This Is Korea!
In the end, I accepted the role of art lead. Considering the time left until SeoCo, it looked like I'd have to put freelance commissions on hold for a while.
Even though I'd turned it down several times before, I didn't regret it. That was because the person asking was none other than Yusi. Yu-bam was a club president I'd only known for barely three months, but Yusi was someone like a benefactor to me — someone I'd known for over four years.
I felt a little bad making that comparison... but well, since the two of them were the same person, it was probably fine.
I let out a long sigh and asked.
"When did you figure out I was Kkang-cheol? Don't tell me... from the very beginning?"
It was possible. After all, the nickname Areum actually used for me was Kkang-cheol.
At my question, she'd been grinning from ear to ear, but she shook her head and explained.
"That wasn't it. I figured Areum calling Cheoljjin 'Kkang-cheol' was just a coincidence. Just a nickname pulled from your name."
We'd naturally slipped into banmal. That was because our relationship as Kkang-cheol and Yusi went back further than our relationship as club president and club member.
"Then you figured it out when I submitted the manhwa?"
The animation storyboard I'd made using my own experiences as material. Since Yusi had known about my past for a long while, it was plausible she'd recognize it.
But Yusi shook her head this time too.
"That was the trigger, yeah. But it wasn't confirmation. Because there are plenty of people besides Kkang-cheol who've been through school violence."
"...True. And it wasn't like I'd explained it to HanaHana in detail either."
School violence cases tend to follow a pattern. Ostracism, assault, extortion, threats — that sort of thing. The ending usually wraps up with transferring schools or dropping out. Of course, if you dug into it, there'd be plenty of differences, but the broad framework was probably much the same.
"Above all, the odds of running into Kkang-cheol at the same school, in the same club, were incredibly low. It would've been a ridiculous coincidence, so even though the thought crossed my mind, I ruled it out."
"I mean, I never dreamed I'd meet Yusi in real life either..."
Actually, meeting someone in real life whom you'd dealt with on Trickster wasn't, in itself, all that unlikely. I was a known name in the industry, and naturally I had quite a large following. The number of freelance clients I'd taken on so far easily surpassed a thousand.
Come to think of it, Mina nuna, the fourth-year ghost member, was a case like that too. A freelance client whose name I barely remembered. Given the nature of our club, the probability of anyone here using Trickster was extremely high, so it wasn't strange at all. If you wanted to be an artist, or were into otaku stuff, there was no SNS quite like Trickster.
But the probability of meeting someone you'd kept in personal contact with — not just a transaction — was very low. Ju Hana alone had been surprising; I'd never even imagined that Yusi, of all people, would be in the same club.
"So when did you become certain?"
"The day before yesterday, when Kkang-cheol was drawing naughty pictures over there. I asked you myself, didn't I? Whether you were Kkang-cheol."
"Ah......."
Now that she mentioned it, that was true. The moment Yusi saw my drawing, she'd recognized I was Kkang-cheol.
"Before that, I couldn't be sure because the art style was different. I'd never seen that style before. And the level of finish was high, too."
When I only drew lewd stuff, post-nut clarity hit me often. So I'd deliberately drawn in a fairy-tale style, and the level of finish had risen as a result.
I kept the questions coming. Something else was making me curious now.
"So why didn't you tell me you were Yusi right away? From the way you're talking, it doesn't sound like you were planning to tell me later, either."
"That's......."
Yusi trailed off.
For some reason, she seemed to be gauging my reaction.
Soon, Yusi explained the reason in a careful tone.
"I thought you might not want to meet me, Kkang-cheol."
"...Huh? Why?"
I tilted my head. Why on earth would I dislike Yusi, who was practically my benefactor?
Listening to her story, she had a reason of her own.
"Well, because Kkang-cheol told me all his secrets. People usually avoid the person who knows their secrets. The reason you told me was because it was the internet. Someone you'd never meet."
"Hmm. That does make a certain kind of sense."
There were relationships that were comfortable precisely because you didn't know each other. If it had been someone whose face I actually knew, I wouldn't have drawn an illustrated blowjob scene.
Then Yusi let out a sigh and added an explanation.
"And honestly, I didn't want to reveal I was Yusi either. It'd be trouble if a lot of people knew my secrets."
"Mm. That would be trouble."
I sympathized instantly.
"...What's with that? I'm offended."
Yusi's brow furrowed.
"You know your own tastes are seriously hardcore."
Chuckling, I recalled all the character sheets she'd commissioned from me over the years.
Starting with basic lewd pics, then foot fetish, lesbian play, choking, spanking, public exposure, somnophilia, group orgies, furry stuff, and so on.
