Chapter 381

Chapter 381

Reincarnated User Manual.

Episode 381: W-IFSS: If This Were A Childhood Friend Story Instead (3)

“First love? I love romance stories!”

“Ehehe… Isn’t this Executive Director Im Hye-jung? I love you!”

“Ji-hye! Yura is drunk, send her home quickly!”

“Team Leader Jeong. What’s wrong? Are you leaving me out? That makes me sad~”

“Of course not, Executive Director.”

“Executive Director Im, would you like to hear a first love story that I can’t tell without tears?”

“Mhm! I want to hear it!”

“Hehehe. It was the summer of fifteen years ago.”

Completely intoxicated, Yura shamelessly began to ramble.

A story about a loner who couldn’t make a single friend in a strange neighborhood because of her bad temper.

Then, like magic, a boy with a great personality appeared. (He was just a kid, but his features were already striking.)

Unlike Yura, who lived in a single-parent household, the boy came from a fairly well-off family. (Handsome, sincere, and at the time, even better at studying than Yura.)

They would run around playing together, and a kind lady would always prepare cake and sikhye. (Unlike Yura’s family, who rarely gave her compliments, the lady would constantly tell Yura how pretty she was.)

The days when Yura tried her best to impress the boy and his family.

She fixed her awkward chopstick grip. She washed her face thoroughly with soap. She even applied sunscreen. She studied hard with the boy’s help.

At first, just keeping up with him was exhausting, but before she knew it, she was better at almost everything. Before long, she excelled at everything—except fighting.

“What? Was that boy really that nice? I heard that when he realized there was nothing he could do better than Yura, he started learning the violin, something Yura could never do.”

“What a petty guy.”

“Ugh, what an insufferable rich kid.”

The lively company dinner suddenly quieted as even people from other departments began listening to Yura’s first love story.

“Isn’t this made up? But looking at how drunk she is, she doesn’t seem smart enough to fabricate a story while talking to the director.”

Snippets of doubt filled the air, but Yura was too wasted to hear any of it.

“So what happened next? Ah, my glass is empty.”

Gulp, gulp, gulp.

It didn’t help that Executive Director Im kept offering more drinks, urging her to continue.

“Hyun-jun wasn’t bad!”

Hic! Teetering on the edge of unconsciousness, Yura exhaled drunken fumes toward the ceiling.

Then, suddenly—drip, drip—tears welled up in her eyes.

“It’s all my fault…”

Drip— A pathetic tear rolled down her cheek.

As the once lively dinner atmosphere crumbled, Yura’s chest tightened with pain.

—Isn’t this really easy? It’d be ridiculous to mess this up…

—I want to be a doctor? Uh… well, let’s do our best!

—See? It worked when you did what I told you!

The harsh words she had thrown at Hyun-jun. Though she had never openly insulted him, looking back now, she realized every word had subtly scratched at his heart.

—See? You can do it if you try.

Yet, when Hyun-jun helped Yura as a child, he never once said those words.

“…Ugh.”

The reason was clear.

Jealousy.

Growing up in a single-parent household, Yura envied everything Hyun-jun had.

A kind mother. A father who successfully ran a business.

A spacious home. A fridge stocked with snacks.

Poverty was terrifying. Even at a young age, Yura knew that no matter how hard she tried, there were things she could never have.

She envied Hyun-jun.

She liked him, but as a child, she didn’t understand love. She foolishly believed that if she became more accomplished than him, he would adore her like his parents did.

In the end, all she did was ruin everything beyond repair.

“Hmph… Mmm… Hmph!”

Tears filled the eyes of a heartbroken young woman.

As she downed another drink, Executive Director Im’s eyes sparkled with intrigue.