Chapter 108: The Error of the Absolute Object

The spark of irritation immediately flared back onto the in-game Chae Un-ha. I found myself repeatedly doing meaningful, loaded things, entirely oblivious to the fact that acting this way was completely out of character for me. When Un-ha, unable to take it anymore, abruptly logged out of the game, I was left with a lingering sense of disappointment. I followed suit and logged out too. There was no point in staying on the game if Un-ha wasn’t there.

Still, what was the point of logging out like that?

Driven by that lingering discontent, my fingers moved across the screen. If I couldn’t see him in the game, I just had to see him somewhere else.

[ Na Eun-hyeok: Un-ha-ya ] [ Na Eun-hyeok: What are you doing right now? ]

I am your god, and you are my devotee. It was that easy.

Exactly as anticipated, Chae Un-ha obediently answered my call. The moment I offered him alcohol, he greedily downed it glass after glass until he was completely drunk in no time. A drunk Chae Un-ha was far closer to BlueberryWhisky than his usual self—honest, unreserved, transparent, with his inner thoughts laid entirely bare.

“Why are you laughing? Are you saying you don’t believe Na Eun-hyeok is handsome?”

“I am handsome.”

“Of course. You’re handsome. Unlike a certain someone. That absolute psychopath……”

The Chae Un-ha who idolized me.

Na Eun-hyeok had always disliked people. He despised the heavy expectations embedded within their goodwill. Every single person who approached him did so with an ulterior motive. By now, he knew the exact nature of the expectations held by those who harbored affection for him.

“Eun-hyeok-ah. You get it, right? You shouldn’t ever meet bad people.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re a good person.”

Then why on earth do you expect absolutely nothing from me?

When I thought about it, it made sense. Chae Un-ha liked me. He idolized Na Eun-hyeok. He acted completely beside himself, treating Na Eun-hyeok as if he were some precious treasure locked away in a jewelry box. A devotee worshiping a deity expects nothing in return from their god. The mere fact that the god exists is more than enough.

So perhaps this idolization was precisely the kind of relationship and distance Na Eun-hyeok had always wanted from others.

“……Ugh.”

“How am I supposed to send you home like this?”

“I can go home by myself.”

Yet that unbridgeable distance—the exact chasm created by Chae Un-ha’s complete lack of expectations…

“Un-ha-ya.”

…was something I deeply disliked.

“Let’s go to my place.”

“Huh? Your place is a bit… It’s a little much for me to go……”

“It’s just because I want to hang out some more. Please?”

The moment I curled the corners of my eyes and smiled, the intoxicated Chae Un-ha gave a soft, pliable nod. His stubborn reluctance to even step foot in my house was admirable, yet it simultaneously angered me. For no reason at all, I tightened my grip around the arm supporting him and pulled him flush against me. The sound of his shallow breaths filtering into the air was incredibly pleasant to hear.

I ushered Chae Un-ha straight into my home—a space where I had never allowed a single soul to enter. ‘Wow, your house is nice.’ The drunk Chae Un-ha merely babbled such nonsense. Na Eun-hyeok stared intently at the nape of his neck. His slightly slender, beautifully shaped neck entirely captivated his gaze.

I didn’t know how to articulate this raw, unfamiliar sensation I had never possessed before. The turbulent emotions began to form distinct words in my mind one by one. Right now, I—Na Eun-hyeok, right now—

Desperately want you to look back at me and smile just one more time.

I was harboring that exact kind of expectation.

“……Na Eun-hyeok?”

Right on cue, Chae Un-ha turned around to look at me. His pale skin, cheeks flushed red with heat, and his half-lidded eyes framed by long eyelashes utterly ensnared Na Eun-hyeok.

His heart thudded violently. It was an intensely unpleasant sensation.

A sudden alarm flared in his mind that this was dangerous.

“Un-ha-ya.”

There’s no way. Na Eun-hyeok fiercely denied everything. There was absolutely no way he could feel this type of emotion. Na Eun-hyeok falling for Chae Un-ha? It was utterly impossible. Even while sensing that the entire sequence of events leading up to this moment was entirely out of character, he forcefully hammered his cognitive dissonance into place.

Right. All of this was nothing more than playing house, a thoroughly calculated playing with fire.

“Do you want to sleep?”

I can afford to grant you at least this much, Un-ha-ya.

“What the hell.”

Na Eun-hyeok aggressively pressed the call button on his phone. The line rang repeatedly, but no one picked up. This was a complete departure from Chae Un-ha’s behavioral patterns over the past few weeks.

“What do you mean ‘what the hell’? You got dumped, obviously,” Ju Do-won added indifferently from beside him.

“Don’t talk absolute nonsense.”

“You said you told him you’re Sephiroth.”

“Probably? I didn’t say it explicitly, but I made it obvious enough for him to figure it out.”

“See? If I were that guy and found out, my stomach would be completely turning inside out. I wouldn’t want to see your face either.”

Na Eun-hyeok recalled the situation back then. After spending the night together, he had treated him the next day as if absolutely nothing had happened. Both of them had readily agreed to act as though it was nothing. And then, at the very end, he had dropped his true identity.

Revealing his identity had been an entirely impulsive act. He hadn’t intended to do it until he heard those words.

‘About last night……’ ‘Ah, don’t worry. I’ll act like it never happened.’

But the exact moment Chae Un-ha flippantly uttered those words, something deep within his chest twisted violently.

