Chapter 21
“…What the?”
Kwon-ju, who had just sent Ji-won a KakaoTalk message, frowned with a puzzled expression and moved his face closer to the screen upon seeing a familiar character suddenly appear at their meeting place. It seemed right. The Spirit Master coordination was the same, styled similarly because they liked the class, and most importantly, the nickname was identical.
Since Chelling had previously told him this was a map where few people came, it wasn’t strange that his destination overlapped with the Guild Master’s. Though it was surprising and awkward to run into him right after leaving the guild. He wondered whether he should greet him or just pretend to be AFK. No, he should just tell hyung to move locations…
[Hando: lolololololol]
[Hando: Kwon-ju]
Just then, the Guild Master, who had suddenly stopped, called out to him with a laugh. Not by his in-game nickname, but his real name.
Kwon-ju blinked, unable to grasp the situation. How did he know his name? Had he told him before? Besides his age and the fact that he’d retaken the college entrance exam, he hadn’t even shared what region he lived in, let alone his name. He couldn’t have mentioned it even in his sleep.
The laughter at their coincidental meeting was understandable, but the way he was addressed afterward made no sense. His brain, which had momentarily frozen, started working again, and an impossible possibility surfaced. The pre-arranged meeting place, the familiar way his name was called…
[Hando: Come back to the guild]
[Hando: I’ll open applications..]
“…Ah.”
With that confirmatory message, a suppressed scream crawled back down his throat. For Kwon-ju, who rarely showed extreme reactions, this was the most intense response in his 21 years of life. His left hand holding the phone began to tremble. Ji-won, who had said he’d be right there, hadn’t sent any KakaoTalk messages and hadn’t appeared on screen. …No, he should say he was already here.
“…Is this a dream?”
He wondered if he was confusing reality with imagination because he slept so much and daydreamed frequently. He slapped both cheeks with his large hands, but it only hurt and made him feel worse.
While he hadn’t felt much excitement about his first day of college as a freshman, the thrill of meeting Ji-won again at the Opening Ceremony—which he’d attended solely out of anticipation—after several years was indescribable. Enough to make him forget the terrible orientation experience. It felt like complete compensation for the regret he’d felt the day he smelled that familiar scent while walking past his house, forcibly suppressing the impulse to grab that arm buried in a padded jacket and pretend to know him, instead running all the way home.
Trying to calm his trembling lips, he greeted him and tried his best to smile attractively, wanting to make a good impression after meeting for the first time in several years. Hyung had told him to just smile when he had nothing to say.
They’d agreed to play the game together, and he’d even earned the right to call him hyung. All the way home, he kept wondering if this was a dream, testing it by firmly planting his feet on the ground several times. Fortunately, there was no floating sensation, but just to be sure, he walked faster than usual.
After rushing home like that, he immediately left his original guild. While it was regrettable and he would have liked to talk more about it, Ji-won contacted him sooner than expected, leaving him no choice. He couldn’t keep the guild name attached after saying he didn’t have one.
Honestly, everyone had treated him better than he deserved, so the sudden departure made him feel even more apologetic. Though it was his first time playing not just RPGs but games in general, he was well aware that being so well cared for as a newbie was extremely rare.
That’s why he planned to keep in touch with the guild members and Guild Master he’d built relationships with, even after joining Ji-won’s guild. Since Ji-won wouldn’t play all day, he could still run dungeons with them during his free time.
But in the end, those thoughts were all meaningless… because the Guild Master he’d been playing with all summer break was hyung.
[Hando: Kwon-ju]
[Hando: Snap out of it lolololol]
As he sat there with his mouth open, unable to type anything, Ji-won messaged him again when there was no response. Feeling he should send something, he fumbled with the keyboard and accidentally pressed a single consonant.
[HolyKnightKnight: ㅈ]
[Hando: Put some strength in those fingers..]
[HolyKnightKnight: Is it really you, hyung?]
[Hando: Yeah lolololol wait a sec]
Still unable to believe it, he asked again, and Ji-won told him to wait a moment. Shortly after, a photo arrived via KakaoTalk.
[(Photo)]
Kwon-ju quickly opened the KakaoTalk chat to check the photo and immediately dropped his phone. He’d thought it would just be a picture of the computer, but half of Ji-won’s face was captured in the photo as well.
