Chapter 16

Kwaehwal Namsu’s YouTube channel had subscriptions and notifications set up.

Thanks to that, I could immediately check when a new video was uploaded.

‘Why upload at this time in the morning…’

It was currently 7 a.m.

Probably targeting office workers heading to work or students going to school.

‘The editors must have worked hard.’

The filming was done just yesterday.

But to finish editing in a day and upload it the next day? On one hand, it was impressive and admirable.

‘Come to think of it, I heard they sometimes finish editing on the same day?’

Looking at it calmly,

I wonder if Nam Hyun-soo is a tyrannical boss.

Isn’t he overworking his staff?

Well, he probably pays them well, though.

At first glance, he didn’t seem like a bad person.

Of course, you can’t judge a book by its cover, and you can’t know someone’s true nature without spending a lot of time with them.

Anyway, I decided to watch the video later and go back to sleep.

It was too early for me.

After all, I’m neither an office worker nor a student—I’m unemployed.

Since I started broadcasting, I could be called semi-unemployed, but for now, I’m fully unemployed since I’m taking a break.

‘Let’s wake up at 10.’

I closed my eyes again.

Soon, I fell into a sweet dream.

***

I woke up at 11.

It had been a while since I slept this long.

I must have been really tired yesterday.

‘Sleeping too much makes me tired too. I should have slept just enough…’

The fatigue still hadn’t gone away.

Maybe because I overslept, my body felt even more stiff.

‘Let’s go out for now.’

I came out of the main bedroom and went downstairs.

First, I enjoyed a morning cola before showering.

Cola in the morning is the best.

It feels like energy is being replenished rapidly.

Maybe cola is an energy supplement?

After that, I finished showering and headed to the bathhouse.

It’s a bathhouse designed to feel like a Japanese hot spring.

The water automatically comes out in the morning and evening and drains at noon and dawn.

It was a facility equipped with some advanced technology I didn’t fully understand.

‘It was worth spending the money. The swimming pool was a bit of a luxury, but I use the bathhouse every day.’

I soaked my body in the hot water.

Only now did the fatigue start to fade.

While taking a half-body bath, I slowly closed my eyes.

Then, something I had forgotten suddenly came to mind.

‘Oh right. A video was uploaded this morning. I should just watch it now.’

I turned on my waterproof smartphone and went to Kwaehwal Namsu’s YouTube channel.

「Shopping at Novel Mart with the Ultimate Handsome Man!」

That was the title of the video I appeared in.

‘Ultimate? The word choice is a bit embarrassing…’

My face was on the thumbnail.

However, it was pixelated.

It seemed like a trick to get people to click on the video.

And it seemed to have worked.

‘Wow… The views are insane.’

The upload time was 7 a.m.

Only about 4 hours had passed.

But the views had already reached 150,000.

‘There are a lot of comments too.’

After playing the video,

I checked the comments while watching.

At the top was the comment with the most ‘likes.’

It had a whopping 3,000 hearts.

─Wow. I didn’t have high expectations, but I was so shocked by the guest’s face that I dropped my phone. He might be the most handsome guy I’ve ever seen in my life.

└Agreed. He’s ridiculously good-looking.

└I thought it was clickbait, but damn, it’s real.

└Kwaehwal Namsu looks like a squid next to him lol

└Hmm. Isn’t he just average-looking?

└└LOL average-looking? Are you a guy?

└Does anyone know the Instagram of that guy, Gye Se-hoon? Please tell me ㅜㅜㅜ

The more I read the comments, the more my confidence in my looks grew.

When I first started broadcasting,

I almost lost my self-esteem because there was so little traction.

‘But as I’ve always felt, I guess I’m much better-looking than I thought. I’ve never received this much praise before. Is it because I went to an all-boys school?’

In my previous world, I was often told I was good-looking.

But that was it.

I never even got asked for my number.

My life in this world is completely different.

Although, even in this world, I haven’t been hit on that much.

‘In any world, most people just glance at me and don’t approach… Maybe I look a bit intimidating.’

Honestly, I never cared much about my looks.

I never compared my face to others.

Of course, I never thought about what level I was at.

I just thought I was decent-looking, that’s all.

So, it was a bit surprising.

There were hardly any people who showered me with excessive compliments to my face.

‘Maybe it’s because I used to have messy hair back in school…’

Anyway, I realized I was better-looking than I thought.

That’s enough about my looks.

I’m not a narcissist.

I decided to check more comments.

─Novel Mart is packed with people right now lol The parking lot is full, damn it!!!

