From the very early days of the game, “Jjangdol Shield,” famous for being called the gold standard of tanking and for distributing basic guides and walkthroughs for the three main tank classes, Paladin, Warhammer, and Berserker, ended up getting exposed for trying to meet a middle schooler in real life by using his fame, and was completely buried.
“Dodohan Luna,” who had been a Bishop ranker, got caught taking 100,000 won at a time to pilot for people behind the scenes, then posted proof of deleting the character.
There were rumors that two years later she had tried to come back on an alt, but whether it had not worked out or not, she disappeared again just the same.
“Gladius,” who had once formed joint raid groups with Ignis and served as raid leader alongside him, made a bombshell declaration around 2014 during a drinking stream that he was quitting this game because it did not make any money.
After that, he even posted proof that he had quit Erha Online and switched over to become a pro in another FPS game, but that did not work out either, so he ended up fading into obscurity.
Just as Haesal was about to tell the story of how “You and Me,” famous as a Named crafter in his thirties, had been cheating through a messenger app and then got exposed as a married man, causing the free board to go up in flames over a Named’s affair, Yeonjun cut him off.
[Whisper/Ignis: I get it;; You can stop now;;]
All Yeonjun had done was disappear while everyone was still clapping for him.
But because the other people had lived such absolute train wrecks of lives, he had ended up being forcibly reevaluated.
It was painful, because if he let this continue, he had a feeling he was about to hear just how disastrously all the others had lived too.
Yeonjun had no way of knowing that, among the very few Nameds left who had never had anything blow up on them, the fact that he had vanished one day had only perfectly cemented the legend.
[Whisper/DoHaesal: No]
[Whisper/DoHaesal: I’m not done talking yet]
Rejecting Yeonjun’s refusal with firm refusal of his own, Haesal now started into the second verse of why Ignis was so amazing.
The guild members of Yeonhwa had already heard it so many times they could probably recite the whole repertoire in their sleep.
It was all stuff he himself really had done, to be sure.
But hearing it out of somebody else’s mouth as if it were some world-shaking list of achievements made Yeonjun want to crawl into a hole and hide.
[Whisper/Ignis: Stop, Haesal-nim, please stop]
[Whisper/Ignis: I get how amazing he is, so please stop already]
Is he doing this on purpose right now?
Is he messing with me on purpose because he knows everything?
For a moment, Yeonjun was seriously suspicious.
But there was no way for him to know that Haesal had no intention whatsoever of teasing or mocking anyone, and that this was purely a time of confession and testimony.
[Whisper/DoHaesal: I’m sorry ㅠㅠ]
[Whisper/DoHaesal: When Ignis comes up]
[Whisper/DoHaesal: It’s a little hard for me to control myself ㅠㅠ]
[Whisper/DoHaesal: Ah, but Ignis is Ignis, and Ignis is also Ignis]
[Whisper/Ignis: Sorry, but I genuinely have no idea what you mean by that just now]
If he had to guess at the meaning, it was probably something like, that Named Ignis was Ignis, and this bootleg-nis who had picked up the nickname was also Ignis, so it got confusing. Something along those lines.
And, as if to prove Yeonjun’s guess right, Haesal soon got to the main point.
[Whisper/DoHaesal: If it’s okay with you now, Ignis, may I call you by something else so I don’t get confused?]
After listening to nothing but agonizing praise the whole time, Yeonjun finally felt like he could breathe a little.
Well… the truth was, since he had been receiving help, he did not quite feel like saying nothing but things the other person would hate hearing either.
Haesal was also the only person he had done anything that could even be called interaction with since returning to the game, and maybe he had gotten a bit attached in his own way…
After having been helped one-sidedly for a little under a month, it felt hard to refuse a request as small as wanting to change the way he addressed him.
No, even if he had not been helped, refusing something like that too firmly would have been weird.
Instead of Ignis, can I call you Iggy or something like that was about what Yeonjun had expected, but the title waiting for him was more astonishing than that.
[Whisper/Ignis: Yes, that’s fine]
[Whisper/DoHaesal: Then I’ll call you hyung!]
?
At the sudden appearance of a form of address he had never expected, Yeonjun coughed, choked, got hiccups and nearly swallowed wrong all at once, and slammed his forehead into the keyboard.
[Whisper/Ignis: What????]
[Whisper/DoHaesal: What??]
As Yeonjun failed to hide his shock, Haesal sent a whole flood of question marks right back as though he himself were even more startled.
How does he know whether I’m what kind of person, whether I’m male or female, how is it hyung?
[Whisper/Ignis: What kind of person do you think I am to call me hyung?]
[Whisper/DoHaesal: Ah]
Maybe Haesal was typing something and deleting it over and over, because his reply came slower than usual.
