Chapter 49
Chapter 13: What’s a Crush, Anyway?
Shin Wooseok finally arrived at the PC bang with Seojin. However, after sitting down, he didn’t even turn on the computer and just stared at the entrance. Unable to bear it any longer, Seojin grabbed Wooseok’s chair and shook it.
“You drag me all the way here and what are you doing?”
“Just wait.”
“Weren’t we here to play SOG? Or do yCan’t Control Be Bought With Money? 48Can’t Control Be Bought With Money? 48ou want to play something else?”
“Play whatever you want.”
“What’s going on… really?”
Wooseok seemed to be answering without properly listening, but Jin didn’t particularly care. He seized the opportunity and quickly pointed to a game that Wooseok probably wouldn’t even look at.
“Want to play this? DCham. It’s a defense game with ugly characters.”
“Tired of that one.”
“…Huh? When did you play it?”
“A while back. That came out ages ago.”
Wooseok replied while still keeping his eyes fixed on the PC bang entrance.
“You said you played this too, and this too…. Is there anything you haven’t played?”
“Why are you looking for games I haven’t played?”
“Well~”
He had wanted to beat him at something. But… since the man himself didn’t even seem interested in gaming, Jin quickly lost interest.
“Why did you come to the PC bang then?”
“Not much else to do outside.”
“Then why aren’t you turning on your computer?”
Wooseok heard this and pressed the power button.
“Happy now?”
“Wow, the ultimate in half-heartedness.”
Jin grumbled but searched for his own activities, scrolling the mouse wheel. After filtering out numerous games for various reasons, the only one left was <SOG>.
“Right, there’s a reason I’ve been playing this all this time…”
Eventually, after logging into SOG and clicking the start button, Jin glanced at Shin Wooseok, who still only had his desktop open.
“Hyung.”
“…”
“Hyung-nim.”
“…”
“Hey.”
“What.”
“Ugh, damn.”
Jin was startled by Wooseok’s instant response to informal speech. Wooseok looked at Jin’s chair bouncing with a look of disdain.
“You’re such a scaredy-cat, contrary to how you look.”
“What are you talking about? I could walk through a haunted house without blinking once.”
“Just saying that proves my point.”
“Hyung-nim, you’re really annoying.”
“Yeah.”
Since he hadn’t expected a proper answer anyway, Jin just snorted.
“But seriously, why are we here? Should I ask Hwasan hyung to come earlier? Baekdu hyung will be late anyway.”
“Then why did we come so early?”
“Just because. There was nothing else to do. Today Girmu isn’t logging in either.”
As soon as Wooseok heard Girmu’s name, he turned his head back toward the PC bang entrance. This PC bang near the café was the closest and had the best facilities, but for some reason, Beodeul and his friend hadn’t shown up yet.
“Ah~ I get it. Hyung, you’re not playing SOG because Girmu isn’t around?”
“What?”
“Since your discharge, I’ve never seen you log in when that person isn’t around.”
Wooseok was at a loss for words, and Jin drove in the final nail.
“Looking at what you’ve been doing lately, it really seems like you two are having an *online romance.”
“Are you crazy, seriously?”
At that moment, a cheerful ding-dong sound rang from the sensor at the PC bang entrance. It meant someone had entered.
“Lots of seats available. Where do you want to sit?”
“Anywhere. Sit wherever you want.”
“Okay. Let’s charge the time first.”
Having been focusing on Beodeul’s voice for so long, it was unmistakable. Wooseok immediately moved his mouse and clicked on the <SOG> icon. While doing so, he didn’t forget to threaten Jin in a hushed voice.
“I’m going to log in, so shut up and play SOG.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Play like it’s the most fun ever.”
“…?”
“Like it would make someone watching want to play too. Got it?”
“Does that even make sense…?”
Not satisfied with that, Wooseok snatched Jin’s mouse and went through his character list.
“What are you doing?”
“Why are all your nicknames like this?”
“What’s wrong with my nicknames?”
Salt, Pepper, Sugar… from main to alt characters, all the nicknames were condiment-themed. Wooseok, who was trying to select a character that would be difficult for Beodeul to recognize, ended up pressing the character creation button when faced with this unexpected obstacle.
“Wait, why are you creating a character!”
“Level up a new one.”
“That slot is for the next new class!”
“I’ll buy you an extra slot.”
“Fine, then I want to level a Dark Shadow. Give me your equipment.”
“Level a Saint.”
“Are you crazy? Why would I level such a boring class?”
“Should I tell CherryHorse about this?”
“They’re not here right now.”
Wooseok stared at Jin with an icy gaze before stealing his keyboard and typing. He wanted to create a more ordinary nickname.
Jin, who had lost even the right to name his new character, was dumbfounded when he saw the created character.
[GodSaintClass9]
A Saint class, the most boring of boring classes, with a nickname that made him want to give up his eyesight. Even the number at the end, added to avoid duplicate nicknames, was downright humiliating. This was truly a ruined character that didn’t match his gaming philosophy at all.
