218. Cat Fight (4)
218. Cat Fight (4)
What the hell is she saying?
'The person I've been talking to until now wasn't Jin Yu-ha... it was Shin Se-hee?'
Before the shock could even sink in, Shin Se-hee continued.
"It was easy. Well, I figured you'd already left for Jeju Island. Jin Yu-ha barely looks at his phone when he's raiding a dungeon anyway. Switching his IP over to my computer for a bit was a piece of cake."
Unable to hold back, Lee Yu-ri lunged and grabbed Shin Se-hee by the collar.
"Why the hell did you do that! Do you have any idea how much I—!!"
But even with her collar seized, Shin Se-hee's expression didn't change in the slightest.
"Because I wanted to show all of you."
"......Show us?"
"The reality you refuse to see. And the despair I felt."
Lee Yu-ri's eyes trembled slightly.
She couldn't understand what Shin Se-hee was talking about.
'What meaning could a stupid prank like this possibly have?'
What was it that she supposedly couldn't see? And what had Shin Se-hee despaired over?
Thwack!
Shin Se-hee smacked the hand gripping her collar away, then slowly scanned the assembled group.
"All of you, you're in love with Jin Yu-ha, aren't you?"
In love with him?
In the past, Lee Yu-ri would have definitely deflected that question, mumbling something vague or denying it outright.
After all, she still couldn't be completely sure if her feelings were really that kind of love.
But now, those words just wouldn't leave her mouth.
【Sword Demon(劍鬼)】 ─ You're a trustworthy comrade! I'm counting on you from now on! ^----^
The message Jin Yu-ha had sent her, saying he would accept Shin Se-hee's confession.
The shock she felt from that remained fully intact.
And as if the other party members were in the same state, they all kept their mouths shut like clams.
"If one of us ends up with Jin Yu-ha... is there really a saint among you who would just sit back and watch that happen?"
Shin Se-hee raised a hand as she asked.
"......."
As if she hadn't expected an answer, Shin Se-hee shook her head.
"No, of course not. You're the kind of people who, just because Jin Yu-ha chose me, immediately rushed over here like a pack of hounds to do whatever it takes to deal with me. Ah, I'm not criticizing you, you know? I'd have done the exact same thing."
"You're talking a lot of shit. Get to the point, you Flowerbed dipshit."
Kang Do-hee snapped, as if she couldn't bear to listen any longer.
Shin Se-hee merely shrugged her shoulders, as if she had no other choice.
"An alliance. That's it."
"......An alliance?"
Im Ga-eul repeated the words back as if she'd heard something utterly absurd.
"Yes. Truthfully, you have no idea how much hatred, jealousy, and surging emotions I had to endure before reaching this conclusion. You wouldn't know. Because all of you only ever looked at the present, only at the feelings you feel right now."
Shin Se-hee gently ran her fingers over Jin Yu-ha's sofa as if handling something precious.
"So I did it. As someone once said, you're all looking at reality through a flowerbed, and I thought it was unfair that I was the only one seeing a hellish future. Who exactly is the Flowerbed dipshit here? Me? Or you?"
At Shin Se-hee's flat, murmured confession, the others could do nothing but swallow dryly.
Even Kang Do-hee, who had been fiercely denouncing Shin Se-hee, fell silent.
"I'm certain of it. In my life, no one else will ever provoke this kind of intense want in me the way Jin Yu-ha does. No one will ever stimulate my desires like this again. So I want him. I want to monopolize him. But you see, when I get greedy, he gets sad."
"......."
"Because he cares about all of you."
Shin Se-hee spoke as if she didn't want to admit it.
"If he's someone I can't have all to myself, then there's no choice but to share him. So I've decided to make a concession. The people in this room. And even that unlikeable instructor who went on the trip with him today."
Her final words were firm, as if she would absolutely not tolerate anything more.
"That's it. Those are the only ones."
* * *
Sofia trudged out of Jin Yu-ha's room.
Flop!
Returning to her own room, she buried her face in the bed with a dazed expression.
She had heard so many things, but the emotion rising deepest in her heart right now was none other than relief.
Her heart had dropped, and she had been blinded by jealousy and hatred.
But thankfully, the incident today had been entirely staged by Shin Se-hee.
Sofia clutched her chest.
"What a relief......"
Because the text she received earlier was a lie.
Because Jin Yu-ha hadn't chosen Shin Se-hee.
Because he hadn't abandoned her.
"Truly, what a relief......"
Roll.
Sofia turned over and looked up at the ceiling.
