The Arcade || Lee Felix (rewritten version)

[09] - Korean barbecue with soju and fake friends

He smiled. "Then just be the bigger person and only tease him for things that aren't stupid" he said as the conclusion.

I just snorted. "Mm"

***

An eternity later we were all gathered around the barbecue. It wasn't too big, so we had all squeezed together to fit.

"Yah let's all toast" Jisung said and started filling glasses with soju.

"You can't drink soju" Felix commented as Jeongin's glass was being filled.

"We're inside a game, what do you expect me to do?" He said and looked back at him with a glare.

"It's not that you'll do something stupid, it's because it's bad for you" Jisung said and stopped what he was doing.

"Then it should be just as bad for you too" Jeongin said and shrugged.

"At least we're legally damaging ourselves" I joked.

"In some countries you are allowed to drink at 16" Jeongin said as if that would make him not underage.

"Not in Korea" Felix said.

"But are we really in Korea though? We're inside a game, we're not really in a country" Jeongin continued trying so hard, which made me feel like we should just let him for this one evening. He's only like half a year too young, how bad can it be? I drank way before his age.

"Just let the kid drink" I said at last.

I looked up at his fake brother sitting next to him. Looks like he won't interfere in this conversation. He probably has nothing to do with this. All the fake people were sitting completely still, not saying a word. Like they were paused at the moment. Since they weren't actually real they weren't even blinking or breathing.

Nobody argued anymore and all glasses were filled with soju. As if someone pressed an on button, the fakes were suddenly back now, talking, blinking and breathing, at least it looked like they were breathing.

That's just creepy.

I put some meat on the grill along with some vegetables. "Let's just eat now" I said.

"Are you the chef today? I bet your meat will get burned" Felix said.

I glared at him. "I'm definitely better than you" I said.

"Oh you think so? Let's check that" he said and put on some meat as well.

"Are we really having a cookoff right now? That's just ridiculous" I said.

"Who said we're having I cookoff, I just said my meat will be better than yours" he said.

"How old are you really?" I asked him.

"Old enough to drink" he said and shrugged.

"Everyone is except Jeongin" I said and looked at him with disbelief.

"Will you two stop bickering? I'm trying to enjoy this soju" Jeongin said and looked quite done with us. "And I'm supposed to be the youngest" he said and rolled his eyes.

Me and Felix stayed silent after that.

"So how's the levels been going for you recently?" Seungmin asked us.

"Great" I said. I mean we've passed them all.

"Horrible" Felix said, not sharing the same opinions as me.

Seungmin looked between us with a raised eyebrow. "Can you be a bit more unclear?" He asked sarcastically.

"It's been going quite alright" Jisung said.