SWNOVELXO Chapter 201
Hoo-oo-oo…
All eight flames were extinguished.
Nevertheless, no one stood up to turn on the hospital room lights.
“…”
The lively atmosphere just moments ago felt like a distant lie as a chilling silence descended.
“Why is everyone… like this…?”
I blinked a few times in slight panic.
“Uh…”
“Hey, Na-me!”
“Eek!”
“What kind of party turns off the lights before we even sing?”
“Well, I just really wanted to eat the cake fast.”
Ah, right.
I couldn’t lift my head out of embarrassment.
I thought they had already sung for my birthday when they said congratulations.
No wonder I hadn’t heard any singing; I was deeply lost in thought.
“To avoid such unfortunate incidents, I always keep two matches on hand.”
Ji-hye’s father pulled out a match that had been left in the cake box.
“This time, no mistakes, okay, Na-me!”
“I told you, that was a slip-up!”
Just as everyone raised their palms to start clapping, the door creaked open.
The room was a little dark, but just from the size of that silhouette, it had to be Manager Park.
After coming back from a short errand, the bodyguard was warmly greeted by Ha-ru waving her hand.
“Ah! The candle wax is going to drip on the cake!”
“Let’s start singing quickly!”
Tap-tap
The singing began to the rhythm of clapping.
“Happy birthday to you!”
The loudest voices belonged to Yuna and Ha-ru.
“Happy birthday to you.”
Following them, Professor Cheon’s deep voice joined in. Meanwhile, that manager was caught doing nothing but moving his lips. Mark my words, I’ll get him later.
“Happy birthday dear Na-me!”
Yoon-seul, sitting next to me, peeked over to look at my face lit by the small light.
[Why?]
[Nothing!]
I gestured to ask what was wrong, but she just smiled and focused on the song again.
“Happy birthday to you! Waahhhh!”
“Happy birthday so much!”
A resounding applause erupted. With the timing now impossible to misunderstand, I confidently blew out the candles.
Unlike earlier, everyone was quick to move.
They unpinned the candles from the cake, opened the window curtains wide, and turned on the white LED lights.
A hazy smoke rose to the ceiling lights.
As I rubbed my eyes to adjust to the suddenly brighter environment, Ha-ru’s voice rang out loudly.
“What… what’s that!”
She pointed accusingly at someone sitting in the opposite corner. Manager Park? No, even further over.
Following her finger with my gaze, I saw a girl about Yoon-seul’s age, sitting cross-legged with a playful demeanor.
Wearing a white off-shoulder blouse and cool sky-blue shorts, and sporting a Gucci chain bag pressing against her ruffles, along with sunglasses perched on her forehead.
Nothing was overly exaggerated, but every piece of clothing exuded elegance.
Whether by nature or circumstance, her skin was even fairer than Yoon-seul’s.
I tilted my head for a moment.
Ha-ru stomped over to the other side of the table.
“How did you know to come here? Did Manager Park bring you along? Why did you follow me to my friend’s birthday party? What’s up with that?!”
Even as Ha-ru trembled and yelled, it seemed to have no effect whatsoever.
With a blank stare, the girl met my gaze.
“It seems our dad’s daughter might be a bit confused.”
She opened her small chain bag and pulled out a rectangular letter, holding it up in front of Ha-ru’s angry face.
“I was invited too, you know?”
Ha-ru’s hand, holding the invitation, trembled uncontrollably.
“I’m going to be quiet until I leave, so don’t worry about me.”
*
Sometimes, I overlook the backgrounds of academy students.
First and foremost, it’s their age that stands out.
I heard that the truly rich tend to raise their kids in an ordinary way to firmly instill a sense of economics from a young age.
It’s not necessarily that they grow up lacking, but considering just the life at the academy, I kind of agree.
Lee Ha-ru, granddaughter of the 16th richest in the industry, Vice President of Samyeon Group.
I could gather some information from her friends during our first meeting, but it was hard to see that image at all when Ha-ru mingled so easily with her classmates.
In contrast, her sister Lee Bo-reum gave off a strong “I’m a chaebol” vibe from the start, making it a rather interesting sight.
“Manager!”
“…”
“Cat Church, umm…!”
“Hey! Shhh! What are you doing?! People haven’t even left yet, and you want to say that nickname here?!”
“Pffft!”
Since lunchtime, Bo-reum had been directing her gaze at me.
Was she genuinely worried that I might spill her nickname?
“Na-me, take care! Get well soon so we can see each other at the academy!”
“Sure. Study hard for finals.”
“Yeah, this time I’ll definitely beat Na-me! Even if just one subject, hehe.”
After the birthday party, we had a long chat with friends.
We talked about how Teacher Jacqueline had been since I was absent from school, which subjects would be challenging for finals, and so on.
Detective Ma said it seemed like he was keeping patients for too long, so he took Ji-hye and Seori with him.
This led to farewells with the other kids as well.
The broadcast had long since ended.
The last ones still in the hospital room were my managers.
“Why isn’t Dae-sal Oppa leaving?”
Bo-reum complained.
“Ah! I should go. Right.”
