I Fell in Love With My Tomboy Friend’s Avatar

“Jeongwon, you’re drinking too fast. Slow down.”

“Oh, yeah, right.”

Jihoon was resting his chin in his hand and watching Jeongwon, matching her pace. Jeongwon avoided his gaze and drank, unable to properly respond to his teasing behavior.

“The combo you recommended is really good. Do you order this every time you come here?”

“You come here all the time and never tried this?” Jeongwon asked, surprised.

“It feels like ordering that would get me teased.”

“You should have ordered it prepared for the teasing,” Jeongwon said wisely. “Once they try it, no one can say anything. This is always the first thing they sell out of here.”

As Jeongwon inhaled the fruit salad mixed into her punch, Jihoon laughed and nodded his approval.

Jihoon was very gentle, and he was the type to keep the conversation flowing, even if Jeongwon wasn’t pulling her weight. She could understand why his popularity hadn’t declined despite news of the fight spreading to every corner of campus.

He’s a decent person… I guess I was too quick to judge him based on what I heard.

Jeongwon felt guilty; she had made assumptions about him—all because of school gossip—without trying to properly talk to Jihoon. She also felt sorry for having been somewhat cold to him until now.

Jeongwon drank in silence.

“Jeongwon, I have something to tell you,” Jihoon said carefully.

He was surveying her face for a reaction. She lowered the glass from her lips, slightly surprised by the sudden change in tone.

“Yes?”

“Can we talk quietly, just the two of us? You know how things get twisted into wild rumors when others hear.”

Jihoon made a show of glancing around them. Indeed, one had to be careful with their words at bars near the school. Both Jihoon and Eunho ended up in their current predicament as a direct result of their disagreement occurring at a nearby bar.

When Jeongwon hesitated to answer, Jihoon clinked his glass against hers and said, “The rumors… Have you actually heard what really happened?”

“Uh… No.” Jeongwon shifted uncomfortably.

Jihoon deeply sighed and lowered his head. “I thought so…” He then slowly raised his head, met her eyes. “If you’re okay with it, I’d like to discuss it. People are gossiping about you, so you should know. Let me explain myself.”

“Um… Okay.”

“And I have something else to say too, ” Jihoon whispered. His voice was so soft that only Jeongwon could hear him.

Right, I should hear what happened.

Although she thought it might be better not to know, her morbid curiosity wanted to know what exactly Eunho had been saying. What he’d said that made Jihoon hit him.

…Wait, what else does he have to say?

Jeongwon was extremely uncomfortable. She had no idea what the “something else” could be. No, actually, she had an idea. What kind of thing couldn’t be said at a bar near school, and needed to be said quietly, just the two of them?

Is—Is he going to tell me that he’s interested in me? A real confession of interest? Then… No, I can just reject him after I learn about what happened.

After thinking for a moment, Jeongwon nodded slightly. Jihoon gathered his things and stood up.

“Then I’ll pay. Let’s move somewhere else.”

“Why?”

“People might misunderstand if they hear. I’m really sick of gossip right now.”

Seeing Jihoon’s worried face, Jeongwon’s heart softened. Of course, he must have known all the different versions circulating through the school, being as popular as he was.

“Can we just go outside for now?” he asked. “Behind the building, where people smoke. We can talk there.”

Jeongwon briefly envisioned the place he was referring to, and slowly nodded. It was literally just a wide open alley. It seemed safe enough.

“Okay, let’s go.”

Jeongwon stood up, steeling herself for whatever she was about to hear.

***

“Damn, why won’t this work?” Eunho muttered, glaring at the screen. Every attack he made seemed to flawlessly miss the monster. He couldn’t focus.

“Ah, sorry. Ugh, why is this happening… Is it my keyboard? I think it’s broken.”

Eunho tried to force himself to focus as he made excuses about the keyboard. He slapped both his cheeks and stared at the screen.

“Damn it, Graze. I just respawned. How am I supposed to get back there, seriously!”

“Ahhh, sorry, sorry. Why is this happening? I really think my keyboard is broken.”

Missing the target and respawning at the first section meant it took a whole 3 minutes to reach the boss room. The healer, who had already respawned twice, started grinding their teeth.

“…I’m sorry. Should I go change my keyboard?” Eunho cautiously tested the waters, but the healer gave no response. Eunho felt like the frustration would kill him. Normally, this would have been an easy boss. If he could just land his hits, the boss would die immediately. But today he kept losing focus. Every time he saw the boss monster, Jihoon popping into his mind.

