Chapter 78
The only part I clearly remember is when I entered the Party Hall and somehow managed to deal with the people who flocked to me as if they were challenging me.
After that, my recollection fades.
But sporadic memories were clearly hinting that I had done something.
“From the nonsense I heard, it seems like I drank…”
Why did I drink the alcohol I had deliberately avoided?
I turned to the side as hazy memories brushed past my mind.
“Mmm…”
The culprit was sleeping soundly right next to me.
I didn’t intend to blame anyone. It was an accidental incident, and it was me who drank without confirming it was alcohol.
Aside from that, Ryuah was the person who maintained her sanity throughout my vague memories.
She must have been the one who consistently witnessed my antics from yesterday.
She probably has a fair idea of what happened.
I shook Ryuah awake.
“Umm…! Hmph…!”
She didn’t get up in one go, so I kept shaking her, and her facial expressions changed moment by moment.
She frowned and made some discomforted noises that were surprisingly entertaining, so I continued to shake her.
It was like a doll that made sounds when you pressed it, and Ryuah was starting to show a consistent reaction.
“Ugh… Hmph.”
Ryuah, who was all wrapped up in her blanket, opened her body wide.
Suddenly, she grabbed my arm, which was waking her up beside her.
Was she used to sleeping while holding something? Grabbing my arm, she pulled it into her embrace.
“Uh.”
I had a frail body as it was.
I wondered if I would lose to a passing elementary school student.
With the effects of the alcohol still lingering, my body was naturally dragged towards Ryuah.
“It’s warm…”
There was no one around me shorter than I was.
Ryuah was at least 5cm taller than me, so I ended up cuddled up to her, burying my face in her neck.
“Wait, wait.”
How did it come to this?
I could sleep a little longer like this, but the situation had drastically changed from my initial purpose.
As I tried to escape from Ryuah’s embrace, she hugged me even tighter, as if determined not to let go.
Her legs wrapped around my other body parts were just a bonus.
So, she regularly slept with something, like a large doll or a body pillow.
I never intended to get so detailed about her sleeping habits.
“Hey…”
“Mmm…”
“Get up…”
Even calling her to wake up didn’t get any reaction.
Struggling to move my body just resulted in her tightening her grip, and I ended up wriggling against her.
What should I do?
Is there a good way out of this?
While I was pondering, one idea did come to mind.
Though I doubted if it was the right one.
I knew I wasn’t in a position to be picky about food anymore.
I hesitantly moved my body.
Turning my face towards Ryuah’s face.
Looking at her sleeping face, I realized how wrong this was.
But what could I do?
I couldn’t just stay like this all day.
I lifted my head, turned to the side of Ryuah.
Then I gently blew some air into her exposed ear, which was defenseless since she was turned over.
“Huh…?”
There was a reaction.
She shook her head slightly and frowned.
Once more.
This time, I blew a longer gust of air.
“Yikes…!”
She let out a small scream and buried her head deeper in the blanket.
Almost there.
I pulled back the blanket and tried again.
“…Kyaaaah!”
Ryuah woke up with a strange sound like a hissing cat.
With her eyes wide open, she held her ears with a dazed face and soon looked at me in shock.
“What, what are you doing, Ji-eun?”
You wouldn’t let me go, so I had no choice but to blow air in your ear.
It’s not like I’m strong enough to escape.
That seemed too pathetic and long-winded of an explanation, so I just skipped it.
Instead, I thought this one line would be enough.
“Did you sleep well?”
I chuckled softly as I looked at Ryuah, whose face had inexplicably turned red.
*
“I did that…?”
“Yeah! You were super cute, but a bit scary.”
Ryuah’s description of my behavior from yesterday was something I would never do if I was sober, things too hard to even say.
But the more I listened, the more unwanted memories resurfaced, adding credibility to her story.
“Sigh…”
Cute antics piled on top of extreme mood swings, forcefully pushing alcohol on someone who doesn’t want to drink like an oblivious superior. Complaining and throwing tantrums, too.
Just hearing about it made me sadder, imagining how tough it must have been for those around me.
