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Why aren’t they paying me?
It seemed like something he’d seen on the internet.
Giving up grilled intestines for a hundred million won, giving up soda for a hundred million won, enduring a mind-numbingly boring meeting with the company chairman for three hundred million won, and so on… The kind of story where you get money if you endure a harrowing trial.
Shouldn’t they be paying me by now? The total would be in the tens of billions by now.
Eunho stared at the unbelievably dull group around him, contemplating. He didn’t remember choosing the “endure a tedious alumni gathering for an hour and get paid” option, so why was he sitting here? He sighed.
He wished he could just go home and play Gun Tales, his most recent gaming infatuation.
Gun Tales was a popular game, featuring cute yet suspiciously well-armed characters who entered battlefields and dungeons to slaughter other creatures.
I want to game with Ruby, he thought wistfully.
It would be far more worthwhile to play with his guildmate, Ruby, whom he met in Gun Tales.
No, it wasn’t just worthwhile—meeting Ruby was far better than any gathering or meetup. Ruby was incomparable to anyone: fun, kind, cute…
“Don’t you remember?” someone said. “Mingyu used to like Sojeong.”
“Ugh, come on, don’t bring that up!” another complained.
They were Eunho’s former classmates—alumni of the same high school—and they were now howling with laughter as they reminisced about their unremarkable high school years. He aimed his gaze at them, imagining them as targets.
“I’m only saying this because Sojeong isn’t here, but back then, she liked someone else, not Mingyu.”
One shot.
“Mingyu, are you crying?”
“Crying?”
Two shots fired simultaneously.
“She got so pretty, though. Mingyu, we should meet up with her.”
“For what? I got rejected back in high school anyway.”
“Wait, seriously? Man, why are you just now telling me this?”
Moving targets are even harder to hit. But he took them down in one blow. Now, his ultimate skill was fully charged…
“…Ah,” Eunho sighed.
He glanced at Jeongwon, seated beside him, and put down the imaginary rifle. His interest had evaporated.
“What?” she asked, arching a brow. “What’s the problem now?”
Eunho waved her off. “Nothing, nothing.”
Leaning back on the sofa, he began to scrutinize Jeongwon.
Jeongwon Yoo was a long-time friend. They’d met in elementary school, then attended the same middle and high schools. He watched her short bob sway over her forehead, then his gaze shifted to the lip balm she’d taken out.
“What’s that?” he laughed.
“What do you mean, what?” The lip balm was light pink with a plastic ribbon at the end.
“Come on, what are you doing with something like that? What’s with the ribbon?” Eunho snickered.
“The—The ribbon is there so I know which way is up, okay?” Jeongwon retorted, looking flustered. “Haven’t you ever used lip balm before?”
“Of course I have! Who needs a sign on the top of their lip balm, Jeongwon? That’s hilarious.”
Jeongwon’s ears turned bright red.
At least something entertaining was happening at this meeting. Eunho, unable to hold back, slipped his fingers between Jeongwon’s palms and snatched the lip balm away.
“Flutters of a Blind Date Pink?” he read aloud. “Jeongwon, did you have to say the full name when you bought this? Say it—‘Flutters of a Blind Date Pink,’ please. Just once.”
“Oh come on, why would I say the whole name? I just asked for number three!”
Jeongwon, now completely flushed, tried to grab the lip balm from his hand. Eunho simply passed the lip balm to the alumna across from him.
“See, Jeongwon? This kind of thing is perfect for someone like Sunyul.”
Sunyul had long, wavy hair, and was wearing a frilly skirt and a slim-fit, light pink cardigan. Sunyul pursed her lips and said, “Are you still teasing Jeongwon? Stop comparing me and her.”
“Exactly,” another former classmate added, grinning. “Look at Eunho Ju, with his cocky attitude. You’re twenty-three now, you know.”
“Trash, total trash.”
“Stop picking on Jeongwon. Here, take this back.”
The others retrieved the lip balm and handed it to Jeongwon, eyeing her expression. But Jeongwon just stared at it for a moment, then shook her head.
“No, Eunho is right.”
She passed the little tube straight to Sunyul.
“Do you think I brought this ridiculous ‘Flutters of a Blind Date Pink’ lip balm for myself?” she scoffed. “Look, Eunho, use your eyes. This is brand new.”
Jeongwon pushed the lip balm in complete exasperation toward Sunyul.
“Take it, Sunyul. I picked it up on the way here because it’s your style.”
“Are you out of your mind?”
