HFS 42

His face had general fine lines for a man. However, what prevented him from looking completely gentle were his sharp eyes even when smiling, his smoothly sloped eyebrows, and his distinctively straight nose bridge. His plump lips stretched horizontally when he smiled, revealing particularly fierce canine teeth. These sharp features placed throughout his fine face created a striking impression.

Furthermore, perhaps thanks to being well-fed lately, his overall complexion was good, and his cheeks even had a lively glow. It was undeniably a pretty face, to the point where the boundary between pretending to be pretty and actually being pretty became blurred. In other words, it was the kind of face that might have attracted interest if his gender had been different.

“Why did you stop talking?”

As Lee Cheong-hyeon’s silence lengthened, Seo Hee-won, losing patience, grabbed his shoulders and shook them.

“Hello? Why aren’t you answering me?”

“…”

“Ah-ah. Am I so pretty you’re speechless? Is that how I look to you?”

Seo Hee-won bumped shoulders with him and repeatedly leaned his head against him before pulling away. One of the unexpected things Lee Cheong-hyeon had learned as he grew closer to Seo Hee-won was that the other man appeared to quite enjoy physical contact with people.

So what? He’s a guy.

Instead of answering, Lee Cheong-hyeon reached out his hand. He held one of Seo Hee-won’s cheeks with his thumb and the other cheek with the rest of his hand. He firmly pressed the soft face that was grinning as if enjoying the attention, then let go.

“It seems feeding you well has paid off.”

Seo Hee-won, who had been standing dazed as if processing the situation, was startled and moved away. Breathing roughly in surprise, he burst out angrily.

“Why are you touching my face without permission?!”

“What a temper…”

It seemed he liked to cling to others as he pleased but didn’t like being touched himself. He was completely self-centered. Before Lee Cheong-hyeon could say anything more, the door burst open and the guild members inside came pouring out. Hyutzzi, who had come out and was looking around, spotted Lee Cheong-hyeon and Seo Hee-won standing far apart and shouted loudly.

“Hyungs, the game maintenance is over!”

“Great! I was about to look up the company’s address in case they extended it again.”

“Why the address?”

“To go there.”

Lee Cheong-hyeon walked toward the guild members who were about to start the game and gestured for Seo Hee-won to follow. Although Seo Hee-won glared at him with his face covered, he still followed behind obediently.

Lee Cheong-hyeon sat at the second-to-last seat among the six computers arranged in a row. The empty seat to his right was naturally taken by Seo Hee-won.

After turning on the computer, Lee Cheong-hyeon observed Seo Hee-won’s reaction. He wondered if Seo Hee-won, who avoided Internet cafes because they were “dirty,” would also dislike the pension house’s computers that multiple people used.

Sure enough, Seo Hee-won looked quite uncomfortable. Lee Cheong-hyeon looked around for something useful. Then he spotted disinfectant wipes placed in the corner of the upper shelf. Standing up from his chair, Lee Cheong-hyeon grabbed a wipe with a strong alcohol scent and thoroughly cleaned Seo Hee-won’s keyboard and mouse.

“I could have cleaned it myself.”

Seo Hee-won said in a prim tone as he sat in his chair looking up. When he heard this, Lee Cheong-hyeon wondered why he was cleaning it himself, but he was already almost done. Since he’d started, he finished by wiping the entire desk before returning to his seat and quickly wiping his own keyboard and mouse as well.

Seeing Seo Hee-won being so fastidious made him feel uneasy too. As Lee Cheong-hyeon was about to throw away the used wipe, he felt a gaze from his left side. It was Hyutzzi.

“Do you want one too?”

“I’m fine, thank you.”

Despite saying he was fine, Hyutzzi took the wipe and asked Heekkom sitting next to him, “Heekkom noona, would you like some disinfectant wipes?”

“Yes! Could you pull out two sheets for me? Thanks.”

“Should I clean it…for you?”

“Huh? No, no, it’s okay. I’ll do it myself.”

“That’s what I thought. Here you go.”

“Thanks. Ji-min, you should wipe yours too.”

After distributing the wipes, Hyutzzi glanced at Lee Cheong-hyeon once more before focusing on his computer screen. Lee Cheong-hyeon, not noticing the brief glance, read through the update patch notes while waiting for the game to install.

Shortly after, the guild members who had logged into the game decided to first complete the new boss entry quests and daily missions. The plan was for everyone to gather and challenge the new boss once they had finished their individual tasks.

