I know exactly why my hyungs appeared in front of me looking so excited. The issue of me breaking up with my girlfriend was one more fun thing for them to tease me about. That’s why they bothered to pretend to be generous and bring meat.
Because of my hyungs’ obvious intentions, I stayed even more alert. I couldn’t let myself be bombarded with questions or be misunderstood about the game.
You always make critical mistakes when you let your guard down. Even if two tigers and one Chihuahua barge in, you can survive if you stay alert. With that mindset, I didn’t fall for it no matter how much Seongheon hyung smiled at me with his eyes from the side.
“Hey! Gam Seongheon! Charcoal!”
“I know!”
Seongheon hyung’s voice as he turned around and snapped back sounded quite threatening. Yet the hand stroking my back was still gentle, so I couldn’t get used to it.
I was timidly hunching my shoulders while washing lettuce leaves one by one, but hyung had no intention of leaving. It wasn’t until I’d washed about 15 leaves that hyung’s hand finally left my back.
“Daeyoung, I’ll be outside. Call me if you need anything.”
“Okay.”
Just as Gangjin hyung entered the kitchen, Seongheon hyung quickly left the kitchen, perhaps not wanting to get nagged. Seeing that, Gangjin hyung clicked his tongue and took out mushrooms and green onions from the shopping bag.
Gangjin hyung came next to me with green onions and casually asked while trimming them.
“Did she dump you?”
As expected, my hyungs’ teasing was just beginning.
“……”
I tried not to answer, but at Gangjin hyung’s gaze staring down at me, I squawked and immediately acquiesced. Pretending to be pitiful was the most comfortable.
“Yeah……”
“Did you cry?”
“A little.”
“That doesn’t look like a face that cried just a little. Your face is full of worry right now.”
This worry is all because of you hyungs. I didn’t know you’d backstab me like that. Strictly speaking, it was Ssapseonbi who backstabbed me.
“Hyung, just pretend you don’t know.”
From now on—I hope you never find out I was ‘Keyboard Cleaning’. Please.
“Should I make some rice too? Where’s the rice?”
“Next to the fridge.”
“Daeyoung.”
“Yeah?”
“What do they call Australian rice?”
“……”
Here we go again. I didn’t even answer, pretending to be busy washing lettuce and perilla leaves. But Gangjin hyung, as if he thought I was pondering it, counted down 3, 2, 1 by himself and told me the answer while scooping rice.
“Homi.” (Aussie/호주 sounds like 호미/homi, a hand plow)
“Yeah. I see.”
Gangjin hyung wasn’t discouraged at all, as if he was used to no one laughing at his jokes. Hyung stood next to me washing rice and continued talking as if he hadn’t said anything.
“Daeyoung, this is your first heartbreak, right?”
“N-no.”
“Don’t think you can fool your hyungs. We all know you were romantically inexperienced.”
“……”
“It’s natural for everyone to date and break up, so don’t be too down. You look so sad that it’s not even fun to tease you.”
“I want to be alone for a while.”
“Okay, be alone for a while. But not today.”
Gangjin hyung put the rice in the electric rice cooker, then took the washed green onions to the table and made scallion threads by cutting them skillfully.
Meanwhile, Daesu hyung came down from the second floor after changing clothes and headed to the storage to move the barbecue equipment. Though we call it barbecue equipment, it was just a drum cut in half. We might as well eat at Gangjin hyung’s or Seongheon hyung’s house. The equipment there is much better.
“Gangjin hyung, if we’re going to grill meat, why eat at my house instead of yours?”
“We came because you’re here, you punk.”
Hyung retorted and popped a piece of sliced cucumber into my mouth. Gangjin hyung, who had coldly disappeared during the Goldmess egg trade last time, was now looking after me because I’m his younger brother.
If I was unlucky enough to get caught, I hoped I’d get caught by Gangjin hyung. Unlike the other hyungs, Gangjin hyung didn’t get angry easily and was the most calm among the hyungs. And in the off chance that Gangjin hyung tried to kill me, I could just call SOS to Sojin noona.
I glanced at Gangjin hyung taking out a pot and scooping out soybean paste. Since hyung often came to our house for dinner, he knew exactly where the seasonings and soybean paste were.
“Hyung, I finished washing the vegetables, what should I do now?”
“Then go outside and wipe the table, and set up the chopsticks and plates.”
“Okay. What about alcohol?”
“I’ll bring it out.”
“Got it.”
I was about to take the chopsticks, plates, and salt oil sauce when I paused to look at Gangjin hyung’s back as he took eggs out of the fridge. I haven’t logged into the game since getting backstabbed, so I don’t know… but all my hyungs seemed peaceful.
‘They don’t even care that the Vulcanus egg is gone.’
I went out the front door and headed to the outdoor table where Dad had set up a canopy tent, wiped it clean, and set down the plates and chopsticks. Seongheon hyung and Daesu hyung were standing in front of the barbecue drum outside the tent after lighting a fire, smoking cigarettes.
