Bamboo Forest Manager

177 – 172. Big Shot

– I’ll pick you up tomorrow.

When I asked why, Yoonji replied that she wanted to see me.

Even though I had told her we were breaking up, Yoonji said she would come and pick me up.

I wasn’t oblivious either.

To her words that hinted that our relationship with Yoonji hadn’t reached its endpoint yet.

Before I knew it, I just replied that I understood.

“I don’t know what’s what anymore.”

It’s just complicated.

If they were just people who approached me for money, I wouldn’t have cared.

I knew that wasn’t the case, and even though I refused, I was confused by the actions that refused to be refused.

“…….”

I felt like I was being manipulated.

I also felt like it wasn’t like me.

I needed to sort out the relationship clearly before the MT ended.

With a sigh of ambiguity, I also felt like I wanted to consult someone.

So I was looking through my contacts to see if there was anyone I could call.

“What are you doing?”

Kim Gyu-ah, who had approached me quietly.

I wondered why a first-year student was outside.

“I just came out.”

A guy who answers on his own without me asking.

“The bathroom is over there.”

“……You really have no manners.”

What could be the reason for coming out?

I guess I came out to go to the bathroom.

I thought he would leave if I stayed still, but Gyu-ah kept guarding my seat.

“Why.”

When I asked gently what the problem was, Gyu-ah finally couldn’t hold it in and asked.

“You told the seniors today, right? Let’s stop.”

“……How did you know?”

“I heard you talking to Senior Lee Seo and Senior Arin while eating meat earlier.”

Your ears are sharp.

Then you must know what the answer was.

I had some worries in my mouth, but I didn’t want to tell Gyu-ah.

I just thought I’d let him go his own way.

Gyu-ah didn’t seem to be that.

“How could you do that?”

With a look of incomprehension, Gyu-ah asks me as if he’s questioning me.

“In the end, the senior has three legs. It’s not much different from me.”

“……Are you picking a fight?”

“But how can you do that? I get dumped right away, or I get called a bad girl, or I even get hit.”

It’s brave to see that she hasn’t given up on dating multiple guys.

“Something, something makes me really angry.”

“What’s wrong.”

“A little… When I look at the seniors.”

Gyu-ah, who hesitated for a moment, takes a deep breath and kicks a stone with his foot.

“Everything I’ve done so far feels like an idiot.”

“…….”

“So I hate it a little. I don’t want to get close to the seniors.”

“Then go.”

Gyu-ah turns his body away without a word.

Obviously, the kid who was grumbling that we were the same people until now.

When I confessed that I was breaking up, I felt a difference, I was embarrassed, and I was jealous.

‘Is that so?’

Our relationship is not ordinary.

As I thought about it, I felt a little relieved.

‘Let’s go back for now.’

I went back into the auditorium to watch the organ bragging that wasn’t over yet.

Some people are rushing forward, wondering if it’s a short break or if they’re playing a different game.

Senior Joo-hee was among them, and when she saw me, she said it was good and dragged me away.

“Help me out for a minute, Woojin.”

“Yes?”

I wondered what the situation was.

During the short break, we started playing a game in front of us, and Senior Joo-hee was forced to participate halfway.

“Just go and match something like a quiz.”

“Oh, what. That’s all.”It didn’t seem too difficult, so I stood in front with Joohee sunbae.

When I looked, everyone came out in boy and girl pairs, but Joohee sunbae didn’t have a man to go out with, so she seemed to be in trouble.

‘Joohee sunbae is a bit scary.’

Even someone like Han Kang tends to be afraid of Joohee sunbae.

“So, the game we’re going to play this time is the newspaper game!”

Newspaper game?

An Hyunho handed out one newspaper to each team while holding the microphone and cheering.

“The team that lasts the longest on the newspaper wins. As time goes by, the newspaper is folded and the area becomes narrower.”

I heard that when you come to MT, you follow the games you see on entertainment shows.

It wasn’t difficult to accept because it was a game I had seen on entertainment shows.

From Noble mtl dot com

At first, it was wide enough for both of us to stand on with both feet.

“It’s simpler than I thought?”

When I said that with a smile, Joohee sunbae pursed her lips and made an ambiguous expression.

“I didn’t think we’d be playing a game like this.”

At first, I wondered what it meant, but as I looked at the newspaper that was getting narrower and narrower, I seemed to know now.

‘Ah.’

This is getting much narrower than I thought.

Before I knew it, I was stuck to my sunbae.

I naturally grabbed both of sunbae’s shoulders and stuck to them.

The shape was not much different from a hug.

Is that why?

‘Can you hug me just once?’

That day, Joohee sunbae’s request to me echoed in my ears like an echo.

‘I want to check if I’m mistaken or not, like you said.’

Joohee sunbae, who still doesn’t know much about love, wanted to find a clear answer to her feelings.

It was a request that was like Joohee sunbae, who was straightforward in everything.

But I refused.

“Ha, if I had known it was this kind of game, I wouldn’t have called you.”

Joohee sunbae, who had her head bowed, muttered as if she was annoyed.

“I’m sorry. I made you uncomfortable for nothing while the kids were watching.”

Joohee sunbae didn’t seem to care. Yeah, it could be said that she was the usual Joohee sunbae.

My breathing was ragged.

Sunbae’s gaze kept avoiding me.

“Sunbae?”

When I carefully called out to sunbae, sunbae, who had been bowing her head as if to run away, tilted her head and looked at me.

In the sunbae’s expression, which was flushed red, I remembered what Yoonji had just said.

Love doesn’t fall in an instant.

It’s something you realize.

