GBAS 43

The owner even winked at the glaring Jooin.

Hyunwoo, feeling the friendly atmosphere between the two was too intimate to interrupt, silently looked around the restaurant. Jooin pointed to an empty corner seat by the window and said.

“We’ll sit there.”

“Ye-es. I knew you would, so I kept it empty for you!”

The owner, who skillfully guided them to their seat, put down a water bottle and two glasses and asked.

“Do you need a menu?”

“Just one.”

The owner pulled out one of the two menus tucked under his arm, handed it over, and said.

“Bringing a new customer, too. Guess all that effort I put into feeding you paid off, huh?”

Jooin pretended not to hear the owner’s joke and took the menu. After handing it to Hyunwoo, Jooin waved his hand as if to shoo him away. The owner pouted his lips and disappeared in a scurry, pretending to be busy.

In front of Hyunwoo, the plastic-covered pages flipped by quickly. Photos of delicious-looking food flashed before his eyes, but Hyunwoo’s gaze kept drifting to Jooin, who was sitting across from him.

It seemed Baek Jooin really was a regular at this place. He wasn’t even looking at the menu, just fiddling with his phone.

Tap, tap-tap-tap.

Seeing him rapidly tapping the screen, it looked like he was talking to someone. The owner had said he thought Jooin had no friends other than the band kids, so the person Jooin was talking to was most likely a band member.

Just as Hyunwoo was pretending to flip through the menu while secretly observing, Jooin seemed to finish his conversation and placed his phone face down on the table.

Hyunwoo seized the opportunity and casually asked.

“You must come here often?”

Jooin nodded and replied.

“Yeah. The guys like it.”

“The guys?”

“My bandmates.”

Hyunwoo replied with an “Aah” and turned his gaze back to the menu spread out in front of him. Just as he was mindlessly tracing a food picture he had stumbled upon, Jooin reached out, closed Hyunwoo’s open menu, and said.

“If you can’t decide, I’ll order for you. You eat a lot, right?”

When Hyunwoo nodded, Jooin waved his hand toward the kitchen. At that, the owner, who had been peeking over from the open kitchen like a meerkat, rushed over as if he’d been waiting.

👾🎮

Not long after they ordered, the table was filled with all sorts of dishes. Skewers, stir-fried udon, fried dishes, and more. The variety of food prepared was enough to make one’s mouth water just by looking at it.

“What are you doing? Eat.”

At Jooin’s words, Hyunwoo first picked up the skewer in front of him. The moment he took a bite of the glistening, oily skewer, Hyunwoo’s eyes flew open. Even before he started chewing, he had a strong feeling that this was delicious.

After diligently moving his jaw and swallowing what was in his mouth, Hyunwoo next took a large portion of the stir-fried udon from the center with his chopsticks and put it on his personal plate. After mixing the mayonnaise and bonito flakes that were sprinkled on top, he took a large mouthful, and a tidal wave of savory flavor washed over his palate.

“Hyung.”

Hyunwoo, with mayonnaise smeared on the corner of his mouth, called out to Jooin in a low, subdued voice. Jooin, who was biting into his favorite fried food, flickered his eyelids as if to ask why he was being called.

“Hyung, what is this place?”

The tone of his question was quite serious. At Hyunwoo’s earnest face, Jooin let out a chuckle and replied.

“You like it?”

Hyunwoo nodded his head vigorously.

“Yes. It’s fucking delicious.”

“…Eat a lot.”

Jooin, who had been side-eyeing Hyunwoo as he demolished the food as if he would break through the plate with his face, soon put down his chopsticks and began to watch in earnest. Hyunwoo was really eating with gusto. Was it that good? It was enough to make one wonder.

Come to think of it, none of the dishes served at this place had ever been disappointing. The reason he didn’t feel it was special was probably because he was used to it, having eaten more meals here than at home.

Just as the plentiful dishes were starting to show their bottoms, the owner appeared again.

Clearing the stir-fried udon plate that only had sauce stains left, the owner placed a new plate he had brought in its place.

“This is on the house.”

What the owner brought was a steaming white dumpling.

The food he had tasted so far was more than enough, and now a freebie too? As Hyunwoo looked up at the owner with eyes filled with emotion, the owner winked and pointed at the dumpling as if to tell him to hurry up and try it.

“Thank you!”

Bowing his head, Hyunwoo picked up a steaming dumpling and brought it to his plate. After dipping it in the soy sauce provided for the fried food and taking a large bite, moist meat juices dripped down from the cut side.

