Meanwhile, after ending the call with Yeonjun, Haein shoved his face straight into his pillow to calm the heart that felt like it might leap out of his mouth.
One, two, three, four. He held his breath until the count passed fifty, squeezing his eyes shut, and only lifted his head when he could not endure it anymore.
His heart was still pounding as if it might burst.
“Seriously, don’t cross the line.”
Who was the one who crossed the line first? Even when Is-nim had been at the height of his active days, Haein had never heard even a rumor that he had a rough mouth.
The way he spoke was rough and light, mixed with plenty of irritation, but it also carried the assumption that Haein would naturally accept that much from him.
Haein could not tell whether this was a dream, his imagination, or reality.
Over the nearly two months he had spent following Is-nim around, there had been moments when things creaked awkwardly in the middle.
Even so, Haein had honestly taken some pride in thinking that, at this point, he might be the person closest to Is-nim in-game.
But as if proving that right in front of him, Is-nim’s now-unreserved way of speaking left his heart unable to survive.
On top of that, why was his voice so good? His way of speaking was casual and relaxed, but the voice itself was serious and low.
With the weight of a firmly settled adult man clearly felt in it, there was no way Haein’s heart could hold out.
Haein sprang up from his spot, turned on a recorder, checked how much his own voice sounded like a little kid’s, then felt the agony of his hands and feet curling in embarrassment and buried his head back into the pillow.
Just imagining how childish his voice must have sounded to someone who lived hearing such a good voice from himself every day was torture in itself.
“If I’d known hyung would answer, I would’ve recorded it.”
Haein blamed himself for stupidly just listening and replayed his conversation with Is-nim in his head.
“~~~~~~~~!!!”
Even thinking back on it, it was a moment so joyful it was the most ecstatic of Haein’s life.
He had successfully returned, and other guilds and users must have been showering him with all kinds of attention, interest, and expectation.
And the conclusion that person had reached after thinking for a long time was to go around in circles and ask Haein, whom he had rejected so many times, to let him join the guild.
Following him around for almost two months had been worth it. As Haein rolled around, unable to calm his pounding heart, he did not care what anyone else was saying.
The “I like you” he had said like a joke to tease Is-nim might not have been a joke after all.
Seriously, hyung is… ha… no…
Haein sprang up from the bed and sat properly to try to calm the foolishly swelling feeling inside him, then flopped back down again.
He felt like he had become an idiot whose head was filled with nothing but thoughts of Is-nim.
The next day, as soon as Is-nim logged in, Haein immediately sent him a guild join request.
[System: DoHaesal-nim has invited you to the guild.]
[Accept][Decline]
Yeonjun pressed the decline button without the slightest hesitation.
[Whisper/DoHaesal: ?]
[Whisper/DoHaesal: ??]
[Whisper/DoHaesal: ?????????]
When Haein filled the chat with question marks at the response he had never expected, a blunt reply came back from Yeonjun.
[Whisper/Ignis: ♡]
It was probably filtering that had a high chance of being “ㅗ,” but Haein did not lose heart and stubbornly spouted nonsense.
[Whisper/DoHaesal: Hyung, seriously, your confession]
[Whisper/DoHaesal: is being done in such an innovative way.]
[Whisper/Ignis: ♡♡]
[Whisper/DoHaesal: Your feelings for me…]
[Whisper/DoHaesal: I already know them well♡]
[Whisper/DoHaesal: For reference, this isn’t a curse.]
[Whisper/DoHaesal: I typed this heart myself♡^^♡]
[Whisper/Ignis: These aren’t ♡♡♡.]
His resentment over Haein deliberately ignoring his obvious intentions to try shaking Is-nim’s heart at least once was truly fearsome.
But it was fine.
The person Is-nim felt most comfortable with was him.
With that fact alone, Haesal could endure even worse treatment. To begin with, this did not even fall under poor treatment.
[System: DoHaesal-nim has invited you to the guild.]
[Accept][Decline]
When Haein refused to give up and sent one more invitation request, another rejection immediately came back.
[Whisper/DoHaesal: ?]
[Whisper/Ignis: ㅡㅡ]
Only after following Is-nim around for nearly another hour and pleading with him while Is-nim loudly radiated, “I’m sulking,” was Haein able to confirm the two letters [Yeonhwa] sparkling above Is-nim’s head.
“Kheuuu…….”
After more than sixty days of following him around, Haein had half achieved what he wanted.
That alone made him so happy he felt like he could do a cartwheel.
Unable to calm his excitement, by the time he came to his senses, he was once again sending Is-nim a call request.
—Why do you keep calling? You can just send a message.
At the lazy voice that flowed out even while grumbling, a shiver ran down Haein’s spine.
