Looks Are Everything
"Why would you do that to me...?"
I was pretty sure I'd fallen in love.
Of course she was beautiful — that had never been in question. But how could even the sight of her wiping semen off her face look this adorable? If this wasn't first love, I didn't know what was.
I'd blown my load all over her face without a word of warning. She had every right to be pissed. Instead she was worrying about me, and that only made it worse.
Once she'd cleaned every last drop from her face and the swell of her chest, she smiled at me, her eyes curving into crescents.
I wondered if she had any idea. How much of a little fox that look made her. Or, more precisely, how lethal it was to my heart.
If I'd been even a few years older, I might have dropped dead on the spot.
"...Well, I should probably go wash up..."
Her face flushed red all over again.
The words Want to shower together? surged all the way up the back of my throat, but I couldn't bring myself to say them. Not on the first day.
There was something else I needed to get out, though. Something I couldn't let go.
I asked her in a voice more serious than anything I'd ever used with her.
"Nuna..."
"...Yeah?"
"Do you... have a boyfriend?"
She shook her head no.
"...Then, would you... w-wanna go out with me? Starting today...?"
My face went as red as a tomato. Hers did too.
"...Okay."
A brief silence settled between us. Then she quietly slipped into the bathroom, and I opened the front door and went back to my own room.
We'd both been too embarrassed to look at each other, but I'd heard it clearly. She'd said okay. I had a feeling this might just be the best decision of my entire life.
Dad told me to watch out for women once I got to Seoul, but... I think Dad might've been wrong.
Come to think of it, he'd never even lived in Seoul himself. Circumstances vary by region, I figured, and I was just about to sink into a warm haze of happiness when the Status Window chimed and shattered the mood before I could even enjoy it.
I was already narrowing my eyes at it, given its track record. Fortunately, it wasn't another of those godawful quests.
You have obtained 5 Coins.
The Stats Window has been opened.
A Stats Window had appeared in a previously empty corner of the interface. I tapped it without a second's hesitation.
Appearance0
Height0
Penis Length0
Virility0
Muscles0
The stats were so bluntly, shamelessly laid out that I was left speechless.
"It's a little sketchy, but the quests were real, so... maybe this is too?"
Figuring I might as well take the bait, I tapped Appearance. A chime rang out, one Coin vanished, and the Appearance stat ticked up.
You have raised a stat for the first time.
"It even congratulates you for that...?"
People always invest first in whatever they lack. It would appear that User is rather severely lacking in the looks department.
"You little—!"
It wasn't wrong, which only made me angrier. Hitting a sore spot always hurts more, and this was exactly that kind of feeling.
I checked the mirror to see if anything had actually changed. Nothing dramatic. I still looked like me.
"What the hell even changed? This isn't a scam, is it...?"
Smearing on moisturizer once does not give you clear skin. Appearance stats work the same way. Surely you weren't one of those shameless types who thinks a single trip to the gym makes you jacked, or that one dab of cream turns you into a heartthrob... were you?
"Yeah... okay, fair enough."
The system's habit of striking a nerve was getting old, but it wasn't wrong, so I decided to let it slide.
After a long moment of deliberation, I made up my mind: every last one of the remaining seven Coins was going into Appearance.
Are you sure you want to invest? For reference, the most dangerous thing of all is impulsive gambling addicti—
"Shut up! Looks are everything!"
I mashed the Appearance stat like a man possessed, screaming at the top of my lungs.
Just like that, Appearance hit level 8, and I was completely broke.
That was fine. If it made my face handsome, it was more than worth it.
I rushed to the mirror. And staring back at me was a man I'd never seen before in my life.
"This is really me...?"
A sharp, elegant nose. Eyes with striking depth and contrast. A razor-cut jawline. They say even after plastic surgery, your parents will still recognize you — but this might have been enough that even they wouldn't. This wasn't some simple round of cosmetic work. It felt like the entire bone structure of my face had been rebuilt from scratch.
"Holy shit... the Status Window is a god...!"
At some point, without even realizing it, I'd started addressing the Status Window with an honorific.
"...I'm losing it. Nuna's going to love this, right...?"
That was the moment I knew for certain, all over again, that I was in love. I'd just become devastatingly handsome, and the first thing I thought about was whether she'd like it.
