Netkama Punch!!!

He always used to call me a pig, and I was just pointing out how fucking annoying that was. Maybe Shin Heejae picked up on my tone, because he paused for a moment.
But soon enough, the bastard smirked and said,
“Mm. Well, I do think about food all the time, I guess.”

“……?”
Then he looked me up and down with that disgusting gaze of his. I was about to grimace, but the second I realized what he meant, I slammed the table and shot to my feet.
“I’ll kill you!”

“Out of nowhere?”
Seeing that fake-innocent face, I got so pissed I tried to kick him in the shin. But the bastard quickly sidestepped. I didn’t give up and lunged to grab him by the collar...
“…….”

…but I locked eyes with the convenience store clerk, who looked at me with dead fish eyes, and I had no choice but to sit back down, trembling with rage.
I gritted my teeth, glaring at Shin Heejae. Then, lowering my voice as far as it would go, I warned him:
“Say one more word, I fucking dare you…”

Of course, that little shit didn’t give a single damn. Instead, he just silently laughed for ages, as if my rage was the funniest thing in the world.
Once he’d laughed to his heart’s content, he suddenly pretended to be considerate and asked:
“Is there anything you wanna eat, noona? I’m pretty good at cooking.”

But by that point, I was way too pissed off for anything like that to work on me.
“Die.”
“How do you not even have soy sauce or salt at home? Do you seriously never cook?”

“What’s it to you.”
Even after all my biting replies, Shin Heejae wasn’t the least bit intimidated—he just kept acting like a smug little shit. He even reached out his hand and said, completely shamelessly:
“Guess we gotta go shopping, then. Hand me your card.”
“What?”

“Wait, never mind. Let’s just go together after you get off work. There’s a mart nearby.”
“…….”
“You getting off early today?”

He had the face of someone who never doubted for a second that I’d go along with it. That confident smile on his face, like no matter how annoyed I got, I was still in the palm of his hand.
Looking at that stupid face, all my anger and irritation fizzled out. No matter what I said, he’d just twist it into whatever suited him.
“Haah……”

I gave up on staying mad and let out a long sigh. Shin Heejae immediately caught on that I’d given in and chuckled as he asked:
“What kinda food do you like, noona?”
I was about to say, “You disappearing from the face of the earth,” but stopped myself. I was too tired to argue anymore.

Half-resigned, I asked:
“……What can you even cook?”
“Soy sauce rice?”

“That’s not cooking, you dumbass.”
“It’s insanely good though… it’s not like the soy sauce rice you’re thinking of.”
This bastard clearly couldn’t cook for shit, as became painfully obvious from this entire conversation. And yet he insisted we had to go grocery shopping today.

To be fair, when he said “go to the mart,” I immediately thought of stuff like nearly empty toilet paper or detergent. Normally I’d just order all that crap online since I can’t be bothered, but since Shin Heejae had a car...
‘I’ll just make that bastard carry everything.’
Once I decided to dump all the heavy lifting on him, grocery shopping didn’t seem so bad. So I gave in and nodded like I was reluctantly agreeing.

After leaving the convenience store, I walked alone toward the subway station, thinking to myself. Was I… really going to keep living with Shin Heejae like this? The thought suddenly popped into my head.
‘I mean, why the hell would he choose to stay with me when he has his own damn house…?’
But then I thought about last night, and the creeping possibility that maybe this guy really was gay made me wonder—was this kind of arrangement even okay? Honestly, as long as Shin Heejae didn’t try that weird shit on me again, living together wasn’t that terrible—

‘Wait. What the fuck am I even thinking??’
I whipped my head side to side in a panic, trying to shake off the stupid thoughts as if someone might’ve seen them.
‘…Shit. Is it contagious?’

Living with a lunatic like him must’ve messed with my head. Even worse, the fact that I was getting used {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} to him made me feel really gross inside.
‘Seriously, of all the things to get used to…’
Shaking my head again, I opened YouTube to clear my mind.

