Why Are You Here?
I realized the room's layout and structure felt strangely familiar. The camera was mounted on the monitor, so I'd only ever seen it from the opposite angle. The wallpaper was that same white shade I saw every day while clipping her streams. Even the chair had that reddish tint typical of gaming chairs. I pressed a hand to my chest, feeling my heart hammering so violently I thought it might actually kill me.
If this really was Uni's house, then the girl I'd just carried here on my back...
She had already closed her eyes on the bed and was breathing softly in sleep.
"...Mmm."
She wasn't very tall. Short black hair, delicate and cute features. It was a little different from the image of Uni I'd built up in my head, but that wasn't what mattered right now.
Oh. Fuck. Dear God.
My legs gave out and I collapsed straight onto the floor. Deep down, I wanted to drop to my knees and bow toward the bed in worship. The girl who'd seemed like nothing but a drunk nuisance just moments ago suddenly looked impossibly adorable.
I had become the very first person to meet Uni in the flesh. Something countless Uniz — the official name for her fans — had never once been able to do.
I'll live even more diligently from now on. I'll become someone who does even more good for others. It seemed that doing one genuinely kind deed had earned me a gift from the heavens.
Honestly, I wanted to wake Yuna — no, Uni — up and ask for an autograph, but disturbing my favorite while she was sleeping felt far too rude. So I simply stared at her sleeping face in a daze.
Wow. She's so fucking cute. This is insane. She's gorgeous.
My excitement lasted only a moment before cold reality crashed back in. When I thought about it, this was basically stalker behavior, wasn't it? Sure, I hadn't come here on purpose, but from Uni's perspective, a fan had broken into her home and was now breathing heavily while watching her sleep.
Fans were supposed to cheer from a distance. I couldn't let my feelings for my favorite cloud my judgment. The boundary between fan and streamer existed precisely because both sides respected it. Crossing that line made you nothing more than a criminal.
No matter how you looked at it, it wasn't good for me to linger in a young woman's home when she lived alone. Fighting back tears, I forced myself to move. Honestly, I didn't want to go. I wanted to stay just a little longer. How many times in my life would I ever get to be here?
Still, I had to leave. With heavy steps, I walked out of Uni's room. It had been a brief moment of happiness. I couldn't brag about it to anyone, but I'd gained one precious memory. That was enough.
If I were to put it in the kind of phrase I always used on the community forums, I'd just gained a lifelong drinking snack.
"Ugh... my head hurts."
When I woke up, I clutched my splitting skull and groaned on the bed. My mind was completely blank. Why had I even drunk in the first place...?
Oh. Right. Some kind of department mixer. My close classmate Jiyoon had begged me to come with her because she didn't want to go alone. And of course, it had gone exactly as expected. Social drinking scenes were clearly not for me.
With my timid and introverted personality, being thrown into a crowd of outgoing people always left me completely drained. I'd force myself to smile the whole time, ending up with sore cheeks and a crushing wave of embarrassment afterward. I'd rather just order chicken at home and watch streams instead.
"I didn't even change my clothes... I just passed out like this."
I was still wearing yesterday's outfit. I hadn't even taken off my makeup. Sigh. The moment I barely managed to sit up, my stomach flipped violently. Ugh... I felt nauseous. Every step made it feel like my insides were sloshing around.
"Haa... I swear I'm never going to another drinking party again."
My condition was so bad I wasn't even sure I could stream today. It was uncertain. I'd already canceled yesterday's stream without any notice and felt terrible about it. If I missed today's stream too, it would be a total disaster.
Luckily it was Saturday. If I focused on recovering, I might still be able to go live. Maybe I should buy some hangover relief medicine. I dragged myself to the bathroom, intending to wash my face and remove my makeup with cleansing oil.
I turned on the faucet, applied the oil to my face, washed it off, then rinsed thoroughly with cold water. As I stood there blankly washing my face, a thought occurred to me.
"...How did I even get home last night?"
My memory had a huge gap. I remembered leaving the first round of drinking, but after that... I squeezed my aching brain, trying to recall, and faint fragments flashed through my mind like a flickering reel.
- Hey. Are you okay? A man approaching me as I staggered, looking worried.
- Uuuung~. I can't walk. Me, speaking in third person at my front door.
- Not Ya, it's Yuna. Me, throwing a tantrum at the person who'd brought me home, demanding he carry me all the way to my bed.
- Put me down..? Nooo... carry me to the bed...
These scenes were completely scrambling my thoughts. No way... it couldn't be. Yeah... it must have been a dream. There's no way that was real.
I, Lee Yuna, might not have lived the most virtuous life, but I'd never been the type to burden others like that. No matter how drunk I'd been, I refused to believe that shameless, troublesome girl had been me.
"I'm crazy. I must be completely insane."
I bit my lower lip and pounded my thighs with my fists.
"Aaaah! Why did I do that? Aaaaaah!"
If I didn't scream it out, this crushing embarrassment wasn't going to go away. I already knew that alcohol made me act cute and whiny, but even so... that was way too much. What must that guy think of me now?
He probably thought I was either a crazy woman or a complete lunatic.
"I have to apologize. I absolutely have to apologize."
If I just let this slide, I'd be abandoning basic human decency. If I wanted to continue my school life with any dignity, I needed to find him. Ideally, I'd even ask him to keep quiet about it. That would be best.
What was his name again? I pieced together the shattered fragments of my memory. Please... come back to me. Please. I needed to at least know his name if I was going to apologize or meet him.
- ...Ah. Got it. It was Woohyeok, right? I'd definitely called his name with a heavily slurred, drunken pronunciation.
"That's right... it was Woohyuk. Kang Woohyuk? Yeah, that sounds right."
I roughly dried my face with a towel and grabbed my phone.
Kang Woohyuk. I had to find him.
"So, to calculate the present value of the bond..."
I stared wide-eyed at the words the professor was writing on the whiteboard. I was already sleepy, and of all things, it had to be Financial Management. It was a subject I was confident in, but the difficulty was brutal. When my mind wasn't clear, it was incredibly hard to follow.
"Haaam... so tired."
In truth, I was barely keeping myself from passing out. The reason was obvious. I hadn't slept properly all weekend. And how could I? I'd discovered that my favorite lived just five minutes away from my house. That she attended the same department and year at my school. That I'd even been inside her house.
How was I supposed to fall asleep peacefully after that? I'd spent the nights wide awake, lost in thought after thought, and before I knew it another day had flown by. I'd collapse from exhaustion, sleep a little, then repeat the cycle until my entire sleep schedule was completely destroyed.
Lee Yuna... I was thinking about her again without realizing it.
The messages I'd sent Jaemin over the weekend. I was curious what my favorite was like in real life. Jaemin knew a lot of people in the massive Business Administration department. He had a wide network.
She doesn't do much club stuff. That made sense. After lectures, she'd have assignments and then streaming. She'd be busy all day.
The way Jaemin would immediately pounce the moment any hint of romance came up. In the end, I didn't get much information about Yuna.
"That concludes today's lecture."
Ah. It was finally over. I mentally patted myself on the back for somehow managing to stay awake through the entire class and stepped out of the lecture hall... only to feel a tap on my shoulder.
I jumped in surprise and turned around.
"Um... you're Kang Woohyuk, right?"
Why are you here...?
When I turned, startled, there stood Yuna, looking at me with an anxious expression on her face.