Chapter 51
“This one is chocolate flavor.”
“Really?”
While meaningless and utterly trivial conversation passed between them, Kwon-ju just stood there like a borrowed sack of barley, saying nothing and looking stupid. Instead, he secretly watched Ji-won from a step behind as Ji-won took the candy he had just been given and popped it into his own mouth. His cheeks puffing out look cute, Kwon-ju thought.
As soon as Suhyeon left, Ji-won pulled his mask back up and rummaged through his pocket as if suddenly remembering something. There was a rustling sound from the pocket that had appeared empty.
“Give me your hand.”
Kwon-ju obediently held out his palm, and Ji-won opened his clenched fist over it. He had been keeping these to help stay alert whenever his throat hurt or he felt tired. Chocolates fell onto the candy Suhyeon had given him, filling Kwon-ju’s wide palm. Ji-won felt an inexplicable sense of satisfaction.
“Anyway, thanks so much for helping me.”
After stubbornly insisting on escorting him home despite having plenty of time, Kwon-ju stopped in front of the villa where Ji-won lived. Ji-won thanked him. It wasn’t like he’d been in a major accident, and honestly, he couldn’t understand this excessive kindness of being escorted all the way home, but he was grateful nonetheless.
“…”
“…”
Ji-won thought Kwon-ju would turn to leave now, but he stood there as if his feet were nailed to the ground. An awkward silence fell. Does he have something more to say? Should I offer him a drink since he came all this way? But I don’t really have any beverages at home…
“I’ve been thinking about this for a while, but your door passcode seems too simple, hyung.”
Ji-won had been contemplating buying something from the convenience store, but Kwon-ju suddenly brought up this unexpected topic. Passcode? Why? Ji-won explained with a look of confusion.
“I was going to use 1234, but thought it was too simple, so I shifted it over one key.”
Just discussing this in the middle of the street shows how careless you are. For Kwon-ju, who lived in a home with a passcode that combined numbers and special characters into a whole ten digits, this was utterly incomprehensible behavior. What if someone just walked in?
“Besides, several of my friends know my passcode.”
“…”
As if answering Kwon-ju’s internal thoughts, Ji-won made a shocking statement. He just gives out his door passcode? This was beyond what Kwon-ju could accept with his common sense, so that day, he finally put on a brazen face and insisted until Ji-won changed his door passcode.
“Should I tell only you?”
“No. Don’t tell me either… Don’t tell anyone.”
Ji-won, who had successfully changed his passcode to a reasonable six digits, casually offered, but Kwon-ju immediately declined. The purpose was to make Ji-won more security-conscious, but on his way home, he regretted it. What if he collapsed at home again? Maybe I should have asked him to tell only me. The thoughts spinning in his head made the journey home feel particularly long.
* * *
“…”
The exams were over. Ji-won pulled his cap down low as he left the classroom after his final exam.
His body had recovered a lot, but the scores of his already-completed exams couldn’t be healed. He’d felt relieved after doing fairly well on the first day, but after that, it was like watching dominoes fall—each exam he took left him with an uneasy feeling he couldn’t shake.
At this rate, I’ll be lucky to get a B+ even if I do well on the finals… Despite the exams being over, the lingering unease meant he wouldn’t be able to fully enjoy the game. But contrary to his troubled mind, once he sat at his desk and turned on his computer, his fingers moved regardless of his mood. In fact, listening to the satisfying impact sounds in the game seemed to relieve his stress, making him play longer than usual.
[Guild][Chelling: Woah Sasa-nim 200 congrats]
[Guild][Ppojjo: Congratulations on 200!!!!!!!!]
[Guild][Ddajimalgot: ☆ Con 200 grats ☆]
Three days after midterms ended, Kwon-ju finally reached max level. While receiving a flood of congratulations in both guild and server chat. He might have been the player who received the most congratulatory messages among all the game’s users. Usually, it wasn’t easy to become this famous before reaching max level.
With exams over, Ji-won started gathering guild parties as he had promised and included Kwon-ju to hunt higher-level bosses. With his PVE items that were even better than his impressively good PVP items, a single skill from Kwon-ju could chip away huge chunks of HP. Guild members unanimously lamented that his damage would have been twice as good with a different class, but even now, he already had the best specs across the entire server.
