Chapter 220

Dan Ni El looked at the familiar scenery with her head tilted slightly.

A line of fellow university students crowded inside the building, snaking around and spilling out the entrance.

Dan Ni El shaded her eyes from the bright sunlight and checked her card balance, which was only 6,410 won.

“I can manage until tomorrow somehow.”

She hurried to quickly line up for a meal that costs 1,000 won.

On days when the side dishes were decent, she had to wait for 20 or 30 minutes, making it a dreadful experience to run under the glaring sun every day.

“It feels like nothing has changed since my school lunch days.”

It’s just that school lunches have become campus meals now.

Time isn’t given equally to everyone.

Her classmates were likely enjoying the cool air conditioning in their study rooms or club rooms, playing instruments together, and when the delivery food arrived, they would sit together on the floor to eat their lunch.

In the end, Dan Ni El never found out what they chose between the narrowed-down options of jokbal and sushi.

As she finally saw the end of the long line and was about to get her meal ticket, a notification popped up in the ‘Bark’ group chat.

[1st-year aspiring PDs gather! Unspecified has come to Jahayeon! Go go go!]

“Okay, I guess I can skip one meal.”

[The payment is canceled.]

If she saw Na Me’s cute self, she believed her stomach would understand.

* * *

“Hey, Ni El, could you go to the front gate and get me a takoyaki?”

“Me?”

“I can’t go empty-handed to Na Me. Besides, Ni El, you’re the one among us who has the best first impression. Can you bring Na Me over? Please!”

“Okay…”

Ni El couldn’t refuse the senior’s request to lure Na Me to the Bark studio.

“It’s 5,000 won.”

“5,000 won? For just six pieces?”

“Yes.”

Five meals’ worth of money flew away due to the inflated price of the food cart.

“Do you want some, Older Sister?”

“No! I don’t really like cheese! Na Me, eat a lot!”

This was an investment.

Ni El made up her mind to think of it that way.

If the incredible performance Na Me showed at the pond was anything to go by, the VTube views would do pretty well.

If she could produce one more video featuring the view count cheat code called Unspecified, she would receive a good payout as well.

Though Na Me left to become the maestro midway and she couldn’t watch until the end, it was bound to be good content.

But she overlooked that unexpected fortune always follows with misfortune.

“You can’t provide the settlement right away?”

“We usually do it once every two months. Since we had it at the end of June, we’ll probably have it in the last week of August. But why?”

“Oh, it’s nothing…”

The reason she joined the corporate-type club was to make money.

She had become a prospective PD by breaking through fierce competition fueled by rumors of making big bucks in ‘Bark.’

While the amount wasn’t as astounding as the rumors suggested, it wasn’t a small amount for Ni El.

Hearing that she wouldn’t receive her payment for another month and a half sent her into despair.

“There’s some time left until the private tutoring payday…”

Could she last three more days?

The takoyaki that had entered Na Me’s mouth earlier seemed to flicker in front of her eyes.

* * *

Ni El profoundly felt that humans are slaves to hormones.

After three days of fasting, she began to get irritated beyond mere hunger.

Her classmates’ thoughtless comments that she usually endured now grated on her nerves.

“Seriya, I didn’t get the scholarship this time! Waaaah. I was planning to use the money for overseas travel… Everyone is going, and I can’t go. What’s up with that?”

“Congratulations on the full tuition. Isn’t it because you fall into the high-income bracket?”

“No, my family is in the 9th percentile! How can that even be? My mom is a housewife, and my dad is just an ordinary civil servant. We don’t even have a proper house in Seoul, yet we’re in the 9th percentile!”

“Weren’t you commuting from Seoul?”

“That’s a rental, and it gets counted as assets even if it’s not ours.”

“That evaluation standard seems a bit off.”

“Don’t you think? A friend of mine has a dad who runs a big business, and he gets a 3rd percentile income, so he’s receiving a full scholarship and an additional 500,000 won as support. I envy that too much… If the income bracket is low, how much money can you actually save up?”

“What about you, Ni El? Do you have any plans for overseas travel during summer break?”

Her classmates asked while taking a break in the study room.

While some were deliberating on overseas trips, she was concerned about whether she could eat today.

The thought that Korea University, being a public school with low tuition, might have fewer wealthy students was purely a misconception.

It was actually one of the universities with the highest percentage of top-income students, with 60% of students in the highest income bracket.

Struggling to suppress her bubbling anger, Ni El left the study room.

“I’m busy. I don’t have time for a trip.”

Ni El lost two friends.

Of course, it wouldn’t be an immediate loss.

But she knew better than anyone that if she continued to drift away and not mingle, they’d eventually become strangers.

“Ni El looks a bit down today… Is she sick?”

A friendship where only one side takes and cannot give back cannot last long.

* * *

“I’m sorry. I really can’t attend today because I have something to do.”

“Not again…? Can’t you at least come, take a picture, and leave?”

“Yeah… Today’s schedule is a bit…”

“Got it. We’ll be here until 5, so can you stop by before then?”

“I’ll try.”

After telling a lie that would be revealed in a few hours, Ni El skipped the group meeting.

