The Screenshot That Revealed My Secret
The night before, after Seoyeon finished her broadcast at 10 PM and I got home, it was already past 11.
Because I felt like I had been working, I dragged my extremely tired body, washed up roughly, and lay on the bed. The moment I closed my eyes, I fell asleep.
The next morning, I woke up a bit later than usual, hurriedly prepared for school, and rushed out of the house.
At the same time, Sujin noona from the next room also came running out of her house.
"Hey, Sujin noona, hello?"
"Minho-ya, hello? Are you going to school now too?"
"Yes, I have to hurry. I was a bit late."
Sujin noona and I descended the stairs quickly, chatting. Both of us seemed to have slept in later than usual.
"Ah! Minho-ya, wait a second!"
Sujin noona, who was about to get in the car, called me back.
"Is there any time this weekend...?"
"This weekend?"
Um... I didn't have any plans to meet anyone specifically right now, so I had time?
"I think I have time this weekend."
"Then, would you like to hang out with me? There's an opportunity to buy amusement park entrance tickets cheaply thanks to company support."
"An amusement park... It's been a while since I've been there. Sure, let's go there and play."
"Really? Yay!!"
When I agreed, Sujin noona jumped in place as if to express her joy.
Was hanging out with me that much fun?
"Then, I'll decide the details and contact you! Is that okay?"
"Ah, yes. That works."
"Alright, have a good day~"
Sujin noona left with a smile on her face, waving at me before getting in the car.
To not forget about hanging out with Sujin noona this weekend, I left a memo on my phone and rushed to school.
Hoo... I was just a little late, and I almost missed the subway. If I missed it, it would have been a definite tardy. Luckily, I made it.
I relaxed and looked at webtoons on my phone while heading to school.
I arrived at school and was passing through the entrance gate leisurely when,
"Minho sunbae!"
I turned around at the sound of Hyeji calling me.
"Hello, Hyeji."
"Ah, hello, sunbae..."
Hyeji's face turned red as if she was embarrassed to talk to me, and she greeted me while looking down. Since yesterday and after meeting her last weekend, she seemed even more shy.
After meeting Hyeji, we were walking towards the engineering building, but she wasn't saying a word to me. She was always shy around me, but even yesterday, when we walked together, she would stutter and ask various things.
No, looking at Hyeji's demeanor, it wasn't that she couldn't speak, but... there was something she wanted to say but was having trouble bringing herself to say it.
She was opening her mouth slightly while looking at my face, then closing it, glancing at her phone, then back at my face, repeating.
What was there that made it hard for her to talk to me...?
There wasn't much I did when I met Hyeji. We met last weekend, watched a movie, went to a cafe and talked, ate dinner at a restaurant. It wasn't a particularly good memory, but we did eat dinner.
Yesterday, because I was worried about my promise with Seoyeon, I didn't talk much with Hyeji.
At this point, I decided to ask first.
"Hyeji-ya?"
"Yes, yes! Minho sunbae!"
"Why are you so surprised... Is there something you want to say to me?"
Hyeji's expression changed in surprise when she heard me, and she stepped back a little.
"How did you know..."
"Well, looking at the actions you're doing now, it seems like that. So, what exactly is it that you want to say to me?"
"Um... that is..."
Hyeji was embarrassed because I had read her mind, so her face flushed even more as she stammered.
"So... um, should we go somewhere else? Over there! Can we talk over there?!"
"Over there?"
Hyeji pointed behind the engineering building with her finger. What did she want to talk about over there?
It's a place where people rarely go.
Then... Is it something not good for others to hear? Is it like the stalker incident last time? Is something happening again?
With a slight uneasy feeling, I followed Hyeji to the back of the engineering building.
As soon as Hyeji arrived, she took a deep breath, pressed her finger on her phone, and held it out so I could see the screen and shouted.
"U-um, is this the senior?!"
It felt similar to when you showed me the photo of me and Hyeji taken together on the Everytime app, right? What is it...
With a slightly uneasy feeling, I carefully looked at the screen Hyeji showed me.
"Um... what is this?"
The screen Hyeji showed had a photo taken, and it was completely different from last time.
First of all, there was no face at all. It was as if the photo was taken without exposing the face on purpose, and from the neck down, a person appeared, and in the photo, there was one person estimated to be male and another estimated to be female, a total of two people.
