Chapter 182: Late Change (1)
"An article?"
"Yeah, like on a video game news site or something. Nothing too major."
"Ah... like Game Mecha?"
"Yeah. The YouTubers are going to have a field day with this..."
Normally, they would need to plan strategies on what to do after the article was released, but they were at a company dinner. Besides, once a sip of alcohol went inside Ju-Hyeok, he didn't give a second thought to work.
"You're attracting a lot of attention. Isn't that a good thing for a streamer?! Cheers!!"
"Right?! Cheers!!"
Sang-Hyeon raised his glass as well. Along with Ji-Ah's, their three beer glasses clashed in mid-air.
Clank!
***
Their first company dinner was enjoyable. It was almost too much fun and the three of them barely made it to their taxis.
"Phew."
"Hey, hurry up and get on."
Thankfully, they lived in the same neighborhood and could ride the same taxi together.
"Can you go to Hoogye, please?"
The car headlights flickered past their eyes several times. As they listened to the taxi's radio playing tacky jokes, they suddenly found themselves standing in front of the tall staircase. In the most composed state, Sang-Hyeon took charge of assessing the situation.
"We're never going to climb these stairs..."
“Sigh.”
Ju-Hyeok recovered from the taxi ride and stretched. He looked like someone familiar with this situation.
"I'll piggyback her."
"Do you think you can?"
"Yeah. I'll just pretend I'm deadlifting her."
"Don't you mean squats?"
"Same thing."
Sang-Hyeon thought they were separate things, but he didn't pursue it any further because Ju-Hyeok was already carrying Ji-Ah and going up the stairs.
'That guy...'
Sang-Hyeon stared intently at them and realized, 'They're not drunk.'
Ji-Ah was keeping her eyes slightly open. Sang-Hyeon's vision was more than two to three times sharper than an average adult's. His night vision was also exceptionally bright. The scene that should have been invisible was visible to him. On the other hand, Ji-Ah was unsure if she could see Sang-Hyeon. A faint smile spread across her lips.
"Urgh..."
"W-What's wrong?"
Ji-Ah's arms tightened around Ju-Hyeok.
"Is it because you think you're going to fall off? Then don't get drunk!"
Ju-Hyeok strengthened his legs and scolded her. Even so, he diligently climbed up the stairs. Isn't he enjoying this?
'Oh, man.'
Sang-Hyeon smirked.
***
Ju-Hyeok laid Ji-Ah down on her bed.
"Phew. I'm dying."
He sat on the bed for a moment and patted his waist. After checking her state, he got up from the bed.
"Hmmph..."
A hand pulled Ju-Hyeok's sleeves.
"...!"
Ju-Hyeok's footsteps abruptly halted. He waited for a moment. Ji-Ah's hand was still holding onto his sleeve. Slowly, he turned his head. It was because of the blue moonlight streaming in through the window. His eyes behind the glasses weren’t visible. Ji-Ah couldn't discern what made Ju-Hyeok hesitate. Se couldn't read his expression. After a moment, Ju-Hyeok shook his head and hurriedly left the house.
Thud.
The sound of the front door closing could be heard.
"What the."
Swiff.
Ji-Ah stood up from her seat and let out a shallow breath. Looking out the window, she saw Sang-Hyeon and Ju-Hyeok walking up steadily. The blue full moon loomed large above Sang-Hyeon's rooftop. It seemed as if they were climbing the stairs towards the moon, as if they could reach it someday. They climbed with determination, even stumbling at times. Snickering, a faint blue smile formed on Ji-Ah's lips.
Ring. Ring.
However, a single vibration from her cell phone was enough to steal away her smile.
[Motherfucker]
Her phone rang. As she ignored it, a text message came shortly afterward.
[Motherfucker: Were you at Panda today?]
Ji-Ah's lips lowered again. They had indeed met eyes. She, unfortunately, looked toward his direction on her way to the washroom. She regretted even looking there.
"You should've stayed."
