The Competition (2)
"I think… I've been a bit lost lately. But… now I'm really going to get my head on straight and focus on what I'm trying to do. It's not some grand speech or anything—just my resolve. I just… I felt like maybe Noona and Nari have both taken some hits because of me, so I wanted to say this. Just… yeah. Haha… G-good luck with the competition! Hahaha…"
I'd started the speech with real conviction, but by the end my face was burning and I wrapped it up in a rush. Nari and Noona stared at me like I was some kind of rare specimen.
When I'd thrown out that final "good luck," I'd been hoping they'd all shout it back with me. Instead I got nothing but silence. Awkward.
"Is that it? Do more."
Huh? Zero reaction this whole time, and now she wanted more?
Maybe they'd just been listening so intently that the reaction was slow to come. Was that it?
I looked over at Nari—she was the one who'd told me to keep going. And there she was, phone in one hand, recording me on video.
"How long have you been filming…?"
"From 'I think I've been a bit lost lately…' You sounded like you were about to say something serious, so I hit record. I'll watch it whenever I'm feeling down."
Yu Nari… you really were a thug. I'd poured my heart out in earnest, and this was what she did with it!!
It felt like I'd manufactured my own blackmail material with my bare hands, and it left me a little indignant. Sure, I'd known the whole thing was cringeworthy going in—but I'd still worked up the courage to say it.
"I think Minjae's already been doing just fine. Well… maybe I only think that because I don't know the full picture."
Thankfully, Sebin-noona received my cringey resolve with warmth. And maybe, just as she'd said, the whole speech had landed as completely out of the blue for her.
Of course it would feel sudden—me suddenly baring this kind of determination. Maybe that was why she could tell me I was already doing well enough.
I still hadn't told Sebin-noona any of it, after all.
Maybe… that last line of hers had been a quiet request for me to tell her something, too. It was probably just my own projection talking, but I couldn't shake the feeling.
"Th-then how about we all do a cheer together?"
A little sheepishly, I moved my hand to the center of the desk where we were sitting.
I'd always wanted to try this at least once. That cool thing where everyone stacks their hands, lifts them together on a count, and shouts in unison.
This time, luckily, both Nari and Noona put their hands in and cheered with me.
Yeah. This was the real starting line.
It felt good. Sebin-noona didn't seem as cold as she had last time, either. Everything was back to normal.
Fired up, I took the lead on the competition.
"Noona, over the weekend I looked over the proposal you wrote and put some prep work together. Want to go through it with me?"
I said it as I slid over to her side first. Nari would handle the art just fine on her own—the place that needed attention right now was Noona's end.
I'd put together about twenty slides of material: a comparative analysis of existing games on the market against the one we were trying to make, then a breakdown of what we should take from them and where we needed to differentiate ourselves.
"Hmm… as someone who's only ever played games, there are a lot of things here I never would have picked up on. You found all of this over the weekend?"
"Yeah… honestly, looking for it was fun in itself. I couldn't wait to get to the club room and talk through all of it. So it was really interesting, I guess…"
Technically it hadn't been the whole weekend—I'd done it in a single Sunday. But I'd been so absorbed in the research that it hadn't felt like work at all.
"Did something good happen recently? Minjae, you seem like a completely different person."
At Sebin-noona's question, I felt Nari's gaze flick over to me as well. But… of course I couldn't say what it was. And was it even a good thing, exactly?
"What about you, Noona? Did something bad happen recently?"
"Huh…?"
"You've been acting cold for a while now. It's not like you…"
"Ah… I'll tell you later."
As she said it, Sebin-noona glanced sideways at Nari.
Huh…? That reaction really did sound like something had happened. I'd just tossed out a light question, and now the whole atmosphere was threatening to turn heavy. It caught me off guard.
And why check Nari's face? Was this something the two of them needed to talk about without her?
I had no idea. A casual question had come back loaded with weighty new worries.
"H-hey, you two are walking way too fast… any chance you could match my pace a little?"
Evening had settled into dusk, and we were on the walk home from the club room. Completely ignoring the state of my foot… the two of them just kept going. That was a bit much.
"Ah… right. Minjae hurt his foot."
