PP Chapter 21
by Luka“Fine. I get it, so please, be good to Peach, don’t talk nonsense, don’t tease the kid, stop getting yourself posted on the Incident Board so much, and for the love of god, stop getting chat-banned for swearing too much.”
“Ah, I said I get it.”
“That is not the face of someone who gets it.”
“Boy, you’re quick on the uptake.”
Won looked at Chaei, who was marveling at him with bright face, and closed his eyes. If he didn’t, he felt like the violent tendencies inside him might wake up.
After staying like that for a long while, Won finally regained his composure and opened his mouth with a calm expression.
“Anyway, just take good care of him. From what I’ve seen, the kid seems to get quite lonely.”
“K.”
“Ha……”
“K k.”
“The number of ‘K’s isn’t the problem.”
Muttering like a sigh, Won raised a hand and rubbed his forehead.
“I shouldn’t have become friends with you……”
Chaei covered her ears at the words reflecting on his life from the moment he gained a sense of self until now.
Won stared with troubled eyes at his friend, who was making “bleh-bleh” noises with a face that clearly showed she didn’t want to hear it.
“Talking to you when you were crying in the orphanage was the biggest mistake of my life. I should have just let you cry.”
“Yeah, whatever. Deal with it.”
“……Really, it was a truly, truly massive mistake.”
Muttering it several times over, Won turned around to finally head out.
Standing at a slant and watching his retreating back, Chaei suddenly asked.
“But Won-won.”
“Yeah?”
“If you’re being nice to that Peach kid out of sympathy, stop it right there. You’re surprisingly weak against kids like that. The ones starved for affection and lonely. What are you going to do if he actually gets attached?”
Won flinched at the sharp point Chaei made with a nonchalant face as she toyed with the numerous piercings on her ears.
“Why, are you going to date him this time too if he cries and asks you to? But you’re straight. That Peach kid is a guy. Can you date a guy just because you feel sorry for him? Fuck, if you date someone out of pity, you’re basically the Virgin Mary of the 21st century.”
She wasn’t wrong.
He said he had given in because Dohwa persistently contacted him and kept looking for him, but if Won truly put his mind to it, he could easily cut off someone like Dohwa heartlessly.
Just as he told people his name was U-won when they asked.
Just as he smiled just enough to be polite and then deleted their contact info once he got home.
Just as he told a lover who demanded to know if he truly loved them that they should just break up if they didn’t think so.
No, in the first place, he could have very easily cut off a kid who went as far as changing his phone number just to get a single call through, yet still sent a text saying, ‘Hyung, it’s Dohwa,’ before calling.
“……But what can I do. The kid says he’s lonely.”
“Are you going to take responsibility until the end? Hmm? Are you? You’re just going to look after him for a bit and then release him into the wild. Without even asking his opinion.”
Chaei put a cigarette in her mouth, saying that was the absolute worst. Leaving the sound of the lighter clicking behind him, Won narrowed his eyes.
“Hey, he’s not that brat who used to get beaten half to death by that piece of trash. Get out of that moment already. Stop picking up kids like you used to and doting on them.”
“…….”
“It would be one thing if you took responsibility until the end. But you always cherish them ‘just enough,’ and then when they doubt that affection, you tell them to leave you without hesitation. Who doesn’t know that in reality, you’re the one abandoning them?”
“I don’t abandon people. People aren’t objects…… how could I abandon them.”
“Even if you say you didn’t, the other person thinks you did.”
The sound of smoke being exhaled was long. It felt as if the dawn air, which had been bitingly blue if not clear, had instantly become murky.
Won blinked slowly, his eyes giving off a strange vibe with their reddish irises, and then smiled faintly.
“Chaei, you speak too bluntly sometimes.”
“And you’re way too indirect. Is it because your mind is twisted? You’re like a twisted breadstick. At least twisted breadsticks are tasty; looking at your mind just gives me a headache.”
“A breadstick? Ahaha! Well, I guess so.”
Won readily agreed despite Chaei’s sarcasm and stroked his coldly exposed nape.
He still couldn’t wear clothes that choke his neck or wear accessories for a long time.
If he wears them even a little too long, he starts scratching his neck constantly, like someone who broke out in hives.
