The Phone Call
We had played our hearts out for three solid days. It felt like I'd burned through nearly half a year's worth of energy.
Still... well. It was fine.
"It's not like I've got anywhere to be before Friday."
I wouldn't be going out again for a while, so I figured I might as well recharge in the meantime. The reason was nothing special. I closed my eyes for a moment and let last night come back, brief and easy.
"Siyun."
"What."
"Starting tomorrow, I can't come to the PC bang with you."
"...Huh? Out of nowhere? Why?"
We'd been walking home together when Jeong tossed that out without warning. I jumped and asked why, and she answered at once.
"School. So I can't come with you. Not until Friday."
"Ah. Then you're still logging on?"
"Yeah. After class, though."
Right—she went to school. A few days glued to each other's side and I'd forgotten. Not long ago I hadn't even known she was a student.
Jeong let out a little laugh and jabbed my side with her elbow.
"Don't get lonely just because you can't see me. Wait nicely."
"What. I'm not a dog. Why would I?"
"You never know. Not after the way you acted today. And you said you've raised a dog before. Feels about the same."
"What does one of those things have to do with the other?"
A soft pfft slipped out of her.
She never once let me have the last word. Did beating me really feel that good?
Watching her, I turned over the next few days in my head—the stretch where Jeong and I wouldn't be going out anywhere.
...Hm.
"Yeah, it is gonna be a little lonely."
"See? I—huh? Siyun, what did you say?"
"I said it's probably gonna be a little lonely."
The thought had surfaced for a second, and I let it out of my mouth without thinking.
Jeong heard it and went blank.
The words left her, and she buried her face in the plush.
...No, wait. Why is she reacting like that? React like that and the mood gets—weird!
I was still frozen by a move I hadn't seen coming when we reached the station. Only then did Jeong peek her face back out.
"...Siyun."
"Y-yeah. What."
"When Friday comes, let's hang out again."
She said it quietly. And then—
"I'll treasure this. I mean it. Thank you."
She lifted the plush, gave it a little wave, and immediately took off running the other way. I watched her back for a quiet moment, and then...
"Pfft. Unbelievable..."
I let out a small laugh and turned around.
Having skimmed back over yesterday, I pushed myself up off the bed. A groan dragged the drowsiness out with it.
I logged into the game. Almost at once, a whisper chimed.
Someone I knew far too well. That vulgar nickname could drag a snort out of me on the worst day imaginable.
That was one thing. This was another. Why was she online right now? It was three in the afternoon.
Her login time was usually locked at six, so this was a genuine surprise. Greeting her after getting on first had always been my job. This time I was the one being greeted. Genuinely strange.
Oh. Right. She must have just gone to class and come home.
We'd been all over the place yesterday, after all.
Jeong let a beat pass before she answered. Thinking back on yesterday, she seemed to have decided it made sense that I'd gotten up late.
Then, out of nowhere, she called for me and said this.
Sure. Whatever. I didn't have anything else to do.
And so we started the game.
Today's objective: the boss we hadn't managed to kill at the PC bang, thanks to me losing focus all day yesterday and trolling the run.
How did it go? Smoothly.
The result?
Well.
A failure, as you can see. And one that came down to a shortfall that was slight—truly, extremely, profoundly slight.
Maybe it was the fact that this particular slightness had already eaten nearly two hours of pulls. She was still in chat, cursing the developers without a break.
I was ready to let it go on the grounds that it was fun enough anyway, but...
Honestly, the patterns really don't fit the systems they've given us.
I agreed with Jeong, up to a point. You were supposed to read the pattern off fast callouts and dismantle it—except the game had no voice chat, and not even something as basic as a ping.
Normally, if a fight didn't suit our party, we spat it out and went looking for something else to do. Maybe it was all the pulling from yesterday. Some stubborn streak had gotten into us, and we kept throwing ourselves at it anyway.
I'd soothed Jeong, and soothed her again, and we'd only just settled enough for another try when—
Something completely random leapt into the chat, completely out of nowhere.
...Hmm.
This was someone who would rather die than get on a call, about anything. What was going on? Had hanging out in person lately actually changed her mind? Or did she want this one boss that badly?
Either way, it was surprising. I typed my number into the chat and waited for the phone to ring.
