Chapter 24
The request that had already jumped out of his mouth couldn’t be taken back, driving its owner even crazier. What am I saying, all of a sudden?
“I need to start preparing for college too… Since you did well, I wanted to get some of your energy.”
The more he added stuttering excuses, the more his vision darkened. Even to himself, asking for a name tag before they’d properly greeted each other was shockingly random.
“Here.”
But Ji-won coolly removed the acrylic name tag attached to his chest and handed it over. Not expecting to actually receive it, Kwon-ju blinked with a bewildered expression as Ji-won reached out his hand.
“In exchange, give me yours too. You have a spare, right?”
After a long pause, Kwon-ju nodded, removed his name tag and handed it over. The three characters of his name, Jang Kwon-ju, were grasped in Ji-won’s hand.
“Take all my energy. I barely got in through additional admissions, but anyway.”
Whether it was additional or initial admission didn’t matter at all. What mattered was that he finally had an object to prove his first love. Not just moments remembered by him alone, but a real, tangible memento that he could actually hold in his hand.
Name tags of different weights went into their respective pockets. For Ji-won, it was just a common exchange of name tags between friends, but for Kwon-ju, it was an event that gave him a new goal in life.
“Han Ji-won! Aren’t you coming to the karaoke?”
“My parents are coming today.”
“Oh, okay. You’re still coming to drink with the class later tonight, right? Don’t bail on us.”
“I got it, already. Kwon-ju, I’ll go first.”
The excitement didn’t last long. It was because of different classmates, not the ones who had left earlier, calling Ji-won from behind. Seeing his retreating back as he waved apologetically after a conversation that ended more quickly than expected, Kwon-ju made a decision.
Follow the senior to university. Ji-won as a college student wouldn’t be as busy as he was now, so they could probably become much closer.
[Han Ji-won has sent you a gift certificate.]
[Sorry for leaving in a hurry lol]
[Eat this on your way home]
Ah. Kwon-ju, who was in the middle of purchasing a gift certificate on his way home, stopped. I was going to send one first… He fell into despair at having been beaten to it as he stared at the hamburger set gift certificate that had arrived.
[Jang Kwon-ju has sent you a gift certificate.]
[Senior, please eat this]
After quickly completing the payment, Kwon-ju sent the gift certificate and turned off his screen. I can’t see his reply. He felt pathetic for getting excited over something so trivial, but he couldn’t help feeling nervous. It’s something I remembered because he said he liked it before, but of course he wouldn’t know that.
[Lol is this a graduation gift? I’ll enjoy it]
[Han Ji-won liked your gift]
That’s how their KakaoTalk conversation ended. Somehow feeling like he needed to cherish this emotion for a long time, he couldn’t leave the chat room for a while. During that time, the name of the university Ji-won had been accepted to suddenly flashed through his mind.
“…Ah…”
He had overlooked the most important thing. The university Ji-won was about to enter, that is, Sewon University…
“I can’t go there.”
With a quiet murmur, Kwon-ju collapsed against the car seat.
Sewon University, where Ji-won was entering amid congratulations from friends and juniors, was a top-ranked university. A school whose name even someone as disconnected from studying as himself knew. Even Ji-won, who had been in the upper ranks of mock exams, said he had luckily gotten in through additional admissions.
Getting into Sewon University would be harder than my family going completely bankrupt. It would clearly be easier to ask his father to bribe his way in, even if it meant laying down turf. With his math skills not even at middle school level, and starting now when his first year had already ended, there was no way he could pass.
…Still.
“Please get me a tutor.”
“What did you say?”
“I want to go to Sewon University.”
He still remembered his father’s surprised expression, as if wondering if he had misheard when Sewon University was mentioned. Well, of course—a student crawling at the bottom of the school rankings suddenly wanted to attend a university so high up it would break his neck to look at it. Though he knew it was an absurd statement, Kwon-ju pushed forward firmly.
“I want to go. I’ll work hard.”
That’s how the second act of Jang Kwon-ju’s life began as he entered his second year of high school.
“Hmm… You’ll need to put in a lot of effort. Let’s aim for next year’s CSAT first.”
“Can’t I get in based on my school grades?”
“Kwon-ju, here are your grades. First year, first semester: 7.8, first year, second semester: 7.2. You’re not thinking of building a ‘growth narrative’ with these, are you? Only top students get some consideration based on their school district. That doesn’t apply to you.”
After the director’s cold words, Kwon-ju couldn’t say anything more. How could he argue or give an opinion when he didn’t know anything? Since he was told it wouldn’t work, he just accepted it and began preparing for the mock exams as instructed.