Taking the opportunity, Ji-won decided to try the highest difficulty boss and familiarly opened Discord. No matter how experienced one was, it was still difficult without someone leading, so Ji-won created a voice channel for other guild members to listen in and gave instructions as he monitored the timing.
“Good work, everyone.”
Although it was the highest difficulty, the boss had been updated quite some time ago and the guild party had cleared it long ago, so there wasn’t much need to exert themselves. Still, Ji-won closed the voice channel, satisfied with their smooth clear. Having Kwon-ju in the party definitely reduced the clear time significantly. Of course, there were other things that increased too.
[Ddajimalgot: Sasa-nimㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]
[Ppojjo: The death count doubled ㅠㅠ]
[Watermelon Doctor: We cut the clear time significantly so it’s fine ㅋㅋㅋ Don’t feel bad, baby ㅠ]
The death count shared by all party members—in other words, the lives given when entering the boss room—had been cut in half. Usually, out of twenty-five, they would lose at most about fifteen, but this time they cleared with only six remaining, which was a huge difference.
Kwon-ju, who had single-handedly consumed all the death counts that experienced guild members had been safely preserving, apologized repeatedly and continued to practice. Thanks to this, during Sunday evening’s final boss practice, he achieved the result of dying three times less than when he started.
After enjoying the game all weekend, Ji-won faced Monday with a renewed sense of crisis. I can’t take finals like this either. After contemplating, Ji-won made an impromptu plan. And without hesitation, he proposed it to the person he most wanted to spend time with.
“Kwon-ju.”
“Yes?”
“Want to go to the library with me to study? I think I need to do well on the finals.”
Studying instead of gaming? Suggesting studying right after exams had ended. Wouldn’t it be enough to start working hard a week before? Kwon-ju, who had only ever studied intensively for three years to prepare for the college entrance exam, couldn’t understand. We worked so hard to get into university, but do we have to study every day even after getting in?
Of course, there were pros and cons to each option. If they studied together, they couldn’t talk, but he could occasionally steal glances at Ji-won’s focused profile over the divider. If they played the game, he couldn’t see Ji-won’s face, but they could chat via text or voice chat. His voice is nice and his face is handsome too. But such considerations were meaningless. Once Ji-won said what he wanted to do, there was only one answer Kwon-ju could give.
“Sure.”
“How about Monday, Wednesday, Friday, three times a week?”
“I’m always available. I just play games when I go home anyway…”
“Okay.”
Having gained a library mate more easily than expected, Ji-won was about to look away when he paused.
“Wait, do you have a fever?”
Ji-won suddenly leaned forward, bringing his face close to Kwon-ju, who looked strangely flushed. Close enough for their breath to mingle, Kwon-ju momentarily held his breath. Ji-won placed his hand on Kwon-ju’s forehead, bypassing his tensely stiffened body.
“That’s a relief, seems you don’t. I’ve recovered, so I was worried you might be sick.”
Ji-won’s back as he turned and casually walked away couldn’t have been more frustrating after making Kwon-ju’s heart drop to his toes. By this point, Kwon-ju wondered if Ji-won was doing this on purpose. But he quickly sighed and corrected himself. That can’t be. Hyung just treats everyone this way.
* * *
“Ah… finally over.”
Dragging his tired body out of the classroom, Ji-won stepped onto the stairs going up instead of down to the first floor. They had agreed to go to the library together after class today, so he needed to wait a bit. It’s definitely convenient in many ways to hang out with someone who has a similar schedule. At most, there was only a 10 to 20-minute time difference, which wasn’t too boring—it was just right.
Reaching the floor where Kwon-ju’s classroom was located, Ji-won walked down the corridor while looking at his phone without much thought. But strangely, it seemed to get noisier as he walked, so he stopped. A group of juniors clustered in a small lounge area in the corner of the corridor recognized Ji-won and rose from their seats one by one.
“Hello.”
“Oh, hi. Is something going on?”
They all had serious, almost gloomy expressions, like people reluctantly greeting someone. Unable to simply pass by the juniors who looked like they were at a funeral, Ji-won finally stopped and asked. He had time to kill while waiting for Kwon-ju anyway.
“Well, you see.”
As soon as Ji-won showed a willingness to listen, the juniors seated him as if they had been waiting for this moment. Sensing this must be a serious conversation, Ji-won sat down without resistance. It was just when he was starting to get bored with the continuing silence that…
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
