Die for Me

(Die for me.)

(…What?)

Yoon Jia was certain she had misheard.

For the first time, her face twisted into something other than a pout — a genuine scowl — as she strained to catch the whisper in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠her ear.

And then the line she thought she had imagined came again, clear as day.

(Give me a kill.)

(What… are you…)

Yoon Jia sat there, dumbfounded, yet she understood exactly what Go Chungshin wanted. Since killing the Plunderer himself was impossible, he intended to farm his stats by killing her instead.

She understood it. And she couldn't understand it at all.

She understood the hunger to win. It was a game, after all — dying and killing carried no real weight. But even granting that, she could not wrap her head around the words that had just left his mouth. Even in a game, was die for me really something a boyfriend should say to his girlfriend?

Every instinct she had screamed at her to quit right then, rip off the VR Headgear, and hurl it across the room.

But spite rose up instead.

Fine. Let's see how far this freak show goes.

She clamped a lid of reason over the irritation boiling up inside her and gave him her answer.

(Okay…)

(Stop fretting over nothing and get over here already!)

(…)

In Yoon Jia's eyes, Go Chungshin had already lost his mind.

She glanced toward the Plunderer. He was scanning their surroundings, yet every arrow still found Chungshin with surgical precision, chipping away at him. He paid no mind to her mistakes at all — just kept chatting with her, playing the game as if he had all the time in the world.

"Come to think of it, doesn't that guy look familiar? I feel like I've seen him a few times."

"Ah… y-yeah, I think so."

"The username's so unique I only just noticed it."

"Haha…"

Yoon Jia's heart hammered as she wrestled with herself.

To the Plunderer, Go Chungshin was nothing more and nothing less than a game opponent. Meanwhile Chungshin had fire in his eyes, so desperate to beat the Plunderer that he was asking his own girlfriend to die for him.

But in the end, her heart could only lean one way.

I'm sorry…

The Plunderer was someone she had met in a game. Go Chungshin was her boyfriend. Even if her fondness for the two of them flipped overnight, the person she could actually lean on in the real world was still Chungshin.

She watched for an opening, then moved into a position where Chungshin could easily target her.

Her character was built around crowd control — frail, and once locked onto, she died easily. The moment Chungshin confirmed her position, his whisper exploded in her ear.

(Perfect! Stay right there!)

(…)

Yoon Jia squeezed her eyes shut and waited to die.

The stage of fearing death in a game had long since passed. Most War of Religions players flinched at dying in the early days and struggled to adapt — but once that period was over, death stopped carrying much weight. Yoon Jia was no different.

But the people who killed her had always been complete strangers. This — her own boyfriend charging in to end her — felt nothing like that.

And that feeling…

…I hate this.

Of course she did.

With her eyes closed, Chungshin's voice rang out with perfect clarity.

(Yes!)

And then another voice cut straight into her ear.

"Watch out!"

"!"

At the Plunderer's shout, Yoon Jia ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠clenched her eyes even tighter and shrank into herself.

W-what… wh-what's going on…?

Time stretched. The death notification should have arrived by now. It never came.

Instead, a voice thick with pure loathing roared through the whisper channel.

(Got him!!!)

Go Chungshin's voice.

"…Huh?"

When Yoon Jia opened her eyes, the message waiting for her was not her own death notice — it was the Plunderer's.

"Looks like our first loss."

"…I'm sorry."

Yoon Jia finished the match with a sunken expression and apologized.

She had lined herself up to die for Go Chungshin, eyes shut, waiting for the end. But the Plunderer had thrown himself in the way of Chungshin's charge and somehow held him off — and died for it. To make matters worse, the top and mid laners were already in rough shape. Every lane was collapsing, and the team had dumped the entire blame on the Plunderer before rage-quitting the game into oblivion.

The Plunderer looked at Yoon Jia and gave her a light pat on the shoulder.

"Why so down? Losing happens."

"But because of me, you got flamed…"

"Don't worry about people like that. I queue with you because playing with Saint Blue is fun. That's all."

"…"

A quiet calm settled over Saint Blue — and with it, a new question began to form.

To the Plunderer, Yoon Jia's avatar was a grotesque skeletal figure. And yet he treated her with unfailing kindness every single time.

Maybe I should try a different character…

She had picked this one out of pure laziness. She hadn't even wanted to play — Chungshin had practically dragged her into the game — and choosing a feminine character only invited a swarm of guys. Chungshin hated that too, so he had forced her into the reaper-looking avatar. After that, no one approached her. And she hadn't minded. It was comfortable, even.

But looking at the Plunderer, that feeling shifted for the first time.

I don't want him seeing this skull face…

After a stretch of hesitation, she made up her mind and spoke.

"Um… does my face bother you at all?"

"Sorry?"

The Plunderer tilted his head, clearly wondering where that had come from, then laughed.

"Ah… ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I don't really pay attention to that kind of thing when I play. It's fine."

"Then… would it be okay if I tried a different character…?"

The moment the words left her mouth, she regretted them.

Ugh… after the mess I made today, asking to switch is going to look terrible, isn't it?

Considering everything she had put him through with a character she already knew how to play, asking to start fresh with something new was hardly a good look.

