Episode 0

The Bamboo Forest.

Derived from the classical and yet most famous tale of ‘The King has Donkey Ears’.

A place where people’s secrets were exposed.

Even in modern times, there is always a Bamboo Forest.

It refers to anonymously-run university communities when proper nouns are in use.

Concerns about university life, unfolding incidents, lost and found, entertaining stories, quotes of the day, etc.

Although it is a place where many stories are told, there aren’t many that are actively managed.

Among them, Gahyeon University was especially known for its thriving Bamboo Forest community.

-Anonymous33: Who hoarded all the sausage bread at the convenience store today?
↳Anonymous12: Saw someone eating them on the bench in front of the central entrance.
↳Anonymous60: It’s that guy from the Construction Engineering Department who’s into broadcasting: saying it was the last.
↳Anonymous33: Fuck.

Starting from such simple stories.

-Anonymous21: There are some high school students smoking in the alley next to Pump Chicken, is there anyone from the physical education department who can help me?

↳Anonymous11: I am a freshman from the protective service department, I am on my way right now.

↳Anonymous90: An oldie of the physical therapy is coming too. I will give them a nice treat.

↳Anonymous54: I will go and bring the law book from the school too.

↳Anonymous12: Should I bring an animal from the veterinary department then?

↳Anonymous85: I am majoring in video arts, can I come and film that for a bit? It is for an assignment.

They can also connect people who need help with those that can help.

-Anonymous67: Have you seen the new ‘Love at the Top’? Man, I wish Miu had at least tried to hide her plastic surgery, lol.

↳Anonymous19: Nursing majors feeling called out by this, if you are going to start blabbering about something you cannot handle, then don’t bother paying attention to it, lololol.

Of course, it also served as a means for someone to release their stress or curse others.

-Anonymous69: I wanna fuck so bad!!

Or it became a tool to express one’s deepest desires.

Anyway.

Thus, Gahyeon University became actively involved with its own anonymous postings, often being featured in other communities and the media.

And I was the administrator responsible for managing this Bamboo Forest (a metaphor for the anonymous posting culture in Korea).

“Yawn.”

I sighed as I watched the posts continuously appear on the Bamboo Forest on my phone.

The macro automatically deleted posts containing banned words, but I had to manually check each one that included images.

-Anonymous69: Me jerking off (photo)

Upon seeing the post with a photo of a Western woman spreading her legs wide open to show her panties, I immediately pressed the ‘delete’ button.

“Insane bitch.”

People often attempted to terrorize the forums with photos, and it was regrettable that they chose to behave in such a manner.

‘You single ones, please, hold yourselves back.’

Being the administrator didn’t mean I wanted to access the users’ personal information.

My role was straightforward: to keep the bulletin board clean, and I had no idea who those troublemakers were.

Such individuals probably had no friends and were likely eating alone.

‘Like me.’

Why did it hurt me, even though I had just insulted those troublemakers? I quickly devoured the sandwich I had bought from the convenience store on my way to the next lecture.

Since I had nowhere else to be, I might as well play some mobile game or clean up the bulletin board.

As expected, the classroom was empty.

A few had arrived early, like me, but all were equally indifferent to one another.

I chose the corner seat and sat down to play my game.

“Hey! Does that make sense?”

“I’m telling you, right? It’s true. That’s why I said we should break up right away.”

“Aren’t you a psycho?”

A group of female college students rushed in with their coffees in hand, all appearing to live each day with great effort.

‘Hmmm.’

At their center was a familiar face, a girl with black hair, plain and unadorned compared to those she entered with, yet she stood out.

She was Seo Yerin, who, like me, was a student of English Language and Literature.

Even in a department with a high female-to-male ratio, her looks had sparked so many rumors that not only her male classmates but also the seniors had their eyes on her.

‘Well, guys like that should choose carefully.’

I wasn’t too sure about the others, but her innocence must have made her the first love of many guys.

“Hey, don’t talk about boyfriends in front of Yerin, okay?”

“Seriously, has it been twenty years of being single then?”

“Ahem! If I had a face like Yerin’s, I would be changing guys every day.”

“Hey! Enough now! Stop!”

Blushing, she fended off her friends with little whines and shoves and rushed straight to the seat in front of me.

It seemed they sat near me not because they were paying any attention to me, but because they were all speaking so much amongst themselves that they ended up choosing those seats.

Actually, a few of Seo Yerin’s friends seemed to recognize me, giving me the impression they wanted to move to a different seat.

Oblivious to all this, Seo Yerin, who had already taken her seat, immediately pulled out her phone.

She checked her phone to see if she had received any alerts, then rested her chin on her hand as she began to tap on something that seemed important.

‘I end up seeing her even when I don’t want to.’

Playing games on my phone, I caught a glimpse of what Seo Yerin was doing in front of me.

‘Bamboo Forest?’

Seo Yerin was busy on the university’s Bamboo Forest site.

‘Well, now, this is fun.’

Seo Yerin seemed to consider posting something. Although I couldn’t see the content of what she wrote, I could slightly make out how she pressed the ‘post’ button.

An alert popped up.

As an administrator of Bamboo Forest, I had to maintain anonymity.

‘And it’s not like I have much interest either.’

Since I had zero curiosity about what Seo Yerin had posted.

I turned the game off and launched the Bamboo Forest app.

“Oh?”

I ended up exclaiming without realizing it.

The eyes of the girls in front of me all turned to me at once, including Seo Yerin.

Unsure whether she knew we were in the same department or not, I found myself looking intently into Seo Yerin’s dark eyes without even realizing it.

Because.

Seo Yerin’s anonymous post was a single-lined entry.

-Anonymous69: Ah, I want to have sex sooo bad!

It was none other than Anonymous69, staying true to their desires.