Chapter 58: A Weakness Discovered
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 58: A Weakness Discovered
"...Huh?"
What did she just say?
Even though I'd understood her perfectly, I stared at Minji blankly and asked her to say it again.
"Come here."
Without another word, Minji pulled me by the arm and sat me down, whispering so no one else could hear.
"Seriously, has Taemin Oppa done anything weird to you or tried to hurt you?"
...Does him saying he wanted to lick the soles of my feet count?
But I figured there was no way they could know about that.
"I don't think so...?"
"Really...? Because a rumor is going around our department that you're a stalking victim."
Me? By my boyfriend?
Since we'd agreed to hold off on going public with our relationship, I couldn't just reveal the truth.
"But what on earth are they basing that on?"
"I didn't see it myself, but I heard Taemin Oppa cornered you in front of the media hall after your advertisement strategy class yesterday."
Even though it had only happened yesterday afternoon, it felt like a lifetime ago. It was because so much had happened since then: getting cornered, misunderstanding the whole situation, crying, streaming while I was a mess, and even going back to his place.
"Oh, right… But is that the only reason?"
Seems like a bit of an overreaction.
Of course, I knew Taemin Oppa was the type to get caught up in rumors easily, but I still thought this was too much of a fuss to make over just that.
"You might not know this, but did you know Taemin Oppa has been asking around for you all week?"
"...He did?"
"Yeah! I heard he was asking everyone 'Where's Kim Doah?' right after your classes ended."
Knowing the real reason, I started to feel more and more sorry for him.
This is all because I was avoiding him, isn't it?
"Really?"
"Mhm. The group chat was blowing up with talk about you and Taemin Oppa."
"Oh, geez..."
My head was starting to hurt.
I looked back to see where he was sitting, but I couldn't find him. He must have gone to the restroom.
"Thanks for telling me, Minji."
She was only telling me because she was worried, after all.
"No, no, don't mention it. So... are things okay between you and Taemin Oppa?"
"Ah, yeah. It's not what you think, so you really don't have to worry."
"Really? Then... don't tell me..."
A playful smile spread across Minji's lips.
It was a look I knew all too well. It was the exact expression on the smug Pink Army emotes.
"Are you two dating?"
"...I'll tell you later."
I took out my phone and sent a text to my boyfriend.
The engineering building, a world away from our department's building.
Doah handed me a low-fat vanilla milk.
"Here."
"Thanks."
I tore the wrapper off the straw, poked it into the carton, and took a long sip, my frustration fueling the pull.
"Haaah..."
Seriously, these people. Why are they so obsessed with what everyone else is doing?
Just hearing about the stalker rumor Doah had texted me about was already giving me a headache.
"...There shouldn't be anyone around here, right?"
"Well, if we go any farther, we'll have to leave campus, and that's a pain."
It was true we still had another class in the afternoon.
"Still, you never know."
"Honestly, is it any safer off campus? It's still crawling with students from our school."
She had a point. I nodded.
"So, everyone thinks I'm stalking you?"
"Yep."
"And that's because I grabbed you yesterday."
"That, and... did you go around asking where I was?"
What? That spread around, too? Who starts a rumor about something like that? Unbelievable. Just unbelievable.
"...That's because you kept disappearing."
It was the truth, after all.
"...I guess so."
Hearing my answer, Doah subtly turned her head away. She seemed embarrassed, and as always, her ears gave it away. They were red, like an undercooked rare steak.
"What did you tell Minji?"
"That it's not like that."
"And that's it?"
"You said you didn't want people to know we were dating."
It seemed Doah wanted to respect my wishes, so she hadn't dropped a bomb to put out the fire.
"But I think we might have to tell them."
"Do we have to?"
"They're obviously going to ask why you grabbed me that day. And to explain that, I'd have to explain why I was running away from you."
I considered explaining myself, but I quickly realized that wouldn't be a smart move. People don't tend to listen to the accused, after all. A single word from Doah would be more effective than a hundred from me.
