Reality Quest: Questism

Minhye wobbled slightly as she plopped onto the bench, looking a little disoriented from our ride. I snickered behind her, earning a half-hearted glare.

Ahrin and Jihan arrived not long after… Ahrin looking positively betrayed that she wasn't allowed to drive, while Jihan wore the expression of a man wondering why he subjected himself to these things.

Minhye groaned, rolling up the sleeves of her red tracksuit like she was about to throw hands. "You… you nearly drive as bad as Ahrin does!"

I raised my hands in surrender, my grin never fading. "Hey hey… that's a high bar, a very high bar."

Ahrin scoffed. "Excuse you, I was amazing out there."

"You almost killed us."

"Yeah, and?"

Jihan sighed, rubbing his forehead like he had a headache. "Can we not debate over who's the most dangerous driver?"

Minhye exhaled, finally catching her breath. Then, as if suddenly remembering something, she perked up.

"Oh, by the way… do any of you want to be my boyfriend for a night?"

I blinked. Jihan choked on air. Ahrin looked up with interest.

"…Excuse me?" I asked, tilting my head. "You're gonna have to explain that one."

Minhye huffed. "It's for the dance performance tomorrow night! The dance club has a special routine, but we need partners in the chairs while we perform around them. And, well… I don't have a boyfriend, so I need a stand-in."

A grin spread across my face. "So you're asking one of us to sit still while you dance around seductively? Minhye… I didn't know you were such a pervert."

"WHAT?!" She turned red immediately, standing up so fast the bench nearly tipped over. "I AM NOT—! That's not what it—!!"

Ahrin was laughing her ass off, kicking her feet against the sand. "Oh my god."

Jihan coughed awkwardly, looking away. "I think what Dowan meant to say was… that's a bit of a surprising request."

Minhye groaned, pressing her hands against her face. "I hate you guys."

I cackled, leaning back on the bench. "No you don't."

She let out a long sigh, choosing to ignore me. "So? Any volunteers?"

I stretched my arms behind my head. "Pass."

Minhye frowned. "Huh? Why?"

I shrugged. "Ahrin's not gonna be there, right?"

Her expression faltered for a moment before she nodded. "…Yeah. She said she'd rather not. Loud music and stuff, you know?"

I nodded. "Right, so I'll be keeping her company instead. No offense, but I think making sure she's okay takes priority over watching you try to seduce an empty chair."

"IT IS NOT—!" Minhye cut herself off, taking a deep breath before fixing me with a deadpan stare. "You suck."

Jihan, who had been pretending very hard to be invisible, sighed and gave her an apologetic smile. "…I'll do it."

Minhye's eyes lit up. "Really?!"

Jihan rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah. I mean, it's just sitting in a chair, right? Can't be that hard."

She grinned. "Great! I owe you for this."

"Hey, I'm doing it for free."

I snorted. "Damn, Jihan, you're a cheap boyfriend."

Ahrin leaned forward with a grin. "So you'll do a dance for Minhye, but when I asked you to be in the drama club's play, you refused?"

Jihan deadpanned. "Ahrin, you wanted me to play a corpse."

"And?"

"I had to lie on the floor for forty minutes."

"And?"

"I am not spending forty minutes as a dead body for your weird murder mystery play."

Ahrin frowned. "You have no artistic vision."

We all laughed, the conversation shifting naturally into other topics. It was moments like these that reminded me how weirdly we'd all ended up together.

Jihan must've been thinking the same thing, because he glanced at me and chuckled. "You know… sometimes I wonder how we all became friends."

I grinned. "Oh, that one's easy. I crashed into your life, obviously."

He laughed. "Yeah. You kinda did."

Ahrin nodded. "Same here. You just appeared one day and never left."

Minhye crossed her arms. "Honestly? Same for me too."

I raised an eyebrow. "Are you guys saying I forced my friendship onto you?"

Jihan and Ahrin exchanged looks. "Yes."

"You bastards." I muttered.

***

"MAKE SOME NOISE, SHINAN HIGH SCHOOL!!!"

The announcer's voice boomed through the speakers, shaking the very air around me. The response was immediate… deafening cheers, shouts, and screams filled the night.

