Knights & Mages Online; The Lightnovel

Chapter 5 "Runaway"

  "That was an awkward lunch." Erin laughed while walking down on one of the paths of the school ground parks, with Seth next to him.
  "You made it awkward." the girl stated, "Who in the right mind wouldn't mind gossip about themselves and actually joins the conversation?"
  "Maybe I'm not in the right mind." he replied.
  "Maybe."
  The Korean laughed;
  "So, can we talk normally or are you spying on me right now?"
  "I would never-!" she raised her voice but then, saw him grinning, "Oh, you're joking."
  "Yeah, but I also know you have questions. However, let me ask you something first."
  "Sure."
  "Why are you hanging out with me instead of your friends right now?"
  "Because," Erin sat on the first rock he landed his eyes on and the long brown haired girl followed him, "my friends wanted me to go with you. To spy on you." she grinned.
"Aha~" he laughed.
"Don't think I'm that different from everyone else in here. I'm also interested in your story."
"I see."
"Your turn. You'd met a lot of people today. What made me worthy for you to choose hanging out with me?"
"Nothing really." he answered honestly, "You are the first person I met here, so I'm giving it a shot. It'd be so boring not having any friends. Although, I might be out of here anytime."
  "Right, you got expelled from your previous school in Korea."
  Erin raised his eyebrows;
  "How did you..?"
  "You just told me." she smirked.
  "Ah.. smart." he paused, "Huh.. I'm usually not that easy to fool."
  "So you say." Seth offered him the chips she was eating, which he accepted right away.
  "I'm genderfluid." Erin stated out of nowhere. When his saw Seth's even-more-awkward-than-the-lunch expression, he continued, "I had a feeling that you could be confused about this."
  "I.. would be lying if I say I'm familiar with the term."
  Seth thought Erin was transgendering (yes, she knew at least that much) when she heard about the bathroom thing but the whole LGBTQ+ and the gender stuff were still so new to her. Not that she was against any of those but she never really had the chance to.. encounter. As far as she knew.
  "It's like.. my gender might change over time. I might identify myself as a woman one day  and a man the next. Of course when you're not sure how to call me, just ask. Asking is never an issue. It might take days, months or even years for it to change but.. it does. And when I realize my gender identity has changed, it's up to me to let people know. Since I'm usually not bothered by being misgendered, I simply correct them if I'm in the mood. I don't care about gender roles and norms, I'd like to act, talk and dress however I want."
  Seth nodded. She was feeling both a little numb and  tingly inside at the same time and she couldn't figure out why. It was like.. she wanted to speak up about something but she was being suppressed by a huge dark load of emotions.
  "Was that the reason why you got expelled?" she asked instead.
  "Related." he shrugged, "Are you going to tell your friends?"
  "Nope. You can tell them yourself, I'm not your messenger."
  The bleached fringed asian snorted;
  "They'll find out soon anyways, why don't we send a group text?"

ㅡㅇㅡ

  "You coming to my place?" Erin asked while Seth was grabbing her coat. The weather was getting colder each passing day. Seth couldn't believe that it'd been months since they started the new term.
  "If only you feed me peanut butter grilled squid."
  "I'm starting to think that you come to us only because of the snacks." Erin threw the school bag back of his shoulder.
  "Why else would I come?" she teased.
  The tall boy wrapped one of his arms around the long haired girl's neck, laughing, while some of the students who're left in the class whispered to each other, looking at them. Seth had realized that this was going on for a while after the two of them had gotten closer. She didn't know if Erin was also aware of the situation, but nevertheless, she didn't care about what others were talking about. Since the day Erin transferred their school, they always found something to talk behind his back. No one dared to say it to his face though.
When they reached the Kang household properties, Seth looked out of the window. Erin lived in a luxurious modern contemporary villa with 6 bedrooms. The villa wasn't as huge as the students were talking about but how'd they know, Seth was the only one who'd ever invited. They also didn't have 50 cars in there either. They had about 35 to 40, as Erin mentioned, and they were keeping all the cars separately, in different houses of different countries. The only vehicle they kept carrying with them was Erin's motorcycle.
It wasn't the first time Seth'd visited the Kang family house but she couldn't keep herself away from admiring the beautiful externally plant decorated grey, white and brown toned architecture.
"So, how's your escape plan going?" Seth asked once Erin came up with the snacks the long haired girl asked for.
"Everything is under control." the boy winked playfully, "I reached out my remaining, which were few, friends in Seoul and they agreed to help me hide in their vacation houses, taking turns, until it's no longer necessary."
"Wow, you really are going, huh?" Seth took three squid legs at the same time, unconcerned.
"Please, don't look that sad." Erin furrowed, sarcastically.
"It's not that I don't care you're leaving, it's just.. I can't stop you running away from home, right?"
"Right." Erin took out his jet black guitar from where it was standing, by his king-sized bed.
"There you go!" Seth threw her free hand into the air while he played with couple of strings.
"You could also.. come with me." he wasn't looking at the olive green eyes.
  Seth felt he actually was a bit nervous about the whole thing. Considering his family and how he left the people he knew there, it was quite understandable. So she snorted and joked;
  "What, you wanna be idols together?" to lighten up the mood.
  "It would be so much fun to be in a co-ed group together!! I'll teach you how to dance since it's the only thing I know besides playing guitar."
  "I thought you had more confidence in yourself, trying to drag me there.."
  "Confidence? Yes. Friends? No."
  She was confused;
  "But what about-"
  "They only help me 'cause they think about how I'd repay their favor. You're my friend." he paused then smiled mischievously, "So~ what about it? Coming?"
  Seth laughed;
  "Oooooh~ ho-hooo~ No. I hate how laidback you are, I'm sure I'd murder you in a week."
  The boy suddenly reached and grabbed one of Seth's cheeks, pinching;
  "Yah!"
  "Aah~!"
  "What did you say? Murder me? Who'd kill who? Say it again!"
  "Okay, okay! You win!"
  He let go of her.
  "Speaking of murder," the brown haired girl was still rubbing her cheek, "have you heard anything from Chaeyeon since you told your friends you're returning?"
  Chaeyeon was.. Erin's ex.
  "How is she related to 'murder'?" he asked genuinely confused.
  "Murder, murderer, criminal, Hell, Satan, Chaeyeon. Come on, keep up with me." Seth hit his shoulder and sat next to him. Erin smiled at the girl.
  "She's not Satan," he put an effort to stand up for his ex, "she's just.. been awful." and failed. "She still looks at my stories on InstaGlam tho."
  She raised her eyebrows, meant; 'Is that so?' then jumped at Erin's phone. Since she knew his password, she quickly unlocked the screen and opened his InstaGlam, went to the Story mode.
  "Wha- wha- what are you doing?"
  "Smile!"
Click.
  "Woah, you look so handsome even without posing." she commented on Erin's non-smiling picture as she was typing something.
  "What.. are you doing.." he soughed.
"Shut up, you still like her. Lemme check if she still likes you back too." she sent the Story.

