Chapter 161: Skewer (5)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 161: Skewer (5)
“Contact me later.”
“Yeah. I promise.”
The door closed as Kang A-rin saw me off.
In the end, my conversation with her had been resolved amicably.
Well, aside from the intermittent threats to my virtue.
She said she’d let me know as soon as the results came in from the teams she sent to investigate.
That wasn’t bad.
It seemed I could just take a breather and wait for a bit.
I staggered toward my room on the second floor.
Click.
I closed the door and threw myself onto the living room sofa.
The soft cushions gently received my body, which had been stiff with tension.
It was then.
Bzzz, bzzz.
A call came through on my Watch from an unsaved number.
Only the number was displayed on the call screen.
“…Who’s this?”
I’m the type to always save my contacts, whether for business or personal reasons.
But this wasn’t a number I recognized.
“Hello, who is this?”
I answered the call.
“…Haha, Student Jung! It’s me! The Chairman!”
A familiar voice came from over the receiver.
Ah.
It was the Chairman.
Had I not saved his number?
I shifted my position slightly and answered.
“Ah, Mr. Chairman, my apologies. I recently changed my Watch.”
Of course, I hadn’t.
“Haha, not at all. I’m calling because I wanted to talk about the Gaon model matter.”
“Yes. What is it?”
Was there something to talk about?
Was he angry that I took too much from the Secret Armory…? I tensed for a moment.
“You see, I’ve had a brilliant idea! In this day and age, a male hero alone lacks impact. So, I was thinking, wouldn’t it be great to select a female student model and have you two shoot together?”
He had a point. Gaon usually used both male and female models for its ads, after all.
I thought they had already found a female hero to be the model….
I guess not. On second thought, it seemed he wanted the female model to be a student as well.
After all, the modeling fees for female heroes are much higher than for males.
“So, Student Jung, is there any female student you’d like to shoot with? Since she’ll be your partner, we’ll prioritize your opinion! Hahaha!”
As if.
The truth was, I’d already gotten everything I wanted from the Secret Armory, so I just wanted to take a few pictures and get this contract over with.
“Anyone is fine.”
But it probably couldn’t be Cheon Yeo-wool or Kang A-rin. They were both already part of organizations, so their portrait rights would be tied up.
“Anyone is fine. I trust your judgment, Mr. Chairman.”
And with that, I passed the troublesome choice on to him.
“Haha! Understood! I’ll be in touch by tomorrow!”
And so, the call with the Chairman ended.
I lay back down on the sofa.
*
Today was the day of the Gaon promotional model photoshoot.
There was still quite a bit of time left until the appointment after my classes ended, so I spent it with Yoon Chae-ha.
At the Board Game Club, to be exact.
I still wasn’t used to the completely transformed clubroom.
The room’s layout was state-of-the-art, the games were state-of-the-art, and the chairs and tables were the latest models, but…
the game Yoon Chae-ha and I were playing was rather classic.
“So if my rook moves like this… is that a check?”
Yoon Chae-ha asked, her eyes sparkling as she pointed to the pieces on the chessboard one by one.
Yoon Chae-ha was learning chess from me.
Truthfully, I didn’t know much about it myself, so I was just teaching her what I knew.
I rested my chin on my hand and listened to her quietly.
“Yeah.”
As expected of a genius learner, she grasped the essence of the game even without me telling her much.
At my answer, she beamed like a child, as if impressed by her own move.
“Heehee, I think I won.”
“I don’t think so.”
Yoon Chae-ha had successfully executed a fork, using her knight to threaten two of my major pieces at once, but she had failed to protect her own most important piece.
With my rook, I succeeded in attacking her king, hidden deep within her territory.
“Ah…”
A disappointed sigh escaped her lips.
She scanned the board, looking for an escape route for her king, but every path was already blocked.
“…Checkmate.”
“Yep.”
At my words, Yoon Chae-ha pouted as if frustrated, then nodded.
For her first time playing… I had a lot of fun, too.
I checked my Watch. The time for my appointment was already approaching.
“Should we call it a day? I have to get going soon.”
“Okay.”
We got up and put away the chess pieces.
Yoon Chae-ha and I left the clubroom and walked down the hallway, bathed in the languid sunlight.
The dormitory and the location of my photoshoot were in opposite directions.
“I have an appointment today, so you should head back first.”
“Hmm… I have somewhere to be, too.”
“Oh, really?”
Yoon Chae-ha walked alongside me.
As we walked, I glanced at her face.
Yoon Chae-ha was trying her best to look straight ahead, but her lips were twitching as she desperately held back a burst of laughter.
What is she up to now?
Even after seeing that, I didn’t bother asking and just kept walking.
Before long, I arrived at my destination: the Gaon Central Library.
According to the Chairman, he wanted to shoot against the backdrop of Gaon’s great repository of knowledge, or something like that.