"KYAAAAAA!!"

"And next up… THE GIRL'S DANCE CLUB!!!"

I snickered as I turned to glance at Jihan. He was seated stiffly in the back row, barely visible under the bright stage lights. Minhye had a confident hand resting on his shoulder, completely at ease, while Jihan himself looked like he was reconsidering every life decision that had led him to this moment.

His expression, somewhere between frozen panic and reluctant resignation, was priceless.

I gave him a little wave. Jihan's eyes screamed at me, a silent "Don't you dare leave me alone."

I left him alone after a small wave.

Stepping out of the event hall, I was immediately greeted by the crisp night air. The pounding music and roaring cheers dulled into a muffled thrum as the heavy doors shut behind me.

The music and cheers from inside faded into the night, replaced by the quiet rustle of trees and the distant hum of cicadas. Gyeongju at night was different—open fields stretching under a sky full of stars, the silhouettes of the ancient Silla tombs standing like silent guardians of the past.

And standing just outside, bundled up in her jacket, was Ahrin.

"There you are," I said, relieved. "Was worried you wandered too far."

She scoffed, shoving her hands into her pockets. "I was just walking around near the back. Needed some quiet. What about you? Got tired of watching Jihan suffer?"

I smiled. "He'll live. Probably."

She let out a small laugh, kicking a pebble down the dirt path.

We stood there for a moment, letting the night settle around us. The wind was cool, carrying the scent of grass and earth. In the distance, the soft glow of the festival lights from town flickered between the trees.

"You really don't like crowds, huh?" I asked, glancing at her.

Ahrin shrugged. "It's not that I hate them… just, sometimes it feels like too much. Too many people, too many voices." She exhaled, her breath visible in the chilly night air. "Out here, it's just… quieter. Feels like I can actually hear myself think."

I hummed in agreement. "I get that."

She side-eyed me. "You? You talk all the time?"

I scoffed. "Hey, I can appreciate peace and quiet. I just choose to ignore it most of the time."

Ahrin snorted. "Figures."

We kept walking slowly, our steps crunching against the dirt path. The moon was bright tonight, silver light washing over the gently sloping mounds of the royal tombs scattered around Cheomseongdae. Their rounded shapes rose from the grassy earth, ancient burial sites for the kings of Silla.

A place heavy with history.

Ahrin tilted her head back, staring at the stars. "You ever think about how weird it is that we're standing on top of graves right now?"

I raised an eyebrow. "That's kind of the whole point of Gyeongju."

She sighed. "I know, but still… These tombs have been here for over a thousand years. People lived, ruled, and died. And now, we're just…" She waved a hand vaguely. "Wandering around like it's nothing."

I considered that. "Guess that's just how history works. You live your life, you die, and eventually, people stop thinking about you."

Ahrin wrinkled her nose. "That's depressing."

"Not really." I kicked at the dirt absentmindedly. "I think it's kind of freeing. You don't have to be remembered forever. You just live, and that's enough."

She was quiet for a second. 

"I think I'd want to be remembered."

I looked at her.

Ahrin rubbed her arms, like the night had suddenly gotten colder. "Not by the whole world or anything. But by the people I care about. I don't want to just… fade away, you know?"

For once, I didn't have a joke lined up.

I just nodded. "Yeah. I get that."

She smiled, a little sheepish. "You?"

I shrugged. "Dunno. I don't really think that far ahead."

"Of course you don't," she muttered.

I laughed. "What, did you expect some grand life philosophy from me?"

"No, I expected exactly this," she said, but there was no bite in her words.

We walked in comfortable silence for a little while, the night settling around us.

"…I'm glad we're friends," Ahrin said suddenly, her voice softer than usual.

I blinked at her, surprised.

"Jihan too," she added, glancing away. "Minhye… She's a little loud sometimes, but she's a good person. And you're… well, you're an idiot, but you're not so bad either."

I grinned. "I'll take that as the highest of compliments."

She rolled her eyes but didn't deny it.

I stretched my arms behind my head. "You know, if you hadn't given me your phone that day, do you think we'd have been friends?"

