GBAS 6

The two men stared intently at each other without blinking.

It must have only been a few seconds in reality, but at that moment, time stretched out as if an old tape was being replayed. It was to the point where the noisy store felt quiet.

“…….”

Just as Hyunwoo started to think the situation was a little strange, thankfully, the man turned his head first. The man looked around the store and began to walk in, but strangely, Hyunwoo’s gaze didn’t leave him.

As he followed the man’s thin back with his eyes, lightning struck behind Hyunwoo. At the same time, the muffled sounds, like being underwater, pierced his ears clearly.

“Young man!”

What flew onto Hyunwoo’s back, who had become a statue with the refrigerator door wide open, was the restaurant owner’s spicy palm. Hyunwoo, startled unlike his large build, turned around.

“Geez. It takes forever to get a bottle of water! Close the refrigerator before it gets warm!”

Thanks to the owner who appeared at the right time, Hyunwoo quickly regained his composure, hugged the almost-dropped water bottle, and returned to the room where his guild members were. And there, Hyunwoo was surprised once again.

“Uh….”

At the sight of the man directly in front of him as soon as the door opened, Hyunwoo froze again, unable to move. This time, it was Han Jiwoo who sensed the presence behind him and saved Hyunwoo.

“What are you doing there? Quickly bring us some water.”

“Huh? Uh, yeah.”

Jiwoo snatched the two water bottles Hyunwoo was holding, tossed one to the inner table, and took the empty glass in front of the man and placed it in front of himself.

The following words were shocking.

“Your Master is thirsty, you know.”

“…What?”

Hyunwoo’s eyebrows twitched greatly as he stared at the waterfall pouring into the small glass.

That can’t be. The timid nerd I know is nowhere to be found here.

Jiwoo nudged Hyunwoo, who was looking around in the wrong place while having the person in question right in front of him, and handed the filled glass of water to the man sitting diagonally across from him, asking,

“Master, didn’t you see him outside?”

The man, leaning back in his chair, brought the glass Jiwoo handed him to his lips and replied.

“…I saw him, but…”

A voice mumbling as if unsure. That voice was indeed the one he knew.

No way.

Only then did Hyunwoo check the name tag placed opposite his seat.

Master. (Baek Jooin).

After reading and rereading the few letters printed on the paper, Hyunwoo laboriously shifted his gaze as if pulling up a heavy weight.

“…….”

For the third time. The man, whose eyes met his, looked at him with a slightly displeased expression, as if wondering what the problem was. The moment the goofy avatar of Master in the game overlapped with the pretty face that looked as if he’d had his share of fun, Hyunwoo let out a sigh.

“Ah….”

I’m screwed.

👾🎮

Since that day, Hyunwoo never dared to go near Master again.

It turned out that Master’s behavior wasn’t bad or anything. The Master he met outside the game was as quiet and timid as the one he knew. It was just that his appearance was closer to a rockstar from a shady back alley of a red-light district than the timid, nerdy image he had in mind.

The reason he started avoiding him was, in a word, embarrassment.

The shame washed over him constantly, regardless of time or place. He was ashamed of himself for dragging Master around and acting selfishly, just as he had looked after the lonely friend from his school days out of pity. Every time he remembered how he sometimes acted like he was someone important to Master, his face burned.

What else could he do? The one with a guilty conscience has to hide.

Master found it strange that he was suddenly keeping his distance, but that was only for a few days. Hyunwoo, secretly watching him, wiped away his tears in secret at the sight of Master, who didn’t seem to miss him at all as he quickly made other friends and went about his business.

It was the other guild members who found the two strange. They had been inseparable like best friends from the moment they met, but overnight, their awkwardness was obvious even to them.

Jju

hehehehehehehehehe

See 11:32 PM

Jju

https://inben.com/thefrontier/freewriter/1819482 11:33 PM

Jinyoung

What’s this?? lol 11:33 PM

Jju

Master and Jeon Hyunwoo’s classic story is trending again

The comments are fun lol 11:33 PM

Choi Neuksal

Ah, I’ve already seen this lol 11:35 PM

Jju

Old man, what’s your point? 11:36 PM

I wish people would stop bringing this up

They don’t seem to consider at all

that the other person might feel uncomfortable 11:38 PM

lol 11:39 PM

Jju

???

