Campus Log - Chapter 88 - A Gift Only You Can Give

You still haven’t sold the Benz?

Eunseok frowned as he checked the DM that had just arrived.

Ever since summer break had begun, he had been receiving more and more messages like this.

From scam-like sponsorship offers to people making blatant propositions to sleep with them, all sorts of messages poured in regularly, so he rarely bothered reading them one by one.

But the owner of this account spoke as if they knew his circumstances inside and out, leaving him no choice but to open it.

Working part-time at your dad’s company? Do they at least give you allowance? lol

Hey, instead of posting photos, shouldn’t you be doing delivery work or something? Aren’t you supposed to be paying off your debt?

Looks like you’re still living pretty well. What a cushy life~

I heard loan sharks make lists of family and friends and contact them too. What are you gonna do?

The account’s username was “v932lfk”, a careless jumble of letters and numbers, making it impossible to guess who was behind it.

He was certain it was someone he knew, so he dug into it thoroughly, but the ghost account followed only one person: Eunseok.

The most likely suspect was Park Taehyun.

Hadn’t he been talking about loan sharks in front of everyone at the end-of-semester gathering? Disguising his twisted intentions behind words that sounded like concern was exactly that bastard’s style.

But there was no concrete evidence to pin it on him. There wasn’t a single outright insult in the messages, so there wasn’t even a basis for filing a complaint. All Eunseok could do was stare at the messages whenever they arrived.

Once v932lfk realized that Eunseok read every message without fail, they began sending DMs every day that subtly got under his skin.

He could have ignored them completely, but instead they only provoked his stubbornness. He opened his eyes wider and read them even more carefully.

Then it occurred to him that his behavior was a lot like Sang-hee’s.

Whether it was him, whom she had once suspected because of the rumors, Kim Do-wan, who had poured soju over her, or Park Taehyun, who had ruined the atmosphere with curses, she had always faced them head-on with wide, unwavering eyes, never backing down. She liked staying in the background like a shadow, but when she found herself in an unfavorable situation, she would step forward without hesitation, as if she refused to be pushed around.

These days, no matter what he did, his thoughts always ended up with Sang-hee.

Eunseok’s entire daily life only ran smoothly when she sent him a reply.

He started watching panda videos every night just to keep their conversations going, and eventually learned how to tell the twins apart. Whenever Sang-hee added even a simple “haha” at the end of a message, he would hug his phone and roll around on his bed by himself.

One day, he stopped by his father’s company to help out. When he sent Sang-hee a photo of the lunch he was eating in the employee cafeteria, she praised him, calling him a “good son.”

That day, he felt so energized—as if he had eaten some restorative tonic—that he voluntarily helped his older brother and didn’t leave work until late at night.

“Eunseok, have you been busy lately?”

His mother, who had just come in after watering the vegetable garden, called out to him.

“No.”

“Then let’s all go out for dinner together on your birthday.”

This Friday was Eunseok’s birthday. His mother continued with an apologetic expression.

“Since we can’t even send you on a trip, we should at least have a nice meal somewhere.”

“Uh…”

Eunseok parted his lips in surprise. He already had plans that had been arranged since last month.

“Can’t we do it the day before? Or the day after?”

“Why, do you have plans?”

“Uh, yeah. I’m going to Everland with my friends.”

In truth, it wasn’t friends but one friend, and he couldn’t entirely call that one person just a “friend” anymore, but Eunseok lied without batting an eye.

“Really? Then let’s do it the day before. I should let your father know.”

Fortunately, his mother didn’t suspect anything. Careful to keep his expression under control, Eunseok hurried upstairs to his bedroom on the second floor.

Lately, he had been spending more and more time with his door tightly shut. Even when he stayed cooped up at home, as long as he had his phone and could keep in touch with Sang-hee, he never felt bored.

Eunseok went into his dressing room and picked out several outfits as candidates for Friday. He held them up against himself in front of the mirror, tried them on, swapped combinations around—it was complete chaos. He had always been confident that anything looked good on him, but now none of the clothes felt quite right.

Flopping down onto the sofa, Eunseok hugged a cushion tightly. It was the same one Sang-hee had held onto the entire time when she came over before. Since then, he had often—no, frequently—kept it tucked against his side.

Out of habit, he checked his phone, but there were no new messages. Sang-hee had said earlier that she was eating with her parents, so he supposed he would have to be patient a little longer.

As he stared at her name and waited for a reply, the sensation of the small hand he had held a few times naturally came to mind.

And then his thoughts drifted to the shape of her feet, which he had fussed over and handled at the jjimjilbang.