Ahrin tilted her head, considering. "Probably not."

I put a hand to my chest, mock-offended. "Wow. Brutal."

She shrugged. "Hey, I'm just being honest."

I gave her a look. "You do remember how we became friends, right? You handed me a raw octopus for no reason."

Ahrin huffed. "It wasn't for no reason! It was a thank-you gift."

"For me getting into a fight with Cheolwoo?"

She hesitated. "…Okay, when you say it like that, it sounds weird."

I raised an eyebrow. "Because it was weird."

She kicked at a pebble, watching as it bounced down the path. "Whatever. Point is, you kind of just fell into our lives."

"Are you calling me heavy?"

Ahrin snorted. "Yeah, sure. But really, you don't even try to make friends. You just exist, and people get stuck with you."

I thought about it for a second, then shrugged. "Nah, I mean, that's how it went with Jihan. I just asked him."

She gave me a skeptical look. "You just asked?"

"Yeah. Found him at lunch, I sat next to him, turned to him, and said, 'Hey, wanna be friends?'"

Ahrin stared at me like I was an idiot. "And that worked?"

I gestured around us. "You tell me."

She groaned. "Unbelievable."

We walked in silence for a few moments, the cool night air settling around us. The festival lights in the distance flickered between the trees, while the Silla tombs loomed in the background, dark and unmoving.

Ahrin sighed. "…I don't really have that many friends, you know."

I glanced at her. "What? That's dumb. You could if you wanted to."

She shook her head. "I guess. But… I don't know. It's hard. Talking to people, opening up. I just feel… awkward."

I nodded, understanding.

"Minhye's a little better at it, but even she doesn't have that many close friends," Ahrin continued. "And Jihan? He acts like it doesn't bother him, but he's the same."

I thought about Jihan… how he hadn't sought people out, how he was always just there unless someone pulled him in, whether it was bullying or friendship.

Ahrin sighed. "I think we just got lucky. The four of us… we kind of just fit."

I smiled a little. "Yeah. We do."

She didn't respond, but she didn't need to. The quiet between us was enough.

Then–

Thud.

A heavy set of noises, muffled, like something, or someone… moving.

Ahrin and I turned at the same time.

"…Did you hear that?" she asked.

I nodded, my body already tense. The sound had come from beyond the trees, near one of the larger tombs.

Ahrin hesitated. "Dowan, maybe we should…"

But I was already shouting. "Who's there?!"

She took a step behind me, clutching the back of my shirt.

And then they stepped out.

At least 50 people.

Every single one of them looked like a delinquent, still in their school shirt and trousers, most were unbuttoned revealing designer or workout shirts underneath. 

I didn't ignore the trainers or the sports shoes they wore, nor the bats and pipes that some of them were carrying. The four at the front without the weapons seemed to be the leaders.

The blank looking guy with slicked back hair and thick glasses, a tattooed neck was the only sign that he was even a delinquent, cutting through the clean-cut air he was trying to project.

The bigger guy next to him looked much more like a typical example. He had a wiry moustache as well as an unfortunately permanent scowl. It helped that he was also both practically double the size of the men next to him, both vertically and horizontally. 

The man at the front on the other hand, looked surprisingly normal with just regular dirty blonde hair, his eyes were the only thing that conveyed the violence on his mind.

And then the last guy... he was just flat out ugly. Not even in a rude way, he was just genuinely genetically ungifted... but he also looked the strongest.

The chime of a Quest Window sounded in my head as the screen appeared in front of me.

New Event Quest!

Protect Ahrin Joo and defeat the mercenaries hired by Gumin Lee. [0/59]

Rewards: 1 Diamond card, 3 Platinum cards

Ahrin's breath hitched beside me. I felt her tension, the slight tremor of her hand as she tightened her grip on my shirt.

"Ahrin," I whispered, turning my head just enough to catch her eye. Her gaze was wide, but she gave the faintest nod.

She knew.

"Get ready to run."

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What? You thought there wouldn't be a fight?

HAHAHAHA WHO DO YOU THINK I AM?!!

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Oh you're still here? Stones and reviews pleaseeeee.