On Chuseok, the number of dormitory students from Class Zero turned from four to three.
With Jo Euishin’s seat empty, the only ones left were Kwon Lena, Maeng Hyodon, and Mok Wooram.
Their conversation lulled significantly with only the three of them left.
Normally Kwon Lena would’ve tried to lighten up the mood, but her mind and heart are still heavy.
While Maeng Hyodon was suffering from math problems, Mok Wooram would sometimes get in a word.
“Ah, why is the answer not matching?”
“In the third line, you interchanged f and g in the function.”
“…How do you know that? You’re not even taking up math.”
“Can’t you solve the examples just by looking at the explanation in the textbook?”
Maeng Hyodon stared at Mok Wooram as if he was looking at an alien before going back to studying.
Kwon Lena watched the two and turned her head to stare at her empty notebook.
‘I should be studying too…’
However, Kwon Lena could hardly concentrate.
In the last exams, she studied hard to get an average grade, but it feels like such a distant memory.
It’s like she’s a completely different person from that.
Dingdong.
And then, a notification sounded from Kwon Lena’s device.
It was a message from Lee Yeoreum, her sister who she was supposed to meet today.
[Unnie] I’m in front of Eungwang High now. Sorry I’m late.
[Unnie] Can you come out now?
She can’t concentrate on her studies anyway, so Kwon Lena decided to get up.
“I’ll be back. I might come back later than dinner time. Eat first and don’t wait for me.”
“Okay…”
Maeng Hyodon already lost all his energy from all the math problems and so he gave a soulless response to Kwon Lena, while Mok Wooram got up from his seat and asked Kwon Lena.
“Lena-nim, where are you headed to?”
Being called ‘Lena-nim’ was still uncomfortable, but she answered softly.
“I’m going to the school’s front gate. I made plans with my family.”
“Is that so? Have fun with your family, Lena nim.”
“…Yep!”
Kwon Lena lightly fixed her hair and her clothes and headed to the front gate.
There, her older sister Lee Yeoreum was waiting for her.
“Hi, unnie!”
Lee Yeoreum smiled awkwardly and nodded.
She was still her silent yet blunt self, but her expression was soft.
Kwon Lena was excited to see her sister’s face for the first time in a while and she talked about several things.
Even after they moved to a nearby café, Kwon Lena was the only one speaking while Lee Yeoreum only listened.
And then, Lee Yeoreum brought up a new topic.
“Is this you?”
Lee Yeoreum floated two holograms.
The first one was the video of the performance with Kwon Jein at the youth retreat, and the second was of Dokgo Miro’s busking performance.
Kwon Lena maintained a poker face, but Lee Yeoreum seemed to recognize it.
When Kwon Lena shyly nodded, Kwon Yeoreum spoke again.
“Good for you. You wanted to learn the violin right?”
“…You remember?”
“Yeah.”
Those words somehow made her tearful, and Kwon Lena closed her fist tight below the table.
Whether it’s a relief or not, the next words from her sister made Kwon Lena’s tears go right back.
“Are you in contact with those people?”
Those people.
Her sister didn’t mention any names, but Kwon Lena’s parents immediately came to Kwon Lena’s mind.
It’s been a while since Kwon Lena had contact with her parents.
The last message exchanged was in March, and she hasn’t heard from them lately perhaps because they’re both busy.
Kwon Lena’s parents warned her not to bother them with unnecessary messages, so she couldn’t even greet them on Chuseok.
“No, I think they’re busy these days.”
“…I see.”
“What about you, unnie…?”
“I tried to contact them when I got a job, but they didn’t answer. Oh, I got my business card. Here.”
Lee Yeoreum handed Kwon Lena several business cards.
The business card showed her name and the title “Namgung C&T, Otherworld Industrial Division 1”
‘I heard it’s difficult for non-players to be employed in departments involved with other worlds… Unnie has really worked hard.’
Lee Yeoreum has been out of touch with her parents since she went to her college dormitory.
Their parents blamed Kwon Lena for not being able to contact Lee Yeoreum.
However, Lee Yeoreum secretly gave gifts to her sister, avoiding their parents’ eyes.
Lee Yeoreum was a good sister to Kwon Lena, and she worked part-time jobs to give a gift to her.
‘I was worried that my sister wouldn’t be able to get a job because of me.’
Fortunately, Lee Yeoreum successfully passed the recruitment stage of a large company earlier this year.
Lee Yeoreum knew that her sister was anxious, so she made sure to contact her and reassured her when she got the news.
“The fact that you are with those people… Won’t there be a problem?”
Kwon Lena’s heart sank at the mention of the Hwanmong Auction.
Her heart was especially heavy because she knew that her sister was worried about her and that she was not blaming anything on her.
And Kwon Lena realized that she was living a leisurely life at school without any problems.
“No…”
Lee Yeoreum felt relieved, not knowing what Kwon Lena was going through.
“That’s a relief. If anything happens call me right away. If you need to write a guardian’s name anywhere, write mine instead of those people.”
At that moment, a message arrived on Lee Yeoreum’s device.
She checked the message briefly before getting up and apologizing.
She couldn’t afford to see Kwon Lena’s darkened expression.
“I think I need to go to the company. Sorry we couldn’t have dinner together.”
“…It’s okay. Thank you for coming even though you’re busy.”
“Make sure to eat dinner.”
Lee Yeoreum reminded her, but Kwon Lena had no appetite.
