Summer Festival (3)
While I was on the phone with my fellow degenerate otaku friend, I felt a strange presence behind me and turned around. There stood an insanely pretty, sexy older girl with god-tier cosplay quality, and the tallest, best-built guy from our gym. In other words, the boss couple. Now that I looked, the car parked near me was definitely the boss’s car. There were so many similar ones around that I hadn’t noticed….
I was fucked. Completely.
“….”
Basically, I had lied to the boss to come here. Sure, I’d found a replacement, but that didn’t erase the lie. Why these two were here and why the boss’s wife was dressed like that wasn’t my business. What mattered was that one wrong excuse and I’d be fired on the spot.
“Is that you, Sua?”
“Y-yes….”
“Want a ride?”
“Huh?”
“You’re heading home, right? Get in.”
But to my shock, the boss picked up my luggage, casually shoved it into the trunk, and blocked my escape route so I couldn’t run. That gentle-looking smile had never felt so terrifying.
“Sit in the back. You live in Mokdong anyway.”
“…Yes.”
He didn’t even ask why I was here. Of course he didn’t—there was a goddamn spear sticking out of the shopping bag. If he hadn’t noticed that, he’d be an idiot. At least I’d changed out of the costume and stuffed it in the carrier. If he’d caught me in full cosplay, I would’ve bitten my tongue and died right there.
I’d already nearly run into a senior whose name I barely knew this morning and had to bolt. It felt amazing when strangers praised me, but the thought of people who actually knew me seeing this side of me was humiliation play and nothing less.
“Juhyuk, what about my opinion?”
“You have to decide whether you’re cutting it or not.”
“…Fine.”
The terrifying conversation drifting through the car door, combined with the situation itself, had me shaking. I was learning firsthand what it meant to be so scared you couldn’t even breathe properly as I trembled in the back seat.
Getting fired was bad enough, but what if they found my Twitter account? If the rumor spread through the grapevine all the way to my university while I was on leave… that would be social murder. The punishment would be way harsher than embezzlement or theft.
My mind was already filling with posts like “XX University’s Lightning God” circulating, and the thought of my department mates throwing casual jokes every time they saw me sent chills down my spine. I couldn’t handle that future. Getting fired and scolded by my uncle would be far better, so somehow….
“Where do you live?”
“Sorry?”
“I asked where you live. I said I’d give you a ride.”
But unlike my apocalyptic fantasies, the boss simply sat in the driver’s seat and casually asked for my address. …Come to think of it, if he was going to fire me he would’ve done it already. He didn’t seem like the type to spread rumors… right?
I decided to trust in the boss’s basic humanity, gave him my address, and waited as politely as possible for him to speak.
Five minutes passed.
“She must’ve gone home by now, right?”
“She? Who? Oh, Hi…. …Yeah. She probably went home on her own.”
Ten minutes.
“Just thinking about coming back here tomorrow is already annoying.”
“Tell me about it.”
Fifteen minutes.
“What do you want to eat once we’re back?”
“Chicken?”
“…You’re really going to eat wearing that?”
“Juhyuk, do you actually want to die?”
“You always say you’re about to die, but the second something happens you puff your chest out.”
“…It’s not every day, okay?”
These two were completely ignoring me, happily chatting away between themselves. It felt strangely unpleasant to be so thoroughly disregarded, but the realization that they might not actually care about me at all eased my tension a little. I relaxed my stiff posture, leaned back against the seat, and—
“Ah, Sua. Have you eaten?”
“Y-yes?”
“I asked if you had dinner. You came straight from work too, didn’t you?”
“…No, not yet.”
The boss spoke to me at the most awkward possible moment. He was definitely watching me through the rearview mirror.
“Then let’s eat together… Ow. Hey. What was that for?”
“…Stop messing around.”
“Okay, okay. Don’t hit me. I’m driving.”
He’d invited me in a playful voice only to get smacked by the boss’s wife. I wondered if it was okay to hit the driver, but the atmosphere didn’t seem bad, so I smiled awkwardly along with them. The boss, who’d just taken a hit, chuckled softly, cleared his throat, and spoke to me as if nothing had happened.
“Well, the dinner thing was a joke. Sua, are you coming back here tomorrow?”
“…Here?”
“I mean the event. Weren’t you invited like Haeun?”
“That’s right.”
I fell for his natural tone and accidentally told the truth. …Wait, was I even allowed to tell the boss that? I was supposed to say I’d finished the housework and just came to hang out for a bit….
“…Then quit your part-time job.”
“…Sorry?”
