm a serious mental patient at this age, going around multiple galleries and copy-pasting this kind of post...
It's really fucking embarrassing.
Anyway, I went ahead and did it despite the embarrassment.
A little later, I repeatedly pressed F5 (refresh).
The response was fast.
[Comments]
⤷ Go to the hospital hehe
⤷ Writing a novel lol not fun
⤷ Do your concept posting moderately
⤷ You have no spirit
⤷ I thought I had accumulated quite some internal energy, but for the first time in a while, I cringed
I copied and posted it on several communities, but the results were just like copy-paste — all treated me like an idiot as expected.
"Eing, tsk."
I closed the window without regret. Well, I didn't have high expectations anyway.
I leaned back in my chair and stared blankly at the ceiling.
Lately, my wandering thoughts have increased again. Whether it's suddenly developing homesickness, or because I'm full from having finished adapting.
Since I've fallen into this strange world anyway, I've thought about how I should live to have rumors say "I lived fucking awesomely"... but no answer comes.
First, a harem life with dozens of women like the "Emperor" I saw at the club room today?
I ran several simulations, but that's not my style. Even good things are only good once or twice; doing that, I'd definitely get my energy drained and die before my time.
Just looking at that "Emperor" guy earlier gives the answer. How much must he have suffered to come hide in that corner of the club room?
Then what's left is a modest romance...
"In the original world, they said you'd get a girlfriend when you go to college..."
It was one of adults' three biggest lies, but here it's not physically impossible. Because it's a world with a 1:9 sex ratio.
If I set my mind to it, I could probably grab anyone on the street and cling to them.
I know... I know it in my head too.
But the reason I can't step forward. The reason is obvious. The fact that I'm a coward, which I've repeated until my ears have calluses.
Vague fear of rejection. That petty pride that hates being embarrassed more than death.
Moreover, there is one quite fatal fact I've learned while living here.
Since this is a world where men have become a rare resource, the ecosystem of the dating market itself has strangely twisted. Surprisingly, it's very common for women to hit it off with each other.
You could say a culture of self-sufficiency (?) among themselves has settled in, since there are no men.
In other words, the pretty girl I gather courage to try to pick up might very likely turn out to like not men but other women.
"Excuse me, do you have a moment?"
"Ah, I'm not interested in men. I have a girlfriend."
There's a decent chance of hearing this kind of answer.
It's already humiliating to be rejected by the opposite sex, but to get cut off at the entrance due to sexual identity issues? That's a critical hit to my mental.
Of course... here, even lesbians might instantly switch stance and accept if a guy hits on them...
Then what about the opposite case? It's a tiresome repertoire, but let's check again.
"Is it good when someone comes on to me saying they like me?"
I've already experienced this many times since coming to this world.
A fairly pretty unknown woman suddenly appears and confesses, "I fell in love at first sight! Please go out with me!"
...Honestly, rather than fluttering, suspicion comes first.
Because I start to wonder whether she likes me as a "person" or is just after the "rare item" between my legs.
I even get to the point of reasonable suspicion like "What is this? An organ harvester?" Otherwise, it's a new kind of multi-level marketing or a cult.
If it were the original world, it would have been worse, not less.
I would have been 100% sure that she was a North Korean spy or an assassin sent by Kim Bang-seok, my homeroom teacher from high school.
Probably the moment she confessed to me, I might have pretended to go to the bathroom and started with a hammering.
Thinking about it, I suddenly get choked up again.
"Fuck, what mortal sin was it to send a few GL cards to the vice principal as a prank... Using that as a pretext to discipline the entire grade..."
Really, the world was a series of forced twists.
Anyway.
I don't like going to find others, and I find it burdensome when others approach me.
"......"
I'm actually a guy with a ridiculously picky taste.
Anyway... Even though I have the guts to face off against women, it's my fault for not having the courage to attack with a confession.
"Yeah, someday a natural meeting will come!"
If it's real fate, I'd either bump into a late female student on the street while holding a bread piece, or our fingers would touch while grabbing the same book at the library.
Like that obvious cliché from a pure romance manga.
I'm just cowardly hiding behind the plausible word "Jamanchu" (pursuit of natural meeting).
When you think about it, isn't there still plenty of time?
I just entered school, and haven't even taken midterms yet, so am I worrying about romance already? No need to be impatient. Time will solve everything.
...If I don't at least have a mental victory like that, my situation is too pathetic.
Come to think of it, my life sure has great consistency.
Riding the all-boys middle school and high school tech tree, in the original world I would have become an engineering college reservist swarming with dark men.
But seeing that even in this blessed (?) world where women are everywhere, literally half water half fish, I'm still like this...
Certainly, this life seems ruined.