Absinthe novel Chapter 23

Halfway through our meal at Jollibee, I fished out my phone to check if there were any messages from my friends. None. I sent a quick text to Cassie, Faye, and Derrick. I doubted they would respond, but I just wanted to let them know that I was open to talking things over with them.

"Do you have any social media accounts?" I asked Jiwoo.

"I don't really have time for those."

"You know that you can get some income from them, right?"

"Really?" Jiwoo was now interested, his eyes suddenly alert.

"Yeah. If you get enough followers, brands will start to notice you and give you sponsorships."

Jiwoo was quiet for a bit. "How do I do that? And will it really allow me to earn a lot of money?"

I nodded. "Pretty much. I've heard of some IG stars buying houses mostly with their earnings from IG."

"How do I get... What did you call it? Followship?"

"Followers. Well, there's no surefire way to get them, but in your case, you can always use your face."

"I don't understand."

"I'm talking about fan service. Everyone wants to see attractive people, so you just have to show them your handsome face!"

Jiwoo smiled and blushed. "You think I'm handsome?"

Fuck. How do I answer him without revealing my attraction to him?

"I think you're more handsome than I am," Jiwoo added.

"That's not possible," I said.

"So you really think I'm handsome, then?"

"Do you know Gossip Gurl?" I asked, suddenly remembering something and deliberately ignoring his question. "She posts pictures of the hottest people in the metro, celebrities and non-celebrities alike. She even had a photo of you one time!"

"Can I see it?" he asked excitedly.

"Here." I opened Gossip Gurl's page and showed it to Jiwoo. And I'll be damned—it was now full of candid photos of me and Jiwoo earlier in Recto. "See? Gossip Gurl's making money off of your face and mine!"

"@bjmesoftly and mystery handsome guy on a date in Recto!" Jiwoo said, reading the caption of another candid photo of him holding my hand and crossing the street. "How did she get these pics?"

"I was told that people who follow her secretly take photos of her subjects and share them with her."

"Are you @bjmesoftly?"

Shit. It was Faye who had come up with that username several years ago. I only had like 30 or so followers back then.

"So you don't like it hard, huh?" Jiwoo teased.

I felt my face burning in embarrassment, and I punched Jiwoo lightly on the shoulder. "I wasn't the one who thought of that. I'm changing it right now!"

Jiwoo laughed. "I was kidding. Can you tell me how to make one, though?"

I helped Jiwoo set up his Instagram account. He chose the handle @g_whooo as a play on how his name sounds like. I taught him how to follow other accounts by following Chef Maxwell's account. He then searched for my handle and followed me right after.

"Wow, you have a lot of followers. Do you earn money from this, too?"

I shook my head in response. "I didn't specifically create an account to gain followers. It just sort of happened when this Gossip Gurl started tagging me in photos."

"You look cute here," he said, pointing at a picture of me and JM with Elle and Eiji, Faye's twins. "And I'm guessing this is Gold Digging MoFu."

I took out my phone and deleted the photo. It was nothing but a sad reminder of how gullible I was, and there was no reason for me to keep it on my IG feed.

"And these must be your exes," he said, scrolling through more pictures of me with men from Seoul. "You live in Korea?"

I noticed the sudden change in his facial expression, and I remembered what Janus had told us last time about Jiwoo's parentage.

"I used to," I admitted. "But I'm back here for good."

Jiwoo didn't respond to that.

"And not all of those people are my exes!" I added. "Some of them are my friends."

"How come most of your followers are females? I mean, this Gossip Gurl is practically screaming your sexuality."