On top of that, there were plenty of works whose rating was so extreme I couldn't even put them in my portfolio. It was only natural she wouldn't want anyone else finding out.
And among all of that, what Yusi loved most was—
"While we're on the subject, let me ask. Why in the world are you into tentacles?"
—tentacle stuff.
"Th-that's my personal taste! Privacy!"
Yusi's face went red. She'd crack sex jokes while placing commissions over Trickster messages, but apparently mentioning tentacle stuff face-to-face was embarrassing after all.
"Bwahaha! So you do know how to get embarrassed, huh?"
As I kept laughing, Yusi glared at me with a sulky expression. It was an expression I'd never seen on her before, so it felt refreshing.
"Kkang-cheol, you've gotten mean. You used to be nice."
"Well, that's because you're Yusi."
As I grinned broadly, Yusi put on a deliberately stern expression and spoke.
"I'm 22 in Korean age. You have to call me nuna, Kkang-cheol. Don't call me Yusi."
"Huh? I'm supposed to call Yusi 'nuna'?"
I was disgusted, and Yusi was dead serious.
"Of course! And up until now, you've been calling me Bam Nuna!"
"That's because I didn't know you were Yusi... And in other countries, everyone just uses first names."
"This is Korea!"
So I had to follow Korean culture because this was Korea? Hearing that from a foreigner was a little absurd.
But she wasn't wrong. It was true that I'd been calling her Bam Nuna all this time, and calling her by her nickname instead of her name in front of others would be weird too.
'Now that I know she's Yusi, it's awkward for no reason.'
One's mindset really was that important. The title "nuna," which I'd used without a second thought until now, suddenly felt unfamiliar. Probably because we'd been friends for so long.
Yusi — no, Yu-bam — folded her arms and spoke.
"Ahem. Now, say it once."
Her massive chest was naturally emphasized.
Feeling awkward, I called out to her.
"Yu-bam......."
"You have to say nuna!"
"...Nuna."
"Together. Again."
"......Yu-bam Nuna."
"Good. Mm-hm-hm."
Bam Nuna smiled, satisfied.
The sight was both really cute and kind of infuriating, and I felt strange.
*
I got back home.
I took a quick shower, then sat down in front of the computer and opened the file saved to the shared drive. The file Bam Nuna had asked for appeared on the monitor.
As I was examining the file, a sudden chill ran down my spine and I shuddered.
"Well, I'll be damned. Yusi was Bam Nuna."
I still felt dazed. To think I'd end up meeting a regular client I traded sex jokes with online in my university club.
I shook my head back and forth, then got back to work.
"Gotta focus......."
The fact that Bam Nuna and Yusi were the same person was a huge shock, but just because I'd learned that didn't mean some massive change would follow.
'No, there is a change. My workload just went up.'
The time remaining until Seoul Comic World opened was roughly two months. In order to complete more than a certain amount of the manhwa within that time, I had to work diligently.
If there was a stroke of luck, it was that Bam Nuna's continuity was more detailed than I'd thought. The drawings were chicken scratch, but the detailed settings, along with the annotations written in each panel, described every corresponding scene in detail. You could say that, aside from her actual drawing skill being a pity, it served the role of a proper storyboard.
Before drawing the manhwa, I started with character sketches first.
'There's an insane number of characters. I'll have to pick out only the ones needed for the early parts first.'
Looking over the setting collection, the number of characters surpassed several dozen. The heroines alone reached 10, and the female characters appearing in side branches were even more numerous. If you added in the male characters, it felt like even just the character sketches would leave me short on time.
Obviously, there was no need to draw every single character from the beginning. I just had to prioritize the character designs for the ones needed right away.
I put effort into the main characters — the protagonist and the first heroine — and roughed out the supporting characters who'd keep appearing and the minor roles who'd be used once and discarded.
I grumbled as I finished the main heroine's sketch.
"I haven't even done my service yet and I'm drawing military uniforms. Starting an adult manhwa with a military setting... does she have a uniform fetish or something?"
Since the manhwa's opening setting was the military, it was a headache. That was because the point in time the protagonist regressed to happened to be right when he was serving on active duty.
I mean, seriously, what kind of adult manhwa had a military setting? Of course, if you read the novel version, he was a senior sergeant about to be discharged, so he got out right away... but for someone who hadn't served yet like me, drawing it was bound to be a headache.
"More importantly, is the historical research on this even accurate? How would Bam Nuna know about the Korean military?"
It seemed like I'd have to talk it over separately with her. Maybe I'd need help from Seongju hyung, the only person in our club who'd completed his military service.