Genius Archer’s Streaming - Chapter 615
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Genius Archer’s Streaming Season 3 Episode 85
30. It’s Okay, Again (2)
In her life, Jia’s credit card payment had fallen behind exactly twice.
She hastily threw on whatever clothes were nearby and recalled those times.
“One time was when I just recklessly donated to some male streamer’s channel…”
Speaking of the more recent one, she had donated quite generously to handsome male internet broadcasters.
It was what you’d call frivolous spending.
This frivolous spending hadn’t started with internet broadcasters—it began with male idols.
The truth was, this kind of fan devotion didn’t require money if you kept it reasonable.
The problem was when it became extreme, and at that time, Jia had no one to lean on, so she kept spiraling toward the extreme.
She wanted to stand out somehow, to share even one more word with them.
That required a lot of money.
Even spending lavishly, there were limits to conversation and connection.
Naturally, her attention shifted to smaller-scale streamers.
They’d just started broadcasting, but their faces were quite handsome, and they treated her kindly in proportion to how much she spent…
“Ugh… damn it!”
Jia hurriedly put on her shoes and rushed out, squeezing her eyes shut.
Thump thump thump…
She wasn’t like she was back then.
She’d think in the morning that she was just going to die like this, but after eating lunch, she’d find herself watching some AllTube video she liked.
And if something caught her fancy, she’d donate.
One of those happened to be Almond’s video.
Getting attention from a large donation right from the start—so it wasn’t coincidence or a mistake.
It was her pattern.
At the same time, it was a miracle.
That miracle was what kept her alive and breathing now.
It had pulled her back from the cliff’s edge.
Jia descended the stairs gasping, nearly tumbling down them.
Lunch hour would come soon, so the wait time was getting longer.
“Haa… haa… the second time was…”
Her memories reached back much further than that.
The root of all the trouble.
That time when she met that guy who’d driven her to the cliff’s edge.
“…When that bastard borrowed money saying he was starting a business.”
That was when Jia experienced her first credit card payment falling behind in her life.
She even heard the words that if it got any worse, she’d become credit-bankrupt.
Those who haven’t heard those words don’t understand.
That feeling of receiving a social death sentence.
That feeling of your lover reading that death sentence to you.
Jia bit her lip as she rushed down, her ankle scraping against the roughly laid cement, drawing blood.
My white flesh was swollen and numb from the freezing cold, but I couldn’t tell how bad it was.
“Haa… haa….”
Ding~!
“Welcome to Silhan Bank. Your number ticket is inside.”
Only when I pushed through the bank’s front entrance, pulled a number ticket, sat down, and felt the warm air from the heater did I realize it.
“!”
A sharp sting.
Blood was beading at my ankle and trickling down. It was a bigger wound than I thought.
I had no immediate idea how to handle it.
I decided to just leave it for now.
Ding~!
“Customer number 32~”
When my number was called.
I muttered the words I always recited like a mantra at times like this.
‘I’m fine.’
I’ll be fine.
No matter what happens, I’m fine.
* * *
Click….
Jia’s house, which Jia had left.
The lock on the old door slid open.
A small courtyard came into view as I stepped inside.
Jia’s house was a ramshackle structure resembling a traditional Korean home, common in poor neighborhoods.
It had the structure of a traditional house, but lacked its refined elegance.
Rather than preserving time with care, it was simply a house that had aged from neglect.
Yet it was a familiar space to Juhyeok.
“Jia. Let’s go eat.”
At some point, he had begun entering it as comfortably as his own home.
So instead of calling, he simply came down to call for her.
“Jia~”
There seemed to be no sign of her.
‘Huh?’
Juhyeok tilted his head and stepped inside the house.
It wasn’t just the absence of any sign of her.
‘The shoes….’
The shoes that had been neatly arranged below the porch were scattered about.
It seemed like she had left in a hurry.
“Hmm….”
Knock. Knock.
Juhyeok checked the room just in case.
As expected, she wasn’t there.
“What’s wrong! She’s not here?”
From beyond the gate, I could hear Sanghyeon’s voice calling out from a distance.
“Oh, yeah. She’s not here! Looks like she went out somewhere. Let me call her, and if she doesn’t answer, we’ll just eat by ourselves.”
Juhyeok spoke in a casual tone.
‘That’s strange.’
I thought the situation was odd.
Jia rarely left the house this early without telling me anything.
[Jia]
I called her, but she didn’t answer.
“Well… let’s just go. She’s not picking up.”
“It’s been a while since we’ve had Ogang-u’s kimchi stew. What a shame.”
Sanghyeon smacked his lips and led the way down the stairs of the hillside neighborhood.
Juhyeok left a brief message and followed behind him.
* * *
At that moment.
Inside Shilhan Bank.
“Y-you’re saying I’m paying off that bastard’s debt?!”
Jia shot up from the counter and cried out.
All the other customers in the bank stood up and turned to look, but Jia couldn’t even bring herself to care.
Even if these people all stood up and threw shuriken at her, it wouldn’t be more shocking than what had just happened.
“Yes… the loan interest payments are severely overdue, so the account has been temporarily frozen.”
“How is something like this even possible?!”
The employee, as if accustomed to such situations, calmly explained the circumstances—the complete opposite of Jia, who was shouting in shock.
“You provided a guarantee. Since the guaranteed party has lost their ability to pay, the debt has been transferred to you as the guarantor. There’s no need to think of it too seriously. If you pay even just the interest from now on, the freeze will be lifted.”
