Surviving Every Worldview

Chapter 11: Circle (3)

“Sit down, I’ll get you something to drink…”

I sat down on the couch and put my bag down.

I was going to go to the cafe, but sister told me not to because they had a lot of drinks.

Well, there’s no point in buying tasteless water when I always have a big plastic bottle of soda.

Soon, she staggered over and sat down across from me with a cup and a half-full bottle.

“Hmm?”

But there was something strange about what she brought.

I thought she was going to bring me juice, but what I saw in her arms was a glass bottle.

It had a black background, a gold-rimmed label, and the color of what a stranger might think was barley tea.

That’s an alcoholic beverage that shouldn’t be sold near a university.

It was also liquor.

“Didn’t you say you were going to bring me a drink?”

“Something to drink.”

“Who drinks this in broad daylight?”

“Me.”

Sister Seorin pointed at herself with a calm expression.

Look at her shamelessness.

“And what’s with the tone?”

“Uh- I just came to the club for a meeting, and I had a little time to kill… so I drank a little in the meantime?”

Even when I looked closely, her face was red and her movements were strange.

I’m pretty sure she said she was fine.

I wonder if she was pretending to be fine to the members.

Actually, it’s not that bad.

She’s easier to deal with when she’s drunk.

“No, no, no. Put it away.”

“Don’t drink?”

“No.”

“Eh, I took out the one I stuck in the corner…….”

Seorin pouted her lips and hid the liquor again among the cluttered lockers.

It was replaced by a Zero soda.

“Well, I was going to call you sometime!”

I snapped.

She fumbled at the door, and only on her third try did she get it locked properly.

Now, if someone came back, the conversation wouldn’t be interrupted.

“So, what brings you here?”

She glared at me for a moment, as if she couldn’t leave until I answered properly.

* * *

Lee Seorin. 21 years old. Third year of university.

We were in different majors, but somehow we got to know each other.

This person is the most unusual person I’ve ever known.

Part of it is because she’s a daytime drinker, and part of it is because she’s basically a person who you never know what she’s thinking.

She was studying something completely unrelated to making games, and then she started a club out of the blue and lured me into joining because we happened to attend the same class.

Most of the members of the club are similar to me, and they were invited to join by chance.

But strangely enough, the game was completed without any members leaving, and there were achievements.

At first, I didn’t understand this person, but now I do.

She lives her own life.

No exaggeration, just real.

“Can I see you in two weeks? I’ve missed you!”

“Yeah, me too.”

Seorin staggers over and sits down across from me, her eyes half-closed.

She follows, kicking off her shoes, hugging her knees on the couch and pulling a blanket over them.

It’s the same posture I once saw every time I walked into the club room.

In an atmosphere of familiarity and bitterness, she speaks first.

“Are you here to come back to the club?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“Oh…….”

Her voice, which had been slightly excited and disheveled with anticipation, dropped at once.

“Well, then what are you going to talk about?”

I could tell she was trying.

I wondered if she kept expecting me to change my mind but it wasn’t going to happen.

“First thing I want to ask you is, what happened back there?”

“Did you hit the door? Oh, you were the one who knocked?”

“No, it was more like the door was dented.”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you anyway-”

I trailed off.

“I wouldn’t believe you if you told me. Do you realize how much you’ve had to drink to say that?”

“Really? You have superpowers?”

I’ve heard it all from the club members earlier, but even without them, I’ve expected it.

Sister Seorin squinted at me, her eyes unhinged.

“What the hell, you knew all along!”

“That’s why I came to see if you were okay.”

“Why don’t you talk to me- I was expecting more.”

Still sounding strangely distant.

However, Seorin smiled and showed me the status window, seeming to relax a bit.

Her hand gesture looked familiar, like she’d done this before.

—

[Deathwish]

#gaming, #action, #gory fairy tales

Awareness Rating: C

Skill level: Lv. 1

Characteristics: [Handicap C+], [Overdose C+]

* Story Completeness: 0

—

I made the same game, but the story that awakened me was different.

Regardless of how I gained recognition, the rule of thumb is that I awakened the creation I was most attached to as a story.

My favorite story is Text Thief, but my sister’s favorite story was Death Wish.

And [Death Wish] is one of the two ideas I initially conceived that wasn’t chosen.

Even though it was decided that we would use Text Thief, it turned out like this…I guess there’s a lot of regret left over from the idea.

The fact that we have the same awareness rating is probably because of the videos that have been posted on the internet in the past.

“This happened yesterday. The door earlier…I made a little mistake when I was trying to show them. Yeah.”

“You don’t usually do that…Did anything else happen?”

“Why do you ask?”

“Just, if you watch the news, all kinds of things are happening.”

Sister opened her mouth as if she remembered something.

“Ah, ah. That Songdo downtown area that was blocked yesterday? You mean that one?”

“Yesterday?”

“Aren’t you talking about that-? That was the most popular news yesterday…….”

She’s talking about me.

The name of the neighborhood is the same, and no matter how much I think about it, it’s the same thing that happened to me yesterday.

It’s hard not to know that it was on the news, but… I wish I didn’t know.

