Chapter 41
The result of interrogating my coffee-machine thief… no, Aseong's girlfriend.
Her name was Kang Seonyeong.
She was twenty-one and attended the same university as Aseong.
“You see… Aseong found my phone for me.”
I'd lost my phone, and we met after he found it for me… the rest is omitted.
Anyway, the girl who introduced herself as Aseong's girlfriend stood fidgeting in front of me.
“Hmm.”
I studied our coffee-machine thief for a moment.
She was petite and cute.
Her shoulder-length brown bob and sweet, innocent clothes made her look like she must be popular.
“Uh… um… why are you looking at me like that…?”
As I continued to observe her, the vending-machine thief spoke to me hesitantly.
She seemed self-conscious with me staring so openly.
“No, it's fine. Sit comfortably.”
Afraid I was intimidating her for no reason, I had her sit on the sofa, then sat beside her.
“Uh, why….”
“Where did Aseong go?”
More importantly, where had Aseong left his girlfriend and gone?
I hadn't even asked him to bring back coffee today.
“Ah… We decided to cook together, so we went to the supermarket.”
“What? Why'd he leave his girlfriend alone?”
“Ah, well….”
Tongue-tied by my question, Seonyeong kept glancing at the TV.
The Seoul and Busan teams had just started playing on it.
Hmm, had he not gone because of this match?
“Busan's better, right?”
“Y-you know about it?”
When I pretended to know what I was talking about, the vending-machine thief whipped her head around.
She seemed surprised that I knew the Rell tournament teams.
“I play Rell.”
“Wow… really?”
“Then do you play Rell, Seonyeong?”
Wait, wait. She looks so meek, but she's a Rell player?
In all my time, I'd never seen a Rell player who hadn't cursed at least once while playing.
Imagining Seonyeong, with that squirrel-like face, flinging insults about people's parents and fighting with her teammates…
It was funny, and I felt a sense of kinship…
“No, I just watch it.”
I froze.
I stopped just as I was about to feel that kinship.
…She didn't play Rell but watched the matches?
How did someone do that?
“You don't play Rell?”
“No… I tried, but it was too difficult. People cursed at me, too.”
“Really~? What strange people.”
Why would anyone curse while playing a game? We were supposed to be having fun together.
Rell players sure were strange.
“Right? Still, there were lots of nice people, too.”
Seonyeong started to agree with me, then seemed to remember that her boyfriend's older sister was a Rell player and hurriedly softened her words.
Wow, she dodged that interrogation nicely.
“Really? Then who do you root for, Seonyeong?”
I asked with a faint smile while watching the TV.
Busan seemed to have the advantage.
Maybe something had gone wrong early on; the bot lane was already showing a clear gap in strength.
“I-I root for Seoul.”
“Really? But they look like they're falling behind.”
Though I'm a top laner, Rell is actually a bot-lane game.
That made sense, didn't it? Top was a solo lane, while bot had two players.
So the side losing bot seemed to be in trouble…
“S-Seoul's top is strong, while Busan's bot is strong….”
“Really? Then I should root for Seoul, too.”
“Pardon?”
If I was going to root for someone, I should root for our top laner.
Leading the team alone, he reminded me of myself in solo queue.
“I, um, but….”
“Hm?”
As we watched the Rell match together,
Seonyeong, who had been watching my mood, quietly asked me a question.
“W-what do you do, unnie…?”
“Huh? Didn't Aseong tell you?”
It was such an unexpected question that I was momentarily flustered.
Had Aseong not told her?
“What? Ah… he told me not to go upstairs.”
That little shit Aseong….
He must have found it too bothersome to explain and simply said nothing.
Well, I'd warned him not to tell people I was his sister wherever he went in the first place.
But he could have told his girlfriend, couldn't he?
“I'm just a freelancer.”
More importantly, she didn't even know my job, so why had she been acting so nervous from the start?
I thought she was nervous because she knew I was a model.
“Y-yes?”