It did seem true that Chae Un-ha couldn’t accurately recall what had transpired that night. However, that didn’t mean the boy was entirely oblivious to the situation. When Un-ha was walking on eggshells with a chaotic mind, Eun-hyeok had actually felt quite pleased. It meant Chae Un-ha had picked up on last night and was completely consumed by thoughts of him. It meant he had successfully rattled Chae Un-ha once again.

Yet, for him to look up with that pale, audaciously blank face and suggest erasing everything as if it were nothing—that was absolutely not part of Na Eun-hyeok’s plan.

Is this so insignificant to you that you can just act like it never happened? It’s not like you’re completely clueless about what we did. Considering the things you whispered to me last night, you have absolutely no right to say that. You’re just going to brush this under the rug?

Fine. Great. I’m actually a little curious to see exactly how far you’ll go to brush things under the rug. A cold, involuntary smile traced his lips.

He had no intention of denying that it was a deception. He fully admitted that his motives for revealing himself as Sephiroth were entirely impure.

But. Even so.

“No, but that’s still no reason to completely dodge my calls. Don’t tell me he blocked me?”

“Why didn’t you just say it straight with your mouth? Dropping it like that sounds like nothing less than ‘take the hint and get lost,’ doesn’t it?”

“I did say it straight. And even if I did, there’s still no reason to block me.”

Ju Do-won set down the wine glass he was about to raise and stared dead at Na Eun-hyeok.

“Do you even realize what you’re saying right now?”

“Of course I do. I’m asking why the hell he blocked me.”

“You…… Forget it. Never mind.”

“Why are you stopping mid-sentence?”

“Figure it out yourself. It’s my life philosophy never to get involved in other people’s relationship counseling.”

“This isn’t relationship counseling.”

“Sure, sure.”

Glaring at Ju Do-won, who was half-heartedly brushing off his words, Na Eun-hyeok locked his eyes back onto his phone.

He had thought it was the perfect timing to gradually create some distance anyway. Bringing him to his room and spending the night together had already been a massive, impulsive whim. He had reasoned that he shouldn’t give any more mixed signals from here on out to avoid making things exhausting. Because he had kept the eventual end in mind, he hadn’t hesitated to drop the truth, fully aware that it might inflict some hurt.

But to go as far as blocking him over a trivial fact like that?

After fiddling with his phone a few more times, he slammed it down onto the table with a sharp clack.

“Whatever. It’s not even a big deal anyway. Let’s just finish the alcohol.”

“Are you really going to be okay?”

“Why wouldn’t I be okay? Just pour the wine.”

He accepted and drank the wine Do-won poured for him. It was explicitly stated to be an incredibly expensive bottle, yet strangely, it didn’t taste nearly as good as the cheap soju he had shared with Chae Un-ha just the night before.

Na Eun-hyeok forcefully reined in his sinking emotions. Ultimately, things had technically moved in the exact direction he wanted. Chae Un-ha wasn’t pathetically clinging to him, so wasn’t this a perfectly clean ending? There was zero reason for them to ever cross paths again.

Oh, wait.

“We’re still doing the assignment together, right?”

Ju Do-won looked back at Na Eun-hyeok with an expression of sheer, utter disbelief.

And it was only after logging into Zelfia completely intoxicated that Na Eun-hyeok finally realized.

[ Hidden Quest: ]

• Break the seals of the four major temples to summon the power of the gods.

• Break the Seal of the Fire Temple (0/1) [Move to Location]

• Break the Seal of the Water Temple (0/1) [Move to Location]

• Break the Seal of the Wood Temple (0/1) [Move to Location]

• Break the Seal of the Lightning Temple (0/1) [Move to Location]

There was still a reason left for him to see Chae Un-ha.

Even so, at first, he truly didn’t think it was a major issue.

“……Ha.”

Setting aside clearing the quest, he never imagined the boy wouldn’t even show up to school. Deep down, he had apparently assumed Un-ha would appear in either the game or on campus. When he stepped into the lecture hall, the exact spot where a trembling gaze used to constantly steal glances at him was completely hollowed out, leaving nothing but a stark, empty void. Sitting right next to that vacant seat were the two friends Chae Un-ha constantly hung around with. One of them briefly locked eyes with Na Eun-hyeok before immediately averting his gaze.

[ Na Eun-hyeok: Un-ha-ya. You’re coming to our Saturday appointment, right? ]

Sitting in his usual seat, he glared relentlessly at his phone. The silent device only populated his notification bar with completely unwanted messages. Although the ‘1’ indicating an unread text vanished from his message window, no reply ever came back. He had explicitly customized his settings so his phone would only vibrate when a message from Chae Un-ha arrived, but it was all utterly futile.

No, what on earth was such a big deal?

Is finding out that Na Eun-hyeok is Sephiroth really something to go this far over?

Is it because of that night? It was good, wasn’t it? If anything, shouldn’t it be something you’re thrilled about?

Huh? Un-ha-ya.

Before the unanswered questions could even bloom from the tips of his fingers, they completely dissolved into thin air. He wouldn’t answer his calls, and he wouldn’t reply to his texts, leaving him entirely powerless. He had thought their daily paths overlapped quite a bit, but a thoroughly determined Chae Un-ha had managed to vanish without a trace. Only then did he realize that their overlapping paths had been the result of someone else’s desperate, deliberate effort.

He had explicitly put an end to the game that day, yet his emotions refused to stop, churning violently inside him.

It was strange.

It was an incredibly bizarre thing.

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