“What’s wrong with you today?”
“……Huh?”
Dinner time.
Banye suddenly stopped eating and threw a question at me.
I was spacing out with chopsticks in my mouth, then startled and looked at Banye. Banye was looking straight at me.
When our eyes met, Banye spoke to me as if he’d been holding back.
“You’ve been spacing out and sighing continuously. Is something wrong?”
“……N-no? Nothing’s wrong……”
“As if.”
At his tone that said not to lie, I flinched and hunched my shoulders for no reason.
But I couldn’t tell Banye that I had no energy because I got cursed out by Sisi. So I desperately denied it.
“No, really…… I just have low energy today for some reason……”
“Something happened while I went to the convenience store, didn’t it?”
“……No!”
“That’s a ‘how did you know?’ expression.”
“……!”
But Banye was too sharp, and I couldn’t manage my expression. In the end, I hung my head deeply and put my chopsticks down on the table.
“I-I’m done eating……”
“Did Sisi contact you?”
“……”
I opened my eyes wide at Banye’s words that he knew everything. Banye frowned as if he knew it.
“Whenever that guy comes up, you always make ‘that expression.'”
“Wh-what expression?”
“There is one.”
I asked while feeling my face, but Banye didn’t tell me until the end.
In the end, I had no choice but to bring up to Banye that Sisi had sent me a message through the official homepage.
“Actually…… he sent me a message……”
“Through the official homepage?”
“Yeah……”
“Are you going to meet him again?”
“……? No! Are you crazy! I’ll absolutely never meet him again!”
Thinking Banye might have misunderstood that I was considering whether to meet Sisi again or not, I jumped up and waved my hands. Meeting that crazy bastard again was impossible.
Banye looked at my expression, then rested his chin on the table and just lifted his eyes.
Under the silent pressure that seemed to say continue talking, I hesitated then decided to just explain briefly.
“……He was just fucking picking a fight with me, so I cursed at him too. I won but……”
“Then you would have excitedly told me about it.”
You lost, right?
Banye added as if it was obvious without saying it. I had nothing to say.
“……”
“You must have heard something useless again and lost energy.”
“……”
I was caught as soon as I spoke, and Banye let out a short sigh.
“He must have a lot of lingering feelings for you, hyung.”
“……? That can’t be. He’s really a fucking…… No, anyway, no.”
“When things don’t go as planned, people get more annoyed. That’s why he cursed at you.”
Saying that, Banye looked me over. That expression seemed like ‘why this……?’ which made me slightly bristle.
But before I could say anything, Banye struck first.
“What did he say?”
“Huh?”
“What did you hear that made you make that pitiful face again?”
“……”
Why a pitiful face…… Well, because I heard more than one or two upsetting things.
At first I wasn’t going to say it, but after asking like that, Banye meanly stared straight at me.
Those pitch-black eyes…… The kind that make you quickly turn your head away when you look at them, those eyes that seem to see through everything were quietly gazing at me.
Was it because that unwavering attitude seemed like something I could lean on? As if possessed, I stammered and recited the insults I received from Sisi.
“I-I gave you gifts too and…… I just freely gave gifts to people I liked……”
“Yes.”
“But does giving those things look ridiculous……? Or does it look pathetic?”
“Why? After receiving everything, he’s complaining about it?”
“……Yeah. Well…… He said it was annoying because I gave him things and asked him to do this and that…… But actually, when I gave gifts, I didn’t particularly want anything……”
Even as I said that, I wasn’t sure myself.
Did I really not want anything? There were times when I enjoyed the clearly changing attitude each time I gave a gift, and there were times I induced it.
But……
“It could look ridiculous.”
“I-is that so……”
Banye’s honest answer hurt as if something had poked my chest.
However, Banye shook his head.
“But isn’t he the one who received it because he liked it better? If he finds it ridiculous, he becomes ridiculous together. If he received it, he received it, but running his mouth about it afterwards is funny.”
“……”
“If he thought it would be annoying after receiving, he shouldn’t have accepted it in the first place. Making both the giver and receiver feel dirty. Don’t you think?”
Banye summed it up cleanly.
Thinking about it, when Banye received what I gave him, he definitely accepted it, and when he didn’t like something, he refused.
“That bastard is just trash.”
“Uh…… W-well, that’s true but.”
“He just doesn’t want to take responsibility for anything. So he’s blaming everything on you, hyung. When anyone can see it’s his fault.”
