Rising Suspicions
Jaemin was being loud as hell, pestering me to help him with his assignment. I tried to avoid his gaze by looking away, only to lock eyes with the girl sitting right next to me. Then came the greeting.
“Um… hello? Oppa?”
“Huh…?”
And that’s when I felt it—I was completely screwed. No, Yuna. Why the hell are you here?
She was wearing a blue blouse with a white skirt, the kind of cute campus look that would make any college guy’s heart flutter. Seeing her like that made my chest pound. Of course, it wasn’t from excitement. I’d just been talking to Jaemin about Uni_clip. If she’d been sitting there the whole time, the chances she’d overheard were extremely high.
“…Did you happen to catch any of what we were just talking about?”
I asked her with extreme caution.
“Not exactly… but I got the general idea. Why do you ask?”
Her tone made it sound like she had no clue why I was acting so weird. Maybe she really hadn’t heard properly…? Even so, if she’d caught the full thing, she probably wouldn’t be reacting like this. Or maybe she had heard and was just pretending not to. After all, Uni hated the idea of people at school finding out who she was.
“Long time no see. Hi.”
“Yes. Hello.”
While I froze for a second to gather my thoughts, Jaemin waved at Yuna and greeted her. She bowed her head politely in return. Jaemin glanced back and forth between my face and hers, then broke into a sly grin.
“Why do you look so embarrassed about getting caught doing VTube by the girl you like?”
What the—what kind of bullshit was that? This guy was actually insane! All I felt toward her was a tiny bit of fan admiration. Liking her? That was ridiculous. He was going to plant some weird misunderstanding in her head.
“The girl he likes…?”
Yuna looked at me with a strange, searching gaze.
“What the hell are you talking about, you lunatic?”
“Don’t even try to deny it. Yuna~! This guy asked me about you last time, saying he was curious. Watch out for him. You shouldn’t date a friend who won’t even help with assignments. What a cold bastard.”
It looked like Jaemin was sulking and had decided to make things awkward for me on purpose. God, calling a guy like this a friend.
“Yuna, it’s not like that. He’s just spouting nonsense. Just ignore him.”
“Ah, okay.”
Yuna seemed a little flustered by Jaemin’s words. I scrambled to smooth over the uncomfortable situation. First, I needed to get her away from him. There was no telling what a pissed-off Kim Jaemin might invent next.
“Yuna. Want to step outside with me for a second?”
Without understanding what was going on, Yuna nodded at my sudden suggestion. As expected of Uni. You’re the only one who looks out for me.
In the end, I had no choice but to pull Yuna out of the cafe.
*
A little ways from the cafe, in a quiet spot with no people around.
“I’m really sorry. You must’ve felt uncomfortable.”
I bowed my head and apologized to Yuna, who’d gotten dragged into the childish fight between me and Jaemin. From a girl’s perspective, suddenly hearing some guy supposedly liked her couldn’t feel good. There was even that saying—finding out someone likes you can sometimes hurt the other person.
“No, it’s fine. I was a little surprised, though.”
Yuna accepted my apology in a calm voice. She was good at streaming and had a good personality too.
“But oppa, why did you ask about me?”
She asked like she was genuinely curious. Ah… that was complicated to explain.
“It’s not a big deal. After I dropped you off at home that day, I just wondered if someone like you was in our department. That was the first time I’d seen you.”
“Were you… trying to get revenge or something?”
Yuna suddenly wrapped her arms around her shoulders as she asked. She must’ve thought it was because of what she’d done. From her expression, it looked like the guilt hadn’t completely disappeared yet.
“No, nothing like that. I told you back then. I’m really fine with it.”
“That’s a relief, then.”
Only then did Yuna lower her arms, seeming a bit more at ease. Now that it was just the two of us, the atmosphere grew slightly awkward. Still, I wanted to ask a bit more about what had happened earlier.
“By the way… how much of what I said did you hear?”
“I heard that you do VTube, at least.”
That much was unavoidable. Jaemin had said it so loudly.
“What about the channel name?”
Please tell me you didn’t hear it. Please.
“I didn’t catch that part clearly… why?”
Whew. I was safe. At least the final line of defense had held. Honestly, there was no real need to hide it this much, but I didn’t particularly want her to know. Having an obsessed fan at the same university would probably make school uncomfortable for her. As a fan, that was the last thing I wanted. A fan’s role was always to cheer from behind the scenes. We shouldn’t intrude on an idol’s private life.
