Bamboo Forest Manager

A Departure

What was the problem?

What part had gone wrong that her father could display his daughter like a vendor’s merchandise?

I had questions, but asking such things carelessly would be rude.

Perhaps it was the feeling that, the moment I asked, I would become involved with the matter.

I couldn’t bring myself to speak freely.

And as I stood there, Choi Jin-ah looked at me with a faint smile that felt anything but pleasant.

It was that kind of smile.

Watching me draw a clear line with silence, Choi Jin-ah slowly rose from her seat.

“Did I say something too heavy?”

“Everyone has at least one topic like that.”

As I echoed her sentiment, Choi Jin-ah slightly lowered her head and replied.

“I’m sorry. It wasn’t a request I should have made to someone who already has a partner.”

“You haven’t said anything yet.”

Despite my efforts to brush off the notion that anything had happened between us.

“You’ve already noticed, haven’t you?”

Even with a smile, she felt distant, and she cautiously took a step back.

“I guess I shouldn’t have called you to a place like this, considering what happened then.”

“……”

“I’m sorry.”

After apologizing, Choi Jin-ah walked away, disappearing into the crowd.

Did she have somewhere else to go?

I wasn’t sure, but after briefly watching her retreating figure, I turned my head toward Seo Ye-rin.

“Hey Ye-rin, should we go check out something fun here?”

I said that to lighten the mood, but Seo Ye-rin wore a rather ambiguous expression.

“Didn’t she call you because she wanted some help?”

“……”

That was true.

She probably called me because she wanted something from me.

I might have hoped to do something among those who came to evaluate me.

“That’s not my job.”

When you cut things off coldly, you have to know it will be like that.

Even though I had already said last time that I was going on a blind date, the three of them were troubled, feeling concerned.

Simply swayed by their current emotions.

Because Choi Jin-ah looked pitiful.

If I moved like that, I could truly lose the people I love.

That was what scared me the most.

“Choi Jin-ah and I are strangers.”

Isn’t it an age where you can call elementary school classmates strangers?

Anyway, I hardly remember the memories.

At my words, Seo Ye-rin tilted her head.

“Is it really like that? I don’t know.”

“What do you know? Let’s just play; Bong-geun said there are plenty of games to enjoy here.”

I heard there are games like bowling alleys, pool halls, and dart rooms prepared.

The deck is a bit noisy, so I planned to play inside with Seo Ye-rin and Senior Joo-hee.

Seo Ye-rin remains unmoved in her seat.

“Woo-jin, Senior Joo-hee became a bodyguard because you helped her, right?”

“Uh-huh, that’s right?”

“Can you call her?”

At those words, I turned my head to look for Senior Joo-hee.

Senior Joo-hee, who was having a casual chat with other bodyguards from a distance, came over immediately upon seeing me searching for her, even without saying anything.

“Is there something going on?”

Having been a bit distant, she returned with a formal and stiff demeanor.

Seo Ye-rin immediately questioned her.

“Senior! Last time when you asked me to dress up for a date! You met Woo-jin then, right?”

“Yes, eh?!”

Suddenly, Senior Joo-hee’s pronunciation became strange, as if her tongue had loosened.

Then she glanced at me, her eyes asking what kind of situation this was.

‘Ah, that time.’

—

I wanted to thank Senior Juhui for knocking down Hwangsa, so I planned to treat her to a meal, but she showed up all dressed up in a feminine way.

And at that time, I also received something resembling a confession.

“Ah, um, yes.”

Senior Juhui, who had been so confident just a moment ago, stammered and tried to respond.

“Are you still interested?”

“Excuse me?! No!”

A sharp reply from the senior.

Seoyeon, hearing the answer, tapped the chair next to her and made Senior Juhui sit down.

“Senior, please be honest. Do you really have no interest at all? This is a question from a junior in the English department.”

“Phew.”

Taking a deep breath, Senior Juhui tried to collect her thoughts. Then she nodded and answered confidently.

“I can say there’s none.”

“……”

“Woojin has really helped me a lot. There were definitely times when I had feelings for him, and whether that’s completely settled… I can’t say for sure.”

