You're So Cool

I'd just finished wrapping up about two of the videos I'd been sent to edit and was stretching when a thoroughly bewildering quest window materialized right in front of my eyes.

Hear that I was cool? What the hell was that supposed to mean?

"...Don't tell me this system reflects my desires or something?"

Ever since my Charm Stat had gone up by chance, I'd kept thinking I wanted to push it two more points and hit fifteen. And the instant that thought took hold, the system handed me a quest that paid out Charm as a reward? No matter how I sliced it, it was reasonable to suspect the thing was reflecting my desires to some degree.

Then again, was there even anything to debate? Wasn't that just how it worked from the beginning? Thinking back, the system had first opened around editing — the one thing I'd always wished and prayed for. Calling it a system that responded to my desires wasn't exactly wrong.

The door burst open.

"Hey, Dohyun-Dohyun! How's the work coming along?"

And of course, right as I was standing there flustered over a quest that wanted me to hear I was cool from Eunchae, the woman herself made her entrance with impeccable timing.

"I told you to knock before you come in, Jung Eunchae."

In the two weeks I'd been working here, I must have said that a hundred times. If I had to break it down by share, Eunchae accounted for about seventy percent of that. Park Woojin was the other thirty.

"Aww, come on, it's us! Hehe. Besides, you calling me Jung Eunchae is kinda sexy~"

If you could say cool instead of sexy, that would be great.

Asking her to say I was cool and then hearing it that way probably wouldn't count, right? Or would it? The quest hadn't said anything about that, so maybe it would?

"Eunchae."

"Hmm?"

"Don't say sexy. Call me cool. I like that better."

"Oho? What's this~ Choi Dohyun~ You wanted to hear that? You little cutie."

If it hadn't been for the quest, I wouldn't have particularly wanted to hear it at all. And I was not a cutie. Calling a fully grown man cute. Come on.

"Okay, okay. Our Dohyun is so cool! Super cool! The coolest!"

Wow. This was actually infuriating. I was just getting made fun of, plain and simple.

...Well. Fine.

I'd gotten what I wanted. If the quest hadn't actually completed, I would've had a massive what the hell am I doing with my life moment — so this much, I could laugh off and let go.

"Yeah. Thanks."

I tossed her a halfhearted reply and fixed my eyes back on the monitor. A sulky grumble drifted in from behind me.

"Heeey. I came all the way over here and you're just going back to work? The love's gone cold. Ice cold."

"Were we even a couple for the love to go cold in the first place?"

"Of course we were! Even sex partners need love!"

Oh, for crying out loud. Why didn't she just take out an ad and announce we were sex partners to the whole building.

I didn't answer. I just gave her a look.

"...There's nobody outside, that's why I said it so loud! Park Woojin went out for a smoke."

"How do you know when he's coming back, yelling like that?"

"...Ah. I... didn't think of that."

This girl had absolutely no sense of caution, and that was the problem. At this rate I was genuinely worried she'd go somewhere else and announce, I don't have a boyfriend, but I do have a sex partner. Wasn't this the kind of thing you were supposed to keep quiet about?

"Anyway, I have work to do, so get out."

"Aww! Let's take a break!"

"You don't want me losing to Park Woojin, do you?"

"Taking a little break doesn't mean you'd lose to Park Woojin~"

She said it like she considered Park Woojin a complete amateur.

"Okay, that's fair."

Honestly, she wasn't wrong. Me taking a break and Park Woojin beating me? That was the kind of thing that only happened on some other Earth.

"So what do you want to do?"

"Hmm? Unnie isn't here yet, and Park Woojin went out for a smoke... so how about we do something dirty?"

"What, is Park Woojin smoking for a whole hour?"

I gave her a look so dry it could have crumbled, answering the ridiculous argument she was laying out.

"That bastard barges through the door every single day without knocking. Absolutely not."

If word of workplace sex somehow got back to Nuna, even then that would be... yeah. A lot.

"Just lock the door, then?"

I watched Eunchae lock the door like it was the most obvious thing in the world, and a parade of every incident from the past two weeks flashed through my head.

...She's right. Why did I never once think to use the lock?

Nuna always knocked anyway, so I could just get up and let her in. And if I locked it, the other two wouldn't be able to keep bursting through whenever they felt like it. Nuna hadn't even put down a rule saying I wasn't allowed to lock the door.

"...Huh. Yeah. Locking the door would've solved it."

I muttered it like a man who'd just seen the light.

"Oh no... I just taught you something I really shouldn't have."

