College Student.
College Student.
Talking while driving, we arrived at the PC bang.
Before, I'd made an ID at some random PC bang without thinking, just using my resident number and phone number, and that led to strangers calling my phone. So this time I pulled out the postpaid card.
We sat down and played ROL. Park Ji-hoon started cussing at me more and more...
"No, why the hell would you jump in there! Don't go in!"
"Told you I had the kill angle."
"Why is the support calling a kill angle the ADC can't even see, you crazy bitch!"
"Skill gap."
"Wow... I gotta hear that from a Bronze piece of shit? Go buy wards."
"Yeah, buzz off~ I'm just short for my upgraded item. You buy 'em."
"Wow... wow..."
After a good while, Park Ji-hoon finally snapped.
"Fuck! Stop hitting the goddamn minions!!!"
"Quit bitching, fuck's sake. Shove the lane and go roam."
"She's insane, this support, what the fuck! No Targon's and you're building tank for what!!!"
"If I buy this, my item's done."
"Wow..."
Eventually the defeat screen showed, and Park Ji-hoon switched from ranked to normals.
"Why, let's play ranked~"
"Shut up."
"Yeah~ Then I'm not playing."
"Oh come on..."
Park Ji-hoon must've given up—he ran a few more ranked games, but his mental was seriously crumbling, so we headed to a pool hall.
"Wager a month's pay on it?"
"Don't be a dick..."
There were other students enjoying billiards nearby, but it was Park Ji-hoon's presence, I guess?
With this bastard next to me, people didn't really try to talk to us.
Probably because buzz-cut Park Ji-hoon genuinely looked like bad news.
The one exception was people exclaiming in admiration whenever I hit a ball.
From a distance, the owner kept sneaking glances and let out a "Kyah~" of appreciation.
We joined up with Ji-hoon's parents,
and only after feeding Park Ji-hoon dinner did we send him back to base.
Park Ji-hoon got out of my Spotted One, waved a hand vaguely, and I waved back.
"Hang in there~"
Then I headed toward Seoul with Ji-hoon's parents.
Da-yeon and I naturally met up right in the hallway outside our doors.
"Si-yoon~"
Once she became an adult and shed her school uniform, Da-yeon started putting effort into her appearance, and as her confidence grew, she got even prettier.
Before, she used to be shy about her beauty and hide it a little. Now—not to my extent, but still—she was starting to admit that she was pretty.
Made sense. Just looking at Da-yeon's social media, there were countless people begging for her affection.
We were both wearing the department jackets we got this time, and Da-yeon looked really great in hers too.
Thinking my baby was growing up so pretty, I twitched my fingers to check just how much she'd grown—and Da-yeon ran away.
"Oh right, Si-yoon, I heard Debtor's Forest is coming out this time. You gonna play?"
"Huh? I heard it's supposed to be fun, but..."
"Let's play together!"
"Then I guess we should~ I'll have to tell my dad to buy two copies."
We naturally got into my Spotted One, and I started the engine.
Woo-ong~ Woo-ong~
"Kyah..."
The Spotted One drew admiration every single time we rode in it.
Today was the first day of university classes, and right from first period I'd be seeing Professor Ahn Jun-tae.
The only stretch on the way to school where I could actually put down some speed was approaching, so I floored it.
Keeeeeeng!
"Si-yoon... you look like you're having fun..."
"University, seriously... an 11 a.m. class... this is insane..."
"Yeah!"
Having confirmed our Spotted One's power first thing in the morning, we were already inside Hanguk University before we knew it.
We arrived 30 minutes early and were sitting down when Professor Ahn Jun-tae walked in.
We'd met maybe twice since enrolling, and every time, Professor Ahn Jun-tae asked after Farzier and Teacher Go Min-su.
Growing older, letting the years slip by, Professor Ahn Jun-tae was living a life of ease.
People flinching when they saw me as they entered—by now, that was just a given...
The class was a theory lecture, and Da-yeon listened hard.
Curious how Hanguk University's classes would be different, I was listening too. But around us, there were more brats pretending to pay attention while actually not.
When class ended, Professor Ahn Jun-tae was looking at me.
Smiling, Da-yeon and I packed up our bags and left.
"It's been a while, hasn't it."
"It has."
"I'm glad you look healthy~ No aches or pains anywhere, right?"
"Of course~ Naturally. You're still painting, I take it?"
"I finish one every two weeks. Farzier said if I churn out too many, the value drops, so he suggested I paint just a little and upload them slowly."
"Ha ha ha. I see."
"We'll be off now~ Great class today~"
"An honor."
""Take care~""
After greeting Professor Ahn Jun-tae, Da-yeon and I headed straight for the car.
"I heard the Gwanam Building's student cafeteria food is super good."
