Guild Meetup

I slipped out of the house with Harang.

That bastard didn’t change his mind about wearing a full suit, it seems, because he came out dressed like that.

He even wore dress shoes, so I could hear the *ttokak ttokak* of his heels.

“What a fucking lunatic.”

“Keep it down…”

If you exclude Harang, me, and Sohee, there were 17 people participating in this meetup.

There were more at first, but some people suddenly canceled the day before.

They said something urgent came up, but I’m pretty sure they just canceled because they felt pressured.

There are always people like that when guild members make plans for a meetup. People who are reluctant to come because they feel uncomfortable.

In fact, there was a high chance that not all 17 people who said they would come today would actually show up.

“Hey. Over there.”

“Yeah.”

While I was checking my phone and walking, Harang, who was walking next to me, stopped and nudged my arm.

Wondering what it was, I looked up and saw a fancy sedan stopped right in front of us.

I wondered who the crazy person parking in a place like this was, so I turned my head to look around, and wouldn’t you know it, my friend was getting out of the car.

I blinked and looked at Sohee.

This was only the second time I’d seen Sohee in casual clothes instead of her school uniform.

“Sohee-ya?”

“I came to pick you up.”

Sohee, who got out of the car, exchanged a quick greeting with Harang next to me, then opened the car door and gestured inside.

“Get in.”

“Aheum…”

I was planning to take the subway… but at this rate, I’d probably arrive at the meeting place earlier than expected.

I pulled Harang, who was standing awkwardly, and stepped into the car. Or at least, I was about to.

If Sohee hadn’t interfered, that is.

She blocked Harang from getting in.

Then she bowed her head and greeted him.

“Hello, oppa.”

“Oh, uh… hello…”

When Harang stood there blankly with a dubious expression, Sohee gestured forward and said.

“Could you ride in the front? I want to hug Hayeon-i alone.”

“Oh, really?”

Harang nodded obediently at Sohee’s words and went to the front seat and got in.

It seemed that Sohee and Harang already knew each other.

It was awkward, but they seemed to recognize each other.

“It’s spacious, wouldn’t it be okay for the three of us to ride together?”

The back seat was spacious. Enough for the three of us to ride together.

But Sohee shook her head and held my hand tightly.

“I want to be alone with Hayeon-i.”

“Is that so?”

Could it be that we have something to talk about just the two of us?

Harang, who was sitting in the front seat, was looking around with a much more relaxed face.

I looked at the man in the black suit sitting in the driver’s seat.

He was the one who acted as Sohee’s driver that I had seen once before.

When our eyes met in the rearview mirror, he slightly lowered his head.

“Do you know where we’re going? Should I give you the coordinates?”

“I already know.”

“Please speak comfortably. I’m still a middle school student.”

“It’s okay.”

The ahjussi in the driver’s seat hurriedly turned his gaze away and started the car.

It seemed that he felt burdened to talk to me for some reason.

Sohee, who said she wanted to sit alone with me, didn’t say anything special.

Instead, she just fiddled with my palm the whole way.

If that’s the case, why did she say she wanted to sit alone?

I guess a fake middle schooler like me can’t understand the thoughts of a real middle schooler.

We were able to arrive at the meeting place 30 minutes earlier than expected.

This was all thanks to Sohee.

“Thanks, Sohee-ya!”

I hurriedly got up from my seat.

Because the feeling in my palm that had been touched all the way here was slowly disappearing.

After getting out of the car, I took a big breath.

Even though the world had changed, the basic framework was maintained.

The meeting place was Seoul Station.

Even though the appearance of the station had changed a bit, I could vaguely recall the appearance of the other world from it.

Even though I arrived 30 minutes early, there were people who had already arrived.

Rogue Captain Yiap, the newly joined Snow Mage, and Priest Captain Chloe.

According to the messages in the group chat, they were waiting while drinking coffee they bought from a nearby cafe.

I held my phone in my hand and looked around.

My gaze quickly scanned the people around me. No matter how much the crowd confused my vision, there was a unique atmosphere that people who came to the meetup for the first time gave off.

The moment Sohee and Harang approached from behind, I was able to find the three people who said they were here first.

They were all holding coffee in one hand and looking at their phones with awkward expressions.

Those are the people.

A combination of two men and one woman.

One of them was definitely Yiap, and I would have to check the other two directly.

“Hey, I think those are the people.”

“Really? How about sending a message in the group chat?”

“Should I?”

I nodded at Harang’s suggestion and wrote a message in the group chat.

Yeon – [I’ve arrived too.]

The moment I sent the message, the three people simultaneously raised their heads and started looking around.

“See? Those are definitely the people.”

It was as I expected. I smiled proudly and looked back at Harang and Sohee.

Harang was suddenly making a fierce expression, and Sohee was busily tapping on her phone.

What are they both doing?

“Hey, are you going to fight someone? Loosen up your expression?”