I was fired in a single sentence.
“No, it’s not like that. I’m not saying it because I hate you. This will make you way more money than working at the gym.”
“Ah, no, I’m not really that serious about—”
“You should take it seriously. With your level, you could rake in cash. Haeun can’t do streaming because of me, but you don’t have a boyfriend, right?”
“….”
Not only was I fired, I was being given career advice. Was this guy a good person or a bad one? Yet nothing he said was wrong or even sarcastic.
“Wait, what? Juhyuk, you’re not letting me stream?”
“The second you do, they’ll dig up your personal info and find out you’re living with me. It’ll be chaos.”
“…I don’t really care.”
“Women who stream are basically like idols. Having a boyfriend usually causes huge problems. Unless it’s just guest appearances.”
“Really?”
Listening to the way he spoke to the boss’s wife gave me a strange feeling. Was he hyping me up by comparing me to an idol? Or was he saying I was at least idol-adjacent?
Well, I knew I was pretty, and it wasn’t like I’d never thought about it….
“Anyway, Sua. Just keep coming in until you find your next part-time job. After that, think it over carefully. Honestly, whether you stream or keep doing cosplay, you’ll make serious money at your level.”
“Ah, yes….”
“And if you get famous later, invite Haeun on your stream sometimes.”
“Ah, yes.”
“I’ll talk to your uncle. I’ll tell him you’re busy preparing to go back to school and don’t have time.”
“Ah… thank you.”
Watching the boss smoothly map out my entire future, I nodded without the slightest resistance. It was only after I got home and unpacked that I realized he had just fired me with a few casual words.
What the hell. That’s terrifying. Is this what the coldness of society feels like…?
The reason I fired Sua wasn’t anything complicated.
First, Hinami had been working out and posting selfies on Instagram, which caused membership to explode. The vibe of “just how famous is this place?” had spread, bringing in more female members, and men were flooding in exponentially to catch a glimpse of both Seo Jia and Hinami. At this point, even if those two stopped coming, the members would probably keep the place buzzing on their own. After all, a gym is basically a social square for the people who run it.
Of course, I’d disciplined the trainers thoroughly, so neither staff nor members dared to hit on them. The most they got was the occasional autograph request, and even that only happened after workouts.
The second reason was that sending her seriously into the streaming scene looked like it would be profitable. After working with her, I realized she was the ultimate fantasy for degenerates: a huge otaku who loved games, baseball, and cosplay but had no boyfriend. Since I had zero connections in that world, if she succeeded I was seriously considering using her to promote Haeun a little.
If she failed… well, that couldn’t be helped. Honestly, if I wasn’t going to try at all it would be one thing, but I didn’t see any chance of failure, so I wasn’t sure. Of course there was the option of having Haeun stream directly, but I completely disagreed.
The first problem was that her older sister “Seo Jia’s” personal information would inevitably get dug up. The second was that digging up mine would follow. The third was that Hinami would inevitably get exposed too. Cosplayers just sell their face and body, but streaming is a business that sells romantic feelings. It’s the exact same logic as why an actor dating is completely different from an idol dating.
From the beginning, I had no intention of hiding my deep relationship with Haeun. …The bait was already rolling hard on Twitter anyway.
“Juhyuk… massage my shoulders a little….”
“We haven’t even started yet.”
Haeun, wearing the same outfit as yesterday, leaned against the car and demanded a massage. There was no reason to refuse and no one around, so I placed one hand on her shoulder and started kneading. She let out strangely erotic little sounds of relief, then gradually pushed her ass out, forcing my hand away.
…Doing something like that in broad daylight was lame, but also cute. I slipped my hand under her clothes, grabbed her bandaged ass firmly, stroked her exposed nape, and pulled her upright.
“Get up before people start staring. Stop doing weird stuff.”
“Okayy….”
“Yesterday you said you were tired and collapsed right after eating, so don’t do that today.”
“…Sorry.”
“Anyway, go on ahead. I’ll stop by the gym and come right after.”
“Yessir.”
I barely managed to send off the still-coquettish Haeun to the event venue, then leaned against the car, fiddling with my phone while I waited for the others.
“Yei, oppa!”
“Don’t talk so loud.”
As expected, one of them was Hinami. She wasn’t cosplaying a particularly popular character, but the mask made her completely unrecognizable.
“….”
And beside her….
Someone of about average male height, also wearing a mask that made them impossible to identify. With their chest tightly bound and dressed in male clothing, they walked shyly up to my side.
…The problem was that even so, it was painfully obvious they were a woman.