Bamboo Forest Manager

5 – 5. Not Anonymous

“Eating?”

“Yeah, eating. Let’s come here to have tonkatsu.”

“Ugh.”

An Hyun-ho audibly sighed, seemingly displeased with my response.

It wasn’t difficult to figure out why he was acting like this, but I wondered if there was a need for him to be so blatant about it.

“Can I join you?”

Suddenly, An Hyun-ho, who had been showing his displeasure, flashed a smile and quietly asked Choi Yi-seo.

“….”

Choi Yi-seo, whose previously relaxed expression had now turned blank.

“No.”

As I answered from the opposite side, both of their gazes shifted towards me at the same time.

“Sorry, but I’m having a personal conversation with Choi Yi-seo. It’s a bit uncomfortable with someone else around.”

Apologizing was just a polite way of telling him to leave.

“Ah… Huh, interesting.”

An Hyun-ho scratched his head and stared at me intently before nodding.

“Alright. I wasn’t picking up on the vibe.”

With that, he left.

He didn’t offer an apology, and even as he returned to his seat, he subtly smirked and made eye contact with me.

“Looks like the water hasn’t completely dried up since high school.”

Well, that’s obvious.

It hasn’t been even a year since high school graduation. It seemed like the so-called “gang” of high school, I suppose.

An Hyun-ho had a good build and was good-looking too.

“….”

Choi Yiseo looked at me with eyes filled with complex emotions.

I couldn’t understand the meaning behind it, but those glances made me realize that Choi Yiseo didn’t approach me with a simple friendly heart.

“I think the black running shoes would be safe and fine.”

“….Ah, so you like safe things.”

Choi Yiseo started searching for running shoes in her own way, understanding my suggestion.

She glanced briefly at An Hyun-ho as if she had something to say but eventually said nothing and moved on.

* * *

“….”

After having dinner with Kim Woo-jin, Choi Yiseo was on her way back to her studio apartment. The bridge on the way back felt oddly heavy.

Ring.

Her phone rang.

Displayed on the screen was the name “[Minji]” saved rather formally.

“Hello?”

– How was it?

Minji immediately asked, and Choi Yiseo sighed in response. She used the excuse of a phone call and sat down on a bench on the riverwalk.

“What’s it to you? I just had a meal.”

Nonchalantly responding, Choi Yiseo annoyed Minji.

– No, I’m not asking about that. I’m asking about that bastard. Did you have dinner with that asshole, Kim Woo-jin?

“Yeah….”

Did she really have to call him like that: “asshole”?

Minji hasn’t even seen Kim Woo-jin, yet she talks about him like that.

But if Choi Yiseo were to share her true feelings, Minji would suddenly ask why she’s taking Kim Woo-jin’s side.

– How is that asshole, Kim Woo-jin? Is he having a hard time because of the breakup with Yoonji? Or is he looking for another woman?

“Why would I look for another woman? There are no signs of that. I didn’t even mention Yoonji.”

– Ah, too bad. You should treat him well. You know Yoonji is still having a hard time, right?

“…I know.”

– Pick on one of those rumors. Then inflate it on online communities like a PR war. Your “Bamboo Forest” has already become very active.

Bamboo Forest.

Gayun University anonymous community.

Choi Iseo doesn’t do anything specific.

Just nonchalantly listening to the conversation, Choi Iseo provides a slightly provocative source as if losing interest.

– Or how about slightly teasing her?

“What?”

Is what I just heard correct? Choi Iseo, bewildered, replied, but Minji confidently continued speaking.

– No, it’s for Yoonji. Since the three of us were best friends in high school, I thought we could help in this way too.

“Well, still….”

– Yoonji dropped out. She didn’t even tell us what happened. What did that jerk do?

I’m her friend too.

Those words echoed in Choi Iseo’s mind, but she couldn’t respond.

“Well, I was just suggesting. I don’t really mean to. Oh, by the way, bring shampoo when you come. I ran out of it.”

“…Okay.”

Click.

The call ended, and Choi Iseo sighed, clutching her phone tightly with both hands.

Why on earth did this situation occur?

Her friends, who used to be close until high school, why did their relationship become distorted like this?

“Minji said it’s because of Kim Woojin….”

Choi Iseo coldly judged that as shifting the blame.

Moreover, even though it was only a day, the Kim Woojin she saw didn’t seem that bad.

Rather, it was the burdensome Ahn Hyunho, who secretly demanded her attention.

– English Literature Ahn Hyunho: Iseo, do you have any lectures tomorrow?

Closing her eyes, Choi Iseo felt tired as she saw even now a message coming in.

“I want to just throw away my phone.”

Come to think of it, should she have told Kim Woojin about Ahn Hyunho, who was famous for being a bully in high school?

She avoided mentioning it as it felt like unnecessary gossip, but now Choi Iseo wondered if she had made a mistake.

“Ah, I really don’t know.”

Closing her eyes for a moment, Choi Iseo, under the streetlight’s glow, shook her phone, cheered on by the night breeze.

“Maybe.”

When I think about the time when I was eating donkatsu earlier, it was the only time I felt at ease.

* * *

“What’s this again?”

Early in the morning.

Yesterday, I had a lecture at 9 o’clock, but today I had all my lectures in the afternoon, so I could wake up leisurely.

While brushing my teeth, I saw a strange post in the bamboo forest that had appeared in the early morning.

– Anonymous287: There’s a guy in the same department that I really can’t stand, what should I do about it?

If it was just that content, I would have thought it was a typical complaint post that we see often.

↳ Anonymous11: Why?

↳ Anonymous287 (author): He keeps bothering a girl who doesn’t even have any interest in him, honestly it’s annoying to see.

