7 Hours Until Debut
Seven hours until debut.
A post had gone up on the VTuber Gallery — VTGall, for short.
What even was all of this?
I'd gone looking for reactions to yesterday's stream and ended up on a gallery site. From the viewers' side, people had been thoroughly satisfied — and maybe because of all the noise that satisfaction kicked up, most of the replies were already buzzing about today's broadcast too. The response was so overwhelmingly positive I couldn't help smiling.
"What are you looking at?"
"Just this. It's a thread about Kuro's stream yesterday. The reaction's pretty great."
"Oh! You watched it too? I caught it last night and it was actually insane. Especially when she sang my favorite anime song… nngh… I was still wearing the panties I soaked all the way through this morning!"
Ah… so you were the soaked-panties culprit.
"Ugh… that's disgusting."
"Yeah… Wooseok, sorry, could you scoot over a little?"
Kim Woojin and I edged our chairs aside, putting some distance between ourselves and Choi Wooseok. He looked faintly panicked and tried to explain himself — "No! I obviously changed!" — but I noticed he never once claimed he hadn't soaked them in the first place.
Gross. For real.
He said he'd changed. I stared pointedly at his crotch anyway.
"Hey… where are you looking right now?"
"Hmm… Wooseok's small, cute little guy?"
"It's not c-cute! It's impressive! Plenty of room to spare! You don't even know!"
Choi Wooseok clapped both hands over his groin, bristling. Sorry, but a guy who actually has plenty to spare doesn't get that defensive. I'd carried around something hefty myself once upon a time. I knew the difference.
No matter how I look at it, you're not it.
I hadn't seen it myself, so I couldn't say for certain — but I had recently had occasion to see someone else's, and Wooseok did look a little better off than that guy's tiny, adorable little thing. About… ping-pong ball versus golf ball?
"What's with that look? Ha… it's not like I can actually show you."
"If you did, I'd report you on the spot."
"This is so unfair… Hey, you know, right?"
"Why are you bringing this to me."
Kim Woojin stared at Choi Wooseok with the face of a man who had endured enough. The will not to take this conversation one inch further was written all over him.
"Don't worry. Somewhere out there, there's definitely a woman who'll love a small guy."
"I'm telling you that's not— and don't pat me!"
Even as I tried to comfort him, Choi Wooseok's face went red all the way to his ears and he shook my hand off. A girl's body meeting a boy's strength sent a faint, tingling numbness through my fingers.
Oof. That actually kind of hurts.
If I let it show, things could get complicated. I kept my expression as easy as I could manage.
"Sure, maybe… Hyun-kyung unnie definitely won't care about something small. She'll look at the person."
"No… ah, forget it!"
Choi Wooseok turned his back and walked out of the classroom. Where does he think he's going? The bell was about to ring, and homeroom would be walking in with it.
He'll come back on his own.
I gave my hand a little rub.
"Hey, you okay?"
"Hmm? About what?"
"If you say you're fine, whatever. More importantly… today's the closing ceremony. You got plans after?"
"Plans, huh…"
It wasn't that I had none. Closing ceremony wrapped around eleven, and Team Refresh's official debut was at six, same as yesterday. That left a gap of about seven hours, but there was so much to prep that I needed to be at the company by four at the latest.
"I have to head back to the company by four, but anything before that is fine."
"Yeah? Then… want to hang out with us after this? You can even go live if you want — your face has already been out there once anyway. And it's way more fun hanging out together than sitting around alone until you have to go, so… yeah…"
By the time he got that far, Kim Woojin's ears had gone a little pink. Unlike Choi Wooseok, who'd flushed with excitement and wounded pride, I couldn't quite read Woojin. He couldn't even say it straight, just kept circling the point. If he wanted to hang out, he could just say so.
This kid's frustrating too.
"We've got a little time, so sure. PC bang, like last time?"
"Not that. Do you like bowling?"
Bowling? I'd play if I could find the time. Come to think of it, I'd been so busy I hadn't been to a lane in ages. Back when I was bowling a lot I'd even cracked 200 — but I was weaker now, and smaller, so… I could still manage at least a 100, right? The hand I'd dinged earlier was my left, not the right I actually used, so bowling wouldn't be a problem at all.
