Bamboo Forest Manager - Chapter 23



23 – 23. Minji

“Yerin, the pork cutlet will get cold!”

Seo Yerin, who came out of the restroom, hurriedly heads towards her friends calling her.

Her face turned beet red, even after sitting down, she didn’t eat a single piece of the pork cutlet and just stared fixedly at her phone.

“Why isn’t there a reply?”

She thought that she would at least get a reply, but why is there no response from the administrator?

“Hmm, maybe he went out?!”

With that thought, Seo Yerin felt tingling sensations all over her body. Regardless, she feels a strange sense of accomplishment from stimulating a man’s s*xual desire.

For now, she forcibly turns her gaze to the pork cutlet and tries to eat, but she can hear her friends’ conversation.

“But Wujin and Iseo finished eating quickly, right? We ordered similar things to us.”

“They probably didn’t want to stay long, so Choiseo must have eaten quickly.”

“Hey, do you know Iseo? But he still shows manners to the students from other departments.”

“Because he’s in a different major?”

While listening to their conversation, Seo Yerin also shrugs her shoulders. Suddenly, Choi Yiseo and Kim Wujin are nowhere to be seen.

“…….”

Now that the two of them are gone, she feels relieved and comfortable.

And then, calmly, she starts pondering on why she felt anxious until a moment ago.

Unknowingly, she vented her stress to the administrator, who was the cause of her stress.

But now that she’s talking to the administrator, she’s getting stressed again and getting irritated, which led her to take risque photos at the pork cutlet restaurant.

Although there is no separate reply from the administrator.

“Yerin, they said there’s a lecture that Kim Wujin and Iseo are attending together. They must be compatible.”

“Yeah. Tomorrow…”

Yes, tomorrow.

Last week, it was the 9 a.m. lecture where they ate pork together.

“Oh, so that’s why?”

If Kim Woojin had confessed to Choi Iseo, wouldn’t it be awkward for their friend in the middle?

Especially Kim Woojin, who is his only PC bang friend, feels sorry for making Choi Iseo uncomfortable when they hang out together.

“It’s a shame……”

Although Choi Iseo didn’t play games, the time they spent together at the PC bang was quite enjoyable.

It was too bad that they couldn’t experience that joy again.

“Woojin is a fool.”

Why did he confess?

When she saw it, Choi Iseo didn’t seem to have any such feelings towards Kim Woojin.

Wouldn’t it have been better to at least give advice or something?

“Sigh.”

Anyway, Seo Yerin just complained while eating her donkatsu.

* * *

Because there was a lecture until late on Monday, it was evening when they left school.

In the case of Choi Iseo, the lecture had already ended three hours ago, so she had said she would go to a cafe to spend some time alone.

But because Minji had sent her acquaintances last time, she was worried for no reason, so she just gave her apartment key.

“She’s probably at home by now.”

I gave her the address, so she should be waiting inside.

Since there was no weird stuff hanging around and I didn’t leave the place dirty, I had nothing to be ashamed of, and there was nothing to steal, so it was okay to just go in.

In a way, it could be said that I trusted this girl named Choi Iseo to that extent.

“I should go right away.”

Because I got hungry quickly because of the lecture, I wanted to have dinner, but since I had that incident at lunch today, it might be a little difficult.

I buy two iced americanos from the café in front of my house and head home.

“Hey, I’m back.”

As I said that, I was about to say something like it feels like we’re a couple living together, but when I actually remembered that I lived here with Oh Yunji in the first semester, my expression became stern.

“Oh, you’re here!”

For some reason, Choi Iseo seemed very nervous.

Seeing her buttoning up her lab coat all the way to her neck, I sigh.

“Ugh, go have some coffee.”

“Huh?! Huh!”

I hand a cup of coffee to the tensed-up Choi Yiseo. Despite that, she avoids eye contact and only slurps the coffee.

“You’re not even excited…”

“You’ll seriously die.”

“…I’ll be the one to sue you first.”

It still hurts from the hit earlier.

“Ha.”

Anyway, it seems like the tension is relieved with some sort of joke, as Choi Yiseo slowly stands up and prepares herself.

“Let’s go.”

Considering her confident declaration, it seems like she has organized various things to say.

I follow Choi Yiseo without a word.

“It was closer than I thought.”

“I was surprised too.”

Choi Yiseo’s villa, where she spends time with Minji, is not too far. That’s why it looked similar every time I worked out.

“Huff.”

As I watch Choi Yiseo take a deep breath as if she’s tense, I smile slightly.

“If you feel like crap, you can just go there and beat them up.”

“But, I wouldn’t do that?!”

“I’ll hit them for you.”

“You only say weird things, that’s why!”

After saying that to me once, Choi Yiseo seemed a bit relieved and opened the door and went inside.

I followed her closely.

Perhaps because it’s a house where women live, the smell was quite refreshing. It seemed like they were using a good diffuser.

However, compared to the scent, the interior was a complete mess.

The laptop was cracked and broken in half, and the clothes were torn and scattered as if they were attacked by some sort of explosion.

Tangled hair strands were stepped on the floor, and there was even blood on them.

“…Blood?”

Without realizing it, I push Choi Yiseo to the side and enter.

“Woo, Woo Jin?!”

Maybe she hadn’t noticed the blood yet, Choi Yiseo seemed flustered, but I immediately swing open the door and check inside.

