They went to the PC room where Sangwoo worked part-time. The manager happily gave Sangwoo a free drink, saying that it was his first time there as a customer.

“What do you want to play?”

“Whichever one you want, sunbae. I know how to play all the online games that have been released.”

“Something I play a lot these days… BG? OW? LoL? What are you best at?”¹

“I do ok at Battleground and Overwatch. I’m not that good at League of Legends. It’s been a long time since I played it, too.”

“Then let’s play that one.”

It was a joke, but Sangwoo just calmly said “Okay” and double-clicked on the game icon. Jaeyoung used a colorful combination and chose an assassin character that does heavy damage. Sangwoo, on the other hand, chose an ugly utility tank.²

While waiting for the game to start, Sangwoo meticulously checked the skill sets and team build of new characters on the game information site. Jaeyoung, who was reading a webtoon, was shocked when the game loading window appeared.

‘You said you weren’t good at it, but Diamond rank?’

It meant that he ranked within the top 1-2% last season. Jaeyoung broke out into a cold sweat.

His bad premonition was reflected in the game like that. Unlike Jaeyoung, who relied on his animalistic sense and physicality, Sangwoo was the type to win by thoroughly calculating the enemy’s movement and skills.

“Can’t you calculate the skill damage?”

“Don’t you calculate the opponent’s spell cooldown?”³

“If I said I’m going to the pit, you have to take damage and take out the enemy’s telekinesis.”

“We’re in the middle of the game, so why does the CS look like that?”⁴

“If it’s not lethal, try buying some.”

He criticized Jaeyoung in a very calm voice for two hours straight without getting angry once. The superplay, which Jaeyoung normally used to perform, strangely ended as a futile attempt in front of Sangwoo, and surviving through his intuition, made him seem like a novice who didn’t calculate. Ultimately, it had a similar atmosphere to being in the study room: the reward of taking a break by playing games didn’t change the mood at all.

Jaeyoung made a mental note. From now on, don’t fight Chu Sangwoo in <BG>, <OW>, <LoL>, and <Star>.

‘Shit. We’re gonna have to play Kartrider or something.’

*Notable point: Game Genius Chu Sangwoo

*Findings: No huge abnormality

(4)

Friday, April 11, eighth day of coming to the study room

Study Room Entrance Time 6:31p.m. / Study Room Exit Time 10:02 p.m.

*Excerpts of main scenes: Mw Mw⁵

It was about half past nine. Jaeyoung, who had completed the status, inventory, and even the skills page, was exhausted. He laid on the cot for 15 minutes and dozed off for a while.

“Sunbae, it’s time for me to go.”

He woke up to Sangwoo’s voice, but since he was sleepy, he purposely didn’t open his eyes. Jaeyoung was so drowsy that he couldn’t say goodbye to Sangwoo. Shortly after that, he heard the sound of packing by the desk.

“Wake up. You’re supposed to finish the roulette and title today.”

A stiff but somehow pleasant voice was heard from a distance.

“Are you asleep?” he asked.

Jaeyoung didn’t respond.

“Sunbae, are you asleep?”

Same question, but the voice had gotten slightly closer.

“Are you really… sleeping?”

The voice came from a very close distance. What was it? Was he going to doodle on his face again? Jaeyoung pretended to be asleep. His eyes were closed, since he was trying to surprise Sangwoo by suddenly getting up.

“You’re really sleeping, aren’t you, hyung?”

Hyung.

Jaeyoung, who originally was going to joke around with that word, couldn’t get up. There was silence, paralysis, slowness, a pause in time, and confusion. All conditions of abnormality seemed to have happened. As his view darkened, he could feel Sangwoo crouching over him while looking closely at him.

“For real, right?”

He heard the voice right in front of him, feeling the hot breath hit his eyelids. Sangwoo’s fingertips brushed past his forehead. Soon, his fingers fiddled with his hair. What kind of situation was this? Jaeyoung was out of breath, but he calmly showed his acting skills by keeping his eyes closed.

The time that was difficult to bear continued. Jaeyoung decided to move by pretending to turn, because he thought his face would cramp if he tried to endure for much longer. Then a soft ‘something’ touched his lips.

He had to hold back from opening his eyes. Jaeyoung maintained his composure with superhuman power.

Soon that ‘something’ separated from his lips. When he opened his eyes, Chu Sangwoo’s back was disappearing through the door.

*Notable point: ewlkfnsnfdmnrjpfw fuckwhoishetryingtokill

*Findings: ※Signs of obvious abnormalities found※

⌘W

Footnotes:

1. BG = Battleground, OW = Overwatch, LoL = League of Legends.
2. In games like this (e.g. OW and LoL), the utility tank is a character that doesn’t do much damage on its own, but is capable of taking damage and disabling the enemy team in many ways. It is an important role when fighting the enemy team (and often goes unnoticed, a lot like Sangwoo).
3. Spell cooldown is the time between casting the same spell twice.
4. CS stands for creep score. In LoL, each base spawns minions which the players kill for gold and experience. The total number of minions killed by all members of a team is its creep score.
5. Jaeyoung is using shorthand where ‘Mw’ refers to the word ‘mwah’ which is an onomatopoeia for a kiss sound.