Bamboo Forest Manager

Chapter 80: This Cold Sensation

“What are you taking, about?”

(What are you guys talking about?)

Wow.

“Don’t scare me like that, I’m really scared of ghost stories!”

(Don’t talk about scary things like that. I’m really scared of ghost stories!)

I’m even more afraid of this.

It’s not a joke, can someone come home with me today and sleep over? I want to hold hands because I’m scared.

Except for Seo Yerin.

“Hyeon-ho, let’s cross our arms!”

“O-OK.”

Ahn Hyeon-ho awkwardly nods and links arms. The moment I saw that, I had no choice but to lower the phone I was filming with.

“W-we should do it again.”

I’m not particularly fond of Ahn Hyeon-ho, but I’m feeling a bit sorry for him right now.

If possible, I’d like to just let it slide. I’m not doing this to bully Ahn Hyeon-ho, and who would like it to be dragging on an assignment?

But in the script, it was clearly…

“Yah.”

The fresh and lively expression of senior Ju-hee, who had been linking arms with Ahn Hyeon-ho until just now, changed.

The way she glares with a stern face is utterly chilling.

“How many times are you going to mess up? You were doing fine in the other scene just a moment ago, what is with you now?”

Senior’s pigtails flutter this way and that.

Seo Yerin, Choi Yiseo, and Yu Arin, who are supposed to follow, take a step back, openly showing they don’t want to get involved in this discussion, and I too wanted to just pretend I didn’t see it.

Han-kang, that bastard, was wise to have run away from all this.

“Huh? Let’s do well, Hyeon-ho. At this age, wearing pigtails and linking arms with a junior, acting like an empty-headed girl is killing me.”

“Yes! Senior!”

“Right, if mistakes like this happen next time, I don’t know what I’ll do to you.”

Ahn Hyeon-ho’s shoulder was lightly tapped by senior Ju-hee in a manner that was both threatening yet not-quite-threatening. If I were the male protagonist, I would have immediately started crying and said I couldn’t do it.

Senior took a deep breath and readjusted her posture. Just as suddenly, she’s wearing a bright expression and smiling radiantly.

“Let’s go!”

“Pfft!”

“……”

“…………”

Suddenly, everyone’s gaze focused on me.

I couldn’t help but burst into laughter at Senior’s lively expression, looking like something out of a children’s cartoon.

“Is it funny?”

Senior Ju-hee approached me slowly.

No, honestly, this isn’t my fault, is it? If someone in front of you acts in a way that’s so obviously meant to make you laugh, how can you not laugh?

“Senior, I remembered a funny story I heard yesterday, and that’s why I laughed.”

As I try to come up with some excuse while watching Senior walk to me, senior Ju-hee stands firmly in front of me and asks,

“Let’s hear it.”

“……”

“If it’s not funny, you’re dead. Go on.”

“…Once upon a time.”

Pwack!

“Ugh!”

A strike to the shoulder from senior Ju-hee that came out of nowhere. As I involuntarily let out a cry, senior Ju-hee glares at me with her fist clenched.

“The beginning is already boring.”

I’ll admit that.

Trying to think up something on the spot, I ended up saying something useless.

“Let’s go once more. Focus and let’s finish this in one go.”

Watching senior Ju-hee’s back as she starts to focus again on returning to the lively and cheerful Min Ju-hee, I was amazed that a scholarship could change a person this much.

For your information, Ahn Hyeon-ho ended up causing three NGs and was struck a few times by senior Ju-hee before it was all done.

The movie shooting continued even on weekends. Although there were some rough patches at the beginning, once we got into a flow, it didn’t take long to shoot a scene.

“Aaaaaah!”

Screaming and falling down, that was the cute look of senior Ju-hee. By now, I can say I’ve gotten used to it, having seen that several times.

Honestly, the first time I saw that, I had nightmares.

“Cut!”

As soon as the filming of the dead and cute-looking Ju-hee ends, the senior springs up.

Then, she immediately unties the two hair ties she’s wearing and throws them into the trash can.

“Ah! Finally, it’s over!”

