Summer Vacation Begins (2)
Once Bam Nuna set her mind to something, her follow-through was something else. She gathered the club members on the spot and revealed her identity then and there.
"Everyone, I am Yusi! Ahem!"
She'd said it was supposed to be a secret, yet there she stood—hands on her hips, chest thrust out proudly. Which, naturally, only drew more attention to her chest. And oh look, that bastard Ahn Seong-hyeon's eyes were practically spinning.
'He's got a girlfriend and all. Well, it's instinct—I get it.'
Meanwhile, Seongju Hyung got his gaze under control in a split second. He'd only looked because he was caught off guard, not because it was her chest. That kind of self-control was honestly impressive.
"Whoa. That's insane."
Areum, standing nearby, gaped in admiration. Her wide eyes were openly fixed on Bam Nuna's chest.
"Areum, are you shocked? That I'm Yusi?"
"Incredible! Amazing!"
"Ahem. It's really not that amazing."
Bam Nuna coughed awkwardly, flustered in a way that was unlike her. But you've got to hear Korean out to the very end. Areum's admiration had a different reason entirely.
Areum squeezed and groped the air with both hands as she spoke.
"The way your chest jiggles is awesome. Bam unni, can I touch it? Let me touch it!"
"...Nyeong?"
"Touch!?"
An overexcited Areum lunged at her!
"Kyaak! Ah, aah!"
The male members—myself included—frantically averted our eyes.
The thoroughly molested Bam Nuna shouted.
"L-later! Do it later!"
So later was okay...?
Anyway, once the commotion died down, Bam Nuna spoke again.
"I am Yusi on Trickster. The Yusi who serializes on Noveldice."
A nickname she revealed after steeling her resolve.
But.
"Is Yusi your real name, Bam?"
"What's Yusi?"
"Bam, you serialize novels too?"
Those were the reactions from Seongju Hyung, Areum, and Seora noona, in that order. The other club members reacted similarly. They tilted their heads, not quite grasping what she meant. Only Saebyeok Nuna seemed to already know, wearing a calm, composed expression.
"You... you guys don't know Yusi...."
Bam Nuna's face flushed bright red with embarrassment.
Amidst all this, Hana, who had been tilting her head in confusion, let out a gasp.
"Uh, unni, you're Yusi?"
"Ah! Hana, you know me!?"
And here she'd been going on about having to hide her identity.
'She's just happy someone recognized her.'
She'd been serializing for quite a while, so she must've been pretty disappointed when not a single person recognized her.
Ju Hana, the Trickster ghost who had identified Yusi, bobbed her head, her mouth opening and closing wordlessly.
"The... the nouveau riche who writes just to masturbate to her own OCs...."
"...Excuse me?"
"Ah, no. Sh-she's famous as an illustration community whale! Kkangcheol's, uh, huge fan...."
Ju Hana hastily backtracked, but there was no taking back the words already spoken. Bam Nuna's expression clouded over.
"OC-masturbation... nouveau riche... so that's my image."
"Ah, no, that's not what I meant! Unni, I'm sorry!"
Hana apologized, completely flustered.
Seeing that, I smirked.
"It's more surprising you didn't know."
"Ch-Cheoljjin, that's mean!"
Bam Nuna whipped around to face me, but I just shrugged nonchalantly.
Unfortunately, Bam Nuna's novel performed poorly relative to her fame. Even looking at it generously, it barely made enough to scrape by. People whose tastes it matched apparently sought out her follow-up works, but the awkwardness of her prose—understandable, given she's a foreigner—was a significant barrier to entry.
Anyway, at the sudden mention of a nickname, club members started searching Trickster. Trickster was an SNS with a particularly bad reputation in Korea, but hardcore otaku couldn't help but use it.
Soon, all kinds of yajjal flickered across the screens of their phones.
...The problem was that most of those yajjal were ones I had drawn. Spotting 'Kkangcheol' in the tags, the club members each voiced their admiration.
"Huh. So Cheol-jin draws stuff like this."
"I knew about it, but damn, seeing it again, he's good. At this level, you'd get over a hundred per piece for commissions, right?"
That was the conversation between Seongju Hyung and Ahn Seong-hyeon. For the record, Seongju Hyung hadn't known much about the illustrator 'Kkangcheol,' so it was embarrassing enough to make me want to run away.
"As expected of Cheol-jin."
"Kkangcheol probably draws the best in our department, right?"
"Of course. Kkangcheol on Trickster is already at pro level. Especially when it comes to R-18, he's unparalleled...."
Suddenly the exhibitionist pervert Hana started singing my praises. Areum listened to her explanation with an amused expression.
I glanced around and gradually hung my head. I mean, Bam Nuna revealed that she was Yusi, so why was all the attention landing on me?
Then, suddenly, my eyes met Saebyeok Nuna's. She smiled awkwardly and gave a small nod.
"You... you draw well. Yeah."
"......."
I wanted to die of embarrassment.
*
Once the uproar subsided.
Bam Nuna explained why she'd revealed her nickname.
"You all know Cheoljjin and I are drawing an adult manhwa, right?"
"Objection! Isn't Kkangcheol basically drawing all of it?"
"Areum, shut up! This isn't the time for jokes!"
"Yes, ma'am!"
Bam Nuna, with a rare burst of charisma, silenced Areum.
"Ahem. It's a misunderstanding that Cheoljjin does everything. For a manhwa, the story and conti are just as important as the art. And I'm in charge of the conti. Understood, Areum?"
