## Chapter 162 – (2)
“Oppa, your house is so nice.”
Mei said this as soon as she handed me the coffee.
Mei, who had already taken off her glasses and hat, had a different charm than before.
To be sure, she looked much better now than before.
And what made her appearance even more radiant was the compliment she gave me.
“Really?”
I tried to answer casually, but I was barely holding back the corners of my lips.
There was no way I wouldn’t feel good about someone complimenting my house.
So much so that Mei, who had complimented me, even looked prettier.
I was about to burst out laughing at the trivial compliment, so I held it in.
Is this the taste of a housewarming?
Hanna also smiled and patted the seat next to her on the sofa, telling me to sit next to her.
As I sat down next to her at her gesture, she poked me in the side with her elbow.
“Oppa, you’ve made it, haven’t you?”
“Haha.”
She said it playfully with a laugh, so I just laughed too.
I had the exact same thought when I first came into this house.
That I had made it.
If Mei’s compliment made me feel good, Hanna’s compliment made my heart ache.
I think it’s because Hanna, who has been watching me from the beginning when I got the quest until now, said it.
“Unnie must be happy. You even have a newlywed home.”
“Ah, what, what are you saying~”
At Mei’s playful words, Anna tapped Mei’s shoulder and covered her mouth.
She covered it with her hand, but I could see the corners of her lips raised as if they would reach her ears.
Mei took this opportunity to ask me a question.
“You have a really great body… Are you perhaps an athlete?”
An athlete.
I shook my head.
My physical abilities clearly surpassed those of an athlete, so if I were to decide to, I could have a job as an athlete, but…
My job wasn’t an athlete.
“Then what’s your job?”
“Job…”
Again, I couldn’t answer.
What could I say my job was?
…A tamer?
Since I go around completing quests, a troubleshooter? Or maybe I could even say a gamer.
As I couldn’t answer and fell into deep thought, Mei looked at me with anxious eyes.
“Do, do you perhaps have a job you can’t talk about…?”
“It’s not that… I do something similar to investing.”
“Ah~ Like stocks?”
Only then did Mei breathe a sigh of relief and reassure herself.
Of course, I had never invested, let alone bought stocks, but since I had no way to explain my job, I just said whatever came to mind.
Because when you see rich people, they basically invest.
When you go to a bookstore, there are books with rich people on the cover, saying they will teach you how to invest.
I thought of that and said it, and I was glad that it seemed to work for Mei.
Hanna was just quietly looking at us.
Come to think of it, Hanna must be curious about my job and the source of my money, but she hasn’t said anything so far and is just looking at us.
Does she trust me?
Or does it not matter?
Either way, I could feel trust in her eyes.
“Oh, and, please speak comfortably!”
“…Should I?”
Mei was friendly enough to bring it up first, so I decided to speak comfortably.
I’m dropping honorifics with an idol for the first time in my life.
I don’t want to be conscious of the fact that she’s an idol, but I keep thinking about it.
After all, there was something special about the job of an idol.
“Ah, right! The housewarming gift!”
As she was drinking coffee, Mei took something out of her bag as if she had just remembered.
What could it be?
There were things that came to mind first when it came to housewarming gifts.
Toilet paper, air freshener, diffuser, things like that.
Or, these days, I’ve heard that people also give interior lighting or department store gift certificates.
If it came out of that small bag, wouldn’t it be a diffuser?
“Tada!”
What Mei took out of her bag was none other than a tumbler.
“A tumbler?”
I was impressed by the more flamboyant appearance than I expected when I received the tumbler.
Mei’s smiling face was printed on the tumbler.
It was a product called idol merchandise.
“Yes! Actually, I was going to release it as merchandise this time, but I couldn’t…”
So, is it being dumped on me?
Still, I decided to accept it gratefully.
It was a housewarming gift, and I had actually bought all sorts of things, but I hadn’t bought a tumbler.
I hadn’t thought about it, but I thought it would be nice to have one.
“But why couldn’t you release it?”
“Ah…”
Hanna smiled as if she was in trouble and said slowly.
“If you release merchandise with faces on it, the fans do some pretty nasty things…”
“…Nasty things?”
I wondered what she was talking about and looked at Hanna, but Hanna was nodding as if she agreed.
As I still didn’t understand, Hanna told me in a whisper.
“Some of the more extreme fans do strange things with the face photos.”