└For real? The promotion is a huge success.

└LOL It hasn’t even been that long since the video was uploaded.

└If you go now, you won’t see that guy anyway, so why bother?

└They probably went to smell his lingering scent.

└You must have nothing better to do. Who drives all the way to that rural area?

└It’s not rural. It’s in Gyeonggi Province.

└Not all parts of Gyeonggi are the same.

└That place is rural.

The comments were about the Novel Mart parking lot being full.

I couldn’t imagine it.

That huge parking lot being full.

‘It’s probably just trolling. It hasn’t even been half a day since the video was uploaded. It doesn’t make sense for that many people to have gone there.’

I don’t know if it’s true or not.

If it is, I’ll have to go back to my usual mart next time.

I prefer quiet places over crowded ones.

I continued watching the video and checked other comments.

Then, I noticed one comment that stood out.

─Hello. I’m Gye Se-hoon’s childhood friend who lived next door. We lost contact when he suddenly moved during middle school. I never dreamed I’d find out about his current life like this on YouTube. If it’s not too much trouble, could you please share his contact information? My email is [email protected]. Please, I really need it.

What the hell is this?

My childhood friend?

Maybe we were from the same orphanage…

No, wait. This is a different world.

In this world, I wasn’t abandoned by my parents.

‘I guess I had a childhood friend next door.’

Out of curiosity, I tried to recall memories from this world despite the headache.

But nothing came to mind.

The memories were too hazy.

‘Middle school wasn’t that long ago… The memories from my previous world are clear, but this world’s memories don’t come back easily.’

It wasn’t strange.

Strictly speaking, the me who lived in this world is a different person from the current me.

And since I don’t have a computer-like brain with perfect memory, it’s impossible to retain all memories.

‘I don’t know. If it’s this hard to remember, we probably weren’t that close.’

I gave up on trying to remember.

It could just be a troll, or someone delusional who thinks we were childhood friends.

‘Anyway, the video quality is good. The editing is clean too.’

Before I knew it, the video ended.

There wasn’t much to it.

It was just a summary of what happened yesterday.

By the way, they edited out any potentially controversial scenes, but they left in the parts where I cursed occasionally.

The editor probably thought it was part of my broadcasting concept.

Of course, they edited out the really harsh curses.

‘They didn’t edit out the part where they introduced me as a broadcaster. Well, it doesn’t matter.’

There was no reason to edit it out.

The live broadcast viewers already knew about it.

After finishing the video, I left the bathhouse.

***

In front of the bathhouse mirror.

I was looking at my naked body.

‘Hmm… As expected, there’s not much difference.’

In this world, I didn’t exercise.

Yet, my body was the same as in my previous world.

Even the outline of my abs was clear.

‘I worked hard to build muscle, but how did this guy maintain this body just by sleeping?’

It was really strange.

But I quickly brushed off the thought.

Good is good.

My mammoth is still there, so no problem.

‘Still, I should keep exercising. You never know when your body might break down. I’ll do some home training today and go hiking when I broadcast.’

As I mentioned earlier,

I’m taking a break for a few days.

The reason for the break is simple.

It’s to avoid being tracked by those idiots from the Male Supremacy Organization.

I have a feeling things will get annoying if I get involved with them.

In other words, it’s a strategic temporary break.

‘A day or two should be enough for the break, right?’

Today, I’ll exercise and rest, and tomorrow, I plan to go take my driver’s license test.

The day after that, I have no plans.

So, a two-day break is just right.

Being alone at home gets lonely and boring…

***

The next day.

I went to the test center to get my Class 1 driver’s license.

After a simple physical exam,

I headed to where the examiner was waiting for the road test.

Since I already had a Class 2 license, I was exempt from the written test.

“Hello.”

“Ah, yes. Hello.”

The examiner was a man.

In this world, that was quite special.

And next to the examiner was another test-taker.

A woman.

She was wearing beige top and bottom.

Is that a modified hanbok?

It definitely looked like one.

‘Did she put honey on her phone or something? She can’t take her eyes off it.’

Her focus is impressive.

She’s completely focused on her phone, ignoring the other test-taker.

For some reason, she looked serious.

Is she into stocks or crypto?

Just as I was thinking that,

The examiner looked back and forth between us with a puzzled expression and asked,

“By the way, is matching outfits a trend among young people these days?”

At that, the woman looked up.

And she looked at me.

“Eh? Gye Se-hoon…?”

Her eyes widened like a rabbit’s.

She seemed to know me.