Netkama Punch!!!

Shin Heejae
010—XXXX—XXXX
I was still debating whether or not to pick up when I suddenly heard Heejae’s voice through the stream.
“I’m heading out.”

“Huh? Already?”
Yuna sounded surprised, trying to stop him, but Heejae must’ve cut the Discord right after that, because his voice cut off immediately.
“…What the hell?”

I minimized the browser and switched back to the game window—then practically jumped. Right there, in a secluded corner of the village where I’d parked my character, [Heejae] was just standing there in plain sight.
The chat box was flooded with whispers from him.
WHeejae: How are you on at this hour?
WHeejae: ???
WHeejae: Kim Seyoung, answer me
WHeejae: ㅇ_ㅇ what the, did you get hacked?
WHeejae: Not like there’s anything on your account worth stealing tho...

He must’ve noticed me mid-stream and rushed over.
Shin Heejae
010—XXXX—XXXX
While I was reading his whispers, his name lit up my phone screen again. He was clearly going to keep calling until I answered, so I had no choice but to pick up.

“Hello?”
“You’re home already?”
His voice was completely normal, like last night’s tension had never existed.

“Huh? Uh… yeah.”
It was jarring, but honestly, this was better than things being all awkward and weird. So I matched his tone as casually as I could.
“How?”

“Took a half-day…”
“Why’d you do that?”
I couldn’t exactly say, I couldn’t focus on work and came to check if you actually go home during the day to stream. So I lowered my voice and added a bit of rasp to sell it.
“Just… wasn’t feeling well. Cough.”

“…What’s wrong? Did you go to the hospital?”
“It’s just a cold. I’ll be fine after some sleep.”
“You need to go to the doctor, what are you talking about? Are you a doctor now or something?”

His tone was half scolding, half worried. Then he told me to wait an hour.
“Why?”
“So we can go to the hospital together.”

“What? N-No, it’s fine.”
“You caught that cold ‘cause you acted up yesterday.”
He said it like it was obvious. And while I was flailing for another excuse to shut him down, he went on, totally prepared to scold me again.

“If I hadn’t gone looking for you yesterday, you wouldn’t have made it to work at all today.”
“That’s not true—wait. Wait, are you saying you’re coming here? From your place?”
“Yeah. I’m leaving now.”

“Don’t come. I’ll go by myself, okay?”
“You’re just gonna say that and stay home, aren’t you?”
No matter what I said, he wasn’t going to listen. I panicked and blurted,

“Okay! Fine! I’ll go to the hospital! Happy now?!”
“Will you really?”
“Yes! Don’t come, okay? I’m warning you!”

“…Alright.”
Surprisingly, Heejae agreed right away and told me to get well soon. Only then did I finally breathe easy and hang up.
To cover my tracks, I logged out of the game. Then I kept watching Yuna’s ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) stream for a while, but Heejae didn’t return. He didn’t go live again, either.

“Should I make an alt he doesn’t know about…?”
I thought about ways I could monitor him without being noticed, but nothing good came to mind.
Since I was home early anyway, I decided to clean up the house. It had gotten a bit messy ever since Heejae started staying over.

I started tidying up the scattered stuff and was vacuuming as a final step when—
Beep, beep, beep, beep—
Just as I finished, I heard the door lock beeping. There was only one person besides me who’d touch my front door: Shin Heejae.

Startled, I yanked the vacuum cord out of the wall and shoved it into the corner, then dove into bed. Luckily, the bed wasn’t visible from the door, so he didn’t seem to notice.
He fumbled around in the entryway for a while before walking in with both hands full of paper bags. That’s when our eyes met—me under the blanket, him standing in the doorway.
“Ahem, cough. Uh… you’re back?”

I awkwardly faked being sick. Heejae asked,
“Did you go to the hospital?”
“Uh?”

I stammered, but he must’ve taken that as a yes because he didn’t press further.
He dumped the paper bags in the kitchen, then came over holding a branded congee pouch. Looked like he went out of his way to get it because I’d said I was sick.
“You haven’t eaten, right?”

“Uh… I-I’m fine. I don’t really have an appetite.”
“Too tired?”
“……Yeah… kinda…”

I felt guilty enough that I wasn’t planning to eat, but he’d already opened the congee and scooped some out with a spoon. For a second, I thought maybe he was just going to eat it himself—
“Hoo… Okay, say ‘ah’.”
“…What?”

He cooled the spoon and held it out to me. I broke into goosebumps. Heejae didn’t let up, chasing me around the bed with the spoon as I shook my head.
“C’mon, just eat.”
“I’m fine! If I eat right now… I might throw up.”

“Then just one bite, to try.”
“No, just—ugh.”
I tried to take the spoon from him to eat it myself, but he didn’t even let me do that.

So in the end, I had to sit there like a sick kid, taking spoonfuls of congee from him. It was unbearable—but the bastard looked so pleased with himself that I couldn’t bring myself to stop him. He kept spoon-feeding me until I’d eaten nearly half the bowl, only stopping when I made a face and told him I was full.
But he didn’t stop there.
“Hm, are you running a fever?”

“……”
He covered my eyes with his hand, then rubbed my forehead a few times, as if checking for heat.
“You do feel a little warm?”

“…I already took meds. The fever’s down.”
He didn’t seem satisfied. He went to the sink, soaked a towel in cold water, then wrung it out so hard it was almost dry—and slapped it right on my face.
“Hey! At least fold it and put it on my forehead!”

“Your face looked kind of serious.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“Just joking.”

He pinned me down so I couldn’t get up, then finally folded the towel and placed it properly on my forehead.
Honestly, I didn’t feel grateful at all. But the way he kept darting around, trying to do things for me… made me feel a little awkward.
And then, as if that wasn’t enough, he pulled out ice cream and pushed it against my lips like he was a puppy begging for praise.

“You feel better with me around, right?”
“……”
I licked the vanilla bar in silence.

Sure, he was being incredibly annoying, but compared to last night, this was a hundred times better. I didn’t know why he’d suddenly changed his attitude like this.
I looked away and muttered,
“So annoying…”

“Wow. Harsh.”
I blushed and quickly added,
“You didn’t have to do all this… I-I feel bad.”

Heejae was quiet for a moment, then said in the most ridiculous sweet-talk voice,
“You’re kind of cute right now.”
“…I hate this.”

And then he casually reached for my face.
I flinched and turned away, but he caught my chin. I glared at him, creeped out—but surprisingly, his expression was serious, and I couldn’t pull away.
As he absentmindedly played with my jaw, he suddenly brought up something I’d forgotten.

“Remember when my appendix burst?”
“…What?”
“You called 911 for me, remember?”

“Oh…”
Was this his way of saying I didn’t need to feel guilty? That this was payback?
Honestly, I had been feeling a bit guilty letting him nurse me when I wasn’t even sick. But that one line made it easier to justify.

Yeah. I saved his ass once. We’re even.
Except, of course, he had to ruin it with some insane bullshit.
“That’s when I decided.”

“…Decided what?”
“That I was gonna marry you.”
“…You never get tired of this, do you?”

He just smiled—one of those weird, smug smiles—and said something even worse:
“You’re kind of better when you’re sick, you know?”
“…What?”

“You’re more docile. No yelling.”
“You’re not normal.”
I threw my finished ice cream stick at him. He didn’t care. He picked it up—and then suddenly leaned in.

“W-what—!!!”
What the fuck was this psycho doing?!
His tongue brushed my lips and I shoved him off, completely stunned.

Heejae didn’t even flinch. He looked down at the hand I’d pushed him with, then pouted and said something even more absurd.
“Wasn’t this the right timing?”