Strange Numbers Appear (2)
"Ugh…"
I woke up clutching my head and looked around. Clothes scattered everywhere… no. The room was clean. Glancing down, I found the clothes I'd gone out in the night before gone, replaced by pajamas.
I drank that much and still slept this quietly…?
Clatter. Clatter.
I'd drunk so heavily that the previous night was a blank. I was sitting on the bed in a daze when a sound drifted in from the living room.
"Hmm-hmm~. Oh? Hajun, you're up?"
"Uh… yeah."
Seoyeon stood in the kitchen wearing an apron, cooking something. She must have changed me into sleepwear after I'd come home.
"Don't tell me you waited up for me instead of going home?"
"Yeah."
"Why would you do that? You knew I'd be late."
"Just…"
She mumbled, avoiding my eyes. I let it slide. Seoyeon had no friends but me—she must have been bored out of her mind.
"Stop sitting there and go wash up. Food's ready!"
"Yeah, yeah."
She marched over, shoved me toward the bathroom by the back, and left me no choice but to go. The door slammed shut behind me, and her footsteps headed back to the kitchen.
I turned to the mirror to wash my face—and froze.
"…"
The number 1 was still floating above my head. In the chaos of waking up, I'd completely forgotten about it. About what that number meant.
So why the hell am I a '1'?
I swear on everything holy—I had never had sex with a woman. I hadn't even kissed one. Looking at the word Virgin I'd seen over Dongjun, and at Kyeongho's girlfriend's name plus the label Experience Count, the meaning of the number was obvious. But no matter how hard I thought, I could not make sense of my own 1.
Ah, screw it.
Thinking any harder would only give me a headache. I forced myself to ignore the number in the mirror, turned on the water, and started washing.
Click.
After washing up, I stepped out of the bathroom and headed for the kitchen.
"Sit down already! It's ready."
"Yeah, thank— ah."
I started to answer Seoyeon and sit—then stopped cold, frozen in place.
Wait… Seoyeon's got a '1' above her head too…?
How had I forgotten? When this bizarre phenomenon first started, the very first number I'd seen floating over someone else's head had been Seoyeon's. She had the same 1 as me. Earlier I'd been too out of it to think carefully. Now the number over Seoyeon overlapped with what I'd seen on Dongjun and Kyeongho the day before, and something ugly twisted in my gut.
Seoyeon… with another guy…?
"Huh? What? Why have you been staring at me like that since yesterday?"
"…"
I was standing there blankly, staring straight at her. She smiled bashfully and asked, which snapped me out of it enough to sit down. After that, I had no idea whether I was eating with my mouth or my nose—my head was spinning.
I'd always told other people Seoyeon was just my childhood friend, that there was nothing romantic between us. But the thought of another man standing next to her made me feel filthy. I'd thought of her like family, and now the idea of some other guy at her side made me angry and sick.
No… I've got a '1' too, and I haven't done anything. There's something else going on. A '1' doesn't automatically mean you've done it. Absolutely not…
"Is something wrong? You've been weird since earlier."
"…Ah!"
I forced the food that wouldn't go down into my mouth, finished the meal, and looked up at Seoyeon's face—she was staring right through me. Then it hit me.
"Seoyeon! Your hand! Give me your hand!"
"W-what? Why—what's wrong with you! W-wait, calm down…!"
At the demand for her hand, her face went red and she started flustered. I ignored it and pulled her hand toward me. The moment I looked up at the space above her head, it felt like someone had cracked me across the skull.
Her number blurred—and a name appeared beside it. My name. Lee Hajun.
"…What?"
Someone with the same name as me? But the only Lee Hajun around Seoyeon was me. I'd grown up with her. I was sure of that. So whose name was floating above her head right now?
Then even more shocking lines stacked underneath, one after another.
Virgin
Experience Count: 63
"…"
"H-Hajun… I-I mean, I really d-do like it, but… i-it's a little early…"
Seoyeon twisted her body, still holding my hand, but none of that registered. My mind had simply checked out of this nonsense situation.
"…What the fuck is this bullshit."
Bang bang bang!
"H-Hajun! What's wrong! Huh? Come out! I don't know what happened, but I'm sorry! It's my fault!"
"…"
My mind gone, I let go of Seoyeon's hand, walked straight into the bathroom, and locked the door. I dropped onto the toilet seat, hung my head, and replayed everything I'd just seen.
What? Me? When? How? What's with sixty-three times? And virgin—what the hell does that mean?
Bang bang bang!
"H-Hajun! Just open the door! Okay? It's all my fault! Huh?"
