Bamboo Forest Manager

Chapter 122: The Black Skirt

Early dawn.

Seo Yerin returned to her room, passing by some part-timers who hadn’t fully opened their eyes yet on their way to work.

Fortunately, no one was awake yet, so she was able to sneak in carefully.

‘Ugh, my back hurts.’

After spending the whole night making love, her lower body felt numb.

Thinking she should wash up, she went into the bathroom quickly.

When she came out, Yu Arin, her roommate, was sitting there with a drowsy expression.

“Oh, you’re awake?”

Seo Yerin was startled.

“Where did you go?”

“Oh, um, just…”

She tried to dodge the question awkwardly, but Yu Arin’s gaze didn’t waver.

Seo Yerin wasn’t the type to go out and have fun alone late at night to begin with.

She must have already realized that it wasn’t persuasive and that she was deliberately not answering.

“Actually, I was with Woojin.”

“…….”

Seo Yerin, who thought that ambiguous lies were rather an act of deceiving a friend, revealed it openly and confidently.

Yu Arin, who was still half-asleep, gradually widened her eyes.

It was because she knew what Seo Yerin meant by saying that.

“You, uh…”

The atmosphere became strange.

A tension that shouldn’t exist between friends filled the air, and Yu Arin felt the onset of a throbbing headache.

She knew she had started it.

She had intervened knowing that Seo Yerin and Choi Yiseo already had feelings for Kim Woojin.

But now that the situation was unfolding this way, her heart felt heavy, and she wondered if she had made a mistake.

Watching Yu Arin, who had turned pale.

Seo Yerin slowly approached her and gently placed her hand on her cheek.

At first, she thought she was going to get slapped, but the touch was warm and kind.

“I won’t regret it.”

“……”

“You know that well too. If you only care about what others think, you won’t achieve anything.”

Should she ignore it?

At first, Yu Arin thought so.

She thought it meant she would go to Kim Woojin without caring about friends or anything else.

Feeling Seo Yerin carefully embracing her, Yu Arin realized she was mistaken.

‘This is…’

“So, you too, don’t back down.”

It was encouragement.

“Let’s not regret it, Arin. We’ll always be friends…so let’s not regret it.”

“……”

“Even if one of us backs down now, it will eventually strain our relationship.”

And so Seo Yerin was saying that they might as well settle it now.

She was declaring that they should maintain their friendship but not give up on pursuing the guy.

“Let’s try everything we can do now. That way, we can remain friends until the end.”

‘How can that still be possible for you?’

It seemed like such words could burst from Yu Arin’s throat at any moment.

Especially since she was burning with jealousy upon hearing that Seo Yerin had spent a night with Kim Woojin.

‘Is it because she’s overflowing with confidence?’

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She had been getting attention from countless people since high school and often received love calls from the entertainment industry.

Even in college, she was famous as the goddess of the freshman English department, and at Gold One, she became famous as the beautiful part-timer from the Great Korean bakery.

Is it because she has confidence in herself that she can be so bold?

Suddenly, Yu Arin thought of her past self.

In fact, it wasn’t even a few months ago…

When she approached Kim Woojin, harboring feelings of defeat and jealousy towards Seo Yerin.

‘The reason you can say that is.’

Could it be because of the absolute certainty of victory lying beneath?

Yu Arin, who had been compared to Seo Yerin countless times as a friend, knew it all too well.

If she were a man, even she would have chosen Seo Yerin over herself.

The embrace she was held in was warm.

She understood Seo Yerin’s greedy consideration of not wanting to lose both friendship and love.

But rather, that-

To Yu Arin, it reached her as an absolute sense of defeat, something Seo Yerin would never understand.

‘You always win.’

She was relieved.

She was glad to be hugged.

She could avoid showing her twisted expression.

“When I was in high school… I think I was too immature.”

She hugged Seo Yerin tightly, giving her strength.

From Yu Arin’s softly whispered voice.

A sense of defeat, and.

“This time, it’s different.”

A competitive spirit was burning.

“I can lose once.”

She thought she had said something similar before her last call with Choi Yiseo.

You can lose once.

You can make a mistake once.

“Not twice.”

She didn’t want to become a similar person again. The one who, out of ugly jealousy of friends, would scheme behind their backs.

She didn’t want to become such a Yu Arin.

This time, Yu Arin.

Had no intention of backing down.

“Ah, Arin. It hurts!”

Feeling annoyed at Seo Yerin’s voice complaining about the tight hug, Yu Arin applied more force and knocked her down.

“Does my throat sound hoarse!?”

“Heh, hehihi! Aagh! Ah, it hurts!”

“Are you laughing? Was it so good that you want to laugh? This is your grave, you bitch. Say your last words!”

“Sex with Kim Woojin…is so damned good!”

This crazy bitch.

Even if she was a friend, some correction seemed necessary. Yu Arin immediately wrapped her legs around Seo Yerin’s waist and executed a technique she had learned from a YouTuber.

“Surrender! I surrender, Arin! It hurts!”

“Ah! Seo Yerin, did you enjoy it? Huh? Did you enjoy it? Was it good to leave your friend and sleep with a guy?!”

“Hehehe, yes, it was goooood!”

“Look at you laughing!?”

“Using strength to win is unfair, Arin!”

‘Ugh, why is my body so tired.’

Two days after having sex with Seo Yerin.

Yesterday was a day off, so I slept all day, but my body felt unusually tired.

Everyone said it was because they were just sleeping, but I wondered if Seo Yerin was actually draining my energy.

“Kim Woojin, your face doesn’t look so good.”

Lee Se-ah from the Theatre department nudged me with her elbow and asked.

Is it that obvious?

Honestly, getting to work today was really tough.

“I’m just tired.”

