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“Long time no see. Whisky? Wine?”
“Whisky.”
“Nice.”
Ju Do-won smiled as Eun-hyeok pointed at the whisky bottle in his left hand.
Do-won was an actor. They had formed a bond as child actors, and that relationship had carried them all the way here. Unlike Na Eun-hyeok, who had completely retired, Do-won had used his childhood popularity as a springboard to firmly solidify his position as a leading actor.
Do-won had started playing the game on Eun-hyeok’s recommendation. It was one of the few hobbies available to a celebrity whose face was known to the public. Having chosen a weasel character that didn’t suit him at all, Ju Do-won had climbed the ranks to become a high-level ranker under the username AngelA. Unlike Na Eun-hyeok, Do-won was widely rumored within the game to have impeccable manners. Na Eun-hyeok simply chalked it up to Do-won being an absolute piece of trash in real life.
“Take a seat.”
Beyond the expansive floor-to-ceiling windows, the night view of the Han River sparkled. Because the days were short in early spring, the hours felt like the edge of evening, yet it was already as pitch-black as the dead of night. As Eun-hyeok sat across from him at the bar counter, Ju Do-won pulled out two whisky glasses and thudded them down—one in front of himself and one in front of Eun-hyeok.
Pour. Watching the amber liquid fill his glass with a detached look, Eun-hyeok spoke first.
“There’s a hidden quest in Zelfia.”
“I saw you running around with that newbie. Did you actually satisfy the hidden quest conditions?”
“Yeah. Remember that strategy I came up with a long time ago? He did exactly that.”
“A diamond in the rough, then. Is it a long hidden quest?”
“I’m not entirely sure yet, but it seems like it.”
“You’re going to be hanging around that newbie for quite a while.”
“Probably. But he likes me.”
Haha. Thudding the whisky bottle down onto the table, Ju Do-won let out a chuckle.
“You really need to drop this absolute certainty that everyone is destined to love you. It’s only been what, a day or two since you met?”
“He’s my classmate.”
“Huh?”
“We go to the same school.”
Having said his piece, Na Eun-hyeok lifted his glass and downed the whisky in a single, fluid gulp. The burning sensation as it slid down his throat felt incredibly clean.
“Does he know you’re from the same school?”
“Doesn’t seem like it. His attitude is completely night and day.”
“Are you going to tell him?”
“No. It’d just be a nuisance while doing the hidden quest.”
Another glass was emptied in short order. Ju Do-won didn’t particularly try to stop Na Eun-hyeok from drinking the whisky like water. Instead, he quietly refilled the glass for a third time.
“Will it be okay?”
“Of course it’s fine.”
“Not you. Him.”
“Who cares.”
“True. He’ll probably never find out anyway. Your fake persona is no joke.”
Na Eun-hyeok let out a sharp smirk. The twisted corner of his lips refused to come down. Lowering his gaze, he stared blankly at the edge of the bar counter. For a brief moment, the image of the person he had just encountered in Zelfia felt like it was blurring right before his eyes.
“Though I am a little curious to see what he’d do if he found out.”
“Just admit it already, your personality has gotten seriously twisted.”
“It just makes me wonder what on earth he’s going to do next.”
Chae Un-ha was a classmate who couldn’t even meet his eyes in front of him, leaving him as nothing more than a faint, blurry memory. Even his voice was hazy. Why is it so faint? Have we ever even had a proper conversation? He found it mildly puzzling, but it was the kind of relationship that wasn’t even worth the effort of digging through his memories for.
On the other hand, BlueberryWhisky talked back to him at every single turn. He seemed gentle on the surface, but he possessed a strangely stubborn streak. Seeing how the guy would endlessly curse at him and huff in frustration, it certainly didn’t look like he harbored any goodwill toward him.
Well, considering I slaughtered him the literal second I laid eyes on him, it’d actually be terrifying if he did harbor goodwill.
“I’m thinking about letting him know.”
“Hey. Why are you being like this to a guy who clearly likes you?”
“It’s just ridiculous. In reality, he likes me so much he can’t even look me in the eye, but inside the game, he fires back with a curse word every time I open my mouth.”
“That’s obviously because he doesn’t know it’s you.”
“Yeah. It’s obvious, but it’s still hilarious.”
This guy is completely hopeless, Do-won muttered under his breath, his voice cutting through clearly. Seeing how a laugh slipped out even after hearing that, Eun-hyeok seemed to find the situation genuinely entertaining. The sharp outer corners of Na Eun-hyeok’s eyes crinkled beautifully. Beneath his thick, dark eyelashes, his shining pupils gleamed with pure mischief.
“It wouldn’t be any fun if I told him right away, so I think I might try to get a bit closer to him first.”
“You already made up your mind before you came over, didn’t you?”
“You know how it is, Hyung. Getting close to people is easy. All it takes is a smile like this a couple of times, and they fall right into place.”
Letting out a heavy sigh, Ju Do-won shook his head from side to side. Na Eun-hyeok rose from his seat, leaving him behind. Lifting his whisky glass, he turned his body toward the floor-to-ceiling window. A fragment of the glittering city night view was captured inside the small glass holding the amber liquid.
“I’m just curious. To see how it all turns out.”
“I honestly feel bad for the guy.”
“Are you going to stop me?”
“If you were the type to listen to me when I try to stop you, I would have stopped you a long time ago.”
“You’re the only one who gets me, Hyung.”
Ju Do-won was one of the very few people to whom Na Eun-hyeok—who didn’t even trust his own parents—could speak comfortably. Cut the insincere crap. Do-won grumbled in the background, but Eun-hyeok simply ignored him.
Staring out at the vast, glowing ocean of the city, he pictured Chae Un-ha. The faintly-impressed, delicately-featured man wasn’t the type to go around posting things like, ‘Exposing the truth about child actor Na Eun-hyeok.’ That alone was more than enough.