Ji-Ah murmured a senseless resentment. Her gaze returned to the window where the blue light seeped through. Her eyes captured the sight of the vast moon. Sometimes, she wished to leave this Earth behind. What if she ran away to that place? Had they arrived at the moon? It wasn’t visible.
***
The next day, with a throbbing headache from the hangover, Sang-Hyun was assaulted by a sensation. He could smell the faint aroma of the comforting and seared mung bean sprout soup.
Taktaktak.
The pleasant sound of a knife striking the cutting board could be heard. As he went into the living room, he found Ju-Hyeok diligently cooking. He knew he was hardworking, but hadn’t Ju-Hyeok drunk quite a lot last night? It was a little surprising.
'Is he planning to invite Ji-Ah?'
Quietly, Sang-Hyun sat at the dining table and made sure not to disturb Ju-Hyeok. As a habit, he instinctively checked his social media accounts, scrolling through comments, and gauging community reactions. While doing so, he came across the search rankings on a portal site and noticed Almond and JeonJaPa listed there.
4) JeonJaPa
.
.
.
8) Almond
He clicked on the name and the first article he saw in the top right-hand corner. The article had over 10,000 comments.
[JeonJaPa, with over 6 million followers, only follows 10 people. One of them is the new streamer Almond?]
The article was from a website called Game Mecha. It was one of the biggest websites for video game articles. Thanks to that, major websites like Javer also became influenced by it.
— Wow
— Almond's blowing up on Game Mecha too?!
— Why's this guy getting more famous when he's not streaming?
└ That's because... he's a popular boy.
└ For real
└ He's popular, so he does better in real life...
— What's his relationship with JeonJaPa? He commented last time too.
└ Probably nothing. He's just following him because he's good.
└ BS. He doesn't even follow the runner-up for the world championship.
└ Maybe Almond's better.
└ This guy is trying to insult Almond or something.
People were chattering once again. In fact, Sang-Hyeon understood such bickering. Even he, looking at himself, wasn't impressive enough yet to receive a following from JeonJaPa (though there wasn't much to say if someone asked).
'Who knew she only followed nine people?'
If JeonJaPa followed over 100-200 people, this wouldn't be an issue.
"What the? When did you get up and sit there?"
Ju-Hyeok discovered Sang-Hyeon while cooking the soup. He put the lid on the soup and approached him.
"What are you looking at?"
"Ah, JeonJaPa following me. There's an article about it."
"So it was inevitable."
It was as Ju-Hyeok predicted. Since one person out of the ten was Almond, there was bound to be an article.
'It's weird.'
He felt strange when she first followed him, but now it was even stranger. The other nine were old teammates, and the last one was Almond? It didn't make any sense.
'He's getting special treatment.'
Ju-Hyeok was cautious about good things that happened to Almond without reason because they had a chance to hit harder negatively. Humans were made this way, and so was the society that humans built.
"Do you know JeonJaPa?"
"... No, I told you."
Sang-Hyeon looked away.
"Hey, it's because I'm worried. It's a little weird, no?"
"..."
Sang-Hyeon didn't respond.
'He must not be able to talk about it.'
First of all, he wasn't good at lying.
"You can't say anything, right?'
Sang-Hyeon silently nodded.
"... Alright."
Ju-Hyeok had a hunch, but ignored it since Sang-Hyeon didn't want to discuss it. The further he pried, the more it would bother Sang-Hyeon.
"It's nothing bad, right?"
"It's probably not ill-intended."
"Alright, then that's fine."
Drrrrr.
The lid on the pot started to dance. The soup was about to overflow.
"Ah!"
Ju-Hyeok ran and turned the stove off.
"When's Ji-Ah coming?"
"Ah... She said soon... huh?" Ju-Hyeok stopped his hand. "How did you know?"
"It's obvious."
"... Why?"
"What?"
"Why did you think it was obvious?"
"..."
Instead of explaining, Sang-Hyeon signaled with his eyes saying, 'Look at what you're doing right now.'