But the Plunderer just smiled.

"You don't need my permission for that. Play whatever you like."

"Haha…"

Yoon Jia laughed softly and thought,

…They're really nothing alike.

If she had said something like that to Go Chungshin, she would have gotten an earful for sure. No — the atmosphere for saying it would never have existed in the first place. But the Plunderer kept making it clear, over and over, that simply being with her was something he enjoyed.

They were still chatting pleasantly when Chungshin's whisper cut in.

(Jia! Did you see me kill that bastard earlier? Hell yeah~)

(…)

(Jia? Can you hear me? Jia…)

Yoon Jia didn't wait for him to finish. She tapped the red button on her friends list.

Even the usually gentle Yoon Jia had zero desire to exchange another word with him right now. And her anger wasn't only about today.

Yesterday he didn't even call — just brushed the whole thing off…

Normally, when she got upset, he would scramble to apologize. Yesterday he had simply dumped her and walked off, still seething.

…I don't want to talk to him for a while.

With that, she turned her attention back to the Plunderer.

After a bit more conversation, he spoke with a faintly reluctant look.

"Ah, I should get going. I'll log in tomorrow if I can."

"Okay~ Get some rest~"

Yoon Jia saw him off and watched him leave.

"Hah… Well then…"

She was just about to log out herself when the whisper hit again.

(Jia! What's wrong!? Are you mad?)

(Haa…)

(Come on, why get mad over something like—)

She tapped the red button the same way she had before.

Looking at the message, something important occurred to her.

"Ah! I should pick out a character for next time."

Humming to herself, she opened the character window and started browsing the ones with decent appearances.

Go Chungshin ripped off the VR Headgear and roared.

"Are you fucking kidding me!"

"……Fuck."

Hearing the shout from the next room, Chungshin fell silent. Ordinarily he would have picked a fight without a second thought for whoever was on the other side — but right now, inside the Hero Academy, he needed to keep trouble to an absolute minimum. Stirring up a mess would only make his own position worse.

"…"

Fortunately, the guy next door didn't come barging into Chungshin's dorm room.

Only once he had calmed down did the earlier events come flooding back.

I ask for one little favor and she blocks me?

He projected a smuggled device onto his palm and fired off messages to Yoon Jia. No reply. She wouldn't even take his calls.

Barely ten minutes ago he had been flying high. The moment she blocked him and stopped answering, that rush of pleasure flipped straight into raw irritation.

Part of him wanted to go find her right now and beg forgiveness. His pride wouldn't allow it.

She's treating me like this over something that small?

Until now, Yoon Jia had been a girlfriend who did as she was told. This sudden defiance set his pride thrashing. On top of that, she was staying in the instructors' dorms — not a place he could just walk up to and summon her from.

Haa… fuck…. Give it a week and she'll come around…

Besides, they were already scheduled to go on the Church tour together.

Fuck… I was feeling so damn good earlier, and now this. Haa… what a mood killer.

Muttering to himself, Go Chungshin went to bed.

In the Magic Department faculty office, I smiled and said goodbye to Cho Seohyun.

"Well then, I'm ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠off."

She returned the farewell with a bitter look.

"…Take care."

"Yes. I'll handle everything without any issues."

"More than that — look after yourself…"

"Haha… I will."

I had expected her to go on about one thing or another, but she wrapped up the goodbye with surprisingly few words.

After that I stopped by the Security Department to double-check for any potential problems, then headed for the main gate of the Hero Academy.

With cadets and instructors in class, the campus was empty. The usually bustling grounds felt so quiet that it brought back memories of my old school days.

Man… this is exactly how it felt when I left early back then.

Ah~ a limited-edition game was dropping at ten in the morning, so I told the teacher and bailed.

No, they told me not to. I went anyway.

Until I called it leaving early, it was nothing more than cutting class. The moment I decided to call it leaving early, cutting class came to me and became leaving early.

So yeah. Leaving early.

I was grinning to myself on the way to the main gate when a voice drifted over. On a normal day it would have been swallowed by the crowd — but on this silent campus, the conversation cut through like noise-canceling had been flipped on, landing crisp and clear in my ears.

"Seriously! Why won't you answer your phone!"

"Oppa… is that really what you want to say right now?"

"Ah, come on… over something that small…"

"…"

Sounded like a couple fighting, no question. But the voices… I was sure I had heard them somewhere before.

I slipped into stealth and crept closer to confirm who they were.

Go Chungshin and Yoon Jia.

The two of them were tucked between a wall and a building, mid-argument.

"I've been trying to reach you for two days straight. Even if you're mad, you still have to take my calls, don't you?"

"…"

"Haa… say something…"

Yoon Jia had clearly been enjoying games with me just yesterday. Judging by the way Chungshin was talking, she had blocked more than just the game — basic contact, too.

And this was a golden opportunity for me.

"Jia… look… haa… that day I…"

"What's going on?"

"Huk!"

"Eek!"

The lovebirds mid-quarrel heard my voice, sprang apart, and stared at me with identical looks of pure panic.

I eyed the two of them with open suspicion.

"What exactly are you two doing?"