Chapter 3: Why are you here?

Come to think of it, the shape and structure of the room felt familiar too.

It was just that the cam was attached to the monitor so I was seeing it from the opposite side.

The wallpaper color was the same white I saw every day during her cam streams.

The chair was also a gaming chair with a reddish tint.

I placed a hand on my chest and confirmed how fast my heart was racing.

It felt like if it kept beating this fast I might actually die.

If this was Uni’s house, then the girl I’d been carrying until just now…

“Then this girl is Uni…?”

The girl who had somehow closed her eyes and fallen into a soft sleep on the bed.

“…Mmm.”

Not a particularly tall height.

Black bob hair and a neat, cute-looking face.

It was a little different from the impression of Uni I’d imagined, but that wasn’t important to me right now.

Oh. Sht. Oh god.

My legs trembled so much that I just plopped down on the floor.

Deep down I wanted to get on my knees and bow toward the bed.

The girl who until moments ago had only looked like a troublesome drunk suddenly seemed cute.

Among the countless Uniz, the collective name for Uni’s fans, none had ever met her in person.

I was the first to encounter the real Uni that no one had ever met.

I’ll live harder from now on.

I’ll become a person who does even more good deeds for others.

It seemed like the god had given me a gift after I did a good deed for the first time in a while.

Honestly right now I wanted to wake Yuna, no, Uni up and at least get an autograph, but waking a sleeping favorite was far too rude.

I could only stare blankly at my sleeping favorite.

Wow. So cute. Crazy. She’s insanely pretty.

I was intoxicated by the excitement for a moment, then the reality of my situation hit me and I instantly cooled down.

Come to think of it, isn’t this just being a sasaeng fan…?

Of course I hadn’t entered because I wanted to.

From Uni’s perspective it would look like her own fan had broken into her house and was breathing heavily while looking at her sleeping face.

“It’s a shame but… I should go, right?”

Fans support from afar.

Even if it’s your favorite, you can’t get swept up in your emotions and act on them.

Fans and streamers exist by keeping each other’s boundaries.

Crossing the line just makes you a criminal.

No matter how you looked at it, there was nothing good about me staying long in a house where a girl lived alone.

I moved my feet while holding back tears.

Honestly I don’t want to leave. I want to stay here a little longer.

How many times in my life would I ever come here again.

Still, I had to go.

I tore my heavy feet away and left Uni’s room.

I was happy even if only for a moment.

I couldn’t brag about it to anyone, but a precious memory had been created for me.

That was enough.

To put it in the words always used in communities.

It meant I had gained one more ‘lifetime drinking snack.’

“Ugh… My head hurts.”

I woke up and lingered on the bed while clutching my head that felt like it would split.

My mind was completely blank.

Why did I even drink in the first place…?

Ah. Right. Some kind of department mixer or something.

My close friend from the same school, Ji-yun, said she didn’t want to go alone and asked me to come with her, so I went.

As expected of me, as expected.

Drinking parties clearly didn’t suit me.

With my timid and introverted personality, going to places where those social types gathered in droves made me feel like all my energy was being sucked out.

After coming back I’d forced smiles so much that only the muscles around my mouth hurt and the emptiness hit hard.

I’d rather just order chicken at home and watch streams.

“I even slept without changing clothes.”

I was still in the clothes from yesterday.

I even slept without washing off my makeup. Ugh.

When I barely managed to sit up, my stomach flipped over completely.

Ugh… Nauseous.

Every step made it feel like the inside of my stomach was shaking along with it.

“Haa… Just watch me ever go to a drinking party again.”

My condition was so bad I wasn’t sure if I could even stream today.

I already felt terrible for randomly skipping yesterday’s stream without any notice.

If I skipped today’s stream too it would be a real disaster.

Fortunately today was Saturday, and if I did my best to recover my condition it seemed possible to stream.

Maybe I should buy some hangover cure and drink it.

I somehow walked to the bathroom and started washing my face while also removing the makeup with cleansing oil.

I turned on the sink, applied the cleansing oil to my face, washed it off, then rinsed cleanly with cold water.

As I blankly washed my face a thought came to me.

“…How did I get home yesterday?”

Whether the film had cut or not, I couldn’t remember properly.

I clearly remembered leaving the drinking party after the first round ended.

After that…

When I forced my head to squeeze out the memories, vague scenes flashed by like a lantern.

– Hey. Are you okay?

