case 02

chapter 13: invisible

Yuta’s fingers raced across the keyboard, his eyes darting over the shifting screen. He was in the middle of a heated battle, with virtual explosions going off in every possible corner. He cocked his gun, shooting his way out of the mess and trying to scour the battlefield for traces of his team members. As usual, no one was where they were supposed to be.

“Motherer!” Yuta screeched, watching Jungwoo get zapped right in front of him. He turned his head –in real life, to glare at the real life Jungwoo– and barked: “You’re supposed to heal me, you piece of ! How could you get killed, you squishy ?”

Jungwoo looked at him like a deer in headlights. “I didn’t see him coming – serious!”

Yuta whipped his head back to the games. Tales of Jungwoo’s incompetence would not faze him. Not when they had captured more than half the map and were only a tower short from attacking the main base. They could win it, with or without Snoopy.

At least, that was what he thought – until Johnny’s tank character with more than 2000 HP was blown up by a dirty bomb. One hit wonder.

He scowled – this time at real life Johnny. “What the , Johnny? You’re literally the hardest character to kill!”

“It was an invisible bomb!” Johnny yelled in protest.

“I told you that his character drops invisible bombs! Buy a ing sweeping lens!” Yuta groaned. “God, why do I even play with you guys?”

Two dead teammates meant that –at least until they respawned– their enemies would attempt to attack their base, and Yuta would have to defend it on his own. Jaehyun was nowhere to be seen. He crossed his fingers and prayed that one extra rando on their team, whoever he was, actually knew how to play the damn game. If they were another Jungwoo, Johnny, or worse, Wendy ing Son, they were completely ed.

“I’m usually pretty good,” Johnny said defensively. He was tapping his foot, watching the seconds tick away to his moment to respawn. “Heartbreak is distracting!”

From the end of the row, Jaehyun chortled. “You can’t be heartbroken if you didn’t even get your heart broken, fool,” he said.

Jungwoo lifted his brows. “He didn’t tell her?” Jaehyun shook his head, eyes still transfixed on the game. Jungwoo turned to his still-dead comrade, Johnny. “Why?”

“I mean,” Johnny sighed, lowering his eyes, “with everything that’s going on with Taeil-hyung, you think she’d be in the mind to date someone? Plus, she’s never been interested in me all this time. Telling her now is just guaranteeing a rejection.”

Jungwoo nodded slowly. He was playing it off well, but Jungwoo could tell he was genuinely upset. Johnny had cherished a crush on Seulgi for as long as Jungwoo had known him – even before Seulgi became Jungwoo’s sister. Not that Seulgi becoming his sister had changed Johnny’s odds. It just it all a lot more palpable.

Jungwoo’s phone began to vibrate – Kang Seulgi. “Speak of the devil,” Jungwoo muttered, reaching towards his phone.

“Don’t you dare!” Yuta warned. Jungwoo’s character had just respawned.

The buzzing died down, only to pick up again, this time from Johnny. He was about to pick it up, but the dull ache in his chest and Yuta’s menacing glare made him abandon the attempt.

Obviously, Yuta himself ignored the call. He had ignored all fifty of Wendy’s missed calls, so he sure as hell wasn’t going to pick up Seulgi’s. He couldn’t care less if they were going to be an hour late to the radio show – at that moment, that was hardly important.

It was Jaehyun’s turn for his phone to go off. He inhaled, launched his assassin character at a clueless, nearby enemy and scored a fast kill. He shot Yuta a smirk, reclined in his seat and picked up his phone.

“Hey, Seul–“

“Where the are you guys?”

Jaehyun closed his eyes, regret simmering within – of all the traps he could’ve fallen into, it just had to be Kang Seulgi’s. Naturally, Wendy had been on the other line.

“Motherer!”

Yuta slammed his hands onto the blinking neon keyboard. It was taking every bit of willpower for him to stop himself from howling out every cuss word in the dictionary –Korean, Japanese and English– into the noisy PC-bang. Something about being thirty-three – a mature adult.

Johnny slumped into his seat. “How’d you get knocked out?” Jaehyun taunted. Johnny wasn’t in the mood to reply, and Yuta was looking like he was about to throttle the both of them with his bare hands. Jaehyun knew the answer – invisible bombs. Classic.

“I can’t believe I’m still playing against teenagers at a PC-bang on a Friday night,” Johnny said, glancing between Yuta and Jaehyun, “with you single s.”

“I can’t believe you guys are here,” Yuta shot back. “Don’t you guys have families?”

Johnny waved a dismissive hand. “Mine’s in Chicago. You know this.”

“Mine too.”

Johnny gave Jaehyun a bewildered look. “Wait,” he said, “why’s yours in Chicago?”

“Holidaying,” Jaehyun shrugged. Johnny nodded. Jaehyun’s family was notorious for taking extravagant, impromptu trips across the globe at the strangest times. He didn’t need any further explanation.

Johnny mimicked the shrug, his lips spreading into a wide, knowing smile. “You know what they say – if you can’t be with your friends, be with your family. And if you can’t be with your family, be with your friends,” he grinned. “Ask me who I’m with.”

