Chapter 57: Stalker
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 57: Stalker
Even though the cold wind hit my face, my cheeks were warm like bread fresh out of the oven.
I had a boyfriend now.
The most handsome guy in our department.
No. Maybe the most handsome boyfriend in the entire school.
Remembering being in Oppa’s arms just a moment ago, I dove straight onto my bed and buried my face in my pillow.
“Oh my god…”
I’m so happy.
So, so happy.
The way Oppa had shyly answered was so cute I thought I was going to lose my mind.
I wanted to know more about him.
Since Oppa had watched my streams so much, he probably knew all sorts of things about me, but I knew almost nothing about him.
Curious about what my first-ever boyfriend was like online, I quietly went back and sat down at my computer.
It seemed like he was a pretty active chatter.
If he sent over 1,000 messages a month, then by simple math, that was over 10,000 a year.
What kind of things had he been saying to me, mixed in with all those members of the Pink Army?
I went on Twitch, pulled up my channel, and typed in Oppa’s username.
[Lucario]
He didn’t seem to be a viewer with any super memorable moments, but I definitely remembered the name.
Oppa’s chat history loaded, scrolling down the screen.
First off, the sheer number was overwhelming.
What… why are there so many?
The vast amount made me wonder where to even start, but I figured it was best to look at the most recent streams first.
[LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO]
[Wait, you did that there…?]
[Wow.]
[cuteee]
Most of it was emotes or commonly spammed chat slang.
At first, I thought he was just a normal viewer.
There were some slightly toxic backseat gaming comments here and there, but nothing worthy of a ban.
Or maybe not. If he’d caught me on a bad day, I might have banned him.
The further I scrolled, the more I sensed something was wrong.
[Haaa… Luka-tan… I love you…]
His cheering seemed a little… excessive.
[Luka-tan! I got asked out today, but I turned them down saying I had to watch your stream!]
…Is that for real?
Wait. When was this?
At the time, I would have dismissed it as bullshit and moved on, but since the person who wrote that was Taemin Oppa, I couldn’t help but wonder if it was true.
It was in August, so it was before the semester started…
As I fiddled with the mouse, wondering if this was right, I started to think it would be better to stop looking.
[I'd totally lick Luka-tan's feet]
I couldn’t remember what on earth I had been streaming on July 18th, but I was starting to get scared.
…Did I make a mistake?
Oppa’s chats gave off the strong impression that he wasn’t a casual viewer, but a truly heavy, overly-invested one.
My head started to spin as I realized I was snooping on the privacy of the boyfriend I’d just started dating today.
There are so many.
No matter how much I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, there were just too many perverted comments!
Honestly, whenever chats like these popped up, I often wondered what these people were like in real life.
…Unexpectedly, the first-ever offline member of the Pink Army wasn't just normal, he was so handsome it was baffling.
“Doah.”
Having barely received permission to walk side-by-side with her, I called her name.
“What is it?”
“So… um… how far did you look?”
Hearing that she’d seen my chat history, a cold sweat started pouring down my back.
Honestly, I couldn’t even remember everything I’d written.
You can only remember one or two messages.
How was I supposed to remember when we were talking in the thousands?
Doah stopped walking and turned her body slightly toward me.
“Oppa.”
“…Yeah.”
“Do you want to lick my feet?”
Oh. For fuck’s sake.
At Doah's response, my whole body felt like it was contorting, like an evil spirit hit by a talisman.
“Hey… no way… what’s this about feet?”
“That’s what you said.”
“I was probably drunk that day.”
“Were you also drunk on the day you asked what color my panties were?”
I remember being so fucking happy inside that I didn't get banned that day.
I never could have imagined I’d be getting scolded by Luka herself on the way to school in the morning.
“…I’m sorry.”
“I was scrolling through your chats yesterday, and I couldn’t sleep.”
“‘What do I do… Is my boyfriend… an unimaginable cyber-pervert…’”
“‘Should I take back my agreement to date him right now?’”
My body flinched at the word ‘take back.’
Was I really going to get dumped after just one day…? For real…?
“…I won’t write any bad chats from now on.”