Yes, today is the last day for cute-looking senior Ju-hee.

Since senior Ju-hee died in the story, there’s no need for her to appear anymore.

For reference, the reason for her death is the somewhat bizarre setting that Yu Arin put cyanide in the coffee senior Ju-hee drank, with reasons unknown.

“Wow, was it filmed well?”

Yu Arin, who is the scriptwriter, actor, guest, charger, slave #1, and manager, comes to stand next to me to check the video we filmed.

Senior Ju-hee was shy in speech, but her acting was somewhat top-notch.

“Right? It’s not for nothing that Senior entrusted me with the filming, right?”

Ever since we filmed once last time, I’ve just been continuously filming.

It wasn’t that I was specifically assigned this duty, but rather I volunteered for it, because after filming a few times, the composition and cuts naturally came to mind when editing later.

Even now, after putting down the phone I was using for the filming, I was briefly jotting down the editing points that came to mind in a separate notebook I had brought along.

“Umm? Yah, we got an inquiry.”

Yu Arin, watching the video on my phone, subtly handed it over. I wondered what it was about, but it turned out to be an inquiry from the Bamboo Forest.

“What were you thinking, letting someone else get their hands on this?”

“…I’ve been a bit careless recently because of the filming.”

“You’re not trying to bring a Slave #2, are you?”

“Why? Wouldn’t it be nice to bring them?”

“Honestly, it’s not like I need them desperately. But wouldn’t it be convenient to have them around? Plus, there’s the fun of bossing around a successor.”

What kind of succession… No, is this Han-kang?

Even if they are brought in, I’m not sure if #1 and #2 would realize each other’s identities.

Since Lee Eun-woo, a senior in the Department of Physical Therapy is still active as Anonymous90, would not inform Yu Arin even if she became Admin No. 2.

• Anonymous243: Manager, did you see ‘My Childhood Friend is the Daughter of a Dragon Slayer, but I’m the Dragon?’ that I mentioned last time?

• Anonymous243: It’s a real masterpiece. From the perspective of an anime expert like me, it’s rated 4.6/5.0. You should really watch it.

“What’s this?”

Yu Arin frowns deeply as she checks the inquiry on behalf of someone else.

“243, that’s the otaku known as the anime expert, right? The one who always gets beaten about by No. 11.”

It could be said that Anonymous11 was a dedicated puncher for troublemakers. But, Anonymous243 showed little to no reaction to Anonymous11.

“Does this guy even send these to you?”

“Would this guy only send them?”

Since the inquiry function was essentially a 1:1 chat with the Administrator, there were quite a few people who used it to say what they wanted like this.

Just then, another inquiry came in.

• Anonymous69: I wanna have sex so bad!

“Wow, this person even does this through inquiries.”

“……”

Why on earth did Seo Yerin, who said she’d be late because she had an appointment today, send me this inquiry?

Not wanting to know, I ignored it but still slipped my phone into my pocket.

I didn’t want to accidentally scroll up and show Yu Arin that I had been talking privately with Anonymous69.

“That person is too much. How many months has it been since they’ve been acting like a sex-crazed bird?”

I almost blurted out that she was her high school classmate and best friend, but I forced myself to swallow the words, wanting their relationship to continue.

“I only manage the bulletin board, so I had no idea that such inquiries kept coming in.”

Upon realizing my troubles, Yu Arin nods and pulls a lollipop out from her pocket.

I thought she might be giving it to me because I’ve been having a hard time, but it went straight into her own mouth.

Feeling somewhat annoyed, I casually tossed a comment at Yu Arin.

“Yah, but isn’t the script turning a little too melodramatic? It wasn’t like this when we wrote it in the PC café. Right?”

I remember it being a story with a ghost and a sprinkling of romance mixed in.

But now, it’s turned into a story where a psychopathic girl kills all her friends because of the boy she likes.

At my words, Yu Arin also chuckles bitterly.

It was as if the writer had penned not what they desired, but what the world wanted to see.