Private 🎸 Lesson~
Only 4 U lol 🖤 #BFF

'Seen by Cherryeon_top'
.
.
.
'Cherryeon_top unfollowed you'

"Oops." Seth looked at the screen as Erin leaned in.
"No. No no no no!" Erin tried to grab his phone back but Seth managed to escape from his sudden attack.
"Give it back!" he shouted.
"No!" the long haired girl shouted back, "You're gonna text her, aren't you? Have some pride!"
"I don't wanna have pride!" he jumped on Seth.
"Erin!" they were both grabbing the phone as the black guitar fell from the bed.
"Let. GO!"
"NO!"
"AAAH!"
"AaaAah!"
Ding.
They raised their heads up to look at the lightened screen at the same time.

'Cherryeon_top followed you back'
'Cherryeon_top replied to your story: 그게 누군데?'

"What's she asking? WHAT'S SHE ASKING?!"
"SHE'S ASKING WHO YOU ARE!"
"YEAH?!"
"YEAH!" both grinned like the idiots they were.
"Let's dye my hair next time I'm here!"
"Okay!"

ㅡㅇㅡ

"ERIN!" the pink fringed girl screamed into the dark road. The rain was so heavy that she couldn't see what's in front.
"Rian!" Ms. Kang got out of her car, nearly slipping, while Ariel got out of the same car as Seth's, her hands covering her mouth, trembling. She squinted her eyes to see it better as she got closer to a black figure and walked towards it while calling her childhood friend;
  "Seth..?"
  When she distinguished the identity of the black silhouette her eyes started watering;
  "SETH! HERE!"
  Ms. Kang, her driver in black suit and Seth started running to the same direction as Erin's mother yelled at Ariel;
  "Call an ambulance!"
  Seth saw Erin was trying to say something after she dropped on her knees, so she leaned closer to her.
  "I.. can't get.. up." the asian girl managed to say in a whisper-like voice.
  Seth couldn't think of anything to say back. She just kept holding her hand as the tears fall down from her cheeks.

ㅡㅇㅡ

"I hope that place, the glitch, still exists. You should go there." Kai finally suggested and added;
"And no, I don't think badly of you. Even though I'm a bit irritated that you stole my victory, I wasn't a perfect tester either, didn't cheat at your extend but still.. I think most Betas have their own secrets."
Seth nodded.
"Won't you like to come with me?" he offered to his friend, "It's not a place you can find without me."
"I'll pass. You keep your identity and the glitch safe and I'll go find the others like us. We all have our own little missions."
"Ok-kay~ I think we should sleep now. My energy is getting low." Seth checked his stats.
"Yeah, mine too. You know.. This is actually an amazing game. You can feel, taste and smell everything and have to sleep and eat in order to not to die. It's brilliant programming. I mean, besides the fact that we can die for real."
"Hikaru?"
"Hmm?" the black haired boy asked.
"Our real-selves might be peeing themselves right now." the blonde one stated in shock. Kai also froze with the realization.
But suddenly the two of them started laughing. When their laughter finally stopped, they exchanged 'goodnight's. Kai'd turned his back when he said;
"I also lied.. about why I saved you." his voice had the most serious tone Seth'd ever heard from him.
The blonde didn't say anything in return and just stared at Kai's back as he continued;
"I saved you because we need people who can actually end this game."
He didn't say anything after and wasn't waiting for a reply from Seth, Seth knew that, so they just closed their eyes and fell asleep.

To Be Continued~