[lololololololol it’s real]
While it was now definitively proven that hyung was the Guild Master, Kwon-ju momentarily lost his senses, dazed by what was essentially a selfie. I shouldn’t save it. He didn’t send it for that purpose… After briefly wrestling with his conscience, Kwon-ju finally regained his composure and put down his phone.
Thinking about it, selfies weren’t the important issue right now.
What was my chat tone like until now? Since it was online, I was just laughing and joking around. Didn’t I say I started playing because there was someone I wanted to play with? Belatedly overwhelmed by regret, Kwon-ju slammed his forehead against the desk. No matter how small the world is or how unpredictable life can be, meeting like this in a game doesn’t make sense. How many users are there?
…Actually.
Reflecting on their first meeting, it made sense. Hyung was always that kind of person. He’d talk to you when you were alone, pay attention to you, take care of you. When other users passed him by, he extended his hand, offering to go together—remembering that image, it was no different from how he was in school.
“Haah…”
How am I going to face hyung now? What should I reply? Pretending to be experienced at gaming, pretending not to have a guild. Fortunately, at least I didn’t pretend I hadn’t retaken the entrance exam, so I won’t look uncool.
“…”
Picking up his phone again, the photo he’d just been looking at reappeared. He really hasn’t changed at all. Ji-won, whom he’d met after so long, looked exactly as he remembered. Even after military service, he looked like he could go right back to school if you just put a uniform on him.
[HolyKnightKnight Lv.192]
After staring at the hastily chosen nickname and level on the screen for a while, Kwon-ju lowered his head. Their first meeting was around Christmas, wasn’t it? So the conclusion is that I leveled two-thirds of this character with hyung. The unbelievable realization suddenly made his room feel hot and stuffy.
Kwon-ju reached down to open his desk drawer and gripped a hard acrylic nameplate. After carefully rolling the three characters that weren’t his name around in his mouth, he pressed his heated cheek against the desk and exhaled the breath he’d been holding.
The story of Jang Kwon-ju the human, not the game character, was quite long. So…
* * *
Jang Kwon-ju, the youngest son of the Jang family. Father, a chairman; mother, an association president; brother, studying abroad after graduating from a prestigious university; sister, a music student at a famous foreign university. This one sentence could sum up his entire life. He didn’t need anything about himself.
Unfortunately, unlike his accomplished parents and siblings, Kwon-ju had nothing to show for himself except money that was rotting away from being handed to him from all directions and a pretty face. He had no talent for art or music, wasn’t smart, and didn’t even have luck. Though he learned various things because he was supposed to have at least one thing he excelled at over others, he never properly succeeded at anything and always caused his parents to worry.
Things he was confident would work out went wrong, and the higher the expectations, the worse the results. Of course, anything pushed through with the family’s money always brought success, but those cases generally didn’t make him feel good. Since it was entirely his own problem, no one could solve it for him.
So Kwon-ju became twisted. …Looking back now, it was quite embarrassing. He disliked smoking because of the smell, didn’t want to drink because it tasted bad, and the thought of hanging out with low-quality guys made him irritated just imagining it. So he dyed his hair bright yellow and came home late for a while. That was it. His rebellion was so trivial that even his parents left him alone during his adolescence.
Even that didn’t last long. After just a few days, Kwon-ju realized it was the tantrum of a spoiled child, quietly returned home to apologize to his parents, and shut himself in his room even though they hadn’t imposed a ban on going out. His already sparse words decreased further, and he spent his days spacing out as if a screw had come loose.
In that state, he entered high school and was alone every day. Everyone was too busy studying to care about their surroundings anyway. The only conversations they shared were about assignments, academies, and private tutoring, which didn’t interest him. As long as he attended regularly, he’d at least get a high school diploma, so he wasn’t particularly worried. Somehow rumors spread, and kids kept trying to befriend him, but since he was always lying face-down sleeping, the footsteps approaching his desk eventually stopped.
“Jang Kwon-ju. Which club are you joining? You’re the only one who hasn’t decided.”
“Just put me wherever there’s space left. Except sports.”
The turning point in Kwon-ju’s school life came from the club the class president signed him up for. A film appreciation club. He thought it would be useless for his school record, and as expected, it seemed unpopular.
He skipped several times at first because he didn’t want to go. Finally, in May, when the teacher’s anger reached its peak, he was forced to make his way to the club room. He had arrived early after skipping lunch and was already sleeping when he heard someone gently tapping the desk with their fingernail.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
