Chapter 18
Chapter 18
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 18
Chapter Title: A Glimpse into the Heavenly Realm
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I threw away the cumbersome laptop box.
I didn't have many belongings to begin with.
I tossed out all my bedding, packed just my clothes and the laptop into a suitcase, and left the studio apartment.
"Does it hurt? Can you walk?"
"It hurts, but I can bear it."
"I'm going to want to do it the moment we get to your place. Think you can handle it?"
"If you're gentle..."
I recalled how her pussy had been swollen like a bee sting.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [Libido S: Loves sex so madly that it interferes with daily life.] Perhaps this was what S-rank Libido meant.
Is that why she'd taken me, even when she was so swollen she passed out?
Still, moving in together before we're even dating.
Though, it's not like I have anywhere else to go.
That spacious apartment in Samsung-dong?
That apartment, gifted by a woman named Yoon Jae-kyung whose face I don't even know, just doesn't feel like it's mine.
"To celebrate you coming to my place, Oppa, there's something I want to give you."
"I feel like I should be the one getting you a gift."
"No, I should be the one. It was my dream to live with you, even for just a single day."
I could cry...
Being handsome is really the best. It doesn't matter how well you study; it's all useless.
"Let's go."
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ An S-brand camera store.
Ting-a-ling.
As the bell rang, a male employee who was wiping the counter greeted them loudly.
"Welco—me."
The employee fumbled his words.
The couple who walked in were unbelievably good-looking.
An incredibly gorgeous couple who, no matter how you looked at them, could only be celebrities.
In all his time working at this store, he'd never seen such beauty, and likely never would again.
'What? Are they filming something?'
He quickly glanced outside, but there was no film crew in sight.
"H-ha. Please let me know if you need anything."
"Thank you."
And the woman's voice was so lovely.
Lacking the courage to say more, the employee retreated as if fleeing.
The woman's looks were insane, but strangely, his eyes were drawn more to the man.
It wasn't because he was gay.
'Wow, if only I could look like that for just one day.'
Thump, thump.
Maybe it was because the man was so handsome.
The desire to date such a beautiful woman was overshadowed...
...by the more desperate wish to look like him.
After all, if you had those looks, wouldn't a beautiful woman like that naturally follow?
Isn't that a total win?
"Ah, here it is. This one."
"This is a vlogging camera, isn't it? Don't tell me you want me to become a streamer or something."
"No. It's just a hassle to film what we do with a phone or a laptop webcam."
"Is it? I don't really mind."
"We're not just going to film once or twice. If we're going to keep doing it, it's better to get the right equipment from the start.
This one is for vlogging, so it's light and easy to carry around, and convenient to pull out and start filming right away.
It has a built-in stand, so it'll be really easy to set it on the floor or hold it in your hand."
The employee nodded to himself.
So they're buying a camera to film their couple videos.
"Oppa, could it be... you don't want to film us doing it anymore?"
The employee thought.
What on earth are they filming that the atmosphere is so suggestive?
'Crap, I'm letting my imagination run wild. They must just be talking about couple dating videos.'
"Of course I want to keep filming. Every single thing we do together is a memory, and honestly, I want to record it all on video."
"Oh, that's a relief. I was worried you'd already gotten tired of it."
"Why would I get tired? You're so delicious."
The gorgeous couple spoke in quiet whispers, but the employee, who had his ears wide open, heard them clearly.
'Doing it with you? Delicious? Video? What? What on earth are they doing?'
"Besides, Oppa, you last for a really long time."
"It's because you're so beautiful that I last long."
"If you connect this to an adapter, you can film without battery limits until the memory card is full, you know?
With a 512GB SD card, you can record continuously in 4K for about 12 hours."
"But it's expensive."
"I have a lot saved up. I just got paid last week, so I have plenty. Please let me get this for you."
"Ugh... A man has his pride, but since it's the first gift I'm receiving from you, I'll accept it gratefully."
"Hehe, what we do is going to look so pretty on camera."
The employee's head was spinning.
What are they doing?
What are they trying to film?
They're preparing for a couple's YouTube channel or something, right?
"You must know a lot about this stuff since you work in video editing."
Video editing!
Yes! They *are* preparing a couple's YouTube channel!
"Oppa, in that case... since it's the first time filming with a camera, should we buy some sexy lingerie too?"
The employee clutched his head and cried out internally.
Sexy lingerie shouldn't be part of this! Now my imagination is veering off into weird territory again!
"No. I like it better when you're completely naked. Let's try the lingerie later."
"Okay, then... I like it better when we're both naked, too."
They whispered quietly, just for each other to hear.
For the first time, the employee resented his parents for giving him such exceptionally good hearing.
"Let's get two, not one. I'll buy one of them."
"Oh, are you going to film from multiple angles?"
"That, and... it would be a shame to go through all that effort only to find out the recording failed. It's probably best to have two running every time we do it."
"Aha, so one will be a backup. You're a genius, Oppa."