Come to think of it, this was the first time I’d seen Seongheon hyung smoke. My hyung always has a haggard expression so that’s one thing, but seeing someone like Seongheon hyung who’s like sunshine and a blank white canvas smoking didn’t suit him.
Well, maybe because he has that blank canvas image, that’s why he has a tiger tattoo plastered on his back. Also, Seongheon hyung wore silver flat rings on both index fingers, and holding a cigarette between those fingers made it stand out even more.
Whatever they were talking about, their breath showed more than the cigarette smoke. It seemed like game talk was mixed in, so I perked up my ears. Amidst the mumbling I could barely hear, the word ‘Ssapseonbi’ stuck in my ear. It was a strong pronunciation that I couldn’t miss.
If the tent wasn’t up, the conversation would be clearer—what a shame. I tried to get closer while pretending to set down the plates.
“Seongheon, …so, the character name of the person who reported it is……”
“……Yeah, it wasn’t much……”
“On purpose…… right?”
“Someone who already sold the items and quit…… But, I think……”
Gasp. Ssapseonbi must have passed over my information along with the screenshots. Well, they did say they’d find me…….
But the characters I created on Diamond Server were only ‘BaeBongmani’ and ‘Keyboard Cleaning’. From those character names alone, my hyungs wouldn’t be able to deduce it was me.
‘Wait, I don’t think that’s all……’
I racked my memory, ignoring even a lettuce leaf falling to the ground.
Then I remembered the first time I sent a message to Ssapseonbi, and recalled that back then the only game character I had was the one I played with Seongheon hyung, so the nickname was ‘Kkyudaeyoung’.
“……”
As that past memory surfaced, all the strength left my hand holding the tray. Could they have passed that over too? Looking at my hyungs’ attitudes, it seemed like they still didn’t know my identity.
Especially if Daesu hyung found out, he wouldn’t hold back and would’ve cursed at me. Since Seongheon hyung roughly said “it wasn’t much,” it seemed like they didn’t pass over that information. Ssapseonbi probably didn’t think that nickname was very important when they saw it.
I was sneaking closer to eavesdrop more when Seongheon hyung suddenly looked at me and my heart nearly jumped out.
“Daeyoung.”
As soon as Seongheon hyung spotted me, he threw his cigarette into the barbecue drum and came into the tent.
Since we’d made eye contact while I was eavesdropping, I busily moved around pretending to set the table, changing the chopstick positions and moving the plates one space at a time, trying to get out of the tent.
“Oh my, I didn’t bring spoons. We need spoons to eat the soybean paste stew Gangjin hyung made. I forgot the most important thing.”
“Daeyoung, where are you going leaving hyung behind?”
“Uh. I didn’t bring spoons. And Gangjin hyung is alone in the kitchen. I should go help with something.”
“Just stay here. I’ll make Daesu do it.”
While talking, Seongheon hyung sat down and lightly grabbed my forearm, urging me to sit next to him. Then he turned his head and suddenly yelled at Daesu hyung outside the tent.
“Hey!! Daesu. Bring spoons!”
“That’s annoying! Make Daeyoung do it!”
I also glared at my hyung who was fiddling with his phone, lightly ignoring Seongheon hyung’s words. Come to think of it, Daesu hyung is doing the least here.
“If you don’t listen to me, I won’t give you the Goldmess egg?”
“Ah, shit. You’re bringing that up.”
‘Gasp! What? He’s giving that precious egg to my damn hyung? The 30 million won egg?’
I was very surprised but couldn’t show it.
I just rolled my eyes and watched carefully, when Daesu hyung passed by the tent humming. I felt like I’d rather run the errand myself and get the egg back.
“Daeyoung.”
I was glaring at Daesu hyung’s back when Seongheon hyung sitting next to me called, so I managed my expression again. Just how much does this hyung have to be offering to give away a Goldmess egg like handing over a carton of eggs?
“Yeah?”
“Since you played Earth too, you’d probably know.”
“What?”
“The Goldmess egg, you know it?”
For a moment I couldn’t decide how to answer. It was meaningful why he suddenly asked me such a thing, but I couldn’t express it outwardly. I tried to think as fast as possible but was already in overload mode.
‘Should I pretend to know? ……No, did I say I was playing that game recently? Since it’s a different server, would it matter? I haven’t logged in since then. Should I say I saw it on the official site? That seems better than pretending not to know at all.’
While I was busy racking my brain, Seongheon hyung slowly waited for an answer while removing a leaf fragment stuck somewhere on my head.
“Hyung, that’s……”
“Yeah?”
“I know. The Goldmess egg.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
“How do you know? It shouldn’t have appeared on Sapphire Server yet.”
“Actually I saw it on the official site. I saw you hyungs fighting with some guild too……”
“Ah……”
Seongheon hyung seemed to have been testing me, thinking I wouldn’t know about this situation since I hadn’t logged into the game.
I’d been so immune to seeing my hyungs’ bad manners so many times, but experiencing it as the target felt different. My hyungs were really wicked.
Yet the person who made me the most upset was sitting right next to me, looking at me with warm eyes.