My head was already spinning, and Seoyeon hammering on the door and shouting made it worse.
"…I'm fine. My stomach's just off for a second. It's nothing. I must've drunk too much last night."
"…Okay. Then come out soon?"
"Yeah…"
Something in her voice had gone cold, but I didn't have the bandwidth to care about that right now.
Fuck—why can't I see my own details properly!
Still not sure, I stared into the mirror, clasped my hands together, and tried every ridiculous pose I could think of. The text floating over me didn't change. Other people showed everything the second I held their hand—so why not me?
"Haa…"
Too much had hit me at once. My head swam; the room tilted. I reached out and braced myself against the mirror.
And in that instant—
"…Huh?"
The characters above my head slowly blurred, then rewrote themselves into something new.
Virgin
Experience Count: 63
"…"
I'd been grabbing both hands like some ninja character, trying every stupid hand seal imaginable, even wondering if it was my feet and touching those too—and now I felt like an idiot.
So I just had to put my hand on the mirror…
A hollow emptiness settled over me.
But… fuck…
I stared at the text floating in the glass and let out a long breath. Being a virgin with an Experience Count of sixty-three made no sense at all—but something had clearly happened between Seoyeon and me without my knowing.
Click.
"Hajun! Are you oka—!"
"Seoyeon. I'm going out for a bit."
"Huh? Huh?"
"I'll be back late. Go home first if you want."
Seoyeon had been sitting on the sofa. The second I stepped out of the bathroom she rushed over, but I deliberately ignored her, didn't even glance her way, and hurried into my room to change clothes.
"H-Hajun…!"
Bang!
I ignored her frantic calls and left the house as fast as I could. I had no idea how I was supposed to look her in the face.
Riiing—
"Yeah. What."
"Hey. Come out in front of your place."
"What the hell. Dude, I just woke up—"
"I said come out. It's urgent."
Click.
I told Dongjun only what I needed and hung up, then walked faster in case Seoyeon tried to follow.
"Ah, you bastard, in broad daylight—hey! Because of you, you little shit! Mom keeps asking who beat the hell out of me!"
"…"
Dongjun, both eyes swollen black, came slouching over to the bench where I was sitting.
"But… why do you look like that? Something happen? Why'd you turn this serious overnight?"
"Hey. Tell me everything. Straight."
"W-what, man! Ah, fuck! Fine—I'm a virgin college student, you asshole! Happy?!"
"That's not what I— haa…"
Dongjun had been yelling, but one look at my face made him drop it. He plopped down beside me.
"Okay. What is it."
"The rumors about Seoyeon. Tell me the details."
"Out of nowhere? You always said they were bullshit."
"Ah, fuck! Just talk when I tell you to talk!"
"…Something happened to you, huh."
I raked a hand through my hair and shouted. Dongjun dropped the jokes and, for a long while, told me about the old school rumors I'd always dismissed as nonsense.
"…So all of that was real?"
"Yeah, man. Seoyeon's a scary girl. But she was sweet to you, so I figured nothing would come of it and left it alone."
"…"
"Why? What happened."
"Haa… Never mind. Forget it."
After hearing everything from Dongjun, I let out a long breath and stood up.
"Hey, just… try getting along with Seoyeon. To everyone else she's a total psycho—I mean, she's weird—but with you she can't even move."
"…Crazy bastard."
I flipped Dongjun off high enough for the sky to see and started walking home.
What he'd told me still didn't feel real.
A girl who'd spoken to me—Seoyeon had stomped her in the bathroom.
A senior who'd spoken to me—she'd shaved his head with clippers.
A underclassman who'd spoken to me—she'd stripped her, taken photos, and blackmailed her.
Some guy who'd badmouthed me—she'd driven a knee straight into his crotch.
And me…
Old memories surfaced. Other girls who flinched and fled the second I tried to approach them as a friend. I'd wondered if I smelled. If I looked that scary. If I was just that unappealing. Every one of those worries had been pointless. All of it had been Seoyeon.
Apparently her parents had even come to the school over the things she'd done. So that was why her mother used to look at me and say—
Hajun… I'm sorry. Because of our Seoyeon…
Every time, I'd told her she was talking nonsense. That Seoyeon was my irreplaceable friend. That even if people spread weird rumors, I believed in her… And every time, Seoyeon's mother had only smiled at me with a sad look in her eyes.
Haa… What the hell am I supposed to do…
I still couldn't believe it—but it was certain.
All this time, the childhood friend I'd treated like family had been fucking me without me ever knowing.