When he rolled his eyes up at the familiar voice, Siyeon was looking down at Wonyoung with his upper body raised.
“Hyung, are you okay? What’s that again……?”
Siyeon looked at the system with bewildered eyes. The system stealthily increased the distance.
“Si, Siyeon-ah.”
“Hyung, what’s wrong? Can you not move?”
Wonyoung nodded. Siyeon looked at Wonyoung in confusion, then emanated a menacing aura toward the system.
“What are you? What did you do to hyung?”
“N-no! Right now it’s simply an ending in progress……”
“What? Ending?”
At that, Siyeon looked back at Wonyoung as if asking what that meant. Wonyoung said with a deathly pale face.
“Less than 10 minutes left until the ending finishes. I need to escape into a branch.”
“How? What’s a branch?”
“Another fork in the story.”
“How do you get there? What do I need to do?”
“……”
Even Wonyoung didn’t know that. Do I have to pay another price to escape? Or…….
As Wonyoung was agonizing, suddenly the system squeezed in.
“Oh, Player-nim. The ‘Replay Conversation’ function has finally been added! Please refer to it.”
“You’re telling me this now when we’re in the middle of an ending?! What help is……”
Wonyoung, who had been glaring at the system, stopped mid-sentence and hesitated. Then he hurriedly opened the status window and checked the newly added tab, ‘Replay Conversation.’
[Wonyoung: Ha, is it morning.]
[Wonyoung: Everything has been resolved safely. What greets me is the sound of birds chirping early in the morning and the quiet breathing of the one sleeping beside me…..]
[Wonyoung: Now all that remains are our happy days.]
[Wonyoung: Memories from the past flash through my mind.]
[Wonyoung: There were many sad and happy things. Especially the dreamlike days spent with Siyeon. Through him, I learned for the first time what warmth was.]
The content of the phrases stirred Wonyoung’s heart a little, but he urgently told Siyeon.
“This ending is an ending with you, Siyeon.”
“What?”
“Siyeon-ah, call Heegang. Quickly.”
“……?”
“No, he’ll come even without calling. If it’s that guy.”
Sure enough, unable to be a gentleman, the door flung open and a slender silhouette revealed itself.
“Wonyoung-ah. An ending? And with Ki Siyeon?”
In the suddenly appearing Heegang’s hand was a wrench. Seeing it, Siyeon first blocked Wonyoung’s front.
“Don’t touch hyung.”
“I won’t touch him.”
Soon he looked back at the system. The system said to Wonyoung while trembling like a sphere.
“Player-nim? Player-nim……?”
“I can’t move right now either.”
Wonyoung pretended to strain with effort while being sarcastic. Then the system shouted.
“You just need to tell me to stop!”
Even that sphere seems scared of psychopaths. But could Heegang create a branch? He’d called him thinking he’d just interfere with the ending with Siyeon, but Wonyoung wasn’t confident either.
He definitely didn’t want Siyeon and Heegang to fight.
‘Will it be okay.’
As Wonyoung looked at Heegang worriedly, Heegang tapped the wrench on his palm and said.
“I’ve been thinking about various things.”
“Wha, what things?”
“How to destroy this world. I want to end everything except Heo Wonyoung. Every day, really every day.”
“……Heegang-ah?”
Am I burning down a thatched cottage to catch a flea? Wonyoung suddenly became frightened.
“Heegang-ah, still, beating up the system won’t…… work?”
“This is fake anyway, Wonyoung-ah.”
Heegang grinned at Wonyoung and swung the wrench.
Wonyoung unconsciously squeezed his eyes shut. Crash, the sound of something breaking came.
“What are you doing……?”
“Trying to destroy it all.”
Siyeon’s dazed voice and Heegang’s laugh-filled answer. Wonyoung quickly opened his eyes. Heegang was smashing the status window.
Crash, crackle, bang.
Each time he swung the wrench, the passing time, the lines being recited on their own, scattered as fragments.
“I’m part of this game system too, aren’t I? I thought if we collide with each other, wouldn’t it break?”
“Wait, that means you’ll break too!”
Wonyoung shouted in horror. And at that moment, the edge of Heegang’s sleeve disappeared as data.
“Heegang-ah, you……!”
“You should stop. You’ll disappear at this rate!”
Even the system stepped in to stop him, but Heegang didn’t listen. Wonyoung clung to Siyeon.
“Siyeon-ah, you at least stop him. Please?”
“No.”
Siyeon said with a firmly resolved face.
“If that guy disappears before destroying all of that, then I’ll do it.”
“Ki Siyeon!”
“I’m sorry, hyung. I’m…… scared of losing you. At least not this quickly. Me too, and Baek Heegang too.”
[Wonyoung: I was also an orphan. He and I were both alone.]
[Wonyoung: But now we’ve become two.]
