KYB Ch 22

‘Ah, I logged in at such a weird hour.’

He had planned to eat dinner and then go back to play again, but ended up falling asleep. Then, he suddenly woke up at 4 a.m. and couldn’t fall back asleep.

After a short run and shower, Ye Woo-won still couldn’t sleep, so around six, he headed to the PC café.

‘Playing games at six in the morning.’

The café that was always crowded had few people on a weekday morning.

‘I’ll just refine the accessories and log out for now.’

He only intended to work on the accessories he had queued for crafting earlier and then quit. Since refinement took about ten hours, if he started it now, it would be done by the evening when he logged back in.

‘Oh, there’s a message.’

The mailbox sparkled unusually as soon as he logged in. Inside was a long message from no.10, along with some gold.

Sender: no.10

Hello, Yewoo-nim.

I must’ve surprised you by suddenly sending this.

😭😭 The thing is, earlier I was talking with those four guys and also doing some research, so I couldn’t properly say goodbye when you left. Honestly, I know it’s not easy to step forward like you did. I really appreciate what you did for us this time.😭😭😭😭😭😭

It was hard to believe that I could meet someone like you in such a harsh world…

.
.

The mail was full of thanks and countless crying emoticons.

Ye Woo-won yawned as he sent the gold back, replying that it was fine and that he was sorry for meddling and making things bigger than he should have when he didn’t even know the full story.

‘These accessory options are bad. I’ll reroll this again… hmm?’

A green light appeared in the Guild window. That meant another guild member besides him was online.

‘Who could it be?’

He clicked open the guild member list. At six in the morning, he didn’t expect anyone to be logged in, but there was one person online besides him.

‘Kisekki?’

He was even in the guild voice room.

Curious, Ye Woo-won clicked on it. It was the same voice room where chaos had erupted earlier that day. Everyone else had left, but both Kisekki and Ye Woo-won were still listed inside.

It seemed that when he abruptly logged out to escape the guild members earlier, he had quit the game without leaving the voice room.

‘I should leave too.’

But then, why was Kisekki still in there?

Was it the same case—he just forgot to leave before logging off—or was he actually there, idle?

As he stared curiously at Kisekki’s ID, a soft chime sounded. Ye Woo-won’s eyes widened slightly.

Just moments ago, there had been a mute icon next to Kisekki’s name. But now—

‘He unmuted?’

According to other guild members, Kisekki was a player who never turned on his mic. Even when things got tense and arguments broke out, he refused to unmute.

Ye Woo-won froze, forgetting to leave, as faint rustling noises reached his ears, followed by a quiet exhale.

—“…Why.”

The voice was overly subdued and low.

—“Who are you to take my side?”

Ye Woo-won froze at the completely unexpected sound.

After spending nearly a month around him, he had imagined what Kisekki’s voice might be like before. Because Kisekki always used rough, harsh language in chat, Ye Woo-won had imagined a loud, fast-talking voice.

—“You’re not gonna say that fan nonsense again, are you?”

But he was proven wrong.

Kisekki’s voice tone was sharp, but the pitch was low—languid, almost lazy enough to make one’s ears tingle. Ye Woo-won stared blankly at the screen, then, as if drawn in, put on his headset. After unmuting his mic, he spoke.

“I…”

The PC café was unusually quiet that dawn. Somehow, it felt as if Kisekki was listening closely to his every word beyond the headset.

“Didn’t take your side.”

Did it look like he had taken his side?

“I didn’t exactly take anyone’s side, I just corrected what was wrong…”

As he spoke slowly, he thought over Kisekki’s words. His tone gradually softened.

He didn’t think he had taken Kisekki’s side as he had only stated the obvious truth.

After all, the whole issue had started because Kisekki fought with that Mystic and the guild ended up on the Blacklist. But Ye Woo-won didn’t think that was Kisekki’s fault.

‘And regarding the Territory War earlier, obviously those four were the ones at fault, weren’t they?’

The same applied to what happened earlier. Those four had hoarded a lot of the guild’s gold over time.

