Chapter 12
Fortunately, HolyKnightKnight didn’t seem to feel like quitting the game after that shock and logged back in late in the evening. All the guild members who had gathered in the corner of the Guild Headquarters for a chat after a long time welcomed the newbie who naturally joined them.
[Chelling: Sasa-nim]
[Chelling: Wanna do a dungeon after midnight?]
[HolyKnightKnight: I have orientation early tomorrow so I’ll probably go to bed early]
[Chelling: Orientation.. how fresh..^_^]
[Ppojjo: Don’t feel bad Chelling, they’re only a freshman]
[3Shu3: You’re one to talk with your 2 in the front when you’re actually born later]
[Chelling: lolololololol]
So Sasa-nim is already going to orientation. Guild members for whom college orientation was already a distant memory pulled out chairs and started chatting idly. They dug up memories from nearly a decade ago and took turns giving tips to HolyKnightKnight, but none of them seemed particularly helpful.
[3Shu3: Drink in small portions and keep drinking water in between haha. It’s really annoying when they enforce strict rules and make you down shots]
[Watermelon Doctor: Noona, these days you can get arrested for forcing people to drink~]
[HolyKnightKnight: Okay]
HolyKnightKnight diligently responded even to outdated advice. Watermelon Doctor, a current university student who skipped every event as a third-time entrance exam taker, wasn’t much help. Ddaji was still feeling the effects of a long academic leave and couldn’t even remember what the school looked like, even mistaking orientation for the semester opening ceremony.
[Ddaji: Ah, the freshmen MT! I know, I know]
[Ddaji: Kept drinking while playing drinking games and ended up puking so badly]
[Ddaji: Almost started a second life]
[Watermelon Doctor: So that’s how you became a leave-of-absence machine]
[Ddaji: ……]
[Watermelon Doctor: Baby, please drink carefully~]
[HolyKnightKnight: lololol okay]
Ji-won realized how much time had passed when he saw that HolyKnightKnight had grown accustomed to being called “baby,” a nickname that had initially been received with reluctance. It’s already mid-February. Counting the days left until the semester began, Ji-won suddenly added a comment about orientation.
[Hando: Some places play pranks on freshmen]
[Hando: If something feels off, just stay still..]
Ji-won’s department was exactly like that. Claiming it was a tradition passed down from seniors, they stubbornly pushed through with the X-Man event every year during orientation, despite the poor reception.
Once, Ji-won desperately tried to stop a classmate who suddenly got serious and started talking back to a student council senior, only to find out later that the senior was just acting. Ji-won ended up looking foolish. Everyone teased him relentlessly. Worse, the person responsible for the act kept bringing it up at every opportunity for a whole year, turning his fresh orientation memories into something gray.
[Ddaji: Do schools still do that..?]
[Hando: That’s how it was in my department]
[Ddaji: omg.. stop turning back time]
[Ddaji: Stop with the old-fashioned culture]
With Ddaji justifying their endless academic leave by saying this is why they didn’t want to return to school, the conversation shifted back to the game. The topics flowed endlessly, almost like a formal discussion: what might come with next month’s major update, whether new bosses or dungeons would be added, which cash items they hoped would make a comeback.
HolyKnightKnight left first, saying they needed to wake up early tomorrow, and guild members with jobs disappeared one by one for the sake of tomorrow.
[Chelling: Ah it’s fun but I have work tomorrow so I’m going to bed]
[Ppojjo: The working professional who games at work but never arrives late]
[Chelling: Minimum conscience~^.^]
Chelling logged off saying they were going to bed after 1 AM. Even if they fell asleep right now, they wouldn’t get six hours of sleep. Though Chelling’s login rate had dropped significantly when they first got hired, they only took a short break as a new employee before returning to normal. Their consistent love for gaming since middle school, when Ji-won first met them, was something even Ji-won had to admire.
[Hando: To think they sleep at this hour and log in right after work]
[Ddaji: He is….]
[Hando: But for us, we’re just getting started, right?]
[Watermelon Doctor: Absolutely]
Though they said this, by around 2 AM, even Ji-won couldn’t resist the waves of drowsiness. The guild members who had gathered at the dungeon entrance logged off simultaneously, promising to meet in the afternoon.
* * *
As always, when Ji-won woke up early and logged in immediately, no one else was showing as online. Well, usually only Sasa-nim would be on at this hour. But they’re at orientation today.