After parting ways with Lee Yeoreum, Kwon Lena walked around campus absentmindedly instead of riding an airboard.
‘…I’ll stay just out a little longer.’
But the “little longer” didn’t seem to end.
Even after the sunset, Kwon Lena can’t seem to find herself going back to the other kids.
Her footsteps and her heart felt heavy as she walked slowly to the dormitory.
* * *
Kwon Jein is the only blood relative that Kwon Lena has, but she’s not aware of this.
‘Did she search for her family register?’
At the moment, I could only think about the shameless couple who dropped her from the roof of Hwangmyeong Tower.
That couple is being handled by the Lake of Eternity Team.
Although today is Chuseok, the family that mistreated her before is under special close watch.
Then it must be a different family member.
‘Kwon Lena has an older sister.’
While I sent off White Tiger and Olmu, I realized who Kwon Lena met with.
When the little angel, who looked back at me a couple of times, was completely out of sight, Mok Wooram began to speak.
“I thought Lena-nim might come here instead of the study room, but it seems like she’s not here either.”
“Did you try contacting her device?”
“I haven’t messaged Lena-nim yet…”
Mok Wooram spoke shyly.
He doesn’t get embarrassed by the title “Lena-nim”, so I wonder why he’s shy about the fact that he has never messaged her before.
“I’ll try sending her a…”
“Ah! Lena-nim is right there!”
Mok Wooram excitedly cut off my words.
Looking in the direction where Mok Wooram was pointing, I saw a silhouette of a person in the dark.
It was a distance that makes it almost impossible for anyone to recognize someone without using any skills, so I wonder how he knew that it was Kwon Lena right away.
When she walked further and her face became illuminated by the moonlight, Lena’s face looked pale.
Mok Wooram and I headed in her direction, and she looked surprised when she saw us.
“Did you have dinner?”
“Uhm…”
Instead of answering my question, Kwon Lena forced an awkward smile.
Even if this isn’t the rotten PMH game that I know by heart, I can easily see that Kwon Lena hasn’t eaten dinner yet.
‘I thought her sister was the only one who truly treated her like a family, so I wonder what happened. Maybe they inevitably talked about their parents when they met up but… I’ll look into it further.’
There’s something that I have to do.
But before that, there’s something else that I needed to do first.
“Let’s have dinner outside to refresh ourselves. It’s on me.”
I couldn’t just let Kwon Lena not eat dinner.
However, she showed reluctance at my words.
“Oh, uhm, it’s alright.”
“The class president of Class Two bought them pizza for the exam period. I’ll pay as our class’ vice president.”
“Thank you! Honestly, I don’t have enough money to eat outside. I thought about what I should do if I missed the dinner served in our dorm.”
“Ah…”
Following the mention of Joo Soohyuk’s touching gesture, Mok Wooram made some remarks that made it difficult for Lena not to go.
Maeng Hyodon is said to have eaten dinner early at the dorm to study, but he accepted the offer to have dinner outside right away.
There weren’t many places open for business since it was Chuseok, but fortunately, there was a franchise pizza restaurant open.
While Maeng Hyodon and Mok Wooram ate pizza, Kwon Lena only ate one yogurt pudding from the salad bar and one slice of pizza.
Seeing that, I desperately thought I should do something for her.
* * *
It’s the day after Chuseok, and the holiday spirit is still felt.
I visited the nurse’s room in the morning with Kim Shinrok.
He came with Red Tiger, and even after the test results came out, he acted as if Kim Shinrok was a five-year-old kid, not a descendant from a 5000-year-old family.
“Everything is normal. It’s not the best condition, but any player who gets tired will get these results.”
“It seems like you need more rest.”
“I was going to go back to my house to get some things for the faculty members but…”
“Tomorrow is October third. Where are you planning to go?”
Kim Shinrok shut his mouth.
The National Foundation Day (Gaecheon Jeol) on October third is an important day for the Tiger Clan.
I wonder why Hwang Jiho wants me at the mansion that day.
“What’s going to happen on October third?”
“We’re going to have a small party. Tomorrow is our birthday.”
“…Our?”
It’s my first time hearing the phrase “our birthday”.
Red Tiger explained further.
“We don’t know our exact date of birth. However, the day when I, Yellow Tiger, White Tiger, and Blue Tiger were given life as royal lineage is October third.”
If so, tomorrow is my main playable character’s birthday.
The information available for his birthday is indicated as “?” though!
This crazy failed game didn’t put a birthdate on my playable character’s information.
Was there no scenario in the game where he was greeted with a happy birthday?
Then I have to greet him tomorrow.
Tomorrow’s schedule has just been confirmed.
“I’ll make sure to buy gifts.”
“We’ll be happy by your presence alone, Jo Euishin.”
“No, I’ll make sure to bring some.”
Red Tiger insisted that there’s no need for it, but I’ve set my mind on buying gifts.
That’s when Kim Shinrok made a suggestion.
“Can I ask you for a cake then?”
“A cake?”
Wouldn’t gourmet Hwang Jiho be the one in charge of the food?
I don’t know why he’s suddenly recommending buying a cake.
Kim Shinrok lowered his voice and gazed toward Red Tiger.
“Yellow Tiger-nim has requested moon rabbit rice cakes. However… I heard there were a lot of dried persimmons put in at the request of Red Tiger-nim.”
It seems like Red Tiger’s revenge for White Tiger assaulting his son will go on until their birthday.
