Community Opinion

A blacked-out screen. Every time a stream ended, I was left with this feeling that I was the only person left in the world, and it always sat a little wrong.

Lonely? Gloomy?

Not today, though. I would have taken that feeling in a heartbeat.

I never thought I'd live long enough to think something like that.

"Why is it so quiet today? This is creepy..."

The computer was still humming, but that didn't make it any less terrifying. I tried putting on a song to kill the silence, except I didn't have speakers, so I would have needed earphones to hear anything. In the end I shut the computer down and played music on my phone instead.

"Ah. Ahaha! I'm not scared at all!"

I shouted it into a house that looked way too big tonight. After I had spent who knows how long making a fool of myself like that, the intercom suddenly rang.

"Hyeek!? J-jesus. Who is it at this hour?"

Nobody should have been coming over, and it was the middle of the night. A thief? A robber? It could have been some criminal who had come hunting for a man.

I killed my footsteps and crept up to the intercom. The second I saw who was on the screen, the tension drained right out of me.

"Noona!"

I pulled the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠front door open, and there she was — Se-a. My first girlfriend. The most precious person I had.

"You were really scared, weren't you?"

She pulled me into her arms and stroked me gently. The touch felt so good a smile slipped out before I could stop it.

"Hehe. I wasn't that scared!"

"No? Then I can head back?"

"Ah — no! Absolutely not! You're already here, so stay the night!"

Terrified she might actually leave, I wrapped both arms around her waist and held on. She seemed to find that funny, because she laughed as she stepped inside.

"They'll come pick up the sofa tomorrow."

"You already called them? Thanks. I should be the one handling that..."

It was my sofa, in my house, and I still felt bad dumping the cleanup on her. Granted, it had ended up that way because of everything that had come out of her body. But Se-a was an Escort Officer, not my secretary.

"Why are you worrying about something like that? Being too nice isn't a good thing either. You need to know how to be a little bit bad, and how to lean on other people."

"That's because you don't know me, noona. I can be bad when I need to be."

I had grown up watching every kind of fucked-up shit the Old District had to offer. At school, at work — everywhere, there were bastards you couldn't even call human. So I knew exactly what she was getting at. In this world I never needed to be that person, so I had let it slip my mind. But the moment that kind of thinking was called for, I could flip the switch just fine.

"Sure, sure. I just bet you can."

"Don't tease me."

What was so great about my cheeks? The second she had an opening, her hand climbed right up to them.

"If we've got nothing else to do, want to head straight to bed?"

"Noona."

"Hm?"

I stopped her as she took my hand and started for the stairs.

"You really sound like a pervert."

"Huh...?"

She froze for a second. Then she realized why I had said it, and her face went red as she scrambled to explain.

"I-it's not like that! That's not why I said we should go!"

"We can't get the bed dirty."

"I said that's not it!"

Watching her panic with her face gone scarlet, I barely managed to hold in a laugh. Of course I knew that wasn't what she meant. She wouldn't have been in any shape for that today anyway. When she had woken up this morning, even walking had been hard.

"I was just teasing. C'mon, let's go!"

This time I took her hand and led the way up the stairs. The moment we lay down, she pulled me into her arms the same way she had yesterday. Apparently this had become the default position as far as she was concerned.

"Your hair's gotten pretty long. Doesn't it bother you?"

"It does. It pokes me in the eyes, too."

I kept my face buried in her chest and tipped my head up to look at her. Anyone holding someone like this would have to look down to see their face, and that angle should have been unflattering as hell — but not on her. Not even a little.

"Want to get it cut tomorrow? I'll make a reservation in the morning."

She brushed my bangs aside as she offered. I didn't have any reason to say no, so I took her up on it. Even if she hadn't brought it up, I probably would have asked her soon anyway.

"I want to live together already..."

"Sorry. If we're going to live together, we have to file reports, get approval — there's a lot to prepare."

"Nngh... it's okay. Don't worry about it."

It was almost unheard of for an Escort Officer to live with the man she was assigned to. When it did happen, it was almost always because they had started dating — the way Se-a and I had. I wasn't sure those other cases were this sweet, or this soft. Either way, moving in together meant jumping through a lot of hoops. That was only if she was an Escort Officer, though. Cohabitation with an ordinary woman was left entirely up to the people involved.