[Awareness has increased slightly.]

You’re not going to shut up?

“Anyway, we’re doing fine without you! One traitor doesn’t mean we can’t make a game!”

“Yeah.”

“But, but…it’s not as fun as it used to be.”

Seorin looked at me with half-closed eyes.

A euphemism for the question, ‘Did you really have to leave the club?’

It wasn’t hard to recognize the intent.

…I was prepared for her to complain or even get angry, but her demeanor was unexpectedly calm.

If I left, she was simply disappointed.

There was no reason for me to leave.

“I’m sorry.”

“Forget it, I hate you. Bad.”

“Really.”

“…Forget it.”

She covered her face with a blanket and avoided my eyes.

I moved closer, worried, but she was smiling.

What is this guy?

She sounds like she’s pouting, but she’s fine.

“I need someone to help me. I need all the help I can get, and the more the merrier.”

“What’s going on-?”

“It’s a long story, can you hear me?”

Sister shook her head wordlessly.

It seemed impossible to have a proper conversation anymore.

…I should just say what I need to say and not keep a drunk for too long.

“Don’t leave the house tomorrow. I’m coming to help you.”

“……what do you mean?”

“Even if I explain it to you now, you won’t understand.”

I pulled out a box with some documents and tools I’ve packed and set it on the table.

I put the documents on the table, including a list of things I needed to do starting tomorrow, and the tools Do-yeon had left behind.

“I’ll call you again tomorrow, so make sure you return my next call.”

“Well, if I feel good about it then, then I guess I can take it?”

“If you don’t answer, I’ll come looking for you.”

“You don’t want me to answer, do you? Okay-”

Sister suddenly pulled me over and sat down next to me.

“If you still want to see me tomorrow, I’ll say yes- what’s the point of talking back like that?”

“What?”

“You’re promising to see me tomorrow, okay?”

“…If you’re free.”

She moved her hand off my shoulder and sat up again.

I wanted to tell her what was going to happen tomorrow, but I couldn’t.

I’ve written it all down, so I can only assume she’ll read it.

“So I’m leaving?”

“…You’re going?”

“Yeah, I have to go home, so I’ll go first.”

“Wait.”

Just as I was about to walk out the door, sister stopped me.

Her jaw was set, covering her lower lip, and she didn’t make eye contact.

“……You do know how to worry.”

“As if I haven’t worried enough.”

“Never mind, go. I’ll be here a little while longer.”

Despite her words, she laid back down on the couch as if the world was at peace.

“…You’re on your own.”

Her expression quietly darkened just before I walked out of the club room and closed the door behind me.

* * *

To Lee Seorin, Yoo Seon-woo was the only junior she knew.

This was because they didn’t have a chance to properly gather together for a while after entering school due to the epidemic.

She could see her classmates and seniors, but not her juniors.

Nor did she want to follow the events she hadn’t been able to participate in for two years.

As a result, Yoo Seon-woo, whom she met by chance, became the only junior she knew.

Although there were other juniors in the club, he was still special in his own way.

You could say that it’s unnecessary to attach meaning to this relationship, but it was important to her.

That’s why she dragged him to the club.

“I wish we could have stayed together…….”

Lee Seorin sat alone in the corner of the couch, slowly sliding the drink in her glass down her throat.

The chances of him returning to the club were completely gone.

She was relieved to hear the confirmation, but it didn’t make her feel any better.

To create something that would last a lifetime with the people she knew before graduation.

That was the whole point of the club, but now it’s less meaningful to know that someone could be taken away like this.

The realization that another member could fall away like this made her lose her grip on the club.

-ting

……The notification on her cell phone rang in the gloomy atmosphere of the dark room.

Lee Seorin checked the screen while holding her slightly dizzy head.

-Yoo Seon-woo: Did you get in?

I knew it.

Lee Seorin: I haven’t gone in yet.

-Sun-woo: You’re in the club room by yourself again, right?

-Lee Seorin: Yeah…….

-Bam.

Less than three seconds after she replied, the door to the club room opened.

Seon-woo, who had obviously left a few minutes earlier, walked back in, bent his knees, looked at her, and sighed.

“I knew it.”

“What…why are you here?”

“Get up. You said you were going home.”

He snatched the bottle from her hand and placed it on the bookshelf out of her reach.

It was a trick he had often used in the past to keep her from drinking more.

“……Yes.”

Lee Seorin reluctantly pushed herself up.

If she stayed still, Yoo Sun-woo would keep trying to help her up.

“If you don’t come to your senses tomorrow, you’ll get hurt. You understand?”

“What, what happens tomorrow……?”

“I wrote it all on the one I gave you earlier, so just read it.”

He walked beside her, sometimes holding her arm when she stumbled, and walked her to the bus stop.

It felt so familiar that it was as if he had never left the club in the first place.

But the feeling was short-lived.

Once she got on the bus alone, she felt as bad as she did when she was in the club room.

As the bus pulled away from the stop, Lee Seorin stared out the window and muttered to herself.

“……I hate this.”

[※ Story completion level: 0 → 1]