Bamboo Forest Manager

84 – 84. Decision

“W-well, t-then, goodbye.”

Choi Iseo said goodbye awkwardly.

The dark tear stains on her eyes showed that our emotions had been running high until just now.

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

I had said that there was no love like in movies or dramas, but why did I say something that sounded like it came out of a movie or drama?

‘I was crazy.’

It was an honest feeling, but I wondered if it was too honest. I should have known how to hold back a little.

I called out to Choi Iseo, who was about to go home.

“Hey, Iseo. Should we meet again tomorrow?”

The movie shoot was still going on.

We had to meet again tomorrow to shoot, but if we parted ways like this, I felt like I would just be kicking the covers until I saw her again.

“R-really?”

Choi Iseo answered, her eyes darting around as if she didn’t expect me to call her.

First of all, I needed to somehow lighten the mood.

“That’s… that is.”

But then again, I wondered how I could change the mood when I was actually trying to talk.

In the end, we both just stared blankly at each other.

“Huh? What are you two doing?”

We happened to meet Minji coming out of the house. She was wearing pajama pants and carrying a trash bag.

“Are you throwing out the trash at this hour?”

I thought it was an opportunity, so I said it right away, and Minji grumbled and replied.

“Iseo was supposed to do it, but she didn’t come, so I’m doing it… But what’s this?”

Then she looked at us and hesitated, sensing something strange in the atmosphere.

“What happened between you two? Did I come at a bad time?”

I didn’t know if I should say yes or no. Judging by her confusion, I could tell how chaotic this situation was.

“Did Iseo cry?”

Minji, who was about to go back into the house with the trash bag, was startled when she saw Choi Iseo’s tear stains and rushed over.

“What? What happened? What did you do to Iseo?!”

I felt a little relieved when I saw Minji hugging Choi Iseo and shouting at me.

“I didn’t do anything bad, so don’t call my brothers again.”

“No, why are you rubbing salt in a painful wound…”

“Minji, you smell like trash.”

“I clearly came on your side, so why are you…”

As soon as we both glared at Minji, she pouted and pursed her lips. Thanks to that, the atmosphere lightened up a bit.

“You guys are so mean. I’m going to throw out the trash and sit next to it. Since it’s burning trash, I don’t need to separate it.”

I left Minji alone to throw out the trash and looked back at Choi Iseo.

A faint smile was playing on her lips, as if she thought the atmosphere had lightened up a bit.

“She’s brightened up.”

Choi Iseo added, glancing at Minji. She was completely different from when she was lost in her delusions.

“It’s all thanks to you.”

“She was the one who found the courage.”

What did I do?

Minji had sinned and been punished, so she had repented and become a new person.

“I should be going. Don’t take what I said today too seriously. Just listen to it with one ear and let it go out the other.”

Choi Iseo stared at me as I said that, then smiled and replied.

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

“……”

“Got it, okay?”

She didn’t give me a definite answer, but she nodded as if she understood, then turned around.

As I passed by the trash can on my way, I saw Minji sitting next to the trash bag, but I just pretended not to see her and walked past.

‘I need to go home and take a shower and go to bed.’

I stretched and walked back home.

Woong!

Suddenly, my cell phone rang.

Since it was ringing around midnight, I checked it without thinking, assuming it was a notification from the bamboo forest.

– Yoo Ah-rin –

Someone I didn’t expect called me. We had just finished shooting together and parted ways, so what did she have to say?

I picked up the phone with a heavy heart.

– Where are you?

Yoo Ah-rin’s low voice indirectly told me that the situation was serious.

“I’m on my way home after dropping Choi Iseo off.”- ……Would that have been nice? If we had stayed together until this hour, would we have kissed under the streetlight?

“Can I hang up?”

As I sighed and was about to hang up the phone, Yoo Ah-rin shouted urgently.

– No, no! I’m sorry! I’m really sorry, so please help me just this once.

“What is it.”

– I’ll send you the address in a text, so come there.

She said that and hung up the phone.

‘She’ll just go home after finishing her homework, so what’s she up to now…….’

Thinking that, I headed to the address Yoo Ah-rin had sent me in a text. I had heard some strange stories about Yoo Ah-rin in various ways today, so it seemed like it would be good to go and see for myself.

The place Yoo Ah-rin had sent me was a bit unexpected, but it was the neighborhood playground.

Lately, it wasn’t a place where children ran around, but a place where bad students would go when they had nothing else to do, so the place itself gave off an ominous feeling.