Lee Cheong-hyeon also completed the boss entry quest that had to be done alone and did the rest of the tasks with Seo Hee-won as usual. Lee Cheong-hyeon and Seo Hee-won agreed to only run the dungeons that were essential for challenging the new boss. Thanks to this, they finished their tasks earlier than the other guild members.

During the remaining time, Lee Cheong-hyeon explored the newly updated content. While browsing the new instrument shop, he purchased a “Common Fishing Rod” from an NPC selling fishing rods. He planned to try fishing while waiting for the other guild members.

Once they started practicing on the new boss, there would hardly be time for leisurely activities like fishing, so he needed to enjoy it now. Just as Lee Cheong-hyeon was exploring the map to find a scenic fishing spot, Seo Hee-won made an unwelcome suggestion from beside him.

“Hyung, should we run one or two more dungeons?”

“…You want to go to a dungeon again?”

“Yes. Since it looks like the others will take some time, in the meantime…”

“Didn’t we agree to only run the essential dungeons?”

“But it’s good to do more when we can…”

“Soon we’ll be grinding the new boss all day, living in dungeons. And right now, you want to go to another dungeon?”

“…”

“As soon as we logged in, we completed the entry quest without a break, did daily quests, and ran dungeons! I haven’t even had a chance to explore the new content, and I just bought a fishing rod…!”

“…Go fishing then.”

“Okay.”

Having gained freedom with Seo Hee-won’s permission, Lee Cheong-hyeon excitedly moved to the “Sunset Sea” map. True to its name, it was a map with an open sea against a sunset backdrop, which seemed perfect for fishing.

Perhaps everyone had similar thoughts, as there were already many people gathered on the map fishing. Among them, Lee Cheong-hyeon spotted a familiar face. It turned out to be Tiramisush, the only one playing a piano among people holding fishing rods.

“Kang Woo-jin, what are you doing here?”

Lee Cheong-hyeon asked, pulling his chair back to speak to Tiramisush who was sitting at the opposite end. Tiramisush peeked his head out in response.

“Ittorang! Come over here. I’ll play the piano for you.”

As it just so happened, Tiramisush had abandoned daily missions and dungeons, completing only the new boss entry quest, and had been having fun for quite some time playing requested songs for the fishers.

Lee Cheong-hyeon found a spot near Tiramisush and started fishing. The song he was playing was a ballad that had been popular well over 10 years ago. Sitting in front of the warm-colored sea, listening to piano music, and peacefully catching fish with unfamiliar users gathered in small groups—it was the ultimate healing experience.

“Now this is the life…”

Seo Hee-won, who had been watching from the side, seemed interested too and went to buy a fishing rod. He stood right next to Lee Cheong-hyeon and caught a few fish, but soon lost interest and started swinging his fishing rod at Lee Cheong-hyeon instead.

Since fishing on land was impossible, Seo Hee-won’s character just repeated the motion of casting the fishing rod toward Ittorang. Though it didn’t directly interfere with fishing, it was subtly annoying to watch.

“If you’re not going to fish, go do something else.”

“I am fishing! Ah—why won’t anything bite…”

“…”

“I feel like I’ll catch something if I try just a little longer.”

When Lee Cheong-hyeon finally moved to a different spot out of frustration, Seo Hee-won deliberately followed and continued casting his rod at him. Eventually, Lee Cheong-hyeon gave up and left him to do as he pleased. Despite having a nuisance constantly trying to catch the wrong thing, it was still a peaceful time he hadn’t experienced in a while.

* * *

[You have entered the Silent Dawn Forest.]

The new boss dungeon had a bluish dawn with a moon as its backdrop. The static atmosphere of the map, without even a slight breeze, contained only grass, trees, a small lake, and a circular torn wing pattern drawn in the center of the ground.

The guild members who entered the dungeon waited in slight tension for the new boss to appear. However, even after 30 seconds of waiting, the boss did not show up.

“Why isn’t it coming out?”

“Do we need to summon it somehow?”

While the guild members looked around the map for clues, Lee Cheong-hyeon approached the small lake. Pretending to explore around the lake, he sneakily took out his fishing rod. He had been curious whether fishing would work here too.

When Lee Cheong-hyeon cast his fishing rod into the lake, the float sank into the water with a splash, just like when fishing in the sea.

It really works!

Lee Cheong-hyeon waited for a signal with an excited heart, wondering what kind of fish he might catch. The bite came quickly. To succeed at fishing, he needed to repeatedly press the spacebar with the right timing, and thanks to his full concentration, he succeeded on the first attempt.

Thinking he would add one more entry to his fishing log, he excitedly checked what he had caught, but contrary to his expectation, what entered his inventory wasn’t even a fish.