Chapter 51
Chapter 51
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 51
Chapter Title: My Boyfriend Explanation Session (6)
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The chat window was flooding.
Like a torrential downpour on the day a hole ripped open in the sky, messages poured in endlessly, too many to count.
Some viewers had caught on, while others still hadn't.
For those who hadn't pieced it together yet, Myth added one more bombshell.
"But just now... did you guys figure it out?"
Countless question marks. Countless hooks.
The chats demanded to know just what it was they hadn't noticed.
A classic hook to grab attention. And to the big fish who'd bitten perfectly, Myth delivered another shock.
"QWER... he's the same age as me?"
Silence. Then explosion.
The chat window scrolled up and down freely over and over, leaving the viewers utterly exhausted.
This was exactly the scene Myth had been aiming for.
She shook them up and shattered their expectations. Under the fun meme of a unicorn, she wore a mask, lowered her horn, and charged, confusing their minds until she could smash her true goal right through.
"...I don't even have the energy to be surprised anymore. Eh, Mika?!"
"...Me neither."
Mika, no longer able to hold out, collapsed onto Maki's lap.
Her waist had gone limp; she didn't even have the strength to sit up.
She'd thought it made sense for it to be a team. It had to be a team.
When Myth unnie revealed she was handling it solo, Mika thought, Well, okay, that could happen.
'But a high schooler? No way.'
Mika laughed now, as if she'd reached enlightenment.
A high schooler making something like that all alone?
What word went beyond even "genius"?
Mika rummaged through her mental dictionary until one word emerged.
'Monster.'
Yeah. A monster.
But that only raised more questions.
Mika had assumed QWER was a team operation, slowed down by some circumstances.
But if it was just one high schooler, what the hell had he been doing all this time?
Scattered through the chat were questions like, "So what has QWER been up to until now?"
Myth saw their reactions too.
Now... it was time to bring up that day's story.
▶
"From that moment on, QWER was no longer just a regular viewer to me. Of course, back then I was young and didn't fully grasp the value of that avatar, but at least it wasn't something a student should be getting as a 'gift.'"
Myth had valued that avatar at tens of millions of won back then.
And now she knew that was laughably low.
An avatar whose minimum price started at hundreds of millions.
No, if she went back to that time, it might have been even more.
"Honestly... I fell for him right then. Yeah. For a boy whose face I didn't know, only that he was a high schooler... I felt my heart flutter. You might call me an easy girl for falling for gifts and devotion... but come on, you guys don't know the thrill I felt back then."
Myth smiled at the chat reactions.
Hmm, yeah, sure.
She had no comeback if they teased her as an easy girl swayed by gifts and pure affection.
Put another way, that's how intense his devotion was.
The love poured into that avatar had hit her straight in the heart.
"After that, under the pretext of QWER being an investor—and since he'd made me that avatar—we started brainstorming 'Myth' together."
Screenshots of their old Xcode messages scrolled across the screen.
Discussing Myth's concept, VTuber direction, sharing ideas on all sorts of things, agonizing over her debut together.
Even years later, days Myth treasured like jewels.
"Space idol—that concept came from... oh wait. It was straight from what QWER suggested."
Oh crap. Was it the overwhelming emotion?
Seol.
Legend's name slipped out, just the one syllable without his surname—but the whole name if you ignored that.
"Seol" lodged in people's minds, and thousands of "Seol?" chats flooded in.
The first slip-up of the stream.
Love and her heart had spilled from her lips, but Myth decided to let it slide for now.
His name would spread across the world soon enough anyway.
"Back then, QWER lived in Seoul, and I was in Busan. Those who get it will get it, but it's tough for students to travel back and forth between Seoul and Busan, right?"
Even now, round-trip between Seoul and Busan cost nearly 100,000 won.
It was hard to justify the trip on just "I miss you," especially as students with tight pockets.
After the college entrance exam, they were both busy traveling or hanging out with friends.
"So even though we wanted to meet in person, we couldn't, and our days chatting online dragged on."
Innumerable stacked Xcode messages.
Analyzing various VTubers, swapping broadcast ideas.
It felt a bit like a manager now, looking back.
Precious memories that made her smile every time; Myth beamed.
"And look at this chat history."
Every time I tried to get a little closer, she'd shut it down cold. Too much.
