Chapter 97: Lack of Brain Cells
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 97: Lack of Brain Cells
I'd never been on a blind date, but I imagined this is what it would feel like.
Breathe.
It was hard to breathe.
The couple sitting across from us kept bursting into laughter, though I couldn't tell what was so funny.
“Oh, honey! We can’t just keep to ourselves.”
Fumurin casually wiped some cocoa from her boyfriend's lips.
A natural movement, as if it were a habit.
For Doah and me, it wasn't such a common sight.
“Ah, right! My introduction is a bit late! Haeng-nim!”
I'm not your older brother, so why do you keep calling me that?
I had a low tolerance for such over-the-top friendliness and found it hard to get used to his title for me.
“I'm Gahee's boyfriend, Changjin!”
“Ah. Yes. Changjin-ssi.”
“Aah~ I'm younger, so please be casual with me!”
The words, “What should I call you if I'm uncomfortable?” rose to my throat, but I couldn't bring myself to be rude to someone with such a smiling face.
“Uh... okay...”
“But Unnie! Isn't your boyfriend super handsome?”
Unlike Luka, Fumurin's real-life appearance was so in sync with her avatar that you could recognize her immediately.
So her admiration wasn't just forced enthusiasm.
“He totally looks like a celebrity—who was it? That one idol?”
“Hey, what are you talking about? Haeng-nim looks like that actor.”
Eventually, the two of them launched into a heated debate about who I resembled.
I just wished they would stop.
“Oh. Oppa was pretty popular at school.”
Doah, seemingly overwhelmed by their sheer social energy, agreed with Fumurin in a fading voice.
“Wow! I was wondering how handsome he had to be for you to look for him during a stream, and now I see why!”
When the controversy from the virtual world was brought up in real life, Doah looked as if she'd been punched in the gut.
Like a cartoon character's eyes spinning around, Doah's gaze lost its focus.
“I told you, that was my dad...”
“Why are you hiding things from me! Unnie! This isn't just business between us!”
Every time she moved her mouth, her piercing moved too.
It looked painful, no matter how I looked at it.
What on earth was she thinking when she got that?
I was curious, but I didn't have the courage to ask.
“Wow. By the way, Oppa, did you know that Doah unnie was Luka?”
It was a secret that couldn't be told to just anyone, but this was an exception.
After all, the person asking was none other than a member of CLOSER.
I glanced at Doah as if to ask if it was okay for me to answer, but she spoke up instead.
“I told him later.”
“Whoa. Then you must have been totally shocked, Oppa!”
If that was what Doah wanted to say, I figured I should play along.
“Ah, well. I was surprised at first.”
“Did you even know that things like VTubers existed?”
“More or less.”
Revealing that I was a hardcore otaku didn't seem like it would help the situation.
“Hey! Guys like Haeng-nim don't watch that kind of stuff!”
Changjin chided Murin as if to ask why she'd ask such a question, but I was the one who felt small.
That's not true...
I watch it fucking religiously...
People really live with strange preconceptions.
In the end, tastes are diverse, regardless of how someone looks.
“Oh my gosh! Unnie! We're going to be late!”
“What time is it?”
“1:40!”
Our reservation at the Escape Room Cafe was for two o'clock.
We still had quite a bit of coffee left, but we left it behind and headed out.
“Honey! I'm so excited! Aren't you?”
Her tone of voice seemed even more flirtatious than when she was streaming.
If Doah had been that type, I feel like I would've been too drained to handle it.
No, that's not right.
In fact, if she were that type, I doubt we would have ever started dating in the first place.
Seeing the two of them like that, Doah must have felt something, because she gripped the hem of my shirt tightly.
“...Hm?”
“W-we.”
A flushed red face.
An unfinished word.
I waited quietly, as if encouraging her to continue, and Doah stammered out the rest of the sentence.
“W-we should go too. Honey.”
...Honey?
It was an unfamiliar expression.
After all, she usually called me ‘Oppa’.
I blinked, looking at her as if to ask what had gotten into her, and she gave my shin a light kick.
“Ah. Right. Let's go.”
I wondered why she'd kicked me, but I couldn't find a clear answer.
Did she want me to call her ‘honey’ too?
No. But why was she doing something so out of character?
