Chapter 7 – Episode 7. Nayoung Hannah
In the morning and afternoon she went to school, she worked out with Nayoung, and at night after dinner, she sat in front of the computer and traded FX margins.
Time passed and she was on vacation.
Even though it was vacation, my daily life didn’t change much.
Except for the workouts with Nayoung, I stayed in her room and stared at the computer.
Now that I’m doing this, my mom thinks I’m hooked on the game. She’s offended, but she’s sorry.
But as soon as her mother left her room, she turned on her computer again and went into her exchange, where she bet all night long to make her profit.
“Turn it off!”
She stretched her stiff arms high into the sky and stretched them out, making a grotesque sound at the same time.
Then he smiled contentedly.
“Return rate of 10500%…”
What was only 100,000 won turned into 9 million won with a 10500% profit.
It’s heartbreaking that more than 1 million won was spent on painful fees, but there’s nothing you can do about it because you didn’t receive a deposit in the first place.
Still, this alone is a really ridiculous rate of return, so if it weren’t for the stay-at-home mom because she quit her job because of the lottery, she wouldn’t have been able to scream already.
“Heh, hehe…”
At this age, I kept laughing when I saw almost 10 million won stamped on my balance, which had only been 100,000 won in that short amount of time.
No matter how much the future smartphone is an absolute answer sheet, effort is required in cheating.
Proud of myself, I stroked my hair vigorously.
“Haaam…”
I was on the verge of overcoming my limit due to fatigue from staying up all night trading at dawn when the market fluctuations were the greatest during vacation.
In addition, I keep smiling unconsciously, so my jaw seems to hurt.
I don’t know what principle it is, but I carefully put down my smartphone, which maintains 100% battery even without recharging, and lay down on the bed.
As soon as she lay down, her eyes slowly closed as if she had waited.
I could fall asleep in just a little while longer.
“Jihoon… Ah…?”
Through the crack in her softly open door, Nayoung stuck her head out.
“Nayoung?”
She said it was a day when the market fluctuated a lot, so she wanted to take a break from exercising for the day when she could make a lot of money, but I don’t know why Nayoung is here.
“At that time, I came because I was bored and had nothing to do, but I shouldn’t have come…?”
And she even said the other day that she could come over anytime, but I can’t hate it here.
“No, it doesn’t really matter… Haaam.”
I forcibly opened my eyelids and raised my upper body.
The yawns burst out incessantly, forcing her desire to lie down again regardless of whether Nayoung came or not.
“This… He cut me to eat an apple.”
Nayoung, who entered her room, held out a plate full of apples that her mother seemed to have cut.
“Thank you.”
She picked one up and bit it off.
She tasted good, but was too tired to chew and swallow.
“Nayoung, I’m tired because I couldn’t sleep well, but can I sleep?”
“Should I go…?”
When Nayoung asked with a tone full of regret, she shook her head.
“No…You can stay if you want…”
There was nothing wrong with her being in the room, so she didn’t feel the need to let her out.
She lay down on the bed and closed her eyes.
It wasn’t long before she fell asleep right away.
*
“…”
Nayoung lay down comfortably and stared blankly at Lee Jihoon, who was constantly exhaling her even breath.
Soon, she was seized with an irresistible urge.
“Jihoon… Ah?”
With her voice trembling with tension, she called him once, but there was no answer.
“Now…? Are you really sleeping?”
I called again to check just in case, but as expected, only the sound of leaky breathing was filled.
Nayoung swallowed her dry saliva.
Nayoung, who confirmed that he was really sleeping, not pretending to sleep, was standing right next to the bed he was lying on.
You shouldn’t do this to someone who sleeps well without knowing anything.
Even seeing herself, she was so ugly that she had a face that was disgusting.
To this belief she slowly stretched out her hand.
Soon after, a hand landed on Jihoon’s forehead.
“It’s hot.”
The hand that covered his forehead felt hot rather than warm.
Am I sick? Do you have a fever because you are sick?
I’ve never seen her cough, but Na-yeong is restless at the thought that she might just have a fever without coughing. She couldn’t stay still.
What to do at a time like this, she pondered over and over again.
“Su, towel…! Wet towel…!”
Okay. In this case, they put a wet towel on top.
Nayoung ran out of the room and went looking for a towel.
Ji-hoon’s mother, who had opened the front door for Na-young to enter her house, said that Na-yeong was the only person in the large house.
“Even this…!”
No matter how much she looked for it, she couldn’t find the towel, so she had no choice but to soak the towel hanging in the bathroom with water and wring it out as hard as she could.