[Whisper/DoHaesal: I just guessed]
[Whisper/DoHaesal: I’m sorry if I startled you]
[Whisper/DoHaesal: I figured if you know about Ignis, you’re probably at least an adult]
[Whisper/DoHaesal: And since you use a male character, I naturally thought hyung would fit]
[Whisper/DoHaesal: I’m on the younger side]
[Whisper/DoHaesal: So if you’re not a student, you’re probably older than me]
At that answer, which at least sounded somewhat grounded, Yeonjun’s eyebrows twitched.
At that very moment, while Yeonjun still could not quite shake the feeling that something was fishy, on the other side of the monitor Haein was desperately wringing his brain dry.
Ah, fuck.
Things had recently seemed to be going a little better, and without even reading the room, he had blurted out nonsense, so he could practically feel the guard that had only barely softened snap hard back into place in an instant.
Now what do I say?
Any more excuses here would just make him look even more suspicious.
The only option left was to say even more nonsense and scatter his attention.
Thinking it was all or nothing anyway, Haein gambled.
[Whisper/DoHaesal: If it’s okay with you, Ignis]
[Whisper/DoHaesal: Then can I call you noona?]
?
What kind of nonsense is this now?
Yeonjun, dumbfounded by a statement that seemed to abruptly lop off the perfectly good thing attached between his legs, started typing.
[Whisper/Ignis: No, unfortunately, hyung is right]
There was no need to babble extra information by adding that, as a working adult, if Haesal was on the younger side then hyung would indeed be correct.
Startled by Yeonjun’s brusque answer, Haesal replied in alarm.
[Whisper/DoHaesal: Hyung, I’m not some girl-crazy creep]
[Whisper/DoHaesal: I’m not disappointed at all!!!!]
The string of exclamation marks conveyed Haein’s sincerity, but it did not feel especially important to Yeonjun.
[Whisper/Ignis: You don’t have to explain that, you don’t come off that way]
If Haesal had been a girl-crazy creep, he would have long since been fishing around with all kinds of questions to pry out Yeonjun’s gender, and instead of asking whether he could call him hyung, he would have asked whether he could call him noona from the start.
At some point, the time had already passed midnight, and instead of continuing to worry in twists and turns about Haesal on the other side of the monitor, Yeonjun wanted to get under the covers as quickly as possible.
[Whisper/Ignis: Well, it seems you got the mail safely, so I’ll be heading off now]
[Whisper/Ignis: Have fun]
[Whisper/DoHaesal: Yes, hyung!!!!]
Along with that short farewell, Haein typed [See you tomorrow!] and hit Enter, only to get back a system message saying the recipient was not online to receive whispers.
Ugh.
I shouldn’t have gotten ahead of myself, I shouldn’t have gotten ahead of myself!
The joy of having gotten permission to call Ignis hyung lasted only a moment.
Now he was stuck in a chilly silence that felt like ten whole years, and if he could have, he wanted to jump right out the window.
“AAAAAAAH!”
As Haein writhed on the bed in agony, Suyeong, who lived on the floor below, banged the ceiling with a clothes hanger to complain about the noise between floors, yelling what the fuck is that lunatic doing.
Haein quietly pulled both legs up onto the bed, then kicked the air and rolled around in a way that would not thump down below.
It was behavior that absolutely did not suit his angelic face.
After rolling around like that for about ten minutes, Haein suddenly sat bolt upright.
Still, one thing had not changed.
From now on, he was allowed to call Ignis hyung.
Yeah. Don’t die, stay strong, keep living.
Because Ignis-hyung will be waiting for me tomorrow too.
But his recovery lasted only a moment.
Right away, he buried his face into the pillow again, thinking, So what. He’s just going to keep treating me like some suspicious weirdo anyway.
When it came to anything involving Ignis, there was just no helping it. He became the biggest idiot in the world.
Since Ignis had decreed that he may call him hyung, his intelligence had naturally been nerfed.
It was like having to present some half-assed homework he had done in a total mess in front of the teacher he liked most.
Not just his words and actions, but even his heart refused to obey him the way he wanted.
The joy of having secured the right to call him hyung was brief, and for a while he would have to keep himself in check.
While Haein was barely managing to calm himself down like that, Yeonjun finished brushing his teeth and slipped under the blanket bit by bit.
A late regret came over him that maybe he had overreacted too much, and his earlobes burned hot.
Since he had said he was young, was he a high schooler?
If he was active as a ranker, he would need to have a lot of time, so Yeonjun had figured he probably was not at the age where he should be buried in studying.
Then again, high schoolers, even if they had no time, had stamina to spare, so if he poured all his time into the game from the moment he got back from school until dawn, it was not as though being active as a ranker would be impossible.
Yeonjun grew embarrassed at the thought that, by overreacting for no reason, he might actually have made himself look more suspicious instead.
Anyway, it was already over, so stop thinking pointless thoughts and just sleep.
Just as Yeonjun finally calmed down, closed his eyes, and pulled the blanket up to his chin, a handsome character with white hair and long pointed ears sprang up in his mind and mocked him.
‘Hyung, aren’t you being way too self-conscious?’
Yeonjun immediately shot upright and screamed, “Aaaah!”
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