“Damn, it’s not even love, what is this…”

It wasn’t love. Jihoon kept coming to mind because of Jeongwon. Ever since he learned what kind of person Jihoon was, he kept thinking about Jeongwon being with the guy. Right now, there was a healer with a kind and pretty voice spending time with him, so why was he worried about Jeongwon of all people? Eunho was angry at himself for being so frustrating. Just as he made the keyboard excuse to catch his breath, the healer spoke.

“Ah, shit. I joined the party thinking your accuracy was good, but you’re just some shitty newbie that rolled in here.”

Eunho blinked slowly. That was not the healer’s voice. It was a deep, male voice.

“…Healer? Where did the healer go? Why are you in our Yes-Code room?”

“Yiu fucking told me to trust you. What about all those items I used to revive you? Give them back, you dick!”

The healer… was a catfish.

Did he have some kind of cyber target on his back? In his overwhelming shock, Eunho quickly pressed the tower button with his toe.

“You fucking bastard, I used up all my dungeon entries today, fuck! Give me my dungeon reset potion. Give it!”

After about 10 seconds, the voice chat ended along with the tower shutdown. Eunho buried his face in the keyboard.

I should just quit gaming, fuck… This is all…

Everything that had been going wrong since he started gaming was all because of Jeongwon.

He quit Gun Tales because of Ruby, and now he’d lost his focus on the new game, Tales Story, because of Jeongwon, which ended up revealing the healer’s true identity. It might have been better not knowing.

Jeongwon Yoo, Jeongwon. Was Jeongwon doing okay? As soon as that thought crossed his mind, Eunho lifted his head and slapped his cheeks.

“She’s an adult too, damn it. She can handle it. She’s been doing fine on her own all this time, right?”

Even as he tried to argue with himself, his jiggling legs gave him away. The desk was trembling with their rapid movement.

“Al—Alcohol. Right. I want to drink. Damn, I need to forget even if it means soaking myself in alcohol.”

Eunho thought his throat was burning because of the catfish incident, and that he needed alcohol to forget said catfish incident. It absolutely wasn’t because he was worried about Jeongwon. She wasn’t the reason, it was just because he was desperately craving alcohol.

He pulled out his phone and made a call.

“Hey, Seokjun. Come out… Where did you say Jeongwon drinks? No, damn it. It’s because their fruit salad punch is fucking delicious.”

***

“So they were recruiting a college entrance exam tutor and he said he’d do it. He’s obviously just trying to meet young women. So Jeongah…”

Eunho nodded absently.

“Hey, Eunho. Are you listening to me?” Seokjun said, waving a hand in front of Eunho’s face.

“I’m listening. Jeongah got younger and is starting college entrance exams again?” Eunho said vaguely.

“What the hell, how does that even make sense?”

He called Seokjun to the bar where Jeongwon was supposedly drinking. They ordered the famous fruit salad punch and some alcohol, but somehow the drink wouldn’t go down Eunho’s throat.

“Hey, Seokjun. But is that…”

“That what?”

“That… you know.”

“Dried pollack? You seriously have an unhealthy obsession with dried pollack. We’re not ordering it today.”

“No, damn it. I mean people. That—That person.”

“Jisoo? I heard Jisoo quit this place and works at Haengarae now. Remember how Jisoo would add dried squid on top of the dried pollack?”

“Forget Haengarae and dried squid and whatever, fuck, Jeong—Is Jeongwon drinking here?”

No matter how much he looked, he couldn’t spot Jeongwon. When Eunho probed him, Seokjun groaned as he’d known all along what Eunho had been up to.

“Just be honest, why do you care?.”

“It’s not—I need to get something from her. She owes me.”

“Really?” Seokjun said skeptically. “She doesn’t even look at you these days.”

“That’s that and debt is debt. Anyway, where is she?”

“How would I know? Probably went for round two with that upperclassman. This isn’t really a place for round two drinks. All the portions are huge so it’s too expensive.”

As soon as he heard that, Eunho’s legs started bouncing again. Anxiety thrummed through his nervous system.

“So that’s why Jeongah said that,” Seokjun continued, as if there had been no interruption. “Being an entrance exam tutor is also a service job. We’re going to test who can handle the exam students best.”

“Jeongwon was really hilarious when she worked at the amusement park,” Eunho said absently.

Seokjun scratched his ear. “Huh?”

Eunho was anxious enough to go crazy. He knew too well that Jeongwon could handle herself. She was an adult, and given that her major had lots of men around, he thought she’d have a decent eye for men.

But conversely, because there were many men around, there was also a chance she had romantic fantasies about “different men.” Because there were so many rough guys around, she might fall for a different kind of man, like Jihoon, who was handsome and pretended to be gentle.