“Heum…”

I couldn’t ruin the first meetup on a bad note.

I pounded Harang’s waist with my fist, who was frowning fiercely.

Only then did he relax his expression and clear his throat.

“Let’s go.”

I led Sohee and Harang to the people waiting at the meeting place.

The three people who were endlessly looking around suddenly found me and opened their mouths blankly.

“Hello?”

“G, Guild Leader-nim…?”

“Yes, I am your Guild Leader.”

“Heok…”

“Blood Demon-nim…”

The person who muttered Blood Demon-nim was a tall woman.

The phone in her hand had a cute case on it.

I think I know who this person is. It was the Snow Mage.

“No way… is it really you?”

The man who looked the oldest looked around and asked.

He still seemed to have a hard time believing my identity.

I crossed my arms and nodded.

Your raid leader is right here in this place.

“It’s me. I’m Yeon.”

At this point, I could tell who was who.

The man who looked to be in his late 30s was definitely Yiap.

Then the other person, the man who looked to be in his late 20s standing blankly in the back with a slightly surprised face, must be Chloe.

“Th, the people next to you are…”

“It’s Helena.”

“Hwarang imnida.”

We introduced each other.

Their identities were as I expected.

Yiap, Chloe, Snow Mage.

They were strangers meeting for the first time, but they were people bound by the bond of the game.

It didn’t take long for us to start talking comfortably, just like we did in the game.

“Hey, Guild Leader-nim? Is there a reason why you made your character look exactly like your real-life self?”

“I just, didn’t want to waste time customizing.”

“Wow… so the shutdown law thing wasn’t a concept either?”

“Of course. What kind of person turns off the game in the middle of an interview to keep up with a concept?”

“It’s Guild Leader-nim… well, that’s to be expected… but surely not Hwarang-nim and Helena-nim too…”

I smiled at Yiap’s words and looked at the expressions of the other members.

I revealed that the executives in the guild were much younger than them.

It was a choice with more disadvantages than advantages, but it was an essential choice to strengthen the bond within the guild.

As we talked like we did in the guild chat, people started arriving at the meeting place one by one.

11:10 AM.

It was the meeting time.

I checked the faces of the guild members gathered here one by one.

They were completely different faces from what I saw in the game, but the atmosphere they gave off was very similar to when I met them in the game.

“There are two absentees. They said they couldn’t come due to personal reasons.”

“Eum… that’s too bad for them. They didn’t get to see the Guild Leader’s real-life appearance.”

They were saying that, but there were still people who hadn’t let go of their suspicious eyes.

Total of 18 people.

Excluding Sohee and me and the Snow Mage, everyone was male.

I expected it. Deron is a game that ahjussis play, after all.

But there was no need to be disappointed. After the first meetup, those who grasped the atmosphere would pass the story on to their acquaintances.

If this meetup wasn’t bad, more people would participate in the next meetup.

“Everyone seems hungry, so let’s go to the restaurant.”

I led the guild members and started walking ahead.

As a guild leader, I had to show a true image, so I straightened my expression and stood up straight.

“Is she really the Guild Leader…?”

“She looks exactly like she does in the game?”

“Didn’t they send out their daughter?”

“They might be watching nearby.”

With my sensitive hearing, I could hear the conversations of the guild members coming from behind without missing a single word.

But I understand. If such a small middle schooler had come out in the last world, I wouldn’t have believed it either.

I was walking like that for a while.

I was able to find one problem.

I, who was walking ahead, had somehow come into the middle of the guild members.

The difference in stride!

With these short legs, I couldn’t keep up with the stride of an adult.

Harang, who was walking next to me looking straight ahead, seemed to realize that I was falling behind and hurriedly came to my side.

“Hey, are you not feeling well?”

“Ah, no…”

“Why are you falling behind like this?”

I couldn’t bring myself to answer Harang’s question.

How could I say out loud that I was naturally falling behind because my legs were short?

The stride problem became more and more noticeable as time went by.

Before I knew it, I was standing in the back, and the guild members were leading the way.

“Th, this is…”

The guild members who were excitedly chatting stopped talking and stopped in their tracks when Yiap gave them a look.

They started waiting for me.

My clenched fist trembled.

I have to show a dignified appearance as a guild leader… I have to…

“Should I give you a piggyback ride…?”

“I don’t need it…”

Harang, who was looking at me pitifully, offered a helping hand, but I shook my head and ran forward.

If my walking speed is slow, I can just run.

I put strength in my legs and started running forward.

As I passed the standing guild members in an instant, Harang and Sohee followed me.

Unlike me, who was running lightly, they were both just walking at a fast pace.

“Wow, the Guild Leader is running…”

“Should we run too…?”

“I think it’s okay to just walk.”

“Still, shouldn’t we at least pretend to run?”

The guild members lowered their voices as much as possible to be considerate of me, but my sensitive hearing could hear all the conversations without missing a single word.

My face was so hot.