The owner, who was watching with a pleased expression, suddenly patted Jooin’s shoulder and asked.

“So, how do you two know each other? It’s the first time I’ve seen Jooin bring someone else. I’m so curious, you know? Or is it rude to ask something like this?”

At the owner’s joking question, Jooin was the first to speak.

“It’s just, you know, somehow-”

He was about to give a vague answer, but Hyunwoo cluelessly chimed in.

“We’re game friends.”

At Hyunwoo’s clear answer, the owner muttered, “Ah, that game?”

“I thought you’d get tired of it soon, but it seems you’re still playing. It must be fun?”

At the owner’s words, Hyunwoo’s busily moving chopsticks came to a halt. For a moment, tension hung over the table.

“It’s number one in market share both domestically and internationally, and you haven’t played it?”

Hyunwoo asked in an unprecedentedly firm tone.

“Uh, yeah?”

“It wouldn’t have that kind of record if it wasn’t fun.”

“Ah…”

“If you have time, you should give it a try. There’s a lot of content now, so it’s a bit tough for a newbie to start alone, you know? If you join, I can definitely help you with the main quest. Baekjoo, no, just contact me through Jooin-hyung, and I’ll be right there.”

The owner and Jooin stared at the babbling Hyunwoo as if he were a curiosity. Just then, Hyunwoo, deeply engrossed in recruiting a newbie, even put down his chopsticks and said.

“Ah, then you probably didn’t know this either. Both Hyung and I are rank-, mmph-!”

“Stop, stop it.”

Jooin shot up from his seat and clamped his hand over Hyunwoo’s mouth.

How much was he planning to say?

It was one thing if people who already knew asked, but he had never once taken the initiative to reveal, ‘I’m a gamer, and a ranker at that.’ No matter how much the number of internet dwellers had increased with the development of virtual reality systems, the perception of game addicts was still harsh.

It was a good thing the owner was only interested in his business; if it had been someone who knew even a little about that world, he would have been cornered and interrogated with no way out.

When Jooin glared at him, the frightened Hyunwoo quickly nodded his head as if to say he understood. As Jooin let go of Hyunwoo and sat down, this time the owner’s questions continued.

“Come to think of it, you guys have a concert soon, right? Why is it so quiet? Isn’t it your first solo concert?”

Jooin, who was wiping his palm where Hyunwoo’s lips had touched with a wet wipe, slowly nodded. The owner lowered his voice and asked.

“Tickets? Have you sold a lot?”

At the interesting topic, Hyunwoo’s ears perked up.

“They haven’t opened yet. We haven’t even started promoting, so.”

“If you’re going to do it, do it properly, properly. You’re paying for it out of your own pockets, so it’d be a shame if it doesn’t sell out. Let me know when the poster comes out. I’ll plaster the whole store with them.”

“Poster?”

“Yeah. When it’s out, send me about a hundred copies. I’m serious.”

“I don’t know what will happen, but I’ll pass on the message for now.”

Jooin added, “Thank you,” expressing his gratitude.

Just then, the owner heard someone calling him from the kitchen and looked back. Even as he left his seat due to the summons of a tiger-like employee, the owner didn’t stop nagging.

“Don’t do it by hand, spend some money, money. What’s the point of having a landlord’s son in your band? Don’t just pay the venue fee, nag him from the side to pay attention to these things too.”

Hyunwoo, who had been sitting quietly and listening to the conversation since Jooin covered his mouth, stared intently at Jooin. It was a look that seemed to say he had something to say.

“What.”

As Jooin replied, Hyunwoo asked as if he had been waiting.

“I heard from Harim-noona that you have a concert next week, but was that a solo concert?”

Jooin thought for a moment before answering.

“Next week is a joint concert, the solo one is next month.”

Aah, so they were different. The question was finally resolved. Hyunwoo nodded his head in satisfaction and picked up some salad. He was about to pop it into his mouth after coating it evenly with the tangy dressing.

A question suddenly came to mind, and Hyunwoo put down his hand and asked.

“By the way. Do singers usually prepare for concerts themselves? Doesn’t the company do all that?”

Jooin let out a hollow laugh.

“What company would a band like us have?”

“Why? You’re good.”

“We are good.”

The band Jooin belonged to, Girina, was an underground band that started as a high school club. It might be different for a team with a hit song that everyone would recognize after just one verse, but there was no way an amateur group that only released digital singles would have an agency.

“But there are already a lot of teams that are this good.”