A Peaceful Day (5)
A Peaceful Day (5)
We chatted at the café for a while, and as time passed, we headed to a PC bang.
We sat in the corner and booted up Empurd. When I logged into my account, Jong-su looked flustered.
"How much did you drop on this...?"
"A thousand?"
"... You're insane."
Only a thousand...
If that amount of money can buy every single top-tier item that currently exists in a game, isn't that cheap?
Honestly, my sense of money when it came to spending on games was already broken from playing Maple Leaf.
But still, a clearance-sale opportunity like this where you could buy every powerful item in existence—anyone who didn't put money in was a sucker.
Han Jong-su and Yuk In-su suddenly entered practice mode and started tapping at their keyboards.
"What are you doing?"
"Checking reaction time and whether the keys register well. Some places have issues sometimes."
They said the game had a devoted hardcore following, and these guys really did seem serious about it.
Then Jong-su pulled out three keyboards from his bag.
"...?"
"See, this game's performance depends on your keyboard. Hold on, I'll set it up for you."
The moment I switched keyboards, I understood exactly what they were talking about.
My character moved incredibly smoothly.
When I played, showing off the techniques I had polished up yesterday, Han Jong-su nodded.
"You've got talent."
"Whoa... you're playing this well after just one day?"
Aside from RPGs, rhythm games, and Tetris, how long had it been since I'd heard someone say I had talent at a game...?
No, had I ever heard it...?
Feeling the same way I had when I first started Maple Leaf, I kept playing Empurd.
While I was having a good time, someone behind me suddenly slammed their desk in rage.
BOOM! BANG! BANG!
"Ah, you son of a BIIIITCH!!!"
At the sound of that squeaky little-kid voice, I nudged Jong-su.
"Go hand him a ramyun and tell him to shut the hell up."
"Piss off, you do it."
Ever since I'd messed with him a bit using all the broken gear in Empurd, he'd started swearing at me.
"Piss off? Did you just swear at me? I thought this little shit was nice, but he was rotten on the inside."
"Hey, honestly, do you have any right to say that to me? When every time you open your mouth, nothing but curses come out?"
At that moment, In-su glanced around cautiously and said in a low voice.
"Jong-su never used to swear at all..."
In-su said it like Jong-su was a nice guy who'd had his personality ruined because of me.
"...? What's that supposed to mean?"
When I stared at him, In-su flinched and avoided my gaze.
And Jong-su had said that because he'd figured out my personality.
I could see why Jong-su was so popular.
He instinctively sized up the other person's personality and then adapted his own personality to match.
Jong-su had his own philosophy and actually lived by it.
Meeting a new type of person felt refreshing.
Meanwhile, the little kid who'd been shouting behind us started getting more and more aggressive.
"Fuck! What are you doing, you fucking idiot!!!"
As I scowled and started to get up, Han Jong-su held me back.
A voice from somewhere silenced everyone around us.
"Let's keep it the fuck down, you piece of shit. You're not the only one here, you cumstain."
Why the hell was that bastard here?
Well, come to think of it, this was also our regular PC bang.
It was just that we'd always played in a private room and had only come out here today.
More importantly, why was that bastard who'd been avoiding me claiming he had to study over there...?
"What kind of asshole is cussing m—"
The man I'd assumed was a little kid stood up, and it turned out he was a grown-ass man built like a fucking tank.
It would've been a pretty damn awkward situation if he'd been an ordinary person,
but unfortunately, the guy with the fiery red-dyed hair and both arms covered in tattoos, the guy who looked like a massive thug... was Park Ji-hoon, and the moment the man saw him, he immediately shrank.
"It's me, you shitstain."
Park Ji-hoon delivering a line straight out of a movie with some flower name.
"Let's keep it down, alright... I'm in my promotion match, so let's focus. You know what happens if I lose my promotion match because of you, right...?"
"Yep. Sorry."
He was only wearing a sleeveless tee, and the chest muscles and forearms showing through the sides were the real highlight.
Park Ji-hoon went back to his game.
"That guy's my friend."
"Seriously...?"
"Wait here, I'll bring him over."
"....."
In-su looked scared, but I reassured him.
"Relax, he's even more of a dumbass than Jong-su."
"...Huh?"
I carefully walked up behind the chair where Park Ji-hoon was sitting.
"Whoaaaa... lookit that, man, the game's goin' crazy smooth, yo~"
In front of the monitor, traces of food were everywhere. Feeling good, Park Ji-hoon started typing in chat.
He was snickering to himself, messing with his opponent.
Even a home security guard from the neighboring country would have a hard time pulling off a jobless-bum act like this.
"Haa... What's the point of ranking up now? That crazy bitch Kim Si-yoon's just gonna tank it all anyway... haa..."
At that perfectly natural badmouthing of me behind my back, I smiled.
"Oh, really?"
The moment he heard my voice, Park Ji-hoon froze on the spot as if chills had run down his entire body.
It was like someone had pressed a pause button.