“……”
“He’s the one who’s out of his mind, so don’t worry about it.”
I was happy about Banye’s firm words, but I was still bothered by what Sisi said at the end.
“B-but…… Isn’t it annoying that I keep talking about this stuff? Always…… just…… talking about Sisi, it’s stupid……”
“I asked you to talk about it.”
“That’s……! That’s true……”
I nodded at Banye’s clear-cut answer.
After sorting it out like this, it felt like the depressing and negative thoughts that kept circling around flew away.
Banye also seemed to notice my expression had lightened considerably and raised the corners of his mouth.
* * *
After that day, I completely blocked Sisi’s messages.
The method to block official homepage messages was a bit annoying, but I decided there was no need to continue getting hurt by watching what that guy says. It was also because any bit of expectation had disappeared.
However, after being blocked by me, Sisi seemed to get worked up and started acting more viciously.
Instead of sending me messages, he started appearing on the only public channel available—Banye’s NewTube channel.
[xxxd: Idiot haha online dating loser bastard
l009: How much did this one get paid?? haha
Tx2112: Even Banye is no different, xxxx bastard haha]
Malicious comments and sarcastic comments that seemed to be from Sisi and former guild members started flooding in all at once. The [Dislike] count also increased several times compared to before.
I somehow felt bothered that Banye seemed to be suffering because of me, but Banye didn’t care about comments or public opinion and didn’t even mention it.
However, I wasn’t the only one watching Banye’s NewTube. The guild members were also subscribed to Banye’s NewTube, so they seemed to have seen the strange comments.
So today, the guild chat was noisy with talk about those people.
[Guild][Haeyam] The cursing is really severe yam =ㅅ=
[Guild][Anajokiwojo] Aren’t they in their right mind? What is this?
[Guild][Anajokiwojo] They’re fucking cursing mindlessly
[Guild][Suckeot3] Aang didn’t curse Sisi for no reason I guess?
[Guild][Suckeot3] What happened?
[Guild][Aang] When I left the guild, something very bad happened……
[Guild][Nanneomukeoeyeowo] What happened?
When I was cursing Sisi alone getting worked up, they just thought I had personal bad feelings, but now that multiple people were leaving malicious comments, it seemed hard to just let it pass.
After hesitating, I eventually explained the situation to the guild members, excluding the Sisi story.
[Guild][Aang] Actually I did a server transfer
[Guild][Aang] But in that guild, they bought me things and stuff……
[Guild][Yeongmyeong] So you were a sucker from there……
[Guild][Aang] I’m not a sucker
[Guild][Suckeot3] That’s what a sucker is, puppy haha
[Guild][Aang] No, anyway;;
[Guild][Aang] I gave gifts when they needed something……
[Guild][Aang] But I found out they were talking behind my back without me knowing, so I left the guild and transferred servers ㅠ
[Guild][Aang] So they seem to have bad feelings towards me
I said I wasn’t a sucker, but actually even I thought I was a sucker.
The guild members were silent for a moment.
Then Haeyam asked first.
[Guild][Haeyam] So what did you do before leaving yam?
[Guild][Aang] ? Do what?
[Guild][Aang] I just left
[Guild][Anajokiwojo] No, how can you just leave like that?
[Guild][Neda] Wouldn’t you feel wronged if you just left?
[Guild][Nanneomukeoeyeowo] Besides, if it’s trash talk, it’s their fault
[Guild][Anajokiwojo] haha From the point I left, it’s already their fault
[Guild][Anajokiwojo] Before I left my guild, I completely cleaned out the guild storage
[Guild][Aang] Whoa, is that okay to do?
[Guild][Haeyam] You’re leaving anyway, so what’s not okay yam =ㅛ=
The guild members started chattering as if they couldn’t understand my reaction.
[Guild][Suckeot3] In another game, I activated PVP and killed everyone before leaving
[Guild][Haeyam] That’s basic yam ㅇㅅㅇ
[Guild][Aang] ?
The guild members’ subsequent reasons for leaving their previous guilds were all shocking enough to understand our guild’s notoriety.
[Guild][Nanneomukeoeyeowo] This is a different story, but I got kicked from my previous guild
[Guild][Nanneomukeoeyeowo] I got caught dating their guild master’s girlfriend…… ㅜ
I rubbed my eyes at the guild kick reason that contradicted Nanneomukeoeyeowo’s fresh tone.
