Bamboo Forest Manager

Chapter 65: Greetings

Chapter 65: Greetings

“Kim Woojinnnnn!”

Seo Yerin, calling out my name loudly as she pointed at me. The surroundings were noisy due to the drinking party, so it didn’t stand out much, but the eyes of the people near her all darted to me

“Come hereee!”

Seo Yerin was calling out while thumping the seat next to her with her hand. Yu Arin and other first-year students were also sitting nearby.

‘Why is she that drunk!’

The Seo Yerin I knew was someone who could control her alcohol.

Despite having just turned 20, she was well aware that it was quite dangerous for her to get so extremely drunk that she couldn’t even control her body.

After all, at the last drinking party, she had shown restraint by putting her cup away once she had drunk a certain amount.

“Hurrryyyyy uuppppp!”

Seo Yerin, drunk, continued to call out to me. I was going to refuse since I was supposed to go home, but I ended up sitting next to her because she was stubbornly calling me.

“Why did she drink this much?”

It was originally Yu Arin’s seat, so naturally I ended up sitting between Seo Yerin and Yu Arin.

Thinking it was a good chance, I quietly asked Yu Arin in a whisper, but she just shrugged.

“I don’t know. She suddenly came in and started drinking insanely?”

“Really?”

“By the way, she did ask where you went earlier.”

“Hmm?”

I was about to ask what she meant by this, but there was a sensation on my chin. I was being forcibly turned towards Seo Yerin.

“Look heeere! I’m calling youuuu!”

“What calling?”

I brushed off Seo Yerin’s hand that was holding my chin and asked back, but she just stared at me, making eye contact.

“…What is it, why are you acting like this?”

Since there was no reason to avoid eye contact, I asked while looking right at her.

“Heeheehee.”

She let out this strange laugh and quickly turned her head away.

“What are you looking at, you jerk?”

After doing all this, if she is looking elsewhere herself, what does she expect me to do?

So, when I called her out, Seo Yerin kept avoiding my gaze, looking here and there.

It seemed more like she was enjoying the fact that I was calling her, rather than being shy with the situation.

‘Ah, damn.’

And naturally, the gazes that fell on me. It didn’t really matter since the second-year seniors like Han-kang since they were at a different table.

But the first-years were staring at me and Seo Yerin with slight surprise.

Just like when Hyun-ah first saw us, they seemed to find it fascinating that Seo Yerin and I, who were involved in various incidents, were close to each other.

“You two seem to get along very well.”

Yu Arin, who was beside me, clicked her tongue and placed a soju glass in front of me, then poured me a drink.

“Yah, I was about to leave.”

At my words, Yu Arin frowned clearly.

“What are you saying, are you running away because you’re a lightweight drinker?”

“The provocation is so trivial that it only makes me want to sigh.”

Though I said that, when I actually looked down at the soju glass, I felt the urge to chug it down. The stress I had received from being with Lee Eun-woo earlier seemed to throb at the back of my head.

“Ah, I don’t know.”

As I held the soju glass out to Yu Arin, she grinned and clinked glasses with me, and drank it down.

I poured the alcohol into my mouth, and just like that, the drinking session began.

As if gargling my consciousness.

Or as if trying to disinfect my brain.

Once we started drinking, it continued endlessly.

The drunken voices of the people around felt like a rhythm urging me to drink faster.

“Wow, you can really chug it down.”

Yu Arin next to me kept pouring drinks into my glass as if she were a serving vending machine.

“Woojin, you drink so well!”

Before I knew it, Seo Yerin, who had clung to my shoulder and was wafting with the smell of alcohol, disoriented me with her presence, as if she were emitting some pheromones.

“Pretty oneeee! My arm’s gonna fall off!”

For some reason, even senior Ju-hee, who had pushed aside other first-years to sit across from me, was offering me a bottle of alcohol now.

As I kept pouring alcohol into my mouth, the incident from the last time suddenly sparked to mind.

‘Get a hold of yourself, Kim Woojin!’