And it really was.

Yoo Ah-rin’s hair color was so bright that I could tell it was her from far away at night.

But on the other side of her was a big man.

He had tried to dress up, but it felt a bit awkward. Just by looking at him, I could tell that he was the type of person you shouldn’t make eye contact with when passing by.

“Woo-jin-ah!”

Yoo Ah-rin, who recognized me, waved her hand and ran over. Judging by the way she greeted me softly and raised her voice at the end, it was obviously an act.

When she ran over and linked her arm with mine, I frowned without realizing it.

“What are you doing.”

When I asked in a small whisper, Yoo Ah-rin immediately pinched my thigh and laughed.

“Shut up and just go along with it. Please, please.”

“…….”

Seeing her so desperate, it seemed like there was definitely something going on. I seemed to know exactly what this felt like, so my body involuntarily tensed up.

Yoo Ah-rin, who had led me to the man, smiled broadly and said.

“Oppa, you saw it, right? This is my boyf……”

“He’s not my boyfriend. He’s just a friend from the same department.”

I cut off Yoo Ah-rin’s words and stepped in.

Yoo Ah-rin’s expression turned sour as she glared at me, and the man called oppa also looked at me with a strange expression.

I smiled as pleasantly as I could and immediately asked the oppa for a handshake.

“Hello, I’m Yoo Ah-rin’s friend from the same department. My name is Kim Woo-jin.”

When I came out confidently, the other side looked rather bewildered and blankly accepted my handshake.

“Th, that’s Pyo Jin-ho. I’ve known A-rin since…… high school.”

So this guy is Pyo Jin-ho.

I had a feeling that he was, but when I saw him like this, he was scary enough to make the kids cower.

“Aha, I see. Can you tell me what’s going on right now?”

I continued to ask with a smile still on my lips, and Pyo Jin-ho, caught up in my flow, continued to speak.

“I’ve been interested in A-rin since a long time ago. So I tried to contact her this time too…….”

“Aha, but this trash called me her boyfriend?”

Yoo Ah-rin was punching me in the back. I really wanted to tell her to stop because it hurt.

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

“…….”

“If you’re going to be jealous of me, curse at me, or come up behind me and hit me, there’s no need for that.”

He was a man with strange rumors circulating about him.

It wouldn’t be good to get involved with him for no reason.

I didn’t even want to imagine what kind of trouble I would have gotten into if I had said I was Yoo Ah-rin’s boyfriend here.

“Oh! You bastard! I just asked you to go along with it once! Once! Once! Is that so hard?!”

Yoo Ah-rin continued to hit my back.

Unable to bear it any longer, I turned my body and grabbed her wrist.

“Your mind is dirty for trying to pretend I’m your boyfriend in the first place!”

Isn’t that right.

“If you’re not interested, you can just say so. What are you so scared of that you have to tell such a lie?!”

“No, that’s……! Ha, really!”

“You might have been able to get away with punching people in high school! You look like you could handle a fight, so you probably did!”

As I pointed at Pyo Jin-ho hyung and shouted, hyung’s body trembled.

“But how old are you now! How old are you, hyung?!”

“Tw, twenty-two.”

“Wow, you’re the same age as Joo-hee noona. Do you think you can still get away with punching people at this age?! You should have stopped fighting a long time ago, hyung!”

“What do you know, you crazy bastard! This is the first time I’ve seen you!”

I don’t know.But she’s just talking nonsense.

“But what can I do if I like you, oppa! If you confessed like a man, shouldn’t you answer honestly like a woman? Why are you pretending to have a boyfriend and hiding?”

“Oh! I really want to kill you!”

Yoo Ah-rin stomps her feet on the floor, showing how excited she is. If that hits me, I think I’ll really get hurt.

“Tell me honestly! Oppa must be ready to accept it, right? Just by looking at you, I can tell that you’re a good-looking guy and you want to hear an honest answer?”

“Huh? That, that’s…”

I go to Jin-ho oppa, who is starting to get carried away by the flow, and pat him on the back.

“Let’s go, confess to that b*tch.”

“Ah! No!”

Yoo Ah-rin, who had been shouting, finally shouts out her emotions.

“No! I don’t like you, sunbae! I’m pissed off that you got between Ye-rin and me because of you! I hate myself for being jealous of her! I hate that bastard Jung Chan-woo for breaking my confession!”