"Still, wouldn't it be better to get used to somewhere close...?"
"Hmm..."
I rested a hand on the Spotted One for a moment, thought about it, then nodded.
"Then let's go eat at our building's cafeteria."
"Okay!"
While Da-yeon and I were mulling over what to eat, I felt eyes on us from the surroundings.
"Hey, Da-yeon, you said you were dyeing your hair."
"Yeah! My mom told me to try everything while I'm young."
"Oh... Then want me to go with you?"
In the end, I picked tonkatsu, and Da-yeon chose fried udon.
The food came out, we took pictures, and then we ate—and it was way better than I expected.
And this was 6,000 won... I nodded, thinking the value-for-money was absolutely nuts.
"Hmm~"
Da-yeon, on her phone next to me—I wondered what she was doing and looked. She was watching an ad for 'Debtor's Forest.'
She seemed to want to play it even more than I'd thought. I quickly sent a text to Dad and then pretended not to know.
Gotta give it to her as a surprise gift when I get home.
"Are you going to the party this time?"
"Ah, that one? The one the government holds?"
"Yeah!"
"First one since I became an adult, so I'll go~ Jeong-yeon is coming too, I heard."
"Yeah, they said the heir apparent absolutely has to attend."
"I hear the coursework is insane. What are you gonna do?"
"Mm... I kinda just want to have fun now... I'm not gonna do anything besides the group projects~"
"Well, yeah, graduation isn't what matters."
Knowing Da-yeon's personality, she had said she wouldn't do it, but she'd probably agonize over it by herself and eventually end up telling me and doing it anyway.
"Si-yoon, you... are you planning to bomb the exams on purpose because I'm not doing it!?"
"Hmm... What should I do~ Ah-haht."
"I know you're smart, but if you don't do it on purpose because of me... I'd feel sorry and kind of hurt."
"Ah-haht."
The udon must not have agreed with Da-yeon as much as she expected—she left most of it.
"Want to hit a cafe?"
"Sounds good~"
We put our finished trays on the return rack and went outside.
"I wanna go on the MT so bad~"
"Da-yeon, want to learn to dance with me?"
Something must have clicked for Da-yeon. She stopped drinking her iced Americano mid-sip and nodded.
"Yeah, yeah! That Si-yoon Bounce or Si-yoon Wave kinda stuff!"
"Oh... I had no idea you wanted to learn."
"But um, I tried it by myself... and I was a total klutz..."
"Nobody knows that better than me~"
"...Tch."
"Ah-haht? It's fine~ I made it so anyone can dance it~"
We chatted with Da-yeon for a while and waited for the next class.
"Two hours is way too long~"
"Right? Want to go for a drive?"
"Mm... Let's just walk around!"
"Sure, why not?"
I finished my smoothie in big gulps, put on my sunglasses, and started wandering around.
Today the warm sunshine was especially boosting both my and Da-yeon's mood.
Walking along the park paths, you'd see some people filming the campus, others making some kind of video.
"This is so cool~"
"Universities really are different."
"Should we join a club too?!"
"Hm... Let's look into it later."
"Okay!"
We were walking around and before we knew it, our major class time was approaching, so we took the car and headed to Hanbong Building on the fine arts side.
When school ended, Da-yeon and I headed to my place.
Dad, who had been lying in wait, suddenly appeared the moment Da-yeon arrived and showed her the Nantendo.
"Ta-da~ A present for Da-yeon~"
"Whoa!!! Thank you!"
Seeing Da-yeon's bright smile, Dad seemed to feel the whole gift was worth it.
Da-yeon's innocently melting expression made whoever was watching soften right along with her—and Dad was no exception.
"Don't smile like a creep while looking at our Da-yeon, okay?"
"...Huh? What!?"
I ignored Dad and brought Da-yeon over to sit on the sofa.
Da-yeon, not knowing how to set it up, looked it over for a long time before reading the manual.
Maybe she wanted to savor the feel of using Japanese for the first time in a while—the Korean was written there too, but Da-yeon deliberately read the Japanese.
Dad naturally sat down next to me and pulled out his own Nantendo.
"Heh heh heh... Daddy's already prepared..."
Looking at Dad's screen, he seemed to have already progressed quite far.
"Are you gonna play dirty? You should play together with us."
"Together my ass! You'll be saying that and then not even sleep, just glued to this."
At Dad's words, Da-yeon whipped her head around to look at me.
"Don't do that. You have to play together with me."
"I know~"
From behind, Dad poked my cheek with his index finger and smiled.
"Ay~ Si-yoon will probably have all her debt paid off by tomorrow, y'know?"
"I said I wouldn't, didn't I?"
"...Yeah."
We started together with Da-yeon, and when I quickly skipped through the text, Da-yeon looked at me.
