184. Dopamine (5)

Homebody Scum, Time Billionaire.

In other words, a bum.

Since I had so much time to spare, I eagerly jumped on the hot topic like usual, trying to get some mileage out of it. I actually drew some attention, but I never imagined I’d hear talk of lawsuits in just a few hours.

…Well, whatever. Haven’t I been around the block a time or two on the internet?

I didn’t use words harsh enough to get charged with online sexual harassment, I didn’t precisely identify the target, nor did I openly drop F-bombs, so what’s this talk of lawsuits? That kind of thing happens on anonymous sites, right? Who would be crazy enough to provide grounds for a lawsuit on a real-name site like this?

Since earlier, messages from Seo Jia’s fans, saying they’d taken a PDF and to look forward to it, were pouring in, so I felt the urge to uncover the mastermind behind this sinister incident by any means necessary.

Where there’s smoke, there’s fire, right?

It would be fucking thrilling if the kids who were running wild thinking their world had arrived suddenly shut their mouths completely.

First, I meticulously started digging into the woman named Seo Haeun, who flipped public opinion by suddenly posting on Instagram.

Age-wise, she’s two years younger than me.

Unlike me, she doesn’t seem like she went to college… probably a high school graduate.

She’s Seo Jia’s older sister, and the daughter of a professional baseball team’s Director.

On top of that, a YouTuber.

It seems she started this year, and while pretending to be just another YouTuber, her main focus is cosplay and selling her tits, that bitch.

She’s clearly a rich kid, but the fact she does this kind of thing is kinda hot. I even considered using her for a quickie, but I gave up on it because something so trivial couldn’t satisfy the dopamine rush I felt earlier.

Looking closely at her channel, she started with suits, then gradually began wearing outfits of famous anime characters, and her views skyrocketed. Gradually, she moved on to cosplaying even sexy characters from niche games, steadily increasing her views.

It was a typical progression path, so it wasn’t surprising; in fact, I even felt it was slightly impressive. Just when her views were starting to decline, she revealed her face, which was also part of it. But then, after revealing her face, the videos uploaded afterward still cropped her face out of the frame.

While she seemed to have a knack for this kind of otaku-specific fetish, her Instagram gave off a vibe of a normal popular person, creating a slight sense of disconnect. Basically, pictures of her eating, pictures taken at the gym, pictures taken while on trips…

However, except for the food pictures, every single one was taken by someone else. As she revealed herself, those were probably taken by the man named Kang Joo-hyuk.

Surprisingly, I had heard of the notoriety of this man named Kang Joo-hyuk, so it wasn’t difficult to picture their relationship. The typical “tattooed-pig-broth-gukbap-loser” type, strangely dragging around a pretty girl, must be what it is. Seeing as how he hit a senior figure in the baseball world with a beanball right on the butt and then glared aggressively, you can basically tell his personality.

Of course, Kang Joo-hyuk didn’t have tattoos and wasn’t exactly a pig, but… anyway, it means his ‘masculinity’ is high. A man who suits that kind of airhead perfectly.

Of course, that’s just talk; I didn’t have any ill feelings towards those two. Because I’m pissed off at Seo Jia’s fans who are mocking me right now.

While checking her Instagram one by one, I carefully searched, wondering if there might be any important clues. Starting with the gym whose address was revealed, and focusing on comparing the stores featured in the photos, finding out which neighborhood she lived in wasn’t that difficult. Furthermore, looking at the pictures of the night view taken from her home, it was clear she lived in a super high-rise, so there was only one place suspected as her home.

A high-rise mixed-use apartment complex.

Living in such a nice place, unattainable even for the average middle class, made me slightly envious, but I figured with that face and those tits, it was possible, so I let it slide.

Instead, to find out if the two of them were cohabiting, I decided to thoroughly search Kang Joo-hyuk’s Instagram for clues this time. But surprisingly, contrary to his appearance, Kang Joo-hyuk didn’t utilize Instagram very well. Pictures of him eating with baseball players he knew, promotional pictures of his gym, pictures of him eating with his gym staff.

That was it.

There was no bragging about money or cars, not a single picture that might have been taken with Seo Haeun, and absolutely no clues as to where this guy lived. I just figured he probably lived somewhere near the gym.

Hiding his girlfriend so meticulously looked suspicious, so I took this guy’s username and searched the internet. But maybe even this was meticulously done, because except for the Instagram I saw earlier, I couldn’t find any trace of him on any other site. Even searching by name only brought up news articles and gossip from his baseball player days. It was enough to make me question why a guy like this would even have a scandal with an idol in the first place.

Feeling cognitive dissonance towards Kang Joo-hyuk, who was unexpectedly living a decent life, I searched for Seo Haeun again to shake off this unpleasantness. Quite a lot of information that I couldn’t find on Instagram or YouTube earlier came pouring out, so I firmly stored it in my brain.

