Chapter 46: Maybe I Shouldn't Have Shown Her?
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 46: Maybe I Shouldn't Have Shown Her?
“Achoo!”
Doah sneezed in the seat next to me.
“What’s this? Doah, did you catch a cold?”
Junseok, who had been clicking away on his laptop, looked over at Doah.
“I think so. Achoo!”
I thought she was dressed a little too lightly for the weather yesterday.
And just as I’d suspected, it seemed Doah had caught a cold.
“Oh no. They say the temperature swings are bad during the change of seasons. You must have caught something, Doah.”
Feeling sorry for her, Minji offered some comforting words.
Wednesday morning.
Today was the day for our advertisement strategy class.
It was the day we were supposed to bring VR maps for our filming project to show the professor, so we were meeting at a cafe 30 minutes before class to compile our materials.
“By the way, Doah, Taemin, where on earth do you guys find maps like these?”
The maps were of such overwhelmingly high quality that they put the ones Minji and Junseok brought to shame.
Junseok was amazed as he looked at the images we'd brought.
“Oh, it's easy. You just check the creator's name, and if you find someone good, you focus on looking through their work.”
The question was clearly directed at both of us, but I had no choice but to keep my mouth shut.
Because Doah had prepared all of it.
“Really? You should show me how, then. The ones you showed us are great, but I want to see if there's anything even better.”
“Sure, sure. I'll post some in the group chat later. Achoo!”
As her sneezing continued, I couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt.
...Maybe I should have given her my hoodie.
But I was only wearing a short-sleeved shirt underneath, so I figured it was pointless to regret it now.
“Alright, let's leave the presentation at this for now~ Then we just have to sweet-talk the professor~”
Junseok closed his laptop and stretched his arms out wide.
“By the way, isn't our mid-term evaluation next week?”
“Yeah. Ugh. I still have two more elective exams left.”
I winced.
Listening to the two social butterflies talk, I was seized by a feeling of guilt.
Midterms.
Of course, I wasn't the type to get overly worked up about a single exam, but I had been enjoying my free time a little too much lately.
Most of it was spent hanging out with Doah.
To be precise, it would be more accurate to say I'd hang out with the real-life Doah, then go home and hang out with Luka in the metaverse.
“Doah.”
By the way, is Doah doing okay? She's taking more classes than I am.
Even I was feeling a bit overwhelmed.
“Yes?”
“How are you doing with your exams?”
We'd grown close enough to have this kind of conversation without any awkwardness.
“...No?”
Doah looked at me as if I'd asked the most obvious question in the world.
“I'm just planning to take it easy this semester.”
That made sense.
If she didn't have that kind of mindset, I probably would have met one of them, but not the other.
The fact that she was juggling her schoolwork with her schedule for CLOSER was amazing in itself.
From what she said on stream, she was also working hard on recording songs.
She must have been working even when she wasn't streaming.
To me, it seemed miraculous that she could handle all those schedules with her small frame.
“Hey, hey. Doah. That's all well and good, but you're still going to see the group project through to the end, right?”
Junseok, who had previously told us a story about how stressed he got because of a deserter, asked in alarm.
“Ah. Of course, I'll work hard on it.”
With a playful smile, Doah glanced at me.
“...It's a grade we all get together.”
...Cute.
I don't know if it was a coincidence that she looked at me right at that moment, but I felt a surge of emotion for Doah, the kind I'd usually only feel for Luka.
It felt like the otaku inside me was tempting me to stan a real person.
“Oh my god. We have to go now!”
Minji, who had checked the time on her phone, hurriedly grabbed her bag.
“How much time is left?”
“Five minutes.”
“What? Already?”
“You guys know the elevator in the business building is under construction today, right?”
The air froze at Minji's words.
“...Both of them?”
Fuck. Tell me it's not true.
It's already an uphill walk from here to there, and now you're telling me we have to take the stairs too?
“Yes.”
Why is it that whenever I ask, ‘No way, right?’, the answer is always yes?
“...So we have to walk up to the fifth floor? Achoo!”
Doah's face turned pale.
Seriously, Minji. If you knew, you should have told us earlier!
What were you doing all this time to only tell us something so important now!
For a moment, I almost channeled my inner Pink Army and cursed her out, but there was no time for that.
“Hey. Let's run.”