"Just leave him, Unnie. He probably hurt himself showing off alone."
Hey… even so, that was not something you said to an injured person. Granted, I couldn't really argue with it… but still, wasn't that a little harsh? If I hadn't built up some immunity to this kind of treatment, that comment definitely would have left a mark.
"Still, he is our developer. We should look after him a little."
The only one who ever treated me with any real warmth was Sebin-noona. Expecting tenderness from Nari was a lost cause.
At the main gate, Sebin-noona split off first. Unfortunately, she lived in the complete opposite direction. Nari, as it happened, was headed the same way as me.
The two of us walked the quiet night streets. Though "together" was generous—it felt more like we were each walking alone. Nari just kept to her own usual pace the whole time.
If you're going to do that even when we're together, why walk with me at all?!
"Does it hurt a lot?"
But even Nari eventually stopped and turned around once I'd fallen far enough behind, waiting for me to catch up.
"What, deciding to play nice now?"
"……Why did you get hurt? Tell me."
Nari had been relentlessly digging at how this injury happened for a while now. Was she that curious? Earlier she'd been perfectly happy to write it off as me showing off alone.
"Like you said—I hurt myself showing off alone."
"Wow… you actually held on to that?"
I hadn't actually been holding a grudge. I'd just been trying to joke my way past the moment.
But… Nari seemed determined to hear it today. And the situation was perfect for her—I couldn't run, couldn't go dark the way I had yesterday. She had me cornered, and she knew it.
"Fine… then let's rest over there for a bit. It really hurts."
I sat down on a bench by the roadside. My foot genuinely hurt. All this walking meant the wound wasn't getting a chance to heal—it just kept getting aggravated.
"You're the one who asked, so no getting mad when you hear it, okay?"
"Why would I get mad? I just want to know."
In the end, sitting on that bench, I told her everything about that day with Seoa. It wasn't exactly a story worth bragging about, so I'd been reluctant to share it… but what choice did I have? She kept asking.
"Hmm… for real? You actually stepped on that glass and kept walking?"
"Yeah. Looking back on it now, it does seem completely insane."
Nari listened, then looked down at my foot for a long moment.
"What did you do after you drank?"
"I don't know… I don't remember much after that."
"So it's completely over with her, then?"
"Yeah. I don't even want to talk about her anymore."
"Then… you're going to work hard on the project again, like before?"
"Obviously. Didn't you hear my big resolve speech back in the club room?"
When I said I was going to throw myself into the work again, Nari smiled—a small, pleased smile, like that was exactly what she'd wanted to hear.
In her eyes, I must have looked like a complete disaster these past few weeks. The way she smiled at the sight of me pulling myself together said as much.
Or maybe… she was smiling because things were completely over with Seoa. I didn't know.
That thought had probably only surfaced because I'd wanted to assign that meaning to her smile myself.
Why would Nari smile over the fact that Seoa and I were done?
Come to think of it… why was Nari looking after me like this at all? Honestly, if I were in her position, I wouldn't have even joined the competition. Who would trust someone enough to work with them again after that person had already shattered the trust once?
"But… I've got something I'm curious about, too."
"Hm? What?"
"Why did you go along with my request? I know full well I did something unforgivable… so even if you'd turned me down when I asked you to join the competition, I wouldn't have had any right to complain."
"I don't know… feeling a little better now? Let's go. At this rate the sun'll be up before we get home."
In the end, Nari never answered my question.
That was cold.
So she got to satisfy her own curiosity and that was the end of it? I'd given her an answer—the least she could do was give me one back. That was just basic manners.
I kept the complaint to myself. Everyone had things they didn't want to share.
I wasn't sure this was something that needed hiding from me specifically… but then again, you never really know what someone else is dealing with.
"When you get home… hop on messenger. Let's work together."
"Okay."
At the fork where our paths home diverged, that was the last thing we said before parting ways.
Back in the old days, we'd worked together over messenger all the time. Not on a call—just trading messages, updating each other on progress, sharing whatever projects we'd gotten into lately.
And as Nari walked away, for once I could feel it clearly in her retreating figure—she was in high spirits.