Chapter 78: D-Day

Even though I was dating Doah now, one thing didn’t change.[Girls are burdensome.]

That one fact still held true even if they didn’t harbor any feelings for me.

Because Doah overslept, I came to school alone. Now, I was stuck with Minji, waiting for the rest of our group members to arrive.

“Taemin oppa.”

“Yeah?”

“That thing on your neck.”

At her sneaky smile, my hand automatically went to the bandaid on my neck.

“How did you get that?”

“A cat scratched me.”

“But Oppa, you live alone. Do you even have a cat?”

…Have I ever told her I lived alone?

Can’t remember. I just shook my head to her question, though.

“No, I don’t. It was a stray cat, was playing with it and touched it in the wrong place…”

“Hoho~ I see~”

This ‘I already know what happened, but I’ll go along with it’ attitude of hers was quite annoying, but the problem here was the main event hadn’t even started yet.

The left side of Doah’s neck was covered with large bandages.

Anyway, the next group member to arrive was Junseok.

When he took out his laptop, he made a small remark after seeing my neck.

“...Did you do it?”

The moment he made that abrupt comment, I could feel something clogging up my throat.

Junseok, please… stop…

With eyes full of contempt, I signaled him to stop.

Not long after that, Doah arrived.

She wrapped her neck tightly with a dark navy blue scarf.

When she took off her coat without taking off her scarf, Minji questioned her, as if finding what she was doing was strange.

“Doah, aren’t you hot?”

“Ah, I think I might have a bit of a cold.”

“Oh no. Shouldn’t you go see a doctor?”

Ugh, should I have said that I was sick and came wearing a scarf too?

But, I guess if we both had a scarf on, it’d look dumb in a different way.

Anyway, November was coming to an end.

There were less than thirty days left until the ultimate freedom came, the sacred time called the end of the semester. Sᴇaʀch* Thᴇ N0vᴇlFire(.)nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

In three weeks, the four of us wouldn’t get together like this anymore.

After ten minutes had passed, the professor still hadn’t shown up in the lecture hall and we could only put our hands together, praying ‘Please, just cancel the class’.

“Oh, Professor, I love you, just please don’t come in for five more minutes!”

Hearing Minji’s earnest prayer, Doah let out a giggle.

“Didn’t he set a time for that? Like, after twenty minutes class is canceled?”

“I don’t know. Usually if a professor doesn’t come after thirty minutes, the department would tell us and cancel the class, or something like that I guess.”

However, our small hope was taken away when the professor hurriedly came in. Doah and I couldn’t hide our sadness like the PArmyCry.

“Oh my, I'm sorry. I didn’t know the meeting would take this long. Where did we leave off last time?”

In the end, the professor earnestly held the lecture until it was over. Some groups even had to stay after it was over to receive his feedback.

“Good thing we did it ahead of time.”

As we packed up, Junseok threw in that remark and we nodded in agreement.

“There’s one more team behind us, but they probably can’t even leave.”

I’d assume that they’d be done after a good thirty minutes at least.

“Let’s go.”

As Doah tugged on my collar, I picked up my bag and got up, leaving the lecture hall with our group.

“Oppa, I’m going to the washroom.”

“Oh? Me too!”

After saying that, Minji followed her.

Girls really were creatures that were so difficult to understand.

Like, why did they feel the need to go to the washroom together?

Didn’t you use separate stalls?

I was leaning against the hallway with my arms closed when…

“...Let’s go. Hurry.”

For some reason, Doah came out of the washroom with a bright red face, meanwhile, Minji followed behind her, grinning widely.

“Huh? All of a sudden?”

Thinking something might have happened, I asked that, but she just grabbed my wrist without answering.

“Get home safely, Oppa~ You too, Doah~”

Despite the energetic farewell coming from behind, Doah kept on walking without paying any attention.

She led me to the cafeteria.

“What’s going on?”

When I asked her out of concern, Doah glared at me with a pouty face.

“This is your fault, Oppa!”

“What? What did I do?”

“Whatever, it’s all your fault!”

I scratched my head and brought my tray to sit by the window.

By the way, she still had her scarf wrapped tightly around her neck.

As she pursed her lips, fidgeting around with her small mouth, I brought up the big event that was waiting for us.

“It’s almost time.”

“For what?”

“December first.”

I didn’t need to elaborate.

“Right.”