The chattering, gorgeous couple picked up two lightweight vlogging cameras and came over.
The man looked around, checking if there was anything else worth seeing.
The woman, grinning from ear to ear, kept her eyes fixed only on the man's face.
The employee had an epiphany.
He now knew the expression a woman makes when she's head over heels for a man.
And he realized that, outside of dramas, he had never seen such an expression on anyone around him.
The cruel realization gave birth to a profound sense of emptiness.
The employee, as if having reached enlightenment, became serene and accepted the card the woman held out.
"Please charge both to this."
"Ah, I was going to buy one—"
"Aww, please let me get them for you today. Please? Huh?"
"...Alright. I'll be sure to get you something amazing later—"
"Just having you stay at my place is a huge gift for me, Oppa."
Grind!
Breaking through his serenity, the sound of his own teeth grinding filled his mouth.
'Fuck, so if you look like that, women will spend their own money to buy you cameras, beg to live with you, and ask to film sex tapes.'
The employee had just witnessed a cruel facet of the heavenly realm, one hidden from the mortal world by clouds.
After the couple left, the employee's legs gave out, and he collapsed into a chair.
"Fuck, with a face like that, he should have been a celebrity. Why the hell did he have to come to my store?"
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ "It's pretty shabby, isn't it? I'm embarrassed."
It was a newly built officetel, so it was clean.
But the cramped feeling from the spatial limitations of a 1.5-room layout was unavoidable.
Still, every nook and cranny was neatly organized.
The state of cleanliness proudly displayed Jung Hye-na's usual living habits.
"This is the living room, and this is the bedroom. The bedroom is really just for sleeping."
True to her word, the bedroom was tiny.
A single bed took up most of the space.
There was barely 50cm of space between the bed and the built-in closet.
Compared to Lee Chang-woo's Samsung-dong apartment, it was practically a thatched-roof cottage.
But the place I lived in before I was possessed was pretty much like this.
More importantly, even if it's on the outskirts, it's still Gangnam.
"A place like this in Gangnam must be expensive. How did you afford the deposit?"
"I saved about 40 million won while I was an idol, and my family helped with the rest."
"You saved 40 million? That's amazing."
I heard that idols from small agencies often leave with company debt even after their seven-year contract is up.
"If you saved 40 million on your own, your group must have been pretty decent for a small agency. It's a shame you disbanded."
"If we hadn't disbanded, I wouldn't be able to live with you like this, Oppa. So I think it was a good thing."
S-rank Libido and SS-rank Favorability... really something else...
"It's small, but you can use the bed, Oppa. I'll sleep in the living room."
"Hmm? We're not sleeping together?"
"What?"
Jung Hye-na blinked.
Ah, did I get ahead of myself? Just because we're living together, did I, a former dickless virgin, just assume we'd be sleeping in the same bed?
"You want to sleep with me? But Oppa, you hate sleeping next to someone."
"Well, that's true for most people."
I wouldn't know.
I've never slept with anyone before.
"But I think I'd like sleeping with you. Let's just sleep together."
"But the bed is too small."
"Then let's lay out a futon in the living room and sleep together there instead of the bed. We'll do that, right?"
I looked straight into her eyes and asked in a whisper.
Knowing what her answer would be.
Being able to picture what would happen next.
This is one of the countless dopamine hits that a handsome face allows.
"Let's do that, then... Let's sleep together..."
Kuh, this is the stuff.
You have to die and be reborn to know a feeling like this.
Dopamine exploded in my head.
Maybe all the handsome men in the world have actually died and been reborn once.
And maybe they all know it, sharing a silent understanding while pretending they don't?
We went out and bought a two-person sheet and blanket.
I didn't have any clothes to wear around the house, so I also bought three cheap tracksuits.
Saying it was to commemorate me moving in, Jung Hye-na paid for everything.
She seemed so happy to do things for me, to spend money on me.
I remembered something a good-looking guy from my university days once said.
'Women spend money too. If a guy's handsome, she'll be the first to pull out her card.'
Back then, I had stupidly retorted.
'Wouldn't women like it even more if a handsome guy also spent a lot of money?'
'You don't get it. When a guy is handsome, women will do whatever it takes to keep his money in his pocket and spend their own. You'll never understand, not even if you die.'
He was right.
Now that I've died and come back to life, I'm finally experiencing just how true those words were.
Anyway, the thick stack of 50,000 won bills that Lee Chang-woo had stuffed in his wallet was almost gone.
Buying the laptop was a huge expense.
I fiddled with the single credit card in my wallet.
[Yoon Jae Kyeong]
Yoon Jae-kyung...
The card of the 26-year-old woman who gave me an 8.5 billion won apartment.
Lee Chang-woo must have used this to swipe lavishly for his living expenses.
But for me, who was trying to distance myself from Lee Chang-woo's past as much as possible, it was a card I shouldn't use.
Then again, throwing it away felt... unsettling.
If we were ever truly cornered by poverty and starving, it could be our final insurance policy, couldn't it?