Chapter 26: Unwavering Support

“What’s wrong with you today?”

“…Huh?”

It was dinnertime.

Ban-ye suddenly stopped eating and threw a question at me.

I was staring blankly with my chopsticks in my mouth, and I looked up at Ban-ye in surprise.

He was looking straight at me.

When our eyes met, Ban-ye spoke as if he had been holding it in for a while.

“You’ve been spacing out and sighing all day. Is something wrong?”

“…Ah, no? Nothing….”

“Don’t lie.”

His tone, which sounded like he was telling me not to lie, made me feel guilty, and I flinched, shrinking my shoulders.

However, I couldn’t tell Ban-ye that I was down because Sisi had thrown insults at me.

So I denied it desperately.

“No, really…. I just don’t have much energy today for some reason….”

“Did something happen while I was at the convenience store?”

“…No!”

“Your face says, ‘How did you know?’”

“…!”

But Ban-ye was too sharp, and I failed to control my expression.

In the end, I hung my head low and placed my chopsticks on the table.

“I-I’m done eating….”

“Did Sisi contact you?”

“….”

My eyes widened at Ban-ye’s words, which implied he knew everything.

Ban-ye frowned as if he had expected it.

“Whenever his name comes up, you always make ‘that face.’”

“Wh-what face?”

“There’s a face.”

I touched my face and asked, but Ban-ye wouldn’t tell me until the end.

In the end, I had no choice but to tell Ban-ye that Sisi had sent me a private message on the official website.

“Actually… he sent me a message….”

“On the official website?”

“Yeah….”

“Are you going to meet him again?”

“…? No! Are you crazy! I’m never meeting him again!”

I jumped up and waved my hands, thinking Ban-ye had misunderstood and thought I was debating whether or not to meet Sisi again.

Meeting that crazy m0ron again was unthinkable.

Ban-ye looked at my expression, then rested his chin on his hand on the table and just raised his eyes.

Under the silent pressure that seemed to say, ‘keep talking,’ I hesitated, then decided to explain it briefly.

“…He was just picking a f*cking fight, so I cussed him out a bit too. I won, but….”

“Then you would have been excited and told me all about it.”

You lost, didn’t you?

Ban-ye added, as if it were obvious without me even saying it.

I had nothing to say.

“….”

“Looks like you heard some more useless nonsense and lost your energy.”

“….”

I was found out as soon as I spoke, and Ban-ye let out a short sigh.

“He seems to have a lot of lingering feelings for you, hyung.”

“…? No way. He’s a real piece of… no, anyway, he’s not.”

“It’s more annoying when things don’t go your way, right? That’s probably why he said harsh things.”

As he said that, Ban-ye glanced over me.

His expression seemed to say, ‘Why this…?’ which made me slightly flare up.

However, before I could say anything, Ban-ye beat me to it.

“What did he say?”

“Huh?”

“What did you hear that made you look so down again?”

“….”

Why do I look so down….

Well, it’s because I heard more than one or two upsetting things.

I didn’t want to tell him at first, but after asking, Ban-ye looked straight at me, which was cheap.

His jet-black pupils….

Those eyes that made me want to look away as soon as I saw them, that seemed to see through everything, were staring at me intently.

Is it because that unwavering attitude made me feel like I could lean on him?

As if possessed, I stammered and recounted the insults I had received from Sisi.

“I-I, to you and… just to people I like, I tend to shower them with gifts and stuff….”

“Yes.”

“But, does giving things like that make me look ridiculous…? Or, do I look pathetic?”

“Why? Does he say something about it after taking everything?”

“…Yeah. Well… he said it was annoying because I asked for this and that while giving him things…. But, I wasn’t really expecting anything in particular when I gave him gifts….”

Even as I said that, I wasn’t so sure myself.

Did I really not expect anything?

There were times when I enjoyed the definite change in attitude whenever I gave a gift, and there were times when I induced it.

But….

“It could look ridiculous.”

“I-is that so….”

Ban-ye’s honest answer felt like something had poked me in the chest, and it hurt.

However, Ban-ye shook his head.

“But, isn’t he the one who happily took it? Even if he finds it ridiculous, it just makes him ridiculous too. If you receive something, you receive it. It’s funny that he’s running his mouth about it.”

“….”

“If he thought it would be annoying after receiving it, he shouldn’t have taken it in the first place. It just makes both the giver and the receiver feel like crap. Don’t you think?”

Ban-ye summed it up neatly.

Come to think of it, when Ban-ye received things from me, he took them if he wanted them and refused if he didn’t.

“That b@stard is just trash.”

“Uh…. W-well, that’s true, but.”

