Chapter 41: First Meetings and Familiar Faces.

A living hell unfolds in Seoul during rush hour.

Not in the sense of gates suddenly opening in the sky and monsters pouring out, but a living hell in the sense that there are so many cars that a hellish traffic jam unfolds on the roads.

Even those with their own cars seriously consider using public transportation because they don’t want to experience this completely blocked-up congestion that is Seoul during rush hour.

In the first place, Yu Sieun and I didn’t have cars at all, so there was only one way to get to the restaurant in Seoul where the after-party was being held.

That was the reason I was now sitting with Yu Sieun in the waiting area of the train station, waiting for our departure time.

“I feel like it’s going to be so strange to see the team members later. It feels so odd meeting other streamers in real life.”

“Is that so…. I’m a little curious about what Hayan-nim looks like, even if I don’t care about Hyungyeok-nim.”

Yu Sieun was sitting right next to me, but from the time we first met a few minutes ago until now, although we were talking, I had hardly looked at her.

It was because it was visually overwhelming.

The number of times I had met Yu Sieun in real life until now, excluding today, was a total of three times.

Once during the conditions negotiation.

Once when we drank alcohol at my house.

Once yesterday, during the Ha Eunsol outfit rescue operation.

Come to think of it, I had never seen Yu Sieun in a state where she’d put effort into her appearance during these three meetings.

It seemed like she had matched the photo I had taken and sent for our first meeting, and after that, the other two times we had met when we had become comfortable with each other.

But Yu Sieun, who had prepared to go to the team after-party now, was a little different.

I would have to say it was to the point where my cheeks would heat up if I kept looking at her.

Yu Sieun had told me yesterday that she had chosen clothes for me according to her taste, and Yu Sieun, who had come wearing clothes with a similar vibe to that, was also very much to my liking.

There was one thing that Yu Sieun and I had in common.

Both of us, if we made an appointment, prepared with plenty of time to spare so that we wouldn’t be late, no matter what happened.

Yu Sieun and I, who were traveling a long distance, moved quite quickly compared to the time the restaurant was reserved.

“We arrived a little early.”

“I know, right? Still, I think we can sit around there. We’ll only have to wait for about 20 minutes….”

However, when the journey consisting of high-speed rail, subways, and walking ended, it did not include any unexpected situations.

Fortunately, the restaurant where the after-party was being held had a space like a waiting area, so we didn’t have to move our seats elsewhere and wait for the group.

“Oh? Crinex-nim and Hyungyeok-nim have arrived. They said they’re inside. I was looking at the entrance, but I must have missed them.”

Yu Sieun, who had been periodically checking her phone, informed me of the arrival of the other members about 10 minutes before the appointment time of 6 o’clock.

Yu Sieun and I got up from our seats and went inside the restaurant.

We told the employee the name of the person who made the reservation, and followed the employee who said they would guide us to the room, finally standing in front of the door of a room.

Crinex and Hyungyeok, who had arrived earlier, should be inside.

I didn’t feel anything special about meeting streamers. Since they’re just people, I could think of them that way unless they turned on their broadcasts.

The part that made me nervous was that I would be facing new people in a new reality.

I knew what Crinex and Yeonggirong looked like since they do camera broadcasts, but in the case of Hayan and Hyungyeok, who are no-cam broadcasters, they were people whom ordinary people wouldn’t have a chance to see the faces of.

And I was a little nervous about how they would see me as well.

I took a shallow breath and carefully opened the door.

As expected, two people were sitting in the room.

I could tell right away who was who.

The person who looked like a nice-looking man in his mid-30s would be Crinex, so the person sitting next to him would be Challenger jungler Hyungyeok.

Perhaps because the door had been opened, the two people were also looking this way.

Hyungyeok had even made eye contact with me.

Hyungyeok, looking a bit startled and then turning his gaze from me, soon warmly greeted us with Crinex.

“Oh my, you must be Sieun-nim and Soleun-nim? Nice to meet you. I’m Crinex.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m Hyungyeok.”

Like I had, the two also seemed to have recognized who we were right away.