An ancient memory flickered between his languidly open eyes.
“Memories from childhood that are nothing special really stick around for a long time. Don’t they?”
Chaei didn’t say anything to Won’s quiet voice but stood beside him.
Standing tall, she looked up at his thoughtful face and poked Won’s waist with her fist.
“They aren’t exactly ‘nothing special.’ Hey, cheer up. I’m on your side.”
“Well now, I’m truly grateful for that.”
It was absurd to have her dig through his wounds only to shamelessly claim she was on his side.
Won let out a hollow laugh and ruffled Chaei’s hair.
“Shit, what’s this? Are you making fun of me for being short after I just comforted you?”
“That’s just your inferiority complex speaking.”
Won replied with an absurd face and said he really had to go now, taking a step forward.
Instead of following him, Chaei waved her hand lazily from behind.
“Bye! Don’t be too much of a misandrist! If you show your misandry among men, you’ll get bullied! And if possible, become the boss of your unit!”
“Chaei, Oppa is going to enlist now, not to go fight.”
“So what! If you don’t become the boss, you aren’t even my friend!”
“Wow, can I finally be free from being your friend?”
Chaei, somehow hearing him mutter that she was sick of it, jumped around like a freshly caught fish and poured out a stream of curses.
Leaving behind the curses he wouldn’t hear for a while, Won chuckled softly.
[Guild] Peach: Argh!!
[Guild] Peach: I’m really not going to take it anymore!!
Dohwa couldn’t stand it and jumped up from his seat.
Lately in <DieHalf-Assers♡>, it was a trend to buy a ridiculously expensive customization change ticket, make a character polygon identical to Won, and stand mournfully in front of Dohwa.
In truth, they hadn’t done this specifically to tease Dohwa, but since Dohwa was the only one in the guild waiting for Won, he naturally became the sole victim of this terrible trend.
[Guild] Peach: How, how can you do this!!
[Guild] Peach: Someone is here waiting like this right now!
[Guild] Cherry Coke: There, there, waiting for the ♡-like guild master while wearing pretty flower shoes.
[Guild] Cherry Coke: But Peach.
[Guild] Cherry Coke: Did it have to be the guild master? This Noona very much dislikes that choice of yours.
‘Cherry Coke,’ dressed in a maid outfit and using a polygon that looked exactly like Won, spoke while lying in a seductive pose on the floor of the guild castle.
If she was going to say things like that, she shouldn’t have used Won’s customization. She wasn’t one to talk, being the person who most passionately copied Won’s look while analyzing screenshots of him.
Speechless, Dohwa grabbed the back of his neck from beyond the monitor.
It had been 100 days of waiting for Won with all his heart.
He couldn’t eat well, he couldn’t drink well, he couldn’t sleep well, and he felt like he had developed low blood pressure—but thanks to ‘Cherry Coke,’ he felt like that low blood pressure was completely cured.
[Guild] Peach: Take off the maid outfit!! I said take it off!!
[Guild] FastAndPissedOff: Oh my, look how fiery our youngest is?
[Guild] Cherry Coke: Heavens!! You want to see this version of Won’s naked body right now??
[Guild] Peach: AAAARGH!!
[Guild] Professor Execution: Lmao, hey, stop teasing the kid~~
[Guild] 21st Century No Yeah: Loool, seriously guys, the kid’s gonna cry. Stop.
[Guild] Cherry Coke: I guess we were a bit too much. Everyone, gather up! Let’s comfort the youngest!!
[Guild] 21st Century No Yeah: Yeah-ee!!
[Guild] Peach: Ah, don’t do it! I said don’t do it!! Don’t!!
The members of <DieHalf-Assers♡> gathered slowly under the pretext of comforting Dohwa.
Before he knew it, the guild members who had copied Won’s look surrounded Dohwa in a circle. Then, as if performing some sort of ritual, they spun around with Dohwa in the middle.
Dohwa suffered endlessly in their midst.
It was when Dohwa was crying both inside and outside the monitor thanks to the Hyungs and Noonas who were having a blast teasing him.
Won, who had become a free man for a short while after receiving leave, flicked the hand holding his phone.
“Hmm. It’s faster than I thought, but……”
On the lit-up screen, a text message was displayed: “Let’s break up.”