The Gifticon
Perhaps it was because I’d finally found some relief. My condition was excellent. The clutter in my mind had vanished, and my head felt clear.
It would have been absolutely perfect, if not for the fact that I was currently drying my bedding at the laundromat.
I had made such a mess of the bed last night.
…Thanks to that, I’d learned a little more about my body.
In many ways.
Aside from the fact that my stomach felt a bit sore, I was in top shape.
‘My stomach…?’
A single possibility flashed through my mind.
Had it been about two months now? When did the time pass so quickly?
Still, I was glad I’d noticed it quickly. Since I was already out at the laundromat, I could just stop by a pharmacy on the way back.
I had planned to play games with Siu this evening; I’d be fine if I just took some medication.
The next day, when I logged into DeathCode, Siu was there just as he’d said.
“It’s been a while since we played on DeathCode.”
“Yeah…”
It felt like a week since I’d played a real game, at least to me.
That is, if you don’t count those subculture collection games that lack any real gameplay.
“What do you want to play? The usual…?”
“Let’s do something different for a change and shoot some guns. I’m kind of sick of the usual stuff.”
“Sounds good…”
FPS games require communication, so we had to use voice chat.
I, of course, only listened. Though I did tend to reply via text chat.
On the character selection screen, I naturally asked Siu,
“What should I play? Should I pick something easy…? Ah, no, I should just play what I want…”
“Yeah.”
Siu cut me off shortly.
At the same time, a chat message popped up.
“Why…?”
“Your mic is on.”
“My mic is on…?”
I hurriedly looked at the top left. My nickname and the speaking indicator were flickering.
‘Why is the default setting like this?!’
I rushed into the settings menu and turned the microphone off.
This way, the people in the game wouldn’t be able to hear my voice.
When I closed the settings window, another chat message had appeared.
Siu must have seen the chat too; he didn’t laugh, but he spoke with a voice full of amusement.
I was certain that if I could see his face, the corners of his mouth would be stretched all the way to his cheekbones.
“They’re asking for a briefing?”
“No. Absolutely not…”
[Your voice was cute, why did you turn it off? T_T]
‘Disgusting bastard…’
“Ah, damn it…”
“Ignore them. Just ignore them.”
As Siu suggested, I decided to just ignore them.
The game started, and the doors opened.
And the moment I stepped out, I died pointlessly.
“Ah, I died…”
“Did you get picked off? Guess you’ll have to wait for the next round.”
Since it had been a while, my skills had unfortunately dulled quite a bit.
It wasn’t like I was usually this bad at games.
“Ah, died again. Why is that guy only targeting me?!”
“I can feel the wall between us; is that guy hacking…?”
“Doesn’t look like a hack.”
“If they shoot better than me, it’s a hack… Ah…!”
I died again.
I’d lost count of how many times I’d stared at the respawn countdown going from 10 to 1.
As I kept being the first to die every time a skirmish started, a chat message popped up immediately.
This chat annoyed me more than any other insult.
A moment ago, they were clinging to me because I was a girl.
Siu said in a playful voice,
“They say you’re bad at games because you’re a girl.”
“Shut up…!”
We lost the games in a row. It wasn’t an overwhelming defeat, but we lost by a hair.
Of course, I—no, *we*—weren’t playing for the sake of skill, but for fun, so the win-loss record didn’t matter.
If we lose, we lose; if we’re bad, we’re bad; if we win, it feels good.
I had thought that as long as we were laughing, it was fine, but the people who *did* care were our teammates.
The first two rounds were decent enough.
Though, I admit I was playing blatantly poorly by the third round.
Even so.
As soon as I died several times in a row, a sharp female voice pierced directly through my earphones.
How could a woman swear like that?
“You’re fucking terrible. You moronic idiot.”
The insults, filled with pure malice, stabbed into my ears.
My heart skipped a beat.
My mind went blank as they poured out, specifically mentioning my nickname over and over.
I had made a mistake again.
I respawned, moved, and died.
Every time, the insults flew again.
“No, why did you die there, seriously? Ah, fuck, if you’re that bad, just don’t play.”
I couldn’t see her face, yet I was terrified. No, I was terrified *because* I couldn’t see her face.
It was a different kind of sharpness compared to a man swearing.
I shrank back as her venomous voice pierced me.
The more I played passively to avoid making mistakes, the more frequent my mistakes became.
And every time, the insults continued.
I muttered to myself to relieve the stress. Naturally, my in-game mic remained off.
“You’re not even that good yourself…”
Then, suddenly, I heard Siu’s voice twice.
Once through DeathCode, and once in-game.
“Why don’t you shut your mouth and just play? Unless you’re going to give a briefing.”
Even so, the female user didn’t stop swearing. It felt like she was about to get into a voice chat fight with Siu.
I had no choice but to block the voice chat, and only then did it become quiet.
We kept losing the games.
Purely because I was bad.
The atmosphere had dampened, so we turned the game off.