“I’m really curious, did you come all the way from Daejeon just to see Na-me today?”
“Would I have come on foot?”
“Ugh, you brat…!”
“I probably have ten times more friends than you do.”
“I have a hundred times more than that.”
“One billion times.”
“One trillion times.”
“A googolplex times.”
“An infimity times.”
“Yeah, a googolplex is way bigger, you dummy.”
“Do you really want to be immature at your age? My friends don’t act like that.”
With that, we sent off Dae-sal, who had boasted a 100% humor hit rate at self-introductions under the name Cha Eun-woo, and it was just Bo-reum and me left.
Bo-reum seemed like she wanted to say something but was too nervous to speak.
“Why didn’t you do anything when you came to the birthday party?”
She had merely sat in the corner for hours.
Then, she helped a little when Professor Cheon was clearing the table, and that was it.
She still showed no signs of wanting to answer my question.
Bo-reum, who kept scanning my face from different angles, returned to the chair next to the bed, lost in thought.
“It seems like you don’t get along well with your sister.”
“Yeah, it probably looks that way.”
“It doesn’t just look that way; it feels like you’re total enemies.”
“Yeah. I hate her. She hates me even more.”
“Then just say that.”
“But that would be too pitiful.”
“…?”
What? Do you hate her or care for her?
Her expression was so complicated that a question mark appeared above my head.
“Then, can you tell me the story behind that? I can listen well enough.”
“Wow… you seduced our room leader like that?”
“Huh?”
“Never mind. You can speak informally.”
“Okay, got it.”
It felt much more comfortable now that she offered it first.
Using honorifics with younger kids is exhausting.
“Ugh. It’s usually hard to talk about these things without a smoke.”
Bo-reum sat comfortably on the chair, raising her legs onto the bed.
By the way, the socks she was wearing had a cute cat character printed on them.
I couldn’t help but feel embarrassed and fidgeted my feet, hiding them under the blanket.
“Do you want one, sis?”
“Huh?”
“A cigarette. Would you smoke if I rolled one for you?”
“…?”
Does she not quite grasp the Korean language?
She seemed a bit slow-witted beneath the surface.
Anyway, since she asked for a cigarette, I closed my eyes and focused to draw in mana.
I figured they’d be happy with a scent of apple, right?
“Wait! What are you doing?! NoName, I mean Na-me, just because you’re casting magic doesn’t mean you’ll actually create something!”
“I just asked for a cigarette.”
“I… I’m in 2nd year of high school! You’re not supposed to smoke at my age! And this is a hospital!”
“Fine, got it.”
“Ugh… that’s weird. This isn’t the image of a room leader I imagined! You being so young is really confusing.”
“It’s fine; it’s a natural phenomenon. Kariri went through it, and so did others.”
It would take a bit more time before Bo-reum felt comfortable with me.
Chatting with people brought the pleasant thrill of hearing how each one perceived me.
‘Daehagwonsaengsalryeo’ Cha Eun-woo initially thought I was just a young assistant professor at a public university, while Kariri’s younger sister ‘HoyaMuYaHo’ Seol Taeyang thought I was a unemployed college student.
Yet, Bo-reum’s worldview was uniquely unconventional.
She noted that it took her a while to realize I was a girl.
She explained that she became a fan watching my play via Wagal broadcasts.
She recalled that getting picked as a manager wouldn’t have happened without quick wits and stunning luck.
“But Detective Ma Beom-il is…”
“I actually like UFC a bit…”
She thought I resembled a middle-aged man from a noir film, which showed she had a truly unbiased perspective.
Sure, I had a lot of hand-to-hand combat due to that penalty preventing me from using swords, but still, didn’t the vibe of a female avatar count for anything?
“I seriously don’t smoke! I’ve tried it a couple of times, but never since!”
If Seol Taeyang looked like a middle school punk earlier, Bo-reum fit the label of a typical TikTok high school delinquent.
“So that cigarette talk was just a joke, right Na-me? Right?”
Ultimately, Bo-reum’s words bordered on nonsense, marked by ‘trying to look cool’ or ‘being a bit emo’ — nothing more, nothing less.
I held back voicing the blunt truth, worried it might hurt her feelings.
“Hey, Bo-reum. I have to go out now, but would you like to talk while we walk?”
“Um… Is that okay?”
“Of course. I’d like that, it won’t be boring.”
The evening was approaching, but the summer sun still hung high in the sky.
I gazed out the window, and it seemed like the energy emitted by the sun hadn’t diminished at all.
With an unexpected companion by my side, I stepped towards the day’s final agenda.
*
“It’s so congested…”
It was rush hour, and Professor Cheon’s car came to a stop in the middle of the main road.
He was lost in thought, listening to jazz music while admiring the distant mountains.
Meanwhile, Bo-reum, sitting quietly next to Na-me, leaned in to quietly ask.
“Where exactly are we going?”
She hadn’t received any directions from Na-me.
“To meet Mom.”
“Oh, so we’re going to see Mother…? Wait, why did you just say that now…!”
At that moment, Bo-reum felt as though she were in hell.