TGMND 92

Despite the game being registered in the app store for less than a month, there were already a lot of reviews. Most of them were positive, praising the story and characters. That meant a lot of people were playing it, and it was a popular game.

“Ah!”

Suddenly, a cold object touched his cheek, making Yeo-woon widen his eyes and look up. Yoon Ji-gu, looking even more startled by Yeo-woon’s reaction, stood frozen for a moment.

“Th-this.”

In Yoon Ji-gu’s outstretched hand was a can of drink, beads of condensation clinging to its surface. It seemed like he had done something unusual because he was thirsty.

“Is this for me?”

“They gave me one more when I bought mine. …Do you not like it?”

“No, I like it.”

As Yeo-woon quickly took the drink, Yoon Ji-gu let out a sigh of relief.

“But what have you been doing sitting here? I’ve been calling you from over there but you didn’t answer.”

Yoon Ji-gu said this while peering at Yeo-woon’s phone. Just then, a cheerful BGM played from the screen, and the character who had driven Yeo-woon into the pit of bad endings appeared. At the same time, Yoon Ji-gu’s eyes wavered.

“Wh-what are you doing…”

“Playing a game.”

Yoon Ji-gu couldn’t hide his surprise and stammered. Yeo-woon looked back at Yoon Ji-gu with a bit of expectation.

“Do you know this game?”

“…I think I saw an ad at the bus stop…”

It seemed like he hadn’t played it yet. Or maybe he was pretending not to know. Yeo-woon had been feeling this since last time, but it seemed Yoon Ji-gu didn’t want to be caught playing dating sims. It made sense—it’s not exactly a game you proudly show off to others.

“But… is it fun?”

“…!”

Finally, Yoon Ji-gu showed interest. Yeo-woon wasn’t sure why this made him feel so proud.

“I’m not sure yet. I’ve only gotten bad endings so far.”

Yeo-woon naturally handed his phone to Yoon Ji-gu.

“…You want me to play?”

Yeo-woon nodded. With a somewhat reluctant expression, Yoon Ji-gu started tapping the screen to progress through the dialogue. After the first character introductions, the protagonist took a shortcut to avoid being late.

Yoon Ji-gu cleared the rhythm game-like mini-game in the shortcut with a full score.

“Wow, that’s impressive.”

“…”

Even though Yoon Ji-gu seemed uninterested, he put in a lot of effort and still nailed it. More impressive was that he achieved a perfect rank without any practice. As expected, a dating sim master really is on a different level. Yeo-woon’s admiration made Yoon Ji-gu’s lips curl up slightly in a smirk.

After passing through the shortcut and exiting the alley, the second character to pursue appeared from a group of students on their way to school. It was a male character walking leisurely as if he didn’t care about being late or not.

‘Who are you? Why are you acting like you know me? …What? A transfer student?’

This guy wasn’t just rude; he was downright nasty.

‘Get lost. Stay at least 5 meters away from me!’

Yeo-woon had played several routes and initiated conversations with many characters, but he never spoke a word to this jerk. Not only was it because of his gender and personality, but also because the character design didn’t appeal to him at all.

Shortly after, a choice appeared that would affect the character’s affection level.

▶Attack. (Throw a punch and strike first.)

▷Sure, take care~! (Leave him and follow Baekho who’s going ahead.)

▷… (Ignore him and walk alongside him.)

In the game’s setting, the school apparently had no hair regulations as the characters’ hair colors were very diverse. This rude male character had messy blonde hair and multiple piercings in his ears. On top of that, he was the kind of guy who would occasionally show up on the rooftop while you were pursuing other characters, just to pick a fight.

In the previous playthrough, Yeo-woon had chosen to fight this character and ended up with an ending where he was hospitalized for ten weeks.

After staring at the screen for a moment, Yoon Ji-gu chose the third option.

▶… (Ignore him and walk alongside him.)

‘W-What? Why aren’t you leaving?’

The annoying guy suddenly blushed, and a faint ‘♥+10’ appeared and disappeared above his head. Yeo-woon frowned, seeing this character blush for the first time.

He couldn’t understand. Why did the favorability suddenly increase?
Yeo-woon had always played the game based on the principle of “What would I do if it were me?” So in the previous playthrough, except for choosing to fight, he had always chosen to leave the character alone. He didn’t want to stick around and get unnecessarily insulted by a character he wasn’t interested in.

Maybe Yoon Ji-gu also chose that option based on “If it were me.” Thinking about it, if Yoon Ji-gu had said “Stay 5m away” instead of the character, Yeo-woon would probably also choose to walk alongside them as Yoon Ji-gu did.

Moreover, as he kept looking, the blonde male character seemed to remind him of someone more and more.

“This guy…”

“…!”

Before he knew it, Yeo-woon was gripping Yoon Ji-gu’s shoulder and sitting close, peering at the phone. Noticing him belatedly, Yoon Ji-gu held his breath and rolled his eyes shifting down to Yeo-woon, who was sitting very close. His broad shoulders tensed visibly, showing how nervous he was.