The class that ended early after 30 minutes and replaced the remaining time with the group meeting was perfect for Ni El.

It allowed her to keep her grades without spending more time and still go for tutoring, effectively saving time.

Moreover, the costs incurred at group meetings for food or cafes were significant.

It was better to not attend at all than to go to every group meeting, eat nothing, and just awkwardly observe.

Still, to avoid causing any inconvenience to her group members, she pretended to participate, but a minor variable appeared in her plan.

[Park Jun Young, Piano Department Class of ’47]

[Ni El, it’s a bit awkward to say this now, but about the motorcycle I lent you for tutoring… I think I need it back.]

Park Jun Young was a senior who had taken care of her, thinking Ni El was always somewhat aloof despite their close club relationship.

He had generously lent her his motorcycle, considering her family situation.

But Park Jun Young confessed to Dan Ni El, and she turned him down.

The result manifested in the worst form possible: the confiscation of the motorcycle.

Ni El knew.

That she had somewhat taken advantage of his feelings.

But there was no way to maintain a decent life without doing this.

Taking public transport meant she had to leave at least 30 minutes earlier. Attending the group meeting was out of the question.

She sat in the back seat of the bus, leaning her tired body against the window.

Once misfortune strikes, it comes in waves without stopping.

[Private Tutoring Mom]

“Hello?”

[Hello, teacher! Today Hyun Seong went swimming and isn’t feeling well, so I wanted to see if we could postpone today’s lesson to tomorrow!]

Not again!

Ni El’s grip on her phone tightened.

Words came out that she usually wouldn’t have uttered.

“Then I’ll just deduct one lesson from the payment…”

[What? Teacher, that’s not fair! I’m not asking for a free lesson; I just want to postpone it!]

“You didn’t inform me in advance, and telling me 30 minutes before tutoring puts me in an awkward position.”

[Teacher, I didn’t expect this from you. Aren’t you supposed to offer proper services and think about your paycheck? And can you really say you’re teaching Hyun Seong properly? He’s from Korea University’s music department, after all…]

The group meeting was bust, and the tutoring session flopped.

“At least the deposit date is fast, which is a good thing…”

Originally, she would have received the payment in two weeks, but due to the tutoring cancellation, she was able to get it tomorrow.

So Ni El decided to spend her remaining fortune of 1,410 won on triangular kimbap.

“Welcome! This is CU!”

* * *

The summer sun was long.

In fear that this precarious emotion might explode, she ran away to a quiet park.

The last straw for her already worn-out heart was a message from her mother.

[I’m out of money. Send me 500,000 won, Dan Ni El.]

Under the lush green maple tree, she trudged to a shaded bench and lay down.

The dampness of the summer wood felt through her thin white t-shirt.

Her long hair fell limply, touching the dirty ground.

Suppressing the urge to cry, she called her mother.

“I don’t have money.”

As expected, the curses began to flow.

She poured out how much she had sacrificed for her, how someone with a degree from Korea University’s music department couldn’t manage this much, and how they might as well sever the parent-child bond if this is how it was going to be.

Her mother’s tirade continued until her father took the phone and intervened.

[Are you doing well?]

“It’s hard. I feel like I’m dying.”

[What should I do if my pretty daughter says it’s hard? Should I give you some allowance?]

“I don’t have money. Don’t say such pathetic things.”

[Okay… I’m sorry…]

“So please stop, Dad… *cough cough*”

[Huh? Why your dad?]

“It’s nothing. Please just forget it.”

Ni El intentionally left her words unfinished.

She felt it was unfair to take her stress out on her father, who could do nothing.

She understood how miserable it is to be unable to help as a father.

But she only ‘understood.’

Ni El resented her mother, who had led her down this path, and her father, who was of no help in her life.

Ending the short call, she straightened herself up again.

Stretching her arms, she heard the sound of her joints cracking all over.

Various news flashes with subtitles were playing on the outdoor advertisements in the sky.

Allegations of bribery in the billions, stock manipulation in the trillions.

There were reports that Switzerland pays tens of billions to recruit young talents who aren’t even adults yet.

The sums seemed unrealistically astronomical at the moment.

Ni El dreamed a simple dream that she wished to win even just 2 million won by hitting 3rd place in the lottery instead of those amounts.

After a day filled with nothing but misfortune, she wished for at least a bit of luck to balance it out.

But Ni El didn’t even have money to buy a lottery ticket.

“I’m hungry…”

Her stomach felt like it was clinging to her back.

It was just as Dan Ni El turned around with a deep sigh of resignation to head back to the dormitory.

“Are you hungry?”

A voice came from the front, just a little lower down.

Na Me appeared, rustling a black plastic bag, lifting her head to look at Ni El.

“I brought a serving of nakgobsae. Do you want some?”

Na Me promptly held out the plastic bag.

Ni El blinked in surprise, her big eyes widening.

“Now I understand why my luck has been so bad today…”

“…?”

Na Me tilted her head, smiling brightly.

“It’s nothing. Thank you, really…”

Ni El couldn’t hold back the tears that had been welling up inside her; they burst forth all at once.

The walls she had built around her heart crumbled down in the face of such pure kindness.