Unable to hold back their laughter at Jeongwon’s bluntness, their old classmates sounded more like a pack of hyenas than a group of high school alumni.
“Why are you trying to give it to me?” Sunyul asked, perplexed. “Eunho was just joking.”
“I’m serious,” Jeongwon insisted. “Do you really think I’d use ‘Flutters of a Blind Date Pink?’ The only time I feel flutters is when I land a perfect shot to someone’s chest. That’s just how athletes are.”
“Did you join a gang after graduating?” someone laughed.
Sunyul took Jeonwon’s offering in confusion, and tried to lift the weird mood by striking a cute pose, holding the bizarrely named lip balm next to her face.
“Thanks, Jeongwon! Eunho, how does it look? Does it suit me?”
Eunho looked her over, from the lip balm that seemed to perfectly match her cardigan to her face, and replied nonchalantly, “Yeah, I guess.”
The lip balm didn’t really matter to Eunho.
He’d just wanted to find a topic that would shake up this boring gathering. Putting Jeongwon and Sunyul aside, he caught the others’ attention and asked, “By the way, do any of you play Gun Tales?”
“When did you become a total gamer freak?”
***
Eunho threw his bag into the living room, changed clothes, washed his hands, and then, with the tip of his toe, pressed the power button on his PC.
“Hurry, hurry, hurry.”
He dropped into his chair, moved the mouse, and launched the game. The moment he put on his headset, a pleasant notification popped up.
<Ruby has logged in.>
Eunho worked hard to keep his lips from curling up and cleared his throat, greeting Ruby with a cool, deepened voice. The voice of his character, Graze.
“Ruby, perfect timing today. I just got on too.”
“Graze! We must be on the same wavelength.”
A warm and soft voice. A cute, playful personality. The adorable healer avatar. The pink sparkles that appeared above her name.
As soon as Ruby started talking in the guild’s voice chat, the guild-exclusive chat window lit up.
<StrongMinsu: Ruby probably looks gorgeous in real life too, haha>
<SupremeSwordMaster: Let’s do a guild meetup!>
“Ugh, gross perverts.”
The guild Salvation, where Ruby and Eunho met, was mostly filled with men. With her pretty avatar and sweet voice, Ruby was practically an idol amongst them.
There were even people who’d log in from their hospital beds just to hear Ruby’s voice.
Ruby had so many guys flocking around her that the guild’s entry requirements kept getting stricter.
<Ruby: Huh? Graze, my headset is acting up. What did you say?>
“Oh, nothing. Nothing. Ruby, want to go do dailies?”
“Of course! I’ve been saving them so I could do them with you.”
“Let’s just call it ‘not doing them’… Ah, never mind. Let’s go, let’s go.”
Listening to Ruby’s sweet voice coming through his headset, Eunho laughed inwardly.
I’m different from you losers.
Eunho was different from his fellow guild members. He was nothing like those pathetic guys who blindly chased after Ruby just because of her cute avatar and voice.
Ruby’s an angel. Her voice and in-game appearance aren’t all there is.
To him, her voice and avatar were just extra perks.
Ruby was kind, cute, and lovable, and being with her was pure healing. Unlike the rest, he truly liked her for who she was.
“Ruby, are we done with the dailies?” he asked after a while.
“Aww, I missed one…” Ruby pouted. “I got distracted following you and went through the portal by accident.”
“Then wait here. I’ll go finish it up solo and come back without leaving the party.”
“Really? You’ll do that for me, Gray-Gray?”
“It’ll take five minutes, tops. I got you,” he reassured her in his cultivated cool, gentle voice.
Eunho then maneuvered his character right into the dungeon.
Ruby had missed just one monster, but to catch that one, he had to massacre a hundred monsters. Still, he couldn’t help but laugh.
I want to meet Ruby at least once.
When he was with Ruby, even this tedious grinding felt enjoyable. He’d gladly give her every item he collected if it meant he could keep playing with her.
Isn’t this what true love is?
Even though he didn’t know her real face, wasn’t it true love to genuinely appreciate the beauty of Ruby’s very existence?
Eunho pressed the keys harder than usual, gathering more items to bring to the pretty healer.
***
“Hey, what are you doing? Looks like there’s nothing left for me to do.”
“Pretty big words from someone who maxed out every character, and that’s including their alts,” the guild master retorted.
“Come on. I’m asking what you’re doing.”
“I’m doing my dailies right now.”
Admittedly, Gun Tales was somewhat lacking in content. Wondering if there was anything more to do, Eunho had contacted the guild master of Salvation.
But the guild master was busier than expected, which struck Eunho as suspicious.
