Bamboo Forest Manager

“Take, care, then.”

Choi Yiseo uttered an awkward goodbye.

The tear stains around her eyes were telling of how our emotions had soared to extremes just moments ago.

But after a little while, naturally, we returned to reality.

I’d said there’s no love like they show in the movies or dramas, but why do I speak as if my words belonged in a movie or drama?

‘I’m just a crazy person.’

It was an honest feeling, but perhaps too honest in this situation. I should have known to restrain myself a little.

I urgently call out to Choi Yiseo, about to enter her house.

“Yah, Yiseo. We need to meet tomorrow, alright?”

There’s still filming left to do.

We have to meet again tomorrow to film it, but if we part like this, I feel like I’ll just be kicking the covers until we see each other again tomorrow.

“Ri-right?”

Suddenly, Choi Yiseo, who seemed not to have expected me to call out to her, looks around and answers.

There was a need to somehow change the atmosphere.

“That is… you know, I mean.”

But then when I actually tried to speak to her, I wondered how I could possibly change the mood now.

In the end, while the two of us were just staring blankly at one another.

“Huh? What are you two doing out here?”

Minji, who came out of the house, met us right then. She had come out wearing pajama pants and holding a trash bag.

“Taking the trash out at this hour?”

Seizing the opportunity, I immediately said something to her, and Minji grumbles in response.

“It was originally Yiseo’s turn today, but she didn’t come, so I’m doing it… But, what’s going on here?”

Looking at us, she hesitated as if she sensed something strange between us.

“Did something happen between you two? Di-did I get the timing wrong?”

Should I say yes or no? The fact that I’m unsure shows just how confusing this situation is for me.

“Did Yiseo cry?”

Minji, who was about to go back inside with the trash, seemed startled to see Choi Yiseo’s tears and hurries over.

“What’s wrong? What happened? What did you do to Yiseo?!”

Seeing Minji hugging Choi Yiseo dramatically like in the movies and yelling at me made my shoulders relax slightly.

“I didn’t do anything bad, so don’t go calling your big bros again.”

“No, why would you pour salt onto that wound…”

“Minji, you smell like trash.”

“I’m clearly taking your side, so why are you doing this to me…”

As soon as the two of us scold Minji, she pouts lips jutting out. Thanks to that, the atmosphere lightened up a little.

“Everyone’s being too much. I’ll just throw the trash away and sit next to it. Since it’s incinerable trash, we won’t need to separate it for recycling.”

Trudging off to discard the trash, I look away from Minji behind and look back at Choi Yiseo.

A faint, but clear smile appears on her lips, suggesting that Choi Yiseo too feels the atmosphere has lightened somewhat.

“She’s become brighter.”

Choi Yiseo adds, glancing towards Minji. It was a starkly different image from when she was engulfed in her delusions.

“It’s thanks to your help.”

“It was her own courage.”

What did I do, after all.

Minji had committed a crime and received her punishment, thus she changed into a new person through repenting, that’s all it was.

“I’ll be going now. Don’t take what I said today too seriously. Just let it in one ear and out the other.”

It was somewhat awkward, but when I told her so, Choi Yiseo looked straight at me and then let out a chuckle before answering.

“Don’t just let what I said in one ear and out the other.”

“……”

“You got that, right?”

I couldn’t give a definite answer, but I nodded in agreement and then turned around.

While passing by the garbage dump, I saw Minji squatting next to a trash bag, but I just pretended not to see her and walked past.

‘I should hurry home, take a shower, and go to bed.’

Stretching as I was heading home,

Woong!

My phone rang all of a sudden.

Considering the time was nearing midnight, it was usually a notification from the anonymous ones of the Bamboo Forest, so I checked it without much thought.

It was quite unexpected to receive a call from her. We had just finished shooting together and parted ways; what could she possibly want to talk about?

I answered the phone with a lack of interest.

Yu Arin’s low voice indirectly informed me that the situation was serious.

“I dropped Choi Yiseo off at her place, I’m on my way home, why?”

“Can I hang up?”

As I sighed and was about to hang up, Yu Arin shouted desperately.

“What is it now?”

With that, the call disconnected.

‘I thought she would just go home after finishing her assignment…’

Despite thinking this, I headed to the address Yu Arin had sent via KakaoTalk. Today, I’ve heard several strange stories related to Yu Arin, so it seemed best to check the situation out.

The place Yu Arin marked was unexpectedly a neighborhood playground.

Recently, it wasn’t a place where kids roamed around but rather a spot where delinquent students would hang out when they had nowhere else to go, giving off an ominous vibe from the start.

