MAX 25

After Seo Jaeyoon, fully stuffed from dinner, returned home on his manager’s back, Han Jiho lay slumped over the dining table, fiddling with the doll. Beside him, only the remains of two chickens and several empty beer cans from dinner were left.

Originally, he had planned to play EoE with Seo Jaeyoon after dinner, making up for the afternoon when things were too hectic.

However, for some reason, an over-excited Seo Jaeyoon ended up overdrinking—a total catastrophe. The fruit beer bought from the convenience store for Jaeyoon, whose tolerance was barely half a can of regular beer, had instead become poison.

Sipping away because it tasted good, Seo Jaeyoon got completely hammered on two cans of fruit beer. With a beet-red face, he blabbered on about experiences from his career as a celebrity.

But as time passed, the subject shifted slightly, and he began to nag Han Jiho, eventually even urging him to return as a pro player. His logic was that it made no sense to give up on a dream just because of those “trashy things.”

Han Jiho listened to the drunken ramblings in silence.

Most of it was nonsense, but he knew well what his one and only friend was worried about. He had simply pretended not to notice under the pretext of resting.

It was because he himself wasn’t sure how he should proceed or even how he wanted to proceed.

Gaming wasn’t fun anymore, and it was no longer his future. The pro gamer Han Jiho was gone. There was only a man who had retired with the disgraceful label of “cheat allegations” attached to him.

However, after experiencing various things over the last few days, his wandering heart began to undergo a change.

That change started after meeting Chaehyun.

At first, he just thought Chaehyun was a kind and skilled veteran user. When he found out Chaehyun was his fan, he felt a bit embarrassed, but that was all. He had encountered countless fans like that by chance.

So, he hadn’t thought much of it, viewing it as a ghost-like connection that would vanish without a trace once the game was deleted. That was, until he continued playing the game with him.

In truth, he had only been playing with Chaehyun for a few days. Yet, Han Jiho enjoyed that time more than any other. Every time they fought intense battles and cooperated for one another, it felt as if he had returned to the days when he first started gaming.

Of course, in the midst of that, it was a bit painful due to the side effects like the clan members’ fangirling and the talk of a meetup.

Actually, if he thought about it carefully, those were secondary issues. What was fundamentally tormenting him was the fact that he had lost his identity as a pro gamer and become a nobody.

There was too vast a gap between the “Legendary Pro Gamer Han Jiho” remembered by fans like Chaehyun and the current Han Jiho, who was just a regular human.

He thought he was okay now that time had passed, but the wound remained vivid deep in his heart. That was why Han Jiho couldn’t believe that people were still rooting for him, liking him, and waiting for him.

He was no longer a pro gamer. He couldn’t repay the fans’ support and expectations with good performance and championships.

And yet, why did the fans continue to support him?

It was fascinating. He was curious.

And once more…

He wanted to live up to their expectations.

“…”

Han Jiho, lost in deep thought for a long time, put down the doll he had been fiddling with. Then he picked up his phone, which had been face down, and logged into In-star. The single post already had hundreds of thousands of comments.

almondhater Jiho, you’re doing well, right? I miss you ㅠㅠ

jione_k Jiho hyung is crazy handsome wow

drefsx Jiho hyung, I’m always rooting for you! I miss you!

reso.1218 te amo mucho♥♥♥♥♥

chrisishandsome ZIHO HYUNG I LOVE YOU

ziho__lover 传奇从不谢幕。我的王，永远不落幕。 (Legends never end. My king, forever.)

hxeoxxoxo Is Han Jiho’s face for real? You really should have been an actor ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ

10_cogus_10 Hyung, I really miss you… I love you.

chenxiao__meng 想你的一切 (Miss everything about you)

erikiscool Did they ever actually prove he didn’t cheat? eng plz ;(

⤷ holic.cola @erikiscool HE’S STILL CLEAN AND U R NOT COOL FU

⤷ chenxiao.meng @erikiscool Is being better than you called cheating????

⤷ drefsx @erikiscool What are you saying, you bastard? Write in Korean.

However, as is usually the case, there weren’t only supportive comments. Even if a complete explanation had been provided, there were always people who would doubt.

Watching the people who were rebutting on his behalf, Han Jiho smiled faintly and read down through the comments again. People of various nationalities were missing him with one voice.

In the middle of that, a familiar word caught Han Jiho’s eye.

‘10_cogus_10’

“Oh…”

Han Jiho blinked blankly as a sound escaped him.