I placed my hand on top of Park Ji-hoon's red hair and grabbed a fistful.
"So... what was it you said...?"
"..... Please spare my life."
There were plenty of reasons to explain why Park Ji-hoon listened to me so well,
but probably, a big part of it was that time when I beat the living shit out of Park Ji-hoon as soon as my rehab training ended.
Park Ji-hoon sat down next to me and then greeted Jong-su and In-su.
"Hey, hey~ I'm Park Ji-hoon. Nice to meet ya."
As he introduced himself, Park Ji-hoon looked at the game we were playing.
"Oh... never seen anyone else play this before."
Park Ji-hoon's dumbass energy started to rise, and he began getting along with Jong-su and In-su even better than I'd expected.
Unlike me, that bastard had juuuust a little more social skill, so he got close to people in no time.
If Jong-su's personality was all about adapting to the other person, Park Ji-hoon drew people in with his sheer idiocy.
Honestly, his sense of humor was pretty funny too.
We played Empurd for a while, and when we switched over to ROL, Ji-hoon's expression crumpled.
"I, uh, think I should probably go back to studying soon."
"Sit down."
"....."
"You gonna fix that look on your face or not?"
Park Ji-hoon forced a smile. His position was ADC.
"Why... why are we playing ranked... you see these kids hate me, don't you... haa..."
"I have to get to Bronze. I'm Iron forever, man, this time I see potential."
"No, for fuck's... why are you making us do this with you."
In the end, we racked up three straight losses and then moved on to Obawatch.
"".....""
I ignored Park Ji-hoon's gaze and stared at the screen with big, innocent eyes.
Park Ji-hoon looked at me like that, then muttered quietly.
"It seriously makes me want to fucking puke."
Acting like I didn't know anything at all, I booted up Obawatch with a pure expression.
"I seriously snuck out without my mom knowing to rank up, though..."
"Just go back in and finish your studying. I'm helping you out here."
"...Did your memory break or something? Do you not remember that you were the one who told me not to go?"
"Buuut~ I remember our Ji-hoon's shrimp perfectly well. Ahaa~"
"...You fucking bitch."
"...?"
As if fleeing from me, Park Ji-hoon headed outside.
Time flew by again, and before I knew it, summer vacation was over and we'd hit the second semester.
Since I had no one else to hang out with, I ended up getting pretty tight with Jong-su and his friends.
As I sat in the classroom, Han Jong-su came dancing in.
"My apples are here, yes yes~ oh yeah~ sheeit"
No matter how much time passed, my dad's 'My Apples' was so addictive that it stayed super popular.
Even so, Jong-su only ever sang that one bit, and after singing it for half a year, even his pronunciation was still off.
Han Jong-su was dancing in an even sleazier way now, using the pose I'd corrected for him.
Even the teachers would call Jong-su over and make him do a talent show whenever they had nothing else to do.
Time passed, and when P.E. rolled around, I went into the locker room to change into my gym clothes.
"Si-yoon!"
"?"
"Have you tried this makeup?"
"There's been a lot of talk about that one lately, right?"
I changed my clothes while having ordinary conversations with the girls I'd gotten close to since becoming a third-year.
I came out to the field and stood in front of the pull-up bar.
Kids gathered around me and Jong-su at the center.
"Jjong-su, lunch bread on the line today?"
"I might not have any muscles, but I'm not losing to a girl~"
"What about my friends' share too?"
"Hmm... so if I win? You're buying for the whole class?"
"Deal."
Jong-su grabbed the bar and started pulling himself up with perfect form. He was way better than I'd expected.
""Whoaaa!!!""
After doing eight, Jong-su dropped down and smirked at me.
"Think you can even do one?"
I showed him a smile, grabbed the pull-up bar with both hands, and started doing pull-ups with strict form.
"".....""
With my back arched like a bow, I pulled myself up using my back muscles, leaving the brats speechless.
I hit thirty, then did eight with one arm.
"And you were trying to compare me to a normal person, you noob."
Jong-su later saw Park Ji-hoon eating that day and was horrified.
The class split into those who were studying and those who weren't. I fell into the side that wasn't studying, and after messing around for a good while, October arrived.
With the mindset that maybe it was time to start prepping for the college entrance exam, I tied my hair up. Da-yeon sat next to me and started reading.
Maybe because I painted so often, I had a surprisingly iron ass when it came to sitting still.
Once I settled into a spot, I barely got up unless it was really necessary.
Most of all, the feeling of acquiring new knowledge after a long time wasn't so bad.
As I was focused on reading, I felt someone's gaze on me at some point and turned around.
Da-yeon looked like she had quite a few things to ask.
I wrote on Da-yeon's notebook with my left hand.
- Should we go outside?
- Yeah!
Park Ji-hoon and Kim Tae-oh were studying like they were about to pull off something serious.
They always went into a class where a teacher was stationed and studied with fierce dedication.
For the first time in a long while, I was outside, drinking a beverage Da-yeon had bought me while explaining the problems she was struggling with.
