Takoyaki
I froze. "...Oppa. Are you mad at me?"
This was incredibly awkward. Just moments ago we'd won the game, showered each other with compliments, and the mood had been perfect. But now Oppa was using that curt tone he never directed at me.
"No. Why would I get mad over something like that? Let's just play the next game."
The Oppa who usually smiled warmly while looking at me was gone. Right now he wouldn't even glance my way, eyes glued to the screen. And those tightly pressed lips... Yeah. He was definitely sulking. Completely and totally sulking.
He sounded like a drunk person insisting they were sober. But no matter what he said, someone as sensitive to other people's emotions as me could see right through it.
Aish. Lee Yuna, you idiot. My streaming persona had gotten so ingrained that sometimes harsh words just slipped out. I hadn't needed to say it like that. Calling him dadak of all things. Ugh.
"Is it because of what I said earlier? It was just a joke. Let's play."
When I just sat there blinking, Oppa tried to smooth things over first. His attitude was way more mature than mine. He urged me to queue up the next game right away. But to my eyes, he still looked like he was bottling up his anger.
If I were in his shoes and someone called me madak from the side, my pride would've taken a hit too. There's nothing that wounds a gamer more than having their skill dismissed.
If I tried to talk it out, we'd probably just keep going back and forth about whether he was mad or not. Was there another way...?
"Here's your order, folks."
"Ah, yes."
Right then, the PC bang part-timer appeared, pushing a serving cart. The cart was loaded with plates of food. So that's why it took so long. They must've been swamped.
"Whose ramen is this?"
"Mine."
Black bean ramen and a drink for Oppa's spot. Takoyaki and a drink for mine. The employee set them down and disappeared. I desperately wanted to beg her not to leave—I didn't want to go back to that awkward atmosphere.
"Enjoy your time~."
The part-timer wheeled the cart away again. And the awkward silence returned.
"Oppa, should we eat first? Then play the next round?"
"Yeah. Let's do that."
What felt like a meal that might give us indigestion began in total silence. Honestly, I could've just let it go, but I was a hardcore INFP. I tended to overthink other people's feelings. There was no way I could game comfortably in this tense atmosphere.
Sigh. This mess was my own doing. I had to fix it, Yuna.
I racked my brain for a way to melt Oppa's anger. He was silently slurping his black bean ramen. I popped a piece of takoyaki into my mouth, chewing thoughtfully, when a brilliant idea struck me.
...Wouldn't that work?
It was a little embarrassing, but I'd come up with the perfect way to break through this situation. A divine move that would clear up his mood and completely flip the atmosphere.
I stabbed a piece of takoyaki with my fork and gently tapped Oppa's shoulder. He looked at me with a puzzled expression.
"What?"
I carefully held the fork out in front of him and said, "Oppa... If I feed you this, will you forgive me?"
My gaze was fixed downward—I couldn't look him in the eye. My face was probably about to explode from embarrassment. But I had no choice. This was my karma.
Still, Oppa liked me. If I did this much, maybe he'd find it cute enough to let it go. This was the result of my careful calculation.
"...Huh?"
When I sneaked a glance at him, Oppa looked genuinely surprised. The cold expression from earlier was gone. I felt certain my choice had been right.
I urged him to eat it quickly. "Oppa, I'm really embarrassed... so hurry up."
Even though no one was around, I felt like everyone's eyes were on me. I wasn't the type to do something like this in public. This was an enormous act of courage on my part, Oppa. So please, just eat it already! Please!
"Ah, yeah."
Only then did Oppa open his mouth and accept the takoyaki I'd offered. Come to think of it, that was the same fork I'd been eating with. The moment I realized that, I felt my ears burning red.
I-it's not like an indirect kiss means anything. That's something only elementary school kids would get worked up about, right?
As he chewed the takoyaki, the corners of Oppa's mouth naturally lifted. It seemed my strategy had worked perfectly.
"...Are you not mad anymore?"
"I'm not mad, but why is it so hot all of a sudden... Is it just me?"
Oppa was fanning his flushed face with his hand. Seeing him get over his anger so quickly because of something like this was honestly kind of adorable. So he likes this kind of thing. Memo. I finished the entry in my mental notebook and glanced at him.
Right then, our eyes met perfectly. We both whipped our heads away in a panic.
"Should we take a little break before we play?"
"Yeah... Oppa."
Like a pair of idiot lovebirds, Oppa and I buried our faces in our keyboards for a long time, waiting for the heat to die down.
Takoyaki. That was seriously the best food in existence.
"Starting today, I'm only eating takoyaki for breakfast, lunch, and dinner."
I stood alone in the bathroom sink, staring at my reflection in the mirror as I said it. Hehe. She fed me. Yuni fed me takoyaki, you know? It's too sweet. I'm so happy. Noona, I'm dying.
I felt like I could shout any embarrassing exclamation right now. I seriously wanted to pay Yuna back for every single piece of takoyaki.
To be honest, I really had been sulking. My feelings got a little hurt in the middle, but I tried my best not to show it. This was a rare chance—I didn't know when I'd get another one. I didn't want to spend time with Yuna while in a bad mood.
Maybe trying not to show that I was upset was the best decision after all. