Pa-ttak Recruitment (3)
I went ahead and left a comment since the post-and-comment requirement had already been met. The real problem was whether my sister would even notice mine. It was just a little over five thousand, while everyone else was easily clearing ten thousand.
“Haa.”
Maybe I should just tell her I’m active on the gallery. No. She still thinks she hasn’t been caught. I had no choice but to rely on luck. Sneaking into her room to tamper with it… yeah, right. There was no way my meticulous sister would fall for something that sloppy.
This was the first time we’d ever interacted like this. The daily conversations we never skipped once felt completely different simply because they were happening online. It made me a little sad that I couldn’t call her “noona” the way Hong Gil-dong couldn’t call his mother “mom.”
Please… I have to be chosen. If I wanted to stop her from meeting some stranger who didn’t know her.
“Ugh…”
Three days had passed. Applications were now closed.
“Haa…”
“……”
“What’s with you two? Why the long faces?”
“It’s nothing.”
“…I’m just tired.”
My sister was probably agonizing over which Pa-ttak to choose. Of course she would be. Pick the wrong person and everything would collapse. She had to be as careful as possible.
Why did she have to promise an actual meeting instead of a gift card?
“I’m heading out.”
“See you later.”
“Have a good day~”
Luckily I had the day off. Not that it changed anything. I had started using the account, but all I’d done was post a few random threads.
……
They had even started suspecting the Ju-ttak was female. To them, there was nothing hotter than that scenario. Still, the way they took one casual comment and ran with it was terrifying. The power of the hive mind was no joke.
Turtle-neck flat-chest crew? My sister doesn’t even have the first letter of “turtle” in her posture. Not that I could say that out loud. There was no way to shut them up. I hated the fact that my sister had become gossip fodder in the first place.
“Haaaa…”
That wasn’t the important issue right now. Becoming a Pa-ttak and preventing strangers from meeting her was priority number one. If she ended up choosing someone else, there were two possible solutions.
I have an idea.
Two paths. I could go in her place, or I could erase the meeting promise entirely. Good. A path had opened up. All that remained was deciding on the exact method of execution. Of course, the best outcome was me becoming the Pa-ttak. I wanted to go on a date with her, too.
“Haa.”
──────Recruitment Closed──────
Three days had passed. I closed the recruitment early in case more people jumped in at the last second. There were two problems. First, I had no idea which of these applicants was Jiyun’s username. Second, there was the possibility that Jiyun hadn’t applied at all.
I wanted to believe deep down that he had applied, but I still needed to check. Jiyun still didn’t know I was the Ju-ttak. And while I had said it was just one meal, he might not want to eat with a total stranger. Idiot. Moron. Dumb dog… Why hadn’t I thought of that? I should have offered to buy him one of those merch items he likes. That would have guaranteed his application.
Should I just cancel it…?
I could handle both roles myself and occasionally post from the Ju-ttak account that had never uploaded anything before. But the desire to manage the gallery together with Jiyun refused to leave me. I couldn’t give up so easily. After all, Jiyun was the one who suggested I recruit a Pa-ttak in the first place. Maybe he secretly wanted the position too… Ugh, I really didn’t know anymore.
Twenty-two applicants. Way more than I expected. With only three or four I could have checked them all, but this was too many. Was there any way to narrow it down…?
What the hell was this…? I had never once said I was a girl, so why were they making assumptions? Not that they were wrong. But where did this “turtle-neck breast crew” thing even come from? Sure, I had a slight forward head posture, but it wasn’t that bad.
Anonymous: No, my family shares the computer so we all know the PC password. We share streaming accounts too since it’s the same device. Anyway, while I was showering my little sister suddenly asked for my password. I asked what she meant and she said since we share the computer and IDs anyway, she wanted my phone password too. I told her that’s different and asked why she needed it. She said her friends all check their older brothers’ phones. I told her to fuck off and didn’t give it to her. She threw a huge tantrum and we fought. Why does she need the password when we already share everything? Anyone would think she’s an obsessive girlfriend. I’m so pissed that one incident might ruin things with this girl I’ve been talking to. I can’t believe it.
……
Phone passwords. Thankfully my family didn’t do that. We never shared passwords, and the living room TV with the streaming accounts logged in was used almost exclusively by Mom. If I asked Jiyun for his phone password he probably wouldn’t get angry, but he’d definitely ask why. Still, this person had done it with his sister too. I also wanted to do things with my brother──
Huh?
Seeing someone’s password meant you could look at their phone anytime you wanted. If I could secretly check Jiyun’s phone, figuring out his username would be easy. Most people kept automatic logins enabled.
“Hello?”
“Hello.”
