Strange Numbers Appear
It was an ordinary evening, no different from any other.
"Uuungh…!"
Having slept in for the first time in a long while, I stretched and climbed out of bed, heading for the bathroom. Still half-asleep, I forced my stubborn eyes open, finished washing my face, and looked into the mirror.
"………?"
Floating above my half-lidded, vacant reflection was the number 1, bobbing gently in the air.
—Smack!
Thinking I must still be half-asleep, I gave my cheek a light slap. The number did not disappear.
"………."
I reached up to touch it, but my hand passed straight through. The 1 hovering over my head remained untouchable.
—Whoosh. Whoosh.
I shook my head left and right. The number floating above me followed every movement.
"………What the hell is this?"
"…………."
I came out of the bathroom, sat on the bed, and stared at the number floating above my head through a hand mirror. No matter how hard I thought about it, I had no idea what it was. One morning I simply woke up with a strange number hovering over my head. As I sat there, staring blankly into the mirror at a situation that refused to make any sense, I heard the beeps of the door lock being entered.
—Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.
"Hajun, I'm here!"
"Oh, you ca——"
The words died in my throat the moment Seoyeon walked in, punching in the house code as casually as she always did.
"…………."
Above her head, too, the number 1 was floating in the air.
"Hm? What? Is there something on my face?"
"…………."
Even as she took the hand mirror from my grip and asked, I couldn't manage a single reply.
……So what the hell is this thing supposed to be?!
"I'm heading out."
"Okay……."
Still sitting there in a daze, I suddenly remembered I had plans that day. I got up, pulled on my clothes, and told Seoyeon I had to go. After that I had to soothe a thoroughly sulking Seoyeon before I could finally make it out the door.
To anyone watching, we might have looked like a newlywed couple — but it was nothing of the sort. Seoyeon and I were childhood friends whose parents had been close; we'd known each other for so long I couldn't even remember when it started. She simply had no other friends, so I was her only one, and she would show up at my place unannounced like this whenever the mood struck her.
Anyway — I'd expected as much, but I still had no idea what any of this meant. Seoyeon had a 1 floating above her head just like me, so I'd figured I'd see them on other people too. But as I walked toward the meeting place and every single person I passed had a different number hovering over them, I was starting to lose my mind.
That woman has an 11. That middle-aged guy has a 3…
I was still turning over what the numbers could possibly mean when I arrived at the meeting spot.
—Jingle-jingle.
"So I'm saying that crazy—— oh, hey! Over here!"
I stepped into a pub and headed for the table where Dongjun was waving me over.
"Why are you so late?"
"Stuff came up…… You've got a 0."
"What are you even talking about all of a sudden?"
"Stuff came up… Ah, Kyeongho. Long time no see."
"Hey."
The three of us — friends since middle school — had gotten together for drinks to celebrate Kyeongho's discharge from the military. That said…
Dongjun's a 0… and Kyeongho's a 1.
I studied the numbers floating over other people's heads, but I was no closer to understanding them.
"Hey, hey. You show up late, you drink this first."
"Yeah, ye—— this is not okay, you lunatic!"
"Shut up! Who said a late bastard gets to weasel out? Whose fault is it you were late?"
"Ugh… Fine. I'll drink it. I'll drink it……."
My head was already splitting from the surreal situation I'd woken up to, and now he was shoving a penalty drink at me for being late. I nearly snapped.
Is this something a human drinks, or a hippopotamus…?
I let out a long sigh, took the glass Dongjun held out, and looked at him — and the number above his head went faintly blurry.
"Huh?"
"Yeah, nice try. Drink it already."
In a split second the number snapped back to 0. I stared in shock as Dongjun grabbed the hand holding the glass and forced it toward my mouth.
—Glug-glug-glug-glug.
"Hey! Hey! You're supposed to drink it! Ah, this bastard's spitting it all out."
"…………."
The instant Dongjun's hand closed over mine, the number went hazy again and different text rose into view. My mind blanked completely, and the alcohol pouring into my mouth simply ran back out.
Virgin
"What the……."
"…………."
"Okay, seriously. What's been wrong with this guy?"
"Right? You got something going on?"
From the moment Dongjun's hand closed over mine and I saw the text that rose above his head, my mind had half checked out.
