18. I'm Not a Crazy Bitch
18. I'm Not a Crazy Bitch
***
Trill.
Trill.
At the sound of the alarm, Serin fumbled around with her hand, searching for her smartphone.
Trill.
Beep.
She slowly lifted her heavy eyelids and turned off the phone's alarm, but her eyelids kept drooping shut as if someone were pressing them down.
"..."
She forced herself to blink and stared up at the ceiling. If she let herself fall back asleep now, she'd obviously end up waking in the afternoon again.
The time was 10 a.m.
She'd caught a blurry glimpse of it while turning off the alarm, so it was exactly the time she'd set it for.
"I... should get up."
As if scolding herself, she deliberately spoke the words aloud and heaved her heavy body upright.
"Ugh..."
Even that slight movement drew a groan out of her naturally. Her body felt endlessly heavy, as if she were hauling herself up from deep underwater.
It felt as if someone were pressing their hands all over my body, holding me down and telling me not to get up.
"Hah."
I brushed a hand over my face and sighed.
As I got up, I felt it all over again.
My body was garbage.
Genuinely, completely garbage.
Never mind the fact that I never exercised. This body exhausted itself no matter what I did.
Its fuel efficiency was so bad it barely made sense.
Whether I logged into Another World or used the PC, even without much movement or exertion my eyes would start closing on their own around 10 p.m. And once I fell asleep, I needed at least twelve hours before I woke up.
I'd deliberately set an alarm today because I planned to go outside, which was why I'd woken earlier than usual.
Even so, the irony was that she'd still slept ten hours. But given the state of her body, Serin could instinctively feel that trying to wake any earlier would wreck her.
'How did she live like this?'
It was genuinely beyond her understanding.
After that, Serin moved fairly quickly into the bathroom, washed up lightly, and then rummaged through the closet and storage spaces in her room.
She was looking for something to wear.
For days now, she'd been rotating through whatever T-shirts she could find and the clothes from the first storage cabinet she'd dug through, so she couldn't bring herself to go out looking like that.
"...Wow."
And after rummaging through her room's storage spaces and closets, Serin let out an involuntary exclamation.
"I have no clothes."
Seriously.
There were so few decent clothes it was almost ridiculous.
Most of the clothes strewn across her bed were just T-shirts or jeans. Even those seemed to be playing color games—she had multiple pieces of the same kind of clothing in different colors.
"Well, whatever. Do I really need to care?"
She rummaged through a few things that looked wearable and sighed.
Maybe it was because this was her first time going outside in this world that she'd unconsciously started caring.
Even though it meant nothing.
After that, she changed into a black T-shirt and jeans that looked reasonably comfortable. Once she was dressed, she checked her reflection in the full-length mirror standing in one corner of the room.
Long silver hair.
Her sharp features didn't look entirely Korean; somehow, she seemed mixed-race.
And against the black T-shirt she was wearing, the silver hair seemed to stand out even more.
The jeans themselves were unremarkable, but they still made her figure stand out.
She examined her body piece by piece as if it weren't her own. Serin let out an involuntary dry laugh.
"Whoever made this... really did a good job."
It was a character she'd made with her own hands, but she really had made it well. Even in a plain T-shirt and jeans, it looked good.
And honestly, since the flowing silver hair and mixed-race-looking face drew the eye, nothing else really registered.
Fashion or whatever—people's eyes were obviously going to go straight to her face.
Then her reflection in the mirror let out a sigh.
'Seriously. I shouldn't have touched the hair color.'
People are more indifferent to others than you'd think.
So they usually don't pay much attention to what others are doing. Most people are busy with their own lives, and there are actually very few who make an effort to scrutinize a stranger in detail.
So even if she went out worrying about fashion or whatever on her own, the truth was that most people wouldn't care about her at all.
That was the norm.
But.
"I must really seem like an attention whore."
The version of me in the mirror obviously wasn't someone people would simply overlook.
