Chapter 35: What's Important Right Now.
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 35: What's Important Right Now.
[Unnie.]
I entered the friend server on Voicecord and sent a DM to Hanbit unnie, the one I’d asked for advice from a while back.
[yo]
The reply was instant, sharp as a knife.
As expected, Hanbit unnie was on a break from work, so she was easy to reach.
I’d considered posting in the main chat, but repeating the whole story from the beginning was a hassle and would just drain my energy. A private message seemed better.
[You know that oppa I told you about, the one I was kind of flirting with?]
Ah. Just trying to say it out loud was so embarrassing.
I raked my fingers across my poor keyboard before steeling myself, determined to tell her what was going on.
[Yeah. What about him? Is it not going well?]
[It’s not that...]
[What is it? Don’t tell me you’re already dating?]
A cute emoji appeared, a question mark popping over its head in surprise.
[No! We haven’t gotten that far yet...]
[Ooh... ‘not yet’ means it’s happening soon?]
If I let her drag this out, I’d never get to the point today. I decided to cut straight to the chase.
[I’m… going over to his place, you know?]
For a moment, the chat window was silent.
Why… why… She was replying instantly, but now there’s nothing. This is making me nervous.
[Luka-tan.]
[Yeah?]
[Make sure you bring condoms.]
[Ah! Unnie!]
After a dramatic pause, as if she were about to say something profound, she didn’t hesitate to make such a shameless comment.
[Wow... Luka. I thought you were just a kid, but this is huge. Wow. Do the others know?]
[No! They don’t! I’m only telling you! Don’t you dare tell anyone else!]
[No, but seriously, this is huge. Luka. It’s always the quiet ones… Did you ask to go over first?]
[Well, what happened was...]
I told her about the group project earlier that day and explained that I was going over to help him set up his headset.
[So. You’re going to corrupt your crush into a VR otaku?]
[...You never know. He might like it.]
I mean, if he was looking into it on his own, he must be interested, right?
It might have just been wishful thinking on my part, but it wasn’t impossible, was it…?
If Oppa said he liked VR content, it would be so much easier for me to confess that I’m a popular VTuber.
And I felt like I wouldn’t have to be so anxious anymore, which would be amazing.
[Hey. What if your crush starts hitting on other girls in there too?]
Hanbit unnie’s words hit me like a ton of bricks, leaving me momentarily stunned.
[VRWorld is just a place for people to socialize, not actually play games, right?]
[Well, you’re not wrong, but...]
[The fact that he invited you to his place makes him sound like a player. What are you gonna do if he starts inviting other girls to his world in VRWorld? lololololol]
I was about to type, ‘M-my oppa wouldn’t do that,’ but a sudden reality check hit me, and I deleted the sentence.
[He’s not that kind of person. He doesn’t even hang out with girls with a face like that, so there’s no way he’d do it in VR.]
Still, I had to defend him.
[Now that you mention it, that does make sense. But if that’s true, it’s really strange.]
[What is?]
[It’s not that you’re a bad person or lacking in any way, but shouldn’t you have been out of the picture then, too?]
[That’s true.]
I’ve already been rejected by him once in real life, I thought.
[Weird... When you two get closer, maybe ask him when the mood is right.]
[Ask him what?]
[Ask him what part of you he was drawn to. If that’s too embarrassing, suggesting something like telling each other your pros and cons isn’t a bad idea either.]
Ooh...!
Now that was some real advice!
I was glad I’d asked Hanbit unnie, the dating expert.
Since I was terrible at being subtle, I quickly jotted down her words in a notepad.
[But Unnie.]
[Yeah.]
Before we ended the conversation, it was probably best to ask one more thing, right?
[What should I do when I go to a guy’s house for the first time?]
Should I… bring a gift? Or not?
But I’m already lending him a headset and setting it up for him. Do I really need to bring a gift on top of that?
It felt a bit unfair.
Like a fan going to offer a tribute.
[I told you, bring condoms. And shave if you need to.]
[...Anything else?]
[Ah. Pay attention to your underwear, too.]
Even though I told myself over and over that Taemin Oppa wasn’t the type of person to do something like that, I wrote down everything she said.
Doah was scheduled to come over to my house tomorrow at 5 p.m., after school.
My eyes scanned my room, and I let out a deep sigh.
“...Ah. I’m screwed.”
The room was a typical bachelor pad, reeking of a man living alone.
Leftover delivery trash sat on the table, and flat soda bottles were rolling around on the floor.
Cleaning up for any guest would have been a chore, but this was Doah.
She was my favorite idol, Luka-nim.
“First, I need to take that down.”
