What Happened at the Guild Meetup [2]
The atmosphere was so thick with awkward tension that half of me wanted to bolt somewhere else immediately, while the other half was dying to stick around and watch this hilarious situation unfold up close. In the end, my choice was the seat right next to YachtMan in the front row. I quietly sat down beside him and poured myself a cup of water.
…Man, I really wish I had some popcorn right about now.
“How’s the food? Does it suit your taste? I made it myself, you know.”
“Yeah, it was delicious.”
“Ah, you came late so that’s all that was left! That was just something I threw together. Or if you’d like, we have tons of great stuff in the kitchen. I can make you anything—even off-menu items. Just say the word.”
YachtMan asked with a warm, friendly smile. It was a face you’d never see on the man who’d been sweating buckets and hustling around earlier.
“Hmm… No, it’s fine. The seafood stir-fry was really good too. But more importantly… you’re YachtMan, right? The owner of this place.”
“That’s me. And your username was…?”
“Jeong Duguang.”
“…Huh?”
“It’s me, Duguang. First time meeting in person, huh?”
The sudden one-eighty in Jeong Yeonhui’s attitude left YachtMan staring at me in utter confusion, his eyes practically screaming, Why the hell didn’t you tell me sooner?
…What did I even do?
“Y-you’re a girl? I mean, you’re a woman?”
“Dropping the formal speech all of a sudden is pretty funny. We weren’t that stiff with each other, were we, Yacht? Just last week, what was it you whispered to me again…? Something about finding the perfect AV actress with massive tits and a pretty pussy that I absolutely had to watch with you.”
“T-that’s—! That’s not—!”
The way YachtMan’s face turned beet red was absolutely worth the price of admission. After all, the two of them had been running raids together as a regular party. Since he never used his mic, he’d assumed Duguang was a guy and let all kinds of things slip. Seriously, maybe you should’ve kept the dirty talk to a minimum. You know what kind of world we live in these days.
“To think you really were a total yeomisae…”
Jeong Yeonhui took the cup of water I’d poured for her and shook her head in disbelief. I was starting to feel pretty good about my decision to sit here. At least I got to enjoy the show.
“Boss! Can we get four more drafts over here?”
“Oh… uh, order just came in? Gotta run.”
The guild member from another table had thrown the floundering pub owner a much-needed lifeline. It was hilarious how the same guy who’d approached her with that sleazy tone earlier was now practically sprinting away.
“Pfft.”
The whole thing happened so fast that both Jeong Yeonhui and I had to fight hard not to burst out laughing.
“Oh. Did you hear about that?”
Time passed. Jeong Yeonhui eventually drifted off to another table, and once a few people started looking like they could barely hold themselves upright, someone suggested we change venues. I’d already been fighting back yawns anyway. We’d prepared for the first round but not the second, so under the lead of another officer, we decided to move the drinking party elsewhere.
YachtMan said we didn’t have to worry about cleaning up the tables, but there was no way we could burden the guy who’d lent us the entire place like that. Thankfully, the guild members pitched in and we finished clearing the tables quickly. After taking care of the soju glasses and food waste, the pub finally started to feel like it was returning to normal.
“Thanks for all your hard work, everyone. And hyung, thanks again for letting us use the place.”
“You already thanked me in front of everyone earlier. That’s enough.”
I’d turned down his offer to give me a discount several times, but the bill for thirty people drinking was no joke. Since I planned to pay now and settle up later, I handled the payment myself. As I swiped my card, I half-expected it to get declined for exceeding the limit.
“There’s still time before the last train! Let’s keep hanging out, Guild Master!”
“Yeah, Woojin, let’s drink more! It’s the weekend tomorrow!”
“I’ve been working all day and I’m exhausted. I’m just gonna head home and crash.”
Some people had already gone home, but most headed off for the second round. In that short amount of time, everyone had gotten surprisingly close. It wasn’t like I had plans the next day. I just really wanted to go home, shower, and lie down. As a homebody, I figured just organizing this meetup in the first place was me doing my absolute best.
“I’ll be heading out then. Take care, everyone.”
“I’m heading out too. It was fun.”
“Us too!”
“Get home safe!!”
Luckily, quite a few people felt the same way I did. Out of the ten who stayed until the end to help clean up, four or five were leaving now. Since it was a gathering of people who’d met through a game, maybe they were all like me and just wanted to get back home.
“To think Duguang was actually a woman…”
The male guild member with the username KongtteokPatji muttered quietly. Just knowing Jeong Yeonhui’s true identity had made her the center of attention. Not long after she showed up at the drinking party, stories about her had been circulating everywhere. I mean, it wasn’t every day you saw a beauty like her pulling off a reverse netkama.
“I wasn’t really trying to trick anyone. Sorry about that.”
“Wait, KongtteokPatji, you didn’t know either? What about you, Guild Master?”
“I only found out today too.”
“Really? I thought a lot of people already knew. I feel like I might’ve heard something about it.”