“Since the professor is a bit older, I heard he prefers these kinds of trashy dramas. Senior Ju-hee asked seniors from the third year, and they said that something this intense has scored well in recent years.”

“Huh, I thought it was about the completeness of the story or something.”

“It seems that to the professor, this is what constitutes a high form of completeness. From what I see, the professor must be a fan of morning dramas.”

As we giggled and shared stories, Yu Arin’s phone suddenly rang.

She has quite a few friends, so she often gets calls.

Since I was right next to her, naturally, I saw the phone screen.

• Pyo Jinho -

“The last name is Pyo?”

I thought it was an unusual surname, but Yu Arin just stared down at her phone screen and then subtly turned her body.

“I’ll go take this call.”

Yu Arin just left as she has.

I wondered what senior Ju-hee was doing, but it seems like she went to the designated smoking area to smoke.

Seeing her expression still crumpled, it seems she really disliked doing all that cutesy acts.

‘The shooting is gradually coming to an end.’

There are still quite a few major scenes left to shoot, but even so, there’s less time left than what we’ve already spent filming.

Honestly, my hands have been quite itchy lately.

I downloaded an editing program and have been learning through YouTube, and editing turned out to be quite an interesting field to step into.

Although it was for an assignment, I wanted to properly use what I learned through YouTube, so I deliberately subscribed to a paid editing program for a month.

‘I really want to try it out quickly.’

At first, it was bothersome, and later, I started it while being conscious of senior Ju-hee’s glare.

But in the end, isn’t it good that I’m learning various things on my own and taking an interest in others?

Seo Yerin, Choi Yiseo, and Ahn Hyeon-ho decided to join us later, so I thought I could rest for a while.

Woong!

A ringing phone.

Thinking it must be either Seo Yerin or Choi Yiseo since speaking of speak of devil, always brought the devil to me but.

• Jeong Chan-woo -

Unexpectedly yet pleasantly, it was Chan-woo. He must be working at the PC café since it’s the weekend.

“Moshi moshi.”

I answered the phone with a smile.

• Woojin.

Chan-woo’s voice sounded serious.

Though the characteristic noise of the PC café could be heard in the background, his voice was lowered as if something was up.

• Is Arin there with you now?

“She’s here, but she went to answer a call for a moment.”

Hearing my words, Chan-woo let out a sigh of relief and then made a request.

• Could you stay with Arin today, if possible? And keep her away from our PC café.

“That’s not difficult. But I want to know why.”

I’m not so nice as to just help people out without any reason. I wanted to know why, but then I heard someone calling Chan-woo from over the call…

It seemed urgent, so Chan-woo quickly explained.

• Sorry. I’ll explain later, I promise. Or… just tell Arin that Pyo Jinho came.

Pyo Jinho?

“Uh…”

I was about to say that that’s who Arin was on the phone with.

Click.

But Chan-woo had hung up.

“What’s going on?”

The atmosphere felt strange, so I decided to go to where Arin was supposed to be.

“Arin?”

There was no sign of Arin anywhere.

I felt a chilling feeling.

There was a time before when something like this happened, but I can’t quite remember when.

“Arin!”

Anyway, from Chan-woo’s call, there were more than one or two ominous signs.

“Where are you!”

Suddenly, because she wasn’t the type to disappear without a word, I frantically searched for Yu Arin’s number while continuously looking around.

“Hey! Yu Arin!”

“Ah, why are you calling me, you jerk!”

It was then that Yu Arin walked out of the restroom in the distance. She was annoyed, shaking the water off her hands.

‘Ah.’

I remembered when I had felt this way before. It was like the time I went to see Minji, thinking she had made an extreme choice, and I had panicked.

“Why are you calling for me like that?”

Grunting, Yu Arin approached, and I answered seriously.

“I didn’t call you though?”

“Bullshit. What’s going on?”

“I told you, I didn’t call for you? I was singing a pop song. You are in~.”

Since I didn’t know any pop songs, I was just humming, and Yu Arin looked at me with a disgusted expression.

“If you’re going to do a shit show, do it from atop a toilet seat.”

“……”

Would you just look at this woman!

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