Chapter 142

His voice sounded genuinely thrown.

Wait, how did he notice me?

Yeonhoo wondered how Kwon had even realized he’d logged in with everything going on, only to see Kwon’s character looking straight at him.

Oh. He saw me.

Apparently, Miu had been about to move to another set of coordinates when Yeonhoo happened to be standing right in his path.

—Yeonhoo, why are you here....

He {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} sounded so flustered he’d even forgotten he was supposed to pretend he didn’t know 0momo0 was Yeonhoo.

Yeonhoo’s lips automatically pushed into a pout.

what;; is it really THAT shocking that im here????22.gif

Was he being overly sensitive for hearing it as What are you doing here?

Yeonhoo was just about to type that out like a challenge when a particularly noticeable male voice cut in.

—What? Never seen that person before... They’re in the call room too.

At the same time, a Judicator named Tweezers poked his head out from beside Miu.

Yeonhoo had never met him before.

—You’re low-level too. What are you doing standing around over there? Got time to kill? I’ll ping you some coordinates, so go replenish resources. We’re busy as hell here. You shouldn’t need someone giving you orders for something this basic....

The guy rattled off a rapid-fire lecture in a voice worn ragged from the long Siege War.

Yeonhoo erased the message he’d been about to send Kwon.

Well, everyone else is busy fighting a Siege War. I probably do look like I’m the only one screwing around.

sure where should I go22.gif

Yeonhoo was about to comply when—

—I don’t like your tone.

Kwon spoke without warning.

The call room instantly fell silent at the chill in his voice.

—...You mean mine?

—Yes. Your tone, Tweezers.

Yeonhoo figured Kwon must have found the guy’s cocky way of talking irritating. He was still wondering where exactly he was supposed to move when Kwon continued.

—Momo doesn’t like being spoken to that way.

...Why was his name suddenly coming up?

Yeonhoo, who had been half-listening as though this had nothing to do with him, froze.

The entire call room went dead quiet for a beat before GoodLuck stepped in.

—Yeah. Tweezers, this is your first time meeting Momo, right? Momo and Miu are... pretty close in a lot of ways~.

Thanks to GoodLuck’s intervention, the startled Tweezers hurriedly answered.

—...Oh, you’re friends! Yes! Got it, Miu! I’ll be careful!

—Sorry!

Not only had the swagger vanished from his voice, he was even using a repeated bowing interaction.

Yeonhoo was wondering whether he should tell him he really didn’t need to go that far when a whisper from Kwon appeared.

(Whisper) Miu: Momo

Then another.

(Whisper) Miu: Talk to me for a minute.

The instant Yeonhoo saw the messages, his heart seemed to drop.

What does he want to talk about?

For some reason, he got scared.

He couldn’t bring himself to answer and just stared blankly at the screen when—

Ding.

Suddenly, everything around him went quiet.

Only after a moment did he check the call room.

Participants (2/2) (Private 2/2)

⦁Miu voice.png

⦁0momo0 mute.png

At some point, he’d been moved into a new room with just the two of them.

What the hell is this?

He hadn’t joined this room!

He had definitely been sitting quietly in the biggest raid room above, just listening!

—We have something to talk about.

And Kwon pressed the bewildered Yeonhoo to have the conversation.

—Yeonhoo.

Even calling him by name.

What do I do?

Hearing that, Yeonhoo finally realized he couldn’t avoid this anymore. His fingers fidgeted uselessly with the microphone he hadn’t even connected.

He wanted to talk to Kwon too.

That was why he’d come home intending to change clothes and head right back out, only for the game to delay him.

But now that we’re actually going to talk, I have no idea how to start.

Should he say that he remembered that night now?

That he was sorry for forgetting all this time?

And I wanted to tell you that somewhere along the way... I started caring about you, Kwon Mieon.

But....

This was the same guy who looked disgusted by the mere thought of Yeonhoo getting together with someone in his family.

Would remembering that night really change anything?

We both lost our tempers so badly last time... What if talking just makes things worse?

More than anything, Yeonhoo was afraid.

He had never been the sort to cling tightly to relationships, yet the thought that talking to Kwon might push things in an even worse direction scared him enough that he couldn’t make himself speak.