Yuta rolled his eyes. He knew where that was going. “Whatever you say will not make up for your pathetic game,” Yuta said, still reeling from their loss.

“Come on, ask!”

“Who?” Yuta reluctantly obliged, or Johnny would pester them for hours.

“Both.”

“Jesus Christ.” Jaehyun felt his toes curl. He saw Yuta bury his head in his hands and Johnny smiling triumphantly, like he had delivered an award-winning speech at the Oscars and not regurgitated some moral-of-the-story cliché from a really bad television soap. He waved at a nearby part-timer. “Three bottles of Soju, please!”

“This tastes utterly divine.” One mouthful of Taeil’s cooking and Wendy was left groaning in pure, unadulterated ecstasy.

Taeil raised a quizzical brow. “You know, it’s just normal chicken.”

Wendy turned her nose up at him. Taeil always did have a tendency to downplay himself, even in the past. She was going to set things straight, as she always did. “Then,” she declared, “it must be the best-tasting normal chicken in the whole of South Korea. Mark my words.”

Taeil chuckled. His laughter was soft and muted, a faded ghost of what it once was. For someone who used to cook up storms for the six of them, throw Seulgi birthday surprises, and belt out the loudest, clearest sopranos at crummy karaoke bars, he had become weathered and uncharacteristically quiet.

Perhaps, it had just been a while since she had seen him. Taeil had moved up to Incheon immediately after he graduated with a degree in Biology, the only non-hands-on alternative to medical school. Other than his sporadic visits to Seulgi on her birthday, Taeil was nowhere to be seen. Even when she did see him, she didn’t as much as speak to him. In many ways, Taeil disappeared from their lives like smoke in the air.

Wendy tucked into her next piece of chicken. “How are you, Taeil-oppa?” she asked.

“I’m alright,” he replied politely, a little too politely. “Just working, cooking and cleaning, as I always am.”

“How antiseptic,” Wendy sniffed.

He chuckled again, still as quietly. “How about you, Wen?”

“The usual – working, cooking and cleaning,” she said cleverly, throwing him a cheeky look. He wasn’t going to get away with polite, political answers.

She could tell that he didn’t buy it. “Nah,” he said. “I’m sure your life has to be more exciting than that.”

“It isn’t – really. I really just work, cook and clean all day long.” She leaned over, her lips curving up at the corners. “And you know what’s the worst part – I don’t even cook this well.”

She took the small, amused smile tugging at his lips as a win. Small victories, she told herself. “How about your love life?” he asked. “Are you seeing anyone?”

“I wish,” she snorted.

“What?”

Wendy heaved a sigh, cupping her face with her hands. “I mean, I work crazy hours, I don’t have time to groom myself, and the only men I ever meet are my brother, my ty friends, and my clients, who, by the way, are brides and grooms on the cusp of marriage. So, if you’re wondering why I’m single as and my odds will continue to be ,” she paused for dramatic effect, “there you go.”

That did the trick. Taeil erupted in peals of light, mirthful laughter, laced with a hum of amusement, more reminiscent of the Taeil of her memories. When his laughed, his eyes sparkled like gems and he smiled like the sun in the sky, like everything sad and wrong in the world had gone away. She realized that she quite liked his laughter, after all.

“You should eat more, Seulgi. You look like you’ve lost so much weight,” Mrs. Kim gushed. Jungwoo’s mother started piling Seulgi’s plate with a colorful assortment of the fifty dishes she had prepared. “Does Jungwoo not cook for you?”

Jungwoo stopped his mother before Seulgi’s plate could overflow. “I do. And Seulgi eats so much,” Jungwoo assured.

His attempt at reassurance had the opposite effect on Seulgi’s father. “What? Why are you making Jungwoo cook for you, Seulgi?” Mr. Moon admonished, startled that his daughter would disregard her domestic duties.

Seulgi stifled a laugh. There was no winning with either of them.

“I don’t,” she said. It was her turn to reassure her father. “I mostly eat in the office.”

“You shouldn’t do that! It’s not good to eat out so much!” Jungwoo’s mother exclaimed. She swatted at Seulgi’s father, looking crossed. “Leave it be. Let Jungwoo take care of her. Seulgi’s so busy these days – she should spend whatever free time she has looking for a guy.”

“Guy? What guy?” Seulgi’s father had a look of horror splashed across his face. It was as though his daughter wasn’t thirty-three, a working adult, and capable of being in a mature relationship.

“A boyfriend, obviously.” Mrs. Kim turned to Seulgi, smiling brightly. “Seulgi – where’s Jaehyun? Why didn’t he come with you and Jungwoo?”

Jungwoo furrowed his brows. “Why would he come?”

Mrs. Kim flapped a hand at Jungwoo – the ignorant boy that he was. “You know, Seulgi,” she said, her voice purposefully gentle, “Jaehyun seems like a really nice boy. And you have been friends with him for such a long time, right? It would be nice if you two could–“

“Mom!”

Jungwoo set down his chopsticks. In a flurry,