"Yes, club president!"
"Good. Anyway, the reason I suddenly revealed my nickname to all of you is because I have a favor to ask."
Having set the stage, she got to the point.
"SeoCo booths are divided by type. General, cosplay, adult, and so on. As a club, we've secured a general booth. Everyone knows up to this point."
"Yes!"
The ever-disciplined Areum answered spiritedly.
"Our club's general booth runs for two days. After that ends, Cheoljjin and I will also run an adult booth. But there's a problem. I don't want Cheoljjin's and my real appearances to become known."
I cut in here.
"Bam Nuna said that for promotion, we should put our nicknames in the manhwa author field. But we don't want our faces exposed...."
"So I'm asking all of you. Please help us sell the manhwa together. So no one can tell who Kkangcheol and Yusi are."
The reason we were humbly laying out all these details and asking for help was that someone other than us might be mistaken for the adult manhwa artist. Once identities are shrouded in mystery, the public inevitably starts speculating.
'Not that we're likely to become that much of a hot topic....'
But you never knew. For one thing, in the world of R-18 illustration, 'Kkangcheol' was a known name counted among the top-tier in the industry.
Which was why we'd carefully made this request, even going so far as to reveal our identities to everyone.
"Sure, why not."
"Jeez, that's all the favor was?"
"I thought it was something serious."
Somehow, the reactions came back a bit deflated.
"Oh? It's okay?"
"Yeah... I mean, you might get mistaken for someone else."
Bam Nuna and I asked once more, but.
"So what if we get mistaken a little."
"Can't we just wear masks?"
"Let's just cosplay while we sell!"
At those reactions, Bam Nuna and I exchanged awkward glances. Bam Nuna, looking at my face, said,
"Cheoljjin, see? Being good at drawing erotic things is something to be proud of. Have some confidence!"
"...You were keeping it a secret too, Nuna."
"Ahem. I kept it secret for a different reason. I'm saying I didn't hide it out of embarrassment!"
"Ah, sure."
I nodded, still not entirely convinced. So what on earth was that secret, then?
Anyway, seeing the club members' reactions, it seemed I'd been taking it way too seriously for nothing. What was the big deal about drawing some yajjal? Since sexual desire was an instinctive human urge, wasn't it a perfectly normal thing to do? That was the thought that crossed my mind.
*
Evening came.
The club members started getting up from their seats to head out. For the record, that bastard Seong-hyeon was the first to leave, saying he was off to see his girlfriend.
"Everyone, get home safe."
"You too, Bam Nuna."
"Bye-bye, everyone. Oh, but Kkangcheol, why are you going that way?"
Areum, who had been waving, asked as she looked at me. Areum and I lived in the same direction.
I pointed at Saebyeok Nuna standing beside me.
"We're going to Hongdae together."
"Ah, today's that day, huh?"
Areum, catching on to the reason, scrunched up her face slightly.
"Ugh, if it weren't for my stream, I'd go with you. I wanna watch."
"What do you mean, watch? Go stream. You said you had content today."
"Ugh. Can't be helped. My Sogeumis are waiting. Ha, is this the fate of a celebrity?"
"You're getting cocky."
Sogeumi was the nickname for Areum's stream viewers. Her stream name was Bada—meaning "sea"—so Sogeumi, like salt? Her full name was Pibada, so honestly iron seemed more fitting than salt, but whatever.
"Get home safe."
"Yeah, you too. Saebyeok unni, fighting!"
"Bye, Areum."
"Bye!"
Flapping her hands, Areum dashed off towards her place. Seriously, what a scatterbrained kid. She's going to trip at this rate.
And so, I walked side by side with Saebyeok Nuna.
Then suddenly, Saebyeok Nuna spoke.
"Cheol-jin, sorry."
"Huh? What for?"
"About selling the adult manhwa I mentioned earlier. I think it's a bit much for me. Yajjal is a little embarrassing."
My body flinched hard.
"Oh, r-really? Yeah, of course. Haha."
I corrected my earlier thought. Drawing yajjal really was embarrassing after all. At the very least, it wasn't something you could hold up proudly in polite company.
As I hung my head dejectedly.
"Pfft."
Suddenly Saebyeok Nuna let out a laugh.
"Just kidding. You couldn't tell?"
"...Nuna, I can't tell your jokes apart from your serious comments."
Since her expression barely changed, her jokes sounded exactly like her real opinions. Give me some way to tell them apart.
Saebyeok Nuna chuckled.
"Well, maybe it's because it wasn't entirely a joke."
"Ahem. So it is embarrassing after all, right?"
"A little? Oh, I'll still help. Wearing a hat and mask."
"Ah, that's a good idea. I should wear one too."
"What, you're embarrassed too? It's your own work."
"Of course I'm embarrassed. More than anything, I don't want to reveal I'm Kkangcheol to anyone outside the club. I've accumulated way too much of a record."
I'd drawn all sorts of yajjal over that time. It wasn't just regular men and women—I'd even drawn R-19 monmus, so I absolutely lacked the confidence to show my face.
Chattering like that, we walked on. Our destination was Scarlet Ink in Hongdae.
It didn't take long to get from our school to Hongdae.
After boarding the Line 2 train.
My words dropped off sharply.
'I'm finally getting the tattoo. I'm nervous.'
Now it was goodbye to this goddamn annoying scar.
I touched the cover sheet near my neck.