Chapter 99
On the day of the closing ceremony for the break. The world was quite abuzz.
"─Chairman Kwon Oh-sung Resigns Suddenly"
"Could Osung Group Not Escape Owner Risk..."
"Whistleblower Submits Ledger of Politician Bribery Proceedings..."
"Did Kwon Oh-sung's Son Hold Drug Parties with Celebrities at a Villa?"
The news and newspapers were all attacking Osung Group.
When the hidden flaws of chaebol chairman Kwon Oh-sung were revealed to the world, people were busy tearing open and biting into those wounds as if they'd been waiting for it.
MeTube video comments exceeded 10,000.
[All rich people are like that lol. While people like me work our bones off paying mortgage. We should take all the rich people's wealth and distribute it to those who have nothing]
└Where does being rich start? From my perspective as someone without a house and living on rent, aren't you rich too? Shouldn't you give all your wealth to me then?
I thought this must be what they mean when they say the country is divided.
Who would have thought that the chaebol family, which seemed as solid as an iron fortress, would collapse overnight like this?
I didn't know the power of Chairman Cheon Dae-gon, who I thought was just a Gaeryong daimyo at best, was this strong.
Actually, I could pride myself on playing a big role in Kwon Oh-sung's downfall, besides the Cheon family. If I hadn't interfered with that gut ritual or whatever it was, no one could guarantee what would have happened to the world.
It means I'm that amazing of a person. Though I don't really feel it, of course.
Besides the fall of Kwon Oh-sung and Osung Group, there was another thing that caused a stir in society.
Yeongji High students talked about this more than Osung Group's corruption or account manipulation.
"Sojin, did you hear? They say Dorangmul Girls is disbanding!"
"Dorangmul Girls? I don't really know about idols..."
Some students were buzzing about the sudden disbandment news of the girl group "Dorangmul Girls," which had easily entered the U.S. Billboard charts. Mainly students who liked idols.
"I heard there was a problem with the leader, Sarang. The Yeouido gossip says she's pregnant..."
"Hey, how old are you to believe such gossip?"
"Isn't it the government trying to cover something up by making a fuss about celebrities?"
Full of conspiracy theories. I couldn't say I didn't have a stake in Dorangmul Girls' disbandment either. After all, I had received a confession from Kwon Sua, a core member of the girl group.
"Is this reality?"
Even now, days later, the events from then felt like a dream. It meant it felt like a hallucination that my brain had made up to favor me.
But my phone clearly has "Sua" saved as a contact. It meant I could contact her first if I wanted to.
"Hey, so what happened?"
On the morning of the closing ceremony, with only the principal's speech left.
Jung-seok asked as he sat behind me. I explained briefly, as if I had been waiting.
"Yesterday, I only sent Jung Sojin and Ms. Hong Mi-ri into the corridor. They both seemed to escape safely. I earned 300 points and picked up an item too."
I recently deployed a scouting party into the corridor. It was a 2-person party consisting of Ms. Hong Mi-ri and Jung Sojin.
With a 2-person party, they could get a talisman from the basement and use the first floor talisman for a guaranteed escape.
"And as expected, Yoo Dahee wasn't there yesterday."
Many things changed after the second floor opened. First, Yoo Dahee's forced participation gimmick in corridor conquests disappeared.
Just that alone could change many things in terms of tactics.
"The item Jung Sojin picked up yesterday is called a 'Straw Doll,' and it's an amazing item."
[Straw Doll. Dolls have been used as substitutes for people since ancient times. This doll blocks a crisis of death once by being destroyed instead.]
In other words, it's like getting an extra life. It was a really awesome item, and I felt like kissing Jung Sojin for bringing such an item.
Of course, it was just a feeling.
"I still haven't figured out about random matching. Whether it's truly random or if there's some rule. We always need to be careful. We need to manage quirks well too."
My current points are 788.
I needed to save them well since there are too many variables from the second floor. However, Jung-seok seemed to have let my words go in one ear and out the other.
"Not that. Didn't you say Kwon Sua said something to you!"
"Ah. That."
I had told Jung-seok over the phone about what happened between Kwon Sua and Osung Group.
Jung-seok seemed unable to believe it. Should I explain again?
***
Jung-seok, who heard the story, burst out laughing. Come to think of it, it was rare for Jung-seok to laugh.
"Did you get a quirk or something? Did you get a quirk like 'Boy Who Cried Wolf'? Or did you dream about dating an idol while watching a music video?"
"I'm normal."
"Hey, there's no way it could be true that you received a confession from an idol."
Jung-seok couldn't believe that I had received a confession from Kwon Sua.
Honestly, I could fully understand his feelings. If Jung-seok had said such a thing, I would have suspected a mental illness too.
"So what are you going to do? Are you going to date?"
Jung-seok asked in a low voice. Actually, the reason I told Jung-seok the truth was to get his opinion.
"I don't know either. Objectively and coldly thinking about it, I wonder if I'll ever get such an opportunity again? But thinking even more coldly, we don't know anything about each other."
I came from an all-boys school.