The day I got so drunk and whined to the girls to sleep over at my place.

Though I don’t remember it because I blacked out, I couldn’t afford to make a fool of myself here again like that day.

“I-I’m going to step outside.”

After taking a sip of water, I stood up and headed outside. Seo Yerin, who had been asleep leaning on my shoulder, almost fell over and woke up.

“Ugh, damn.”

Outside, the festival performances were still in full swing. I was surprised to find it was only 9 o’clock, I was thinking it was much later because I had drunk so much.

I peeked at another table.

I had been wondering where Choi Yiseo had gone since I hadn’t seen her for a while, but it turned out she was listening to the professors, probably because she’s the class rep.

‘She’s having a hard time.’

But, that should make her look good in front of the professors.

Watching Choi Yiseo navigate social relationships, she seems to feel my gaze on her and taps on her phone, then points at it with her finger.

‘Huh?’

A gesture to check my messages.

I checked the recent message from her.

-Choi Yiseo: Are you having fun with the others?

-Choi Yiseo: Do you want to die?

I held my breath involuntarily at the rather eerie phrase in the second one.

But when I looked at Choi Yiseo again, she was playfully smiling and warning me to be careful with a clenched fist.

So, I just smiled back and gave a slight wave of my hand.

‘Ah, now I’m starting to sober up.’

I stretch simply while straightening my back. As I loosened up, the alcohol seemed to wear off a little.

Thud!

Just then, a heavy weight pushed into me from behind.

I almost stumbled forward but managed to regain my balance and when I looked behind, there was Seo Yerin, frozen in the posture of having fallen on me.

She was still, with her eyes fixed on the ground, frozen. I wondered what was going on, but it seemed to be nothing as she sluggishly corrected her posture again.

“Where are you goinggggg.”

“I said I’m going out to get some air.”

“I seeeeeeeee.”

Why is she really acting like this?

“Why did you drink so much today? You controlled yourself so well the last time.”

“Did I?”

If it wasn’t Seo Yerin, it would be hard for me to endure the level of cutesy slurring with her words.

I was about to suggest she should stop drinking and go home to sleep.

“Everyone! Have a great night! And make sure to find a good connection here. You know, the one where you want to go to a hotel at eye contact with someone.”

It was a joke from the rapper on the stage. The people around laughed out loud at it.

Even though it seemed a bit exaggerated, the important thing was that Seo Yerin was staring intently in that direction.

“Woojin.”

Then she called me, her voice full of complex emotions.

“What now?”

“Is sex really that great?”

“Ha-have you lost your mind?!”

Without realizing it, I quickly looked around, but fortunately, there was no one nearby to hear her say this.

Although for some reason, Yu Arin was glaring this way.

‘Is she blurting things out because she’s drunk?’

I thought it was because she was drunk, but Seo Yerin didn’t stop there.

“My friends… they all have plans today. They’re spending a hot night with their boyfriends now.”

“Loser Seo Yerin, so you’re drinking with Yu Arin because of that?”

I tried to change the subject with a forced joke in the conversation, but Seo Yerin looked at me with a pout.

“Do… does it really change the world?”

“Of course not.”

It’s the same.

What would change with that?

If anything, it’s probably that the fantasies built up from porn slightly disappear.

“But whyyy! Why do they all say let’s go! Let’s do ittt! Why is that?!”

“Hey, this won’t do. You need to go home now.”

Seo Yerin seemed like she might become a real-life Sex God, so I was about to tell Yu Arin to take her home.

“Let’s go home!”

Seo Yerin, holding onto my waist, wouldn’t let go of it.

After struggling a few times to get her off, I eventually decided to just go along with her.

But since it felt odd for just the two of us to go, I called out to Yu Arin to come with us, and she readily followed.

“Arin.”

Jeong Chan-woo came to pick up the drunken Yu Arin. Yu Arin’s expression immediately soured, but Chan-woo’s expression was unusually serious today.

