Dusk (BL Light Novel)

So, what was Gang Jaegyung—who shamelessly acted like this as Gonyanyanya—doing all this time as Retaking a Class?
[General] Retaking a Class: Why are you never showing up in the field these days? Come play with me ㅠ

[General] Retaking a Class: I heard you're playing with a newbie now? Are you saying you’re sick of me already?
[General] Retaking a Class: So I got squeezed dry and dumped, huh? ㅠㅜ
[General] Retaking a Class: Got reports you’ve been holed up in a farming dungeon since yesterday… I tried to take some base points. Can’t farm anymore, huh?

[General] Retaking a Class: Come play with me ㅎㅅㅎ)9
Instead of showing me how well he was doing, he just clung to me like that—begging and whining—probably because I’d drastically cut down my time in the field and was spending my time cultivating in farming dungeons. He was clearly getting desperate.
Each time, I either killed Gang Jaegyung and gave him a half-hearted reply or just ignored him and ghosted again. Honestly, I wanted to play too. It had been over a week since I’d touched the field, and running dull dungeons with zero excitement was boring as hell.

[Faction] Jeojajok Supreme Commander Retaking a Class has defeated Viajok Supreme Commander Honeybread.
[General] Retaking a Class: Can you stop going to dungeons now…?
[Faction] Viajok Supreme Commander Honeybread has defeated Jeojajok Supreme Commander Retaking a Class.
[General] Honeybread: Nah, I’m taking the newbie to the farming dungeon to teach him stuff

That night, Gang Jaegyung texted me nonstop through the early hours.
[Gang Jaegyung]
Aren’t you gonna play with me…?
I’m so bored these days
The viewers wanna see you too…
(emoticon) 03:21
[Me]
I play sometimes 03:26

[Gang Jaegyung]
Once a /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ day, if even that, is “sometimes”? 03:26
[Me]
Yeah 03:34
[Gang Jaegyung]
I’m seriously so sad
Do you like that newbie that much? 03:34
You’re even scouting dungeons ahead of time when you hardly ever go to the field anymore? 03:35
Is it that I’m old and worn out and you’re sick of me?
No matter how good that guy is, he can’t beat me, you know? 03:36
You're a Supreme Commander, and you wanna flirt with some guy who’s not even a Sergeant? While your Commanding Officer of one year is staring right at you?? 03:37
If you like the newbie, shouldn’t you treat me the same? I’m a newbie you picked up too, remember? I was picked up a year earlier!
So you’ve chewed me up, sucked me dry, and now you’re done with me?
We haven’t even hit the boredom phase, and you’re already cheating on me?
Am I really that unappealing?
Then why’d you fight with me all this time?
Didn’t you keep accepting fights from me because you liked me?
Now that you beat me offline, I’m useless to you?
You can’t even fight that newbie since he’s in the same faction—then what are you gonna do?
And if you dare say I’m just a stand-in for that newbie, I’m seriously server-transferring.
You know I’ve got fans who’ll follow me if I transfer, right?
If they all move, too, then 3rd server becomes a Viajok-dominant snoozefest. You ready for that??? 03:38
Can’t you just treat me right from the start so you don’t regret it after I’m gone? 03:39
You’re not even reading my messages right now, are you?
You don’t care what I say anymore, huh?
What happened to the guy who used to carefully observe what skills I used, how I moved, how I reacted?
How can someone change like this? 03:40

[Me]
Damn, you talk a lot; 03:40
[Gang Jaegyung]
You’re so cruel...
Just ‘cause you found someone new, you’re throwing me away like that? 03:40
[Me]
I didn’t throw you away tho 03:41

[Gang Jaegyung]
Then what? 03:41
[Me]
Hm
I didn’t throw you away 03:43
[Gang Jaegyung]
You can’t even answer properly
Your replies are so slow
Dusk is no fun lately
Is it okay if I quit? 03:44

I was pretending to be slow to respond, just peeking at the preview notifications without opening the chat. But that message hit a little differently. If he wasn’t just whining but actually thinking about quitting… I didn’t want that. I only wanted to mess with Gang Jaegyung—not push him to quit.
So this time, I had to reply carefully.
[Me]
There’s a big patch coming soon, right?
Wanna fight me after the update? 03:45

[Gang Jaegyung]
That’s only if I’m still interested in the game by then 03:45
[Me]
;;
Hang on, lemme finish raising the newbie and I’ll play with you again 03:46
[Gang Jaegyung]
So the newbie comes before me, huh? 03:46

