—Me: You ok?

　　The second I sent it, the message was marked as read. That threw me off a little. It almost felt like he’d been sitting there staring at our chat.

　　—Heejae: I’m so sick

　　And as usual, Shin Heejae didn’t bother with any polite bullshit. He just came right out with it.

　　—Me: Take meds

　　—Heejae: I can’t I keep throwing everything up

　　Then he stopped answering again. I stared at the chat, wondering if he was in worse shape than I’d thought. But no matter how long I waited, nothing else came from Shin Heejae.

　　Getting a little anxious, I texted him again.

　　—Me: Is nobody home with you?

　　Again, no answer, even though he’d already read the message.

　　—Me: Hey answer me

　　—Me: Did you fall asleep?

　　Something felt off, so I called him.

　　As long as I didn’t speak, there was no way he’d know whether I was a man or a woman. I was just going to hear him say hello and hang up.

　　But…

　　The call connected, yet no matter how long I waited, Shin Heejae’s voice never came through. All I could hear was a faint rustling on the other end.

　　Then I heard something.

　　Not just the sound of someone feeling sick. Something worse. Something that made my stomach drop.

　　A pained groan.

　　I hung up and immediately dialed 911.

* * *

　　Turns out Shin Heejae had acute appendicitis.

　　Apparently, the idiot had thought he was coming down with a cold when the pain first started, taken whatever cold medicine he had at home, and then collapsed. From what I heard, if it had gone on much longer, it could’ve developed into peritonitis and required major surgery.

　　“That’s why I couldn’t stream for a while. I’ve been discharged now and I’m doing fine at home.”

　　And I learned all of that from his YouTube community page.

　　Sure, technically I was the one who’d saved his ass by calling emergency services… but because I’d been blocking his number on and off lately, I didn’t know the full details of what had happened.

　　And the reason I’d started doing that was Shin Heejae himself. It was like the whole incident had flipped some switch and made him start coming on to me.

　　—Heejae: Noona

　　—Heejae: Why do you keep ignoring me lately?

　　—Me: What are you talking about?

　　—Heejae: You take fucking forever to reply

　　Riiing

　　“Ah, fuck…! Why does this bastard keep calling me?”

　　Ever since the day he regained consciousness, he kept calling me instead of texting. I hit decline for what felt like the hundredth time and temporarily blocked his number. Only then did my phone finally shut up.

　　—Me: Just text me

　　—Me: I told you I can’t answer calls while I’m working.

　　—Heejae: But you don’t answer when we’re playing together either o.o

　　—Me: Of course not. Why would I answer a call from you?

　　—Heejae: I wanna hear your voice Noona

　　—Me: Well I don’t wanna hear yours

　　—Heejae: o_o Well I don’t wanna hear what you think either Noona

　　—Me: Are you insane?

　　Heejae remained completely undeterred by my cold responses.

　　Obviously, I was in no position to answer his calls right now. Sure, I had saved him out of pure goodwill… but I hadn’t gotten any proper revenge on him yet, so I needed to keep up the netkama act.

　　There was another reason too. Maybe Shin Heejae had started suspecting that I was lying about my gender. He could be calling to check, and there was no reason for me to help him confirm anything.

　　“I shouldn’t have saved him… Ugh.”

　　Cursing myself for getting involved and calling 911, I kicked the side of my desk. I genuinely couldn’t understand why I’d done it. Shin Heejae wasn’t someone I liked. If anything, he was much closer to someone I hated.

　　And yet…

　　“It hurts so much…”

　　The second I heard his faint mumble, I knew something was seriously wrong and my body moved before I could think. And honestly, even though I’m complaining about it now… if I went back in time, I probably would’ve still called 911.

　　But that was that.

　　Shin Heejae whining at me over text was still every bit as punchable as ever. If anything, he’d gotten even better at saying shit that drove me insane after getting discharged.

　　—Heejae: Noona why didn’t you come visit when I was in the hospital?

　　—Heejae: I told you to come

　　—Me: Hell no

　　—Heejae: I was alone the whole time I was in the hospital because you never came

　　I snorted.

　　—Me: Oh fuck off lol Go whine to your parents

　　—Heejae: lol

　　—Me: It’s just your appendix. You get it taken out, fart, and go home

　　—Me: You wanted me to go listen to you fart?

　　—Heejae: God

　　—Heejae: Who the hell would ask someone to come just to hear that?

　　—Heejae: I just wanted to repay you for helping me

　　—Me: No need

　　—Me: Or jk I’ll give you my bank account number, so just send some money and quit fucking bothering me

　　—Me: Nara Bank 123-45-678901-234

　　—Me: Don’t be stingy now

　　—Heejae: LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

　　But no matter how hard I pushed him away, the bastard was ridiculously persistent.