“Arin, could you come with me separately?”

Jeong Chan-woo, seeming to have something he wanted to say, politely asked Yu Arin, but for some reason, Yu Arin looked at me, as if passing the decision to me.

“Go with him. I’ll take Seo Yerin home and then head home myself.”

“……”

Yu Arin shot me a look that clearly showed her displeasure, yet she didn’t refuse to go with Chan-woo.

It seemed that she too had noticed that Chan-woo was acting differently than usual.

In the end.

Yu Arin left with Chan-woo.

Hoping their serious conversation would end peacefully, I was about to take Seo Yerin with me when…

“Hey, guys.”

Senior Han-kang approached us.

I thought we had slipped away quietly without anyone noticing, but we were caught by the very person I least wanted to encounter.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m taking Seo Yerin home because she’s too drunk.”

As I said that, senior Han-kang stepped forward. It seems like he thought he needed to stop me.

“I’ll-I’ll take her home.”

“No… What are you trying to do? I’m just taking her home, okay?”

Especially now that she was drunk, she was spilling everything that she does as Anonymous69.

It would be troublesome if someone else hears this…

But the senior here was persistent.

“I’m telling you I’ll take her home? Woojin, I really want things to work out with Yerin. Cut me some slack.”

Probably because if he were in my shoes, he would never have just sent Seo Yerin home, that was why he was blocking me.

“So frustrating…!”

“Senior.”

Seo Yerin, who had been leaning on me, quietly stood up and looked at senior Han-kang with bright eyes.

Considering she was drunk, her pronunciation was oddly clear, and her posture was straight.

“I’ll go with Woojin.”

Only now did I realize that I have been deceived.

---

“……”

On the way home.

Kim Woojin, who has been silent since a while ago, made Seo Yerin unavoidably anxious.

She had drunk quite a bit, but her mind was still clear. It was a time when she could tell that she was stronger against the alcohol than she expected.

On the contrary, the fact that she had deliberately acted drunk was busted, so she had nothing to say.

The Admin of the Bamboo Forest is Kim Woojin.

From the moment she found that out, her heart kept pounding and it was hard to suppress the surging emotions.

If she didn’t pretend to be drunk, it was hard to even start a conversation.

She thought about this and that and traced back.

There were quite a few embarrassing things, including sending him her own photo.

But anyway, Seo Yerin was only happy that he was the Admin.

But even after knowing that.

She couldn’t say anything to Kim Woojin.

Talking about her true self, her true feelings, as shown through the Bamboo Forest, was harder than she thought.

‘Am I still the same?’

Or am I not ready yet?

The moment that thought crossed her mind.

“Is this the place?”

Arriving at Seo Yerin’s studio apartment, Kim Woojin looked around, awkwardly greeting her with his hands deep in his pockets.

“Then I’ll get going. I was going to buy you a health drink… but it seems like you don’t need it.”

Kim Woo-jin slowly walked away.

Watching his back, Seo Yerin feels a surge of emotions. He is essentially the only one she can show her true feelings to.

Is it right to keep hiding her true self, even in front of him?

If so, for how long?

If she keeps suffering until her heart’s limit bursts, wouldn’t it be too late by then?

‘Woojin…’

He already knows about her ugly side called the ‘Sex God’ through the anonymous forum called the Bamboo Forest.

‘Just once, let’s be courageous.’

To show it.

The moment that thought crossed her mind, Seo Yerin was already sprinting forward.

She barely managed to grab the hem of Kim Woojin’s shirt and stopped him.

“You’re not drunk, right. You ran so well just now.”

She thought that the guy standing in front of her, making unnecessary remarks out of awkwardness, was cute.

But now that she had caught him, what should she say?

Amidst various concerns,

Seo Yerin amusingly recalled the most familiar thing to her.

“Ah…!”

And it was also the least suitable phrase.

“Ahh!”

If one were to be precise.

It was a sort of greeting that transitioned them into a new phase of their relationship.

“I want to have sex!”