A large poster of Luka was taped to the wall right next to my closet.
It wasn’t official merchandise, just a high-quality illustration I’d printed out and hung up.
But that wasn’t to say I only had bootleg goods.
On my desk, treasured like a prized possession, was Luka’s desk mat—one of only 300 limited-edition pieces she had briefly sold.
This had to go, too.
Let’s see… what else…
It was a huge relief that I didn’t have one of those long character pillows you could hug to sleep.
I’d seriously debated whether to get one made for a long time.
If such a monstrosity had been in my house, I probably wouldn’t have found a place to hide it and would’ve had to throw it in the trash.
After the initial round of cleaning, I pulled back my computer chair.
“Haaah…”
A deep clean after so long was exhausting.
I pressed the power button, and an illustration of Luka flashing a V-sign popped up on the monitor.
If Doah was going to help me set up VRWorld, she would definitely need to use my computer.
But my computer was a ticking time bomb.
Luka was saved in all my bookmarks, and my video site algorithms were saturated with her.
I changed the wallpaper to a picture of a beach.
Luka-tan… goodbye for now…
Wait. But is it right to say goodbye to Luka when Doah is coming over?
The fact that I was hiding Luka from Luka herself felt strange.
For now, I carefully hid all the files and records on my computer and went to Twitch.
It was almost time for Luka’s stream to start.
It was Wednesday, the day she promised to stream until the early hours of the morning.
I browsed the news for a bit, then logged onto her stream right at 8 p.m.
[Helloooo~~~]
Less than ten minutes after she started, the viewer count had already soared past four digits.
[Luhai~~~]
[Luhai! Luhai! Luhai! Luhai! Luhai! Luhai! Luhai! Luhai! Luhai!]
[Luka-nim! You’re streaming till dawn today, right!]
I joined the crowd for the first time in a while and typed a greeting in the chat.
[Yes~ That’s right~ As promised, I’ll be spending this very late night with the Pink Army~]
A flood of enthusiastic cheers poured into the chat.
[For Part 1, I’ll chat for a bit, and for Part 2, I’ll play a game that you all recommended. Then, when it gets really late, we’ll move on to some rhythm games or other casual games.]
Ah, what a solid lineup.
It seemed like the perfect combination to watch while I did my daily check-ins on my gacha games.
Luka was making small talk about her day when she asked the viewers a question.
[When you guys visit someone’s house for the first time, you know, like for a housewarming party? What kind of gift do you bring?]
A variety of answers flooded the chat.
[Toilet paper, a mood lamp. C’mon, give me more ideas. Oh! A diffuser is a good one!]
[Ah. A friend of mine said they just started living on their own and invited me over, so I was wondering what would be a good thing to get.]
I wanted to type something, but I’d never given a housewarming gift before.
I’d only been to a friend’s place a couple of times, and both times I was dragged there, black-out drunk.
Honestly, I strongly felt there was no need to see someone in their cramped little apartment.
Why on earth would anyone choose to be in such a tiny space when there was a wide, open world with fresh air outside?
And if you had to sleep there, it was usually hell.
It meant two people squeezing onto a single bed or one person sleeping on the floor.
Either way, the chances of finding happiness there were extremely slim.
[Alright then, let’s get to the game you all recommended~ Let’s do this~ Woo~~]
After about an hour and a half of chatting, Luka launched the game.
The game she’d brought today was a story-driven pixel game.
The story was surprisingly engaging, so I grabbed a bag of potato chips and focused intently on Doah’s voice acting.
[Did you… want to kill me that badly?]
Wow. Fuck. What’s going to happen?
The story had reached its climax.
The mentally broken protagonist asks the heroine the question.
Ah. Hurry. Press the spacebar, Luka-tan.
I think I’m going to have a panic attack.
But Luka didn’t show the next line of dialogue.
[Ahem, ahem. Ah. Everyone, just a second, I’m going to get some water. To be honest, I’ve been really thirsty for a while, but you all seemed so immersed that I kept holding it in, you know?]
[I’ll be right back, I’m just getting some water, okay?]
Those who thought like me booed, but the general consensus was for her to go and come back quickly.
Voice acting for a game was no easy task.
It meant she had to keep reading lines for hours on end.
[Luka-nim! Hurry back!]
[I’ll give you 5 seconds!]
[Ah! I’m so damn curious! Hurry to the next part!]
-Bzzzzzz-
As I stared at the chat window after Luka had left, my phone vibrated. I picked it up.
[Oppa. Do you happen to like vanilla scents? - Kim Doah]
No. Fuck! Doah!
Whether I like vanilla isn't what's important right now