“No reason. I was just curious. I’m a little embarrassed about doing VTube, so could you not mention it to other people?”
“Okay. It’s not that weird to do VTube. Why are you so embarrassed about it?”
When I spoke shyly, Yuna let out a small laugh and asked. The truth was, it was fine if everyone else knew. As long as you didn’t.
“It’s just… a little like that.”
When I gave a vague answer, Yuna seemed to hesitate, thinking about something before she finally spoke.
“But oppa…”
“Yeah?”
“…Do you know someone named Uni?”
Did you just pull a “do you know Uni” on me? But why was she asking me this? Had she actually heard earlier and was pretending she hadn’t? For now, I poured everything I had into acting like I had no idea.
“…Uh, no? I don’t really know who that is.”
My acting just now probably sounded insanely awkward. She didn’t catch on, right?
“I thought so. I guess I must’ve heard wrong earlier.”
It looked like she’d bought my awkward performance. So she had more or less heard it. My heart started pounding again. This was dangerous. Really dangerous.
“What’s Uni?”
“Never mind. If you don’t know, it’s fine.”
“Really? Then I’ll head back in first. Take your time.”
Desperate to escape the situation, I quickly walked back toward the cafe. Then I heard her voice behind me.
“Oppa.”
I turned around with an uneasy feeling. What now?
“…Are you good at financial management?”
What kind of question was that all of a sudden?
*
“Wow. Thank you so much, oppa. You really saved me.”
I kept bowing my head to Woohyuk oppa. He’d explained the parts I didn’t understand in no time and finished the assignment in under thirty minutes.
“No problem. Call me if you need help later. I’m actually pretty good at stuff like finance and accounting.”
To be honest, I felt bad asking Woohyuk oppa for favors since I already owed him, but what could I do? There was no other way. I was short on time and didn’t have anyone else to ask. It felt like I was always the one receiving help from him.
When I checked my phone, there wasn’t much time left until the next lecture. I hurriedly packed my things and said goodbye.
“I have to go to my next class now.”
“Okay. Take care~.”
Woohyuk oppa waved kindly. I left the cafe and headed toward the lecture hall. The moment he disappeared from sight, my true feelings came out.
“Something seems suspicious…”
Earlier I’d let it slide because I didn’t want him to get interested in a streamer named Uni, but there were too many strange parts to ignore. His reaction was a bit too strong for someone who was simply embarrassed about doing VTube. He’d looked relieved when I said I hadn’t caught the channel name.
“I get embarrassed telling people I stream too, but…”
It almost felt like his reaction meant I wasn’t supposed to know about his VTube channel. Especially the way he’d unnecessarily asked for the channel name. No matter how I thought about it, it was really weird.
One thought crossed my mind.
…Could Woohyuk oppa be Uni_clip?
If the “Uni-something” I’d clearly heard earlier was Uni, and the VTube channel he ran was Uni_clip, then a lot of my questions would make sense. His generous attitude when he first learned the truth, everything that happened today—if he was Uni_clip, it wouldn’t be impossible.
“Sigh. What kind of delusion is this?”
But I quickly shook my head. There was no way. The Uni_clip I couldn’t meet even after sending emails—was that the same person as the kind oppa I’d met at university? That idea had even less plausibility than the romance drama I’d watched yesterday.
Thinking about Woohyuk oppa brought back what Jaemin had said earlier.
—Why do you look so embarrassed about getting caught doing VTube by the girl you like?
The girl he likes…
To be honest, someone like Woohyuk oppa wasn’t bad-looking at all. No one would ever call him ugly. He didn’t dress terribly either. From our conversations, we had similar hobbies, he was kind to me, and he had a good personality. The more I thought about it, the more I kept remembering only his good points.
“This is the campus curse. The campus curse. The campus curse.”
Was it because of all the brainwashing from adults saying you’d find love once you got to university? My thoughts kept drifting in strange directions. It was a weird habit—any little thing and my brain would steer it toward romance.
Right. I wasn’t some obsessive romance fanatic, was I? Oppa had said he didn’t like me that way either.
I tried to push the useless thoughts out of my head as I walked toward the lecture hall.