Fuck, making me nervous…

Eunho wondered how much blame he had to shoulder, since he had helped her choose nice clothes, resulting in trash like Jihoon becoming attracted to her. What if she got hurt?

Guilt came crawling up.

Eunho knew what people said about Jihoon. He knew Jihoon was a shit person. Only Eunho knew exactly what Jihoon had said that night, and how he thought about Jeongwon.

Eunho had to tell Jeongwon about it.

Fuck…

He clutched his head. He should have told her the truth. Even if Jeongwon ignored him and viewed him as a cockroach under her boot, he could have at least warned her to be careful of that bastard.

No, why should I?

Jeongwon cut Eunho off first. She got angry at Eunho and turned away. He wasn’t obligated to watch out for someone who hated him, right?

But, even though it was Jeongwon, could she overcome a man’s strength, especially if he was also a martial arts expert? What if something bad happened? Eunho’s head was spinning from the emotional whiplash.

“Ah, right. Amusement park,” Seokjun went on. “That’s exactly the service job standard. So that moron, Minseok, suddenly started waving his hands like crazy, acting like an amusement park worker—”

“I laughed so hard when I heard she applied for the doll shop but got dropped to food and beverages and had to carry around syrup.”

“Fuck, are you even listening to me?” Seokjun slammed the table in anger, and Eunho jumped up. “What’s your problem, man?”

“I’m leaving,” Eunho said shortly.

“What? Where are you going?”

Without responding, Eunho left Seokjun sitting, slackjawed, at their table. He planned to search every single bar, but then again, this was around a university area, and young people loved nothing more than drinking.

“Fuck, why are there so many bars?!”

He ran around, going from bar to bar, even throwing off the denim jacket he’d worn. He searched every bar and even restaurants.

“Hey, you dropped your jacket!” someone yelled.

“Keep it!” Eunho called back.

“What am I supposed to do with this crap?”

After a few more minutes of frantic searching, Eunho stopped abruptly.

“The back of that head…”

A familiar back was in the distance, in the alley behind the bar, in that alley where no one was around. What was Jihoon trying to do to Jeongwon, taking her to such a dark place?

“Jeongwon Yoo!” Eunho shouted.

As soon as he saw Jeongwon’s back, Eunho sprinted in her direction. Even when he stumbled and had throw his hands to the ground to stop himself from face-planting, he leapt back up and kept going.

“You—You—You—”

Jeongwon whipped around, alarm on her face, and yelled back, “Wh—what?!”

Eunho ignored the flinch in Jeongwon’s shoulders as he neared, and looked her up and down. Without thinking about how embarrassing it was to have run here for Jeongwon, or how to explain himself, Eunho examined every inch of Jeongwon.

Her clothes and hair were disheveled, and her face was completely red. Eunho felt a surge of emotion. If he had come a bit faster, this wouldn’t have happened.

Eunho bit the inside of his cheek and asked, “Are—Are… Are…”

“Are…?”

“Why did you come out here with him!” he finally choked out. “If you’d just met men properly, fuck! I told you to watch yourself!”

Eunho suddenly closed his mouth, putting a halt to the flood of misplaced rage. He saw a fallen man behind Jeongwon.

It was Jihoon, face-down on a garbage bag.

“You… did watch yourself,” he said, staring down at the motionless man.

It seemed Jeongwon had won the fight. He appeared to simply be knocked out, having fallen on garbage rather than asphalt.

Jeongwon was top of the class in both academics and practicals, fuck.

Jeongwon really was the best in her class. In every way. Eunho’s wild search was finally catching up with him, and he felt himself sag slightly.

“Why are you here?” Jeongwon asked, suspicion coloring her voice. “How did you know where I was?”

“That—that’s—”

Should he tell the truth and say he came because he was worried about her? As soon as that thought crossed his mind, Eunho bit his tongue. The stinging pain brought him back to his senses.

“Move.” Eunho pushed Jeongwon aside. He crouched down beside Jihoon and tapped his cheek. He raised his head and glanced around. “No one’s here right?”

“No, no one. Now answer my question; why did you come?”

“Good.”

Eunho slapped Jihoon’s cheek hard, channeling all his convoluted emotions into the strike.

“Jihoon, wake up,” he crooned in a sickeningly sweet voice. “Hey, Jeongwon. How could you do this to someone? Are you some kind of beast? You just knock people down if they annoy you?” The faux concern was thick in his tone.

“I couldn’t knock you down,” she pointed out.

“Ji—Jihoon. Wake up! Are you okay?”

Eunho slapped Jihoon’s cheeks a few more times, with great satisfaction, until Jeongwon stopped him.