As I said earlier, when I refused Joohee sunbae’s hug, I prevented sunbae from giving an answer to her feelings.

But now.

In an unintended situation, sunbae came to realize the answer.

I don’t know if it’s fortunate or unfortunate.

I also came to know it together.

This person loved me.

* * *

The next morning.

A throbbing head.

I was already in pain when I opened my eyes to a terrible hangover.

I heard that it’s a national rule to drink hard liquor when you go to MT.

But I really couldn’t have imagined that I would drink this much.

Also, because I had my own worries, I drank too much with the narrow-minded thought that I would rather get drunk and feel a little better.

Even though I don’t get drunk easily with soju or beer, I remember that I got drunk and ended up lying down in the 2nd and 3rd year boys’ room.

I didn’t have any contact with the girls separately.

At first, we used to drink together naturally, but at some point, we started drinking separately as men and women.

“Ah, sh*t. What is this.”

“I thought I’d get a little closer to the kids.”

In fact, because of that, the 2nd and 3rd year boys were complaining from the morning with a sloppy appearance.

The boys were eating cup ramen for breakfast and hangover.

Sitting around together, it felt like we were in the military.

“Hey, are you okay?”

An Hyunho, who was sitting next to me eating cup ramen, asked quietly.The spiky hair made me smile since the morning.

“What is it?”

“What is it? You drank a lot of alcohol yesterday. I heard from the kids that you drank alone after they all went to sleep?”

“Oh, did I?”

I did drink a lot, but I don’t remember much because I didn’t talk to anyone and just drank alone.

“I don’t know. I just drank.”

“Ha, I was going to go out with Gyu-ah yesterday. But he just drank a lot of alcohol and went to sleep.”

“…….”

I stared at Ahn Hyun-ho and he stopped eating his ramen, looked at me, and clicked his tongue.

“Why, are you telling me not to get close to Gyu-ah? Give me a reason.”

“……You go and ask him.”

I thought that Gyu-ah might answer me now.

So I just let it go and ate my ramen.

After I finished all the ramen, I felt refreshed. Next, it was time to wash up.

There were many bathrooms, and thanks to the kids washing up quickly, I was able to wash up cleanly.

I felt refreshed with my complicated hair.

Now, everyone was packing to get ready to go.

On the first floor, I saw Yoo Ah-rin moving luggage while wearing a hoodie.

She still looked half-asleep as she packed her luggage on the bus.

“Yoo Ah-rin.”

I called out to her and Yoo Ah-rin stared at me and clicked her tongue.

“Did you drink alcohol yesterday? I couldn’t find you when I tried to look for you.”

“In the boys’ room. We all drank together, but I actually just drank alone.”

“Yeah, that’s better. I would have killed you if you had said you drank with other girls.”

“……Let me see you for a second.”

“Why again? Didn’t we already finish talking?”

“We’re not done.”

When I said it seriously, Yoo Ah-rin followed me with an ambiguous expression.

I texted Seo Ye-rin in the meantime and met up with Choi I-seo on the way.

Eventually.

Behind the empty pension.

Three people stood in front of me.

They had their hands in their pockets or were crossing their arms. They were watching each other’s expressions and were anxious about why I had called them.

“It’s a bit awkward to gather like this.”

“……I agree.”

Choi I-seo also nodded slightly at Yoo Ah-rin’s grumbling.

Seo Ye-rin yawned sleepily, but her gaze was clearly on me.

“Why did you call us? We have to get on the bus soon?”

At Seo Ye-rin’s question, everyone’s gaze turned to me again.

My heart pounded.

My hands were sweating and I felt like my breathing was getting a little faster.

But I clenched my fists and looked at the three of them and said.

“My father told me that I broke up with Yoon-ji and met other women and only satisfied my own greed.”

“……Your father?”

The two of them glared at her when Yoo Ah-rin called him that, but I ignored it for now and continued speaking.

“He said I was selfish and greedy. He said I was that kind of person. So to deny that, I tried to choose one of you somehow-.”

I failed.

I couldn’t choose anyone.

So instead, I decided to let everyone go.

Because that was the opposite of what my father thought of me.

Everyone looked at each other at my words.

It seemed that they couldn’t predict what I was going to say.

“But I thought about it. In the end, isn’t this just playing into my father’s hands? I wondered if I wasn’t the Kim Woo-jin that my father read.”

My father’s words dug into me like seeds and grew rapidly.

“But when you rejected my offer to stop yesterday.”

I clenched my fists.

I felt something burning fiercely in my chest.

Should I say that I broke out of my shell?

I felt like the shackles that my father had put on me were being released.

“I thought that denying my father’s words didn’t suit me.”So I’m going to go the opposite way.

More than my father thought.

“More greedily, more selfishly.”

A bright smile spread across my lips.

When I realized that my son was a giant who far exceeded my expectations.

I really wondered what expression my father would make.

And with confidence, I felt like I was finally wearing clothes that fit me.

“So.”

I reach out my hand.

Not to any of the three.

My hand, which was clearly extended to the three of them, contained determination and will.

“All three of you, I love you sincerely.”

Now I can finally say it.

There was an inexplicable sense of relief in the bright smile.

* * *

As I slowly opened my eyes, the first thing that greeted me was the throbbing pain all over my body.

‘What the hell.’

I opened my eyes slightly and looked around, people in hospital gowns and nurses.

I got up quietly, not with a ring or anything, and the nurse came over to me.

“Oh, are you awake? The doctor will come and explain to you, but don’t worry too much because there’s nothing particularly wrong with your body.”

“…….”

Oh, I remember.

I got my ass kicked.