Maybe my belief that I understood Doah pretty well was just my own delusion.
We crossed the main street and entered an alley.
A commercial building that didn't look very old.
After climbing a narrow staircase to the third floor, we reached the Escape Room Cafe where we had our reservation.
“Aah~ Welcome~”
An employee greeted us with the same tone as a game show host on TV.
“Yes! Please put your belongings here, and when you're ready, just call me over!”
“Honey! What if we finish too quickly!”
“I know, right? Gahee is so smart, that might just happen.”
Whoa... Is that how normal couples talk?
The more I listened, the more my head spun.
Doah's jaw was hanging open.
Looks like you're in shock, too.
“Alright! If you're ready, please close your eyes and follow me inside!”
We closed our eyes and held the shoulders of the person in front of us.
I held Doah's. Doah held Fumurin's.
Waddling behind the employee in a formation like a childhood game of 'train,' we opened our eyes to find ourselves in a dimly lit room.
“Your time limit is one hour! If you're solving a puzzle and find it too difficult, or you're completely stumped, please use this smartphone to check for hints!”
Since it was the first time for all four of us, we listened to his words with intense focus.
“Well then, I'll be cheering for you to find the hidden name! Fighting!”
As the employee left, a red timer appeared on a screen above us.
The room we were locked in had the atmosphere of a shabby house from a foreign film rather than a Korean one.
The floor was covered in wooden tiles that seemed to have been intentionally broken, and the lamp was also quite exotic.
“Uh... so what should we do?”
He said all the clues were in this room.
“Let's just grab everything that looks suspicious for now.”
Standing around and thinking wasn't going to solve anything.
“Got it!”
“Okay!”
At my command, we split up and began to rummage through the room.
I took charge of the chest of drawers and the inside of the closet.
My first target was the chest of drawers. One drawer opened, but the other didn't.
In the top drawer, I found a palm-sized postcard.
I don't know who burned it, but the full text was illegible.
Only a few sentences and some words remained.
After placing the postcard on the table, I moved to the closet and started taking out everything I could get my hands on.
A stopped clock.
A box that looked suspicious no matter how you looked at it.
An old teddy bear with one eye missing.
How could every single item be so incredibly suspicious?
After gathering all the plausible-looking items, we regrouped and began to brainstorm in earnest.
“Where should we start?”
At Doah's question, I carefully examined the items on the table.
“Shouldn't we start with the postcard, since it has actual words on it?”
I picked up the damaged postcard I'd found and read the message written on it.
“It was a wonderful July. The tail end of summer. I do not regret visiting that island with you. Did you receive the gift? I hope it is to your...”
That was the last complete sentence.
The rest was damaged, with only parts visible.
“Sad the cat died.”
“The box is em...”
“Dea...”
I had no idea what we were supposed to do with this, but surely if we put our heads together...
“What do you think, honey?”
“Well, I think the fact that it says 'July' is a huge hint, you know?”
Fumurin replied to her boyfriend like a detective.
“I brought a calendar, so let's check it, okay?”
The notebook-sized calendar had sparse memos written on it for each month.
“July... since it's July...”
She flipped the pages to July.
There were two main events written down, presumably part of a schedule.
[7/12 - 7/13 Fencing Competition]
[7/20 ☆]
“What could the star mean?”
At Fumurin's words, her boyfriend clapped his hands as if he'd just realized something.
“I've got it! Honey! This is it!”
He immediately rummaged through a dictionary that was on the bookshelf and showed us the page with the entry for 'star'.
“This must be related to the English word 'star'!”
A question mark appeared in my mind.
Are they really approaching this so one-dimensionally?
“You're right! That's it!”
Fumurin nodded her head vigorously.
The two of them huddled close together and started talking all about stars and constellations.
No matter how I thought about it, that didn't seem right.
Doah sidled up next to me, tapped my shoulder, and gestured for me to lend her my ear.
I bent my upper body slightly to match her height.
When I heard the words she whispered in my ear, I nearly died trying to hold back my laughter.
“Their lack of brain cells is just tragic.”
Ah, Kim Luka.
Don't make me laugh.
Hearing my girlfriend's unfiltered inner thoughts, I keenly felt that this was what true bonding felt like.