And right then—of fucking course—the first thing I saw was Shin Heejae’s channel. I wasn’t planning to watch anything, but the title was [What’s Heejae’s Ideal Type...?] with the thumbnail all blurred out, so I ended up clicking like a dumbass.
“For fuck’s sake, it’s just another self-brag.”
I left a hate comment: [Don’t live like this, seriously], hit the dislike, and watched a few more videos I’d skipped recently.

As I kept scrolling, though, I suddenly noticed something missing. There was a weird sense of emptiness.
“……?”
I typed in a few keywords to search. No matter how I changed them, the video didn’t come up.

Turns out… that one had been deleted.
“What the hell……”

I mean, I had always hated that video. I’d told Heejae straight-up to take it down because it was embarrassing.
At the time, he half-ignored me and uploaded it anyway. So now that it was gone, I should’ve been happy. This was exactly what I’d wanted, right?
“…….”

But people are so damn fickle. When it was up, I told him to delete it. Now that it’s gone, I suddenly felt this weird, hollow betrayal.
Just to be sure, I searched for a few more videos I remembered. And it was clear: that one was the only video he deleted.
In fact, other viewers seemed to remember it too, because in the comments on his recent videos, some people had written things like, [What happened to the video with your girlfriend? Why’d you take it down?] But Heejae either ignored them or never saw them—he didn’t respond at all.

‘I mean, it was obviously his choice to take it down… It’s not like it has anything to do with me, right?’
I tried to brush it off. But despite what I told myself, my fingers kept tapping on his messenger profile. And then I noticed something else that made me freeze—his profile picture was gone.
‘Didn’t he still have my photo as his profile yesterday?’

I realized how obsessed I was being and kept bouncing between the app and his YouTube channel like I was possessed.
Eventually, I even opened the clan Discord channel and scrolled up to find anything he’d posted. I was so into it, I nearly missed my stop.
That finally snapped me out of it, and I shoved my phone into my pocket.

‘Get a fucking grip.’
From that point on, I purposely avoided looking at my phone and just focused on work when I got to the center office.
Then around lunchtime, I saw a message from Shin Heejae that left me speechless.

Heejae
Noonaㅇ.ㅇ
Something came up, so I don’t think I can go grocery shopping today. Sorry ㅇ_ㅇ
Take care of Senyang for me, okay?
What?
To top it off, he left me on read after that. Just ignored all the messages I sent. The more he did whatever the hell he wanted, the more pissed off I got. My blood pressure was through the fucking roof.

Even when I got home after work, I was still fuming.
It should’ve been a relief, a joy even, that Shin Heejae wasn’t in my house. But weirdly enough, I couldn’t enjoy the time alone. I was too irritated.
Even when the bastard wasn’t around, he was still taking up all the space in my head.

* * *
Heejae
You asleep noona?? ㅇ_ㅇ
What level is Senyang now ㅇ.ㅇ?
If only I had been asleep like he assumed. But no—I hadn’t been able to sleep a fucking wink. I’d been lying in bed, cursing him out in my head and overthinking everything.

Then, just before 1 a.m., he finally messaged me again. I read the smug little text while grinding my teeth. This motherfucker, after ruining my entire day, was still trying to joke around like it was nothing.
Me:
I’m deleting my character
Heejae
Why tho lol

Because I’m pissed.
Even after I said I was pissed, Shin Heejae just replied with [lololololololol]. And when I read it but didn’t respond, he suddenly called me.
I hesitated but picked up. The moment I answered, he asked:

“You dozed off, didn’t you?”
“No? I said I’m fucking pissed.”
“Why? Who pissed you off?”

“Lift your fist and punch yourself in the face.”
He just burst out laughing at that. Then made some loud, fake gasp like he’d just realized something.
“A PD from my agency suddenly called for a meeting, so I had to go to Seoul for a bit.”

“Oh, really?”
“When I get back, I’ll hang out with you all you want, so don’t be mad, okay?”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”

“I gotta earn money so I can feed you, noona~”
Clearly, Shin Heejae thought I was mad because we didn’t go grocery shopping together today.