GAM3 G1RL/FR13ND | Jeon Wonwoo

Chapter 7

"... I miss her." Wonwoo mutters to himself as he laid down on his bed.

It's been 3 days since Areum announced her indefinite hiatus and Wonwoo missed her presence that seems a bit too similar to his own.

Wonwoo admittedly had a small change of pace when she came.

Not only is he a great fan of her skills but the quickness of their unified agreement to a lot of things as soon as Hoshi introduced her to him gave him slight goosebumps but in a good way. 

While they have been friends for years, Wonwoo was knowledgeable about how she felt. As much as he wanted to confront her about it, he concluded to himself that he'll wait for her confession.

"Huh?" He mumbled out while scrolling through his phone.

Apparently, Areum was streaming. He got his airpods and watched it.

"Hello everyone!" She greeted with a cheerful yet somewhat tired tone.

"Before I start playing, I would like to explain what happened to me." Areum chuckled after.

"So... in my last live, I suddenly ended it because something happened in my house and turns out, it's a fire. And I'm not talking small... we pretty much lost the house." Wonwoo was baffled. Despite part of her chat assumed that she's joking, he knew it was real.

"... and now I can't do my other jobs because I have pretty serious burns on my back, near the shoulder blades and by the upper part of the arm." She continued explaining.

"I have a picture of my upper arm which is kinda weird to have but if you wanted to know... here it is." She showed the picture of her arm and it had patches of first degree burns.

"Anyways!" She removed the pictures from the screen. "Hopefully that clears it out. It's not that hard moving the mouse since the burns are at the upper arm. Oh, and my characters are different right now since this is a different PC. Hopefully, by the next stream, I can get back to my other characters."

Seeing the pictures made Wonwoo somewhat agitated.

Another thing that changed with Wonwoo is that he unconsciously takes care of Areum. From feeding to buying food and drinks, chatting about her interests, dancing and many more, he took care of her even if she never openly asked for it.

"I wish I was there." He groans to himself as he lands his fist heavily onto his sheets.

Wonwoo wanted to help.

He's 100% sure that she told something to Bona about not saying it to the boys or just replying with she's fine. Also, he didn't know where her house is or rather, where she's staying right now.

"Oh! I got him. How? I absolutely don't know." She commented as she kills an enemy from the weirdest position for a sniper.

Areum doesn't like to talk about her gaming ventures since it raises risks with the other side of her family.

Her extended family holds reign to them since they do have the 4 originally rich kids under their roof.

Jungwoo (7), Chiwon (6), Haneul (5), and Eun (4) were earlier explained that they're orphans. Their parents died in a plane crash coming home from their business/vacation trip in Germany.

They are rich since they own a leasing company and plans to open more branches worldwide. Now... where's the money that was supposedly for the children?

Areum's extended family, specifically her mother's two other siblings, did everything they could to get most of their youngest brother's inheritance. They told the lawyers that their brother had them written in the will and not the oldest sibling which was Areum's mother.

Areum's mother did want to retaliate but instead of money, she chose to take care of the 4 orphans.

When she took the kids into her house, the family became more judgmental on Areum. Not only is she the only child but the mindset of older people relying on kids a bit too heavily is not deducted.

They were against her dancing since they assumed she got scouted just because she's pretty. It got worse when they found out she's dancing for good-looking guys and called her severely offensive nicknames and comments whenever they're frustrated at the Jeon family.

What are those nicknames and comments? Everything a girl wouldn't want to hear.

This is too much for an extended family to do but when they're purely blinded by the money they never had before, unfortunate events will happen

Back to her streaming, it seems like she's doing really well with the number of kills in the game while Wonwoo was still watching, contemplating how he would help.

"Mingyu, can I talk to you?" Wonwoo asked as he peeks in his room.

"Yeah, hyung. What's up?" Wonwoo got in and sat down on Mingyu's bed.

"Areum's streaming right now."

"What?! But why? Isn't she injured by the shoulder?" Mingyu asks, covering his mouth a little bit after saying what a little too loud.

"Yeah but it seems like she's doing well... just judging from her playstyle."

"Play... style?"

"The way she plays a certain game." Mingyu nods in realization. "It hasn't changed and she lied about getting injured at the shoulder." Mingyu immediately became bewildered.

"Um... please explain, hyung." He chuckled in shock.

He explained what Areum said on her stream and why she couldn't come to practice.

"Oh... her house burned down? And the injuries she's talking about are burns?" Mingyu questioned, gradually getting worried.

"Hyung, you look like you want to do something." Mingyu suddenly noticed.

"Don't you? That's Areum."

"Yeah but I'm sure she's fine... and if she really needs help, she would ask for it... right?" Mingyu replied but unsure since this doesn't sound like a typical situation they had with Areum before.

There's more to her story than what they know and they are completely aware of that.

They'll be more than glad to listen to Areum but if the person doesn't want to open up about it, they know not to force it out of them.

"... hyung, you aren't confronted her about her feelings?"

"Why would I? I'm sure she wouldn't admit it anyways." Wonwoo replied. "Besides, I want to help her as a friend and... someone she likes." He continued, smiling at the very end.

He just hoped she wouldn't be too hard headed with accepting help.

___________________________