Persistent punk.
Yeon-jun glared at the monitor and sighed. His head throbbed from watching the character that had been tailing him for an hour already.
He thought he had made his refusal clear, so why did the other keep pretending not to understand?
No, the problem was not a lack of understanding; it was obvious the other was deliberately ignoring him.
[Whisper/Ignis: Haesal-nim]
[Whisper/Dohaesal: Yes!]
Whether he knew Yeon-jun would just keep repeating the same words or not, the handsome character with long lop-eared rabbit ears drooping cutely on either side of his head smiled.
At a glance, you could not tell whether it was a female avatar or a male one; that androgynous appearance was a feature of the Yana race.
[Whisper/Ignis: Even if you keep following me like this, I’m not joining the guild.]
He must have sent that straight ball about thirty times already. Supposedly, this was the number one castle lord in guild wars, yet how did this guy have so much free time?
He had followed Yeon-jun’s heels through the entire two-hour window of his short play session.
When Yeon-jun stifled a groan and sprinted across the river to the fishing zone on the far bank, the fluffy triangular ears and long tail attached to his otherwise jet-black avatar swayed.
The other character, flashing the gaudy titles [Yeonhwa], [Ruler of Nacht], and [Dohaesal] above his head, also pricked up his fluffy rabbit ears and chased after Yeon-jun’s avatar.
[Whisper/Dohaesal: Hyung, what part of our guild]
[Whisper/Dohaesal: you do not like, at the very least]
[Whisper/Dohaesal: could you tell me?]
[Whisper/Dohaesal: We really have lived as good people]
[Whisper/Dohaesal: I’ll fix it.]
Dohaesal, it seemed, had no intention of giving up today either, relentless to the extreme.
What part did he not like?
These very moments were everything he disliked.
It was not that or Dohaesal lacked something or that he was turning up his nose because they did not measure up. Their goals in playing the game were simply different.
Yeon-jun just wanted to be neither here nor there, for mountains to be mountains and water to be water. He wished to remain an ordinary life-skills user A, as if he did not even exist on this server.
For that very reason, the title was unbearably burdensome. Simply sticking it above his ID [Ignis] was enough to set off ripples.
[Whisper/Ignis: No, there’s no need for that.]
[Whisper/Ignis: I just don’t need a guild.]
He meant it.
For a player whose goal was to fish all day, gather herbs, bang away with a hammer, mine ore, and fill the collection log, Yeonhwa was far too ill-suited.
In fact, it was practically coordinates that would stir up pointless trouble. Since Yeon-jun planned to live far from any conflict zones, at least he would not have to worry about being jumped by rival guild members and losing combat points.
Still, just being in a guild like Yeonhwa would by itself prove he was not a “fake” who had snatched up an abandoned nickname by luck.
“It seems no one thinks I’m actually that Ignis right now…”
No wonder.
Yeon-jun’s avatar wore fashion items that had been popular ten years ago, held the starter fishing rod and starter bait, and looked very much like a light user who had dinged max level, quit combat content, and was now dabbling in life skills.
Contrary to his half-worry that he might get attention because of his nickname, no one thought he might really be that famous named player of old…
…except for this one guy who kept hovering in front of him.
[Whisper/Dohaesal: Don’t be like that, tell me just one thing.]
[Whisper/Dohaesal: Ignis-nim, there has to be something]
[Whisper/Dohaesal: you want, right?]
Something he wanted… Yeon-jun stared blankly at the screen for a moment, then before he knew it, he casually typed his true feelings.
[Whisper/Ignis: Something I want…]
[Whisper/Dohaesal: Yes!!!]
Yeon-jun answered with the sincerest sincerity of his heart.
[Whisper/Ignis: Is there, like, a money-duplication or item-bug circulating among players?]
?
What on earth was that supposed to mean? While Dohaesal fell silent, at a loss for words, Yeon-jun hurriedly added an explanation.
[Whisper/Ignis: It doesn’t have to be a gold-duplication glitch; anything’s fine.]
[Whisper/Ignis: As long as it’s enough to blow Chief Joo out of his seat.]
Dohaesal still tilted his head. Not knowing exactly what Yeon-jun wanted, he wrung out the best proposal he could, but unfortunately it was not the answer Yeon-jun was hoping for.
[Whisper/Dohaesal: Hyung, there’s no way something like that exists]
[Whisper/Dohaesal: but what I do have instead]
[Whisper/Dohaesal: is my bank balance ^^ that you can squander like a chump, hyung]
[Whisper/Ignis: Don’t need it;]
Yeon-jun rejected him outright and looked at the bobber half-submerged, bobbing on the rippling surface.
Enough. What nonsense was he spouting? Hoping to regain his inner peace, he cast and reeled repeatedly.
Just then Dohaesal twitched the tips of his fluffy rabbit ears and asked a question. It was impossibly cute, yet no one knew what kind of shady guy might be hiding behind that adorable appearance.
[Whisper/Dohaesal: Hyung, what is it that you really want?]
[Whisper/Dohaesal: Do you actually want anything in this game?]
