The Competition (4)
Lately, every day had been enjoyable.
Nothing interrupted me, and nothing tormented me. Maybe this was simply what a normal life was supposed to look like—but it had been quite some time since I'd last been able to enjoy living this way.
Ordinary days, flowing by one after another, felt special enough that I almost couldn't believe them.
It was even a little frightening. Wasn't a quiet stretch of daily life like this just the calm before some massive wave?
Work in the club room progressed smoothly every day, and I felt myself growing closer to both Nari and Sebin noona.
It seemed like… I was finally making some truly ordinary friends.
The only thing that kept a little tension in the air was the fact that we were still in the middle of the competition. And somehow, we'd ended up in a situation where we had to compete against a team of seniors from our own department.
It wasn't official or anything—but I'd decided that was how it was, and I stayed conscious of it.
I couldn't lose to the team that had tried to snatch Nari away from me. I wanted to prove I could get better results than those seniors. I wanted to show Nari, too… that choosing to be on my team had been the right decision.
With that mindset, I planted my own little stimuli into this peaceful daily life to keep the edge alive. Every time I threw myself into the work—even during class—I was thinking about what to implement today, or what Sebin noona and I should build together next.
"You don't even need to be told anymore—you just bring coffee on your own now?"
"Yeah… I've got your preferences memorized by now. Might as well grab one for you while I'm at it."
That was the kind of exchange we had as I met up with Nari and headed for the club room again today.
It was just another piece of the everyday routine. But today had a slightly special event. In my bag… was the wrist guard I was going to give Nari.
Anyone watching might think I was just another guy who'd fallen for a girl and was playing the sucker again. Well… I'd done pretty much the same thing with Seoa—buying her gifts out of nowhere on my own.
Looked at that way, there was no helping it. That was the only way I knew how to express my fondness. It was the only method I had.
And besides, it wasn't a gift loaded purely with my selfish feelings. I had a perfectly good reason. We were on the same team… thinking about a teammate's health was only natural.
"I've got something else for you today besides coffee."
"Huh? What is it?"
"This… so you can keep drawing pretty pictures for a long time."
Feeling awkwardly self-conscious, I pulled the wrist guard out of my bag and held it out to Nari.
Nari took it with a somewhat dazed reaction. And for a while, an awkward air hung between us.
Ah… did I jump the gun too hard? What is this atmosphere?
I walked on with that worry in my heart. I'd given her a gift and instead of feeling proud, I was fretting like this.
"Thanks. I'll use it well. My wrist has been kind of bothering me lately, actually…"
"Yeah. I just didn't want anything to mess up the work."
Since Nari's reaction to the gift had been a little ambiguous, I had to make it clear that I hadn't had any weird intentions. It was a somewhat pathetic thing to say, but… I needed to put her at ease.
"When did you buy it?"
"I don't know. I didn't put much thought into it, so I don't even remember."
"Mm…. Anyway, thanks. You bought it because you were thinking of me."
It had been a wrist guard I'd put a great deal of thought into buying, but I had to say it that way.
Was this another case of me being too timid? Was this another thing I needed to fix about myself?
I didn't know. Even if it was, I didn't think I could change this side of myself overnight. Or rather—if Nari had lit up with gratitude from the start, I never would have delivered a line that made it sound like I'd bought it and handed it over without a care.
It was because her reaction had been so ambiguous.
But before long, that same Nari was tearing open the packaging and slipping the wrist guard straight onto her wrist. She turned it this way and that, made little drawing motions as if testing how it felt.
Right in front of my eyes, she looked like she genuinely liked it.
Maybe… she'd been bothered by how poorly she'd managed her expression at first, and was trying to show her gratitude belatedly.
Or maybe… once she realized there was no private feeling attached to the gift, she could finally accept it without worry.
Either way, both were baseless guesses on my part—but one of them was probably right.
At this rate, will I ever really be able to convey my feelings to someone?
Once we arrived at the club room, we went back to exchanging opinions as usual and started working together.
"Noona, now that we've gone with a turn-based system, wouldn't it actually fit the concept better if we have the cute animals get brutally killed piece by piece? What do you think?"
"Oh… I like that. So instead of real-time combat, we focus on the presentation while facing one enemy at a time? Then should we go full grotesque?"
"Uh, how so?"
"Hmm… like cutting off a cute rabbit's ears one by one… or when a rabbit that was hopping high on both legs has one leg cut off, the jump distance shrinks—that kind of detail. Losing its balance and falling over."
"Ah… Noona, you haven't actually experienced something like that, have you?"
"Come on, of course not. I just think it'd feel more satisfying to play… and I'd be curious what it would look like if you only cut off this part."
In this area, Noona had ideas I never would have imagined. The kind of thoughts you could only have with pure curiosity and interest.
