Chapter 2
Chapter 2. Realizing
Jiwoo evaluated PLAYER exactly as he appeared. A guy who tossed smiles at every girl without a shred of loyalty.
Even those irritating system messages alone were enough to tell how much of a human multi-plug he was.
No shame, just plugging in here, there, and everywhere. Not that anyone was naming names.
She wouldn’t take that kind of lightweight guy even if he were delivered to her in a truck.
A real man should be earnest and steadfast.
Like my Sunyul…
Exactly. Long story short, it all came back to Sunyul in the end.
Sigh. I miss you, babe.
Letting out a deep sigh, Jiwoo couldn’t resist grabbing her phone.
She logged into her password-protected cloud account, and sure enough, there was a newly created folder dated today.
Heart pounding, she opened it and a flood of freshly taken photos appeared before her eyes.
“He’s in all black today…”
Seeing him dressed in a sexy outfit that made his gorgeous face pop even more, Jiwoo let out a breathless sigh of admiration.
Her boyfriend, Sunyul, wasn’t ruggedly handsome. He was beautifully, angelically pretty.
If his face had been just a little softer, he would’ve looked meek, but the sharp lift of his eyes added a haughty edge like a legendary beauty.
Yeah. A rose needs its thorns.
And yet his personality was as sweet as sugar. Utterly irresistible.
Mumbling like some creepy old pervert, Jiwoo grinned like a fool.
The photos, focused solely on Sunyul, with no background distractions, showed him gradually getting closer to the campus.
Is this what people mean when they say you miss someone even while looking at them?
The more she previewed today’s Sunyul, the more desperate she became to see him in person.
She wanted to meet him, talk to him, hold him, and share his breath.
The longing to freely love Sunyul was making her heart race.
While Jiwoo was quietly drowning in yearning, the lecture room gradually filled with students arriving for class.
The class—Introduction to Psychology, a liberal arts elective—was filled with a mix of curious freshmen and tired “fossils” just trying to rack up enough credits to graduate.
One side of the room was full of the campus’s freshest, most vibrant students, while the other side looked like they could wither and die at any second, their faces full of anxiety and fatigue.
The freshmen, now comfortable with their new adult lives, wore bright and colorful autumn outfits, basically walking maple leaves. Meanwhile, the seniors, standing at the brink of either employment or unemployment, sat slouched in dull gray and black hoodies as if all color had drained from them.
With these two extremes in the same room, the contrast was cruelly stark.
They remained silently aware of each other, like oil and water, never mixing.
The only one who hadn’t noticed this semester-long subtle tension was Jiwoo.
She was seated on the side filled with bright, cheerful freshmen.
Technically, she should’ve been hiding among the wilted seniors, but with her neatly cut bangs and oversized glasses, she looked like she’d just graduated high school. She blended in perfectly.
“When is Sunyul getting here…”
Just as she was quietly staring at the clock, waiting and hoping, it happened.
Through the chatter, the soft click of the doorknob turning rang out.
A quiet autumn breeze blew in through the open door.
That was all but the moment the wind brushed her cheeks, she got chills. Her ears perked up.
She could feel it instinctively.
Sunyul had arrived.
Jiwoo’s head snapped toward the door like a magnet being pulled.
Just stepping through the door, Sunyul wore the exact same outfit as in the photo she’d seen moments earlier.
As Sunyul entered the lecture room, Jiwoo felt the buzz of voices settle and everyone’s attention shift toward him.
Seeing her boyfriend in the flesh for the first time in a week, Jiwoo’s heart pounded like it would burst out of her chest.
A black turtleneck that half-covered his long neck, a textured black jacket, and sleek black jeans.
On anyone else, that outfit would’ve looked like walking charcoal.
But on Sunyul’s tall, well-proportioned figure, it was like the regal plumage of a black swan—elegant and proud.
Ah… He’s perfect again today.
Jiwoo, overwhelmed by the feeling that her eyes were being cleansed, covered her mouth with both hands.
The gushy words that popped out almost automatically quickly welled up and hovered around her lips.
Sunyul, what on earth are you lacking?
You’re handsome, you have a great body, you’re popular, you play piano well, you study well, you’re kind, you have a girlfriend, and then……
[Baek Sunyul (PLAYER): BOYFRIEND]
…you even have a name tag floating above your head?
Jiwoo couldn’t help but respond to the strangely familiar word.
“Uh…?”
Sunyul looked at Jiwoo in response to the sound.
Their eyes met. Was it just her imagination? Sunyul’s brows slightly furrowed as he looked at her.
At the same time, the system messages that had been quiet suddenly appeared all at once.
[System] PLAYER has made eye contact with “Monday Girlfriend” Yeon Jiwoo.
[System] By the will of the “Administrator,” PLAYER’s charm remains at maximum level.
[System] PLAYER is experiencing extreme fatigue.
[System] PLAYER’s condition has slightly deteriorated.
Jiwoo’s eyes shook confusedly as the sentences flashed all over her vision and then disappeared.
Sunyul, who had glanced at Jiwoo for a moment, turned away from her like a stranger as usual and walked toward his usual empty seat.
“……”
Jiwoo’s gaze followed Sunyul’s movement.
Feeling as if possessed, she read and reread the letters floating in parentheses above Sunyul’s head.
[PLAYER]
But no matter how many times she read it again, the letters stuck above Sunyul’s head did not change.