"It'd be weird for me to say, 'I was running away because he found out I'm a VTuber'..."
Right. That was out of the question. I'd rather be branded a stalker.
"So you really hate the idea of going public?"
"Honestly, I'm not thrilled about it, but..."
Being known as a stalker, or revealing that Doah is Luka to clear my name... compared to those options, just announcing we were a couple seemed like the better choice.
"I guess we don't have a choice."
As I let out a resigned chuckle, Doah gently tapped my fingers.
"Does this mean we can do this now?"
"Yeah. Like you said, it's not like we could've kept it a secret forever anyway."
I caught her playful index finger.
"So how are we going to announce it?"
I mean, it's not like we could declare '[Han Taemin ♥ Kim Doah, we're official as of today! ♥]' in the department group chat.
"Hmm..."
Doah took a sip of her milk and tapped her feet.
"I could just tell my friends, couldn't I?"
"Friends like Minji?"
"Minji, and the other girls in the department I'm close with."
"Do you guys just randomly announce you're dating someone?"
Do girls really bring that stuff up without any context?
"...They'll love it."
Women were truly incomprehensible creatures.
"Don't you have anyone to tell, Oppa?"
"Me? I..."
Since I wasn't exactly a model student, I didn't have any friends I was close enough with to just drop news like that on.
"Yoonje, I guess?"
"Seo Yoonje Oppa?"
"Yeah."
"I've been curious about this for a while."
Doah looked up at me with bright, curious eyes.
"How on earth are you and Yoonje Oppa friends?"
"Is it that weird?"
"Extremely."
I admit, I've never thought Yoonje and I were particularly compatible.
"It's not that we clicked; there's a story behind it."
A memory from three years ago, from before I even enlisted in the military.
"Can you tell me?"
"It's kind of embarrassing."
The moment I said it was embarrassing, her eyes narrowed slyly.
"Oppa."
"Yeah?"
"When it comes to embarrassing things, you've got nothing on me, do you?"
"Why?"
"You've seen all my Aegyo clips, haven't you?"
Hey. We're talking about real life here. Must you bring up your life as a cyber ghost?
What I saw was Luka's Aegyo, not Doah's.
"Ah. That's different."
"How is it different! I'm the one who's embarrassed!"
Her cute little fists pounded against my arm.
"Do you know how much I wanted to die yesterday, just thinking about you having seen all of that?"
Why would she want to die? It was incredibly cute.
"Anyway. Hurry up and tell me."
"Alright, so it was back when I was a freshman."
I dredged up the memory, now a little faded with time.
"You know how they have all those welcoming parties for freshmen at the beginning of the semester."
"Yeah."
"I was curious about college life, so I went to a few."
"But on that particular day, there was this real asshole of a senior at my table."
"He was forcing everyone to drink. Basically gaslighting us, saying we wouldn't survive college if we didn't."
"Being a clueless freshman, I just kept drinking. I didn't even know my own limit back then."
And that's where the tragedy began.
"I got drunk. So drunk I can barely remember anything, but from what I heard..."
Ah. Should I really be telling my girlfriend this?
"From what you heard...?"
Doah scooted closer, looking like she'd eat me alive if I didn't finish the story.
I gave an awkward laugh, lowered my head, and confessed the truth.
"Apparently, I went from table to table, acting all cute and clingy, before running outside and puking my guts out..."
I've barely touched alcohol since then.
"Yoonje was the one who cleaned up my puke and let me crash at his place after I passed out."
I thought it was no easy feat to show that kind of consideration for someone you weren't even close to. At least, it would have been impossible for me.
"So after that, I felt indebted to him, and we got closer. That's how we ended up like this."
Honestly, if it had been anyone else, I wouldn't have put up with their nagging about going to clubs, not even if they'd asked 500 times.
"...I see."
Doah was silent for a moment, then she started glancing at me.
"...Did he happen to mention what kind of Aegyo it was?"
"He just said I was lucky I didn't remember."
Doah's eyes sparkled like one of Luka's avatar effects.