↳ Anonymous11: hahahaha, just jealous from seeing the alpha mails.

↳ Anonymous287 (author): He’s pathetic, if it was in high school, I’d just go beat him up and be done with it.

↳ Anonymous11: Just go beat him up and demand compensation. I also want to see you lose your cool.

↳ Anonymous287 (author): I’m not cool. I’m just a nerd who sits alone in the department. I laughed when I saw him trying to impress a girl and taking her to a donkatsu restaurant for a date.

↳ Anonymous11: Man, just go get some doㅋnkaㅋtsuㅋㅋㅋ

“What the hell is this?”

The conversation that continued behind was obviously about me. Moreover, the timing was quite coincidental.

Just yesterday, didn’t Ahn Hyun-ho show signs of jealousy when he saw me alone with Choi Yiseo?

From Noble mtl dot com

And didn’t the name of the donkatsu restaurant we went to yesterday also appear?

And the very last part.

↳ Anonymous287 (author): Well, if I get a chance, I’ll definitely take advantage of it.

Even the most explicit phrase.

“I have nothing better to do.”

The thought that Anonymous287 was Ahn Hyun-ho just added to my mind, but I didn’t have much of a reaction to it.

If it’s true, then let it be, and if I get compensation, then it’s over, isn’t it?

Thanks to the allowance my parents give me, my wallet isn’t exactly empty, but I should still do filial piety in this way.

“The students in my department already know about the two of us.”

Anonymous69 is Seo Ye-rin.

Anonymous287 is Ahn Hyun-ho.

Both were popular in the department, but in reality, they were despicable and faithful to their desires.

Now.

-Anonymous69: Ah, I want to have s*x!

Seo Ye-rin saw the post she uploaded today. In the past, someone would have told her to stop or commented that it was disgusting, but now there was nothing like that.

A bunch of idiots.

It was a bamboo forest where the abbreviation for “feeding ban to idiots” was being well implemented.

At that moment.

-Anonymous69: (Photo) Today’s prey! Shoop shoop shoop shoop!

The moment I refreshed the bulletin board, Seo Ye-rin’s post appeared. I hurriedly checked the content, and there was a photo of a woman exposing her panties.

“Crazy b*tch!”

I immediately blocked it.

[Due to the writing of lewd content by a classmate, access to the bulletin board is suspended for 1 day.]

Although a one-day suspension seemed too light, honestly, didn’t I cause a commotion in the 1:1 inquiry last time when I received a one-day suspension?

I couldn’t stand Seo Ye-rin’s mischief for two days.

“Did she really upload her own picture?”

On an anonymous community?

Just to be sure, I checked the post again, and fortunately, the legs didn’t belong to Seo Ye-rin.

There were no moles on the thighs, and the legs were thicker than Seo Ye-rin’s.

“At least she’s wearing her human skin.”

Just as I thought I was lucky.

Ooh!

Of course.

-Anonymous69: Crazy speed. Wanna have some fun?

A 1:1 inquiry was sent to Seo Ye-rin.

* * *

-Anonymous69: Crazy speed. Wanna have some fun?

Leaning on the bed, Seo Ye-rin looked at her phone and slightly lifted the corners of her mouth when she liked the message she had sent.

When she was banned from the bamboo forest community where she unleashed her hidden desires, she felt a lack of enthusiasm for life.

She kept checking the time, wondering when the ban would be lifted.

So, she even complained to the administrator and secretly inserted her own photo.

That was truly an exhilarating pleasure. It could be described as a stimulating sense of liberation.

Since anyone could see it in the community, she couldn’t upload her own photo, but it didn’t matter because there was only one administrator and she had to hide her identity.

“Why aren’t you replying?”

Yerin anxiously kicked her blanket with her foot.

Ugh!

An alert sounded immediately.

– Administrator: Please. Let’s be reasonable.

“hehehe, hehehe!”

Yerin quickly sat up and placed her fingers on the keyboard.

– Anonymous69: Why can’t I upload it on the university community? There shouldn’t be anyone under 19 here in the first place.

– Administrator: Don’t you know it’s a crime to distribute pornography?

– Anonymous69: Instead of searching for that, why don’t you discipline your daughter?

She stared at the chat with an excited heart.

Although it hadn’t been 30 seconds, Yerin wondered why the reply was so slow.

– Hankang Senpai: Yerin, should we go to the cafe like we talked about last time?

“Oh, really.”

Without waiting for a response, she ignored and skipped the strange senior’s message.

Since she only had lectures in the afternoon today, she could just say she didn’t see it because she was sleeping.

– Administrator: Sigh, Anonymous69. Please be reasonable. I’m really tired.

“hehehe!”

Why is this person’s reaction so amusing?

She couldn’t help but find the way they complained like a child funny, but she had no intention of stopping.

– Anonymous69: Then unlock the ban.

Don’t do it.

To be honest, Yerin found the 1:1 inquiries more entertaining, where she could immediately receive answers and fulfill her desires more provocatively, rather than the anonymous bulletin board with no response.

– Administrator: I only banned you for a day on purpose, you know? I overlook the weird posts, but please, not with photos.

– Anonymous69: Want more? Should I send you a collection I’ve stored on my 1 terabyte hard drive?

– Administrator: You really want to curse, don’t you?

“hehehehe!”

Yerin quickly turned on her camera.

What kind of photo should I send this time?

Seo Yerin, wearing only loose swimming shorts and a baggy t-shirt, posed in various positions in front of a full-length mirror.

“I should ask Seohan to introduce me to the personal trainer,” she thought, fueled by her own passion for revenge against the manager who had insulted her last time.