Senior Juhui glanced at me, checking my reaction. I unintentionally got to hear her true feelings from the side.

“I have something I need to do before that. Even to repay Woojin for his help, I don’t think those feelings would be very helpful.”

“That’s a pretty ambiguous answer.”

“I can’t help it; this is my true feeling.”

Was she craving alcohol? Senior Juhui’s gaze briefly fixed on the wine glass.

Noticing this, Seoyeon offered it to her, but she shook her head.

“I’m working right now.”

The formal tone returned.

Seeing this, Seoyeon crossed her arms and opened her mouth as if to say something profound, but—.

“This is different from what I expected?!”

She started to fidget and make a fuss.

“Senior, do you still have feelings for Woojin!? I thought you were over it!”

“Uh, huh?”

“No, how did you come here while feeling that way! It must be tearing you apart!”

“Wait a minute. Did you really understand what I said?”

Senior Juhui was trying to calm down the flustered Seoyeon.

—

I’m not entirely sure what Seo Ye-rin was trying to say by calling in Senior Joo-hee like this, but…

It felt as if my role had been vaguely defined solely through nuances, actions, and the atmosphere, since she hadn’t actually spoken.

“Anyway, I get what you mean, Ye-rin.”

I sprang up from my seat.

Looking at Choi Jin-ah, it was clear that Seo Ye-rin felt something and had something she wanted to say to me.

“I’ll be right back. Senior Joo-hee, please keep away any strange guys approaching her. If anyone crosses the line, just mention my name.”

“Yes, understood.”

“But if they still come, I’ll take care of it myself; I’ll take full responsibility.”

“You’re quite the expert.”

Senior Joo-hee smiled slightly, her head bowed.

With her seeing me off, I headed in the direction where Choi Jin-ah had just left.

* * *

‘What was it that I wanted?’

Choi Jin-ah, having fled from the table where Kim Woo-jin was, found herself at the edge of the deck before she knew it.

Even though it was summer, a cold breeze blew over the river, and despite watching the calm water flow, the heaviness in her heart remained.

She took a deep breath.

There was no sense of relief at all.

This place was not a space where one could breathe.

Though it was a cruise ship floating gently on the river, she still felt submerged in the river’s depths.

Opening her mouth to breathe underwater would only lead her to swallow the brackish water, hastening her demise.

That was what she had done today.

Maybe something would be resolved if she saw Kim Woo-jin.

Maybe something could happen if he came.

That vague hope had just shattered.

It felt like she had opened her mouth to breathe, only to end up gulping down water.

Her back began to bend slowly.

The sound of footsteps from the men following the world-renowned violinist began to push against her as she leaned on the railing.

Just as her head started to bow down slowly.

“Wow, you got rejected too?”

“Ha ha ha! Comrades.”

The voices of frivolous women echoed from behind.

What caught my eye were the women who had just tried to seduce Kim Woo-jin.

They were the women that Hain-ho had brought along.

Could it be that they had bad intentions because of what happened earlier?

A wave of worry washed over Choi Jin-ah, but they approached her with smiles, friendly enough to strike up a conversation.

“We got played too. Those b*stards brought us here to seduce other girls.”

“Ugh, what is this? Are we some kind of Pokémon? Just go and seduce if we’re told to? At first, I just went along with it, but now they’re treating us like idiots.”

“Isn’t it just pathetic how they think? Sending women to men who already have girlfriends to make them cheat, just to feel betrayed and then seduce them.”

“Such a weird preference. Ugh!”

Hearing their conversation, which was centered around her, made Choi Jin-ah’s head spin with confusion.

It seemed she had parted ways with Hain-ho on less than favorable terms.

Since they were on a ferry, there was no way to get off separately, so she felt stuck.

“Is this a no-smoking area?”

“I don’t know, just smoke. It’s not like we can get kicked out anyway.”

The two took out cigarettes and glanced at Choi Jin-ah.

“Do you want to try?”

“No… I’ve never smoked before.”

Her father always looked down on smoking, saying it was something frivolous women did.

“You speak strangely.”

