༺ Weakness Found ༻
“…Ha?”
What did that even mean?
Though I clearly understood Korean, I still couldn’t understand what Minji was saying. I looked at her with a dumbfounded expression on my face.
“Come here.”
She suddenly pulled my arm and sat me down, then she whispered in a low voice that only I could hear.
“Tell me honestly. Has Taemin oppa ever done anything strange to you? Or harassed you?”
…Well, he did say that he wanted to lick my sole…
But, there was no way other people would know about this…
“I don’t think…he’s done anything like that…?”
“Really? But, there’s a rumor going around our department. They said that you’re a victim of stalking or something…”
Victim of stalking? Me?
He was my boyfriend, though…?
But, it wasn’t like I could just tell her that. Oppa and I had decided to not announce our relationship for now…
“What the hell did they see for such a rumor to come up?”
“I don’t know the specifics, but they said that Taemin oppa grabbed you in front of the media center yesterday after class.”
Right, that happened yesterday, didn’t it? It felt like a very distant past to me, though…
Maybe because a lot of things happened afterwards. Like, I misunderstood everything by myself, cried a little bit, went live while in such a state, then I went to his house soon after…
“Ah, that happened, yeah… But, did the rumor really spread just from that one thing…?”
If that was the case, that was just too much, wasn’t it?
Sure, it was easy for rumors about Taemin oppa to spread, but if they started that whole thing just from that one scene alone, then that would be beyond overreacting.
“I guess you don’t know about this, but Taemin oppa has been asking around about you all week, you know?”
“…He did what?”
“Yes! They said that he went around, asking ‘Where’s Kim Doah?’ right after your classes ended!”
Knowing the reason why he did that, I began to feel more and more sorry for Oppa.
It was my fault, wasn’t it? Because I was running around trying to avoid him and all…
“Really?”
“Mhm! That’s why they’re all talking about you and Taemin oppa in the chatroom.”
“Oh my gosh…”
I felt a headache coming on.
I turned around to see where Oppa was sitting, but I couldn’t find him. It seemed like he went to the bathroom.
“Thank you for letting me know, Minji.”
Anyway, she told me all this because she was genuinely worried about me, so I should thank her at least.
“No no, you don’t need to thank me. Anyway, things are going well between you and Taemin oppa, right…?”
“Ah, yeah. It’s not like what you think, so you really don’t have to worry about me.”
“Really? Ah, could it be…?”
A mischievous smile crossed Minji’s face.
It was an expression I knew well.
That was exactly how the PArmySmug emote looked like.
“You two are dating, aren’t you?”
“…I’ll tell you later.”
After that, I pulled out my phone and texted my boyfriend.
In the engineering building, far away from our department building.
Doah offered me low-fat vanilla milk.
“Here.”
“Thanks.”
After peeling off the straw and stabbing it into the box, I sucked down the drink as intensely as my frustration.
“Haa…”
Really, these bastards.
Why couldn’t they just mind their own fucking business?
When I heard about the stalker rumor that Doah texted me, my head started to hurt.
“…No one will come here, right?”
“Well, we’d have to go somewhere outside the school if we want to go anywhere else. That would be troublesome, wouldn’t it, Oppa?”
She was right, we had one more class in the afternoon.
“But still, you never know.”
“It wouldn’t be that safe even if we go outside the school. We’ll just end up running into the other students.”
She made a good point, so I nodded at her.
“Anyway, people think that I’m stalking you now?”
“Yes.”
“Because they saw me grabbing you yesterday?”
“That’s one reason. The other one is because you went around asking where I was, Oppa.”
Geez. That too?
Seriously, why would you spread rumors about something like that?
I didn’t know anymore. Just…amazing…
“…That’s because you kept running away from me.”
It was just the truth.
“…I guess so.”
Hearing my answer, Doah slightly turned her head to the side.
Looking at her ears, yeah, she did that because she was embarrassed.
If her ears were steak, it would be a rare one.
“So, what did you say to Minji?”
“I just told her that our relationship isn’t like that.”
“Just that?”
“I mean, you were the one who said to not publicize it, Oppa!”
Seeing how she didn’t immediately drop the bomb to put out the fire, she clearly wanted to respect my opinion.
“But I guess I should’ve told her.”
“Do you really have to?”
“Yes, because if not, they’ll ask me again about why you grabbed me that day. But, if I want to answer that, I’d have to explain why I ran away first.”
I considered telling everything to everyone, but I knew that wasn’t the wisest approach.
Like, there was no way they’d listen to what a perpetrator said.
A single word from Doah would be more effective than a hundred words from me.