So that means…… this number…… if I touch……
"Hey, Kyeongho!"
"Y-yeah?"
"Your hand! Give me your hand!"
"What the hell are you—— hey! Hey! Are you insane?!"
I seized the recoiling Kyeongho's hand in a rough grip and stared hard at the number floating above his head.
Experience Count 26
Jeong Su-a
Beneath the number 1, the words Experience Count 26 appeared. Beside the 1, the name Jeong Su-a floated into view.
"……Hey, Kyeongho. What was your girlfriend's name again?"
"Let go of my hand already! Fuck! I just got out of the military and I haven't even held Su-a's hand yet, and the first hand I hold is a guy's!"
"So…… your girlfriend's name is Jeong Su-a, right…?"
"Yes, you crazy bastard! Why! What the hell has been wrong with this guy since earlier?!"
"…………."
Only then did I release Kyeongho's hand and sink back into my chair. The moment I heard his answer, I understood the strange phenomenon.
The numbers floating above people's heads were the number of sexual partners they'd had so far. And when you held their hand, the details came out — how many times they'd had sex, and with whom.
……Wait. Hold on. Why do I have a 1?
In the twenty-three years of my life — long or short, depending on how you looked at it — I had never had sex with a woman. I hadn't even kissed one. It made no sense. So why was there a 1 above my head?
I wanted to know the details of my own number too, but I had no idea how. Was I supposed to clasp my own hands together the way I grabbed other people's?
"Hey, while we're on the subject. You ever gonna get a girlfriend?"
"……Huh? Out of nowhere?"
"Come on. You've got money. Your face isn't bad. You…… got something wrong down there or what?"
For a second I didn't know what Dongjun was talking about — then I saw him glancing meaningfully at my crotch with a smirk. I cracked him across the back of the head.
—Thwack!
"Ow! You asshole!"
"How dare you fail to recognize this elder brother's flaming bat, you little—!"
"Hey, hey. It's not that he doesn't want to date. He's got that Seoyeon glued to his side. Who's he supposed to meet?"
"Ah, that again. Look, that's all baseless rumors. We graduated high school ages ago. Drop it already."
I answered Kyeongho with a straight face.
"Ugh……."
"Haa……."
Kyeongho and Dongjun both sighed at once.
It had been that way since elementary school. Seoyeon had always been bullied. She was so pretty and so kind that nasty rumors clung to her like a permanent tag. Once we hit high school, it only got worse. Face, body — everything about her outclassed everyone else by a mile, and the rumors started crossing every line.
— Hey, I heard Yu Seoyeon shaved that third-year unnie's head completely bald?
— What? For real? Come to think of it, that unnie hasn't been coming to school lately…
— Yu Seoyeon completely wrecked some girl's face just for talking to Hajun.
— Wow, what a psycho bitch…….
Stories about her carving up someone's face. Stories about her taking electric clippers to some senior's entire head. Because of rumors like that, she ended up in counseling with teachers more and more often, and she grew darker by the day. I protected her even harder and tore into anyone spreading the lies.
"Hey, those weren't just rumors, you know……."
"Hey, hey. Drop it. Like he's gonna believe you."
"True. A dense, clueless bastard like this — what's he know about girls?"
As I listened to Dongjun and Kyeongho, old days flashed through my mind.
But this bastard Dongjun……
—Thwack!
"Ow! What the fuck! Why'd you hit me?!"
"You son of a bitch! You're a virgin, you fucker! All this time you've been bragging and acting like you've got tons of experience with girls?!"
"What? Oof! Hey! What the hell are you—— aaaagh!"
"Die! Die, you fucker! How dare a fellow virgin bastard lie to my face!"
I cracked Dongjun across the back of the head, knocked him flat on the floor, and started stomping him. Every day he'd spent mocking me, pretending he had all this experience with women, came flooding back.
— Hey, this hyung right here. The girls I've met alone would fill a truck.
— Girls go crazy for this kind of thing, you know? Ugh, what's a virgin like you gonna understand.
— Hey, hey. Girls don't go for guys with your style. You get that?
That night, an ambulance pulled up to a certain pub and loaded a patient who was barely still breathing.
"Die! Die! You fucking never-dated virgin bastard, die!"
"How the fuck did you even kno—— ghk-aaaargh!"