His tone was quite rude. It was a cheeky tone, as if he was asking, âNo way, are your hands shaking with just this much holding something so expensive?â
Shin Heejae muttered to confirm it himself when I didnât answer.
âHow unexpected that you turned out to be bourgeoisâŚâ
I was utterly offended by that rude way of speaking. I told him firmly.
[Sesam: lolol no, stop paying attention to my items]
[Sesam: yeah just get the right stuff]
[Sesam: whoâs pointing fingers at who]
âHaaâŚâ
Shin Heejae let out a deep sigh. Then I heard him typing something on the keyboard, and suddenly a notification went off that a new mail had arrived in my mailbox.
[High Elfâs Sacred Pendant +9]
Heejae sent me the pendant again.
As soon as I saw it, I thought he wanted to go back and forth with me, so I raised my arms and approached the mailbox. Shin Hee-jae called out to me a beat faster.
âNoona.â
I wanted to ignore it, but I stopped the character and responded.
[Sesam: i told you i wonât accept it]
âWhy are you getting mad at me all of a sudden? I just gave you a present.â
It was a voice full of annoyance as if he didnât really understand what was going on but from the subdued voice, it felt like he was suppressing his temper and asking calmly in his own way.
I really donât know. Thatâs why Iâm asking. This just sounded ridiculous to me.
[Sesam: since you are not skilled enough, if you wear this]
âOh, fuck thatâsâŚâ
Why is this fucking bastard swearing all of a sudden?
[Sesam: What? Did you say ââ to me now?]
Of course, I got heated up.
Heejae, the bastard, also spared no time to make an excuse in a voice, like with his tail down, as if he had made a slip of the tongue at that time.
âNoo⌠I didnât swear at you⌠I was just frustrated. HaaâŚâ
But just as I was about to start chatting, he suddenly coughed away from the microphone. It wasnât a forced cough, but seemed more like he was holding back the cough.
âWhat, did he have a cold?â
I think his voice was a bit more hoarse than beforeâŚ
I forgot what I was going to say for a moment and listened to the sound coming from the headset. Shin Heejaeâs coughing noise continued a few more times, and soon there was a sound of clearing his throat.
And thenâŚ
ââŚIâll go get some water.â
After saying so in an indistinct voice, Shin Heejae turned off the microphone.
I was just looking at the game screen in a subtle state where I couldnât really get angry or feel better.
However, while Shin Heejae was away, suddenly someone was boasting in the chat window with a high-performance âmegaphoneâ.
[Trade: the person who bought the 9th grade pendant that didnât sell for two months ă ă thank you so much lololololol]
This person was a merchant who was often seen at auction houses.
As soon as I saw the âhigh-perphoneâ, I looked at the [High Elfâs Sacred Pendant +9], which made me feel uncomfortable again.
âNo way⌠You didnât buy it and send it to me, did you?â
I was skeptical of the perfect condition, but I immediately shook my head. No, I didnât wear 9th grade accessories so thereâs no way heâll buy me a pendant out of nowhere.
âNo⌠right?â
But I really felt uncomfortable the entire time. And probably 10 minutes had passed. I felt even more uncomfortable after Shin Heejae said he was sorry in the chat, and that he needed to go to the hospital.
Shin Heejae said that he would take medicine and sleep for only two hours after coming back from the hospital, but eventually failed to come back online. I wondered if he had taken the medicines and stretched his nap. He didnât even turn on the live broadcast he used to do almost every day.
âHonestly, heâs a bastard who just eats and plays games.â
I clicked my tongue and laughed at Shin Heejae for having a weak body. Also, I went around the dungeon with the three clan members without Shin Heejae for the first time in a while.
But surprisingly⌠It was overwhelmingly faster to go around the dungeon with Shin Heejae than to do the same with these three. I didnât want to compare, but because I was with other people, I came to acknowledge his skills a lot more.
[Huha: sesam-nim is really good at healing]
[Yewoo: i think youâre the best one]
[Sesam: no lolol why are you being like this all of a sudden ă ]
[Lemonade: there must be a reason why clan master-nim kidnaps you every dayâŚ
[Yewoo: i respect you]
[Sesam: : ;;itâs not like that, itâs just that⌠Shin Heejae⌠-ssi is using me as a heal shuttle]
No matter how many times I experienced the three-person dramatic dialogues I couldnât get used to it. I tried to calm down the chat window, as I started to feel awkward for some reason.