“Wait, you’re doing dailies? With who? No way you’d be doing them alone.”
“Dailies” referred to the daily quests—mindless grind quests where players endlessly killed monsters and collected the dropped items.
Doing grind quests alone was unbearably dull. So, players usually did dailies with guildmates, chatting to pass the time.
“I’m doing them with Ruby.”
“Oh, damn! Why didn’t you tell me you were with her!”
“These are PC cafe-exclusive dailies. You never do those,” he pointed out.
“It’s a different story if Ruby’s involved,” Eunho protested.
“Anyway, I’m going into a raid with Ruby. Talk later.”
“Hey, wait!”
The PC cafe-exclusive daily quests, which could only be done in Gun Tales-partnered cafes, offered little reward except for cute fashion items.
Eunho had no interest in avatar customization, so he hadn’t even realized this event was happening.
But since Ruby had a weakness for dressing up her avatar, of course she’d do the PC cafe dailies. How did he not think of this? He should have helped her with the dailies and given her all the items.
Eunho rushed out of the house.
“Wow, why are there so many people here?”
The place he arrived at was the nearest partnered PC cafe. It was a weekend afternoon, so naturally, there were so many people that only a few spots were open.
The last few empty seats were taken by elementary school kids who shoved right past him.
“There’s seriously just one seat left?”
Receiving a hesitant look from the cafe worker, Eunho walked to the only remaining spot. And next to that spot, he saw a familiar short bob cut swaying.
“What the—Jeongwon?”
“Eun—Eunho?”
Ordinarily, Jeongwon would have just cast a disdainful glance his way, but now, startled, she fidgeted in her seat.
She shifted as if to hide her monitor and suddenly shouted, “Don’t sit there!”
“What?” Eunho stared at her.
Glancing between the monitor and Eunho, Jeongwon took off her headset and continued to yell, “I—I haven’t showered in like, three days! No, four days! No, a week!”
“What? Jeongwon. I know I told you that you’re not cut out for trying to look good, but I never said you shouldn’t live like a human. Go home and take a shower.”
“No, actually, someone threw up over there earlier!” she said hastily. “They ate black bean noodles and threw up all over that chair! It’s seriously disgusting!”
That got his attention. “Oh, crap. Really?”
He grabbed the chair to check. Contrary to what Jeongwon said, the chair was clean and smelled fine. Maybe they’d scrubbed it thoroughly enough to remove any traces. For now, the chair seemed safe to sit on.
It was the first time in ten years that he’d seen Jeongwon look this flustered. It was intriguing, but wasn’t really what mattered now.
He had to raid with Ruby immediately. Today’s “man of the guild” had to be him, Eunho Ju, not the guild master.
No matter how bad it smelled, he had to take this one remaining seat. The next nearest partnered PC cafe was a twenty-minute bus ride away.
“I’ll just hold my breath and go for it. There’s only one seat left.”
“Ugh, go somewhere else! There are other PC cafes, aren’t there?”
“Why are you worrying about my nose, Jeongwon? I need to get into the raid right now.”
“I said you can’t sit there!”
Eunho pried Jeongwon’s arm off the chair and logged into Gun Tales, then called the guild master.
“Hey, I’m logging in now.”
“Got it…” he muttered distractedly. “No, Ruby! Heal, heal! Ruby!”
Holding his phone roughly between his shoulder and ear while setting up, he listened with surprise as the guild master yelled for Ruby.
Huh? Did Ruby disconnect?
Had Ruby suddenly lost her connection? The guild master was in desperate need of her healing skill.
As he was about to put down his phone with a click of his tongue, a familiar sound came from Jeongwon’s monitor.
“Warriors, leave your backs to me.”
It was the chant that played when a healer character in Gun Tales used their ultimate skill.
“…What the heck?”
A sudden sense of dread crept into Eunho’s chest. He could hear still the guild master’s panicked voice calling for Ruby from the phone he’d placed on the table
“Jeongwon, let me see your mouse,” he demanded.
“What? Why? No way, you lunatic!”
Ignoring her protests, Eunho seized Jeongwon’s mouse and peered at her monitor.
Dungeon instructions, the dungeon map, inventory, equipment window, skill window… All the windows that cluttered the screen seemed to be intentionally hiding something. He shot them down one by one, then froze.
And there it was—a gleaming pink PC cafe-exclusive name tag.
“…Ruby.”
That name, radiant and glowing: Ruby.
No way.
Why was Ruby’s character waving at him from Jeongwon’s monitor?
This better be a damn joke!

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