Chapter Four

An Annoying Boy, Innocent Sheep and Troublesome Cow

[2603 words]

“Ouch…”

Gyu groaned in pain, though Howon told him that the level of pain in that game world was just one tenth of the actual pain in their real world but still it hurt to be knocked down to the ground. Even so, Gyu been grateful that he won’t be bruised in that world, as in the real world his body was very weak and his skin was so thin and sensitive, he got bruised easily even from just a slight impact. If the pain he suffered in that world were the same with the real world, he would be already ended in a hospital after fighting his first sheep days ago.

After tried to push himself up from the ground, Gyu dusted his white cloak and made sure that he got no bruised in his body, finally Gyu paid attention to the person who he had been bumped into. That boy just stood there, not move any single muscle of him, whether to help Gyu stood up from the ground or even just to ask Gyu’s condition. No hand offering to help him got up and no asking “are you okay?”

Gyu pushed his lower lips forward to form a pout and furrowed his eyebrows in annoyance. “I’m waiting for an apologize.” Gyu demanded at the stranger in front of him.

The stranger raised his eyebrows, and opened his eyes wide then turned his head to his right and to the opposite side, clearly looked confused. Or clearly acted to look confused if Gyu might say, he could see the end of the boy’s lips slightly turned upward, as if mocking him. After realized there were only the two of them on that area, the boy looked back at Gyu and raised his finger to point at his own nose, asked in innocent tone, “from me?”

Gyu’s pout grow bigger, signing that he got really annoyed with the failed innocent-act from the boy. “Yah! You bumped into me and made me knocked down to the ground, you were not even helped me got up, at least you now could say that you are sorry,” Gyu barked at the boy while fold his hand in front of his chest, tried to look arrogant.

The boy threw away his innocent mask, mimicked Gyu’s gesture to fold his arm on his chest and grinned cheekily. “I think you should thank me, actually.”

After gaped at the boy for a brief second, Gyu forced a short and sharp breath through his nose to express his indignation. Thank him, he said? Were there a people who would feel grateful after being knocked down to the ground? Gyu took a step forward and pushed one finger to the irritating boy’s chest, growled in between his gritted teeth. “Why should I?”

Gyu felt smug, as he knew that he was slightly taller than the boy, made his confident boosted up and he was so sure he looked more intimidating than the boy. The boy seemed aware with the fact too, it reflected on his face as he swatted Gyu’s hand away and step back to create some distance between them again. The boy then opened his mouth to voice his reason, “you almost accidentally walked out the city gate if not because of me, and also if it was not because of me you’ll be already died out there.”

Blinked his eyes once, Gyu cocked his head to one side, confused with the boy’s words. “But I am intending to walk out.”

“You are intending to walk out?” The boy repeated Gyu’s statement before snorted. “Hah, you looked like you were daydreaming while walking, completely looked out of your mind and didn’t pay attention to your surrounding. You didn’t see me walk at you, means you won’t see when a monster attack you and bum, you’ll die instantly.” The boy obviously mocked at Gyu, then he raised one of his eyebrows, “or not?”

“Yah, I’m not daydreaming.” When the boys clicked his tongue and looked didn’t agree with his answer, Gyu quickly added. “Well, maybe I’m a little distracted. But it doesn’t mean you can bump and knock me down.” Gyu lowering his coice and pouted, realized that it was also his mistake for not seeing the boy came to his direction, and as the boy said, it could be worse if it was a monster that headed to him.

The boy raised his hand to rub the back of his neck and suddenly smiled sheepishly as he said his next words, “hehhe, I’m sorry then. Next time, I’ll try a more sophisticated way than knocked you down. Umm, maybe by calling your name?” The boy slightly increased the tone near his end sentences, and also wiggling his eyebrows.

Gyu widened his eyes in disbelieve, despite the fact that they not differ too much since his eyes were very small. “Yah, are you now asking for my name?” He didn’t believe that boy just used that opportunity to make an introduction.

“Oh come on, I already said my apologize, right? And stop calling me by ‘yah’, you can call me Woohyun.”

Gyu wiped the sweats on his forehead, he felt a little tired but it didn’t stop a smile to bloom on his lips as he finally finished his tenth sheep. For the past hour he finally leveled up twice, now he’s on level three and killing sheep now much easier and faster than before. But it also took more time and more experience to raise his level again, means now he had to kill more sheep before he could has his level up again. After checked his blood –at least now he didn’t waste his blood too much only for battling one sheep– Gyu decided to rest a bit, to fill his bar again and got ready for his next slaughtering sheep.