It felt like Shin Se-hee's words were still echoing in her ears.
— To Jin Yu-ha, all of us are just 4%, 3%, but I'm 100%. In the end, it's a game where the one who loves more loses, isn't it?
Shin Se-hee said that because she was at 100%, she had no choice but to make this choice.
The face she made when she said that looked so sad.
"One hundred percent......"
That was true.
Jin Yu-ha liked all the party members equally, but every single one of them, including herself, looked only at Jin Yu-ha.
— So, what will you do? If you accept my concession, we'll compete to win more of his affection, but we won't completely push each other out.
At her proposal, Kang Do-hee spoke.
— And if we refuse?
— Then there'll be a conclusion that truly makes Jin Yu-ha sad.
— A conclusion that makes him sad?
— We'll fight each other like we're trying to kill, until only one of us is left standing. If it comes to that, I'm never backing down.
Sofia felt the exact same way.
Utopia was a deformed party built solely around Jin Yu-ha.
The moment someone started getting greedy, the others couldn't just stand by and watch.
They'd just been pretending not to see it until now.
What Shin Se-hee did today was simply dragging the thing everyone had been trying so hard to ignore right up to the surface.
'When did Shin Se-hee start thinking like this?'
The answer came surprisingly easily.
"Probably right after that affection-measuring artifact appeared."
After that, the wariness between party members had sharpened drastically,
and the subtle wars to claim Jin Yu-ha's time had increased to the point where it was visible to the naked eye.
— If everyone agrees to my proposal, from now on, we will all be in a relationship where we share Jin Yu-ha's affection. We'll become his co-lovers.
Sharing affection.
Co-lovers.
Shin Se-hee had thrown out an absolutely unthinkable idea without a trace of shame.
Sofia turned her head to look at the photo of Jin Yu-ha hanging on the wall.
All of the Utopia Party members becoming Jin Yu-ha's lovers.
It was something she had never once considered before.
Of course, because it went against the common sense that one person dates one person.
If that really happened...
And if it were revealed to the world, Jin Yu-ha would be severely cursed by the public.
When a woman dates multiple men, she gets cursed at too, but on the other hand, people often view her as capable.
But when a man dates multiple women, there is only scorn.
No, the insults they'd heard during the U.S. Monster Subjugation Request might feel like child's play compared to the catastrophic loss of honor he'd suffer.
— So, we have to maintain our current relationship on the surface. And we have to raise Jin Yu-ha to the very top.
"The very top."
— High enough that people will think it's only natural for Jin Yu-ha to be with all of us.
Yes, if that's what it takes, then that's what they'd do.
As she stared at his photo and thought about him like that.
Suddenly, she was seized with a desperate urge to see him.
Now that she'd acknowledged her feelings for him, anyway.
And now that all the Utopia members had accepted that they were in a fair competition.
Would it be okay to be even more aggressive from now on......?
"......Should I go to Jeju Island tomorrow?"
Honestly, she wanted to run to him right this instant, but it was too late at night.
And her current appearance was too disheveled from everything that had happened today.
She wanted to show him the prettiest version of herself.
'When I wake up tomorrow, I'll have to visit a salon for the first time in a while.'
*
And around lunchtime the next day.
Right around the time Jin Yu-ha was meeting Baek Seol-hee's parents.
The Utopia Party members ran into each other in front of the Spatial Movement Formation.
And unlike usual, every one of them was completely dolled up.
Kang Do-hee was wearing a dress she'd normally never be caught dead in.
Lee Yu-ri had let down her usually tied-up hair, appearing with it styled in wavy curls.
Im Ga-eul was in a low-cut off-shoulder top and carrying a basket full of snacks in one hand.
Sofia had also visited a salon she frequented for her modeling work early in the morning, looking dazzlingly polished.
Among them, the only one who looked the same as always was Ichika.
"......."
"......."
"......."
"......."
They had all gathered like this, but no one opened their mouth to speak first.
'Wow, could they be any more transparent?'
Of course, internally, they were all laughing in disbelief at each other.
Click—
Click—
Click—
"Yaaawn......"
That was when Shin Se-hee appeared from behind them, yawning with one hand covering her mouth.
"You really don't give a person a moment to let their guard down. How can all of you be so transparent with your intentions?"
The Utopia Party members glared at Shin Se-hee with dumbfounded expressions.
Because the Shin Se-hee who said that was equally dressed to the nines, as if yesterday had been just a taste of what she could do.
'Look who's talking......!'