My long silver hair was the kind that would make someone glance back out of curiosity even if they were trying not to stare.
Sure, this world was ten years ahead of the one I remembered. Fashion could have changed, and some of the celebrity hairstyles I'd seen while learning about this world on the PC had seemed unusual.
But I was still in Korea.
'Silver hair in Korea?'
I didn't have to think long to know. Even I, who normally cared nothing about strangers, would probably have looked once.
Should I dye it while I’m out?
I actually found myself considering it.
"...Too much hassle."
Then again, how often was I really going to go outside?
I decided to grab a black cap, my wallet, and my phone and head out.
I was only planning to sit in a café, watch people pass by, and come home anyway.
Other people's stares were something I'd have to learn to endure eventually.
Even if I dyed my hair, this foreign-looking face of mine wasn't going anywhere.
***
Less than ten minutes after leaving the house.
Serin regretted her decision.
Her pace quickened without her realizing it as she walked down the street.
Only about five more minutes to the café her phone was guiding her to.
"...?"
"Ahem."
Every person passing by turned their head to glance at her.
Young or old, it didn't matter—everyone stared at her like she was some curiosity.
She thought animals on display at a zoo probably felt less embarrassed than she did right now.
The people sneaking glances as if pretending not to look were annoying, but worse than that, she could hear with perfect clarity the group of what looked like three or four women passing beside her whispering among themselves.
"...What?"
"You know that idol who's super popular lately? Seoha. Doesn't it look like she copied her silver hair?"
"Wow."
Wow, my ass. The impressive part was talking loudly enough for her to hear while walking right past her. If they were going to whisper among themselves, they could at least do it farther away.
Even as she imagined all sorts of things she couldn't bring herself to say out loud, Serin felt her face growing hot.
It wasn't that they were badmouthing her.
She'd seen her own reflection in the mirror, so she knew she simply stood out to other people.
That was all.
She knew that, and yet she was struggling to endure the stares pouring in.
Back in Black Ark, she'd been able to shrug off stares directed at her because she hadn't treated the people there as equals—or even as people in the same sense.
After several years, her strength had become so widely known that people said no one could stand against her, and hardly anyone had the nerve to stare openly at her face.
"She’s so pretty."
A child passing in front of her said it innocently, and Serin flinched without meaning to.
"......"
And what did all those thoughts matter now? She was just an ordinary person.
The people looking at her now weren't NPCs or beings imitating people—they were unmistakably human.
Maybe that was why receiving this much ordinary attention from strangers was so hard. She couldn't believe she'd thought she could just endure it before leaving the house.
She felt again that she still needed time to prepare.
She still... needed more time to adjust to living in this world.
Before she knew it, she had reached the café she'd chosen as her destination.
Ding.
As the café door opened, a small bell chimed and the cool air inside, a sharp contrast to the weather outdoors, washed over her.
The temperature difference was so great she unconsciously rubbed her hands.
"Welcome."
"Yes."
Answering the greeting from the man who looked like a café worker, she searched for a seat near the window.
The biggest reason she'd come outside was to ground herself in reality.
And the secondary reason was people-watching.
After ordering a café mocha from the café worker, she headed for the window seat she'd already picked out.
What did real people look like in this world ten years further along? That was what she wanted to see. She planned to just kill time in the café and watch people walking the streets.
And the moment Serin settled into her seat by the window.
The café bell rang again.
Ding.
And in walked a woman with long black hair.
A woman with refined features and a flawless, bright impression entered the café.
A major tweetie streamer, ranked No. 8 in Another World.
'Plea'
Also known as the "crazy bitch"—Yoon Sua. She, too, walked into that café.
"One café mocha, please. Extra syrup, and..."
As she spoke, Sua turned her head, and her gaze naturally followed the other people's stares to one spot.
"...?"
Then she blankly looked back down at her phone.
On the paused video, analysis of the character called Rin was still going on.
'Isn't she way too similar?'
The moment Sua saw the silver-haired woman, that thought came to her before she knew it.