"Haaah..."

"Tired?"

"A little."

Yesterday I had used muscles I never touched, so the fatigue had piled up in my body, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and today's horror game had piled it up in my head too. Saying I wasn't tired would have been a lie. But I wasn't about to waste the time I had with her.

Maybe she read my mind, because she whispered, gentle as anything.

"If you're tired, you can sleep. We'll be together until the afternoon tomorrow anyway."

"...Yeah. I'll go to sleep first."

"Sleep well."

She gave me one firm squeeze, then eased her hold just enough to make it easy to drift off — not letting go entirely, just holding me at a strength that felt safe. Wrapped in the comfort she gave me, I didn't fight the sleep that came. I let it take me.

And just like that, I was out.

"It feels kind of weird."

I fidgeted with my freshly cut bangs, saying it for no real reason. We had come to the salon after lunch. The hair had been trimmed to a clean length that just covered my eyebrows — the same shape I had worn in the Old District — and it still felt off.

Today was the day the Male Living Allowance came in, so I paid. Talking Se-a out of covering it had been a whole ordeal.

"It looks great on you. Honestly... you got way too cute."

We were driving, so she couldn't touch my hair. Her fingers kept twitching anyway. I really wished she would just focus on the road. And I would have preferred "handsome" to "cute."

I think I look cute too, so I can't even argue.

This was my face, and I still hadn't gotten used to it. I kept defaulting to the Old District version first.

"Dan-woo, your eyes are really beautiful."

"Yeah?"

That one I could feel myself. Every time I showered, I ended up staring at them without meaning to. It was a green that put all kinds of thoughts in your head, but there was no denying how beautiful it was.

"Your eyes are pretty too, noona. Like gemstones."

"Thanks."

She shrugged, looking a little shy. We didn't have anywhere else to stop besides the salon, so we headed straight home.

"Work today too?"

"There's a lot I need to get ready. I should start now. That way we can live together right away later."

She smiled — bashful, and full of anticipation at the same time. I found myself smiling with her. If I held her back here, she would stay as my Escort Officer and nothing more. I didn't. She was preparing for us to live together. How was I supposed to stop her?

I walked her to the front door, we shared a short kiss, and we said goodbye.

"It's already three. The sofa... they already took it, right?"

The collection crew had come by and hauled it off before we left for the salon. Every last one of them had been a beauty packed with muscle, wearing tank tops cut so deep their underwear was on full display.

In this world, women barely wore underwear at all except as a fashion statement or for jobs that worked the body hard. Even as they aged, their chests hardly sagged, so there was no real cosmetic or health reason to bother. Outside of physical jobs, where they wore something to protect their chests, it was purely a fashion thing.

Did I wonder whether a tank top was cold in the middle of winter? I did not. The second they stepped inside and saw me, they peeled off their outerwear. The intent was obvious, so I stared right back. They were showing me on purpose. Why would I refuse?

"Guess I should look into a new sofa."

I sprawled out on the bed and picked up my phone. I was browsing furniture sites, trying to figure out what kind of sofa I wanted, when a message came in from my manager.

The link she sent me led to the Streamer Gallery on Galleria From. One post. Over two hundred comments. I opened it, wondering what on earth could have blown up like that.

What even was this?

I kept scrolling, and it didn't take long to notice the comments were wallpapered with people screaming at me to turn the camera on.

Other posts? Weren't those all going to be the same thing? She had just said the gallery was nothing but talk about me.

I swallowed the urge to close it and took a look anyway.

That last post was probably the salon. That was the only shop we had walked into today. I couldn't believe they had pinned me down from something that thin.

And then the comments about the walking path. I had no idea they all knew about that. I thought I had been pretty sneaky about looking.

For the record, they were a pretty pink. I won't say what, though.

I had been putting it off this whole time — I'll turn it on, I'll turn it on — even though I had already bought the camera and finished setting it up. Early on, the constant worry of whether I should even keep streaming, plus the attempted rape, had held me back.

But the more time I spent with Se-a, the more that attempted rape faded inside me. Now it didn't even surface unless I tried to remember it. And streaming... I had fallen into it deep enough that I could say it out loud now. It was my job.

Today. I was finally turning on the camera.