When I found out that Yeongji High, where I was going to enroll, was co-ed, and when I learned it was a rough school where two enter and three graduate, I honestly had some expectations.
The expectation that maybe I could become friends with girls during the semester and maybe get a girlfriend─ that kind of expectation. Honestly, any guy would have had such expectations.
But dating a girlfriend was harder than I thought, and I didn't know how to go about it.
In this situation, receiving a confession from an idol might mean I should just accept it, but I wondered if that was really okay.
As I said earlier, we knew so little about each other.
Of course, I knew that Kwon Sua was Kwon Suho's cousin and an idol, and a girl who could see ghosts well like me, but I didn't know what movies she liked, what food she liked, how she spent her free time, what she wanted to do in the future, or if she had a favorite novel.
The reverse would be even worse.
How much would Kwon Sua know about me, Ha Young-won? Probably nothing.
Her confession to me was for the specific reason that "I've never met someone who can see ghosts like me before."
Thinking about it now, it wasn't because I was particularly handsome, or fun to talk to, or because she liked me.
In my opinion, it might be better to say Kwon Sua wasn't in love with me or liked me, but had 'started to take an interest' in me.
"Once we start dating and she gets to know me better, she might realize I'm not as great as she thought, things could get awkward, and we might break up quickly."
Also, if Kwon Sua gets to know me better. If she learns all about my family circumstances, could she still say she likes me then?
If we break up like that, would my heart be okay?
I might cry my eyes out from sadness. I know myself well. I'm someone who easily falls into unrequited love and gets hurt easily.
Of course, Jung-seok frowned and got openly angry.
"Hey, who thinks about failing before even trying? I really don't understand. Why you of all people? The status window, the idol confession... why do good things keep happening to you?"
I don't know either.
Even Jung-seok, who was single-mindedly devoted to Bong Ji-yeon, seemed somewhat uncomfortable and mentally unable to comprehend the idol Kwon Sua's confession.
Is he envious of me?
"Hey, at least you have Bong Ji-yeon."
"Bong Ji-yeon's been flirting with some oppa she knows lately. I heard they're going to watch a movie together soon."
Boing-
Is this for real?
For the past few days, I've been keeping a low profile as much as possible.
I was watching the situation, wondering if chaebol chairman Kwon Oh-sung might retaliate against me with full corporate force using the 'gut disruption incident' on the new moon night as an excuse.
After laying low for a few days like that, I only started to feel a bit relieved after the Chairman and that Dr. Ji person completely disarmed Kwon Oh-sung and exposed him in front of reporters.
While I was laying low like that, it seems the relationship between Bong Ji-yeon and Jung-seok was also flowing in an unimaginable direction.
"Wait, where did this oppa Bong Ji-yeon knows suddenly come from?"
"I couldn't ask, but from the circumstances, it seems they contacted each other on Instagram. Remember we went to our villa a while back? While we were shoveling, the girls were playing in the pool and taking pictures."
"Right."
"It seems to be one of the people who commented then. Apparently, it's a senior from the track and field club that Bong Ji-yeon had liked since middle school. At that time, that oppa had a girlfriend... but it seems he's single now."
Oh, shit...
I had nothing to say.
At this point, shouldn't Jung-seok give up on Bong Ji-yeon? To be frank, Jung-seok came from a good family, studied well, and was quite handsome.
It meant he had no negative factors in terms of likability. Bong Ji-yeon, who had lived as a queen bee, would surely know that Jung-seok liked her.
I was puzzled as to why she wouldn't accept Jung-seok's feelings.
Swish-
I followed the Instagram friend window Jung-seok showed me and looked at the photos of the 'oppa' who was supposedly flirting with Bong Ji-yeon these days.
He had a fierce look at first glance, and photos of him playing soccer shirtless or taking pictures with women in swimsuits at the beach were quite impressive.
Slim and muscular. The very definition of fashion muscles.
At this moment, a realization hit me.
Bong Ji-yeon likes men with good bodies. Kwon Suho, Bong Ji-yeon's ex-boyfriend, and this oppa she's flirting with. Both had bodies that looked impressive even to a man.
Bong Ji-yeon, from the athletic track and field club, was undoubtedly attracted to men with even better bodies than her own.
"Jung-seok, you need to start working out first."
Jung-seok was a bit skinny. He wasn't muscular at all.
"What are you going to do?"
Jung-seok asked me. He must be asking about Kwon Sua.
I was also in the midst of a lot of contemplation.
"For now, we've agreed to meet in a few days and try various things. Watch a movie together, go shopping at a department store, you know... Just spend time together and get to know each other better..."
"It's a date."
A date? If you put it that way, I guess you could call it that.
However, Jung-seok looked around as if something was bothering him and said quietly.
"What did Yang Juhee or Dahee say?"
"They..."
Slide-
Just then, the back door opened.
Yang Juhee, who had been absent during break time, either to the bathroom or for some errand, approached us and said to Jung-seok.
"Hey, that's my seat."
Swish-
Jung-seok got up from the back seat.
Soon, the principal's speech was broadcast on the screens installed in each classroom, and the first semester ended.
The hot summer vacation of the first year of high school began.