“And, you know… it wouldn’t be funny if I were to admit that I ran away because you found out that I’m a vtuber, Oppa…”
She got a point. That was one thing that should never be said.
I’d rather they accuse me as a stalker instead.
“Would you really hate it that much if we made our relationship public?”
“Honestly, not really, but…”
Between the rumors of me being a stalker and revealing Doah’s identity as Luka…
I guess it would be better to announce the fact that we were a couple instead…
“Well. It can’t be helped.”
Seeing me smiling in resignation, Doah sneakily nudged my finger.
“So, are we going to…?”
“Yeah. As you said, it isn’t like we’ll be able to keep it hidden for so long anyway.
I grabbed Doah’s index finger that she was playing around with.
“How are we going to announce it, though?”
Like, there was no way that we’d post something like [HAN TAEMIN♥KIM DOAH we’re a couple starting today!♥] in the department’s group chat.
“Hm…”
After sipping and gulping down the milk, Doah’s feet lightly tapped the floor.
“Can I just tell my friends about it?”
“Like Minji?”
“Yes and other girls that I get along with.”
“Would it be okay for you to just announce that you’re dating out of nowhere?”
Like, wouldn’t you normally wait for the right atmosphere first? Or was it normal for women to do it this way?
“…Knowing them, it’ll be more than okay.”
Women. I couldn’t understand them at all.
“What about you, Oppa? Who are you going to tell?”
“Me? Uh…”
I didn’t put much effort into my school life, so there was no one I needed to share the news with.
“Just Yoonje, I guess?”
“Seo Yoonje oppa?”
“Yeah.”
“Right, I’ve always been curious about that.”
She looked up at me with big sparkling eyes.
“How on earth did you become close to Yunje oppa?”
“Is it strange?”
“Very.”
Honestly, I never thought that I’d become so close with him either.
“Well, it isn’t like we got along well or anything. We just have a history together, that’s why we’re so close now.”
We went way back. It was around three years ago, before I did my military service.
“Can you tell me about it?”
“Uhm, it’s a little embarrassing…”
At the word ‘embarrassing’, Doah made a smug smile, her eyes narrowing.
“Oppa.”
“Hm?”
“I don’t think I really know anything embarrassing about Oppa, you know?”
“Why?”
“Like, haven’t you seen all the aegyo I’ve done?”
Hey, hey, bring my internet life out of this!
Also, the aegyo I saw was Luka’s, not yours specifically!
“This and that are different!”
“What’s the difference!? It was still embarrassing for me’!”
Her fist cutely pummeled my forearm.
“The thought of you seeing me doing that kind of thing yesterday made me feel like dying! Did you know that?!”
But why?
You were cute!
“Anyway, just tell me quickly!”
“Well, the story goes back to when I was a freshman.”
Fine, let’s bring out that slightly faded memory…
“So, at the beginning of the semester, they held a lot of parties to welcome the freshmen, right?”
“Yes.”
“Yeah, well since I was curious about college life, I went to one of the parties.
“But I was out of luck that day. A fucking stickler sunbae was sitting at the table I sat at.”
Looking back on it, that fucker was a stickler among sticklers.
“So, he made me drink a lot, and he gaslighted me by saying that if I didn’t drink enough, I wouldn’t be able to handle college life.
“The clueless freshman I was, I just kept on drinking. Back then, I didn’t even know how much alcohol I could take.”
And the shitshow happened after that.
“So, I got drunk. So drunk that I couldn’t even remember what happened back then. But, from what I heard…”
Was this even something I should talk about with my girlfriend?
“From what you heard…?”
She scooted closer to me. From the expression she made, I’d believe it if she were to stab me if I stopped my story here.
I let out an awkward sigh before lowering my head and told her the truth.
“Apparently, I went around from table to table, doing aegyo and acting all cute, then I ended up going outside in that state and throwing up a lot…”
Since then, I barely touched alcohol ever again.
“The one who cleaned up my vomit and let me stay at his place when I passed out was Yoonje.”
It shouldn’t be easy to go that far to help someone you barely even knew.
Like, I would never do that. Ever.
“So, yeah. I felt sorry for him about the incident, got to know him better, and so we got close just like that.”
I mean, if it was any other guy, I wouldn’t even entertain the idea of going to club together with him, even if he were to beg me 500 times.
“…I see.”
Doah didn’t say anything for a moment, but her eyes were fixed on me.
“…Did he ever tell you what kind of aegyo it was?”
“He just told me that it was good that I didn’t remember.”
Hearing that, her eyes lit up, resembling that of one of Luka’s expressions.
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