A guarantee…?
The moment those words left his mouth, Jia’s face turned crimson.
“Sigh.”
I could hear people clicking their tongues.
Tsk, tsk…
How did things end up like this…
Hadn’t the adults always said it?
Never provide a guarantee—it’s the fastest way to ruin your family. Sign a guarantee and you become a fool.
Yes. That fool is me.
That crazy woman was me!
Jia wanted to scream at her past self like that.
But—
‘No, that’s not right. I didn’t provide it for nothing.’
I came to my senses.
Just because I stood as a guarantor doesn’t mean I should pay back that person’s debt in their place.
At least not in this case.
“No. I think there’s been a misunderstanding.”
“Pardon? But surely that’s correct….”
“No. That person has the ability to repay. He works at a major corporation! Choi Gang Planning!”
Loans to large corporation employees typically have better terms than those for most high-earning freelancers.
Why would that be?
Because money flows in regularly from the company.
I had seen with my own eyes that my former lover worked at Choi Gang Planning.
Yet they’re saying he lacks the ability to repay? That makes no sense.
“Choi Gang Planning. And he transferred there as an experienced hire. His salary should be at least 9 million won. Why can’t he repay?”
“In that case, the original debtor should certainly be capable of repayment.”
“Right? In that case, he’s the one who should pay. That’s how the contract was structured.”
“I’ll look into it.”
A moment later.
The employee at the counter’s expression became bewildered.
“That… person you’re referring to—is that Kyung-ho Lee, the CEO?”
“?”
CEO?
No? He was just a Manager.
The words caught in my throat before I could speak them.
A forgotten memory surfaced.
‘Ah….’
That’s right.
That’s what it was.
“He established a corporation….”
There was a time when we dreamed of such a future together.
Suddenly, luxuriously woven white silk fabric fluttered before my eyes.
A fantasy? A hallucination?
Whatever it was, it didn’t last long.
Dong~
A great bell tolled, and everything vanished.
Without realizing it, I clutched my abdomen.
It ached as if it might tear.
This too was probably not real pain.
And yet, for me, it was real.
The employee observed my complexion and continued speaking.
“Are you alright?”
“Ah… yes.”
Jia wiped away her cold sweat as she answered.
“The current loan isn’t under Kyung-ho Lee’s name, but under a corporation he established. You provided the guarantee for that loan, and while you have no equity stake, you’re still listed as the CEO. And that corporation currently has no repayment capacity.”
Kyung-ho Lee had repayment capacity, but his corporation did not.
Right, of course.
All the plans he’d had for that corporation had come to nothing.
After that, the employee continued, explaining how certain laws had recently changed, and so on…
She listed things I didn’t know about.
But Jia’s ears could no longer hear them clearly.
Just from what she’d heard before, she had no choice but to accept the verdict that had been handed down to her.
“So how much is that debt?”
This debt had clearly come under her name.
“Out of 140 million won, 80 million remains now.”
So Kyung-ho Lee had paid back 60 million? It wasn’t a small amount, but it wasn’t an impossible sum to repay either.
“Ha… really…”
She clutched her stomach as the abdominal pain surged back.
Her head throbbed so badly it spun.
But she stood up.
“I understand.”
Jia instinctively sensed that there was nothing more she could do at this counter.
She rose, grabbed her bag, and walked back toward the exit.
Whether her feet moved on their own and her body was dragged along, or her body moved and her feet were dragged behind—
she didn’t even know how she was walking.
Had the path to the bank entrance always been this long?
As if asking, “Can you really leave this place?” the entire world tilted its head at her.
Sway—
In that instant, her lost balance never returned, and she simply collapsed.
Thud!
A vibration that resonated through her entire body.
Her abdomen felt as though it were tearing apart.
From deep within her body came the sound of someone crying.
「—──!」
A child’s wailing voice.
I couldn’t tell what it was saying, crying so sorrowfully that the words were incomprehensible.
“──Ah…”
Finally, the scream that had been building in her mouth spilled out.
“Ah… Aaaagh! Hnngh…!”
She tried to cover her mouth with her hands, but she couldn’t stop what had already overflowed.
“Oh, oh dear. Student? Are you alright?”
An elderly woman with graying hair approached her.
“Oh no! There’s so much blood on your legs? In winter, this must hurt so much. Right? Miss, miss! Hey, young officer over there. This lady here—”
Did she think I had simply tripped and collapsed?
The woman called out to the security guard standing in front of the bank, asking for help.
—Click.
Jia mustered every ounce of strength to grasp the woman’s hand.
“I’m fine.”
“Really?”
She tried to pull herself up again, but only sank back down.
Yes, I’m definitely fine.
I’m okay.
Look at my legs. There’s just a little blood, but they’re intact.
“Oh dear. Hmm, doesn’t seem fine at all?”
But what flowed down wasn’t just blood.
Tears soon crashed to the ground in torrents.
“Ah… Student?”
The woman looked alarmed, studying her expression.
Her hand gripped the hem of her upper garment tightly.
“I…”
As if she wanted to pull something out.
“I… ah… don’t think I’m… okay…”
Her vision blurred like a faded memory.
The feet of the employees behind the counter and the security guards at the entrance moved frantically.
Pitter-patter-patter…!
Numerous footsteps kicked against the floor as they rushed forward, then began running up the walls.
Thud!
With another resounding sound, the world faded to black.
For a moment, she was no longer in pain.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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