“Right? Ha ha, it’s hilarious.”

“Excuse me? What’s so strange about it?”

Had she said something odd?

With a hint of confusion, she asked the two, who lit their cigarettes and replied.

“Usually, people say they’re non-smokers or that they don’t smoke, right?”

“What does it mean to say you’ve never smoked? It sounds like you just haven’t had the chance to try.”

“……”

They weren’t wrong.

It wasn’t a choice she had made.

It was just that she hadn’t had the opportunity, and since her father disapproved, she hadn’t done it.

Suddenly.

From noble mtl dot com

I found myself questioning the women in front of me.

Their flamboyant appearances, the way they casually picked any man to play with, their carefree enjoyment regardless of whether it was harmful to their bodies.

It was so different from myself.

It seemed excessively free.

“I want one too.”

Choi Jin-ah cautiously reached out her hand.

“Could you give me just one?”

“Oh, of course.”

“I just want to make sure, this isn’t something weird, right? It’s Marlboro.”

“Crazy, that’s hilarious. If you smoke here, it might look like drugs.”

Swallowing hard, Choi Jin-ah took a single cigarette.

She bit her lip, watching her fingers tremble.

‘What’s the big deal about just smoking this one thing!’

It was about experiencing freedom herself.

Yes, not like the fish trapped in her father’s large aquarium.

But truly living her own life.

To become that kind of woman.

The moment Choi Jin-ah brought the cigarette to her lips—

Bam!

Someone roughly snatched the cigarette from her and crushed it.

“What are you doing? Are you really going to smoke?”

Seeing Kim Woo-jin frowning, Choi Jin-ah instinctively opened her mouth in shock.

“Why….”

The question of how she had come this far never followed.

“What is it? What do you want from me?”

Kim Woo-jin’s tone was accusatory.

“It seems like you have some trouble with your father. Is that why you called me?”

“……Yes.”

In the oppressive atmosphere, Choi Jin-ah struggled to respond in an increasingly smaller voice.

The first attempt at a deviation.

I couldn’t help but feel both resentment and gratitude towards Kim Woo-jin, who had stopped it.

“What exactly do you want? Revenge on your father? I can’t do anything that grand.”

Though my words didn’t come out right.

I knew that if I kept my mouth shut here, I would be no different from the carp floundering in the tank.

“Deviation…”

Choi Jin-ah struggled to say it, trying to soften the words as much as possible.

“De, viation?”

Kim Woo-jin looked taken aback by the unexpectedly simple answer. He extended the crumpled cigarette he held in his right hand and asked.

“Could it be because of this?”

“Yes, yes. My father hated women who smoked, thinking they were vulgar.”

“Vulgar?!”

“Wow, what era does your father live in these days!”

The two women listening nearby, as if watching a drama, shouted in exasperation.

But Kim Woo-jin sighed, ignoring them.

“Ha, this is just foolish. You’re going to deviate because of your resistance towards your father? What are you, a high school student?”

“……”

Choi Jin-ah had no words.

Because Kim Woo-jin was right.

To think that this was all I could come up with for a deviation.

Isn’t it absurd?

“Resistance or revenge isn’t done like this. In the end, it only ruins your own body. What’s the point of doing something like this?”

“Is that so?”

“Yes, so…”

Kim Woo-jin’s words faltered as he tried to explain how to do it.

When it came time to speak, nothing specific came to mind.

“Ugh, I don’t know. Let’s just go! You’ve come to the right place!”

“Huh?”

Kim Woo-jin grabbed Choi Jin-ah’s wrist and pulled her along as he shouted.

“There are plenty of things to deviate here! I’ve been an expert in this since elementary school!”

Elementary School Days.

A self-proclaimed troublemaker, notorious for countless acts of rebellion.

Selling fake cards at a high price.

Sneaking out to buy ramen and pocketing the profits.

Claiming to want to play baseball while shattering numerous windows.

Back then, in those days.

Though the subject of many whispers, it was precisely this boy that I admired.

“Let’s go!”

Now, after a long time, he finally began to lead me.

“Let’s make a complete mess of this place!”