Now that he thought about it, his school was supposed to have a freshman orientation today too. Belatedly remembering, Ji-won opened KakaoTalk, which he hadn’t checked since last night, and found over 300 messages accumulated in the group chat with his close classmates.
[This is seriously funny lolol just play along moderately]
[Student council is pointless for real should’ve just said no]
The friend complaining was a classmate who had enlisted in the military with Ji-won right after their first year and was returning to school this semester. He had joined the student council last month after being approached by the president, but as a returning student, he seemed uncomfortable and had been consistently complaining since morning.
[What kind of X-Man bullshit]
[What year do they think it is to do this crap]
A few days ago, he had also asked Ji-won to come to orientation. It wasn’t uncommon for seniors with connections to the student council to attend, and he asked Ji-won to pretend to be a freshman, but Ji-won refused without hesitation. As a result, his classmate Mingyu, who ended up doing it himself, was furious about the unoriginal content.
[It’s so lonely for real]
[I should’ve convinced Han Ji-won to come along]
[The freshmen would be so disappointed seeing your face;;;]
[You wanna die?]
Ji-won had made acquaintances with both classmates and seniors from the moment he enrolled, but he never applied for the student council despite his peers urging him to try. He didn’t want to deal with the stress of being criticized, nor did he want to waste his time.
[Is Han Ji-won’s hair much longer?]
[Yeah]
[Then no one would know he’s back from military]
[I’ll have to spread the word]
Mingyu, who said he would tell everyone negative things about military returnees, quietly disappeared from the chat. He probably went to prepare for the event. Despite being a military returnee himself.
After continuing to chat with his friends, Ji-won logged into Instagram for the first time in a while. It had been a while since he’d posted anything. He replied to DMs from his military buddies he followed back and belatedly responded to comments on last year’s post he had uploaded last. Then he browsed through posts from friends who were either enjoying their vacation in their own ways or suffering through job hunting.
Everyone seems to be having fun. Although he didn’t particularly post photos of himself gaming at home, Ji-won was also having a very happy vacation.
[Someone came wearing a 10 million won outfit lolololol it’s so pretty lolol]
[? How do you even know how much someone else’s clothes cost?]
[Anyway Kim Mingyu really loves luxury brands]
The group chat suddenly got noisy as they started talking about a new freshman. Ji-won knew Mingyu had a special interest in luxury goods and always looked up new products, drooling over them, but it felt awkward to discuss someone he didn’t even know, so Ji-won minimized the chat for a moment.
At the high school Ji-won attended, it wasn’t uncommon to see students wearing expensive outerwear. It was in a good neighborhood with good schools after all. Leaning back in his chair and recalling about four years ago, a passing face suddenly made Ji-won look at the file on his bookshelf.
A junior from the same club who was two years younger than him, with whom contact had become sporadic after entering university and eventually cut off completely. Ji-won had heard from acquaintances that the junior was extremely wealthy. When he met them in person, he could only see their face, but they wore luxury shoes and bags. What was peculiar was how they sat like an invisible person, blending into the background, despite their appearance and the loud, glamorous rumors surrounding them. And they were nice, unlike what the rumors suggested…
[Are you going to game again?]
A KakaoTalk message looking for him cut his thoughts short. Ji-won, instantly forgetting what he had just been thinking about, sent a brief reply.
[Focus on your work instead of being interested in people’s clothes]
Smirking, Ji-won tossed his phone aside and stood still for a long time in the Guild Headquarters, which was unusually empty. What should I do until Sasa-nim comes? Recently, he had done everything with HolyKnightKnight—daily quests called “homework,” merchant supply deliveries, and even market browsing—so there was nothing to do alone. No guild members to chat with either.
“I should study at times like this…”
Since enlisting, everything he had learned in his first year had evaporated, so it would probably be difficult to keep up with classes after the semester began. Though he was still only a second-year student, it wasn’t a time to let everything slip away. Having heard so many stories about how hard it is to get back into studying after returning from military service, Ji-won felt a sense of urgency as the start of the semester approached.
After logging in for just a short while, Ji-won turned off the game and opened a book for the first time in ages. None of it makes sense, and I can’t concentrate—should I just stop? But despite these negative thoughts, Ji-won didn’t leave his seat until lunchtime.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
