Ji-han was a little surprised at himself.
How could he have completely forgotten about Juyeon?
……It seemed the shock he received at the PC room earlier that day was to blame. As Ji-han unknowingly made a serious expression, one of his friends nodded knowingly.
“Hey, it’s fine! That can happen! Just drink. Drink today and forget everything.”
“Hold on, before I forget, a question.”
“What? Lee Minchan.”
“Why did Kang Juyeon dump you? Was it because you have the same last name and clan?”
“Have you lost your mind?”
“Is the same-clan joke real? That’s dizzying……”
“No, you guys. I’m right! If not for that reason, why would Kang Juyeon dump him?”
“Maybe she didn’t want to wait for him during military service?”
“He decided to enlist after getting dumped. Did you lose your memory?”
“Ah, right.”
“So the same clan is certain, got it? Don’t underestimate a Korea where the conservatives are in power.”
“That actually sounds plausible?”
While Ji-han remained silent, the misunderstanding spread. Ji-han snapped out of the specter of Eleven Wizards, now a legendary game. He had to correct the false facts before they became truth.
“Juyeon and I are not from the same clan.”
“What? You’re both Kang.”
“We’re both Kang, but not the same clan.”
“What does that mean?”
“Our ancestral homes are different. I’m from Jinju Kang, and Juyeon is…… I don’t know, I don’t remember. Anyway, she’s not from Jinju. Before we dated, she asked what Kang I was, and then said we weren’t from the same clan.”
“She checked that before dating?”
“As expected, Kang Juyeon is top-tier……”
“Then why did you actually break up?”
It seemed they were genuinely curious, because the friend called Lee Minchan asked again.
Ji-han hesitated. Should he honestly say he was dumped because of Eleven Wizards?
……That’s not quite right. Moreover, Ji-han had quit Eleven Wizards. Getting dumped because of a game he’d already quit—damn it. He couldn’t say that even if his mouth were torn apart.
“Just, well…… personality differences.”
In the end, Ji-han chose the safest answer. Lee Minchan’s eyes went wide, and he turned to the person next to him.
“Looks like Kang Ji-han is a personality wreck when it comes to girlfriends.”
“Amazing. Two-faced Kang Ji-han.”
“His double life is insane.”
“……Why does the story turn out like that?”
“Mr. Kang Ji-han, are you really asking because you don’t know?”
“He does that on purpose. He wants to hear that he’s handsome.”
“What a dirty world……”
“Hey, pick the side dish quickly. What about the pure white peach that will purify this dirty world?”
“Is there no yellow peach?”
“No. Eat the white peach.”
“I prefer yellow peaches……”
“White or yellow! If you can’t tell them apart when you close your eyes and shove them in, you die by my hand.”
“Should I order the white peach?”
The friend who closed the menu naturally called the waiter and ordered the white peach. The pure white peach was indeed the name of the dish.
After that, Ji-han chuckled at his friends’ jokes, picked up the white peach served to the table, and ate it. He also had a shot of soju.
It seemed the darkness was receding a little.
****
The darkness did not recede one f*cking bit.
“f*ck……”
The previous day, the drinking session with friends had gone on until the third round. Ji-han, thoroughly drunk, came home, barely washed up, and fell asleep. The next day, today, as soon as he opened his eyes late in bed, he cried.
Lying down, he couldn’t lift his head to stop the tears from flowing. It was shitty.
“Eleven…… I really f*cking loved it……”
During his military service, Ji-han purposely didn’t look up any news about Eleven Wizards.
Since he could use his phone, he could have searched anytime if he wanted, but he deliberately held back.
And in his heart, he hoped that in the meantime, Eleven Wizards would silently shut down, never to return. So that he couldn’t go back to a game he had quit.
“If I had known this would happen, I shouldn’t have deleted my account…… No, no. Kang Ji-han, you crazy bastard, get a grip.”
Ji-han smacked his own forehead with his palm.
Then he vividly recalled the memory of the day he decided to quit Eleven Wizards.
On that day, the guild [The Black Heart], which had held a meetup at the famous bar ‘Blossom’ in the downtown area, was the top-ranked guild on the ninth server, Purple Server, of Eleven Wizards.
As many as five ranked users had attended the meetup. The three people who had grabbed each other by the hair and fought at Blossom were also famous rankers.
Ji-han quit Eleven Wizards because of that fact.