One room was converted into a study room, and his smartphone was switched to a flip phone. Home, school, home, school. Under the close supervision of tutors his father had hired, his mock exam scores rose vertically. It would have been stranger if his scores hadn’t improved given the excessive care that others might have called showing off, but he truly, truly worked hard.
He even started going to the gym, something he’d never been interested in before, since they said studying all day wasn’t good. The foundation of studying is physical strength. Increasing muscle mass is the basis of all things. Repeating this like a mantra, the professional trainer, who claimed to have won awards in various competitions, exercised Kwon-ju with all his might during the allotted time. As a result, his concentration and stamina increased remarkably compared to when he used to just fall over and sleep every day. His body developed the beautiful muscles he had only seen in photos, and he grew an impressive 11cm taller.
Thanks to that, he could now pull off clothes-fitting that rivaled celebrities, but sadly, he had no time to dress up because of studying. He wore his uniform during normal times and comfortable clothes at home, solving problems all day like a madman. This continued until the day of the CSAT. There was no friendship or love, but he didn’t need the former and the latter was at the university he was aiming for, so it wasn’t as painful as he thought.
“Kwon-ju, how did you do so well on the CSAT?”
“……”
“You might not be able to apply to Sewon University, but you can strategically choose schools just below that level.”
But two years wasn’t enough, and he ended up failing. The CSAT, which he had taken after praying countless times, gave Kwon-ju an ambiguous score of top 2 percentile. Moreover, his math was barely hanging on, making it clear that with this score, he couldn’t even come close to the threshold of Sewon University, let alone the same department. Especially when liberal arts admissions were already like threading a needle.
His homeroom teacher, and even the neighboring classroom’s teacher, all praised him in unison. Saying he had the best growth story among the third-year students. But for him, it had to be Sewon University or nothing. Right then and there, he gritted his teeth and studied for one more year. As a result, in the next CSAT, he was able to proudly receive a score card marked 12111.
As soon as he saw the comfortably passing preliminary results, he immediately decided to start playing the game. Creating a medium to talk with Ji-won again was important if he wanted to meet and converse with him. He had secretly checked his Instagram and it seemed like Ji-won was still playing that game.
At that time, it was pure coincidence that one of his distant relatives offered to sell him some items. It was also a coincidence that the relative found out Kwon-ju was planning to start Arc Serenity, and that he was trying to sell his items.
“I’m not exaggerating, I literally put in enough money to buy a building on this.”
“……”
“Hey, don’t look at me with those judging eyes. Once you start streaming and get attention, you can’t help but spend money. And I’m giving you these items at a fire sale price. It’s really cheap. But pay me right away. You have tons of cash, right?”
The amount Jae-heon proposed wasn’t large, just as he said he was desperate to sell quickly. If he spent billions, is it okay to sell at this price? Looking at Kwon-ju suspiciously, Jae-heon, who had anticipated this wouldn’t be easy, began to explain.
“Game items never fetch what you paid for them. And Arc Serenity itself doesn’t have particularly high cash shop prices. There won’t be any new players who would buy these high-end spec items, and high-spec users already have their own gear, so they don’t usually buy complete sets.”
…The truth was that they were Holy Knight items. He was giving them cheaply partly because he felt guilty. Just the value of the +15 weapon, which he had reinforced against extreme odds, would far exceed the proposed amount, but it was obvious that he wouldn’t be able to find a buyer based solely on the fact that they were Holy Knight exclusive.
“Is it good stuff?”
“Would I, of all people, scam you? But to trade items, we need to be on the same server, so you have to create your character on my server.”
This was something he hadn’t thought of. When Kwon-ju suddenly went quiet, Jae-heon, afraid the item sale might fall through, started rambling.
“Anyway, you’re just starting out. The server I’m on is the largest, so newbies should definitely start here.”
“Which one is it?”
“Asuka.”
He checked just in case, and it happened to match what Ji-won had mentioned. With his mind about 80% leaning toward buying, Jae-heon hastily made his final push.
“But, you know… if you start with my items, you can’t really play as a newbie. Where in the world would you find a newbie carrying a +15 sword?”
“What’s a +15 sword?”
“You’ll find out when you start the game. It’s the only one on the entire server. Be careful with it since I couldn’t even show it off for fear of drawing aggro. Don’t show it to others carelessly if possible.”
Thinking about it makes me feel a bit regretful. It’s such an incredible weapon. Though he’d lost interest in the game and came to Jang Kwon-ju with the intention of completely washing his hands of it, he did feel a bit disappointed that he couldn’t even show it off. But I’ll never play this fucking game again anyway! Jae-heon cleared his throat and asked in a loud voice:
“So, are you buying or not?”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