"We have to start together."
"I knooow~"
Da-yeon's competitive drive in games was surprisingly intense.
Especially whenever she beat me at a game—she was visibly, massively proud of it on the outside, and on the inside she was absolutely ecstatic.
Speed-reading had its limits, but I could read seriously fast, so I'd finish reading and wait for Da-yeon.
The game's premise was that some raccoon, for all that it was a raccoon, relocated people to a deserted island.
If there was nothing to eat on the island, I'd just catch and eat the raccoon right away.
But the odds of eating the raccoon in a game rated for all ages were probably slim.
After playing a little, I started to see why it was called Debtor's Forest.
Right from the start they gave you a tent, then told you to pay 50,000 Bells—combining airfare, labor costs, facility fees, and every other expense under the sun.
You'd think a person would at least have 50,000 Bells in their pocket, but as expected, my in-game character didn't have it.
The raccoon talked about some Mileage system.
It hyped it as this great system where you did various activities on the island, enjoyed island life, and racked up points to pay off your costs.
But this was some next-level oral contract.
This raccoon was basically saying, in a roundabout way, that it was locking me up on an island to use me as slave labor.
The moment that smile started to look fake,
as if to land the finishing confirmation, it said I couldn't even use the airport until I paid everything off.
Insane bastard...
It was 50,000 Bells if you paid in cash,
but converted to Mileage, they explained it as 5,000 Mileage. That was shady as hell, next-level shady.
"Wow, what's this points nonsense, just calculating in money would be cleaner."
"The character doesn't have any money~"
Suddenly the raccoon said it hadn't prepared my house.
It gave me a tent and told me to set it up wherever I wanted to live. When I came back, out of the blue it said we should have a campfire.
There were a shit-ton of other animals around, and this specific raccoon told me to go gather firewood.
Wondering if this was just the debtor's life, I did as I was told and gathered branches, and then it told me to go gather food this time.
"Why is it not lifting a finger and only giving orders?"
"It's a game~"
"Oh..."
"And look. All I have to do is supply the materials, and it finishes the campfire prep all by itself, no?"
"What are you talking about? It turned from morning to night. How do I know if my character even moved? It's a debtor, you know."
"...."
"Look, now it's just tossing me a sleeping bag and telling me to go to sleep. I worked my ass off, and their plan is to just enjoy themselves. It won't even give me the food I gathered, and it won't give me points either?"
""...""
I did what the game told me—went to sleep, woke up, and went to see the raccoon.
The raccoon asked if I wanted to build a house...
"Is it out of its mind? 'Prepare'? I don't have money, so it was bullshitting me, wasn't it? If this was real, I'd have made fermented soybean paste out of it, seriously."
""......""
If Park Ji-hoon or Kim Tae-oh had been next to me, I'd have seriously told them my stories about eating raccoon.
The amount needed to build the house: 90,000 Bells.
"Wow... Dad, this is a scam."
"Si-yoon... it's a game...?"
"No, how does it calculate this? You'd think it'd take it from the labor and facility costs it first dragged in, but instead it pretends not to know and just bills it again separately?"
"Huh, you're right...?"
It said it had built me a house, and the exterior was genuinely god-awful.
It looked like a shack barely ten square meters with a single door on it.
"Wow, for 140,000 won, I feel like you'd get something better than this."
When I grumbled, Dad smiled.
"What."
"Want Daddy to pay it off for you?"
"Nope~"
I scanned which fruit sold for the most, then gathered the priciest peaches.
Seeing one go for 110 Bells, I figured I shouldn't calculate Bells one-to-one with won.
"So roughly how much does a single peach cost normally?"
"...Mm, the peaches I ate before were 4.5 kilos, about 15 peaches in there... and it was 40,000 won."
"About 2,600 won apiece, then? So then that house cost 2.28 million won to build? The land price must be high."
I poked Da-yeon, who was focused on the game, in the pelvis with my index finger.
"Hm?"
"Speaking of peaches, I just thought of it: do you like soft peaches or firm peaches?"
"Mm... firm peaches?"
"...."
"Why? Firm ones taste better~"
On this one, even Dad wore a look of being unable to sympathize with Da-yeon.
"Remind me never to eat peaches with Da-yeon."
"Definitely~"
"Why! When you put peaches in yogurt and eat it, it's seriously so good..."
"Even for that, soft peaches taste better."
"Right, right. Firm ones are like radishes."
I told Da-yeon to go eat beef-and-firm-peach soup or something, and she almost got mad.
I found out later—Lee Jin-seok's whole family are firm-peach extremists.
While we were enjoying the game, Da-yeon eventually decided to sleep over at my place.
And all night in my room, we played Debtor's Forest.