What’s with them 11:50 PM

While he had enjoyed being paired up as a duo more than anyone, from some point on, whenever someone brought up a post mentioning the two of them together, Hyunwoo would make the atmosphere in the group chat icy with a serious expression.

A few notoriously persistent members followed the two around and relentlessly questioned them, but neither of them opened their mouths. Since the parties involved wouldn’t talk, there was no way to know what had happened, and after their speculations concluded with “something must have happened,” the two became so awkward, thanks to this invisible consideration(?), that it was as if they had never been close.

Well, there was that incident before, but the reason Hyunwoo was uncomfortable with Master now wasn’t out of consideration at all.

So what exactly happened?

The new incident occurred last week during the second guild meeting held on the Guild Master’s island.

👾🎮

The gazes of the people sitting around a large table in the middle of a vast lawn gathered at one point.

Gulp.

The sound of dry swallowing could be heard from everywhere. The people facing this critical moment stared only at one man’s lips. Because the moment his mouth opened, their fate would be decided.

“Uh-huh.”

The protagonist of this occasion. The man holding a popsicle stick with the word “King” written on it. Kunzoo of <Chain>, Kwon Yonghee, raised the hand holding the stick and shouted in an excited voice.

“Number 3 and 7, kiss!”

“Crazy!”

The excited king rolled his eyes like a madman and searched for the most pitiful-looking guy among the people hurriedly checking their numbers.

“Aaack!”

Soon after, a person screamed and threw himself onto the lawn. One of the numbers 3 and 7 had appeared. The nickname of the one who drew number 3 was WaterIsSelfServe, a 23-year-old male, Kwon Seonwoong.

“No, Yonghee hyung, are you really crazy?”

Seonwoong, who had been lying down as if giving up, jumped up and glared resentfully at Yonghee. Yonghee nodded understandingly at Seonwoong glaring at him and replied,

“Tsk. Still, you can’t talk informally to the king.”

“Are you insane, Your Majesty?”

“Ahahahak!”

“There are fifteen people here, why me?!”

While everyone pitied Seonwoong, who had happened to draw number 3, Hyunwoo, sitting in the corner of the table away from the crowd, was continuing his gloomy one-shot relay, even though there was no one to drink with him.

Until the alcohol kicked in, he pretended to be fine as if he was holding on tight, but in reality, Hyunwoo’s mental state was not so good.

“Ugh….”

Hyunwoo emptied his soju glass in one gulp and grimaced. The bitter taste of artificial alcohol is still not good. Hyunwoo reached out to the table and shoved the snacks into his mouth as he grabbed them.

Munch, munch. The words his girlfriend had left him a few days ago echoed in Hyunwoo’s head as he chewed the dry snacks.

“I’m really not….”

Pooh. The breath he exhaled from his core was full of alcohol. So much so that he felt like he was getting drunk on his own breath.

Just as Hyunwoo, slightly tipsy, thought about having just one more drink and reached for the bottle, the people gathered around Seonwoong started murmuring as they looked over at those standing next to them.

“So who is number 7?”

As the other penalized person didn’t appear, the atmosphere became increasingly tense.

“It’s no use hiding. Come out while we’re still being nice.”

“Uh oh? This isn’t good. Let’s flush out everyone hiding their sticks.”

At the words of Jju-President, Han Jiwoo, the fifteen people held out the sticks they were holding so they could be clearly seen. Yonghee, the king of this game, stepped forward and checked all the sticks presented to him, but the one with number 7 was nowhere to be found.

“That’s strange.”

This time, Yonghee decided to count heads. With three people missing, including himself, there should have been fifteen. One, two, three…. As he was counting, checking each person one by one…

Thud!

At the sound coming from the table, people’s heads turned sharply.

“…What?”

Hyunwoo, who was sitting alone while everyone else was standing, said, squinting his eyes.

Since number 7 hadn’t come out among the gathered people…. Bingo. Jiwoo, who immediately grasped the situation, approached Hyunwoo with a wide grin and quickly picked up the stick placed next to his thigh.

“Jeon Hyunwoo is number 7!”

“Aaack!”

Seonwoong, who was now faced with kissing a man, buried his face in the ground and wailed.