Bathroom.

There was a messy woman holding a razor in her hand, with water in the wash basin.

“Oh?”

Startled at the sight of me, the woman froze for a moment, but I acted quickly.

I snatched the razor she was holding and threw it to the floor.

“What were you planning to do with this? Dammit, if you want to kill yourself with this, you have to scrape all day long!”

“Oh?”

“You crazy b*tch, you’re still in your twenties and you’re giving up so easily! You piece of sh*t, if you committed a sin, you have to receive punishment! Repent and start a new life, isn’t that enough? Who won’t forgive you?”

“Well, uh…”

“You have friends too! Even if you go to the police, the crime is trivial, and the damage is minor, so you’ll only receive a light punishment with a slap on the wrist! You can just take a semester off and work on your mental training!”

“Oh, uh…”

“Why are you trying to be the perpetrator until the end!”

“…”

“This, this isn’t right.”

I tightly grabbed her trembling shoulders. Since she seemed like she could fall apart at any moment, I felt my own resolute heart crumbling as well.

“When you think about it later… you’ll realize it wasn’t a big deal.”

I whispered like begging her not to give up, while putting strength into my hand.

Minji looked up at me, staring blankly, then cautiously pointed to the spray gel next to the wash basin.

“I, I was trying to shave because my leg hair was growing….”

“…”

“It, it might have looked strange. I was pouring water from the wash basin in case the water bill would be high….”

“Did it hurt?”

“That, that day.”

“Oh, I see.”

I smiled and nodded.

“Will you leave now? I want to be alone.”

“It’s our home, why should I leave?”

Choi Eiseo scolded me with a relieved expression from behind. Still holding onto Minji’s shoulders, I pushed her outside and closed and locked the door.

“Hey, Kim Woojin! What are you doing!”

“Shut up! I want to die! I can’t live like a loser anymore!”

“Why are you protesting in our bathroom all of a sudden! What are you doing?!”

“I’m going to die! I’m going to die with a razor!”

“You have to cut yourself all day to die like that!”

“Shut up!”

“Why do you want to be the perpetrator until the end!”

“I said shut up!”

* * *

“Oh, what kind of malatang is this?”

Upon hearing that malatang was ordered, Kim Woo Jin immediately muttered to himself.

He had felt the sensation of becoming a Sichuan person multiple times when he ate it before because Oh Yoon Ji loved it.

From Noble mtl dot com

“You didn’t come out of the bathroom. You should’ve come out when we were choosing the menu.”

“No matter who I am, I needed some time.”

Though Kim Woo Jin thought he had good mental strength, he still needed some time in situations like this.

Perhaps he would toss and turn in agony when he fell asleep tonight.

“Ha, it seemed like such a serious atmosphere.”

Thanks to Kim Woo Jin’s sudden outburst, the atmosphere became somewhat lighter, and they ordered malatang for Min Ji, who hadn’t eaten since yesterday.

“But is malatang suitable for an empty stomach?”

“Min Ji said she wanted to eat it.”

Min Ji, who was sitting with her legs crossed, glanced at Kim Woo Jin’s expression.

“No, as a victim, shouldn’t I be the one who orders what I want to eat? Why are you ordering what the perpetrator wants to eat?”

While Kim Woo Jin grumbled, Choi Yi Seo smiled lightly.

“Yeah, and yet you tried your best earlier to save me somehow.”

“Eek!”

Kim Woo Jin immediately wrapped his head with both hands. And Min Ji sincerely spoke to him.

“Um, um… thank you.”

“Don’t thank me! Eat this and get ready to go to the police station!”

Ding dong!

At that moment, the food arrived and the bell rang. Kim Woo Jin, thinking that now was the time, immediately got up and ran to the entrance.

That’s how Choi Yi Seo and Min Ji were left in the situation.

They had a lot to say, but for now…

“I’m sorry….”

Minji sincerely apologizes for her mistakes. It seems that she has finally realized what she did wrong to her friend.

“I wanted to pass off what happened to me… as something that happened to someone else, like Yoonji getting hurt by her ex-boyfriend. I thought I could handle it better if I thought it didn’t happen to me.”

“I see.”

“But when I saw that person, I realized that I really did something terrible. They seem like a good person.”

To be honest.

When she held the razor earlier.

Minji couldn’t say that she didn’t even think about it.

She just didn’t have the courage and was contemplating various things.

“I also received a call from Yoonji, and I even met Kim Woojin in person. Now I feel like I’m finally waking up to reality.”

“….”

“After we finish eating this, let’s apologize to Kim Woojin and go to the police station. I’ll take responsibility for all the things I did, and I’ll pay the price.”

“Minji.”

Choi Iseo pulls Minji into an embrace, with tears streaming down her face. They both feel sad about how things turned out, but also a sense of relief that it’s all over now.

“I’ll pay the price.”

Kim Woojin, who had somehow brought food in, asked in an irritated tone in front of the two women.

“What is this? The taste of breaking your tongue while eating? Do you both really want your heads to be split?”

“….”

“And someone pay for this on-site payment. Thanks to you, I bought this cursed thing with my card.”

Minji slowly raises her hand.

“Okay, before the judgment of the Constitution, I should split your head first.”

Kim Woojin immediately lunges at her, raising his arms to attack.