And it was indeed the case.

Yu Arin’s hair color was so light that one could recognize her from afar at night.

But then there was this bulky man standing opposite her.

He seemed to have made an effort to dress up, but it looked somewhat awkward on him. It was clear from a glance that this was a man you shouldn’t accidentally make eye contact with while passing him by on the street either.

“Woojinnn!”

Recognizing me, Yu Arin immediately waved and ran over. The way she greeted me warmly and ended on a high note clearly showed it was all an act from here on.

As she came running and linked her arm with mine, I couldn’t help but frown.

“What are you doing?”

I whispered softly, and then Yu Arin pinched me on the thigh.

“Just shut up and go along with it. Please, really.”

“……”

Seeing how urgent this looks, there definitely seems to be something going on. I felt a sudden surge of energy in my body, as if I knew exactly what this was about.

Yu Arin took me to the man and said with a bright smile,

“Oppa (Korean term for older men in a familiar way), you see, right? This person is my boy……”

“Not boyfriend, but just a friend from the same department.”

I cut Yu Arin’s words off right there.

Yu Arin, glared at me with a sour expression, and the man she had referred to as oppa looked at me with a strangely changed expression.

With the friendliest smile I could muster, I immediately offered my hand to this oppa.

“Hello, I’m Kim Woojin, a friend from the same department as Yu Arin.”

As I confidently stepped forward, he somewhat bewilderedly accepted the handshake in a daze.

“Uh, I’m Pyo Jinho. I’ve known Arin since high school.”

So, this is Pyo Jinho.

I had a feeling, but seeing him like this, the kids were just scared for no reason.

“Ah, I see. Could I possibly know what’s the situation here?”

Continuing to ask with a smile still on my lips, Pyo Jinho gets swept up in my flow and continues.

“I’ve been interested in Arin for a while now. So, I tried contacting her this time too…”

“Ah, so this trash called me over to act as her boyfriend, huh?”

Yu Arin punched me in the back. I really wanted to ask her to stop because it was hurting now.

“But don’t worry. I’m not her boyfriend.”

“……”

“There’s absolutely no need for you to get jealous or curse me either, or come to hit me from behind to hurt me.”

He was a man around whom strange rumors circulated.

There’s nothing good about getting involved with him for no reason.

I didn’t even want to imagine the trouble I would have been in if I had said here that I was Yu Arin’s boyfriend.

“Ah! You jerk! Can’t you just agree with me once?! Uh! Huh! Is it that hard?!”

Yu Arin kept batting me on the back.

Unable to bear it any longer, I twist my body and hold her wrist.

“First of all, your intention to make me your pretend boyfriend is disgusting to me!”

Isn’t that so?

“If you’re not interested, you should just say it clearly to him! What are you so afraid of that is making you resort to lying like this?!”

“No, it’s just…! Ah, seriously!”

“He might have been in fistfights in high school! I can tell, he probably walked around like that because he is so well-built!”

As I point and shout at this oppa Pyo Jinho, his body flinches.

“But how old are you now! How old are you, Hyung (brotherly term for Koreans)?!”

“22.”

“Wow, you’re the same age as Ju-hee noona? You’re at this age now, do you still plan to live by fighting?! Hyung, it’s high time you stopped doing things by fighting!”

“What do you know, you crazy bastard! It’s only your first time seeing me today!”

I don’t know.

But I just blabber on to his face.

“Still, what can I do if my heart goes out to Hyung! If Hyung bravely confesses, shouldn’t you respond honestly like a woman? Pretending to have a boyfriend and sneaking around without answering properly!”

“Ah! I really want to kill you now!”

Yu Arin stomps the ground in anger. If she hits me with that sort of force, I might really die today.

“Honestly speaking! Hyung must be ready to accept it, right? Right? You can tell Hyung is a real man, he would want to hear an honest answer.”

“Uh? That… is right…”

I start to get swept up in the flow and go over to Pyo Jinho, patting him on the back.

“Let’s go, you’re going to answer to his confession.”

“Ah! No, I don’t want to!”

Yu Arin shouts out loud, finally venting her feelings.

“I don’t want to! I hate you, Senior! I’m pissed off because my relationship with Yerin got messed up because of you! I hate myself for getting jealous over her! I hate that Jeong Chan-woo asshole for rejecting my confession!”

“……”

“I hate how you subtly approached me during Taekwondo and you smelled of sweat! I’m annoyed by how you warned others behind my back that I’m yours and that they shouldn’t approach me!”