[Me]
I mean… kinda seems like it 03:46
[Gang Jaegyung]
Can’t you at least take care of me too?
And since we’re on the topic of the newbie...
Is he really a decent guy? 03:46
I’m seeing weird rumors
What if he’s only getting close ‘cause he knows you’re loaded? 03:47
[Me]
Dunno?
Doesn’t seem like that kinda person 03:47
[Gang Jaegyung]
I heard you geared him with full maxed dungeon gear—true?
Did you really need to go that far?
I get helping out a newbie, but I don’t think you need to cover everything
Gear’s one thing, but dungeons—you can solo them just fine once you know the mechanics 03:47

[Me]
I just felt like doing it
Don’t worry about it 03:48
After that, Gang Jaegyung kept trying to get me to doubt the newbie, and I just kept playing it off like, "Why are you making such a fuss?"
Eventually I said I was tired and ended the conversation. Only then did Gang Jaegyung give up and tell me to do whatever I want.

I worried that he might snap back the next day with another barrage of texts, but surprisingly, he didn’t message me at all. Maybe he was actually sulking.
On his stream, he acted normal—but there was this subtle effort to avoid talking about me. When a sharp viewer asked, “Did something happen with Honeybread?” he just brushed it off with a “No, nothing like that,” and managed to keep my name completely out of it.
I did worry for a bit that maybe, just like he said, he’d really lost interest in the game. But that didn’t seem to be the case. He still looked genuinely happy when he beat other Viajok users. If someone asked him to run a dungeon, he gladly accepted.

And that cold, dismissive vibe toward me didn’t last long. Two days later, I got a message.
[Gang Jaegyung]
Are you done yet? ㅠ
I really wanna play
I’ll be waiting, so once you’re done raising the newbie, you have to play with me...
(emoticon) 04:03
Reading it, I realized Gang Jaegyung had been pretending to be sulking just to see how I’d react. When I didn’t reach out after ending our convo, maybe he figured I hadn’t given up on Gonyanyanya. Either way, it seemed he’d started to accept that he’d been totally outplayed by Gonyanyanya.

As Retaking a Class, Gang Jaegyung acted like some desperate woman pining after a man, sending me anxious, clinging messages multiple times a day. Meanwhile, as Gonyanyanya, he wasn’t even logging in anymore.
Even when he did log in, it was barely for a minute. I whispered him when I saw Gonyanyanya online once, and he replied saying he’d just dropped in for a second—then logged off again. Two days later, we played together for maybe an hour. That was the last time.
It had been well over two weeks since I decided to mess with Gang Jaegyung. The rainy season was over, and mid-August was bringing brutal heat. If Gonyanyanya weren’t Gang Jaegyung, I probably would’ve gotten bored and moved on already.

Now that the rain had stopped, I figured we were hitting the final stretch. So I sent him a message for the first time in a while.
[Me]
Wanna stop by a café this week?
I’m bored
ㅇㅅㅇ 13:05
He was probably at work, because he didn’t reply until later.

[Gang Jaegyung]
Go play with your newbie. 18:23
The salt was palpable. I grinned at the reply and typed back.
[Me]
It’s hot and I wanna go to a café
But I’ve got no one to go with 18:23

Of course, I had the AC blasting at home 24/7.
[Gang Jaegyung]
You have friends 18:24
[Me]
They went out without me 18:24

[Gang Jaegyung]
Then just go alone 18:24
He was definitely sulking. After thinking for a moment, I sent four words.
[Me]
Do you really mind? 18:24

I was already bracing myself for how to convince him if he really did say no, when a new message popped up.
[Gang Jaegyung]
ㅡㅡ
Let’s meet tomorrow before I change my mind 18:25
[Me]
lol okay 18:25

Playing hard to get when he’s gonna say yes anyway.
He grumbled a bit while we finalized the plan, but I could tell he was pleased. I rarely messaged first, and this time I’d even asked to meet in person—of course he’d be excited.
He was probably hoping that by spending time with me again, I’d start focusing more on Retaking a Class, on Gang Jaegyung, not on Gonyanyanya.

And just when he thinks he’s finally got my attention back, I’ll drop the truth on him—that I’ve been lying to him this whole time. I wonder how he’ll react.
He’s an adult, so he won’t cry… probably. But he’s such a childish guy, you never know. If he does cry, that’d be its own kind of karma. And if he explodes in rage, that’d be satisfying in its own way too—proof that I got to him.
I ended the chat and clenched my phone tight in my hand. The more I imagined Gang Jaegyung’s reaction, the more I could feel the dopamine or whatever kicking in hard. I’m so fucking curious. What do I do? I wish tomorrow would just come already. There’s still over 18 hours to go…

Overflowing with anticipation, I flailed around on the bed, slamming my head into the blanket over and over until I finally gave up and went down to the gym. I was way too hyped up to stay still.
I ended up sweating for three straight hours before I could calm back down to my usual tension.