PP Chapter 11

[Party] Won: If you’re really thankful, do you want to get on Discord with me? I have something to tell you… It’s a bit awkward to do it through chat.

Dohwa knew what Discord was. It was voice chat over the internet, essentially no different from a phone call.

It was a simple request. Receiving an outfit worth hundreds of thousands of won just for one Discord call seemed like a losing deal for Won.

However, Dohwa, whose head was a mess with the thought of ‘Why is this person being so nice to me?’, couldn’t even think that far.

“Does he… does he like me?”

A few days ago, when he told Sohyun about the things Won was doing for him, he had learned the new term ‘online relationship.’

Wondering if that was what he wanted, Dohwa stared at the screen with a troubled face.

Unable to withstand Won’s urging, the character wearing the outfit he had gifted was fluttering and swaying, changing poses every so often, completely oblivious to Dohwa’s complicated feelings.

The hem of the clothes fluttering along with those movements was unnecessarily pretty.

“But I’m a guy.”

They said there were plenty of cases where female users played male characters, but Dohwa’s intuition was telling him that Won was a guy.

There was just… that specific vibe.

And something he had subtly realized while hanging around with him was that Won tended to be much kinder to female characters.

No. He was overtly kind.

Whether in a dungeon or a raid, or even when they stood their characters in a major city to talk.

Won always stepped in to help whenever a female character spoke to him or was in even a slight bit of trouble.

Recalling a few experiences, Dohwa raised his hand to rub his cheek.

They say there are guy-crazy girls these days, or rather, women-obsessed guys……

But even they would like ‘women,’ not a man playing a female character.

Thinking that way, the worry that doing Discord might only make their relationship awkward began to creep in.

Even so, his conscience pricked at the thought of ignoring him after receiving such an expensive item.

‘What should I do.’

As Dohwa’s eyes darted around, Won, who had been waiting as if to give him time to think, suddenly spoke.

[Party] Won: It’s okay if you’re uncomfortable.

“I’ve received too much to say I won’t do it just because I’m uncomfortable……”

Dohwa murmured as he recalled himself decorating Won’s house to his own taste a few days ago, and Won just standing by and watching him.

Right. He had received far too much to just brush it off saying he was uncomfortable.

It wasn’t just a lot, it was ‘too’ much.

Giving him items like this time was actually on the minor side of things.

​Won had given Dohwa the privilege to mess around with a house he had spent hundreds of thousands decorating. As if that wasn’t enough, whenever a dungeon or raid opened, he always tagged along; he acted as his personal taxi driver saying the roads were too confusing; and when Dohwa said he didn’t want to push the main story, he found other content and played it with him.

Even when he was leveling up crafting, Won did the grinding right beside him and even made and offered the necessary items.

‘He helped with all sorts of other minor things too……’

If it weren’t for Won, Dohwa might have quit Betting Bad long ago.

Now that he was counting them one by one, he realized anew that Won had done an incredible amount of things for him.

You might think it’s no big deal since he didn’t do it in real life, but considering Sohyun, who was the one who dragged him into the game, yet didn’t even play properly with him once, let alone help him, it was a huge deal.

Hadn’t he done all those things without even knowing who was behind the character?

​Dohwa rolled his eyes around for a moment before finally squeezing his eyes shut and answering.

[Party] Peach: Okay but I’m at a PC bang so it might be noisy is that okay??

[Party] Won: Of course. It’s fine.

At the readily returned answer, Dohwa installed an online voice call program for the first time.

Since he didn’t usually play games, he had no reason to use such a program.

After even signing up, he added Won as a friend using the username Won provided. Then, he shared his own username in the chat window.

As he stared at the single profile that appeared, a call came through before long.

When he hesitantly answered the call, a gentle voice was heard.

At the somehow familiar voice, Dohwa parted his lips.

​Where had he heard that voice before? It wasn’t the kind of voice you could commonly hear on the street.

It was a bit husky, yet strangely kind……

“……Won Hyung?”

As he murmured the name that suddenly came to mind, there was silence for a moment.

Thinking there might be an error, he pulled the phone away from his ear to check, but it was still connected.

“Hyung? Ah, are you not Hyung? Won, can you not hear me……”

The words he’d cautiously uttered just in case were met with that single sentence. And then, the call abruptly cut off.

Dohwa blinked his eyes blankly.

Blinking in disbelief at what had just happened, he stared at the computer screen. Before he knew it, the party had already been disbanded.

“……Is he crazy?”

Dohwa muttered to himself unconsciously, his hands trembling as he grabbed his phone and dialed Won’s number.

Usually, Won would pick up on the first ring, but this time, it took about five calls before he finally answered.

The moment the call barely connected, Dohwa shouted as if exploding with rage.

“It’s you, right! You’re Won!”

-I am Won. Who else would I be?

Won seemed a bit flustered by Dohwa’s shout, but soon a smooth, unfazed answer returned as usual.

At that, Dohwa burst into a hollow laugh without realizing it.

​What kind of human being is this?

​Barely swallowing the words trying to escape his mouth, Dohwa raised a hand trembling with sheer absurdity and swept his bangs back.

“Hyung, I’m asking if you’re the Won from Betting Bad. I’m asking because something truly ridiculous just happened to me, so answer me properly.”

At his voice trembling slightly at the end, a momentary silence flowed through the phone.

It wasn’t very difficult to realize that the silence was an affirmation.

In that moment, everything Dohwa knew about ‘Won’ flashed through his mind.

“Ah, crazy…… Hyung, were you a girl-crazy bastard?”

He couldn’t hold back the shout, and a laugh erupted from the other end of the phone.

Far from being offended at being called girl-crazy, he just laughed.

This was 100%—no, 1000%—the reaction of someone who had heard that many times before.

And as if to prove Dohwa’s assumption wasn’t wrong, Won’s answer followed right after.

-Is there anyone who hates girls? That’s interesting.

“That’s not what I meant!”

-You don’t have to yell; Hyung can still hear you just fine. I’m not that old yet.

“Ah!”

At the words he couldn’t hold back and burst out with, a laugh mixed with bewilderment and disbelief returned.

-But Dohwa, let’s not stay in touch from now on. I didn’t expect this situation to happen either…… I actually thought you were a girl and was even thinking about making a move. It’s a bit embarrassing to keep talking under these circumstances.

Whether he knew Dohwa’s insides were burning up or not, Won just kept spouting that kind of nonsense.

Dohwa, in his bewilderment, tilted his head slightly and spoke in an accusing tone.

“You’re the one who told me your name was Won and gave me your number first! You said it was okay to contact you.”

-I gave it to you back then because you were just a cute younger friend. If you’re Peach, then it’s a bit……

“A bit?”

-You’re a guy.

“Ah, seriously! Are you out of your mind?!”

-Yeah, I’m a bit like that.

The unnecessarily calm and sweet voice didn’t match the situation at all. That made it even more infuriating.

Forgetting he was in a PC cafe, Dohwa shot up from his seat and shouted furiously into his phone.

“Hyung, you’re seriously the worst!”

His voice boomed through the space, drawing several gazes toward him.

However, the stares quickly scattered at the sight of his reddened eyes and trembling shoulders, making him look like someone who had just been dumped.

Of course, focused on the call with Won, Dohwa didn’t even notice people looking at him.