#𝟏𝟑:𝟎𝟎 |✦| ࿐ ࿔ ⸢𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫: 348⸥

[lgcjaejin]

As the game loads, Jaejin leans forward, eyes widening with newfound curiosity. “Wait, hold up—Nintendo made card games? Like actual playing cards?” He blinks, processing the info. “That’s wild! I always thought they just appeared with Mario already running at full speed.” He chuckles, shaking his head. “Alright, so you might not have grown up with consoles, but you’ve got some serious gaming history in your blood. That’s pretty cool.”

Glancing at Sanghyun with a playful grin, Jaejin adds, “So, half scholar, half world traveler? That’s like some next-level lifestyle. Meanwhile, I was just grinding Pokémon battles like it was my full-time job.” He pauses, then leans in, raising an eyebrow. “But board games, huh? Please tell me you weren’t one of those Monopoly kids. That game is the ultimate friendship destroyer.” Jaejin laughs, the atmosphere light as he watches Sanghyun pick Luigi. “A solid choice! The underdog plumber. I love it. He might not get the spotlight, but that’s the one you want on your team.”

The Flower Kingdom loads, and Jaejin cracks his knuckles, ready for the co-op challenge. “Alright, now it’s time to see if we’re the dream team or the most uncoordinated duo in Nintendo history.” His eyes gleam with excitement, bouncing back and forth between the screen and Sanghyun. “This is our chance to show off some serious teamwork,” he says. “But hey, let’s set some ground rules first. One—teamwork is key, no lone wolves here. Two—if one of us falls into a pit, no laughing,” he adds with a smirk, “Actually, you can laugh—but only after making sure the other’s okay.”

As the countdown finishes, Jaejin takes off, full of energy. “LET’S GO!” he yells, racing ahead—only to misjudge a jump and fall straight into the first pit. After a beat of silence, he bursts into laughter, slapping his knee. “Bro, I literally just said ‘no laughing,’ and here I am, breaking rule number two already!” Still laughing, Jaejin points at Sanghyun, voice playful but sincere. “Alright, you’ve got three seconds to laugh. Then you’ve gotta get me out of bubble jail—deal?”

“own entertainment? alright then.” sanghyun stated, curiosity piqued even more over why he would be interested to see how fast he could pick things up. while he wasn’t too confident in the world of gaming, he hoped his past experience with playing mario would help him at a time like this. at the mention of the ds lite, sanghyun remained quiet as he tried to imagine how the console looked like. it took him a couple of seconds later to remember that it was similar to the nintendo ds he had seen in the past, except that the design was less bulky. but once the question was returned to him, sanghyun knew instantly that he had to be careful with his answer. it was mostly because his first experience with gaming wasn’t a nintendo console but rather a particular arcade game, but that was something he could avoid mentioning out loud.

“kind of was the kid that touched grass often, but also not. i spent maybe half or more of my childhood reading books and learning but the other half was spent traveling. so i was more used to outdoor activities and board games. a bit more on the traditional side, but i have heard that nintendo did delve into tabletop and card games back in the day.” he paused, wondering if his random tidbits would be entertaining to hear. “but i think one of my first nintendo games was called mario party 2? so it’s still in the mario realm like what we’re about to play but different.” feeling relieved that he was familiar with the names of the characters, sanghyun kept hovering over each of the characters, deciding himself which one he was going to pick. after watching and hearing what jaejin had picked, sanghyun knew that meant one less character to choose from.

aside from the minimal information they had of each of the characters, sanghyun didn’t know too much but he wanted to go with his gut feeling. “i’m feeling like a plumber, but the taller one.” he said, referring to luigi, who he was familiar with. as he clicked on luigi, he pressed confirm and soon they were lead to the first world that they would explore, which so happened to be flower kingdom. surprised by how the graphics were, his eyes widened that he commented, “wow, this is really a vibrant world compared to the original super mario games.” he chuckled, even though he was well aware that it had been decades since the original game was first released. “i guess time to race to the other end of this kingdom and get as many coins as possible?” he questioned, looking at jaejin momentarily as he waited for the narration to end so they could start moving.