“Just… I was curious what you do after you turn off the game, hyung.”
At Haein’s stupid answer, Yeonjun let out a small laugh.
—Stop talking nonsense and go to sleep.
“I’m serious. Are you some kind of National Intelligence Service employee, hyung? Your personal information is completely unknown.”
Just how tightly had he hidden everything?
Even Haein, who could proudly claim to be the closest to him since his return, did not know how old Yeonjun was or what he did.
He could only guess from his voice that he was somewhere between his late twenties and mid-thirties.
He knew Yeonjun was an office worker with a relatively routine commute, but he could not guess even a little what field he worked in.
Since his voice was fairly low and serious, finance? Or maybe something in the sciences would suit him too.
Since he had been a famous Named gamer, working at a game company would also suit him, but… having that handsome voice and being a game company employee somehow felt mismatched.
If Yeonjun heard that, he would have been dumbfounded and asked what Haein thought game company employees were, but it was a thought that would never reach Yeonjun.
—What are you going to do if you know?
“What do you mean, what am I going to do? I’m just curious. What kind of person you are in real life, hyung.”
When Haein stubbornly lifted his head and answered, Yeonjun treated it as idle curiosity and laughed softly.
—I’m working just fine at a decent job without getting fired, so mind your own business.
After that pointless little call ended, Haein rolled around on the bed again, feeling so happy he could fly.
Because Suyeong had already complained three times in the past two months about noise between floors, Haein kicked his blanket with his feet aimed toward the air so his parents would not scold him.
He was so happy it felt ominous.
It felt that good.
This time, he had succeeded in recording it, so he should listen again.
The moment Haein fumbled around and played back the call from just now, he had to suffer through the contrast between Yeonjun’s clean low voice and his own kid-like voice, swallowing a curse.
My voice is this whiny?
He was trying hard to pretend his voice was lower, but more nasality had mixed in instead, turning the whole thing into a ridiculous disaster of a voice that made him cringe so hard it was disgusting.
Let’s never call him again.
Haein crawled under the blanket with his mood suddenly depressed, then slowly opened the audio playback app again.
“Why do you keep calling? You can just send a message.”
At that low, subdued voice that seemed to scrape against his eardrums, the area below his navel ached again.
It seemed the awkward feeling from earlier had not been his imagination after all.
“Fuck, I must be crazy. Do Haein, you perverted bastard.”
Haein pulled the blanket all the way over his head and held his breath, trying to ignore the heat in his lower body.
But even with his eyes squeezed shut, his breath held, and his whole body curled up, the voice he had heard a moment ago replayed automatically in his head.
Have all my standards in the world really aligned around Is-nim, so my desires can’t be distinguished from each other anymore and have all mixed together?
In the middle of his confusion, Haein eventually could not endure the suffocating feeling and shuffled toward the bathroom.
Deep self-loathing burst out between his briefly moving palm.
After washing the shameful traces away with water, Haein returned to his room with a face that had become haggard in an instant.
This isn’t quite right. By the time Haein began to realize that whatever he had imagined was changing into something else, it was already far too late.
While Haein might have been confused, Yeonjun’s return as Ignis had successfully settled in.
Then the trigger that would overturn the situation was pulled from a place no one had expected.
It was early summer in earnest. Yeonjun was now stubbornly winning the duel requests flooding in from other classes as well, continuing his undefeated streak.
As a result, his login time naturally increased. Not only did he fall asleep past one o’clock, but there were many days when he passed two o’clock too, and his sleep time dropped below five hours.
“Hwuaaam…….”
“Hwuaaam…….”
He was still fine so far. He had always had a sturdy constitution, so he was not the type to get tired easily. And after trying it, he even felt some confidence rising in him.
I’m not staying up until three or four in the morning or anything. With my current stamina, this much is fine.
While Yeonjun was thinking so complacently, a problem exploded.
“Yeonjun-ssi. What’s with the event page right now? Did you set the date wrong?”
Right before lunchtime, Team Leader Ahn checked the official homepage banner for Snow Waresing and asked Yeonjun in alarm.
“Huh? Wasn’t it supposed to start today?”
Snow Waresing’s events basically consisted of three types that were applied repeatedly on a set monthly cycle.
The one starting today was a double booster event, a simple event where a buff was applied to all fields so players could enjoy item battles more aggressively.
“What are you talking about? This is supposed to go in starting tomorrow.”
Yeonjun’s heart sank at the mistake he had not made even once since being demoted. Of all days, trouble had picked today.
Today was the day Team Leader Ahn had been dragged into a headquarters meeting from the morning and had his self-esteem ground to dust, and misfortunes never came alone.
The worst day of Yeonjun’s 2022 was beginning.
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