Chapter 171: Y-You're Here?
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 171: Y-You're Here?
The first thing I felt upon opening my eyes was a dull, throbbing muscle ache.
I instinctively placed a hand on my lower back and let out a pained breath.
“Hoo.”
I didn't think it was strange. After all, last night had been a veritable festival of intense exercise.
Ever since I started dating Doah... no. To be more precise, I wondered if I had ever used my back so vigorously in my entire life.
I could say with certainty that I hadn't, not even during my time in the military.
Unlike me, who was nursing my aches, Doah was breathing softly, a perfectly peaceful expression on her face.
Her pale, pink lips.
Below them, on the nape of her neck, the marks from yesterday remained vivid.
Was it from tightening the collar so much?
The marks were still there, and worried they might scar, I gently caressed her neck.
“Mmm...!”
Doah twisted her body as if telling me to stop.
I obediently gave up and got out of bed first.
I pulled on my sweatpants and picked up the t-shirt I'd tossed in a corner.
Reading that novel might have been a stroke of luck, but I felt I should probably stop.
If my petty curiosity was making Doah anxious, then stopping was the right thing to do.
“...Oppa.”
A voice came from behind me. When I turned, Doah had pulled the blanket up, peering at me with just her eyes showing.
“...Hey?”
Just last night, until the early hours of the morning, we had been master and slave.
But the morning sun, like gravity, had pulled our relationship back to its original state.
“...Pfft.”
Doah must have been thinking the same thing, because we met each other's eyes and laughed awkwardly.
“You weren't planning on getting dressed and running away, were you?”
“Of course not.”
“Suspicious.”
Her eyes, already small from just having woken up, narrowed even further as she glared at me.
“Even if I were leaving, I was going to have breakfast first.”
I sat on the edge of the bed and reached out to brush her bangs aside.
“What time is it?”
“I don't know.”
I fumbled through the pockets of the hoodie I'd worn and pulled out my phone to check the time.
The already low battery had turned red, a warning that it would soon die.
“It's past twelve.”
“That's a relief. It's not past two.”
“Isn't two o'clock way too late?” I asked with a small laugh, but Doah just shook her head coyly.
“No... seeing you last night, I thought you might not even recover after sleeping for two days.”
My face flushed as memories of yesterday surfaced. There were too many moments that were far too awkward to describe in words.
“So... you're not sore anywhere...?”
“Hmm... I don't think so?”
“That's good, then.”
The marks on her neck bothered me, but as long as she wasn't in pain, I figured it was fine.
“But, Oppa.”
“Yeah?”
“So that really is... your preference.”
“No. I just tried it that one time. I don't really plan on doing it again.”
Doah's fingers, clutching the blanket, twitched.
“...Really? Because I won't do it for you again, then.”
I hesitated, feeling that if I said no now, I'd never get another "event" like this again. It wasn't that I hadn't enjoyed it. Still, it was probably better to say no.
“...Pervert.”
Before I could even form a reply, Doah noticed my hesitation and beat me to the punch.
“It's fine if you don't.”
“Too late.”
“I'm serious.”
“From your reaction yesterday, you were 200 percent into it. What are you talking about?”
The answer was already decided, and all I could do was laugh.
“Ah! Let's just get something to eat!”
This was a series of conversations far too embarrassing for the middle of the day.
“What do you want to eat?”
Doah, her cheeks puffed out, seemed to want me to give her a straight answer, but I was under no obligation to indulge her.
“Let's get pizza.”
I opened a delivery app and shoved the mouth-watering pictures in front of her.
Using food to change the subject might seem like a simplistic solution, but surprisingly...
“...I like the ones with cheese crust.”
...it works really well.
When I stubbornly insisted on ordering some weird pizza I wouldn't even eat, Doah grabbed my collar and shook me, asking what was wrong with me and if I'd eaten something bad.
Yeah. If I can get past it like this, I'm getting off easy.
We sat side-by-side, watching YouTube on a tablet, and ravenous from the aftereffects of our... exercise, we devoured the pizza.
“You can take the leftovers.”