She appeared on the broadcast of a female streamer I know but dislike. In the middle, that woman’s younger brother (this bastard is also a streamer) burst in, made advances, and got shut down. According to rumors, the younger brother got caught by Seo Haeun’s boyfriend, got beaten up, and took a break from broadcasting the next day. Rumor has it that the female streamer actually seduced the boyfriend that day and they had a threesome. No, rumor has it that bitch is actually a lesbian, so she seduced Seo Haeun and they had a threesome.

The credibility looks like fucking nothing, but it was full of content I couldn’t easily dismiss. Among those, the only certain thing was what remained on video. Appearing on the broadcast and getting shut down while making advances.

I looked into whether someone might have stirred up trouble because of this, and sure enough, it was the answer. It seemed that after seeing the male streamer who was making advances being mocked like a persistent troll, the streamer’s fans got angry and, grinding their teeth viciously, dug up every detail of Seo Haeun’s personal information. Meanwhile, as a side issue, Seo Jia going to Kang Joo-hyuk’s gym was revealed, and then a reporter asked about it, leading to this mess…

Wait a minute.

…Hinami was clearly right next to her, so why wasn’t she implicated? Even if Seo Jia could be linked because he’s her sister’s boyfriend, isn’t Hinami truly an outsider?

Intuiting that I had realized something important, I stroked my stubble and dug deeper. They clearly both went to that gym, and even the source of the picture in the article came from Hinami’s Instagram, not Seo Jia’s. Why was no one talking about Hinami?

…Could it be that Hinami’s fans maliciously spread it? I don’t know the idol scene well, but I know those two are among the most popular these days. Maybe it happened because individual fans, wearing masks, were sinisterly fighting each other?

Having discovered the forbidden truth, I neatly organized all the details and casually uploaded them to the Humor/Issue board. While anticipating how long it would take to reach the popular posts section.

…A death threat came via direct message.

No, fuck, it’s plausible, not just unfair criticism, right? Why are you only hammering in downvotes, you bastards? Lawsuits? What did I even do that warrants being sued? I just listed the facts, isn’t that right?

I will definitely uncover the truth, you ignorant fools…

**

The embers spread.

From the light into the shadows.

From real names to anonymity.

In places where lawsuits were possible, it was all suppressed and the fire died down, but… In places where there were too many ways to avoid lawsuits, all sorts of speculation and rumors mixed together, and the content kept getting exaggerated.

…It was surprising that facts were mixed in among them, but… Actually, the speculation was so diverse it wasn’t even surprising, so I didn’t think it was that impressive.

“Ha…”

Before I knew it, the fire that had moved on from me to Kang Joo-hyuk and Seo Haeun had now spread even to Hinami. The reason was truly absurd. The evidence that I went to Kang Joo-hyuk’s gym was a photo taken from Hinami’s Instagram. A picture she took of me. Starting from the logic that ‘If she took the picture, Hinami must have been there too,’ the speculation spread to ‘Maybe Hinami is dating Kang Joo-hyuk?’

I can’t understand what logic that is, but it’s even funnier that it’s actually true. Perhaps because Hinami already had many anti-fans, all sorts of people joined in, fiercely mocking Hinami’s fans. Provoked by that, harsh words were exchanged between them, someone threw firewood onto the flames while wearing a mask…

Just watching it made me dizzy, and although I wanted to turn off my phone, strangely, my hand wouldn’t easily reach the power button. Because every single word sent tingles through my brain. Because the raw fight was, honestly, fucking trivial and ridiculous.

…Even if I didn’t know why they were fighting, I had realized why I was watching them fight. Until someone stopped me, I couldn’t take my eyes off my phone.

“…”

However, no contact came. Not from Kang Joo-hyuk, not from my sister, not from Hinami. The only thing coming was a message from the Director saying legal action was being prepared, so not to worry. I skimmed through it, let it slide, and continued to be fascinated by this stupid fight, watching the fire unfold from a safe distance.

I became a filthy slut deceiving fans, a whore, this time Hinami became a lewd courtesan. My sister, stuck in the middle, transformed from a pitiful girlfriend into a suddenly cock-obsessed whore. The scene where only Kang Joo-hyuk became a superior man playing with all those women, then instantly transformed into a scammer.

‘How did that guy who retired after shining for just one year build a gym on such prime real estate? Didn’t he make money by scamming?’ ‘He’s a crypto millionaire. A tax evader. Must be involved with drugs. He was originally a baseball player, so gangsters must be backing him.’

While reading their comments, which spun novel stories impressive enough to make me want to praise their imagination, I remained expressionless and absorbed in my phone. After the sun set and I saw the fire die down, the firewood turned to charcoal. Only then, feeling an intense emptiness, did I realize I was hungry and could stuff food into my mouth.

However, the salad dressing I usually enjoyed tasted like nothing today. To the point I couldn’t even tell what I was eating.

…Wouldn’t someone rekindle this fire?

Lost in that expectation alone, I was searching through communities where my name wasn’t even appearing. I… reflexively clicked on a post with my name engraved as the title, and then… Seeing the naked body of a purple-haired woman filling the screen, I flinched.

“…Ah, no it’s not.”

…She was a woman who didn’t even resemble me, except for the hair color, but… For a moment, I almost mistook it for a thrill.