At Junseok's shout, our group bolted from the cafe, our unfinished drinks in hand.
8 PM.
I was studying for an exam I had tomorrow when I habitually pressed the power button on my computer.
Studying for too long is bound to make you less efficient.
Justifying it to myself that a reasonable break is always helpful, I logged onto Twitch.
Oh. What's this? Looks like she already started the stream.
Even though I logged on right on time, there were already over 2,000 viewers.
“Huh?”
For a moment, I thought I'd clicked on the wrong stream, not Luka's.
The song flowing from my speakers was the ending theme from the Demon Slayer movie.
The screen was filled not with Luka's avatar, but with an illustration of Rengoku.
The other members of the Pink Army seemed just as bewildered, as the chat was flooded with question marks.
[???????]
[What is this??]
[Oh, it's Rengoku]
[...Set your heart ablaze.]
When the song ended, Luka's familiar voice came through.
[Kaido so... Achoo!]
It seemed like she was trying to do a voice-over in a solemn, heart-wrenching tone, but the same sneeze I'd heard earlier in the day wouldn't allow it.
[Ah. Why do I keep sneezing-nyan.]
After a sniffle, Luka's avatar peeked out from beside the Rengoku illustration.
[Hello, everyone. It's Luka!]
Those who hadn't seen Demon Slayer were still typing question marks, but the viewers who had immediately started dropping inside jokes.
[Luka. You... you watched it!]
[Looks like you finally watched Demon Slayer!]
[Rengoku is pretty cool lololololololololol]
Luka's avatar glanced down to the bottom left, as if scanning the chat.
[That's right. You all told me it was fun, so I gave it a watch. Wow. It was just so, so cool.]
...Watching the movie I recommended get introduced to 2,000 people in real-time felt... strange.
I felt a little proud, but also a little embarrassed.
[Did I cry? Yes. I did. I bawled my eyes out after the ending. It was so sad.]
Doah, having no idea I was watching, freely shared her thoughts from yesterday.
[Ah... some of you haven't seen it yet... That's possible. Oh dear... Then I'll stop talking about it here.]
Luka, who seemed about to apologize and change the subject, paused for a moment and changed her expression.
[No. But you know, I've been spoiled so many times in my life.]
[Didn't I tell you guys? That time I told my friend I was going to see a mystery movie, and they were like, 'The killer is that bastard'?]
[Wow~ I'm still pissed just thinking about it.]
[Whatever. You guys can suffer too. I can't be the only one who has bad things happen to them all the time.]
She'd already spoiled it anyway, and it had been a long time since the movie was released, so I didn't think it would be that big of a deal.
It felt like anyone who wanted to see it had already seen it.
The fans had probably all seen it in theaters long ago.
[By the way, I don't think I can stream for that long today. Achoo!]
[As you can see, I think I've caught a cold.]
[Of course I'm disappointed too~ What do you mean, I'm happy to get off work early~?]
[Manager! Please ban that person~]
Luka gave a temporary ban warning in a playful voice.
[Sigh... Still, I need to be healthy by the day after tomorrow.]
[Ah. Of course I have to stream on Friday! If I don't spend it with the Pink Army, who would I spend it with?]
Friday was Doah's birthday.
It was a special day that only came once a year.
[Anyway! I'll make sure to take my medicine and manage my condition so I can get better quickly.]
[Thanks for worrying about me. Heh.]
[Ah. So, to continue what I was saying...]
Luka returned to the topic of Demon Slayer and began explaining how cool of a character Rengoku was.
[When I'd only seen the anime, I was a Giyu fan, you know? I like those characters who seem a bit dazed but whose whole vibe changes when they fight?]
[No, no. After watching the movie, there's just no comparison.]
[He's just so cool...]
The character I had praised so highly.
Her praise for Rengoku was endless.
Saying things like he looked so handsome on a rewatch, and that the moment he died was a moment that would go down in anime history, Luka gushed with genuine excitement.
At first, I just listened with a smile, but as time went on, an inexplicable feeling of displeasure began to rise.
It was strange.
Usually, I could listen to Luka's streams with a smile no matter what she talked about.
I could feel my brow furrowing.
[Ah. Seriously, you guys. You have to date a man who's genuine, like Rengoku.]
“...Maybe I shouldn't have shown it to her?”
I was the one most surprised by the words that had slipped out unconsciously.