Does This Work?
"That loser oppa... ah, sorry."
The words had slipped out before she could stop them. Ju Han-yeong offered an awkward smile and an apology.
Loser oppa, huh?
But Gwang-deok had heard it. He had heard exactly how Ju Han-yeong — the younger sister of that thug Ju Han-hyeok — thought of him.
And of course she would. The Gwang-deok she remembered was the year-older senior who ran every errand he was ordered to run, who took every beating without resistance, who stammered and cowered and served as nothing more than the bread shuttle.
Naturally, the moment she laid eyes on him, "loser oppa" was the first thing out of her mouth.
Ah, fuck, that pisses me off.
From Gwang-deok's perspective, the situation was utterly infuriating. Loser oppa? Ju Han-yeong, with her short black hair and cute looks, still carried the exact same impression of him from his school days — the bread shuttle, the nerd, the emotional dumping ground.
But she looks like that fucking bastard.
Being Ju Han-hyeok's sister, of course she would resemble him. For Gwang-deok, that resemblance was one more trigger that dragged the old memories back up.
"What? Loser oppa? The first thing you say after seeing me for the first time in ages is 'loser oppa'?"
"I... I didn't mean to. It just came out before I knew it."
"Before you knew it? So if I slap you across the face right here and say I didn't mean to, that makes it okay?"
Thoroughly pissed off, Gwang-deok threw her own words back at her as pure nonsense. Normally, anyone would get offended by bullshit like that being flung in their face. But to his surprise, Ju Han-yeong looked genuinely sorry — completely at a loss for what to do.
"I really didn't do it on purpose... You suddenly called out to me like you knew me, and it just slipped out."
"So if it wasn't on purpose, everything's forgiven? Then if it wasn't on purpose, you could kill someone and still get a free pass?"
Gwang-deok kept the nonsense coming. But this wasn't just him talking because he was too worked up.
Does this actually work?
He still had the memory of her swallowing even the most ridiculous garbage whole, so he was largely testing whether this ability was real. Coming here had partly been for that very purpose. Did it really work? Right now, that was the single most important question in Gwang-deok's mind — whether this was truly some kind of power granted to him, or nothing more than a delusion.
"...I'm... sorry... Oppa."
Ju Han-yeong apologized again.
Huh?
Looking at her face, she really did seem sorry.
"You... are you actually sorry?"
"...Yes."
She nodded, carefully reading his mood.
"Ha... this is annoying. Loser oppa, of all things."
When Gwang-deok sighed and muttered under his breath, Ju Han-yeong looked truly apologetic and didn't know what to do with herself.
"Fine. If you're that sorry, buy me chimaek tonight."
"What?"
"It's the weekend, and your shift ends in the evening, right? If you're sorry, treat me to chicken and beer."
Let's see if this works too.
Gwang-deok was curious how she would take the proposal.
"Um..."
"What? Don't want to?"
"It's not that... Will that be enough?"
Huh?
"What do you mean?"
"Will you... accept my apology... with just chimaek?"
Watching her carefully gauge his reaction as she asked again, Gwang-deok barely managed to suppress the grin that threatened to split his face wide open.
"I don't know if something as cheap as chimaek can soothe the emotional wounds I've suffered... but since you're the little sister of my classmate Han-hyeok, I'll let it slide."
Calling Han-hyeok a friend was disgusting in itself, but he forced the words out.
Calling that bastard a friend to her face. My tongue's doing some crazy dribbles here.
"Is that... how it is?"
"What do you mean 'is that how it is'? Want me to squeeze you for more?"
Gwang-deok furrowed his brow as he spoke.
"If that's not enough, I can buy you more..."
"......"
She answered quietly, her face full of apology. Gwang-deok shut his mouth for a moment, then held out his phone again.
"Put it in."
"What?"
"If I'm going to contact you this evening, I need your number, don't I?"
"Ah! Yes..."
Ju Han-yeong took the phone and typed in her number.
"Here."
"What time do you get off?"
"I switch shifts at seven in the evening."
"I'll send you a KakaoTalk around then."
"Yes, Oppa."
Holding his canned coffee, Gwang-deok turned and left the convenience store — then let the grin he'd been holding back erupt across his face, his cheeks trembling with triumph.