Well, we'd already decided to make this kind of game. Her suggestions were honestly brilliant ideas.
So I just started marveling. It felt like we were really making something incredible.
Anyway, once I laid out the big framework and set the direction, Noona would start weaving her own detailed opinions into it. That was how we were able to keep the work flowing smoothly.
"What? That's way too cruel. These are characters I put so much work into… and now I have to draw them torn to shreds like that?"
Nari still didn't seem to have fully accepted our approach, but for all her complaining, she was still the one who ended up drawing it.
And of course I understood where she was coming from—but the only thing I could tell her was to let it go. We'd started this knowing what kind of game it was, hadn't we?
"Hey, Nari, what's that on your hand? I haven't seen that before."
"Ah… yeah. Minjae gave it to me. He said he was scared something would go wrong with the work, so he got it for me—though he could've said it a little nicer when he handed it over."
Nari answered Sebin noona's question while stroking the wrist guard with one hand. I'd wanted to give it to her with nicer words too. But if I'd said it that way, she would have freaked out and refused it because it felt like too much pressure!
Still, I was relieved she seemed to be using it properly. If she'd accepted it and then just left it unused and neglected, that would have really hurt.
After that, the work continued for a while longer.
"I'm heading out first today. Sorry—! You two hold down the club room for me!"
Nari left those words behind and headed out. She seemed to have plans. Thinking about her usual image, she was probably pretty busy even outside the club. Lots of friends looking for her… she was a total social butterfly, after all.
Just showing up to the club this regularly to work with us was already pretty impressive.
"When are you planning to leave, Minjae?"
"Hmm… I'll go with you, Noona. It's been a while since it was just the two of us."
"You're right. It really has been a while."
Yeah, it really had been a long time. Being left alone together in the quiet club room like this. Back then, I'd spend time in the club room with Sebin noona and find healing in it. Thinking about those days, I could feel how much the atmosphere had changed. Not just this space—me, and Noona too.
Noona had grown a lot since then. She'd used to struggle just with coding a simple game, but now she was pulling her weight as a proper member of a development team.
And me… back then I'd been a complete mess because of Seoa, but I wasn't like that anymore.
"I never thought Nari would start being active in the club again."
"Really? But why did Nari join the club and then never show up?"
"Hmm… I'm not sure? From what I know, that was right when she was drawing at home a lot. There was someone who'd finally gotten her art recognized in the industry, and she got the chance to work with that person again. So she holed up at home for a while and just kept working with them. She didn't even want to spare the time to come to the club. She already had someone to work with, so she didn't need to do anything at the club. I don't know all the details, but that's what I heard."
Wait… is she talking about me? Thinking about it, I was the one who'd discovered amateur Nari and gotten her debuted in the industry, and I'd also been the one who'd asked her to work together again after that.
And then the project we'd started together had fallen apart because of my stupid mistake…
Hearing that made me feel even more sorry. Just how badly had I wronged Nari?
"Ah… I see. Haha…"
I just gave an awkward laugh. I couldn't be sure, but it sounded like it was about me. And the reason Sebin noona could say something like that to me was… because she didn't know what kind of relationship Nari and I had actually had.
Thinking about it that way, I was really hiding a lot from Noona. I'd leaned on her so much, and yet I hadn't told her anything.
"But Minjae, you and Nari seem to get along really well."
"Huh…?"
"Just a feeling. You also seemed pretty happy that Nari came back to the club."
"Ah… that's because, well, if we're going to enter the competition, we need talent like that, right? So…"
"Yeah. I know. I get what you're saying."
The atmosphere had gotten a little strange. Noona was saying these things without showing any particular emotion, but that only made it more unsettling. Normally her words always carried warmth and kindness.
But now her tone was completely flat. Cold, even. When someone who always spoke so warmly suddenly talked like this, it felt even colder. Like she was angry.
Because of that, I couldn't casually say anything. Noona just quietly kept working on her laptop.
The club room froze over for a moment.
"I liked it better when it was just the two of us."
"Huh…?"
"Mm, never mind. Just forget I said that."
Um…? Noona definitely just said she liked it better when it was just the two of us, right?
What on earth did she mean by that? Was that something I was even allowed to hear? Did Noona not like Nari very much?
What if… she was trying to pull me onto her side, and then trash-talk Nari with me later?
That couldn't happen. That would be the absolute worst development while we were working as a team together.
Better to just pretend I hadn't heard it, like Noona said, and move on.
"Actually, there was something I wanted to say…"
"Yes?"
But Noona didn't stop there. She kept going in that meaningful tone. In this situation, a line like that was enough to make my heart shrink. What did she want to say? What was about to happen?
Honestly, I was terrified of hearing it. Considering everything leading up to this… of course I was.
Noona took her hands off the laptop she'd been absently tapping at, and opened her mouth.