“I work when I want to and spend the rest of my time playing.”
Actually, I was a true workaholic who streamed even in my spare time.
But there was no need to mention that.
“Wow, I'm jealous of freelancers.”
“Why are you jealous?”
“You don't have to commute to work.”
“That's true.”
If I were a full-time streamer, I'd just play games in my room without commuting, wouldn't I?
Wow, that really would be an enviable life.
Anyway.
“Oh, right. Since you like tournaments, have you ever gone to watch one in person?”
I'd had enough of talking about my job, so I steered the conversation back to the tournament.
She seemed to know a lot about tournaments, so I figured I'd ask her about this and that while showing off my knowledge on stream.
“Oh, yes!”
“Really? What's it like?”
“Oh, it's great! Aseong and I are going together the week after next.”
“With Aseong? He doesn't even know Rell.”
That would be one thing if it were soccer or baseball.
But I couldn't really imagine Aseong going to watch a Rell tournament in person.
“Ah! We decided to take turns going to one each! Last time, we went to a baseball game.”
Hmm, I see. They were young.
The strange irritation I felt made me understand the viewers who were jealous of Aseong…
Uh, hmm.
“I'll head upstairs now.”
“Pardon?”
Right, I was streaming.
I'd been so distracted interrogating the vending-machine thief that I'd forgotten.
“The people I'm gaming with are waiting.”
“Ah… okay!”
“Then enjoy yourself before you go!”
How long had I been down here, anyway?
I hurriedly said goodbye and went upstairs.
Tap-tap-tap.
-Where the fuck did this bastard go??
-Idio
-Someone put on a song or something
-t
-Is the streamer not here??
When I came back, the chat was a complete mess, just as expected.
Haa~ I was watching a fresh-faced college girl, and now this.
“Gomen ne.”
-?? It popped up?
-Why the fuck are you only back now
-What the fuck is this “gomen ne”
-Use your home-field advantage, you bastard
-%$!@#
-Why so late??
“Ah, my little brother's girlfriend was downstairs.”
-??
-?
-Then you should've brought her in as a guest, you bastard
“She doesn't know I stream.”
-How could she not know?
-?
-The soundproofing must be insane
“Well, that too….”
I didn't bother mentioning that it was because of the difference in floors—
It hadn't even been long since I'd dropped the young-lady meme.
There was no need to toss more firewood on the flames by mentioning that our house had two floors.
“Anyway… ah, I didn't bring back my water.”
-?
-??
-Is this broadcast a joke, fuck;
“I'll make do with coffee later.”
It couldn't be helped.
I texted Aseong to buy coffee on his way back, then went back to solo queue.
-Queueing again?ㅋㅋㅋ
-What game is this today?
“I'm playing until I hit Diamond.”
For reference, I'd been playing solo queue diligently these days.
[Kangseok : (photo) So we're friends now?]
The reason was that Old Man Kangseok had recently reached Emerald.
At the declaration of friendship from someone who had been Silver until recently, my hands trembled so badly that I had no choice but to queue for ranked.
“Ah, my lane got swapped.”
-ㅋㅋ
-Can you play ADC?
“I'm not bad.”
A solo-queue warrior ought to have around three champions they could play in every lane.
I was fairly confident on ADC in particular because
[I will hunt those who have fallen into darkness.]
I sometimes played ADC champions top, too.
-With that as ADC;
-Isn't that a top-lane champ??
-No one uses it these days
“As long as it has long range, it's an ADC.”
And they were saying people didn't use this these days?
What a bunch of ignorant fools.
“This is a tournament pick.”
I'd seen Busan's team beat the hell out of their opponents with it earlier.
For reference, when I checked while waiting for matchmaking, Seoul had won the match.
-?
-??
-How'd you know what came up earlier?ㅋㅋ
“Of course I know. I even cast matches.”
-You threw after one day, though, fuck;
-Are you casting the finals the week after next?
“What finals?”
-?