“He just doesn’t want to take responsibility for anything. So, he’s just blaming it all on you, hyung. Anyone can see it’s his fault.”

“….”

“He’s the one who’s crazy, so don’t worry about it.”

I was happy with Ban-ye’s firm words, but I was still bothered by what Sisi had said at the end.

“B-but…. isn’t it kind of annoying that I’m always talking about this stuff? Always… like… talking about Sisi, it’s st*pid, isn’t it….”

“You did it because I asked you to.”

“That…! Well, that’s true….”

I nodded at Ban-ye’s clear-cut answer.

Somehow, after organizing it like this, the gloomy and negative thoughts that had been swirling around seemed to fly away.

Ban-ye also seemed to notice that my expression had lightened up and lifted the corner of his mouth.

After that day, I completely blocked Sisi’s private messages.

The method to block private messages on the official website was a bit annoying, but I judged that I didn’t need to get hurt by his words anymore.

It was also because any lingering hope had disappeared.

However, after I blocked him, Sisi seemed to have gotten poisoned with rage and started acting even more viciously.

Instead of sending me private messages, he started showing up on Ban-ye’s YouTube channel, which was the only public window.

[xxxd: fcking idiot lol. online dating trash
l009: I wonder how much this one got?? lol
Tx2112: Ban-ye is no different, fcking piece of sh*t lol]

Hate comments and sarcastic remarks, which seemed to have been written by Sisi and former guild members, started flooding in all on the same day.

The number of dislikes also increased several times compared to before.

I felt like Ban-ye was getting hurt because of me and it bothered me, but Ban-ye didn’t seem to care about comments or public opinion and didn’t even mention it.

However, I wasn’t the only one watching Ban-ye’s YouTube.

The guild members were also subscribed to Ban-ye’s YouTube, so they seemed to have seen the strange comments.

So, today, the guild chat was noisy with talk about those people.

[Guild][HeyYam] The cursing is really bad, yam =ㅅ=
[Guild][HugMeRaiseMe] Are they sane? What’s their deal?
[Guild][HugMeRaiseMe] They’re just mindlessly cursing
[Guild][Male3] Looks like Ah-ang didn’t curse out Sisi for no reason?
[Guild][Male3] Did something happen?
[Guild][Ah-ang] A lot of bad things happened when I left the guild……
[Guild][ImSoCute] What happened?

When I was the only one getting worked up and cursing Sisi, they probably just thought I had a personal grudge, but now that several people were leaving hate comments, it seemed it was hard to just let it slide.

After hesitating, I finally explained the situation to the guild members, leaving out the part about Sisi.

[Guild][Ah-ang] Actually, I server transferred
[Guild][Ah-ang] But in that guild, I bought them stuff and things……
[Guild][Youngmyeong] So you were a pushover from the start……
[Guild][Ah-ang] I’m not a pushover
[Guild][Male3] That’s what you call a pushover, puppy lol
[Guild][Ah-ang] No, anyway;;
[Guild][Ah-ang] I mean, I would gift them things if they needed it……
[Guild][Ah-ang] But I found out they were backstabbing me behind my back, so I left the guild and transferred serversㅠ
[Guild][Ah-ang] So they probably have some bad feelings towards me

I said I wasn’t a pushover, but honestly, even I thought I was.

The guild members were silent for a moment.

Then, HeyYam was the first to ask.

[Guild][HeyYam] So what did you do before you left, yam?
[Guild][Ah-ang] ? What do you mean?
[Guild][Ah-ang] I just left
[Guild][HugMeRaiseMe] No, how could you just leave?
[Guild][Neda] Isn’t it unfair to just leave?
[Guild][ImSoCute] Besides, if it was backstabbing, it was their fault.
[Guild][HugMeRaiseMe] lol The moment I leave, it’s already their fault
[Guild][HugMeRaiseMe] Before I left the guild, I cleaned out the entire guild storage
[Guild][Ah-ang] Whoa, is that allowed?
[Guild][HeyYam] You’re leaving anyway, so why not, yam =ㅛ=

The guild members started chattering as if they couldn’t understand my reaction at all.

[Guild][Male3] In another game, I declared PvP and killed everyone before I left
[Guild][HeyYam] That’s basic, yam ㅇㅅㅇ
[Guild][Ah-ang] ?

The reasons the guild members gave for leaving their previous guilds were so shocking that I could understand our guild’s infamous reputation.

[Guild][ImSoCute] This is a different story, but I got kicked out of my previous guild
[Guild][ImSoCute] I got caught dating the guild master’s girlfriend…… ㅜ

I rubbed my eyes at the reason for his guild expulsion, which contrasted with ImSoCute’s cheerful tone.