Took a few steps to climb the hill, Gyu walked toward a boy who lay down on the green grass under the shadow of trees, eyes closed and his body looked relaxed, peacefully sleeping. Gyu landed his body besides the boy and whines as he stretched a little, it was the very first time he worked his body that hard, willingly. In the real world, even when his physical education teacher threatened him to not let him pass his class if he didn’t try harder in running and passed the minimum time, he wouldn’t move his muscle that much –because in the end of the semester that teacher would let him pass the class after gave him personal additional task to write a very long essay about history of baseball in South Korean. He was not like Howon who also enjoyed sport as much as he enjoyed game.

Gyu let a long breath as he once again remembered about Howon and couldn’t stop his eyes to glance at the boy beside him. If Howon didn’t leave him, surely that must be Howon that laid beside him at the moment, not a random boy he just met this morning near the city gate. Gyu shifted his position so he could look at the boy better and as his eyes landed on the sword that secured tightly on the boy’s waist his memory flied toward Howon again, Howon also using sword in that game. On the next moment, Gyu already started to compare that boy with Howon. Both of the boys were shorter than Gyu, but apparently this boy was taller than Howon. Both of them had a tanner skin than him, but who wouldn’t, Gyu practically only lived in his room (or Howon’s room), spent all of his time by reading or studying, never got enough sun rays and made him had a pale complexion. Those two boys also had slightly muscular body, Gyu could felt it when he pushed his finger on the boy’s chest, *cough* not that he purposely d him *cough*. Both of them had dark brown hair, a well-defined jaw, straight nose, and a pair of thin lips, but Howon’s eyes were bigger and his dark eyebrows also thicker.

Gyu sighed again, really missed his Howon, what did that boy doing at the moment? Why didn’t Howon come back to him yet?

“Did you never hear that every time you sigh your height would reduced by one millimeter? Keep sighing and I’ll become taller than you in no time. And, didn’t you ever heard that staring is not polite?”

Gyu gasped and quickly turned his head away from the boy, now facing the bright blue sky that peeked in between the thick leaves above him. “Yah, I’m not staring.” Gyu felt his cheeks got heated in embarrassment; he really needed to stop his staring habit, but then usually he just did it to Howon.

“Tsk, tsk, though your eyes are really small but I still can know that you are staring at me.” Gyu could heard the boy chuckled at him, then he felt some movement from the boy beside him, and on the next second that boy’s face appeared in front of his own face as the boy hovered above him.

Gyu startled with their sudden closeness and shrieked, “yah, what are you doing?! Go away.”

But the boy pinned down his arm on his side and effectively prevented Gyu to push the boy away. Gyu didn’t expect the boy to pout his lips and whined, “didn’t I tell you to stop calling me by ‘yah’? You already know my name, call me by my name.”

“Yah, stop it.” Gyu shouted and struggled, also turned his face as the boy got his face closer.

“I won’t. Until you call me by my name,” the boy got bolder and reduced their distance more, Gyu could felt the boy’s hot breath brushed his face, and it made him felt his cheeks heated again.

“Okay, okay, Woohyun.” Gyu gave up and finally said the boy’s name. “There, I’ve call you by your name as you wanted. Now get off of me.” When the boy didn’t move from his position hovering above Gyu and didn’t release his hand, Gyu tried to suppress his anger and added, “Woohyun-ssi, get off of me, please.”

“Your name.”

“What?” Gyu hate the smirk that plastered in Woohyun’s face.

“Tell me your name first.”

Gyu knew that nothing he could do in his situation beside told the boy his name. He gritted his teeth and hissed his name, “Gyu.”

Woohyun’s smirk turn into a sincere smile, for a second he blinded Gyu by his happy face that looked like a kid when got a toy he craved for. “Okay, Gyu.” In a blink of eye, Woohyun already got off and sat beside him. Gyu shook his head to clearer his mind from the image he just saw, and pushed his own body to sit too. Gyu glanced the boy that sat next to him for a second, and then decided that killing sheep would distract his mind, from his anger toward Woohyun and also from missing Howon.