Three minutes, maybe. She'd been the one to ask, and I was just about to scold her for taking forever when—
Bzzzzzt—
The phone started vibrating. I snatched it up and answered.
"Ah—ah."
"I can hear you fine."
"Good."
"So why'd it take you so long to call?"
"......If I tell you, you're definitely going to tease me. So I don't want to."
Embarrassing enough to make her shy—what kind of reason was that? I hadn't really been thinking anything of it, but a reaction like that made me want to hear it anyway.
Except she'd said I'd tease her, and now she wouldn't tell me. What was I supposed to do with that?
Hide it, then.
"Come on, tell me."
"No."
"I won't make fun of you."
"Liar."
"For real. Seriously. I am not lying."
"......Hnnn."
Oh, she was thinking about it. Wavering like that, she was basically already mine.
Of course, I had never actually said I wouldn't tease her. If she told me, I wouldn't laugh—I'd just tease her within an inch of her life...
"You won't tease me. Promise."
"What."
Tch. Yeah, she was never going to be that easy. Four years of knowing each other, and this kind of slippery half-phrasing got seen through immediately.
Fine, fine. I'd yield a move. A little disappointing, but I still had a trump card left.
I answered like I was giving in against my will.
"Okay. Promise I won't tease you. That good? Now hurry up and te—"
"No laughing."
"Hey, I said I wouldn't make fun of you."
"You didn't say you wouldn't laugh. Wordplay. You love that stuff."
"...Damn."
"...I only said it just in case. This was actually it?"
She caught that too?
I hadn't thought she'd see through this one! And it was a finishing move I used maybe once or twice a year!
"GRAAAAH..."
I finally understood that line from a certain anime, the one about hating people who catch on too fast. And then I thought:
...Do I listen, or do I not?
I was torn. If I wasn't allowed to tease her, was this story even worth hearing? More than that—if I wasn't going to tease her, why hear it at all?
I ran simulation after simulation in my head and, in the end, dragged out an answer.
"Okay. I lose. I won't tease you, I won't mock you, and I won't laugh. Tell me."
Worth it? Obviously through the roof. Tease or not, I was curious—curious about whatever Jeong, of all people, refused to say because she thought I'd tease her for it.
The moment I finally tucked my tail, Jeong went quiet, as if she were weighing whether I meant it. Only after she managed to believe that I did did she open her mouth.
"......Once the call actually connected, I just... got nervous."
"Huh? Nervous? What is there between us that you'd be nervous?"
"There is something. And we've only ever done this by chat. For years. Then all of a sudden you have my number, and it just... feels like that."
Jeong, stammering like she was mortified. Her vague answer left me feeling strangely off-balance myself.
Maybe that was why.
"...Kh."
A laugh got out before I knew it. I'd tried my best to hold it. Some tickle I couldn't name kept at my throat.
Jeong made a strangled sound at that, then spoke.
"...You promised. No laughing."
"No, it's not that I wanted to laugh—pfft, it's not like that..."
"You—you really... all you ever do is tease me..."
She was furious. Even so, her expression probably wouldn't shift all that much.
Her face, though—I imagined it going a little red, and picturing that was pretty funny. Before I knew it I couldn't hold it anymore, so I just laughed outright.
Sorry for breaking the promise, but how was anyone supposed to endure this? I declined the endless PK requests she kept firing at me, one by one, and apologized on the inside.
A little later.
"Die. Die. Just die."
"I said I'm sorry. Quit sending PK requests."
"Just die. All you ever do is lie. Drop dead."
"Next time we meet, food's on me. So let it go."
"......Forget it. I don't need it."
I finally got Jeong calmed down. Only then did the PK requests stop, and I could breathe again.
"...Anyway. That's the reason. We're good now, right?"
"Huh? Y-yeah. We're good, we're good."
"Then let's go. The boss. We have to kill it."
"Oh."
Right. That.
Talking had been so fun I'd forgotten for a second. Jeong rebuilt the party the endless PK requests had disbanded. The moment I accepted the invite, her voice came through the phone—she'd already vanished from where I'd been looking.
"Get over here. If we don't kill it, nobody's sleeping tonight."
Sleep was nonnegotiable. I went right after her anyway.