-The finals of the tournament happening right now, dumbassㅋㅋㅋ
“Ah.”
What, there was a final?
Aseong had said he was going to watch one in person, so it must be that tournament.
“I'll pass.”
I was a little jealous, though.
If nothing else, I'd like to attend a final in person once.
Though not enough to go through the trouble of getting tickets.
I wasn't confident about ticketing in the first place.
I'd sometimes tried to get tickets to concerts or festivals for singers I wanted to see.
I had the miserable record of a zero-percent success rate.
Anyway.
“Watch closely. I'll show you how I destroy bot lane.”
The game started, so I began the laning phase with that much confidence, and
[Defeat]
[Princess of the East : Ah, I got matched with this *** bastard again]
[If You Ping, I Lock Top : Report for verbal abuse, good gameㅋㅋ]
we lost the game.
*
One game, then two.
As I played, I sensed that something was off.
“No, my coffee.”
-??
-Ah
-The coffee hasn't come?
No wonder I couldn't focus.
The coffee I'd ordered an hour ago hadn't arrived.
“Has the vending machine gone crazy….”
-For real, has this thing gone crazy
-Shall we go give it a stern talking-to?
“Can't let this stand. I'll go teach him a lesson.”
-Go go go go
-Go bring him back as a guestㅋㅋ
Had he really forgotten his actual job because he was fooling around with his girlfriend?
To remind him that his job was being a coffee vending machine, not a college student, I rolled up my sleeves and went downstairs.
“Hey, Kim Aseong, my coffee….”
This kid had gotten too big for his britches.
How hard was it to bring a cup of coffee to his hardworking sister—
“What, is it not going to work?”
“Tsk, sorry….”
Hmm.
I quietly rolled my sleeve back down.
What was wrong with them? Why were they so serious?
On closer look, there was coffee sitting in the kitchen.
Looks like he had bought it after all.
I crept forward.
As I took only the coffee from the kitchen table and started back upstairs,
“Oh, Sis.”
This oblivious bastard spotted me and spoke to me.
“Uh, yeah.”
Damn.
You shouldn't get involved in a fight between a man and a woman.
But now that I'd been spotted, running away would look pathetic.
“Ahem, what's going on?”
As her older sister, I had to mediate, didn't I?
“Well, the thing is….”
What Aseong told me in response to my question was
not nearly as serious as I'd expected.
“The conference is the week after next?”
“Yeah….”
These days, Aseong had become a college student, too.
Dad had been taking him along to academic conferences.
There was an especially important conference the week after next.
But the tournament finals happened to be on the same day.
“I didn't tell him ahead of time because I wanted it to be a surprise….”
It looked like Seonyeong had bought two tickets.
She'd delayed telling him the date because she wanted to surprise him, and their schedules had ended up overlapping.
I thought they should have talked and coordinated beforehand…
but what could you do? Women were creatures obsessed with surprises.
“I thought it was something serious.”
Anyway, I sighed in relief over such a minor problem.
Why did these kids get so serious over something like this?
“You know what having a sister is good for, Aseong?”
That little shit Aseong.
When something like this happened, all he had to do was ask his sister for a favor.
“Sis?”
“I could go in your place.”
“R-really?”
Aseong looked at me as if he couldn't believe it.
Was that really so hard to believe?
It wasn't as if it was difficult.
“But you said you didn't want to go to the conference.”
“Huh? What are you talking about?”
I frowned at Aseong's words.
Why would I go to an academic conference? I'd given up on math over thirty years ago.
“Huh?”
“I'll go watch the tournament.”
You might not know this, Aseong, but that's the finals of an international tournament being held in Korea for the first time in years.
You can't cancel something like that. And how could I send that delicate girl alone?
Besides, wouldn't it be more polite for me to go than Aseong, who knows jack shit about Rell?
“Sis….”
Hey, your sister was being considerate.
Why were you looking at me like that?
“No….”
Moved, Aseong gently lowered his eyes.