“Jiyun, you’re off today, right?”
“Yeah. Off today. Working tomorrow.”
“Let’s have dinner together later.”
“Suddenly?”
“Yeah. I suddenly felt like eating with you.”
“…Okay.”
This kind of thing had to be done as quickly as possible. There wasn’t much time left before I had to choose a Pa-ttak.
……
It was past eight in the evening. This was the second date with my sister that had somehow come together. She had suddenly called and suggested we eat together. I was nervous, but also excited.
But why the Han River of all places…
The Han River wasn’t exactly a pleasant place in the mind of a forever-single guy like me. It was full of couples flaunting their relationships and engaging in PDA. I was mostly just jealous, but still, it left a bad taste.
……
It didn’t look like she had posted the announcement on the gallery yet. With that many applicants to go through, she probably didn’t have time.
“…Whoa!”
“You scared me.”
I had been waiting by the river breeze when my sister suddenly appeared from behind. I was genuinely startled this time.
“Did I scare you?”
“Yeah.”
The sunset illuminated her playful smile, creating a strangely emotional atmosphere. She looked incredibly beautiful.
“But why did you suddenly want to eat together?”
“I told you earlier. I wanted to eat with you, Jiyun.”
“Ahh…”
Well, I didn’t mind, but what I was really curious about was why we had to eat outside when we could have eaten at home. Eating in a nice place like this wasn’t bad, but… was there even anywhere to eat?
“What are we eating? There’s nothing here.”
“It’s right there. Food.”
“…Oh, right.”
Where she pointed, food stalls were lined up in a row and lots of people were walking around. I didn’t usually like eating like this, but if it was with my sister I could endure it.
“What do you want to eat, sis?”
“Chicken skewers… takoyaki… tornado potatoes…”
“So basically you want to eat everything here…”
“Yep. That’s right.”
“…Fine. Eat whatever you want.”
I would normally tease her about gaining weight, but lately I didn’t feel like teasing her at all. Just looking at her made my heart race. Was this what people called having a crush? It was truly fascinating.
“Wow, this is actually really good.”
“Yeah?”
We started with the chicken skewers. One wasn’t enough, but she gave me half after she got tired of it, so I enjoyed it.
“Ow, hot…!”
“Idiot. You have to let it cool first.”
“You should have told me sooner…”
Next was takoyaki. It tasted good but it was seriously hot. It didn’t cool down easily and just kept burning my mouth. Naturally, we ended up at a drink stall and bought beverages.
“…Are you going to eat the tornado potato?”
“I’m starting to get full…”
“Right?”
“How about Han River ramen instead?”
“They have ramen…?”
“We can split one.”
“Okay.”
We ended up at the convenience store to eat Han River ramen. Even though it was a weekday, the place was packed.
“Jiyun.”
“Yeah?”
“You don’t look at your phone much lately?”
“What phone?”
“You used to stare at it all the time.”
“Did I?”
“Yeah. Even at the convenience store you were always on it.”
“Well… when I’m with you I don’t feel like using it…”
“…!”
It was true. I was too busy watching her ever-changing expressions to look at my phone. Every single move she made toward me was burned into my memory and put a strain on my heart.
“Why?”
“Ah… it’s nothing!”
“Should we head back now?”
“No—wait! Let’s ride that!”
“What?”
“There’s a cruise over there!”
“That…? Isn’t it expensive?”
“No! It’s only twenty thousand won!”
“Really? That’s cheaper than I thought.”
I had expected something like a hundred thousand won, but it seemed like a reasonable price. When we got to the dock there was no one around, just a kiosk and an information sign standing alone. That kiosk really could do everything.
“Wow… this is nice.”
We crossed the night Han River on a cruise. The course only went as far as Dangsan Station and back, but doing something like this in the middle of Seoul was surprisingly calming. When I stepped outside and looked around, the scenery was even better.
“Jiyun, want to take a picture?”
“A picture…? I’d rather not…”
“Come on~”
“…Fine.”
She suddenly wanted to take pictures. If it was just the scenery that would be one thing, but I didn’t understand why she wanted to take one together.
“Hm? Aren’t you taking it?”
“Let’s use your phone, Jiyun. Yours is better than mine.”
“Huh? No, yours is way better.”
“Really…?”
Hers was this year’s model. Mine was from two years ago. She had bragged about how much better the camera was when she got it, so why did she want to use mine?
“Then we’re using yours, right?”
“Uhh… yeah.”
I took her phone and snapped a selfie of the two of us. The photo came out so well I wanted to ask her to send it to me later.
“Here.”
“Thanks.”
“…?”
Suddenly her expression hardened. What was it? Did I do something wrong?