Anyone else who had noticed would’ve reacted the same way. He had only spoken up because it happened to catch his attention.

‘Could it be… by any chance…?’

The word felt off. He paused and retraced his actions.

Could he really call that a coincidence? And more importantly—

‘Was it necessary?’

He realized there hadn’t been any real reason for him to get involved. While, of course, he agreed that wrongs should be corrected, it didn’t have to be right then and there.

Ye Woo-won was normally a cautious man. If it were him usually, he would have gathered all the evidence first before speaking to no.10. But earlier, he hadn’t. He had acted swiftly to counter those four who were yelling for Kisekki to be kicked out.

And perhaps recklessly—without solid evidence—he had pushed them back.

“Guess I did…”

How had he not noticed?

Running his hand through his hair, Ye Woo-won let out a small, disbelieving laugh.

“I did take your side.”

If he hadn’t wanted to take Kisekki’s side from the start, he wouldn’t have calculated their Territory War win rates to find flaws in the others’ claims. He would’ve just watched from afar, like an onlooker.

‘Because I was concerned.’

But he hadn’t. He had acted because Kisekki, usually outspoken, had stayed quiet that time.

—“You… what?”

“It just turned out that way.”

Kisekki sounded caught off guard by the sudden admission.

“I must’ve wanted to take your side without even realizing it myself.”

He had just denied it moments ago, yet now he was openly admitting it. Even Ye Woo-won found himself ridiculous and let out a small laugh.

—“…Huh?”

When he admitted it outright, Kisekki seemed momentarily speechless. Ye Woo-won rested his chin on his hand and blinked slowly. Under the glow of the monitor, the shadows around his eyes deepened into a dark blue hue.

‘Is he mad I took his side?’

From what he had observed of Kisekki, that was entirely possible.

After all, the first thing Kisekki had said upon unmuting himself was, “Who are you to take my side?”

‘Is he AFK?’

Ye Woo-won waited, wondering if Kisekki would say anything more. As the silence stretched, he got bored and moved his avatar around the Guild Territory.

Kisekki was still in the Guild Territory. It was a bit strange to see him standing in the exact same spot he’d been in earlier that afternoon, but Ye Woo-won moved his avatar and stopped in front of him.

Ye Woo-won quietly stared at Kisekki’s Necromancer avatar.

A long, sharp-looking scythe, and a pitch-black grim reaper outfit that looked like it could snatch his soul away at any moment.

‘The image kind of fits, but also doesn’t.’

At first, this sharp-looking Necromancer seemed to suit Kisekki perfectly, but once Ye Woo-won heard his voice, it didn’t feel that way anymore. His voice was low and husky, and though his words were rough, there was something oddly gentle in them. Maybe because his voice was pleasant to listen to, even his swearing strangely fit him well. It felt different from how Kisekki came across in chat.

—“Then what about that other thing.”

Kisekki spoke again.

—“You said… something about being a fan or whatever, didn’t you?”

The confusion from before had vanished; his tone was sharp again.

Ye Woo-won had been wondering what Kisekki meant by “fan,” then suddenly let out a quiet ah.

“Oh, when I said I was your fan?”

He remembered. When asked why he joined the guild, he had said he was Kisekki’s fan. Did he really remember that?

Even Ye Woo-won himself had forgotten saying it. Still, he answered honestly.

“I am indeed your fan.”

—“Fuck, there you go with that fan crap again.”

The moment he heard it, Kisekki went dead serious and let out a string of curses.

—“What bullshit. Forget it. I knew talking to you was a mistake…”

He muttered irritably, the sound of rustling suggesting he was about to leave. For some reason, Ye Woo-won felt he absolutely had to stop him.

“MysticComeServeMe.”

The words came out impulsively, without thought. Ye Woo-won regretted saying it the moment the words left his mouth, but how stunned must Kisekki have been?

—“…What?”

He asked back in a baffled voice, as if wondering why he suddenly had to “serve the Mystic.”

—“You—you bastard. You were with that Mystic all along? A snitch?”