She squeezed out as much water as she could, but the towel was still damp.
Still, I thought this would be enough, so Nayoung took her towel and headed to Jihoon’s room.
Like Hansel and Gretel’s sweets, the traces of water droplets that fell from the towel continued from the bathroom to Jihoon’s room, leaving her footprints.
She wringed a towel and put it on his forehead, but the water that the towel held in was wet his forehead and ran down the side, soaking the pillow and blanket.
“Ah…!”
With a short sigh, she brought the towel back to the bathroom, squeezed out the water properly, and placed it on her forehead.
“Now… That’s it…”
I didn’t know that soaking a towel in water and putting it on my forehead would be so difficult.
However, it felt good to think that Ji-hoon would wake up fine thanks to these efforts.
“Jihoon-ah…”
I put Jihoon’s name in my mouth with a tone full of affection.
He was in a deep sleep, so he wouldn’t be listening, let alone answering, but that was fine.
But one. There was only one truth I wanted to hear from him.
“Ah Jihoon. What I said to her mother then… Is that real?”
It was a daily routine to be teased and ostracized by adults and peers as well as family for having such an ugly and hideous face.
I thought I would have gotten used to it after hearing so much. Hearing that from the mother of the person he liked made it very painful, as if a large nail had been driven into her chest.
It hurt so much that I couldn’t even cry. Nayoung couldn’t get out of the big shock at the words that followed.
‘I like Nayoung too much to be her friend.’
She likes herself, she says, who only knew she was going to live her whole life alone without anyone liking her.
Why. Why the hell does she like a girl who looks like this? I’m crazy about it.
To be honest, even if Nayoung was a man, she wouldn’t pay attention to a woman like her.
“Is that… A joke… A joke…?”
Tears flowed.
She was both happy and unbelievable.
Maybe that’s why she was trying hard to deny Ji-hoon’s words, which might be sincere.
“You’re kidding right…?”
She wanted an answer to this.
The weight of her results is not true, but even though she was biased, Na-young could not bear to let go of her string of what if she did not know herself.
“I’m sorry… Jihoon-ah…”
Even if it was real, Nayoung would push him away.
Even if he likes a girl like this, it must be Ji-hoon who only sees her loss.
So.
“I like you. Jihoon-ah.”
Like this. She couldn’t say that she liked it while he could hear it.
Tears flowed at the reality that she usually kept these words deep in her heart and had no choice but to say them at times like this.
A wet towel was placed on her forehead, making her face more comfortable.
His gaze remains fixed on his lips and shows no sign of dropping.
Now, even if we secretly kiss each other, no one will know if Nayoung doesn’t show her feelings and closes her mouth tightly.
But Nayoung couldn’t.
Na-young left her room, dreaming of a ridiculous future where Ji-hoon had the same sincere heart as she does now, and developed a relationship with her lover.
“…”
As she left her room, Nayoung came out with a cream of some sort.
It was the cream she put on her feet, which she said was a magic cream that would restore her pretty face, and that she had to apply it excessively at least three times a day.
To be honest, at first, she thought she was simply making fun of Nayoung, but she forced herself into it, and after she applied it on his hand several times, she found that the things on her face slowly disappeared.
Even though she disappeared, there were so many remaining effects that Nayoung was already in despair, so she didn’t have high expectations and she never applied it at home.
“I want to be pretty…”
I don’t think it would make much of a difference if her face was clean.
It’s obviously a futile effort.
Nayoung spread her cream on her face for the first time on her own.
A tickling, tingling sensation was felt all over her face.
I really didn’t want to put it on because it felt like this, but if it was just to make me prettier. No, at least it seemed that if I could have a normal face, I would be able to endure it.
Then I might be able to stay by Jihoon’s side a little longer.
Furthermore. Wouldn’t it be possible to stand proudly next to Jihoon?
It’s really trivial if anyone hears it, but I stood in front of the washbasin thinking about my earnest wish more than anything else.
“Ugly…”
The fat woman with the white face in the mirror was really ugly.
No matter how much she tried to look pretty, she couldn’t look pretty.
How could Ji-hoon be able to look at this face with both eyes. How could she continue to say that she is pretty, even empty words?
And what else is he who is pleased with that lie?
He took a hand full of water and washed her face clean.
The tears that flowed along the way met with water and were washed away together.
After washing her face in her own way, Nayoung wiped her face dry with a towel and went to Jihoon’s room.
“Jihoon-ah… I’m going. Good night.”
Nayoung looked at her sleeping for the last time for a while before turning back.
If this big body was to become slim like other girls, I thought I would exercise without rest today.