Fuck... this actually works?
After walking a few steps, he turned his head to look back at the convenience store. Through the glass door, he could still see Ju Han-yeong watching him carefully, reading his mood. She looked unmistakably apologetic.
Wow... this kind of bullshit actually works?
Straightening his head and walking into the alley, Gwang-deok still couldn't believe it. This was a situation where it wouldn't have been strange for her to call him out or get offended — yet instead, she was the one apologizing and walking on eggshells. On top of that, she had said that if chimaek wasn't enough, she could buy him more. As an apology.
Stay calm.
Gwang-deok cooled his excitement, cracked open the canned coffee, and drank as he headed home.
So no matter what kind of nonsense I spout at women, they take my words as logical truth?
He found it utterly absurd. In novels, anime, and dramas, people got cool abilities or fortuitous encounters — and all he got was the ability to talk bullshit to women. But after testing it on Ju Han-yeong, Ju Han-hyeok's little sister, he was starting to think that maybe this ability might be better than he expected.
That night.
When it was past seven in the evening.
"Should I send a KakaoTalk."
He messaged Ju Han-yeong, whose profile picture showed her with her fingers interlaced — a seriously, no, considerably irritating photo.
The "1" unread marker appeared instantly beside her name, and a chat window opened.
"She checks it right away...?"
Staring at the chat window, Gwang-deok pulled a cigarette from the pack, stuck it between his lips, and lit it with his lighter.
"Hooo..."
It was the same brand the senior soldiers in the army had forced on him while they harassed him. By now he smoked them as naturally as breathing.
Less than a minute later, the unread "1" vanished, and a reply came through.
Gwang-deok closed the chat, grabbed his phone, and stepped out of the rooftop room.
Winter was gone and the cherry blossoms were in full bloom; even at night the air was mild. He came down the stairs, cut through the alley, and headed for the main road at the intersection — and there she was, waiting in front of the convenience store.
She wore a red-ribboned knit top with a low neckline, a short skirt, and a stylish black mini handbag slung over one shoulder.
Fresh.
There was something unmistakably green and new about her — a twenty-year-old freshman just starting out. Of course, Gwang-deok had never gone to college, so he had no idea what campus life actually looked like.
"Hey."
"Ah, Oppa."
As he approached, Ju Han-yeong greeted him with an awkward smile. Still reading his mood. Still looking sorry.
"You live around here?"
"I live alone at Sewoon Villa, about fifteen minutes away."
"Ah, is that so?"
Closer than he'd expected.
"I know a chicken place. Let's go there. Their ice-slush draft beer is incredible."
"Yes, let's go there."
Gwang-deok took the lead, and Ju Han-yeong fell in behind him.
"When did you start working there?"
"This is my third time."
"Third? So since last week?"
"Yes, I started the weekend shift then."
"What's the hourly wage?"
"Ten thousand seven hundred won."
"Is that the minimum wage these days?"
"Yes — you know that, don't you, Oppa?"
"Of course... I know."
Gwang-deok had no idea what the minimum wage was. He had always been paid a daily rate with the placement fee already deducted, which meant he had never held a proper part-time job in his life.
"Still, you're working hard, huh? Deciding to take a job at all. Doesn't your family have money?"
Ju Han-hyeok's family was solidly middle-class. His mother was a middle-school teacher, and his father was a Grade-7 administrative civil servant — maybe Grade-6 by now.
"Even so... I wanted to earn at least my own pocket money."
"Pocket money..."
A flash of irritation rose in Gwang-deok. Pocket money. Some people were barely scraping by on two hundred thousand won a month in a rooftop room, and she wanted to earn "pocket money."
This is so fucking unfair.
He was still grumbling to himself when they arrived at the chicken place. Inside, a fair number of people were already seated. They took a corner table in the back, and he tapped the screen to order half garlic, half seasoned.
"You're eating too, right?"
"Yes, I'll drink as well."
He ordered two five-hundred-cc drafts of cold beer to go with it.
A short while later, pickled radish, salad, and two frosty mugs of draft beer arrived at the table. The server set down a sharing plate, tongs, and a bone dish off to one side, then withdrew.