Chae Un-ha flatly rejected his offer to do a group project together. At first, it caught him off guard, but seeing the behavior that followed, it was glaringly obvious that the boy still liked him. And why the hell did he suddenly say he isn’t playing Zelfia anymore? He inwardly scoffed at the clumsy lie.
He wasn’t pathetic enough to ask to do a group project twice. Instead, he paid a visit to the teaching assistant for the ‘Introduction to Stocks, Bonds, and Derivatives’ lecture. They were on casual, nodding terms, having been introduced through a mutual acquaintance. The kind of relationship where the TA would occasionally send messages suggesting they grab a drink, and Eun-hyeok would reply saying they should catch up later.
“Sunbae.”
Buried behind a battered wooden desk in the TA office—which was labeled as the first floor but was practically a semi-basement—the assistant lifted his head. Wearing round glasses and clutching at his own hair, the TA initially wore an irritated, snappy expression as if demanding to know who was interrupting him. However, the moment he confirmed it was Na Eun-hyeok, his face softened instantly as if the irritation had never existed.
“Eun-hyeok-ah! Long time no see. What brings you here? I can grab lunch with you right after I finish this up real quick.”
“I’m sorry, I’ve already eaten. More importantly, I actually have a small favor to ask regarding the group assignments.”
“Ah……”
The TA looked visibly disappointed. Naturally, Eun-hyeok pretended not to notice. Learning how to cleanly ignore the affection and goodwill directed toward him was a skill Na Eun-hyeok had spent a very long time mastering.
“Sure. What kind of favor?”
“If there isn’t a specific group he requested, could you please place me in the same team as a friend named Chae Un-ha?”
“Just the two of you?”
“Yes.”
“Ah, I see. A male student? You two must be close.”
“Yeah. Something like that.”
“Got it. Do you have any plans for dinner tonight?”
“I’m sorry, I have somewhere I need to be. Thank you for taking care of the favor.”
“Right…… Can’t be helped, then.”
Na Eun-hyeok left the TA’s lingering, disappointed confirmation behind. If the assistant had any shred of social awareness, he would realize Eun-hyeok was deliberately keeping his distance. However, Na Eun-hyeok also knew full well that the assistant wouldn’t be able to treat him coldly because of it. Drawing a sharp, definitive line while leaving a microscopic shred of hope that they might get closer—Na Eun-hyeok was exceptionally good at that.
When he logged into Zelfia later that day, Chae Un-ha looked notably more distracted and troubled than usual. It was glaringly obvious that it was because of him—because of Na Eun-hyeok. He intentionally threw out a loaded comment to test the waters. ‘There’s someone I’m curious about, but he might hate me.’ It was a statement that would have left the boy completely beside himself had he known exactly who ‘I’ and ‘someone I’m curious about’ referred to. Seeing him blindly blurt out, ‘Why would anyone hate you?’ in return was thoroughly amusing.
“No. A one-sided crush.”
When Un-ha tried to offer relationship advice all on his own, only to suddenly let out a sigh and confess that he was harboring a one-sided crush himself, Eun-hyeok had a remarkably difficult time holding back his laughter. He suppressed the urge to chuckle with the strict discipline of an actor determined not to ruin a take. The moment the boy revealed that the target of his affection was a college friend, the 99% probability instantly solidified into a 100% absolute certainty.
Right, Chae Un-ha. You literally like me.
Perhaps it was a bit of a shame. If BlueberryWhisky hadn’t turned out to be Chae Un-ha—if he had just been a regular, skilled player passing through—Na Eun-hyeok and BlueberryWhisky might have forged a much more straightforward relationship. After all, Na Eun-hyeok legitimately appreciated BlueberryWhisky’s gameplay, and he genuinely enjoyed running through the hidden quest line with him. While clearing the Doltec’s Castle quest together, he had found himself genuinely impressed by BlueberryWhisky’s precise mechanics all over again. To the point where he forcefully demanded a low-level character with practically zero damage output to join the frontline battle.
But, unfortunately, BlueberryWhisky was Chae Un-ha.
And because of that, Na Eun-hyeok found Chae Un-ha a tiny bit ridiculous.
Actually, a whole lot of ridiculous.
The following day, the group assignments for the Stocks, Bonds, and Derivatives lecture were officially posted. Just as the TA had promised, he was placed in the exact same group as Chae Un-ha. Approaching Un-ha while he was sitting with his friends at the student cafeteria, Eun-hyeok casually broke the news that they were partners. Watching the boy’s eyes widen like a startled rabbit as he completely failed to hide his sheer panic was, once again, mildly entertaining. To think all of this fuss was over something so trivial.
He successfully obtained Chae Un-ha’s phone number. Just before the lecture commenced, as if merely trying to kill some idle waiting time, he fired off a text to the newly acquired number.
[ Na Eun-hyeok: I look forward to working with you, Un-ha-ya ^^ ]
It was the exact same cookie-cutter message he had sent to countless other people. The reply didn’t come immediately. It was only after the lecture had already progressed a fair bit that the long-awaited response finally arrived. Sliding open the notification beneath the flashing blue LED light, he read:
[ Chae Un-ha: I look forward to working with you too (´꒳`) ]
What kind of emoticon is this……
He could swear on his life that he had never used such an emoticon once in his entire existence. Was the boy naturally the type to enjoy using text faces like this? If he thought about it, BlueberryWhisky certainly didn’t use emoticons like this in the game. Since the BlueberryWhisky inside Zelfia seemed to align much more closely with Chae Un-ha’s actual raw personality, it felt safe to assume that this was nothing more than an anomalous behavior triggered strictly by his presence.
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