“……”

“I hate how you keep telling me to come to the martial arts hall! And I hate how you contact people around me looking for me!”

“……”

“I’m pretty sure I rejected you the last time, but I really hate how you keep clinging to me like this! And following me around because of some first love shit which is just disgusting!”

“……”

“Ruining my first love so horribly and then acting like this towards me, aren’t you being too much?”

“……”

“I hate how you dress like some sleazy bug! I hate your pigeon-toed walk! I hate how you seem to wear too much perfume on you!”

“……”

“I hate how you reek of sweat! I hate how you try to discipline the kids around you! I hate that you come to me at night like this with your weird requests! And I hate how you look at me so intensely as if you’ve been waiting for me!”

“……”

“I hate your arrogance! I hate how you act tough towards me! I hate when you send messages to me! I hate when you call me! I hate having to be cautious because I am scared of what happens to others.”

“……”

“I hate the idea of you gathering other guys or taking out your frustration on them because you got rejected by me! And I hate it when you brag about money after extorting it from others!”

“……”

“I hate smoking! And especially spitting phlegm on the streets it’s fucking disgusting to see! Sexual harassment is fucking awful! And it’s shitty how you often reveal you’re seeing other girls!”

“……”

“Just! I just hate it all! How could I possibly like you, Senior?! Because he was so scared of you, Jeong Chan-woo, that asshole, even rejected my confession! Huh?! You tried to force Chan-woo and Yerin to be together, saying you were protecting me?!”

“……”

“What? Confession? Confession? Go eat the fucking shit, you bastard! You ruined my high school life! If I were still active in my Taekwondo, you’d be getting your ass whacked by me and sucking on a pacifier in the hospital with all your teeth broken!”

“……”

“Ah! And just to tell you one more thing. When you were competing, the kids were just losing to you on purpose, you bastard! That’s why you couldn’t even place in the competition final list! Acting all high and mighty as an athlete, but what is it with walking the path of a coach at 22? Did you change your mind after getting beaten up in the competition and drawing shit on your blanket?”

“……”

“You must regret it, right? In high school, you strutted around as if you owned the world, but once you stepped out, oh, my? You were turned into nothing but a nobody?”

“……”

“Ranting and raving at the teachers! Ranting and raving at school! But what do you know? Do you now realize that the very people and places you ranted and raved against were actually protecting you from the world?”

“……”

“You need to fix your attitude first, you bastard! Otherwise, you’ll get beaten up in the military! What? You want to challenge your superiors to a fight without caring about their ranks? Didn’t you do that to the seniors when you were in the second year! To those preparing for the college entrance exam!”

“……”

“It should be quite a sight. Since you can use phones these days in the army, make a video call. I’ll wait with popcorn! Immediate summoning of the commander to a fight! Battalion commander summoning! Regiment commander summoning! Fighting one by one after removing their ranks, this bastard, you’ll end up fighting with the president too huh!”

“…….”

“Congratulations, you piece of shit! You’ve conquered South Korea by not caring about ranks! When that time comes, come to me, and I’ll spread my legs to date you, you fucking asshole!”

Is it finally over?

Gasping, Yu Arin glares at Pyo Jinho. I slowly approach Yu Arin and pretend to hand something over.

“Yu Arin receives the acceptance necklace.”

“…Thank you.”

I had nothing to give her, so I just pretended to offer something, but surprisingly, she took the joke.

I wondered if Pyo Jinho might rush at me in anger. But it seemed he had already been verbally murdered, and his shoulders were drooping.

“Hyung, you’re awesome. You confessed like a man and got rejected like a man too.”

“……”

Pyo Jinho, seemingly quite shocked, steps back. I pat him on the shoulder and hand him my phone.

“Let’s have a drink of soju later.”

“……”

As if his tongue was paralyzed, he silently types his number into my phone.

Then, as he seems to calm down a little, he glances at Yu Arin.

“If you say something like ‘I loved you, you fucking wench’, I’ll kill you, you fucker.”

“You! You’re already out of the fighting ring, why hit him again! Stop it!”

In the end, Hyung just left.

And Yu Arin remained with me.

“Honestly, I was a bit scared of that senior. But once I started talking, I just spilled everything out.”

Seeing her out of breath from talking so much, I gave her a sneaky smile.

“Feeling better?”

At my question, Yu Arin also smiled and extended her fist slightly.

“So damn relieved that I’m slightly wet.”

I bumped my fist against hers, letting out an incredulous laugh.

“Crazy girl.”