[Wonyoung: No longer lonely…..]
Crackle! The phrases that kept appearing were smashed to pieces before Heegang. And each time, Heegang disappeared little by little. Wonyoung tried somehow to move his body, but still only a notification that he couldn’t leave the ending area floated before his eyes.
Then.
“Give it to me now. I’ll do it.”
Siyeon reached out his hand toward Heegang. Heegang looked at Siyeon for a moment, then at Wonyoung.
“What are you guys doing? Are you crazy?”
At Wonyoung’s angry urging, Siyeon answered.
“If we split it up, maybe some of us will remain. Even if not…… it’s hard to just watch hyung without doing anything.”
“Hey! Ki Siyeon!”
Heegang shrugged and handed the wrench to Siyeon. Soon Siyeon too began destroying the phrases appearing before his eyes. While disappearing little by little.
“Ki Siyeon, stop! Stop it right now!”
Wonyoung shouted until his throat was hoarse, but Siyeon didn’t listen. Thus only a part of the time reading ’03:’ and the last phrase remained.
[Wonyoung: I’ll say it now. I really like you, Siyeon-ah.]
Siyeon looked at that phrase for a moment as if wistful. His hand didn’t move easily.
Should he consider it fortunate that he could see the words he’d longed for, even like this?
It was the moment when Siyeon was about to swing the wrench with a long sigh.
“Siyeon-ah!”
Along with Wonyoung’s cry, someone’s hand stopped it. It was Taerim.
“Taerim-ssi……?”
“Kyung Taerim?”
Taerim looked at Siyeon and Heegang, then shouted.
“What is this!”
“Can’t you tell by looking? We’re trying to save hyung……”
“Is this saving him? Isn’t this torture?”
“……”
Taerim whipped around to look at the system.
“This ending has already collapsed. Isn’t that right?”
“……Yes.”
[Escaping into a branch of Ending #10 1100101 1110010 1110010 1101111 1110010.]
Soon a broken phrase appeared and at the same time Wonyoung’s paralysis was released. Wonyoung tried to stand up quickly but staggered. It was Taerim who caught and supported him.
“Are you alright?”
“I need to see them.”
When Taerim sighed and let go, Wonyoung approached Heegang and Siyeon and examined their bodies. Fortunately, it seemed only very minor parts like clothes or some hair had disappeared. It appeared there were no problems with their bodies.
“Is this the best you could do?”
Taerim shot a cold look at Heegang and Siyeon. Siyeon lowered his head, but Heegang countered instead.
“Then was there another way? You did nothing and show up now, so why are you acting superior?”
Then Wonyoung’s voice squeezed between the two.
“……It’s my fault.”
Tears welled up in Wonyoung’s eyes as he still couldn’t let go of the two out of worry.
“I called Heegang. Because of that……”
“Wonyoung-ah.”
“Hyung.”
Tears fell pitter-patter down Wonyoung’s cheeks. He was terrified at the thought that the two might disappear forever before his eyes. The fact that he could only watch without being able to do anything was also despairing.
He was powerless. Every time like this, without their sacrifice, there was nothing he could do alone.
Taerim approached Wonyoung, who was standing still just shedding tears. He firmly grasped the sobbing Wonyoung’s shoulders.
“Heo Wonyoung-ssi.”
“……Yes.”
“It’s not your fault.”
Taerim pressed Wonyoung, who was silent with his head lowered.
“Answer me. You were just trying to keep your promise with us. That promise to desperately remain.”
“But.”
“Isn’t that right? Did you have another intention?”
There was absolutely no other intention. It was just the thought that he had to escape the ending.
“……No……”
At the answer that barely crawled out, Taerim pulled Wonyoung into an embrace.
“That’s enough. None of us blame you.”
“……Still, I……”
“And it won’t happen again. Isn’t that right?”
At Taerim’s chilly gaze, Siyeon answered as if sighing.
“I’m sorry, hyung. I won’t do it again.”
“……I don’t regret it.”
At Heegang’s sudden action, everyone’s eyes focused on him. He looked at Wonyoung looking at him with reddened eyes and clicked his tongue.
“But I won’t do it anymore. I just won’t, okay?”
“If you do it, I’ll do it too. Got it?”
“What?”
At Wonyoung’s venomous statement, Heegang asked back as if dumbfounded. But Wonyoung glared at him and said.
“You think I can’t do it?”
“You’re a player anyway……”
“If I say I’ll do it, I’ll do it.”
“……”
Heegang and Wonyoung’s gazes clashed in midair. How long did they continue that silent confrontation? The one who loves more loses. Recalling such thoughts, eventually Heegang looked away.
“Fine, I’m sorry.”
Only then did Wonyoung apologize with a slightly softened face.
“I’m sorry too. As long as you guys are here, I won’t do that.”