Considering that Yu Sieun and I hadn’t made any sounds yet, I thought it was possible they had inferred our identities from the fact that two women had arrived together.

In the midst of the momentary surge of tension, it suddenly crossed my mind that if I asked them to guess which of the two of us was EunSiyu without saying a word, I might have a fun story to tell on the broadcast later, when I was talking about this get-together.

However, Yu Sieun, of course, was quicker to return the greeting, and I followed suit, greeting them as well.

Park Hayan and Yeonggirong, who were members who hadn’t arrived yet when Yu Sieun and I entered the room, appeared in turn about two minutes after I sat down.

“Hello, this is Yeonggirong.”

“Hello! I’m Hayan.”

It was a moment when one of the purposes for which I had attended this after-party was achieved once again.

‘Oh…?’

In the case of Yeonggirong, who was in charge of top on Team Crinex, I knew what he looked like since he had lived the life of a professional gamer.

But Park Hayan was someone I was seeing for the first time in all of my memories.

It was an experience that couldn’t help but be fascinating, so my gaze naturally gravitated towards Park Hayan.

That was how Park Hayan and I made eye contact.

Similar to what had happened between me and Hyungyeok a little while ago.

But, in my case, instead of being flustered by making eye contact and turning away, I greeted the two people who had just come in.

A little while later, after sitting down, Park Hayan, who was sitting between Yu Sieun and me, said that she had immediately recognized which of us was Sieun unni and which was me.

“…You knew right away?”

“Yes. I got a feeling as soon as our eyes met. I thought, ‘This person must be Sieun unni, and this person must be Soleun-nim.'”

I thought I knew what Park Hayan was talking about.

Even if we were dressed in a similar style, if you looked at the person Yu Sieun and the person Ha Eunsol, there would be a difference in the aura that the people themselves exuded.

“I was also able to recognize which of you was Hayan-nim right away.”

“But I came in with Yeonggirong-nim…!”

“I think I would have recognized you even if you had come in with someone else. You’re really similar to how I had imagined you would be.”

“How did you imagine I would be?”

“Hmm…. A kind person?”

“…That’s a compliment, right?”

The non-face-to-face disciple Park Hayan was a person with a look similar to the vibe I had felt during the broadcast and coaching.

I would have to say it was like a kind and pure-looking freshman college student character had been transported into reality.

Park Hayan had a voice and mannerisms that radiated bright purity.

If she had had blonde hair and tanned skin, I would have felt cognitive dissonance, but thanks to the fact that she was almost exactly like the image I had imagined, there was no sense of incongruity between her real appearance and her appearance as I knew it through the internet.

To that extent, I had finished synchronizing the images of the streamers I had seen on the internet with the people I was now facing in reality.

It was an easy task since I only had to do the synchronization for Park Hayan and Hyungyeok, and in the first place, I didn’t have anything that could be called a deep relationship with them.

But not everyone in the room had the same conditions as me.

Just looking at Park Hayan, the number of people whose appearances she was learning for the first time had swelled to three: me, Yu Sieun, and Hyungyeok.

Even internet streamers, for whom streaming is a profession, are still people.

Even for people who are friendly with each other on the internet, it seemed there was a difficulty in talking and laughing without any awkwardness from the very first time they met in reality.

It was a phenomenon that usually appeared in gatherings of guilds from various online games.

However, since it was a common situation, the solution was simple.

“Well then, now that everyone’s here, shall we order first?”

Since ancient times, alcohol and food have been what smooth over conversations between people who haven’t met in a long time, or who are seeing each other for the first time.

In the case of this restaurant, it wasn’t just alcohol and food, but also fairly expensive alcohol and food that were being served, so it didn’t take long for the five internet streamers, who had been through thick and thin together for three weeks, to shake off the awkwardness and recover their usual tension.

People who had won the finals a few days ago.

Since no one had done a broadcast since then, the five streamers hadn’t had a chance to talk about their memories from the LoL Team Tournament yet.

The flow of the conversation naturally flowed in that direction, so I, too, who shared those common memories, was able to naturally join the flow.