To think I’d play like this after such a long time.
“Ah, we met a weird person.”
Siu spoke first.
“Yeah… but I really was playing poorly in that round.”
“Still, it’s not right to swear over voice chat in a normal game. I’d understand if it were just text.”
“Is there a difference between text and voice?”
“Of course there is.”
“Reading words and hearing them are different. A voice carries intent. That one just now was so venomous.”
Venomous.
If the word ‘venomous’ were personified, it would be that female user we just met.
“Yeah…”
“And I really hate hearing people swear like that. It’s like they’re just screeching.”
“I, I do too…”
“It just puts me in a bad mood. It’s just unpleasant.”
I heard Siu stretching.
“Ah, I shouldn’t have suggested we play. It was our first time playing together in a while.”
“We can just play something else…”
“I’m sick of the usual stuff, but I guess I have to play it because I’m sick of it.”
We moved on to another game.
The one we always played.
But since we played a different game, we won easily this time.
Clearly, my skills hadn’t rusted in the games I was used to.
Maybe because it was a game without voice chat, it was mentally refreshing.
As we played for a long time, my physical condition started to deteriorate.
I had known since the morning, having noticed the signals my body was sending, but now that the pain was actually starting, I felt a little scared.
The pain would come again, just like last time.
To think it was already the second time.
Still, since I had the tips Sia had given me, the situation was better than the first time.
I had already applied a pad, so I didn’t have to worry about leaking, but there was no helping the pain itself.
“……”
“Why is your tension so different from before?”
“Uh, uh?”
“Maybe it’s because you’ve been on the computer for a long time after a while…”
“A while?”
“Yeah, you haven’t really been on the computer lately…”
“Me? You say I haven’t been on the computer?”
“Playing games alone isn’t fun, unless I’m playing with you…”
Siu answered a beat late.
“Is that so?”
After the game ended, while we were talking about nothing in particular, Siu suddenly asked a strange question.
“Eunhae. What’s the date today?”
Why was he suddenly asking for the date?
Was there any need to ask me? He could just look down if he wanted to know.
I recited the date at the bottom of my monitor.
“Hmm… Yeah.”
“Why did you ask…?”
“Just had something to check.”
Time passed quite quickly even while we were just chatting and doing our own things.
Seeing that Siu didn’t mention the events of that day at all until we logged off DeathCode, it seemed he had decided to bury it as a secret between us.
I didn’t pry, either.
If I put myself in Siu’s shoes, I figured it would be awkward to answer if asked.
Sometimes, it’s better to bury certain things than to bring them up.
The next morning.
I was truly glad it was the weekend. If my body had been like this on a day I had a part-time job, it would have been a disaster. What would I do if it overlapped with my work later?
The signs were there, and eventually, the inevitable happened.
Physically, the blood burst out.
I was currently curled up like a shrimp on my bed, clutching my stomach and groaning.
Even though I had made full preparations before going to sleep, this was the result.
I had kept my body warm and done everything Sia told me to do.
It hurt like hell.
I’d felt it last time, but the first day was always the most painful. I’d looked it up, and some people said it wasn’t that hard.
Why did I have to end up with a body that hurt this much?
It wasn’t time to sleep, but I forced myself to try. It was harder to stay conscious while groaning in pain.
I squeezed my eyes shut, put on noise-canceling earphones, listened to soothing music, and pulled the blanket up over my head.
As I kept my eyes closed, I started to drift off despite the throbbing pain.
Seeing as the lyrics of the song were fading from my hearing…
I was about to fall asle—
It wasn’t that the lyrics were fading because I was falling asleep. The music suddenly grew quiet, and a female voice with an awkward intonation spoke.
'Seong Siu' has sent a long message. Would you like me to read it to you?
“Ah, damn it… I was just about to fall asleep…”
I’d forgotten to turn on Focus Mode, and now I was wide awake again.
I could have ignored it and tried to sleep, but it was annoying to have that unread notification, so I turned on the screen to clear it.
'Seong Siu' has sent a Gifticon.
“……?”
My eyes widened involuntarily. They were still half-closed, but that was the best I could do in my current state.
A Gifticon, all of a sudden?
He didn’t need a Gifticon? Is that even a possible situation?
He could just eat it himself.
Ah, there was one possibility.
Siu’s reply was a bit slow.
‘What is this…?’
My lower abdomen throbbed with annoying intensity. I stroked my stomach again and pulled the blanket up to my head.
Ah, before that, I activated Focus Mode on my smartphone.
So it wouldn’t interfere with my sleep.
…I’ll just order pizza tomorrow.
But can you really just hand things out like that, saying there are no stores?
Ah, looking at the house Siu lives in, I guess it might make sense.
I picked up my smartphone again, opened the map app, and entered the address of Siu’s apartment.
‘What the, there is one…?’
At this distance, he could have easily picked it up for takeout, yet he said there were no stores.
Did he not look properly?