He said it was a shooting location with a long and storied tradition.
It is pretty nice.
The library lived up to its reputation; it was overwhelming. It was a dome-shaped building with a giant, calming tree planted in the center.
Truthfully, this was my first time here.
I’d already researched all the materials I needed long ago, so I never had a reason to come.
I spoke to Yoon Chae-ha, who was still holding back her laughter beside me.
“This is my stop. You said you had somewhere to be.”
At my words, she could no longer hold it in and burst out laughing, “Ahaha!”
It was at that exact moment.
“Oh, Student Jung! Student Yoon! You’re both here!”
From the second floor of the library, the Chairman waved at us, his voice full of excitement.
‘Both of you…?’ No way.
The Chairman came down the stairs and stood before us.
“Haha, I meant to contact you, but I’m a little late. This works out perfectly. I was just about to introduce you to your partner….”
He gestured toward Yoon Chae-ha with an open palm and said.
“Gaon’s new model, and Student Jung’s partner, has been decided! It’s none other than Student Yoon Chae-ha! Hasn’t the synergy between you two already been proven by the Bulgaram’s Workshop incident? The internal meeting unanimously agreed that there could be no more perfect combination.”
I was speechless, and just stared at Yoon Chae-ha.
Yoon Chae-ha flashed me a victory sign and a wink.
“Let’s start the shoot right away!”
the Chairman said, clapping his hands.
*
The photoshoot… was much simpler than I expected.
To be precise, it was a very strange mix of a magazine pictorial and an entertainment reporter’s interview.
“Great! Student Jung Hae-in, lean against the tree and look chic! Student Yoon Chae-ha, sit in front of him with a book, and look up with eyes full of pure admiration!”
At the loud director’s shout, I followed his instructions, leaning against the tree and maintaining a blank expression.
Yoon Chae-ha, sitting at my feet, was genuinely looking up at me with eyes sparkling with pure admiration.
Is this really an act?
Flash, flash!
In between the camera flashes, a staff member from Gaon’s PR team threw questions at us.
“Student Jung Hae-in! You were active under the hero name Mukgui. Was there a special reason you decided to enroll at Gaon?”
“I wanted to grow stronger through Gaon’s education.”
I spat out the soulless, pre-prepared answer. The staff member nodded and turned to Yoon Chae-ha.
“Student Yoon Chae-ha, we’re curious why you gave up the honor of being the genius mage of Carlos to transfer to Gaon!”
At that question, Yoon Chae-ha glanced at me once. Then, in a clear, bright voice that all the staff could hear, she answered.
“Because of him.”
“……”
For a moment, the air on set froze.
Expressions of ‘Ooooh’ appeared on the faces of the director, the staff, and the Chairman.
I have a feeling this is heading in a very wrong direction….
And just as I’d feared, no more questions came my way after that.
“Oh my! Then what was it about Student Jung Hae-in that drew you here?”
“…He’s just… cool.”
“You two were together at Bulgaram’s Workshop as well. Are you perhaps a couple?”
At that question, Yoon Chae-ha stared at me intently.
Then she answered calmly.
“…Not yet, but he’s raising me.”
“……”
If she was going to say that, I’d rather she just said we were a couple.
“…Excuse me?”
the PR team member asked again.
With the mention of ‘raising,’ the set plunged deeper into a pit of misunderstanding.
A few more shots were taken in that strange atmosphere before the director, seemingly satisfied, clapped his hands and shouted.
“Okay! Great! Let’s wrap up the interview there! You two, the results are out already. Come and take a look!”
I just wanted to run away.
But the Chairman grabbed my shoulder tightly and led me to a giant hologram screen.
On the screen were the A-cuts from the photoshoot we had just finished.
“Ooh…”
“Wow…”
The staff were all staring at the photos in admiration.
They’re actually pretty good.
I was inwardly impressed myself.
I mean, I was whatever.
But Yoon Chae-ha was already ridiculously good-looking to begin with, and after getting the professional camera treatment, the pictures came out on a whole other level.
“They came out great, huh?”
Impressed, I was about to say something to Yoon Chae-ha, who I assumed was next to me. I was sure she’d be pleased with the photos.
However.
“This one too… give me this one too… This one!! This one’s good! That picture where he’s spacing out with his mouth open, too…!”
Yoon Chae-ha wasn’t next to me at all, but glued to the photographer’s side.
Peering over the photographer’s shoulder, she was pointing at all the photos on his monitor and shouting.
“Yes, give me all of them! Here’s my email…”
“What are you doing?”
I came up behind her and whispered softly.
I grabbed the back of Yoon Chae-ha’s neck, gently pulling her like a mother cat carrying a kitten by its scruff.
“Ngyah.”
“He’s busy. Don’t bother him.”
I gave the flustered photographer a slight bow and dragged the struggling Yoon Chae-ha away from the scene.