The first- and second-year brats were running around on the field.
The thought that in two months I'd become an adult did make me somewhat excited, but...
Getting my ID didn't really mean I could suddenly do much of anything.
I'll just have to go hard on driving.
Time passed again, and before I knew it, it was mid-November... the day of the college entrance exam.
From the moment I showed up at the entrance of the test site, I was exhausted from people recognizing me.
And on top of that, my dad was about to get out of the car holding up a sign, so I nearly smacked him to make him get back in.
If Kim Ji-ho stood at the school entrance holding a sign that said "Go, my daughter!" he'd draw a ridiculous amount of aggro.
So I pulled my mask and hat down low and went inside to take the test.
Even though I'd covered about 90% of my face, the brats still kept glancing at me.
I placed my test admission slip and ID on the desk.
An unmistakable tension hung over the brats facing this once-a-year exam.
Nervous expressions plastered on their faces.
Some of them probably thought this test was the indicator that would change their entire lives.
Like a frog at the bottom of a well, staring up at a narrow slice of sky and imagining what lay beyond...
Still, as an adult, it didn't feel right to disturb kids wearing expressions like that.
Before I knew it, the test began, and the exam paper appeared in front of me.
I had already pulled all the answers out of my head, but...
If I just laid my head down and started sleeping in this quiet space, it was all too obvious my breathing would disturb them.
When the Korean language section ended, the room split between those letting out sighs of lament and those with sparkling eyes. Meanwhile, I pulled out a novel.
During the second-period math section, when I saw the problems infamous as killer questions, the brats around me started to look pitiful.
For someone like me, whether a problem was hard or easy, it took about the same amount of time. But if the other kids got bogged down here, they would inevitably run short on time.
I steadily wrote down my answers and started working on the short-answer format problems that had been introduced the year before last.
Scribble... scribble... scribble....
After solving every problem, I spun my pen around and waited for the test to end.
When the bell signaling lunchtime rang, I got up and ate lunch with Park Ji-hoon, who'd been assigned to the same school as his test center.
A four-tier lunchbox my dad had packed.
In his handwriting, a note said to share it with Ji-hoon, but if I was going to feed that bastard, I'd need three of these.
"Did you do well on the test?"
"Better than I thought?"
"Oh?"
"I dunno about the answer sheet, but why the hell do they take the question sheet too, damn... I am kinda curious about my score, though."
Chomping down on his food, Park Ji-hoon looked like he had a lot on his mind.
He looked no different from any other kid our age in that moment.
"Did you do well?"
"Me? Always the same."
"I'm soooo fucking jealous, for real..."
Eating on the steps of the field in the cold weather felt strangely novel.
"Did you get your license?"
"Noope, too busy studying."
Since Park Ji-hoon was born in June, I'd wondered if he'd gotten it during vacation, but... well, if he'd gotten his license, there was no way he wouldn't have told me about it.
After eating, Park Ji-hoon looked at me as if something had just occurred to him.
"Your birthday's coming up, isn't it? Aren't you having a party?"
"Party? Why? You got someone to invite?"
"Didn't you get a building from Lee Gi-seok a while back?"
"Right? Oh... you wanna hang out there?"
"You got it, so you might as well use it."
"Ahaa, then let's use it next weekend."
"Should I invite some of the kids I've gotten close to?"
"...? You had people you were close to besides us?"
"Me and Kim Tae-oh, there's some brats we've gotten tight with at school."
"Whatever~."
Park Ji-hoon, having wolfed down everything he'd brought, started eyeing my lunchbox like it was only natural.
"Piss off."
"Hey, I saw it too, you know. What your dad wrote about sharing with me."
"Yeah, piss off~ like I care."
"Ah, just let me taste it, man."
"You fucking pig..."
I pulled out just the top tier of the lunchbox and transferred the side dishes I was going to eat onto it.
When I handed over the rest of the lunchbox, Park Ji-hoon, as expected, started shoveling it in.
"Damn... this food is incredible."
"I made that."
"Bullshit. Last time I ate something you made, I almost puked. Where do you get off lying?"
"I'm serious?"
"Yep, nice bullshit."
Since I'd had nothing to do lately and was learning cooking from my dad frequently, a fair number of the side dishes were ones I'd made.
Most of the side dishes really were made by me, but if he wasn't going to believe it, I had nothing else to say.
"You know how to shoot pool?"
"Me? Heh?"
"...? What kind of reaction is that?"
"Honestly, anything with balls, I win at everything except ping pong and golf."
"Oh... next time, how about a money match?"
"Fuck off! Hey, you and me, is our money scale even the same?"
"But you get double if you win?"
"Yeah, I'm not doing it~"
He said he wasn't doing it, but I knew Park Ji-hoon's personality better than anyone.
So I lightly pressed his trigger button.
"Always calling people girls, but I see the real girl was right here."
"... Bring it."
After eating, we went back to our classrooms to take the rest of the test.