The Truth of the Rumor
Seo Joo-hwan glanced sidelong at Park Do-hee, who was practically hanging off his arm as they walked. What’s she thinking?
According to Yoo So-jeong, Park Do-hee was the one who’d been spreading baseless rumors about Jeong Ha-yeon all this time. And lately, she’d even badmouthed him. So why’s she doing this?
Why was someone like her clinging to him, asking him to walk her home? Come to think of it, she’d been the one to stir up the group chat wanting to drink together, approached him friendly-like at the bar, and now she was leaning into him with his arm practically trapped against her body. It felt too deliberate to blame on the booze.
Seo Joo-hwan checked Park Do-hee’s status window again.
Who’d have thought she had an S-rank talent. That was why he was bothering to walk her home. He couldn’t just pass up the S-rank Talent Fragment he could get from her. And she was rubbing up against him like she was tempting him first.
The problem is I can’t read her mind.
They weren’t kids anymore—they were adults. Hooking up once if the vibes were right wasn’t hard. Hell, from an LP farming perspective, a clean fling was something he welcomed. In this day and age, you didn’t have to date just because you fucked.
But the fact that she was someone who’d talked shit behind his back left a bad taste.
First, the fetishes… still ambiguous even on second look.
Park Do-hee’s fetishes were one lower-grade and one mid-grade, both tough to collect. Actually, the lower one was impossible. Lucy had explained that Homophilia was homosexuality—sexual attraction to the same sex. He’d thought Park Do-hee might be a lesbian, but Lucy said the low rank made it unlikely. Even with homosexual leanings, up to mid-grade you could still like the opposite sex, and low-grade folks often didn’t even realize their own tendencies.
Should I just lecture her or something?
She’d been like that at the pocha too—seemed to enjoy debates. On group project or presentation days, she’d argue fiercely. That tied into Homilophilia, the syndrome where you get pleasure from speeches or lectures on topics you’re into.
No helping it.
Collecting the fetishes looked tricky, and guessing her intentions from them was a stretch. With nothing better coming to mind, Seo Joo-hwan decided to use a skill he’d gotten recently.
Didn’t think I’d actually need to use this properly.
It was a new skill from the gacha after Whisper hit level 3: Ma-an.
Rank: B+
▶ Effect 1: Vision improves to 2.0 and becomes impervious to damage.
▶ Effect 2: Dynamic visual acuity rises.
▶ Effect 3: Allows sight of things normally invisible.
Despite the grandiose name Ma-an, it wasn’t anything earth-shattering. Improved vision was nice, but it felt underwhelming for the name. Effect 2 overlapped with the special ability of his boxing talent, and effect 3 was vague without details.
The one he was using now was effect 3.
Ma-an.
Muttering it inwardly brought a slight headache and eye strain as his vision expanded. He could now see things like the flow of wind, invisible to the naked eye before.
Let’s see.
Seo Joo-hwan looked at Park Do-hee again. Faint auras of color rippled around her.
Three red lines, one pink… two yellow?
With Ma-an active, looking at someone showed their emotions toward him in colors. From past tests: red for hostility, pink for affection, yellow for respect.
Pink showed up a lot with Jeong Ha-yeon and Yoo Ji-kyeong; yellow most with Jang Deok-hoon.
High hostility, but affection too? And respect on top? What a mess.
The more he knew, the less sense it made. Lost in thought, they reached her place. Park Do-hee tugged his arm.
“Oppa, you walked me home—have some coffee before you go. Or hangover soup? I’ll boil some ramen?”
Seo Joo-hwan nodded for now and followed her inside. Whatever was going on, he needed to talk it out with her.
*
Park Do-hee’s studio was pretty spacious for a one-room. Seo Joo-hwan scanned the place, spotted the bookshelf, and asked,
“Do-hee, mind if I check out your books?”
“Oh, oppa likes books, right?”
“Huh? Yeah, but how’d you know?”
Seo Joo-hwan blinked. He didn’t recall bragging about it.
Park Do-hee seemed flustered for a sec, then said,
“You said reading was a hobby on the first day of intros.”
“Oh, right. You like books too, huh? Looks like mostly novels and comics.”
“Hehe. Loved ’em since I was little. I’ll make coffee—look around. But don’t crinkle any!”
Seo Joo-hwan nodded and browsed the shelves. She wrote and loved books, so his eyes went there first.
“Oh.”
Picking one up, he let out a soft whistle. Not a bad eye after all.
Dragon x Dragon? Real roots.
One of the bibles of first-gen genre novels, famous enough to appear in textbooks.
Lots of other first-gen stuff too—most first editions! The downside: outside first-gen, it was all romance.
He didn’t mind genres but preferred fantasy, modern, and martial arts.
Then a yellow string caught his eye peeking from under the bed.
“What’s this?”
“What? Ah, w-wait! Oppa, that’s—!”
“…BL stuff?”
“Kyaaah!”
Pulling the string revealed a neat stack of books.
“GL too. TS as well…”
Seo Joo-hwan muttered, a bit shocked.
Her fetish’s homosexuality manifesting in genres?
Even some marked 19+—and this was just one bundle. Who knew what else lurked under the bed.
Park Do-hee rushed over, blocking the bed with her body. “Why’re you looking without asking!”
Her face was beet red, a mix of anger, panic, and shame.
Seo Joo-hwan scratched his eyebrow awkwardly. Everyone had hobbies they hid.
But dude-on-dude? Nah.
He didn’t like girl-on-girl either. But he couldn’t exactly say “Why this shit?”
He’d invaded her privacy—that was on him.
“Sorry, Do-hee. Just saw something sticking out.”
“……”
Park Do-hee glared, face flushed. Her lips moved like she wanted to speak, but shame won out. Pure despair, eyes welling up.
Seo Joo-hwan had to soothe her.
“D-Do-hee? I won’t tell anyone.”
“…Really?”
“Yeah. Hey, I’m not the type to blab. It’s your taste—what’s the big deal? Just don’t force it on others.”
He didn’t wanna judge tastes. Hell, he’d written nonstop-fuck fests himself—years ago, sure.
BL, GL, TS—enjoy quietly solo, no issue.
But Park Do-hee fidgeted like she was guilty.
“I-I didn’t… ugh.”
“…You pushed it on someone?”
“N-No pushing! Just recommended… but they bullied me for weird tastes…”
She trailed off, sniffling on the verge of tears!
Seo Joo-hwan patted her shoulders frantically. “Y-You can recommend! They’re the assholes. Don’t like it, don’t read it. Right?”
But inwardly: No shit it’s gross. Keep that crap private.
Minorities were minor for a reason. He’d never admit to reading or writing porn anywhere.
Even close friends might not get it.
“Hic…”
“D-Don’t cry, Do-hee! I won’t tell, promise! Trust me!”
“Waaah…”
He was supposed to grill her on the backtalk, but crying was cheating! Seo Joo-hwan hugged and patted her, nearly losing it.
I didn’t make her cry, but this sudden waterworks? No thanks.