Chapter 128

Kwon tilted his head and looked over at Yeonhoo.

At some point, Yeonhoo had gone bare-faced again. After all that fuss earlier, the mask and sunglasses had apparently gotten in the way of gaming, because he’d tossed them aside ages ago.

The blanket, however, seemed nonnegotiable.

Wrapped snugly in the soft fabric with only his round head poking out as he stared at the screen, he looked so cute that Kwon forgot Yeonhoo’s question for a second and smiled.

“You’re laughing? Guess you really are having fun.”

Apparently, that smile gave Yeonhoo the wrong idea. He answered his own question sourly.

The unusually sharp tone made confusion flicker across Kwon’s face, but he quickly corrected himself as though it were nothing.

“Am I having fun? Not really... I’m just doing what I’m supposed to.”

He went right back to diligently bandaging one of their teammates, apparently without a thought in the world.

Yeonhoo opened his mouth as though he wanted to say something, then closed it again.

Did I overreact?

Maybe he hadn’t needed to snap like that.

The thought had barely crossed his mind when the next messages appeared, and he froze.

(Alliance) heyua: wow thanks for the heal

(Alliance) heyua: Miyoung really is the best haha

(Alliance) OsoneDosan: look how fast those hands are Miyoung carry

(Alliance) MidIsBest: that healing hits sooo good lol

These guys are losing their minds over Kwon, aren’t they?

They were making an entire spectacle out of praising him.

(Alliance) heyua: Miyoung wanna raid later?

(Alliance) MidIsBest: lol lets gooo since fate put us together we should all go as four

(Alliance) heyua: lets go ill carry everybody haha

(Alliance) OsoneDosan: nice

(Alliance) MidIsBest: Miyoung after this wanna hop on voice with us and play some other games too?1)

(Alliance) MidIsBest: lol we play League and PUBG too

As if getting drunk on Kwon’s bandages wasn’t bad enough, now they wanted to leave Zombie Village and meet him in other worlds too!

If you met in Zombie Village, shouldn’t you just play Zombie Village together? Why the hell would you start playing other games too? Isn’t that a little much?

Yeonhoo glared at the chat window.

Then his eyes gradually relaxed.

Well, whatever. They can throw themselves at him all they want. Kwon won’t even blink.

Obviously, Kwon would—

(Alliance) NotMiyoung: sounds good

—Huh?!

“Hey! What are you doing?”

Yeonhoo whipped his head around.

Kwon had been focused on his monitor, but at Yeonhoo’s voice he turned with a puzzled, “What?”

Then he paused.

Yeonhoo’s face was visibly brimming with irritation.

The moment their eyes met, all the frustration Yeonhoo had been accumulating burst out at once.

“Are you bored with Zombie Village? Do you want to go play games with those people or something? Even so, don’t you think that’s a little messed up? You said you were going to play Zombie Village with me, so play Zombie Village with me! What’s with you? League? PUBGeeeee?”

“You told me to act like this.”

“When did I ever say that?”

But at Kwon’s incredulous reply, Yeonhoo’s pout faltered.

“You told me to heal people properly and be nice to them.”

That was true.

...He wasn’t wrong.

“You said they’d get suspicious otherwise.”

When they had first joined, Kwon hadn’t so much as glanced at other players whether they died, got incapacitated, or anything else.

Eventually Yeonhoo had been unable to stand it and repeatedly warned him, You have to take care of them at least a little or people are going to get suspicious.

“That didn’t mean you should agree to follow them into other games!”

When the hell had Yeonhoo ever told him to happily tag along when somebody invited him to play something else?!

Yeonhoo felt ready to explode, but Kwon genuinely seemed unable to understand why he was upset.

“I wasn’t actually planning to play with them anyway.”

“Then you shouldn’t answer like that!”

“But isn’t this better?”

Yeonhoo, who had been steadily working himself up, fell silent again.

“If I act like this, they don’t suspect us at all. If anything, now they want to get closer to us.”

“That’s...”

True.

At first, Kwon’s chilly responses had made their teammates wary enough to keep their distance.

But now—

(Alliance) OsoneDosan: lol damn we finally got ourselves a healer to run around with

(Alliance) heyua: this is awesome is this what power feels like whew

(Alliance) MidIsBest: seriously i was always so jealous of ppl who had their own healer buddyㅠㅠㅠ

(Alliance) OsoneDosan: fr fr where should we raid next time???