I, who extremely dislikes being a nuisance to others, felt an overwhelming urge to apologize to everyone I had tormented yesterday, including the Jackie team.
However, this horror story of mine wasn’t over yet.
Apparently, Ryuah carried me into the hotel when I passed out.
After draining all my energy at the party, I just fell asleep as if I had fainted.
As soon as I heard that, I felt sorry for Ryuah and lowered my head.
“It’s okay; you weren’t very heavy.”
“Sorry… I promise this won’t happen again.”
“Really. What difference does it make for you to go out? You need to gain some weight.”
Always being needlessly kind.
I knew she said it all to alleviate my guilt.
Had that shown in my expression, Ryuah muttered something.
“…I actually liked it.”
“Huh? What did you say?”
“Nothing, nothing.”
Ryuah seemed to have said something quietly, but I didn’t catch it.
I didn’t have the courage to pry further.
Even if she just badmouthed me moments ago, what could I say?
She did more than enough for me, not leaving me sprawled out on the roadside.
Wanting more from her would be like asking the person who saved me to hand over their belongings.
Yeah, it’s all fine.
Let’s think of it positively. Luckily for me, everyone around me is good people.
If I apologized to them for yesterday, they’d probably accept it with smiles.
Feeling embarrassed about the antics I showed? That’s fine too. Just a little thick-skinned would solve it.
Even if they said, “You did that,” I would become the kind of person who could just laugh it off.
There was no problem.
Except for one.
I pulled out my phone, which I had been holding in my right hand.
As soon as I turned the internet on, my fan cafe welcomed me.
Even without looking at the screen, I could guess what kind of content was piled up.
I had expected this from the moment I started hearing about what happened from Ryuah.
“…”
I logged into the fan cafe and quickly skimmed through the posts.
The cafe had already turned into a hellfire.
A place where community members maintained a minimum level of decorum according to the rules I established was now burning up like this.
If the cafe was in such a state, I could only imagine how the community would be.
I felt dizzy already and quietly closed my eyes.
*
Self-proclaimed EOW Gallery fans, who claim to be pure fans of Mollru, only watching her streams.
And at the same time, discussions about internet broadcasts were stirring up in the online streaming gallery.
Since last night until this morning, these two massive galleries hadn’t taken a break talking about one person.
[So why doesn’t the Galju show her face?]
Streamers who met the Galju today said she was very pretty, shocked, and celebrity-level, yet why isn’t she showing her face?
If she did, the streams would thrive more, and those who’d slander her for being ugly would disappear; it would only be a good thing.
ㅇㅇ: You wrote that it would make the streams more popular, right?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ: Why is that?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ: Even if there are plenty of people now, would those who dislike her be happy that the streams are popular?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ: Oh.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ: (deep realization)
[Is this for real, this stupid female behavior from Mollru?]
Are you doing this on purpose? Are you trying to drive me crazy on purpose? Is she really deliberately dragging it out, being cute and waving her hands, shaking her chest while acting like a child?
ㅇㅇ: Could it just be the alcohol talking?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ: Sounds like she drank; she went out for a cocktail.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ: Her being bad with alcohol adds to her charm.
ㅇㅇ: Her drinking habits were cute, though.
[To Mollru, who might see this post:]
If she doesn’t turn on her cam for tomorrow’s stream, I’ll hack the cafe and pull a DDoS attack.
I swear, I’m a person of my word.
ㅇㅇ: A man of his word when he needs to be, ㄷㄷ;
ㅇㅇ: A cam stream? We don’t even know if she’ll stream tomorrow though.
ㅇㅇ: Well… If you DDoS the Naver cafe, won’t your life be in trouble?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ: Just leave them be~ They seem to be having fun.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ: Hacking into Mollru’s cafe to DDoS just seems like a fair trade-off to get a few days in prison, imo.
[Honestly, I think she should show her face once.]
What on earth did they see? Show me what you showed them!
ㅇㅇ: Even just the Dullahan cam wouldn’t be bad.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ: The tournament was great back then.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ: The rules at the tournament were wonderful…
Other than that, the entire community was filled with discussions about Mollru’s ‘face.’