Byulyi looked at the calendar on her phone and checked her Saturday schedule before she decided to text Yongsun. The two of them have exchanged phone numbers during the dinner on Monday but none of them has initiated a conversation since then. 

To: Kim Yongsun
9:45pm
Good evening, Yongsun. Would you be keen to have lunch together tomorrow?

To: Moon Byulyi
9:50pm
Hey, Byulyi. Lemme check my schedule!
9:53pm
Lunch sounds good. 1pm?

To: Kim Yongsun
9:55pm
Perfect. I’ll send you the address.

The initiator calculated using the proposed timing and was confident that there is ample time for her to go hang out with the girl before she return home in the evening and her parents would not nag at her for having no "real" social life again.

“The all-you-can-eat 1-hour buffet here is amazing, have you tried?” The two girls are now standing outside a korean restaurant along a street on Hongdae.

Yongsun looked at the laminated menu pasted on the glass facade of the restaurant and immediately walked in. “Table for two, please.”

Byulyi quickly followed her new friend who has taken the lead of the lunch date.

“Something caught your eye?” Byulyi bowed to the server who assigned them a table and set a countdown timer.

“I saw they said they uses their homemade kimchi to make special deluxe gimbap and steamed egg! ” Yongsun exclaimed as she starts to study the sumptuous buffet counter in detail.

“I love kimchi!”

“Oh…” Byulyi nodded her head to the new information that she has learned about the girl from the same neighborhood.

“You work in the I.T sector?” The girls have started on their first round of the timed-attack against the restaurant. 

“Sort of. I just provide general support on the phone. If the problem cannot be resolved, I would just ask the caller to drop by the office and face an actual I.T technician.”

“Oh…” Yongsun nodded her head before she shares more about what she works as.

“I’m just doing pure mundane data entry. But I’m happy with it. Low stress and I won’t have to work overtime.”

Before Byulyi could respond, her new friend is already making her way back to the buffet counter station that is serving a new batch of kimchi gimbap.

They split the bill of the satisfying and value for money meal before they went to check out a newly-opened arcade across the street that already has large crowds entering consistently.

“Opening weekend special! You get extra 10% value for the amount of tokens you purchase!” A promoter standing outside the shop shouted into a megaphone to attract the people on the street.

The two girls, who are actually competitive gamers at heart, took the bait and decided to spend the rest of their afternoon trying out all the games available.

The data entry clerk ended up hitting a high score for a driving game that they were playing. She keyed in a name to register her record.

yong21

Yongsun looked at Byulyi in puzzlement when she saw the strange name used to record the top score for the Bishi Bashi game machine.

drolnoom

The customer service agent shrugged and said it is easier to stand out against the long list of players' name.

After a fruitful afternoon, the two pro gamers ended up using all their winning tickets to exchange for a bunch of snacks at the prize redemption counter.

“That was fun! Let’s hang out again next week?” Byulyi suggested to her new friend whom she is hitting off well because of their on-par skill level at the arcade.

“Yeah! Let’s do it! I gotta go now, text again!” Yongsun waved as they alighted at the same bus stop but walked towards a different direction.

That evening, Yongsun skipped dinner and munched on a Pocky stick as she typed to a friend using the in-game messenger function of the computer game that she is obsessed with. 

User keemchi_lover21:
i won a bunch of snacks today when i owned some arcade games with a new friend i made from my neighborhood

User maybeinthemood:
nice! share some with me when we meet! let’s teleport to the event-limited town now

Their respective in-game characters - a mage and an archer - arrived in a town via a portal and they could see hundreds of other players already waiting for the event to start.

User maybeinthemood:
@keemchi_lover21 aye, why is that player targeting you ?

In the midst of the time-attack game quest, Yongsun has also noticed a player starting to hinder her moves to win the mini game.

User keemchi_lover21:
hey! go farm your own orange mushroom cap!

User xXmo_onlordXx:
:)

Yongsun cursed at her monitor screen throughout the event and eventually she lost in terms of ranking. The irritating player even has the audacity to taunt her before teleporting out of the event-limited town.

User xXmo_onlordXx:
let’s hang out again soon, keemchi~

Somewhere in the same neighborhood, Byulyi is laughing obnoxiously into her gaming mic as she chats with her friend.

“Ahahaha, Hyejin did you see that?! I totally wrecked her game stats!”

“You petty .” Byulyi could sense the eye-roll that her gamer friend is shooting her virtually.

Even though Yongsun was tormented by that irritating player from time to time since that night when she logs into the game, her gathering with Byulyi on weekend aftern