“…Strange things?”
What could that be?
I had some guesses.
Were they talking about doing things like kissing the face photo?
“…They take and send self-pleasuring videos…”
“What?”
At first, I thought I had misheard and looked at Hanna.
But Hanna smiled bitterly and nodded as if she had heard correctly.
Most fans supported idols normally, but some fans expressed their fandom in such a wrong way.
And this merchandise could not be released because of those few fans.
A member of the same group had previously suffered similar damage and even seriously considered retiring for a while.
They couldn’t release a tumbler with a face on it.
I felt like I had looked into the abyss.
Mei’s face was red with shame just from that story.
“So, I’ll give you that tumbler and a scented candle.”
“Scented candle?”
No wonder the tumbler was heavy, there was a scented candle inside the tumbler.
The scent was good.
I might turn it on someday just because of this scent.
When you want to set the mood, candlelight is also good.
Next was Hanna’s turn.
“Here, this is it.”
Hanna was shaking her cell phone.
“Cell phone?”
“Yes, try receiving it once.”
When I received Hanna’s cell phone, the screen showed a website.
“A week-long free trip to Japan ticket?”
There was a trip to Japan ticket.
It was a week-long free trip ticket, and the name of a famous hotel was written on the accommodation.
I wondered if she was asking me to go on a trip together, but it was a ticket for one person.
“I got this ticket myself.”
“Why this?”
“Actually, the last trip was my first overseas trip, and I felt like I kept you too busy…”
It seemed that she felt bad that she couldn’t overcome her lust and kept me in the hotel all day during the last trip.
So, this time, she gave me a trip ticket that included airfare and hotel so that I could fully enjoy the trip.
“You shouldn’t have…”
Actually, I was disappointed that I couldn’t fully enjoy the trip at that time, but to receive it as a gift like this.
I was smiling because I was happy with Hanna’s gift when I heard a blunt voice from the side.
“Sigh~ It’s hard for people without a lover to live, isn’t it?”
Mei, who said that, sighed deeply.
Then she smiled with a playful expression.
“If you’re jealous, you should date.”
Hanna smiled as she put her arm around my arm.
If you’re jealous, you should date, I smiled bitterly.
Because it wouldn’t be easy for Mei.
“Hmm… Should I really…”
But Mei’s reaction was different from what I expected.
She said that as if it was nothing.
“Can you date?”
When I asked with a surprised expression, saying that I was still a rookie idol, could I do that, the two looked at each other and burst out laughing.
I scratched the back of my head, feeling a little awkward at the sight of the two people laughing suddenly.
Was that such a strange question?
“Sorry for laughing. Oppa, you’re so innocent.”
Mei calmed down and said that.
“It’s definitely hard to date when you’re a trainee. You can only use your cell phone for about two hours a day, and you live in a dormitory under surveillance.”
Mei sighed, saying that it was a sad memory.
I was a little surprised to hear that they submit their cell phones and only receive them occasionally.
They still do that in this day and age.
Well, it would be hard to date then.
Because the means of communication are limited.
“But from the moment you debut, you can use your cell phone as you please. From then on, they don’t say anything even if you date. It’s kind of like… tacit permission?”
Hanna also nodded in admiration, not knowing that far.
“Then has Mei ever dated anyone?”
“Me? Me?”
Mei thought for a while at Hanna’s question and answered.
“Honestly, I don’t really know about dating yet.”
“So you said you were jealous?”
“But I was still jealous.”
She doesn’t really know about dating yet.
That’s possible.
She’s still young, and she’s just starting to see the light after a long trainee life.
It was time to get drunk on popularity rather than dating.
‘Come to think of it, I haven’t used Appraisal yet.’
Suddenly, I had that thought and used Appraisal on Mei.
[Sexual Perversion: Exhibitionism, Secret Account, Filming]
“Cough.”
“Oppa? Are you okay?”
Hanna looked worriedly at me, who was coughing.
At the same time, she patted my back diligently with her slender hand.
Thanks to that, I felt a little better.
“I’m okay…”
I waved my hand and answered.
I was just surprised and coffee got stuck in my throat.
I shuddered at the thought of an idol posting nude photos of herself on a secret account.
If she got caught, it wouldn’t end with retirement.
Maybe her future life would be ruined.
‘But she’s still doing it.’
Mei was drinking coffee with a nonchalant face.
