A Toast [The Sea It Is]
After much deliberation, the reply she sent. Hana absentmindedly fiddled with her lips. Still, a trip right away? Dating had its stages, after all. It started lightly with things like a movie theater or a café. Or seeking out a famous restaurant. The next steps would involve courses with a bit more substance—amusement parks, swimming pools, or other unique dates that took an entire day. She thought they needed to get through at least that before talking about traveling to a completely different region, but how many stages had Suhyuk just skipped?
Streamer Yeoni has started broadcasting.
Okay.
What came back was a single curt reply. What? Was that it? She waited two more minutes, but no additional messages arrived. No way. She answered that the sea was good and he just said okay and ended it there? Shouldn’t he at least share his own preference?
With her eyes wide, Hana’s hands trembled as she glared at the screen.
“Hana also likes the sea.”
Suhyuk set his phone down after finishing his report to the club president.
“Ooh~ Then it’s the sea this year, as expected! Done and done.”
Seoeun thumped one fist into her open palm like a judge delivering a verdict.
“Hmm~ The East Sea would be better, right? The West Sea is close, but it’s really not great for swimming.”
“Let’s go to Haeundae!”
“That’s a bit too far.”
Seoeun stroked her chin at Choi Kang’s opinion.
“Ugh! Let’s talk properly on Friday! When everyone’s gathered.”
“Are we meeting on Friday?”
Suhyuk hadn’t heard anything about it.
“Of course! Even without practice, we should still hang out together!”
“Really?”
“Wow… Suhyuk… I thought we’d gotten pretty close… but it was all business once the performance ended…?”
Seoeun made a sniffing sound as if disappointed.
“No, I just thought we weren’t doing any activities.”
“We’ll probably keep getting together and having fun until finals.”
“Then what are we doing this week?”
“What should we do? How about you decide this week, Suhyuk?”
Suhyuk regretted trailing off like that. Ugh… I shouldn’t have brought it up… What would be good…
“How about the Han River?”
It was May, before the real summer heat arrived. It was certainly the perfect time for a picnic.
“Ooh~ The Han River. Not bad. Should we take the dog?”
“Are we riding bikes too!”
“We can rent them there and ride.”
“Then let’s go!”
And so, one short-term plan and one long-term plan were decided on the spot. Of course, the opinions of Hana and Juyeon, who weren’t present, were not considered.
“Good, good. I need to bring a picnic mat~”
Seoeun got up from her seat, humming cheerfully.
“Let’s tell Hana to bring her acoustic guitar and do some busking!”
“Busking?”
“Yeah. We did it a few times with Juyeon last year too.”
Suhyuk was quite surprised that Juyeon had sung on the streets.
“Because Juyeon wanted to?”
“No? We made her do it~ Would she have done it on her own?”
As expected. Hmm… busking… If the chance came up, maybe he should ask Hana to teach him acoustic guitar. A vague thought crossed Suhyuk’s mind.
Suhyuk, sitting in front of the monitor, moved his mouse. Today was the day Juyeon was revealing the game on stream for the first time. Promoted from regular viewer to manager, Suhyuk clicked around on features he was using for the first time. Oh… so this is how you ban someone. It was one of those things he thought he’d never do in his life.
Since the broadcast had just started, there were only about ten viewers.
“Hello, everyone. Hehe…”
It had been five months since she started streaming. Juyeon handled greetings and small talk quite naturally now.
“So… I’ll be singing today, but I also want to try playing a game!”
“Who was it again? Ah, I forgot the nickname. It was something a viewer recommended…”
“Yes. I’m definitely clearing it all the way to the end today!”
Maybe because it was a broadcast, she seemed conscious of her tone. Suhyuk could sense a strange cuteness in Juyeon’s words.
“Hey… No way I can’t do it! That’s not true…”
“I—I practiced while watching, you know?”
When she admitted she had played the game beforehand, jeers flooded in from the viewers.
When the sulking Juyeon declared she would only sing and skip the game, the viewers had to spend a while persuading her to change her mind.
“Shall we start now?”
After singing for a full hour, Juyeon started the game with a pounding heart. The familiar intro music played. It was a track Suhyuk himself had listened to multiple times.
“Even though I practiced, I’m not super good, so just watch with a smile, okay? Hee.”
How long will this take today? Arms crossed, Suhyuk tried to predict her future. If her skills had improved even a little, maybe four or five hours. If not, it could easily become a full twelve-hour ordeal.
Emphasizing safety first, Juyeon refused to press the run key and crept forward cautiously.
