The very instant Peach finished speaking with a slightly gloomy face behind the monitor, ‘Cherry Coke’ used the kneeling emote. 

[Guild] Cherry Coke: F♡♡K!! I should have gone!! I should have been there!!

[Guild] Won: Do rankers have no way to make money these days?

[Guild] Won: Every ranker I meet is completely crazy for money…

[Guild] FastAndPissedOff: Not really? First of all, that noona just doesn’t have any gold because she spends way too much. She bought a 40-something scale figure recently.

[Guild] Won: Ha…

[Guild] Cherry Coke: But!! But he was naked!! He even had his panties off…

[Guild] Won: Stop right there. The kid is listening.

[Guild] Cherry Coke: Mmph mmph mmph ㅠㅠㅜㅠㅠ mmph mmph!! ㅠㅜㅠㅠㅠ

“What a bunch of nonsense.”

After muttering gloomily for a moment, Won’s face returned to a gentle expression upon seeing ‘Peach’.

Peach, equipped from head to toe in Won’s favorite cosmetic items, was simply adorable.

“Ah, seriously, I want to bite him…”

Speaking as if to himself, Won patted Dohwa’s head repeatedly.

Dohwa giggled at the touch.

While he was admiring the brightly smiling polygon with his chin resting on his hand, his phone suddenly rang.

Answering without looking, Won habitually switched it to speaker.

A voice that was beyond familiar, to the point of being almost sickening, came through the phone.

-Hey!

“What.”

-Swimming pool!

“…I’m hanging up.”

The moment Won tried to hang up at the unfunny joke, Chaei shouted urgently, knowing this guy would actually cut the call.

-Don’t hang up! Don’t hang up! Fuck, seriously don’t hang up! This is about your little peach! You’ll regret it if you don’t listen! You’ll really regret it! You’ll regret it so much you’ll shit blood! Shit blood!

The pale white finger hovering over the phone screen stopped abruptly.

Tilting his head at the sudden opening, Won only shifted his eyes toward the phone.

“If it’s useless talk, I’m hanging up immediately.”

-Ugh, fine, I get it, I get it. Why are you so suspicious…

“But Chaei, you’re the one who started with the nonsense.”

At the warning delivered in a calm voice, Chaei simply snorted through the phone.

Sighing at her complete lack of remorse, Won leaned back deeply into his chair and spoke.

“So what is it. Get to the point.”

Speaking indifferently, Won looked back at the screen, staring down at Dohwa, who was sitting right at his character’s feet. Sitting with his knees pulled up and his arms hugging his legs, Dohwa was staring up at Won.

As Won chuckled at the cute sight, Chaei abruptly spoke up.

-You know Lee Joon, right?

Won narrowed his eyes at the name that felt vaguely familiar yet instantly unpleasant to hear.

Won’s instinct was screaming that this ‘Lee Joon’ was a disgusting piece of shit.

“…Lee Joon? Sounds like some male bastard.”

-A disgusting piece of shit.

“So that means I’m right. Why bring him up?”

When Won asked back in a thoroughly unamused voice, Chaei continued with a sigh.

-So you don’t even remember who he is?

“Who cares. I don’t store male bastards in my memory.”

-Ugh, seriously! You crazy bastard!

“I know exactly what you think of me, so just tell me.”

At his voice completely devoid of interest, Chaei let out another heavy sigh.

She felt sorry for herself for being the kind of friend who called first to inform him of the situation.

Despite shuddering, Chaei persisted.

-The bastard who claims you stole his girl! 

“There’s more than one guy like that. When I see other men, they seem to think all the women in the world already belong to them. Isn’t it funny? Women are the ones who choose the men. I wonder what those failures actually believe in to act so bold.”

-Ah, I get your philosophy! I’m talking about that psycho in the Western Painting department who didn’t graduate and just stuck around to bully the freshmen!

“I’ll say it again, there’s more than one guy like that.”