"K-Kumph." Ju-Hyeok looked away. "It's nice if we eat all together, right?"
"Of course, it's nice. You'll love it, right?"
Sang-Hyeon laughed and made fun of him. Unlike usual, Ju-Hyeok couldn't fight back. He just focused on his cooking. After some time, the doorbell rang.
"It's me!"
***
Ju-Hyeok cooked dried pollack soup and pork belly marinated with spicy pepper sauce.
"Wow! What a feast!"
Ji-Ah jumped and clapped her hands. It seemed she didn't expect something to this extent. Sang-Hyeon smirked and lifted his chopsticks. The pork belly cooked with such sincerity practically melted in his mouth and tasted incredibly delicious.
The spicy and sweet sauce was infused deep into the fatty layers, making one crave rice involuntarily. The savory aroma of the dried pollack soup, with its mild and refreshing taste, blended well with everything.
"You should make a cooking channel."
"And you do the mukbang?"
"Yeah! Should we do it?"
Sang-Hyeon received a text message while they made small talk and finished eating.
Bling.
[Takoyaki: There's another power ranking stream today, but we don't need to watch this one together. We can watch it separately and gather to practice at 6 P.M.]
Takoyaki sent him a message.
'Ah, there's another power ranking today.'
Since the practice match was one of the main content for the in-house tournament, the power ranking stream happened frequently. The teams would practice against each other, and there would be a new power ranking every two days. Of course, there wouldn't be much difference since only two days had passed. It would mostly consist of casters gathering to talk about the players.
'It's during lunch?'
The stream would start at noon today instead of the peak time at 6-7 P.M. Sang-Hyeon planned to watch it after his workout.
***
"Huff. Puff."
It was his first time running in three days. He was trying to catch his breath. Because he drank yesterday, his body ached.
"My body is... I guess I'm thirty after all. Phew."
Sang-Hyeon sat on the bench as if collapsing and drank his water while grumbling. His throat, which had become dry from the cold air, was now moist again. White steam rose not only from his mouth, but also from his heated body. His body felt hot, but just as cold as the weather. Perhaps that was why his side felt tingly for no reason.
Sitting on the bench and looking at the riverside, he noticed several couples walking by with their arms folded. Well, in fact, almost all of them were couples.
"Phew."
He threw away the empty water bottle in the trash and got back up. His hair waved back and forth before his eyes as he started running again. He recalled her long black hair. Sang-Hyeon closed his eyes and let out the sweat dwelling inside of him.
***
After he came back home and showered, it was already 1 P.M.
'Did I suddenly run too much?'
He thought he wasn't feeling well because of the hangover, but he ran longer because he felt good. As a result, he ran for too long. He quickly sat down and turned on Treevy.
[OrangeKing's power ranking]
Sang-Hyeon recalled the Kingdom Age fanboy he met at the subway as he read the title. He tried to erase that memory and tuned in to the stream. The stream looked like it was coming to an end.
“Alright. Does that wrap it up?” OrangeKing was trying to wrap up everything.
“Well... that's right. There isn't much change since it's only been two days.”
He pointed at the power ranking chart.
'It's the same?'
Just like the analyst said, there was no change in the power ranking, except in the lower portion.
“Only one team has a big change.”
“It's not that big. It's only gotten higher by three ranks.”
“Still, considering it's early on, isn't that high?”
“Worst case, we can always move them down.”
There was a team that moved up three ranks.
12) Balloon Stars
It was the team Almond was in. They were 15th yesterday.
'Oh...!'
Next to the team were also comments from the three commentators. It went like this:
[Comment 1: Almond, stronger than we thought?}
[Comment 2: Almond, just like I said.]
[Comment 3: Flashy as always, but he needs to prove himself more.]
He could tell who was responsible for their rank increases. Those with good intentions could already feel it.
[I think Almond will revolutionize this scene.]
The change Almond was bringing.
[Almond is the catalyst?]
[Wait, how?]
[The catalyst?]