The day when CLOSER’s first music video would be revealed to the world was only two days away.

At this point in time, the Pink Army community was busily jumping around together in excitement, including me.

“What do the other members feel about this?”

This was a privilege given to me.

The privilege to know the internal affairs between the CLOSER members.

Doah flicked her chin, as if asking what exactly was I curious about.

“Everyone is really looking forward to it. Do you want to hear about a particular someone’s feeling or?”

“No? That’s not it.”

Honestly, I only cared about CLOSER because Luka became their member. If she didn’t, I wouldn’t even have watched their debut stream.

“Hmm, let’s see… Our maknae is bouncing around energetically while counting down the days. The unnies are doing something similar.”

“Ah, after hearing that I’m also getting really excited.”

Well, even if I didn’t know that Doah was Luka, I would still have been waiting for that day excitedly myself.

“Oppa.”

“Yeah?”

“I’m saying this just in case, but...”

Towards the end of the sentence, she started hesitating.

Was there something she was worried about?

“Seriously, I’m telling you this just in case.”

This wasn’t even a stream, why were you trying to build something up?

At her dubious appearance, I felt myself growing increasingly frustrated.

“Yeah. What is it?”

“...Don’t donate.”

She said it in a whisper.

Hearing her hushed words, I felt something tug at my heart.

Ah, Kim Doah. Why were you so cute?

Wanting to tease her more, I said something I didn’t mean.

“But, I have about twenty saved up from part-time jobs to donate…”

As soon as she heard the number twenty, Doah’s round eyes grew even wider.

“No! Why would you donate that much?!”

“Because I want to.”

“If you really do that… I’ll perma ban you right away.”

When the referee mercilessly handed me a red card, I had no choice but to raise my hands.

“Ouch, I was kidding. I’ve spent almost all the money I saved up recently, so I don’t even have that much to spend.”

“Then, if you spend even just 1000 won… Just know I’ll be checking that day.”

…But Luka-tan wouldn’t notice me without a dono!

The probability of her reading my chat if I just typed it out was almost like finding a pearl in the desert.

Just 1000 won should be fine…!

When I pouted my lips in dissatisfaction, Doah pointed her spoon at me as if it was a knife.

“Quickly, promise me.”

“...Only if you promise to read my chat.”

“Oh, Oppa, how do you even know your chat will show up at all to make such a ridiculous promise?”

You wouldn’t do even that for me?

To find a compromise, a line must be drawn first.

Telling me to not act like an unemployed twitch no-lifer was like a death sentence to my alter ego.

“Then I’ll dono 300,000 won!”

In the end while nagging throughout the meal, Doah capped my dono to 5,000 won.

* * *

I had a habit of ordering chicken only on special days.

Well, it was partly because there would be a good amount of leftovers if I ordered some alone, but honestly, it just tasted better to eat it on special days.

And today, I prepared beer along with the chicken.

All sorts of CLOSER fans had already gathered in the official YM Entertainment channel’s chat, creating a huge crowd.

[KYA! 20 MINS LEFT!]

[ah. fumurin ㅠ﹏ㅠ]

[im ready to cry listening to leah-chan’s vocals.]

[Let's go JENNIFERRRRRRR!]

Dude, this waiting screen was already so high quality to the point I let out a sigh of admiration. They really went all out for this.

If they were indies, they’d need to throw a crazy amount of money for this, but as a big corporation, they went crazy even for the details.

As I was reading the chat’s babbles while occasionally typing something in here, the countdown was already at the one minute mark.

When it finally ended, the screen gradually faded to black.

[Luka-tan is the best! Luka-tan is the best! Luka-tan is the best! Luka-tan is the best! Luka-tan is the best! Luka-tan is the best! Luka-tan is the best! Luka-tan is the best! Luka-tan is the best!]

It wasn’t even my debut, but I felt nervous for some reason.

I, who had been busily spamming cheers telling her not to lose heart, finally popped open a can of beer with a refreshing sound.

With the fizzy sound of carbonation, the screen led the fans to a place filled with deep navy blue fog-like clouds.

And beyond the data space that couldn't exist in reality.

My favorite person with pink hair, smiling brightly and adorably.

Was waiting for me.

[I LOVE YOU!!!!! LUKA-TAN!!!!!!]

For some reason, the words that wouldn’t come out easily to Doah flowed out like water here.

***

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