There wasn’t a trace of that awkwardness left.

“Everything’s going well, so why are you this annoyed?”

Kwon’s question was perfectly reasonable.

Seriously...

Why was he annoyed?

If things kept going like this, ranking up would be smooth. Getting friendly with alliance members meant less suspicion and easier information gathering.

“Yeonhoo.”

“I don’t know.”

So why was this so unbearably irritating?

“I'm telling you, I don’t know. I’m just pissed off right now. What am I supposed to do about it?”

“Yeonhoo.”

Kwon called his name in a soothing tone, but Yeonhoo didn’t even answer this time. He just bit at his innocent lower lip.

Kwon stared at him intently for a long moment, then narrowed his eyes.

“Are you upset because I got friendly with those guys?”

Yeonhoo froze mid-pout.

“...What?”

It lasted only an instant.

The next second, as though he’d never frozen at all, Yeonhoo launched into an overly loud, overly passionate denial.

“Why would I be upset just because you got friendly with them? It’s just that this place is—right, it’s a weird alliance. And you looked like you were getting too attached to these people, so I was just giving you a little warning. We’re only here to get what we need anyway.”

Did Yeonhoo know?

“B-but then you, you know, forget that and keep talking to those people about pointless stuff... and then the conversations keep getting longer, and earlier OsoneDosan wasn’t even hurt, but you went over and bandaged him anyway...”

Did he know how his eyes fluttered incessantly with every word, as though he were pouring out years of pent-up grievances?

“Actually, I... got shot too, so I was kind of hurt. My HP was even a little lower than OsoneDosan’s... but you didn’t heal me... Not that I was upset about it! But I’m still closer to you than those guys, so shouldn’t you take care of me first... No, I mean, we’re on the same team, so shouldn’t you look after your own team first? This is enemy territory! Anyway, you know what I mean. I wasn’t trying to get mad at you or anything...”

Did he know how busily his fingers were kneading and twisting the blanket?

“It’s just... like that...”

Most of all, did he know his entire face had gone blazing red?

Kwon wondered whether Yeonhoo had any idea that the longer he watched that face, the less he could hear a single word coming out of Yeonhoo’s mouth.

All he could see were those lips moving and mumbling.

It was enough to drive him insane.

Without a word, Kwon turned back around.

Forcing his gaze onto the monitor instead of where he wanted to look, he placed his hands on the keyboard.

(Alliance) NotMiyoung: actually sorry but i cant raid with you guys

(Alliance) NotMiyoung: even if i went i wouldnt heal you anyway

(Alliance) heyua: huh??? why not?

(Alliance) MidIsBest: wait why wouldnt you heal? youre a support Judicator?

(Alliance) NotMiyoung: my heals are for my sweetheart only

(Alliance) OsoneDosan: sweetheart??

(Alliance) NotMiyoung: yep

Clatter!

Yeonhoo, who had been staring at the screen because he had nowhere else to put his eyes, jolted violently.

Kwon paid him no attention and kept typing.

(Alliance) NotMiyoung: because i belong to IOnly sweetheart haha

Sweetheart?

Who was—

“...Me?”

Yeonhoo murmured in disbelief.

“You just called me sweetheart?”

He blinked rapidly in horror, but the words didn’t disappear.

If anything, the sentence referring to him as sweetheart seemed to burn itself more clearly into his retinas.

“Are you insane?!”

Yeonhoo whipped his head around in alarm, then froze.

Kwon was already looking at him, as though he had been waiting.

In an extremely low, deep voice, he said,

“Yes, sweetheart.”

His huge frame looked intimidating enough just sitting there, yet his eyes curved into a smile.

“Why, sweetheart?”

And he said it in the most shamelessly coquettish tone imaginable.

At that moment, Kwon looked like the single least appropriate living creature on earth to be saying the word sweetheart.

That didn’t stop him from saying it again and again.

Sure, there had once been a time when Yeonhoo had dreamed of being called that.

But this—

“You like being called sweetheart, don’t you, sweetheart?”

This was not what he’d meant!

Notes

Variety gaming—playing a range of different games rather than focusing on a single title.