—I was jealous that day.

Kwon was the one who broke the silence first.

The sudden word jealous put a question mark on Yeonhoo’s face.

Kwon had been jealous?

Of who?

Yeonhoo almost blurted the question out on reflex, only to freeze at what came next.

—Because you like Kang Miyoung.

So the reason Kwon had gotten angry was....

—And not me.

...because Yeonhoo liked Kang Miyoung instead of him?

You seriously... like Kang Miyoung that fucking much? You’re losing your mind because she said she wants me to introduce you? You’re that excited? That crazy about it?

Suddenly, Yeonhoo remembered Kwon’s words and expressions from a few days earlier.

At the time, he’d been too bewildered by Kwon suddenly blowing up at him to pay close attention to the look on his face.

You think I wouldn’t feel fucking awful? You two are crazy about each other. You think I’m supposed to feel fine watching that?

But now that he thought about it, it had been strange.

If Kwon hated the idea of Yeonhoo and Kang Miyoung getting together that badly, he could have simply thrown Yeonhoo out.

You and Kang Miyoung look fucking terrible together.

Instead, he’d only gotten angry.

Kang Miyoung says one thing and you make that face? You want me to introduce you to her that badly? Huh? I say one thing about you two not matching and you want to cry because you’re that desperate to get with her....

...If anything, hadn’t Kwon stopped him when he tried to leave?

So Kwon really got angry because he was jealous of Ms. Miyoung?

Yeonhoo’s expression turned strange.

All this time, he had thought Kwon was disgusted because some woman-crazy bastard like him liked Kang Miyoung.

But all of that had been jealousy?

Jealousy.

Yeonhoo rolled the word around in his head, then opened a search bar.

He knew what it meant.

He just suddenly wanted to see the exact definition.

The first definition that came up was:

Excessive envy or resentment when someone you like is interested in another person.

Someone you like.

Interested in another person.

Yeonhoo blinked at that part.

Strangely, all the anxiety and nervousness that had been eating at him moments ago vanished.

His chest began to tingle instead.

The corners of his mouth twitched for no reason as he connected his mic.

“....”

—....

Even after he connected it and unmuted himself, Kwon didn’t react.

Maybe after saying all that, he’d gone blank for a moment himself.

“Ahem. Hm.”

Yeonhoo broke the silence.

—...Yeonhoo!

The moment he made enough noise to announce his presence, Kwon finally reacted.

He called Yeonhoo’s name with obvious delight, then immediately started firing off questions.

—What have you been doing all this time? Have you been okay? Did you hear everything I just said? How are you feeling? Why did you cough just now? Are you sick? Is something—

The more question after question came flying at him, the harder Yeonhoo had to fight the corners of his mouth.

He tried to rein himself in.

It wasn’t working.

“Mm....”

He made an effort to stay calm.

Even though this wasn’t a video call and Kwon couldn’t see his face, Yeonhoo still tried to force down the smile pulling at his eyes.

After clearing his throat again and considering what to say, he started with the thing that had bothered him most.

“Why didn’t you contact me?”

Not even once, after they had grown so distant.

—You told me not to.

That answer was so unexpected Yeonhoo stared.

“What? When did I ever say that!”

—You said if I contacted you, you’d never see me again....

“No way. I wouldn’t have....”

Still denying it, Yeonhoo went back over his memory of leaving Kwon’s apartment.

Then he flinched as his own warning finally resurfaced.

Just try contacting me. I’ll never see you again.

Right.

He really had said that.

He had completely forgotten about it.

But instead of feeling embarrassed, Yeonhoo was dumbfounded.

“I told you not to, so you actually didn’t? Are you stupid?”

The fact that Kwon had taken him literally was even more ridiculous.

“You practically forced your way into getting my Starstagram ID when I didn’t even have a Korean number, and now, of all times, you suddenly decide not to be shameless?”

—That was... Wait. Yeonhoo.

“What? Seriously, I didn’t even remember saying that, so when you never contacted me, I thought you’d actually cut me off. You really are....”

—You remember exchanging Starstagram IDs with me?