CHAPTER 38……….
They say the flower language of a new semester is “assignments.”
I’d expected my game activity to drop once classes started, but I hadn’t expected to be buried alive under waves of assignments that hit like Aculac’s tidal wave.
Forget daily quests like random dungeons—I had to spend every waking hour just keeping up with coursework.
Every class dumped homework on us, as if each professor thought they were the only one assigning anything. My to-do list was a mountain.
“Professors should try doing their own assignments for once…”
Even in the midst of that chaos, my phone wouldn’t stop buzzing with messages from the guild group chat.
[Issa: Come to the Colosseum lol ㅇ ㅂㅇ]
[CheonmaDaeje: The gentle breeze that once embraced you will today become a storm that rips you apart…]
[Issa: What the heck are you even saying =ㅅ=?]
[Nyangmongi: Melee dominance secured, 1:0]
[Jankyung: Tankers should stay out of this^^]
[Nyangmongi: Technically tanks are melee too, you know?]
Sure, I could’ve muted notifications and ignored them, but every time I opened the chat, I just wanted to log in and play with everyone again.
“This won’t do…”
I needed a solution.
My idea? Turn off my phone completely. But of course, I still needed a line of contact with people at school.
So, I dug through my drawer looking for my old backup phone.
“It should be around here somewhere…”
I worried I wouldn’t find it, but luckily, there it was, half-hidden under some other junk. When the screen lit up, I reached for my main phone’s power button.
“Ah, wait. I should leave a message for the guild first…”
[Jankyung: Hwansung, Obedient—hey, you two are healers, right? That makes you ranged! Support the ranged DPS already!!]
[ObedientWarrior: Why should I;]
[Hwansung: Haeya’s a tank, so I’m siding with melee.]
[KimSooki: Even a mouse click can sometimes look adorable…….]
The group chat was still in chaos, melee vs. ranged bickering nonstop.
Really… give these people a single topic and they’d debate it all night long.
Anyway, I figured if I suddenly disappeared without a word, they’d just worry. So I left a message.
[Please don’t contact me… ㅠㅠ…!!]
It was short and simple, but it carried my meaning: I was drowning in coursework, I couldn’t afford to play right now, and since I wouldn’t answer anyway, better not to message me.
After sending it, I sighed at the pile of assignments waiting for me.
Running dungeons with the guild over vacation, taking down Eregos, holding that wedding ceremony with Hwansung—it all felt like a dream now.
“Better get back to homework…”
After all, priorities come first. Games are only fun when you can play with a free mind. Playing while pushing back responsibilities only ruins the fun.
But what I didn’t know was…
Because of that overly vague message, my quiet backup phone was safe, but my main phone was exploding with desperate messages.
Meanwhile, while Haeya busied herself with assignments, oblivious to the guild’s uproar, three gloomy men sat together in silence: Haneul, Yuchan, and the guild’s notorious role-player, Han Junwoo—aka Concept-Addict “CheonmaDaeje.”
“What is to become of our sect’s atmosphere now…”
Junwoo was a hardcore concept addict.
In normal society, he was perfectly sane, but the moment he met guildmates—even in real life—he stayed in character. At first, everyone hated it, but by now, they were used to it.
“Well… I guess it’ll take a while to recover.”
“You mean the storm will not subside easily.”
“That’s exactly what I said. Do you really have to put it in wuxia terms?”
“Silence!”
And with that, only keyboard clacks filled the air.
As expected of people who’d met through gaming, their hangout spot was a PC café. Unfortunately, only couple booths were free, so Haneul and Yuchan sat together while Junwoo sat alone in the next seat, playing in solitude.
Surrounded by real couples oozing lovey-dovey vibes, the gloomy aura of the “official couple no.1 + concept addict” trio stood out even more.
Yuchan hesitated, opening and closing his mouth several times before finally speaking cautiously.
“What if… what if Haeya noona never comes back…?”
“……”
He debated whether to continue, but once he started, he pushed through.
“What if Hwansung-hyung quits the game too?”
“……”
No one replied, but all three knew exactly what he was worried about.
Relationships born in games were both close and fragile.
Because of the shared hobby, you could grow closer faster than with real-life friends, but once someone quit, that bond often evaporated instantly.
Even after meeting face-to-face, if gaming was the only common ground, the friendship could wither away when one person stopped playing.
Sure, sometimes game friends became real-life friends, but that was rare. And in V3, while some had taken breaks, no one had quit completely before. If Hwansung did, no one was sure they could keep in touch.
And Hwansung of all people—the guy who never replied in group chat and barely answered personal messages. Yuchan’s worry made perfect sense.
Even if everyone called him rude and hot-tempered, they knew that was just his personality—he wasn’t a bad person. They all wanted to stay connected with him.
“If Hwansung-dae-hyeop doesn’t have us, who would he even hang out with? He doesn’t have other friends, does he?”
“He likes being alone. Tons of people try to get close to him, but he just brushes them off, says they’re annoying.”
At that, Junwoo’s face darkened.
“If he really quits and cuts us off too… I cannot endure the thought! I must bring Hwansung-dae-hyeop to sit beside me in this lonely seat!”
He actually pulled up his phone and searched for “Hwansung Dae-hyeop” in his contacts, finger hovering over the call button.
Just before he pressed it—
“Hey, don’t call him.”
Haneul, silent until now, spoke sharply.
“Oh-ho! The culprit dares to speak!”
“Indeed, indeed!”
The moment Haneul opened his mouth, Junwoo’s thunderous scolding came crashing down. His face screamed, “I knew you’d cause trouble one day.”
“If my dae-hyeop were to make headlines, I thought it’d be from his vicious tongue on the forums—not this kind of disaster! Why didn’t you stop yourself that day?!”
But Haneul only frowned and snapped back, even more irritable than before.
“I said don’t. Just leave him alone.”
“……”
He wasn’t shouting or threatening, but with his rough looks and sharp tone, Junwoo shrank back without realizing it and quietly set his phone down on the table.
He’d been… cowed.
Haneul raked a hand through his long, messy hair, strands sticking out everywhere.
“He probably just needs time alone. So let him be.”
“B-but…”
“Damn it… I said let him.”
Junwoo opened his mouth to argue, but immediately clamped it shut at Haneul’s glare.
Even someone as careless as Haneul couldn’t shrug this off easily.
He knew this whole mess had started because of him.
If only he could turn back time to that day at Blue Canyon…
“Ha, damn it…”
He muttered a curse under his breath, disgusted at himself for spiraling into “what if” scenarios. Junwoo flinched beside him.
He knew he had to rein in his temper and watch his words.
He felt sorry—sorry that Haeya had quit because of him, sorry to Hwansung, sorry for dragging the guild atmosphere down.
He wanted to fix it, but he had no idea how.
The only thing he could do right now was…
“Today’s PC café bill is on me.”
It was the only way he knew to show his guilt.
Yuchan’s voice rose in shock.
“Seriously?”
“Yeah.”
It wasn’t like the café fee was much, but still—
“Then I’m ordering jjigae cheese ramen, so-tteok-so-tteok skewers, and a green grape ade!”
“……”
“Junwoo-hyung, you too! Order something!”
“Then I’ll have premium pork cutlet, butter garlic fries, tornado potato, and a hotbar.”
“Wow! Hyung, you’re a pig?”
“For a martial arts master, this much is but a trifle.”
Just like that, the gloomy mood vanished. The two grinned ear to ear as they clicked through the café menu.
Meanwhile, Haneul sank darker into his seat, muttering to himself:
“Like hell I’m ever treating them again…”