All kinds of complaints poured in, but Juyeon stubbornly stuck to her safety-first approach.
Indeed, Juyeon had climbed far more than Suhyuk expected. She had progressed so much on her first try that he even suspected she had secretly practiced behind his back.
“Hehehe… No can do? I’ll do it this carefully—”
At that moment, a malicious comment appeared. It wasn’t exactly hate, but it was definitely frown-inducing.
There was no way that kind of language would be allowed in this chat. Suhyuk, monitoring in real time, banned a viewer for the first time ever.
“Hmm… Hmm…! I’ll continue.”
Juyeon’s brain had momentarily frozen, unsure how to react, but once she realized Suhyuk had removed the offender, a bright smile spread across her face. He really was reliable. Suhyuk was a trustworthy person. And knowing he was watching her intently only made her competitive spirit burn hotter.
An hour and a half had passed since the start.
“Haaam~”
Watching her keep flinching made his eyes grow tired.
“Now… so here I jump like this…!”
Juyeon’s character soared into the sky. It should have traced a clean parabola and landed safely, but…
“…Huh?”
The object she thought was a platform dropped away.
“Whaaaaaat???”
Startled, Juyeon let go of the keyboard entirely. B-but I landed perfectly! I didn’t do anything wrong!
“Nooooooo!”
She frantically hammered the spacebar. She tried to reach out and grab anything, but the cruel developer sent her straight back to the starting ground.
“Uuuu… Mmm…”
Anger. Despair. Pain. Emptiness. Every negative emotion in the world crashed over Juyeon like a wave.
“Nooo! What is this!”
Her tiny fist pounded the desk in frustration. But the chat and Suhyuk’s reactions were completely different.
Suhyuk couldn’t help bursting into real laughter. The usually quiet Juyeon acting like this was just too funny. It wasn’t the kind of thing you said to a friend, but Suhyuk genuinely thought she was adorable. No matter how quick a veteran gamer was, there were traps you had to fall for if you didn’t know about them. What Juyeon had encountered was exactly that kind of hidden trap.
With a sigh, she moved her character and looked up at the sky. The drop was so high that the starting point wasn’t even visible from the ground.
“Going again…”
It was a promise to Suhyuk and the viewers. Even though it was frustrating, she could have rushed, but Juyeon cleared the game in the same calm, careful manner.
Thus, she reached the troll section again after another hour.
“Th-this time I won’t fall for it! I won’t!”
Avoiding the trap and climbing higher, Juyeon finally cleared the game after a total of four hours.
“Everyone! I did it! I cleared it!”
Juyeon rejoiced like a child. Of course she was excited—she had sweated for hours climbing her way up!
“Thank you so much to everyone who stayed until the end.”
“Then I’ll stream again next week. Sleep well!”
And so the grand six-hour journey came to an end. Considering she usually only streamed for around two hours, this was her first truly long broadcast.
-Vrrrr
“Suhyuk-ah!”
Her voice was incredibly bright despite how tiring it must have been.
“Yeah.”
“Did you see me clear it? I did well, right!”
Suhyuk smiled like a proud father.
“Yeah. You did well.”
“Haa… I’m glad I practiced after all. If it wasn’t for you, I’d still be wandering around on the ground.”
“But it was pretty funny when you fell.”
“Ah. When that happened I was so angry I thought I’d die.”
It was a little late, but Juyeon wanted to raise a toast for accomplishing something admirable.
“Want to have a can of beer?”
“Huh? Now?”
“Yeah. I’m heading to the convenience store to buy some.”
One in the morning. It wasn’t so late that he felt sleepy.
“Since you helped me… I’ll buy the beer.”
After a brief hesitation, Suhyuk accepted her suggestion.
“Then just one can.”
“Okay!”
In a good mood, Juyeon changed into her tracksuit and hurried down the stairs. The meeting spot was in front of the convenience store. Since it was closer to Suhyuk’s house, he arrived first.
“Suhyuk-ah!”
Juyeon called his name with a smile. Suhyuk smiled softly and greeted her.
“Congratulations on clearing it.”
“Heh. Thanks.”
It was a congratulatory greeting she wouldn’t hear from any real acquaintance except Suhyuk.
“How was I today?”
This was from the list of answers she wanted to hear. You did well. It was cool. Your commentary was good too. You seemed like a skilled pro streamer! But Suhyuk didn’t give her any of those words.
“You were really cute.”
“…Huh?”
A rather foolish exclamation slipped from her lips.