"I'm down. So just the three of us?"
"Did you guys hear?"
"Hear what? Oh — about hitting a PC bang after school to grab tickets to our oppas' concert?"
"No. Not that."
"Weren't we just talking about our oppas?"
Lee Mihye thumped a fist against her chest, staring at her friends as they kept missing the point.
"Look over there."
"…Lee Jiwoo?"
"What. Don't tell me…"
One of them, at least, seemed to have caught on.
"Yeah. They're going bowling. Let's follow them."
"I don't even like bowling. Why don't we just ask to tag along?"
"That's embarrassing. We treated her like that at the start — it'd be weird to try to get close now…"
"Does it even matter? Lee Jiwoo doesn't seem to care. If anything, they look like they want to be friends."
"Right. She even reached out first before… what did she say? 'Let's be friends'?"
"No, it was 'I want to stay on good terms.'"
They were both wrong. Close, but the actual line had been I want to get close to you.
"Isn't that the same thing?"
"That's completely different! How is that the same?!"
I want to stay on good terms still had a little distance in it. I want to get close to you sounded like she was talking about something much nearer than that.
"Ah… wow. When did you become such a Jiwoo stan."
"Whatever. We have to go reserve tickets, so do what you want."
"Some friends you are…"
Lee Mihye chewed on a fingernail, turning it over in her head.
"Didn't expect a bowling alley here."
It wasn't far from school. You couldn't see it from the main road, but the moment you stepped into the side street a giant bowling pin loomed into view — the alley's signature mark, basically screaming there's a bowling alley in here.
Inside, the space opened up wide. A few students were already on the lanes. With vacation starting, everyone looked like they were finally letting their shoulders down.
"A party of thr…ee? Lee Mihye? What are you doing here?"
Kim Woojin had gone up to register for us and, near the counter, picked up Lee Mihye wandering around on her own.
"No, I was waiting for my friends… haah. They suddenly said they had something to do and sorry…"
"That so?"
Kim Woojin gave a short nod, already angling to let it drop.
"Ah… that's too bad. I really wanted to bowl today, but it's kind of awkward alone… and with vacation starting, there'll be a lot of people."
"Haah… your acting is complete garbage. What do you want."
I'd clocked that Lee Mihye was putting on a performance too. And from what I knew of Kim Woojin, he hated anything that wasn't in the plan.
"Hey, looks like Mihye wants to bowl with us. You go tell Woojin."
"Would it change anything if I go?"
"It probably would?"
Would it?
"I'll try. But it won't work. Woojin doesn't like things that aren't in the plan."
"True, but… how can the world always go according to plan? You guys are the ones who always say things don't follow the script, right?"
"That's true."
I stepped forward and said it to Kim Woojin myself.
"I'm fine with it. Let's just play together. With Mihye that's exactly four — we can do two-on-two and bet the lane fee."
"…Ha. Well. Can't say no to betting the lane fee."
Huh? He agreed right away? And why was Choi Wooseok grinning like that?
Having finally gotten Kim Woojin's yes, Lee Mihye let a smile spread across her face.
"Alright, Mihye. Let's change shoes first."
"…Shoes? Can't we just play?"
"You really don't know anything, do you. You wear bowling shoes at a bowling alley. You don't absolutely have to, but they make it easier to slide, and they don't chew up the lanes."
"Ah… really? Thanks."
Lee Mihye said it coolly and pulled out a pair in her size. I hunted down mine as well.
Here we go. Size 7.
I grabbed one ball that was a little heavy to lift and one lighter one.
"Why are you bringing two balls each?"
"If you don't finish it in one shot, you use the other one. It takes a bit for the ball to come back."
"You came here without even knowing that?"
A chilly voice drifted in from the side.
"Hey, if she doesn't know, just teach her. Ever heard of being nice to beginners? Ignore that kind of attitude and let's just play. We're going first."
"Wait… you're just deciding the teams however you want?"
"Just split it. Boys versus girls."
I'll win it all anyway.