Excluding the numbers written before and after, it was a perfect match for the nickname of the Chaehyun he knew. Furthermore, judging by the fact that the user called him “hyung,” the owner of the account was clearly male.

‘Is it really Chaehyun?’

At the unexpected discovery, Han Jiho finally sat up.

He wondered if it could really be him, but judging from Chaehyun’s behavior so far, the probability was very high. It was obvious he had rushed over and written a comment after hearing the news that Jiho had created an SNS.

However, he couldn’t rule out the possibility that it was just another person who happened to have the same ID. It was very common for accounts to overlap on SNS used by so many people.

…But you never know.

His finger hovered over the screen as if hesitating, then clicked the account. The screen transitioned to the profile page of ‘10_cogus_10’.

10_cogus_10

Posts 1 Followers 9,987 Following 1

Upon checking the profile, Han Jiho’s eyes widened.

There was no profile picture, and only one post had been registered, yet surprisingly, the follower count was nearly 10,000. It was a high number for an ordinary person.

Because of that, he briefly wondered if it wasn’t Chaehyun, but that thought was short-lived.

At the single photo that appeared as he scrolled, Han Jiho reflexively held his breath. Inside the entirely black-and-white photo was Chaehyun, eyes closed, playing the piano.

“…”

Was he around high school age? A black-and-white Chaehyun, looking a bit younger than now, was smiling. As if he were incredibly happy in that moment.

It was a combination he hadn’t even imagined. Yet, Chaehyun’s face—somewhat melancholic yet delicate and fine—sitting at a piano was as beautiful as an old masterpiece, so he couldn’t easily take his eyes off it. He even felt a desire to hear him play.

Han Jiho stared blankly at Chaehyun’s photo.

‘He said he goes to university, so he must be a piano major? He doesn’t look like an amateur…’

As he compared what he knew with these new facts, he suddenly felt heat rising to his face and closed the profile page.

He was embarrassed. He felt a wave of self-loathing, as if he had been stalking. It was no different from spying under the name of “coincidence.”

‘This is why I wasn’t going to do this.’

Han Jiho, experiencing the pitfalls of SNS firsthand belatedly, frowned and rubbed his eyebrows. Then he returned to the previous screen and looked at the comment section.

Chaehyun’s comment was still there.

10_cogus_10 Hyung, I really miss you… I love you.

As the words “I love you” overlapped with Chaehyun’s face, Han Jiho’s face began to flush hot for a different reason.

Despite having heard those words countless times, he was so unusually embarrassed and shy that he couldn’t lift his face.

And yet, why did he keep smiling?

“…Ha.”

In the end, he let out a laugh-mixed Hansum of unknown meaning and collapsed back onto the table with his phone.

It was two days later when Han Jiho next logged into EoE.

He had been busy in many ways, so he hadn’t had a chance to turn on the computer.

It absolutely wasn’t because he was afraid Chaehyun and the clan members would talk about his SNS. He had long since forgotten Chaehyun’s comment that was left like a confession of missing and loving him.

Anyway, he had done quite a lot during those two days. Once he reached a certain resolution, there were many things to look into.

Among them, the first thing Han Jiho looked into was matters related to his contract with his former team, DAWNRAY.

At the time of his retirement, Han Jiho had been able to wrap up the contract cleanly without issues thanks to the team’s consideration.

However, he had to check once more whether there were any legal issues regarding a return or resumption of activities. He had to take precautions in case any problems arose.

So, he contacted a lawyer he knew well to inquire about past contracts and matters related to a return. A day later, he received the answer that there were no visible issues.

The lawyer added that it was because the team had respected player Han Jiho, who had left an unprecedented record, and waived all rights such as trademarks, portrait rights, and first-refusal rights for contract renewal…

Well. Han Jiho knew well that it was the team’s scheme to avoid being associated with him. To put it nicely, it was consideration; to put it bluntly, it was no different from cutting him off. Waiving the first-refusal right meant they no longer considered “Pro Gamer Han Jiho” a valuable player.

But who would have known that, as a result, it would work in his favor?

Han Jiho was literally a free man. There was nothing to hinder him, no matter what he did—even if he were to make a new start.

With the possibility of a new start held in his heart, he logged into EoE. And as soon as he arrived at the hub city, Prime Nexus, the scariest thing appeared.

It was Chaehyun.

Furthermore, as if he had evolved, he had changed his nickname from cogus to cocogus.