"Thirty thousand won and we're already past it — you okay with that?"
Just the order so far had already come to over thirty-one thousand won. For Gwang-deok, who got by on instant noodles, thirty thousand was not a small amount.
"I did something wrong to you, Oppa. Spending this much is only natural."
"Good attitude."
"If it's not enough, we can order more."
"You serious?"
"Yes."
The awkward smile she wore as she said it was definitely cute — and pretty. Short black hair, a slender jawline, clear eyes, and the swell of her chest following the line of her clothes was nothing small.
"I eat a lot, you know. You said I could order more."
"Of course."
Gwang-deok picked up a piece of pickled radish with the tongs, put it in his mouth, and spoke.
"So what's with that KakaoTalk profile picture of yours?"
"What?"
"Your profile picture. The one with the interlaced fingers."
"Ah, that?"
"Do you have a boyfriend, by any chance?"
"Yes..."
Just as I thought.
Gwang-deok confirmed his own suspicion.
"How long have you been dating?"
"It's been a week now."
"A week?"
Shorter than he'd expected.
"Yes."
"Who is he?"
"A senior in the same department. He looked after me a lot during freshman orientation, and last week he confessed and we started going out."
"A senior?"
A thought flashed through Gwang-deok's mind.
"Have you done it?"
"What?"
"Have you done it."
Ju Han-yeong flustered for a moment, reading his mood, then opened her mouth.
"Ah — not yet..."
"You haven't?"
He had half expected that senior to have already slept with her, and the "not yet" genuinely surprised him.
Dating for a week and they still haven't done it? In porn and hentai they go for it right away.
Having never dated anyone himself and having learned everything he knew from porn and hentai, the idea that a guy would leave her untouched for a whole week was simply astonishing.
"You're seriously easy, huh?"
"Easy?"
"I mean, how long has the new semester even been going? A freshman already has a boyfriend? Did you come to Seoul to study, or to find a boyfriend?"
Gwang-deok clicked his tongue and scolded her.
"You're just starting out as a freshman — this is a critical time. Does it make any sense to pick up a boyfriend right now?"
"Don't a lot of people date these days? Even in middle school and high school..."
Of course, if two people clicked, age didn't matter — that was the normal way of things. But for Gwang-deok, who had lived his entire life as a virgin shut-in, it was an impossible reality.
"That's just kids with no sense getting together. The important one here is you. Is this really okay? Is getting a boyfriend at this critical stage the right call?"
He didn't miss the way Ju Han-yeong's expression turned serious.
"Forget it. Acting like that is exactly why the first thing out of your mouth when you saw me was that 'loser oppa' bullshit."
"Th-that was a real mistake! And... listening to what you said, Oppa... it does... seem a little... early..."
"Not 'a little early.' It is early."
Just then a server approached and set the half garlic, half seasoned chicken on the table. They paused until the server withdrew, then Gwang-deok continued.
"Want me to tell you a fact?"
"A fact?"
"Yeah. That senior who confessed to you? He's not dating you because he likes you."
"What... does that mean?"
"He's dating you so he can sleep with you. You look easy, and your face is decent enough, so he made a move."
"No, Senior isn't the kind of person who—"
"Got a picture?"
"A picture?"
"There's a saying that face-reading is a science. I'll take a look for you."
"Just a moment."
Ju Han-yeong pulled out her phone, opened Instagram, and showed him a photo.
"This is the senior?"
"Yes."
He's pretty good-looking.
The man in the Instagram photos was handsome enough that anyone would call him a hunk. There were surfing shots, ski-resort shots from winter — the whole feed reeked of popular, social-butterfly energy. A completely different species of man from Gwang-deok, the nerd, the virgin, the bread shuttle.
"Yep. Checks out."
"What?"
"There's a surfing photo, right? And ski-resort photos... Guys who like to party like that date easy and dump easy. He probably went through a bunch of girls before he set his sights on you."
"Senior said he doesn't mess around like that..."
"That's just what he says in front of you. What guy is going to confess to the girl he's hitting on that he's been sleeping around? He'll sleep with you, get bored, and swap you out for the next one."
"......!"
Ju Han-yeong looked stunned — her pupils visibly trembling.