However, they brought up the topic of Shin Heejae and I couldnât tell if they were teasing or praising me as they chatted for a while.
[Yewoo: clan master-nim doesnât even take a healer with him usually]
[Lemonade: what a real solo player ă ă ]
[Huha: right, looks like you donât know the real purpose of a party]
Besides, because I joined the clan so quickly, they kept asking me about Shin Heejae. It turns out that Heejae was famous for his rugged ways of playing in the clan.
This felt something like⌠being a celebrityâs friend and you suddenly were thrust into the spotlight? Of course, such curiosity was a burden to me because Heejae and I were far from a friend-like relationship.
So I worked hard to prove that Heejae and I had a business relationshipâŚ
[Sesam: no but itâs really like a solo play]
[Sesam: sometimes he acts like heâs a game pod who doesnât even say a word lol]
[Huha: omg⌠didnât you play together for almost 6 hours?]
[Sesam: lolol yeah right⌠what]
[Sesam: there is nothing to say when you just walk around the dungeon]
[Yewoo: i seeâŚ]
[Yewoo: actually i⌠thought you two were doing great;]
[Sesam: sorry?]
[Huha: ohlololol me too]
[Lemonade: lololololololololololol]
Yewoo suddenly spewed out some bullshit. He said something so terrible; that he thought Heejae and I were dating. I tried to curse with disgust, but suddenly I remembered my original purpose.
Actually, I gave up on the idea of dating Shin Heejae because it was going too slow, but if people around me misunderstand me and I donât deny itâŚ
âIsnât this still an extremely beneficial revenge if I make the rumors go viral even if weâre not dating?â
Besides, Shin Heejae is sleeping right now and wonât be able to explain properly. Truly, a golden opportunity.
I swallowed my saliva and pondered over what to say to make the relationship between Shin Heejae and I seem plausible, and how to make the rumor fly as if from a million high-performance âmegaphonesâ.
[Sesam: btw⌠about what hee⌠clan master-nim gave me]
[Sesam: is it expensive?]
[Yewoo: what was it?]
[Sesam: the pendant iâm wearing right now]
[Huha: omg]
[Lemonade: omg⌠did he really give it to you?]
[Sesam: yes ă ă ⌠i said iâd give it back if it turned out to be expensive]
[Sesam: itâs expensive, isnât it?]
In the meantime, I also changed [View Info] to public so that they can see it well.
However, the party chat was silent for a while, and then Yewoo unnaturally denied my words.
[Yewoo: omg⌠itâs probably a 100 million lolol itâs not expensive so just use it]
[Huha: yep⌠just go for it lolol]
[Lemonade: ă ă ; itâs a gift so donât feel pressured ă ă ]
Of course, I had already checked the value of this item. So I immediately noticed that they were conspiring to help Heejae.
âDeceiving the person whoâs trying to deceiveâŚâ
I snorted at such a small friendship, but based on their attitude, it was rather funny to think that rumors would spread when I or Shin Heejae wasnât present. That was what I was aiming for in the first place.
âRather than forcing myself to act cute to Shin HeejaeâŚâ
It would be much easier this way, and it would be more advantageous to achieve this goal. I fanned the illusion of three people with a sinister smile.
âHaâŚâ
However, when I lay in bed after logging out, I felt a little embarrassed. After pretending to have something going on with Shin Heejae but acting innocent about it at the same time, I got goosebumps all over my body.
âEven if itâs being a netkama⌠Itâs only possible if you put an iron plate on your face.â
I was lying on the bed, stroking my aching neck, tossing around and turning on my phone as I started to read a webtoon that I had put on hold.
Then, I opened the messenger app, answered a few words to a message from Hyejin, and then pressed down on the message from Shin Heejae below it.
[Heejae: noona, iâll only sleep for two hours]
It had already been 13 hours since he sent that. I wasnât particularly worried, but thinking of the pendant made my fingers move for no reason.