Doah wrapped the remaining slices in foil and handed me the bag.
“No, you should just eat them.”
“You paid, so why should I be the one to eat them?”
“Hey, since when do we keep score like that?”
“Anyway, I already packed them, so just take them.”
“Ahem! Talking back to your master!”
I'd only said it as a joke, but Doah's face turned beet red as she pushed me out the door, telling me to leave.
Unable to take my eyes off her even as the door slammed shut, I couldn't wipe the smile off my face even after I was outside.
“Ah, she's so cute.”
How could a person be that adorable?
Today was the official release date of CLOSER’s second album.
The teasers alone had sent the internet into a frenzy, and now the full version was about to be released.
With ten minutes left until the release, chat messages were already flooding the official YM channel like a waterfall.
Of course, the content was absolute nonsense.
[I love you CLOSER ♥ I love you CLOSER ♥ I love you CLOSER ♥ I love you CLOSER ♥ I love you CLOSER ♥ I love you CLOSER ♥ I love you CLOSER ♥ I love you CLOSER ♥ I love you CLOSER ♥ ]
[Ah, please let Jennifer get a lot of screen time.]
[Protect our silver maknae Fumurin~]
[LMAOOOOOOOO look at how many fucking people are here.]
This must be the holy land of collective soliloquy.
I, who had only left the window open, slurped the coffee I'd bought from the convenience store.
Hoo... I'm actually nervous...
Of course, I knew the music video would be good.
It was YM, after all, not some other company. And if Doah-tan herself had told me to look forward to it, that was all the confirmation I needed.
Nevertheless, I couldn't shake the feeling of a father watching his daughter at a school talent show.
Luka hadn't started her stream yet, saying she wanted to watch the official video together with her viewers after it was released.
My heart was already pounding, wondering how much she would receive in donations today.
The first album was no joke, but now that her fanbase had grown several times over...
No exaggeration, she could receive hundreds, no, thousands of dollars in donations.
After a flood of chaotically spammed chats in various languages, the illustration of CLOSER's English logo, which had been the only thing on screen, faded to black.
Soon, the intro scene from the teaser began to play.
Five girls in dress shoes. The concept was that they all attended the same school, so they wore school uniforms, but each member's was slightly different.
The youngest, Fumurin, kicked it off. It was the unwritten rule for Fumurin and Luka, usually classified as the weakest vocalists, to be placed at the beginning of the song.
[The warm spring has passed]
[And once again, a hot summer has arrived.]
Fumurin's avatar, dressed in a summer uniform, struck a pose as if looking up at the sky, wiping sweat from her brow.
I held my breath, tense, waiting for Luka to appear.
Jennifer came out next and sang the following line, and only then did Luka finally appear.
[Even when nothing seems to go right]
[Even when everything I do falls apart]
Aah...
No. This is cheating.
First of all, the outfit was just unfair.
I had mistakenly assumed they would all be wearing different summer uniforms. But inside the music video, Luka-tan was running around a gymnasium in what looked like hot pants, a bit too short to be considered gym clothes.
The pink-haired avatar brought her hands together and took a shot with a basketball.
The ball missed the hoop, bounced off the backboard, and fell right on top of her head.
She rubbed her head with a slightly dazed expression...
Haaah... I knew she hadn't actually been hit, and I even doubted if Doah had been the one to film that part, but that scene was just so cute I thought I was going to die.
Next was the chorus. Dressed in the uniforms from the teaser, all the members of CLOSER moved in perfect sync with the choreography.
Ooh. Even in the extreme close-ups, they all boasted superior, flawless skin.
Right. This is the metaverse. This is what they mean by a face with no bad angles. How could 3D models even compare?
The three-minute-long video disappeared in what felt like the blink of an eye, and the fans began to disperse, flocking to the individual streams of the members they supported.
I joined the exodus. If this internet world had a physical form, we would all have been ordinary citizens packed into a rush-hour subway.
When I entered Luka's stream, what awaited us was...
[Y-You're here...?]
The pink-haired idol, dressed in the exact same gym clothes from the music video.
My girlfriend.