Bamboo Forest Manager

Tuesday morning, at the 9 a.m. lecture.

As always, Seo Yerin, Choi Yiseo, and I were listening to the lecture listlessly.

Well, to be precise, only Choi Yiseo was listening diligently to the lecture, while Seo Yerin and I were not doing that.

“So, to beat this boss, we need to level this up, right?”

“I don’t have the resources.”

Seo Yerin sighs as she looks down at the game character on her phone.

“They distributed a lot during this event. Did you level up anyone in particular?”

“This one.”

A female character whose bust was so ample it seemed larger than her face. The character was supposedly a student, but the suggestive nature of her appearance made one wonder how she could possibly be a student with that body?

“This one was exactly my type.”

Sorry, but I’m not a performance freak like Seo Yerin, so I just level up characters that are pretty.

Seo Yerin seems displeased with what I said, idly tapping on her phone as if in a bad mood.

• Eek! Teacher! Where are you touching!

A strange moaning sound came from the phone.

Startled, I quickly turned down the volume, feeling the gazes landing on me from around.

“What are you guys doing?”

Choi Yiseo looked at me with disgust. I tried to explain it wasn’t me, but Seo Yerin was already busy writing something in her notebook.

She’s really quick to sever ties.

As the surrounding gazes returned to the blackboard, Seo Yerin leaned towards me again, starting to give her unsolicited advice.

“Don’t bother raising this one, focus on the others.”

“…Got nothing else to say?”

“Huh?”

Huh? What a mess.

“Thanks to you, I’m now the crazy bastard who watches porn with the teacher in it during class?”

Wow, saying it out loud really does make me sound so insane.

Even hearing that someone watched porn related to the teacher fantasy during class grossly inflates the disgust and shame several times over.

“It’s not porn.”

“There’s no need to misunderstand it like that.”

“Are you embarrassed by our guys?”

“Are you not embarrassed, or simply pretending not to know?”

“…Let’s pay attention.”

Seo Yerin, I really crave to give her a flick on the forehead.

Pretending not to know anything and starting to take notes again, I decide to put my phone away and study as well.

It hasn’t been long since the midterms ended, and now the finals are just around the corner.

I heard that once you enter uni, you just play and eat most of the time, but for some reason, it always feels like it’s one exam after another.

Swoosh.

A notebook slides in, tapping my arm.

Seo Yerin, offering me her notes. But when I look, it’s not study material but rather chit-chat written down like passing notes.

• Do you like that character the best?

“Yeah.”

Feeling too lazy to respond properly, Choi Yiseo glances over at us. It seems she was wondering what I was suddenly talking about.

Ignoring that, Seo Yerin quickly grabs her notebook and scribbles something again.

• Want me to cosplay it?

Where exactly is her limit when it comes to sexual activities? To the master of genre equality, who never denies the diversity of genres, I reply with an answer.

• ㅗ

• Why

• You can’t

I was worried explaining why might hurt her feelings, but seeing her punch my thigh, it seems she understood the reason without me spelling it out to her.

After all, the character has a chest bigger than her face, how could she imitate that without padding?

Maybe only through surgery or if she were a foreigner would that be possible?

“Do you guys not study at all?”

Eventually, unable to stand watching us fool around any more, Choi Yiseo spoke up.

After all, since I’ve been attending well, as long as I score the average on the exam, I won’t get an F, so no problem.

“Really, if it’s urgent, wouldn’t you help me out?”

“Class representative Yiseo wouldn’t abandon her department mates.”

“Sorry, but it’s relative grading, so I won’t help.”

Even as she grumbled and said that, knowing she would help, a sly smile naturally formed on my face, and Seo Yerin was wearing the same expression.

“Ugh.”

Choi Yiseo shook her head and went back to focusing on the lecture.

Since there was such a Choi Yiseo, Seo Yerin and I decided to think about the lunch menu.

“Sundae soup.”

“Since we need to make a good impression on Yiseo, how about going somewhere with lots of vegetables like shabu-shabu today?”