There, the person who seemed male was touching a mouse and keyboard, looking like they were working hard on something. Why are you showing me this...
"Eh? Wait a second."
Upon closer look, it felt familiar.
"No, I can't say it felt familiar."
"This is..."
"It's me!"
The photo Hyeji was showing was a screenshot of my appearance when I appeared on Seoye'son's broadcast yesterday as a guest, taken as a snapshot.
"Huh? Why does Hyeji have this?"
"No, before that, how did Hyeji know it was me?"
@ Park Hyeji
"Is it? This is the senior, right?"
"Um... that is..."
"Ah, if you're worried that someone else might hear that the senior appeared on the internet broadcast, it's okay! I won't tell anyone!"
There's no reason to tell others that the senior appeared on the internet broadcast. The senior has a history of being stalked before, and if someone is digging into his back, he probably doesn't want to come out because it gives him the creeps.
"So... huh, yes, it's me."
"Ah, I knew it."
"Please don't tell anyone!"
Minho closed his eyes and clasped his hands together in a plea to me.
"Ah... I find this side of the senior too cute... I want to pounce on the senior right now."
"Ah, I can't do this. I am in the position of protecting the senior right now!"
"Of course! Absolutely! No matter what happens! Even if I have to die! I won't tell anyone about this."
"Then it's fortunate... but where did this photo come from? No, it came from yesterday's broadcast, so how did you know it was me?"
The photo I discovered was from a screenshot given to me by my close friend.
Unlike me, my close friend who was very interested in internet broadcasts often watched streamer broadcasts, and among them, he often bragged to me that he had been watching Seoyeon, the streamer, since the early days.
Then, yesterday, when Seoyon's broadcast said that a male guest appeared for the first time, he sent a KakaoTalk message with all sorts of excitement. Since I wasn't very interested, I just replied appropriately.
I didn't know a man would appear, and although the man's face wasn't visible, just hearing the voice made me think it was a great guy or something, so I became a little curious and decided to check the streamer broadcast for a bit.
In my heart, only Minho sunbae was there, but when I entered at that time, it was purely out of curiosity.
"It was never because I was interested in men!"
By entering the broadcast, I confirmed that the voice was indeed great, as my close friend said...
"It felt like a voice I had heard somewhere."
"No, a few seconds later, I immediately realized that the man on the broadcast was Minho sunbae."
"By voice?"
"No."
"The reason I figured it out was because of the strange mole slightly visible below the man's neck!"
"It was about 2mm in size? It was a small mole that probably wouldn't be visible at all if seen from far away, but to me, it felt like light was emanating from the mole."
"It was as if it was a sign telling me that the man on the screen was Minho sunbae."
"Thinking that way, watching the broadcast, it was exactly Minho sunbae's voice. Oh my, I didn't know sunbae would appear as a guest on the internet broadcast..."
"I was so surprised that I immediately tried to send a KakaoTalk to my close friend saying that the man who appeared there was someone I know, but I stopped right before pressing the send button."
"If I told my close friend now that sunbae is on the broadcast trying to hide personal information, it would spread everywhere, right?"
"I don't not trust my close friend, but there's a 'just in case' factor. My close friend lives in another region and won't meet Minho sunbae, so if I keep it quiet, only I would know that the person who appeared there is sunbae."
"Yes, this fact should only be known by me."
"By doing this, Minho and I have another secret. Secrets between men and women make the bond between two people even stronger, so if I continue this..."
"Ah, just imagining it is so good."
"Anyway, I explained to Hyeji the circumstances of why the man who appeared on the broadcast was sunbae. I left out the part about recognizing it from sunbae’s mole."
"The reason I didn't tell the truth was because I was worried that sunbae might not like me if I told him everything. If I just said I figured it out because the voice sounded familiar, that would be fine?"
"Um... you figured it out from the voice, I didn't expect anyone to have figured this out."
"Don't worry! I absolutely won't tell anyone!"
"If you say that, I'm grateful. I also don't like my personal information spreading on the internet. Well, my face has already been sold on the Everytime app."
"Still, I didn't want Minho sunbae's private life to spread on the internet."
"I wanted to keep it only for myself."
"Then... in exchange for keeping this a secret, can I do something for you?"
"Yes?"
"Huh? I didn't ask for that..."
"But there was no reason to refuse."
"Hehe..."