Back in the dormitory, I was sitting on the sofa with a towel in my hands, carefully running it through Nayun's damp hair, while she remained calm between my legs, still wearing her bathrobe.
"Wow. Theo, I didn't know you were such a good hairdresser... It looks really good."
She said, staring at her own image reflected in the screen of her smartwatch, turning it slightly to see the new cut from all angles.
The image showed a girl with light brown hair, now cut into a sleek bob at chin height, with softly curled bangs framing her face. It was a look that emphasized her eyes even more and made her features look a little more mature.
"Hah! I told you, but you didn't believe me."
I commented with a proud smile, as I put the towel aside.
As we were walking back to the dormitory, Nayun, in a voice full of doubt, asked me if I had anything against her cutting her hair.
And I promptly replied that I didn't. After all, Nayun was the kind of girl who really liked short hair, and even if she didn't, it wouldn't be up to me to decide.
I'm her boyfriend, not her owner. What's more, she'd look great with almost any cut.
Nayun looked over her shoulder and smiled in satisfaction.
"Next time, you'll be promoted from hairdresser to make-up artist, how's that?"
"As long as you never offer me mint ice cream again, I think we can negotiate."
She rolled her eyes, but laughter still escaped, unable to do anything with my taste in mint ice cream.
I tilted my head, wondering why she was laughing.
"Nothing. I just think having you as a boyfriend is really nice."
"Uh? What's so great about knowing how to cut hair? I just saw a video on the internet and that was it, I'd learned."
She looked at me, arching an eyebrow, as if my answer had been sillier than usual.
"Sigh! Nothing, Theo... I'm going to get dressed."
She stood up slowly, still with that little smile tucked into the corner of her lips, and walked towards the bedroom.
Her robe swayed gently with each step, and for a brief moment, I stood there, watching her back disappear into the doorway. It was strange how natural these moments were becoming. As if, little by little, the routine at her side was taking root in me.
I took the towel into the bathroom, left it hanging to dry, and returned to the sofa, sitting down with a light sigh.
Nayun's smartwatch was still there, on the coffee table, with the screen on. The image of her smiling with her new haircut was still open.
"I only saw a video on the internet."
I repeated quietly, laughing at myself after finally understanding what she meant.
It wasn't about the cut itself. It was about the gesture. About being there, with her. About dedicating time, care, patience, my skills, that's what it was all about.
After a few minutes, Nayun came back out of the room. And for a moment, I stared at her in silence.
She was wearing one of my shirts, a dark gray one, which was too loose on her because of her short stature, covering halfway down her thighs. The long sleeves went almost to the folds of her arms, and the slightly open collar revealed the delicate curve of her freshly dried neck. The contrast between her short, still slightly damp hair and the fabric of the shirt made for a cute sight.
She flopped down next to me on the sofa with a relaxed sigh and pulled her knees up, covering them with her blouse. She stayed there, reclining, her head resting on my shoulder, completely at ease.
As if to break Nayun's moment, a message notification arrived on my watch.
The sender's name flashed on the screen.
I tilted my wrist slightly and tapped the notification, opening the message. For a brief second, I even considered thinking it was something important.
'Uh! Is the Co-author back? Hah! That's it...'
After reading the content, I quickly understood that Kim Hajin had sent me a message, asking if I could help him at the Hunting Ground on Sunday.
'Hunting Ground?! I think I remember an event like that right at the beginning of the story...'
Yes, it was a way that Kim Hajin had found to pay off the debts that Kim Chundong had left behind after he was sent to "Akatrina". And now the one responsible for paying them off was Hajin, the one who had taken over Chundong's body.
"Well, it can't hurt to help him, right?"
I said quietly. I remembered that it was because of me that Hajin was now much weaker than in the original.
So, in a way, I have a bit of guilt about him not being able to go hunting on his own.
[Theo: No problem. I'm free tomorrow afternoon].
The message left, disappearing from the smartwatch screen with a small subtle sound. One way or another, I owed it to Hajin.
I felt a soft breath hit my neck, turned my head slightly, and found Nayun dozing off while leaning on my shoulder.
Taking advantage of that little moment, I closed my eyes too.
In another dormitory, intended for cadets with ranks from 100 upwards, Kim Hajin looked at the message he had just received from Theo.
"Whew! I'm glad he accepted."
Kim Hajin let his body fall back against the chair with a sigh of relief, his hand still holding his smartwatch with the tab of the bank notice still open, displaying in red letters the amount of the debit.
Debtor: Cube - Kim Hajin
THE CREDITOR, CUBE BANK, WILL BE REFERRED TO AS "CREDITOR" AND THE DEBTOR KIM HAJIN WILL BE REFERRED TO AS "DEBTOR". THE CREDITOR AND THE DEBTOR MUST AGREE TO THE FOLLOWING CONDITIONS:
1st Condition: Monthly interest of 06% on the total amount of the loan, with monetary correction based on the Cube-Economy Index (CEI).
2nd Condition: Mandatory minimum monthly payment. Non-payment will result in the institutional account being frozen and access to Cube equipment being blocked until it is settled.
3rd Condition: In the event of continued default for 3 months, legal action will be initiated and property registered in the name of the DEBTOR will be confiscated, including Cube merit points.
"You bastard... What did you do with 300 thousand dollars of loan?"
Who in their right mind would borrow that kind of money when you were still a cadet who had just joined Cube?
Hajin couldn't understand the former owner of this body.
And thanks to this madman...
It was surreal to think that he was now carrying the debt of another man, someone who no longer existed in this world, who had been replaced by him, thrown into a body and a life full of bad choices.
"Organs for sale... kidneys, lungs, liver. maybe an eye..."
He whispered, with a cynical, tired laugh escaping. A bitter joke, but not impossible. If this guy, the former owner of this body Kim Chundong, had run up a debt of this kind with the underworld, with loan sharks from the darkest part of South Korea or even from abroad, Kim Hajin knew well what the most likely fate would be.
Slavery in the form of "legal" contracts.
It was frightening...
"Anyway, with Theo there, maybe I'll pay for it all in one trip."
It was strange to think that someone who apparently came from the same place as him was now his lifeline. Theo wasn't part of the original plan he had created... But in that unpredictable world, he was a necessary anomaly.