“Beef head soup.”

“There is also a place selling chicken breast steak. It’s delicious there.”

“Pork soup sounds good.”

“Or what about just kimbap? There was a place selling keto kimbap for diets.”

“Bean sprout soup rice.”

“…I really want to smash your head with real hot pot soup.”

I mentioned four menus on my own, but isn’t this treatment too much?

“First of all, Choi Yiseo is not dieting anymore. She’s eating anything now.”

Choi Yiseo, who didn’t need to diet but dieted, but now she’s really not dieting.

However, she seems to have something to argue about, considering how she was glaring at me.

“That’s because you’ve been eating whatever you want with her.”

“And then, when you eat again, you eat well.”

“…During the winter break, I’m really going to exercise and take a body profile photo.”

I don’t know why she’s so obsessed with a body profile photo, but if she wants to do it, she can do it.

“Then, let’s eat kimbap for lunch! And soup rice for dinner! How about that?”

Seo Yerin, who was a neutral officer, suggested a compromise, but I shook my head.

“I have plans tonight.”

Immediately, two gazes fix on me at my words. Perhaps because of my visit to the girls’ dormitory yesterday, their eyes were looking much sharper than usual.

“Where? With whom?”

“You have a lecture at 5, and you’ve made dinner plans?”

“I’m going to cancel today’s class because of that.”

Skipping a 5-hour gap seems crazy. But today, I needed to prepare, so I’m deciding not to go.

“Where? With whom? I want to come too.”

Seo Yerin clings to me persistently, making me sigh and answer.

“Senior Han-kang is coming though?”

“Have a good time.”

I quickly dismissed Seo Yerin.

I had agreed to drink with senior Han-kang, but I never thought that plan would actually come to fruition.

As I fend Seo Yerin off, Choi Yiseo, who was beside us, quietly intervenes.

“Where are you going to eat? If it’s okay, I might also…”

“Ahn Hyeon-ho is coming too?”

“…You don’t have to edit then?”

Choi Yiseo immediately changes the subject, indicating she won’t come.

Thus, Choi Yiseo was also brushed off.

“I did a lot yesterday, so it’s okay. It’s progressing faster than I had initially expected.”

Since I already planned the composition while shooting, editing itself could be done much quicker.

Honestly, adding subtitles is the most annoying part.

“It’s a men’s only gathering.”

To add on…

It could also be called a losers’ gathering.

Surprisingly, the person who organized this gathering wasn’t me, but Chan-woo.

He called me because he said he wasn’t part-timing today and asked if we could grab a drink, probably because of something that happened with Yu Arin yesterday.

But then, out of nowhere, Chan-woo says he’ll call Pyo Jinho.

Thinking he must be up to something, I also summoned Han-kang and Ahn Hyeon-ho, just in case a fight broke out at the table I decided that we needed to break it up.

They’ve been asking me to have a drink separately since last time, so there was also a selfish desire to just get it over with in one go.

Suddenly.

The lineup of crazy guys was complete.

Ugh!

While heading to the pork belly restaurant Chan-woo dictated, my phone rang.

I had just managed the Bamboo Forest, so I thought I’d be annoyed if it was about that again, but it wasn’t.

• Yu Arin -

I hesitated for a moment but answered the call anyway.

“Yeah, slave.”

• …Master, where are you?

Should I entertain this?

“I didn’t think you’d answer to that.”

• Where are you? I’m bored, let’s go to a PC café and edit together.

“Hmm.”

• Or I can come to your house too?

“I’m out because I have plans.”

• …With Yiseo and Yerin?

I don’t know why those two names came up first, but I denied it anyway.

“No, I’m drinking with Chan-woo.”

It seemed like mentioning Chan-woo’s name after denying Seo Yerin and Choi Yiseo, didn’t bring a favorable answer from Yu Arin.

• Where is it? Let’s go together.

‘What’s this?’

I was sure Chan-woo would talk about something related to Yu Arin. Did they decide to date yesterday by any chance?