At his overly calm voice, the sound of a keyboard being slammed like a shotgun echoed cheerfully through the receiver.

Won chuckled, crossed his arms, and let out a long yawn while looking at the peaceful guild castle.

“Anyway, if you’re going to tell me, tell me properly.”

-Ha… fine… one of those bastards with an inferiority complex toward you is this guy named Lee Joon. Lately, he’s been absolutely dying to tear Dohwa apart.

It was another abrupt statement. Won couldn’t understand the connection between someone having an inferiority complex toward him and being so desperate to tear Dohwa apart.

As if knowing Won wouldn’t understand, Chaei added some context.

-Apparently, he badmouthed you in front of Dohwa.

“Hmm?”

Unfortunately, it was difficult for Won to grasp the entire situation based solely on that phrase.

Cursing her friend who possessed zero humanity and was full of misanthropy, Chaei closed her eyes tightly.

Muttering curses internally, she added an explanation in a forcedly calm voice.

-He called you a whore in front of Dohwa, so Dohwa got pissed and said something to Lee Joon. But Lee Joon got triggered by that, so lately he’s been calling Dohwa a whore and saying all sorts of terrible things about him. But unfortunately, Dohwa doesn’t have anyone he can really call a friend… so it seems there’s no one there to tell everyone it’s not true. There are quite a few people who like him, but also just as many who hate him….Ah, fuck! Both of you bastards have no friends, so you’re leaving all of this to me! Make some friends! Friends! Not girlfriends, friends!

As she spoke, Chaei seemed to only get angrier, slamming her keyboard.

When unknown strings of vowels and consonants appeared in the guild chat window, the guild members asked if something was wrong.

Watching the scene with narrowed eyes, Won uncrossed his arms.

“…Ah, I remember.”

-What?

“Lee Joon, that guy.”

-You remember now?

“He was so shockingly ugly that I completely blocked it out. That’s the one, right? The guy whose facial features were so ‘free-spirited’ that it was a miracle they were even in the right place.”

At his perfectly serene voice, Chaei downed the beer on her desk in one shot.

As the alcohol flowed through her veins, she was finally able to regain some peace.

-Yeah… that’s him, and he’s been running around badmouthing Dohwa lately. You hear me, Won? My shitty friend. He’s badmouthing your little peach. And it’s because of you.

“To say it’s all because of me…”

-Ah, it is because of you!

“Are you a child? Why are you insisting so stubbornly?”

-Ugh!

With Chaei’s groans of frustration acting as background music, Won fell into thought.

So, to summarize, a guy who particularly hated him was now bullying Dohwa…

“But why are you telling me this?”

-He’s your peach! Your peach!

“Ah… well, since it’s my little peach’s business, I suppose I should resolve it.”

-And above all, I’m telling you it happened because of you! Huh? That peach is getting cursed at because he was busy defending you. Are you lacking comprehension skills?? Did you get shot in the head while in the military? Man, the army really is dangerous these days.

“Dohwa really is a strange kid when I think about it. Why did he defend me? It’s obvious you’ll get stoned if you defend me in a situation like that. I wouldn’t have even known if you hadn’t told me.”

At those words, Chaei, who was clutching her head in agony, shouted.

-Because he likes you! He likes you so much that he’d defend you even when you aren’t around! That peach likes you!

“Me?”

-You! Please stop making the people who care about you look like idiots, Seonu Won!

Lost for words at the desperate cry, Won shifted his gaze from the phone back to the monitor.

Inside, Dohwa was looking up at Won with entirely innocent eyes.

Even though he knew perfectly well that the thing on the screen was nothing more than a lump of polygons existing in a universe built entirely on 0s and 1s, Won almost blurted out a question directly to it. 

Do you like me? Me, the person who is best at making idiots out of the people who like him.

Chaei ended the call after telling him to either return to classes early or visit the campus to do something about the rumors.