The other female guild member, Cheriji, looked at the two of us guys with a surprised expression.
“I think some people did know. Like that Summer person.”
“Ah, CoolHotSummer! I saw her for the first time today and she was seriously cute. And Yeonhui too—how are all of you so pretty?”
“You’re pretty too, Cheri.”
“Let’s exchange numbers!”
“Sure, let’s do it!”
Just listening to them chatter, you’d never guess they weren’t girls… Wait, so does that mean the person who goes home and dual-wields axes to smash people’s skulls is also like this?
Only after a full round of girl talk could we finally reach the station.
“We’re going this way. See you later.”
“Get home safe!”
“Thanks for today!”
“You worked hard.”
The two of them had to catch the train going the opposite direction, which left me with Jeong Yeonhui. I hadn’t noticed back in the dimly lit pub, but seeing her profile under bright lights made her look even more stunning. I didn’t need any other explanation—the fact that people’s eyes were being drawn to us said it all.
“You’re staring pretty hard.”
“Ahaha…”
I must have been spacing out while looking at her. I laughed awkwardly. To be honest, it felt a little uncomfortable. Unlike YachtMan, who I ran raids with regularly, I didn’t really have any connection with her. When she first joined the guild, I think we chatted about this and that, but…
“How far are you going?”
“What about you, Woojin?”
“I get off here.”
It was four stops away from where we were. It was lucky that the meetup spot had been so close to my house. She raised her eyebrows in surprise.
“We’re neighbors then. I live there too.”
“Oh, really? I had no idea.”
The world really is small. There was no way we’d ever run into each other… right? Honestly, since I barely left the house, the chances were low, and I didn’t even know what was in the neighborhood anyway.
When the train arrived, the crowd pushed us apart until conversation became impossible. All I could see of her was the top of her head. That’s what Friday night crowds are like. Actually, it was for the best. I could just quietly put in my earphones and ride home. After having so many conversations with people I’d never met before today, my extroversion meter was completely drained.
The doors opened and people got off. As I climbed the stairs past the ticket gates, someone tapped me on the shoulder. It was Jeong Yeonhui, wearing a slightly annoyed expression.
“You were just going to leave without saying goodbye?”
“There were so many people… I thought you’d already left. Sorry about that.”
“No need to apologize. I thought the same thing. I was walking and noticed we were going the same way, so I thought I’d say something.”
Jeong Yeonhui walked beside me. Maybe it was because of her long, slender legs, but her pace was pretty fast.
“Have you tried that burger place over there? It just opened.”
“No. I mostly stay at home. Is it good?”
“I haven’t been either, that’s why I asked. I love burgers though. You stay home all the time…? I’m jealous. I have to go into the office tomorrow too.”
“On the weekend?”
“Yep.”
“I have to work tomorrow too. Though I do it from home.”
“That actually makes me feel a little better.”
Having to go into work on a precious Saturday… what a shame. Not that working from home made much difference for me. My work hours weren’t fixed, but if needed, I sometimes had to work even at dawn on the weekends.
Suddenly, Jeong Yeonhui asked me,
“You don’t have a girlfriend, do you?”
“What do you mean?”
I looked at her, wondering if I’d said something clueless, but nothing came to mind. Was my empathy lacking?
“Exactly what I said.”
“I don’t.”
“I figured…”
“Why?”
“You’re always logged into the game, so I asked. You said you don’t really go out much either.”
“That’s true.”
That said, Jeong Yeonhui didn’t log in very often. From what I remembered, she only came on late at night sometimes… For someone like me who slept until the sun came up, that time was basically lunchtime.
As we walked, I suddenly realized I had no idea where she was headed. My house was definitely in this direction, but even if we lived in the same neighborhood, there was no reason we’d be going the same way. By the time we reached my street, I realized we’d both been thinking the same thing. She stopped in front of the luxury villa across the way and looked over at me.
“Huh? Woojin, you live around here?”
“Yeah. In that building right over—wait, you live here?”
No matter how small the world was, what were the odds that someone you played games with lived on the same street? The entrance to my place, which didn’t even have an elevator, looked completely different from hers. There was a resident manager, so the exterior was spotless with not a speck of trash. It had a flower bed and a spacious underground parking lot. I’d always wondered who lived in a place this nice. I never imagined it would be Jeong Yeonhui. It felt like we lived in completely different worlds.
“This is wild.”
“Who would’ve thought?”
“We really are neighbors. If you want, let’s grab a meal together sometime.”
“Sure.”
“Oh! Then let me give you my number.”
I ended up taking her number without really thinking about it. If I thought about it rationally, I’d just received the phone number of an extremely beautiful woman, but the whole situation was so surreal that I just accepted it. After all, she’d been happily exchanging numbers with the other guild members earlier.
“I’ll head in now. Thanks for today.”
“You too, Woojin. Thanks for everything.”
I tucked away what Jeong Yeonhui had said in the back of my mind. At least until a few days later, when a sudden message from her popped up.