“What is this!”
“Repent while leveling your Saint.”
“Hey!”
After creating someone else’s character like this, Wooseok choosing a perfectly normal Sun Wizard class for himself only fueled Jin’s anger.
“Give it here. I’ll name your character.”
“Are you crazy?”
“So you admit you’re crazy for creating my character like this?”
With two large men with decent builds bickering back and forth in each other’s spaces, people occasionally glanced their way. And after briefly looking at the game they were playing, they shook their heads.
“Wow, people still play SOG?”
A male student who was about to pass their seats stopped and made this comment loud enough for Wooseok and Jin to hear. They immediately became solemn and released each other’s collars.
“Kid, just walk on by.”
When Jin scowled and said this, the student flinched and took a seat far away. Seeing this, Wooseok predictably criticized Jin’s character.
“Why are you like that with a kid?”
“Like what? I barely said anything. He looked at SOG first and called it a dead game.”
“He didn’t call it a dead game. He just said people still play it.”
“…That’s true, isn’t it?”
“You just got upset on your own.”
“Argh.”
Unable to deny reality, Jin slammed his head on the desk and didn’t move. Meanwhile, Wooseok, seeing Beodeul approaching after completing payment, quickly ducked his head and whispered to Jin.
“Hey, play the game like it’s fun, I said.”
“How do I make a Saint fun…?”
“Is that the issue?”
“Besides, why do I suddenly have to level an alt?”
“There’s nothing to do on your main anyway.”
“Ugh… I hate that you’re right about everything.”
“I need to make a quick call.”
Wooseok, after seeing Beodeul and his friend sit down diagonally behind them, quickly got up and left. Jin, left behind without knowing what was going on, endlessly made his character jump before giving up.
“This one, Ghost Hunter Online. What do you think? It’s got the best graphics of any recent game. Want to see the characters?”
Jin, hearing the voice from behind, replied internally while picking up his phone.
‘What good are great graphics? Everyone knows the devs are running a shady operation.’
He opened the voice chat app and joined the room created for today’s meeting to report Wooseok’s misdeeds.
[SaltySalt: ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ Sinu is bullying me ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ]
[Hwasan: ? What, you guys already met?]
[SaltySalt: Hwasan hyung when are you coming, can’t you just come earlier? ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ]
[Hwasan: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ What’s he doing?]
[SaltySalt: I don’t know he suddenly dragged me to the PC bang and made me create an SOG alt ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ]
[Hwasan: That’s random ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]
[SaltySalt: Made me create a Saint and told me to play like it’s so fun that people who see it would want to play too ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ Is he crazy? ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ]
[Hwasan: ;;;; What’s going on, did he get something from the devs? But I don’t think anything would change if you two did marketing from a PC bang]
[SaltySalt: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ You think we got paid? ㅇㅅㅠ This isn’t marketing, it’s torture…]
[Baekdu: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Is he trying to increase PC bang usage rates? The SOG family is so dutiful]
[SaltySalt: Baekdu hyung, can’t you just come out now instead of being late today? ㅇㅅㅇ…]
[Baekdu: I just woke up, what’s with you]
[Hwasan: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ It’s an SOS]
[SaltySalt: ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ Help meㅓ]
“See? Doesn’t the monster look cool too?”
“I don’t really like creepy things…”
“What’s creepy about this? Look, this is a poison-type dragon.”
“It’s ugly though?”
“You don’t understand style, style. Has your brain gone cute from playing only SOG?”
“Yeah, I’ll just stick with my cute SOG.”
Jin, who had been spamming ‘ㅠ’ in the chat with a deadpan face, suddenly paused.
‘There are people other than Sinu and me playing SOG at this PC bang?’
He slightly turned his chair to openly look at the two men. One looked like he belonged in athletics, and the other looked like he could be on an idol survival show.
“Beodeul, I may have marketed that dead game to you… but honestly, I didn’t expect you’d still be playing it. I’ll sincerely apologize.”
“No, it’s fine. I’m enjoying it, so don’t worry about apologizing.”
“But that game is not it, really. I played SOG for about 5 years, but I quit because I lost everything.”
“Didn’t you quit because you got bored?”
“Well… that too, I guess.”
“And you change games all the time. You say 5 years of SOG, but you took breaks often, right? This time you quit completely. If I follow you again, I’ll just end up playing alone. I’m not blaming you… just, everyone should play what they enjoy. I’m enjoying SOG right now.”
Wow, someone who proudly says <SOG> is fun at a PC bang? Jin admired this while carefully examining the man called Beodeul.
‘They really weren’t kidding when they said SOG players are top-tier in looks?’
Of course, this included Seojin himself. Just sharing the same “dead game” gave an astronomical appearance bonus. Though objectively speaking, the man was very handsome.
“…Huh?”
It was purely coincidental when their eyes met.
*Online romance: “Lanseon yeonae” – online dating or romance that happens through the internet.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