I couldn’t lose the first girl who’d ever opened her heart to me so pointlessly.
“I’ll just post emotes and be a clean viewer.”
Grabbing Doah’s wrist, I put on the most pathetic expression I could muster.
“Can’t you… let it slide just this once?”
Doah’s gaze turned forward again.
Without looking at me, she turned her body away and asked.
“What are you going to do if you get caught writing weird chats again?”
“…A ban?”
Truthfully, what else could I do?
“Ah. That’ll work.”
Doah’s reaction was as if she’d just thought of something.
“If you get caught, the next stream is canceled.”
“…What?”
“‘Luka-tan, being harassed by her own boyfriend. Sob sob.’”
Luka’s voice came from Doah’s mouth as she pretended to cry.
“‘I… don’t think I can stream in this state.’”
It was a truly tyrannical punishment.
Seriously. If I acted up, Luka would cancel her stream.
If that actually happened, I might get death threats from the Pink Army.
No, wait. Just by dating Doah, I might have already become the enemy of over a hundred thousand subscribers.
A chill ran down my spine.
Because whenever she did content where she’d duo with a viewer and a sweet moment happened, I would also spam the Pink Army bonk emote.
How dare you try to get all lovey-dovey with Luka-tan in front of us!
That had been my mindset, too…
“Okay. I won’t. From now on.”
“Then promise me, Lucario-ssi.”
Doah held out her small pinky finger.
“From now on, you’ll only use nice words when you watch the stream.”
I feel like this is what pets must feel like when they get neutered.
The thought of my prideful Pink Army self being castrated made me cry on the inside.
“Yeah. I will.”
After I extended my pinky and sealed the promise, Doah finally took my hand.
“…Oppa.”
“Yeah.”
“Are we going to go public with our relationship at school?”
To be honest, I’d been so focused on the fact that we were dating that I hadn’t had time to think about how others would react.
“Well, what do you want to do?”
Wouldn’t it be better to keep it quiet, if possible?
“I wasn’t planning on bragging about it or anything…”
It seemed Doah wasn’t too interested in a showy relationship either.
“But don’t you think people will find out naturally as time goes on? Unless we really make a point of staying apart all the time?”
“Probably, yeah?”
“But I kind of want to just hang out together at school, too…”
Doah glanced up at me.
It seemed Doah was more open to going public than I was.
“Hmm…”
There were a few unsettling factors.
The biggest one was the fact that a large number of women I’d rejected were currently in our department.
They hadn’t done anything to me directly, but it was anyone’s guess whether they’d leave Doah alone.
As someone who absolutely loathes rumors, my honest wish was to keep Doah from becoming the subject of gossip as much as possible.
“…You don’t want to?”
Faced with eyes like a cat wanting a treat, I let out a sigh.
“It’s not that we can’t, it’s just that I have a lot of bad karma.”
It was a pretty arrogant thing to say to my girlfriend, but I thought it was better to tell her beforehand.
“It bothers me that you dating me could become the talk of the town.”
When I answered in a low, serious voice, Doah quietly let go of my hand.
“…Is that so.”
Her voice was so obviously disappointed that I considered telling her it was fine after all, but Doah just shoved her hands deep into her pockets.
“Then I guess we can’t even hold hands from here on out, huh?”
We were already getting close to the school’s front gate, so Doah’s action could be seen as perfectly logical.
“…That would probably be for the best.”
“So we should walk around separately at school, too?”
“Well… we can just manage our distance appropriately, can’t we?”
Sometimes walking together, sometimes separately.
I thought it would be best if people just saw us as being close friends.
“Okay, I get it for now.”
With a prim expression, Doah whipped her head around and started walking ahead, her short legs moving quickly.
Just as we arrived at the classroom, having climbed the stairs with a slight distance between us…
“Doah!”
A familiar female voice—one that wasn’t Doah’s—called out.
“Hey, Minji?”
Minji was greeting Doah cheerfully, so I was just going to let them talk and take my seat, but…
“Is it true that Taemin Oppa is stalking you?”
…What did you say?
For a moment, I had to doubt my own ears.