But there’s another mystery card for Yu Arin.

“Pyo Jinho is also coming though?”

• …You’re kidding, right?

“I wish I was. Chan-woo invited him. He said we might need more people in case he decides to smash a soju bottle on a hot pot.”

• Sigh.

A sigh that seemed to convey a mix of complicated feelings. I waited, expecting Yu Arin to say something.

Click.

But she just hung up.

“This girl…”

And a few minutes later, a long message came through, filled with curses meant for Pyo Jinho, so I just pretended not to see it and put my phone away.

‘Am I late?’

I was late because of Yu Arin, but that didn’t mean I hurried or ran to the meeting point.

It was bothersome, and it wasn’t such an urgent gathering, was it?

However, the moment I arrived at the pork belly restaurant, I realized my thinking had been a bit off.

Everyone else had already arrived at the table except for me.

Looking at the men sitting around the round table, silently grilling meat, crossing their arms, or just staring at their phones.

‘Ugh, it’s suffocating to watch.’

This isn’t some kind of Avengers movie.

‘Maybe I should just go home?’

Chan-woo immediately waved and called out to me as I was honestly about to turn around and leave the pork belly restaurant.

“Woojin! Over here!”

‘…I’m caught.’

Eventually, I was spotted and ended up sitting down beside Chan-woo.

Han-kang and Ahn Hyeon-ho were glaring at me, wondering why they had even been called here.

And there was Pyo Jinho, who had been beaten up like a dog by Yu Arin last time.

Amidst the discomfort, I awkwardly asked Han-kang.

“When are you joining the army?”

“I’ve postponed it to next year.”

“Huh? I thought you were going right away.”

That is why he had already taken a leave of absence from university. I wondered why he had ditched our group project if this was the case.

“I’ve postponed it without telling my parents.”

“……”

“So, by any chance, could I stay at your place for a few days?”

“Your life is truly legendary.”

It almost felt like he was living on the edge at every moment.

“Aren’t you worried about editing?”

Ahn Hyeon-ho, who had been staring at his phone next to Han-kang, casually asked.

“I did a lot yesterday. This is the third time I’m saying the same thing today.”

I’m not some editing machine; it’s getting tiresome to answer the same question from everyone.

Since Ahn Hyeon-ho and Han-kang were close, they started exchanging words, so I decided to talk to the person who felt the most out of place.

“Hello, hyung, I’m Kim Woojin, who greeted you last time.”

When I greeted Pyo Jinho, he nodded awkwardly.

His build is bulky, but still he seems like a fragile person, perhaps because the wounds from that day haven’t yet healed.

Having initiated the conversation, I find myself at a loss for words.

“…Yu Arin asked me to deliver a message, should I show it to you? It’s a bit hard for me to say it myself.”

“No…”

I said whatever I could think of but he refused immediately. I feel somewhat gloomy, as if I’ve added to his hurt.

Lastly, Chan-woo.

Chan-woo, who had ordered drinks at some point, was passing around glasses and then spoke to me.

“Woojin, can you switch seats with me?”

“…Why?”

To my question, Chan-woo responded with a smile.

“I think I might end up breaking senior Jinho’s head with an empty bottle.”

Then why did you sit next to him in the first place!

Chan-woo’s face was red, perhaps having had a few drinks before arriving.

I immediately swapped seats with him and extended a glass of alcohol to break the awkward atmosphere.

“Let’s toast… Being rejected by a woman doesn’t mean life is over.”

“Son of a bitch.”

I didn’t know who it was, but a curse came for me, so I just put my glass down.

But retreating here somehow hurts my pride. So, I extended my glass again and tried a new slogan.

“We are not losers.”

“Son of a dog.”

Another curse came from somewhere.

I scanned the room looking like a mafia, but everyone was keeping their mouths shut, pretending it wasn’t them.

“Fuck, you do it then, you crazy assholes. Cheers.”

Starting with my sudden outburst, because I hate being cursed at.

An unbearably awkward drinking session among men unfolded.

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