　　Instead of sending over money, he sent me his home address and told me to take a taxi over, promising he’d pay the fare or that he’d send a car to pick me up. Basically, he tried everything he could think of to meet me in person.

　　Eventually, I got sick of our endless bickering.

　　—Me: You have zero fucking manners

　　—Heejae: What do you mean?

　　—Me: You’re ordering the person who saved your life to come to YOU? Seriously?

　　—Heejae: LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

　　—Heejae: Is it too much trouble?

　　—Heejae: Then tell me where you live Noona

　　—Heejae: I have a car

　　—Me: I live in Arcadia Channel 1 lol

　　—Heejae: Was that supposed to be a joke…?

　　—Me: Lol

　　—Me: Can’t you take a hint?

　　—Me: It means there’s no way in hell I’m meeting you in person

　　Only after I went that far did Shin Heejae finally stop telling me to come over. He went quiet for a moment, then backed down.

　　—Heejae: Fine but can you at least unblock my number?

　　—Me: Don’t call either

　　—Heejae: Fine lol I promise I won’t

　　Thinking there was no way he’d call after I crushed his pride like that, I unblocked Shin Heejae for now.

　　Thankfully, he did stop calling. But…

　　He literally only stopped calling. After that, he started acting like a total psycho inside the game.

* * *

　　—Heejae: Noona when are you coming? o_o

　　—Me: On my way

　　It was Friday evening after work.

　　I picked up fried chicken to enjoy a drink and play games for the first time in a while, but Shin Heejae couldn’t even wait thirty minutes before he started pestering me.

　　—Heejae: But you normally get off at 5:30

　　—Me: Shh I’m taking a dump hehe

　　—Heejae: Christ stop that

　　Ever since I’d discovered how sensitive Shin Heejae was to basic shit-and-fart talk, I’d started using it whenever he got too annoying.

　　The problem was that the effect didn’t last very long. This time was no different. He stayed quiet for barely five minutes before spamming messages again.

　　—Heejae: Hurry up and finish shitting

　　—Heejae: I’ve already been waiting an hour since you got off work Noona

　　—Me: If you’re busy go with someone else

　　—Heejae: Obviously I’m not rushing you because I’m busy

　　—Heejae: It’s because I want to play with you Noona o.o

　　—Me: lol

　　—Me: Then shut up and wait.

　　The trick with his bullshit was simply not to play along. He must’ve gotten sulky, because he finally stopped texting me.

　　Relieved, I took my sweet time with my chicken and beer, logging on about two and a half hours later than usual.

　　Out of habit, I joined our Discord channel too, but knowing that bastard, I didn’t think he’d sit around by himself in an empty voice channel waiting for me.

　　But I was dead wrong. He must have been waiting for me this whole time, because I heard his voice the second I joined.

　　“Hi, Seyeong.”

　　The bastard had just called me by my real name!

　　“Pffft!”

　　I choked on what was left of my beer and started coughing.

　　“How… how the fuck does this psycho know my name?”

　　[Sesam]: WTF??

　　I demanded to know how he knew, but Heejae chuckled softly and replied in an incredibly irritating tone.

　　“You gave me your account number and told me to send you money, remember?”

　　[Sesam]: So?

　　“When I tried to wire money, your name popped up. Kim Seyeong.”

　　Only then did I realize just how much information I’d exposed in the heat of the moment, and a chill ran down my spine. If my name had been obviously gendered, my netkama plan would’ve been over yesterday.

　　Had his lunacy finally broken my brain or what… I broke into a cold sweat, belatedly going back over everything I’d said to see if I’d slipped up anywhere else.

　　When I went quiet, Heejae paused for a moment before saying, “Send me your picture, Noona, and I’ll wire you the money.”

　　I finally relaxed a little.

　　Yeah, right. How much could a dumbass like him possibly figure out anyway?

　　[Sesam]: yeah bye lol

　　[Sesam]: Just reported u

　　“Oh, come on. You know that’s not what I meant. You don’t even have a profile picture, Noona.”

　　When I’d exchanged numbers with Shin Heejae, I’d changed all my profile pictures back to the defaults. So I put in exactly zero effort and sent him a screenshot of the default profile image.

　　The moment he saw it, Shin Heejae clicked his tongue.

　　“Don’t you have Instagram or Facebook or anything?”

　　[Sesam]: Nope

　　“You do, but you just won’t tell me, right?”

　　[Sesam]: Look at u getting smarter lol

　　I actually didn’t have either, but I said that just to annoy him. Shin Heejae didn’t press me any further, probably because he hadn’t expected a straight answer from me in the first place.

　　Instead, his voice turned oddly gentle as he made another suggestion.

　　“Want me to give you mine? I have a private account where I just post everyday stuff.”