A guy who approached because he was worried about my stumbling self.

And myself doing aegyo to a guy I was seeing for the first time like a crazy btch.

– Uuung~. I can’t get uuup.

Myself speaking about my own name in the third person in front of the entrance.

– Not heeey. It’s Yunaaa.

Myself throwing a tantrum at the person who brought me home and asking him to take me all the way to the bed.

– Get dooown…? I don’t wannaa… Take me to the bed…

Those things were completely stirring up my mind.

No way…. Surely not.

Yeah… It must be a dream. There’s no way this is reality.

I’m Lee Yuna.

I hadn’t lived especially kindly until now, but I’d never been the type to cause that much trouble for someone.

No matter how drunk I was, I really didn’t want to think that that troublesome crazy girl was me.

“I’m crazy. I was completely crazy.”

I bit my lower lip and punched my thighs with my fists.

“Aaaah~! Why the hell did I do that. Aaaaaah!”

It felt like this embarrassment wouldn’t go away unless I screamed.

I myself knew that I tended to do more aegyo and act spoiled when I drank.

…But even so, that was too much.

What on earth did that person think of me?

It had to be one of two things.

A mentally gone girl or a crazy girl.

“I have to apologize. I absolutely have to apologize.”

Just letting it slide here would be going against basic human decency.

If I planned to continue school life at all, I had to find that person.

If possible, getting him to keep quiet would be the best.

What was his name…?

I gathered the fragmented pieces of memory that wouldn’t come back.

Ah… Please come to me. Please.

I needed to at least know the name if I was going to apologize or meet him.

– …Ah. I rememberrr. You’re Woo-hyookie, right?

I had clearly called his name with completely twisted drunken pronunciation.

“Right… It was Woohyuk. Kang Woohyuk? I think that’s it.”

I roughly wiped my face with a towel and took out my phone.

[Ji-yun. You know the guy who was drinking with us yesterday.]

[Do you know who that Kang Woohyuk guy is?]

Kang Woohyuk.

I had to find that person.

“So to find the present value of the bond here…”

I forced my eyes wide open and stared at the letters the professor was writing on the whiteboard.

I was already sleepy. Of all things it had to be financial management.

It was a subject I was confident in, but the difficulty was too high.

It was a subject that was way too hard to follow when I wasn’t fully sober.

“Haa… Sleepy.”

The truth was I was right on the verge of falling asleep right now.

The reason was extremely obvious.

I hadn’t slept properly this weekend.

Of course not. I found out that my favorite lives five minutes away from my house?

I found out she goes to the same school, same department, same year as me?

I even went into my favorite’s house and came out?

How was I supposed to fall asleep comfortably.

When I stayed up all night thinking all sorts of things, another day would pass in a flash.

Then I’d collapse from exhaustion and sleep, repeating that until my daily rhythm was already completely flipped.

Lee Yuna… Before I knew it I was thinking about that again.

[Hey. Do you know a girl named Lee Yuna?]

[Lee Yuna? The one who came to the mixer on Friday?]

[Yeah. That’s her.]

The messages I’d sent Jaemin over the weekend.

I was curious what my favorite was like in real life.

Jaemin knew a lot of people even in this large business department.

He was the type with wide connections too.

[I know she only came to department activities a little at first and then stopped, so I don’t know her well either. Seems like she doesn’t meet people much?]

[Really?]

So she doesn’t do department activities much.

That made sense. After lectures she’d go home to do assignments and stream.

She’d be busy all day.

[Why? Are you interested in her? Come to think of it, you two left together after the first round that day.]

[What are you talking about. It’s not like that. I just happened to find out.]

Really by coincidence.

Truly completely by coincidence.

[Sure it’s not. You don’t normally ask about stuff like this.]

[Be honest. If you’re honest hyung will help you.]

The way Jaemin jumped in the moment this kind of talk came up.

[It’s not like that. Please stop attaching random things to everything.]

In the end the information I could get about Yuna was almost nothing.

“Then we’ll end today’s lecture here.”

Ah. It’s finally over.

While giving myself a compliment for somehow enduring the class without falling asleep.

I stepped out of the lecture hall door when…

The moment I left the lecture hall, a hand tapped my shoulder.

I flinched hard and turned to the side.

“Um… You’re Kang Woohyuk, right?”

Why are you here…?

When I turned around in surprise, Yuna was looking at me with an uneasy face.