“Where are you going?” Woohyun asked when Gyu stood up.

Gyu jerked his head toward a flock of sheep that busy chewed the cud not far away from them. “Raising my level.”

Woohyun’s sudden burst of laugh really irritated Gyu, he raised his wand and menaced to poke at the boy. However the boy just rolled over to avoid Gyu and his wand, kept laughing hard. Gyu huffed and decided to just walk away, but Woohyun grasped at the end of his cloak to stop him. Gyu turned his head toward the still grinning boy. “How many innocent lamb are you going to sacrifice, Gyu?”

When Gyu just pouted and didn’t answer, Woohyun continued. “Oh, come on. Let’s just let the sheep eat their lunch in peace, and move to higher-level monsters, you can raise your level faster that way.” Woohyun then dragged Gyu farther into the hill, ignored the protest from the wizard boy, didn’t stop until they arrived at a sloping hill, and herb of black and white cow came to their sight. “There, I think you’re ready for the cow.”

Gyu turned to Woohyun, gaped at him. “B-but, they are bigger than the sheep and also look more dangerous.” Gyu pointed at the cow that almost as high as him, big either with muscle or fat, their strong legs longer than the sheep and it made them looked like they could run faster than the sheep too.

Woohyun sighed, “of course. But you can raise your level faster. Tsk, I really didn’t know there would be someone who still in a level that very low after days already passed. And don’t just poke your wand around, you are a magic user, for God’s sake.” He shook his head, seemed not believed with Gyu’s condition.

Gyu pouted as he remembered that Howon also said the same thing about his wand-poking habit. Gyu fiddled with his wand and mumbled in low voice. “How do you know? Weren’t you sleeping earlier in that hilltop?”

“You can’t sleep in any kind of place, Gyu, you can be robbed or worst, killed. So, no, I wasn’t sleeping, I was observing you.” Woohyun stated.

“What? Why?” Gyu asked. He really couldn’t understand the boy in front of him. First, bumped into him to warn him not to walk absentmindedly, then followed him to the hill though he already shooed him away, demanded his name and now just admitted that he was observing Gyu.

“How if you are suddenly goes blank again in the middle of your fighting? I need to prevent a player from die, a knight had an obligation to safe every single innocent souls.” Woohyun voiced out his reason. Though he knew that boy was mocking him, Gyu couldn’t stop himself from not stared in amazement, but it only for a brief second until that boy opened his mouth again. “Woaaah, didn’t I sound cool?”

Gyu tsk-ed and stubbornly walk toward the nearest cow. So Woohyun thought that he would goes blank in the middle of his fighting and only could use his wand for poking? He better not got shocked with what Gyu capable to do.

“I really shocked.”

Gyu groaned and put his hands on each of his ears, “yah, stop saying that.”

Despite the fact the he already covered his ears, he still could hear Woohyun’s laugh. “I really got shocked that you can’t even handle a single cow at all. Ah, I should recorded your battle with the cow, you only ran around and couldn’t even poking it, moreover chanted a mantra to it, hahha…” Woohyun laughed so hard, he held his stomach and Gyu could saw that boy shed some tears from his eyes.

Gyu huffed and really hated himself at that moment. No, why should he hate himself if he could just hate that boy. He did well that day, he raised his level twice, he got some good drop items from the sheep, and more importantly he still alive, but Woohyun just ruined his day by made him embarrass himself to fight the cow in fail. They got back to the city that afternoon after he wasted half of his day in attempt to kill a cow, and that annoying-Woohyun still tailed him around and laughed at his fail. Gyu busy cursed on the boy in his mind, and once again made himself less alert to his surrounding.

“Gyu, watched out!”

He heard Woohyun shouted at him, but it was too late, he already sprawled involuntary on the ground for the second time in that day.

_A/N_

I'm so sorry for the very late update. My bff got graduated this week, and for a full passed week I just cried in my room corner, cursed her for leaving me and wailed my poor fate to be left by her, NOT, hahha.. I was busy helping her booking hotel for his family, finding and making appointment with someone who can do the make up for her Graduation Ceremony, helping her to design a Greek dress for the Grad-Nite Party and preparing a gift for her XD

I also spent much time with her, for our last bonding-time together, so I didn't really had much time to sat in front of my laptop and posted the chapters. Ah, sorry I'm just making excuses~