[No title provided]
"Alright, let's get class started. I'll take roll call first."
The professor was the one who'd stuck me in this awkward group, but he'd also just bailed me out of that frozen atmosphere a moment ago. You could call it giving poison with one hand and antidote with the other—but if Doa really was Luca, then maybe I'd gotten a whole wild ginseng root instead of just medicine.
"Na Seong-hoon."
"Bae Yun-cheol."
The professor called out names one by one. Doa was a Kim, so she'd already answered. Speaking of which, that banana milk... she really only drinks the low-fat stuff, huh. Hmm...
Class, including break time, ran about two and a half hours. The first hour was straight lecture from the prof, then we'd get about an hour for group discussions. It was pretty standard, but hardly any teams actually talked project the whole time. The tight-knit friend groups would start chit-chatting the second they sat down, while the awkward ones rushed through whatever they had to say and then just scrolled their phones.
That's why I figured I'd wait for the right moment after the "meeting" to bring up that lawyer drama.
"Okay, let's take a short break and use the time to meet with your group members."
"Tae-min, wanna grab some coffee?"
Break time hit, and Jun-seok was already nudging my elbow.
"Sure, why not."
"You guys coming too?"
Jun-seok asked the girls in our group, and they tagged along with us.
"Man, though... feels like we won't have anything to talk about for a full hour."
Jun-seok grumbled like it was a hassle, and Min-ji chimed in from beside him.
"Eh, still beats two straight hours of lecture, right?"
"True, but faking work is annoying too. Should I just sneak in some major homework?"
"Better to just chat than get caught slacking and look bad. Oppa."
Jun-seok and Min-ji led the way, with me and Doa following behind. Doa wouldn't meet my eyes—she was glued to her phone screen. I snuck a peek hoping for a text or something, but nope. Classic brick-breaker game. I'd played it once or twice myself; total time-killer. Nothing you'd stick with long.
"What're you having?"
We hit the cafe, and Jun-seok whipped out his card to cover everyone.
"Iced Americano for me!"
Min-ji jumped in first, and I followed without much thought.
"Same."
Suddenly remembering Luca's cafe rants from her streams, I watched eagerly to see what Doa would pick.
"I'll have... um... a green tea latte."
Ambiguous. That was my diagnosis, flashing back to Luca's stream content.
The chat had been flooded with jeers back then, but Luca stood her ground stubbornly. And me, watching live, had rebelled hard against her trying to sell us on green tea lattes.
"Here."
Jun-seok handed out the drinks, and Doa took her plastic cup with both hands.
"Thanks."
"Let's head back. We're gonna be late."
On the way to the lecture hall, I lagged a bit, watching Doa's back.
On stream, Luca came off as total people-person material. Her words flowed beautifully, and she had this killer way of handling viewers. I could list a hundred reasons I liked her, but it all boiled down to one: Luca was just that captivating.
Virtual YouTubers using avatars could doll up their characters however, but in the end, the person inside had to have the charm. The virtual world was equal-opportunity on looks—make your eyes huge or nose perfect with one click. So you had to overflow with appeal even more than real-face streamers to survive, and Luca proved it spectacularly.
"Okay, go ahead and start your group meetings."
The chatter died down at the prof's words, and we kicked off our token discussion.
"Should we all look over the materials everyone brought?"
Jun-seok had already compiled what we'd prepped before class, so he suggested sharing via his tablet.
"This is what I brought..."
True to his model-student vibe, Jun-seok had nailed perfectly relevant stuff.
"So I figure that's why everyone's using techniques like this?"
"Ooh... looks solid."
"Yeah, seems good."
"Next up, Doa's materials."
Expansion of the Metaverse Market
The title alone had me choking back a cough.
*Cough cough cough*
"Yo, Tae-min? You okay?"
"Yeah, uh, let's see."
Was it sniping me, the guy who sits glued to a monitor all day? Doa's article hit me right in the bones for no reason.
"Definitely, these new tech trends are getting a lot of buzz lately."
Unlike me—overimmersed and practically hacking up blood—Jun-seok read it all very scholarly.
"But I'm not sure how much we can work into our final video."
"Oh?"
Doa looked disappointed, like a kicked puppy, since her stuff wasn't getting rave reviews.
"Not saying it's bad—just hard to picture the output right now. Let's circle back after we review everything."
We skimmed Min-ji's and my prep next, eventually circling back to agree on basing the project on Jun-seok's materials.
"So we'll go with mine as the core, mix in your ideas where they fit."
"Sounds good!"
Desperate to pivot to chit-chat ASAP, I played eager assistant, sorting notes by Jun-seok's side.
"We can slot in Doa's metaverse stuff if an angle opens up."
"Okay."
"Cool. I'll draft the proposal outlining it like this."
"So meeting's done for today?"
"Yep?"
The second group leader gave the green light, I tossed out bait like a fisherman.
"Hey, you guys seen that hot lawyer drama blowing up lately?"
"Ooh, oppa watches that?"
Min-ji—the most social of the bunch—bit immediately.
"Heard it's super popular. Haven't checked it out yet."
Everyone chimed in, but Doa, who I cared about most, kept her lips sealed.
"Doa?"
I couldn't hold back and asked her direct.
"Oh... I thought it was fun."
"All the way to the latest ep?"
"Yeah."
Bingo so far—now for the real probe.
"Who's your favorite out of all the characters?"
"The heroine, I think... she was the best."
It matched Luca's tip-off perfectly, so I geared up for deeper questions—but no dice.
"How's this group doing?"
The prof swept in for inspection, heading our table. Jun-seok straightened up and explained our concept.
"Solid topic overall... keep going for now. I'll check progress next week and say if we greenlight it."
"Got it. Thank you."
"Thanks~"
Damn... prof timing strikes again. I'd finally steered the convo naturally, only to let a sure catch slip.
What else to 20-questions Doa with next time...? No slam dunks yet, but odds were high she was Luca. Her answers lined up with Luca's stream tastes. Right when I thought it was too vague without a knockout...
"Doa, tomorrow's my birthday—wanna come drink with us?"
"Tomorrow's tough. Got stuff going on."
"C'mon, Hyun-ji and Ji-seon are coming too."
"Really? Oh... but I'm slammed this week..."
I'd been perking my ears at Min-ji and Doa's chat, and the follow-up lit my eyes up.
"Pfft, we can party on your birthday. When is it again, Doa?"
"Still a ways off."
"So when?"
"Me? October 25th."
...Goal! It's a goal!!!
I gaped at Doa, utterly dumbfounded.