They Were All Letting Me Win
"I don't want to play rough sports like soccer with the guys anymore."
"Honestly, that's why I told you the truth."
"Tch. So this was all planned."
"With a body like yours, you could get seriously hurt playing against high school guys. You even got injured playing soccer back in middle school."
"That was just a scrape."
"Do you have any idea how much that guy got chewed out for indirectly hurting you?"
"But that was my fault."
"That's the only reason it blew over. And today you almost got hurt falling during dodgeball."
"Well, yeah, but..."
"That friend almost got torn apart too. He was just holding the ball."
"Okay, now I actually feel bad."
Getting ripped apart just for holding a ball? That was way too much. I'd been the one running away so I wouldn't get hit.
"Fine, I get it. Feels like a lot of shocking stuff's been coming out since yesterday."
"I just told you the things that were going to come out anyway."
"Honestly, I thought it was weird that I'd score at least one goal every time even though I never lasted more than twenty minutes in soccer."
"Basketball was the same. You couldn't score, so you'd just pass to your teammates — and somehow the shot would go in immediately."
"So it was all planned."
I'd only played sports with the guys every now and then, but we'd won every single time. I felt bad for the opposing teams who'd thrown those games. My friends had gone along with the match-fixing just to make me happy, and I was the reason for all of it.
I wasn't going to do it anymore.
...Well, maybe once in a while would be okay? I could just make them promise not to throw the game.
"That look on your face. You're thinking of asking your friends not to throw the games so you can keep playing, aren't you?"
"H-how did you know?"
"You could actually get hurt now. Your body's weak. You can't even run two hundred meters properly."
"But it's fun."
I couldn't just cut sports with my friends out of my life. As long as it wasn't soccer or basketball, there had to be something we could play together, right? Dodgeball, maybe.
Ah — but my friends wouldn't aim at me in dodgeball either. That was match-fixing too.
So what sport were these people expecting me to enjoy, then? And people get hurt playing sports sometimes — that's just how it is. Why was everyone being so strict with me? I wanted to play sports too.
Out of curiosity, I quickly searched up wingsuit flying — and it was a sport I would almost certainly never do in my entire life.
Wait, the fatality rate is that high? Why does anyone do this?
"I have a fear of heights, so I'm never doing wingsuits or bungee jumping."
"I just thought of a fun content idea. How about a VR acrophobia experience, everyone?"
"No. I'm not doing that. Absolutely not."
"Overcoming your fears would be a good experience."
No. I wasn't doing it. I'd heard that even in VR, it was terrifying. Absolutely not. I was mad at Mina for suddenly cooking up a fear-of-heights content plan.
"I hate you, Mina."
"I'm sorry. I was wrong."
"Hmph."
I turned my head away from Mina in a huff, and only then did she apologize. Even if it was just a VR game, if I actually did it I might cry from how scared I'd be. Just thinking about falling from a high place was terrifying enough.
"Looks like the VR acrophobia content isn't happening. It would've been adorable, though. I just can't stand being hated."
"No more VR. Someone recommend me a sport I can actually play."
I steered the conversation away from VR as hard as I could, hoping the viewers would drop it. I was not doing VR. Okay, fine — I would do VR, but I was not doing a fear-of-heights experience. Would someone please just recommend a sport I could actually play?
"What is it? Please tell me."
I wanted a sport I could play without getting hurt. If a viewer recommended something, I was willing to give it a shot. Did a sport like that even exist?
Jacks? Come on. That was just mean. I gave up on expecting the viewers to find me anything.
"Badminton or table tennis would be fine."
"Hey, I can lift that much no problem."
Did the viewers think I was some kind of extreme weakling? I could lift eight, even ten pounds just fine. I wanted to play sports too. I'd have to drag my friends to a bowling alley sometime.
"Haa... let's just start the game. I'm done talking about sports."
"Today's game, as it says in the stream title, is the Animal Kingdom mobile game."
"I'm just trying it out for now, so—"
Latest was a big-name female streamer I'd only met yesterday, and she'd dropped a hundred dollars the moment she arrived. Her average viewership was over ten thousand — more than ten times mine.
"Thanks for the hundred dollars, Latest."
Wait. Looking closer, it wasn't a hundred dollars. It was a thousand.
Latest, you really don't have to donate that much. I'd started streaming for WeTube revenue, not donations. I couldn't even begin to calm down from the sudden, enormous amount.