Myth showed the chat logs.
There was Myth persistently closing in and QWER firmly drawing the line between viewer and streamer.
You could see the chats' fondness for QWER rising with each message.
She smiled in satisfaction at that, but thinking of what came next made the mood plummet in real time.
'Sigh.'
A brief sigh.
Agony. She vividly recalled that day's trauma, not missing a single detail.
Forcing out the painful, sad, despairing, regretful memories of that day, she projected them onto her face.
Cold sweat invisible to the camera dripped down, and a hint of moisture crept into her voice.
"Then one day... an opportunity came. Yeah, a chance to meet QWER."
Christmas Day.
The day Legend's parents came down to Busan.
For some reason, Seol tagged along too, so the whole family spent the day in Busan.
"Christmas Eve."
Myth's voice sank as she mentioned that day.
Viewers panicked at her sudden mood shift.
Her wide eyes softened, her endlessly rising smile drooped.
Melancholy, anxiety, regret, despair, sorrow.
Everyone swallowed hard at Myth's expression shifting through all those emotions in an instant.
"QWER happened to be coming down to Busan, so I suggested we meet first. Even setting aside my feelings... I wanted to at least see his face and promise to repay him somehow."
The chat nodded along.
Strong vibe of "Gotta do what you gotta do~"
They felt Myth's anxiety too but chalked it up to imagination, typing cheerfully.
"We met in a back alley in Seomyeon. Yeah, a bit cold for Busan weather that day... unfortunately, no snow."
Exchanging exam score sheets, seeing each other's names and laughing, talking VTubers, Myth, daily life.
"I even showed off some blood sausage to QWER, who dared to diss Busan's blood sausage. Everyone agrees, right? Blood sausage is peak blood sausage."
Myth cracked a joke, but there was no cheer in it.
Her desperately bleak expression while joking started to worry viewers.
Now even the hesitant ones caught the vibe.
Something happened.
They were certain.
"Th-the dreamlike time p-passed... h-huh... h-home—time."
Her breathing grew ragged.
Words tangled, stuttered, broke.
Cold sweat poured wildly.
She'd recalled that day many times, but speaking it aloud was practically the first.
Her vision spun; the chat blurred out.
'Myth.'
Behind her, Legend stood silently, grinding his teeth.
The words Myth had drilled into him before the stream.
Absolutely no interrupting, no matter what, during the broadcast.
All to prepare for this.
Even if Legend couldn't do much himself, he handed over his warm cocoa instead.
Myth glanced back at Legend, gratefully took the cup.
Then, looking at him, she alternated holding up her left and right hands.
Asking which hand he'd held the mug with; Legend smirked and raised his right.
Myth, sweating coldly but beaming, lifted the cup with her right hand.
Using the same hand meant her lips would touch where his had.
Feeling the faint lingering warmth of the cup's rim, Myth took a sip, lips pressed briefly.
- *Gulp.*
Sugar cleared her head; love calmed her heart.
Myth reluctantly pulled the cup away and refocused on the stream.
"Haa... haa... S-sorry. Showed a weird side there..."
The chat began worrying about Myth.
Concern for her health, asking if she was okay.
In seven years of streaming, even during five-day all-nighters, she'd never suffered like this.
Even during extreme food mukbangs or challenge-level overeating, Myth had been fine.
Seeing her hyperventilate and grimace like this was a first for them too.
"Yeah, I'm okay. I have to finish this story today."
Myth sat up straight again.
"Back to it—at the time, both QWER and I were high schoolers, so curfew before midnight... that's when the incident happened."
*Click.*
Myth switched the screen.
Filling it was news footage from seven years ago.
"Sorry, closing my eyes and plugging my ears for a bit."
Eyes squeezed shut, earbuds yanked out, Myth clicked play.
▶
"Haa... haa..."
Even the faint audio leaking through her earbuds made her limbs tremble, cold sweat pour, heart pound like a hammer.
The chat stopped dead.
Visibly this time.
A long pause.
As if even they didn't know what to say.
Hardened by countless online tales, even they were at a loss.
"Haa... haa..."
Silence.
Within it.
Only Myth's moist breaths echoed through the stream.
Her raw heartache, the emotions she'd felt back then, transmitted vividly.