Something he wanted… Hadn’t he been saying it from the start? Yeon-jun sighed and put his hands back on the keyboard.
[Whisper/Ignis: I don’t have many desires.]
[Whisper/Ignis: Just sending a protest truck to head office…]
[Whisper/Ignis: so that instead of Chief Joo]
[Whisper/Ignis: someone from another faction gets his seat…]
Maybe he had spoken too earnestly. But it wasn’t as if he was the only player who hated Chief Joo. They would just think he despised him obsessively.
Yeon-jun forced himself to calm his thumping heart. Dohaesal typed with a sulky look.
[Whisper/Dohaesal: Hyung♡♡]
[Whisper/Dohaesal: That goal’s way too big, you know]
[Whisper/Dohaesal: The only things a man is allowed to have big]
[Whisper/Dohaesal: are his height and that place down there.]
Yeon-jun stared soullessly at the hearts that had appeared thanks to the profanity filter.
That had been his goal from the moment he returned to this game.
If Dohaesal could not help him with that, then joining a guild was utterly worthless.
He was grateful someone idolized an old named player whom users barely remembered, and he understood the respect. But the ones who could be active as core named players were users Dohaesal’s age, overflowing with time, enough to tail him like this, not him.
Ignoring Dohaesal’s nonsense, Yeon-jun glanced at the time on his phone screen.
[11:43 p.m.]
It was about time for a responsible adult to start getting ready for bed for tomorrow’s work. The moment it passed midnight his mind would become annoyingly alert.
Once he finished everything and lay his head on the pillow around twelve-thirty, the torture of forcing sleep that would not come would begin. After tossing and turning for a while, if boredom made him pick up his phone, his brain would snap awake again and tempt him: If you are not going to sleep anyway, why not fill one more entry in the compendium before bed?
How many times had he succumbed to that temptation and only closed his eyes when it was almost two o’clock?
Yeon-jun shook his head hard.
If not for having to avoid this guy, he could have filled three entries in the compendium today.
He had failed to catch today’s target, the Golden Rainbow Trout, and hadn’t even managed to hook the common-grade Oklata Fin-fish or Oklata Minnow on normal difficulty.
The moment he saw Dohaesal beside him, constantly switching emotes to annoy him, something inside Yeon-jun finally snapped.
[Whisper/Ignis: Haesal-nim, please listen to me for a second.]
[Whisper/Dohaesal: Yup.]
[Whisper/Ignis: Haesal-nim, are you in middle school or college?]
[Whisper/Dohaesal: College.]
Ah, figures. No wonder he had so much time on his hands.
Did he think Yeon-jun was a college kid overflowing with time and energy like him? Forgetting that venting was pointless, Yeon-jun ground his teeth and typed.
[Whisper/Ignis: Mm-hm, college kid, got it.]
[Whisper/Ignis: That’s at least a relief.]
[Whisper/Ignis: For a college kid, life is a few hours of lectures, eating, sleeping, and gaming, and being Guild-War-Rank-1 is the greatest achievement in life, but that’s not me.]
[Whisper/Ignis: After spending eleven hours trapped at ♡♡ company working like crazy, ninety-five percent of Seong Yeon-jun is already off duty. The remaining five percent is talking to you right now, Haesal-nim.]
[Whisper/Ignis: With this headspace, you think I can do raids? PvP?]
He flushed when he realized he had slipped into informal speech, but he did not care. If it would shake off this persistent brat, he could say worse.
As Yeon-jun bared his teeth, wondering what he would say next, Haesal’s reply rose quickly on the screen.
[Whisper/Dohaesal: Hyung, your fingers are still fast, though.]
[Whisper/Dohaesal: There’s potential.]
[Whisper/Dohaesal: Wait, hyung’s real name]
[Whisper/Dohaesal: is Seong Yeon-jun? That’s a really pretty name.]
Crazy bastard, crazy bastard, crazy bastard.
Yeon-jun clutched his hair in front of the monitor, then finally let his fingers fly with a stream of curses.
[Whisper/Ignis: ♡♡ You didn’t listen to a single word I said, did you?]
[Whisper/Dohaesal: The UI of this game is a bit old,]
[Whisper/Dohaesal: when the chat gets long it’s hard to read, sorry.]
[Whisper/Dohaesal: Anyway, I get that you’ve dug yourself a hole.]
[Whisper/Ignis: ♡♡ You little ♡♡, are you ♡♡ crazy?]
When Yeon-jun, having lost his last shred of patience, spewed curses nonstop, Dohaesal’s response got even more outrageous.
[Whisper/Dohaesal: Hyung, there are too many hearts.]
[Whisper/Dohaesal: Ah, my heart’s fluttering…]
[Whisper/Dohaesal: Do you maybe like me?]
[Whisper/Dohaesal: My heart’s beating crazy fast right now.]
[Whisper/Ignis: ♡♡♡ Seriously…]
[Whisper/Dohaesal: For the record, I like you, hyung.]
Yeah, no need to say it, he already knew.
How had he ended up with a lunatic like this stuck to him?
First Chief Joo, and now some psycho in a game.
The beginning of all this mess went back a whole eleven years.
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