“It’s hot, so stay away…”

“This guy looks like you.”

“What?!”

As Yoon Ji-gu retorted angrily, the character in the phone also blushed and turned his head sharply.

‘Th-that’s not it!’

They’re the same! Yeo-woon couldn’t help but chuckle softly. He hadn’t paid much attention before because he wasn’t interested, but it seemed this character had the traits of what is commonly referred to as a “tsundere.” The contrast between the rising favorability points above the character’s head and his prickly dialogue was amusing.

“It really does look like you…”

At Yeo-woon’s mumbling, Yoon Ji-gu stood up abruptly, his face even redder than the character in the phone. He tossed the phone back to Yeo-woon as if throwing it and said:

“Aren’t you going home?!”

For a moment, the words ‘♥+10’ seemed to overlap above Yoon Ji-gu’s head. When Yeo-woon couldn’t help but turn his head and chuckle, Yoon Ji-gu’s face flushed even more. Biting his lips hard, Yoon Ji-gu turned around first and strode away. Despite his insistence that they didn’t look alike, his behavior was so similar that it was hard to say otherwise. Yeo-woon hurriedly put his phone in his pocket and followed after Yoon Ji-gu belatedly.

“But do I really look like him?”

Yoon Ji-gu asked after a long silence. It seemed he had been dwelling on it.

“I’m not sure. But when I looked at him for a moment, he did seem a bit similar.”

“We’re not similar at all…”

Yoon Ji-gu mumbled as he fiddled with his hair. The sun was setting behind the buildings. The sunset must have settled in, as Yeo-woon’s gaze unconsciously went to Yoon Ji-gu’s earlobes, which still hadn’t lost their redness.

“Hyung.”

“Yeah?”

“…Aren’t you thinking about me too often, at random times?”

“Me?”

“Why do you even think about me while playing a game?”

“…”

Why indeed? Thinking about it, Yeo-woon couldn’t understand why he did it. He just remembered suddenly thinking of Yoon Ji-gu and installing the game.

“It’s really ridiculous and absurd.”

Yoon Ji-gu muttered to himself, then blushed again. Really, the more Yeo-woon looked at him, the more amusing he was.

“Why did you install that weird game in the first place? …Was it because of that guy who looks like m-me?”

“I thought it would be nice to have something to talk about with you. We don’t really share any interests besides swimming, you know.”

“Interests?”

“I saw the ad in passing and thought of you, so I installed it.”

“…? Stop thinking about me.”

Yoon Ji-gu tilted his head as if sensing something strange, but didn’t forget to point out Yeo-woon’s words.

“You like these kinds of games too.”

“Me?”

“Don’t you? You like dating sims.”

Yoon Ji-gu turned to look at Yeo-woon in shock. His face alternated between flushing red and turning pale. That’s a talent if you can call it that.

“Who on earth said that!”

Oops, was it a secret…?

“Okay… I’ll keep it a secret.”

“What do you mean, keep it secret? What kind of misunderstanding is this? That’s not true! I don’t use games to date or anything like that! I mean, they’re not even real people. What exactly do you think of me?”

“Hmm.”

“It’s true. No, ah, really!”

Yoon Ji-gu stomped his feet on the ground and looked back at Yeo-woon. He thought Ji-gu was just embarrassed, but seeing him deny it over and over made it a bit ambiguous.

“Really not?”

Yoon Ji-gu just glared at Yeo-woon without saying anything. The sharp gaze should be intimidating, but maybe because he was used to it, it didn’t bother him at all. He really looked like he felt wronged.

“If not, then nevermind… I guess I installed the game for nothing then.”

Not that the game wasn’t fun, but he felt a little disappointed. He just wanted to see Yoon Ji-gu excitedly talking about it at least once.

“Hyung. Really…”

“I’ll believe you.”

“No, that.”

Yoon Ji-gu was about to speak, then scratched his cheek and avoided Yeo-woon’s gaze.

“Did you really install the game because of me?”

“Yeah.”

“…You know that’s really weird, right? Are you lacking self-awareness, or are you just thoughtless?”

He must have been really upset. Why was he suddenly picking a fight?

“I’m sorry, I guess I misunderstood.”

“…”

“But Ji-gu, are you very upset?”

Seeing him walking a bit far apart without making eye contact made Yeo-woon feel conscious. At Yeo-woon’s words, Yoon Ji-gu barely lifted his gaze to glance at Yeo-woon and said:

“…I’m not upset.”

Well, that’s good then.

“I’m not upset…”

“Okay.”

“…Really, I’m not that upset.”

“I said I get it. I’m sorry.”

Yeo-woon chuckled and mumbled.

Yoon Ji-gu kept repeating that he wasn’t upset and muttered to himself about why he wasn’t, all while with a strange expression on his face. His eyes wavered slightly.