Eunchae made a little gasp. She'd apparently just realized she would no longer be able to wander in and out as she pleased.

"Anyway, no. The sound might leak out."

I was grateful she'd introduced me to civilization, but grateful was grateful and no was no.

"If you want to do it, wait until after work."

"But I want to do it in the office!"

Generally speaking, that still felt like a terrible idea, but...

"Then wait until Park Woojin clocks out. Around quitting time, Nuna will be heading into the booth to stream anyway."

Once Park Woojin left and Nuna disappeared into the soundproof booth, doing it in my room might actually be possible. Office sex... honestly, that was a fantasy everyone had, right?

"Oh! That's perfect! A little less thrilling, though. That's the only downside."

"That kind of thrill is the kind you're better off without."

A total masochist, through and through. The way her mind worked was something else. She seemed to be getting a clearer and clearer picture of her own tastes, which ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was starting to scare me a little. She wasn't going to ask me for actual SM play later, was she? Hitting someone really wasn't my thing, no matter the circumstances.

"Okay! Then later... hehe. You'd better look forward to it. I'm gonna make you lose it for real."

I already knew perfectly well ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that she'd be the one losing it several times over, whimpering the whole way — but having her tempt me like that wasn't something I disliked. If anything, I liked it.

The door clicked, then slammed shut. With Eunchae gone, I turned back to the system window I hadn't properly checked in all the chaos.

The accept prompt had appeared out of nowhere. Maybe because Charm changed your actual face and body in real time, and the system was being considerate about that?

Every other stat had jumped hard in increments of five, so hitting fifteen in Charm might change something just as dramatically. Accepting it on the spot felt a little risky. Wouldn't it? If someone had seen me a minute ago thinking, did he look a little different, or am I imagining it? and then looked again to find me unmistakably transformed, they'd think something was off.

"Hmm... better to accept it this evening."

By the time I came in tomorrow morning, I could always claim I'd done a face mask or something. I was dying to know what would change, but I decided to hold out a little.

"...God, I really want to know, though."

Would I get taller? Would my skin get better? Having my features turn more handsome overall sounded pretty good too. Fifteen wasn't going to make me drop-dead gorgeous all at once, but I couldn't help being excited anyway.

I'd pulled up a few status windows so far, and the highest Charm I'd seen belonged to Dayeon-nuna. Could I even open a status window when she wasn't here?

"Activate Lee Dayeon's status window."

Oh. That worked. Looks like once I'd seen a status window, I could just pull it up again whenever I wanted.

Nuna was on the quite-pretty side of things, which meant... you needed Charm around forty to look like that? Appearance wasn't the only thing the stat measured, but still. To take one look at someone and think she's gorgeous, she's got something — that was apparently the number you needed.

"That's steep."

Had I been expecting too much out of fifteen? Maybe accepting it now wouldn't change anything worth noticing.

"...Accept Charm Stat."

Charm Stat: fifteen. Wondering if anything had actually changed, I snuck a glance at the mirror.

"My skin looks a little better."

Eunchae had mentioned my skin this morning, so I focused on that — and the change I hadn't noticed then was obvious now.

"...Is my face glowing?"

I'd never put anything on it. I'd never taken proper care of it in my life. And yet it had gone smooth enough to catch the light, obvious even to someone who knew nothing about skin.

"Hmmm. That's... it?"

Compared to how hard the other stats had jumped, it didn't feel like that dramatic a change. But was this actually a huge deal? I'd heard people spent hundreds of dollars a month on skincare. I'd pulled off the same result without spending a single cent or setting foot in a clinic.

The surest way to confirm it would be to have Eunchae or someone else look at me. But I couldn't just walk up and ask if I looked different. That would be weird.

I was still staring into the mirror, turning that over, when a knock sounded at the door.

"Ah? Nuna? You're early. Come in!"

Dayeon-nuna must have come in ahead of schedule. The door opened.

"Dohyun, hi— wait. What? Dohyun, what did you do to your face?"

The second she stepped inside, her expression sharpened. She came right up ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to me and shoved her face in close.

I-if you do that, my heart isn't going ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to survive this, Nuna...

"Your skin is glowing."

"I-is it...? Maybe I just slept well last night...?"

"Hmm. Doesn't look like makeup."

She reached out and started playing with my cheek, and I couldn't hold the thought in anymore.

"Nuna... I think my heart's going to explode..."

"Ah—! Sorry...! I just started touching you without asking...!"

"No, touching is fine, it's just... my heart really might explode..."

The person I liked, this close, fussing over my face with both hands. Under ordinary circumstances, wasn't that what people called a green light?