“Want me to buy you a coffee? You really don’t look good.”

“No, I already had one.”

Saying that, I pulled the cart and went up to the guest room.

Lately, a series of incidents have been occurring one after another at Gold One Hotel.

Starting with a lawsuit due to harassment of a part-timer, the vice chairman of the parent company visited.

The vice chairman personally discovered a manager distributing strange memoranda.

Even when digging into the manager’s background, they found an illicit slush fund ledger linked to embezzlement of hotel funds, leading to the mass dismissal of higher-ups conspiring with the manager.

Isn’t it funny how a chain reaction started with a person named Manager Lee Chan-song, like sausages hanging in a row?

I told my older brother to send a reward since it was half thanks to me, and he only sent ten thousand won.

It seems I still look like the youngest who used to follow my big brother around.

“Yawn.”

Honestly, my body was tired, but my mind felt somewhat lighter.

It felt like the confusion I had was somewhat sorted out. It wasn’t just about spending the night with Seo Yerin, but I also managed to sort out my feelings to some extent.

Loving Oh Yoon-ji wasn’t a lie.

It also became an opportunity to honestly admit that my feelings were swaying towards other women.

Simply.

I felt my confused mind settle just from Seo Yerin affirming and accepting someone as worthless as me.

‘Did Seo Yerin feel this way too?’

If she felt this way because I accepted her as Anonymous69.

Yeah, it might seem a bit annoying, but maybe it was worth falling for.

Actually, I’m surprisingly conscious of Seo Yerin a lot right now.

Just realizing, acknowledging, and understanding someone’s ugly nature can significantly raise one’s affection for that person.

It’s perhaps an inevitable part of being human.

When I got back to the office, this time Yu Arin was staring at me in front of the elevator.

“……”

“……”

A brief silence.

Neither of us said anything; we just stared blankly at each other until the elevator doors were about to close.

“Ahem.”

As I cleared my throat awkwardly and stepped out of the elevator, Yu Arin followed closely behind.

It would be nice if she said something, but she just stared at me silently, making me feel unnecessarily self-conscious.

‘She probably knows.’

Seo Yerin wasn’t the type to lie easily, and since she mentioned sharing a room with her roommate…

If Yu Arin had questioned Seo Yerin about coming in late, she would naturally have learned the whole story.

‘This is awkward.’

Having received a confession, this situation was a bit troubling. I couldn’t easily give her an answer.

At that moment, the manager, who was in a good mood because Manager Lee Chan-song did not come to work, poked his head out of the office and said,

“Woojin, go to Building B and collect some carts. There were a lot of orders last night, so the carts are piled up.”

“Got it.”

“Take someone with you. It will be hard to do it alone.”

At those words, I glanced at my fellow part-timers.

Lee Se-ah, who immediately avoided my gaze, and Han Bom, pretending to fold napkins. Seeing them avoid me so blatantly made me want to take them even more, but then I felt a sharp pain in my back.

“With another girl again?”

Yu Arin glared at me with a cold voice. Swallowing hard, I headed to Building B with Yu Ah-rin.

“Hold on, I need to use the restroom.”

Yu Arin went to the restroom midway.

I didn’t mind and waited for a bit before heading to Building B.

Since it was easier to move the cart from the top floor, we took the elevator up to Building B together.

Yu Arin, with her arms crossed, turned to me and glared at me as she spoke.

“Don’t you have something to say?”

“Ahem.”

“I’ve been waiting.”

“Ah, you know…”

“Shut up!”

Yu Arin strode towards me and grabbed my collar.

Her force was so intense that I instinctively shrank back.

“You must have enjoyed it, huh? Touching Yerin’s chest all over? Mine must have been disappointing, right?”

“No, it’s not like that…”

“You bastard! How could you do that?!”

Yu Arin pushed me into the corner of the elevator and turns her back. But she didn’t move aside, so I couldn’t escape.

Yu Arin, who seemed sulky, gently leans her body against me.

I wondered what she would do if someone came in, but she kept hitting my chest with the back of her head, huffing and puffing.

“Ouch!”

“Ugh, it’s so annoying! Why did I fall for a guy like you?”

“Well, if anyone hears this, they’d think I seduced you…”

“You did seduce me! You did!”

If you put it that way, then I guess I did.

Even with her mouth tightly shut, Yu Arin had no intention of stepping aside. I wondered why she was acting this way, and suddenly she turned her head abruptly and looked up at me with a slightly flushed face.

“Do-don’t you get it?”

“Get what.”

I was puzzled, but then Yu Arin’s hips suddenly pressed against me excessively.

“Stop it.”

Thinking she was trying to provoke sexual desire again, I pushed her away slightly, and Yu Arin pouted and sighed.

“I thought Kim Woojin would notice.”

“Notice what.”

I was still puzzled.

Has something changed?

But her gold uniform with a white shirt and black skirt…

It wasn’t much different from what I usually saw.

As we were about to reach the top floor…

Forcing herself to overcome her embarrassment, Yu Arin took something out of her pocket and handed it to me.

“I can do it too.”

With a face flushed red, she hastily exited to the top floor.

Curious, I followed her down to check.

A trace of warmth remained.

In the form of a lovely triangle.

A pair of black panties was in my hand.

“……”

That was Yu Arin’s resolve.

To me, who had spent the night with Seo Yerin, she offered her own resolve, claiming she could do it too.

‘So that’s why she went to the bathroom earlier.’

Wait a minute.

In that case.

“A black skirt…no panties?”

“Shut up! It’s embarrassing!”

From a distance, Yu Arin, who was pulling a cart, blushed and shouted.

My eyes couldn’t help but be drawn to her lower body, which seemed to move with a wiggle.

Receiving my gaze, Yu Arin continued to shout something or other.