“……”

“When we were doing taekwondo together, I hated it when you came close to me because you smelled like sweat! I was annoyed when you warned the kids behind my back that I was yours!”

“……”

“I hate it when you keep telling me to come to the gym! I hate it when you contact the kids around me and look for me!”

“……”

“I’m sure I refused, but I hate it when you keep pestering me like this! I hate it when you follow me around, saying it’s your first love or whatever!”

“……”

“Isn’t it too much for you to break my first love so badly and then do this to me?”

“……”

“I hate the way you dress, it feels like a pig. I hate the way you walk, it’s like a figure eight. I hate the way you spray perfume, it’s too much!”

“……”

“I hate the way you smell like sweat! I hate the way you discipline the kids! I hate the way you come to see me like this at night! I hate the way you look at me with a longing look while you wait!”

“……”

“I hate the way you’re arrogant! I hate the way you pretend to be strong with me! I hate the way you text me! I hate the way you call me! I hate the way you have to be careful because of the other kids!”

From Noble mtl dot com

“……”

“I hate the way you think you can gather the other kids and take revenge on me because I rejected you! I hate the way you brag about money even though you’re a jerk!”

“……”

“I hate the way you smoke! I especially hate the way you spit! I hate the way you s*xually harass me! I hate the way you often flirt with other women!”

“……”

“Just! Just hate it! No, how can I like you, sunbae?! I was so scared of you that Jung Chan-woo, that bastard, rejected my confession! Huh?! You said you would protect me, but you tried to force Chan-woo and Ye-rin together?!”

“……”

“What? Confession? Confession? f*ck you, you bastard! You ruined my high school life because of you! If I was still in the military, you would have been beaten up by me and you would have been sucking on a pacifier in the hospital right now because your teeth would have been broken!”

“……”

“Oh! And let me tell you one thing. When I competed with you, the kids just let me win, you bastard! That’s why you couldn’t even win a prize at the competition! You’ve been bragging about being an athlete, but what the hell are you doing becoming a coach at twenty-two? Did you change your mind after getting beaten up in the competition and drawing a map on your blanket?”

“……”

“Don’t you regret it? When you were a high school student, you thought the world was yours, but when you actually went out into the world, you realized that you were just a piece of sh*t?”

“……”

“You’re so mean to the teachers! You’re so mean at school! But what the hell? Do you know now that the people and places you were mean to were actually protecting you?”

“……”

“You need to fix your personality, you bastard! And then go to the army and get beaten up! Why? Try to take off the rank of your senior and stick it on yourself? You did that to the third year seniors when you were a sophomore! To the people who were preparing for the college entrance exam!”

“……”

“It’s going to be so much fun to watch. They say you use cell phones these days, so call the military police. I’ll wait with popcorn! Call the company commander right away! Call the battalion commander! Call the regimental commander! If you keep fighting one by one, you’ll end up fighting the president!”

“……”

“You bastard! Congratulations! You took off the rank and took over the Republic of Korea! When that happens, come to me, and I’ll date you even if I have to spread my legs, you bastard!”

Is it finally over?

Yoo Ah-rin glares at Pyo Jin-ho, panting. I slowly approach Yoo Ah-rin and pretend to hand her something.

“A necklace of acceptance that is given to Yoo Ah-rin.”

“……Thank you.”

I didn’t have anything to give her, so I just pretended to give her something, but she surprisingly accepted it well.I wondered if Pyo Jin-ho was going to run at me in excitement. But his shoulders were slumped as if he had already been killed by words.

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

“……”

Pyo Jin-ho, who seemed quite shocked, walked away slowly. I patted him on the shoulder and handed him my cell phone.

“Let’s have a drink of soju later.”

“……”

As if his tongue was numb, he silently typed his number into my phone.

Then, as if he had calmed down a bit, he glanced at Yoo Ah-rin.

“If you say something like ‘I loved you, you bastard’, I’ll kill you, you bastard.”

“Hey! You’re already out of the ring, why are you hitting me again! Stop it!”

Hyung-nim eventually left.

Yoo Ah-rin stayed with me.

“Honestly, that sunbae was a bit scary. But once he started talking, he just poured it all out.”

I chuckled as I watched her, her breathing ragged from talking so much.

“Do you feel better?”

At my question, Yoo Ah-rin smiled and held out her fist.

“I feel so much better that I’m a little wet.”

I bumped my fist against hers and laughed in disbelief.

“You’re crazy.”