This was a severe case. No question about it.
I was happy. Genuinely, stupidly happy.
I packed my bag and headed to campus the same as always, but there was a spring in my step like never before. The reason was simple. I looked better than I ever had.
Even the same clothes sat differently on me now — like they'd gained a whole new presence, a whole new class. Before I knew it I'd been walking around drunk on my own reflection, and I arrived at the classroom without registering a single minute of the trip.
The second I stepped inside, the whispering started. Most of it was women's laughter — Oh my god, who is that? and Was there a guy like that here?
I let a small smile tug at the corner of my mouth.
Perfect. Handsome really is everything. Nuna's going to lose her mind...
Of course, being handsome didn't make lectures any less boring. I toughed it out by thinking about seeing her that evening.
"That's all for today. See you next time."
The professor checked his watch, ended class right on the dot, and vanished. That, at least, was one thing I liked about him.
I packed my bag, and a tune hummed itself out of me at the thought of going to see her.
I was just about to stand when someone walked up to me.
Blonde hair. An off-shoulder top. A black skirt and pantyhose. The kind of girl who radiated I dressed to be looked at from a mile away. Her face was small and genuinely pretty, but her chest and her height both lost out to Yujin overall — a classic slender beauty.
Her expression, though, was anything but ordinary. The girl I didn't know walked right up, planted herself in front of me, and looked me over with a haughty little tilt of her chin.
"I don't think I saw you at the freshman welcome party. Was there a guy like you around? There's no way I would've missed that."
"...And you are?"
Her eyes twitched. Apparently I'd already stepped on a landmine.
"...'And you are?' Excuse me? Was that directed at me?"
"...Well, is there anyone else here who just walked up and started talking to me?"
I stared at her, baffled. She stared right back, equally incredulous, her gaze boring into mine.
"...'Anyone else'? Do you have any idea who I am?"
"...That's why I asked?"
Okay. She was insane. You weren't supposed to engage with people like this.
But the crazy girl grabbed my collar in a fist and yanked my face toward hers.
"So you're telling me you don't know who Baek Harin is?"
She was referring to herself in the third person, too. I'd misjudged her. This wasn't your garden-variety crazy. This was a clean, crisp, certified lunatic.
More to the point — why had she even come over here in the first place?
I tried to leave. She — Harin — stepped into my path and flashed a grin.
"Where do you think you're going?"
"...I have plans."
"Cancel them. You're hanging out with me today."
"Yeah, that's not happening."
"...?"
Shot down a second time, Harin's face went stiff. Clearly this was a humiliation she had almost no experience with. Her eyes sharpened to slits, and she grabbed me by the collar.
"Harin-ie's asking you to make time for her, and you're turning her down? You're not impotent or gay, are you?"
...What is this crazy bitch even saying?
I like women plenty, thanks — wait, no, that wasn't the point.
"It's not like that. I just have plans with my girlfriend, so please stop. If you keep this up, she's going to get the wrong idea."
I waved her off and tried to stand. Harin watched me go, her eyes gleaming with an unsettling light.
It left a vaguely creepy feeling in my gut, but I did my best to ignore it and walked out of the classroom.
So that's what Dad meant about watching out for women. Parents really are never wrong.
Half of me wanted to get to nuna as fast as possible. The other half just wanted to get the hell out of there. I picked up my pace.
Meanwhile, watching Donghyun's back as he walked away, Harin bit down on her lip.
How dare he. How dare he reject me?
This insolent...!
For Harin, who had never once in her life been turned down, it was a moment of pure irritation, rage, and stubborn pride all boiling up at once.
He said he has a girlfriend, did he? Then I'll seduce him right in front of her. And the moment he falls for me — I'll dump him.
Her eyes were burning. In her head, the plan to steal Yoon Donghyun was already fully formed.
She swallowed, the way a person does with a delicious meal sitting right in front of them, and stared at the spot where he'd disappeared. Nobody pointed it out, but the look in Harin's eyes was shining with the same wretched, helpless light as someone who'd already fallen in love.
Maybe that was why. Even on the way back to his apartment, Donghyun shuddered as a chill ran straight down his spine.
Wh-what is this... a sudden cold? Did I catch something from being naked with nuna?
Trembling from a chill of unknown origin, he headed for Room 202, where she would be waiting.