If [The Black Heart], the guild he belonged to, had been a mediocre small frontier guild.
If the three people who had an online romance with a female guild member and then fought a real-life match on the day of the guild meetup were low-level users with little presence in the game.
If that had been the case, Ji-han wouldn’t have quit the game.
But the [The Black Heart] guild, infamous for the so-called ‘Blossom Incident’ forever archived on the internet, was a named guild representing one server of Eleven Wizards, and the three men at the center of the Blossom Incident, the so-called ‘Blossom Triangle,’ were famous gamers whose names every Eleven Wizards player had heard at least once.
Even now, but especially when he was younger, Ji-han believed strongly in the saying “birds of a feather flock together.”
If he kept playing a game where people like that held influence and power, he would become like them.
Ji-han didn’t want to become that kind of person, so he deleted his game account and uninstalled the game.
At the time, he thought it was a choice he wouldn’t regret.
But now……
Ah, I don’t know. I don’t care. Let’s not think about it.
Ji-han wiped his tears and got out of bed. His head ached, probably from the hangover.
He needed some hangover soup. What ingredients were in the fridge? Since today was Saturday, yesterday’s side dish delivery should have arrived.
After brushing his teeth and washing his face in the bathroom, Ji-han applied lotion liberally to his dried face and walked out to the living room.
The living room, expanded through renovation, felt empty without anyone around. Come to think of it, his parents said they were going hiking today, right?
“And my sister said she’d be out all night……”
He checked the time; it was 11 AM. The house would be empty until late afternoon.
It was lonely. Ever since Eleven Wizards had, figuratively, struck him from behind its market share, Ji-han had been tormented by a hunger-like emptiness and loneliness.
If it’s like hunger, I’ll solve it like hunger. Ji-han heated up the bean sprout soup he found in the fridge and poured it over rice. He ate two bowls. He felt like his stomach would burst.
He had overeaten. No, considering Ji-han’s usually small appetite, this was binge eating.
Regret set in. I regret it…… Intending to move around and digest, Ji-han threw on an outerwear and headed to the front door. Just as he was shoving his feet into his worn-in sneakers, his phone rang.
The caller was Kang Jaemi, his cousin.
Why is she calling me suddenly? He didn’t know the reason, but getting a call from someone alleviated his loneliness. Ji-han answered happily.
“Yeah, what’s up?”
– Oppa! Help me!
Jaemi was crying. Panic-stricken, Ji-han ran out of the house.
***
“Kang Jaemi. Do you want to die?”
The sound of Ji-han grinding his molars was terrifying.
“Why do you ask me to take care of your game account while crying?”
“What can I do if tears come out!”
Jaemi sniffled, as if her tears hadn’t completely stopped yet.
Inside a room cafe partitioned by curtains, Ji-han and Jaemi sat facing each other. Ji-han pressed his forehead and sighed.
“……So you want me to level up your character until you finish the college entrance exam?”
“Yeah. I just joined a guild called ‘Vicious and Tough.’ I can’t skip the game even for half a year.”
It was the end of blooming May, and the exam was in November. His first and last guild meetup had also been in May. He had enlisted in summer.
Ji-han, briefly lost in sentiment, spoke up.
“That guild can’t wait for a senior in high school taking the exam?”
“Ah, Kang Ji-han! Why are you being such an amateur? You were in Double Black too, so you should know.”
[Double Black] was the shortened name for [The Black Heart], the guild Ji-han had been in. Gamers had a habit of shortening even not-so-long names. Some guilds mocked this habit. The guild that shortened everything, the so-called ‘abbreviate-everything’ guild. And amazingly, even that guild was often called ‘Abbrev’ or ‘Abd’ or ‘ㅂㄷㅈ’.
“If you don’t log in for even a week, you’re kicked out without exception. Big guilds are all like that.”
“That’s true……”
“Please, oppa! I’m going to keep playing Eleven even after college. I absolutely can’t leave this guild.”
Eleven.
Yes. The game Kang Jaemi played was none other than Eleven Wizards.
Ji-han felt a bitter taste and lowered his eyes. He took a long sip of the sweet taro bubble tea that stung his tongue. He looked up and stared at Jaemi.
“That game—what good does it do in life that you keep playing it? Just quit now.”
“Crazy, Kang Ji-han! Watch your mouth. Eleven is my soul. Can you quit your soul?”
“I did.”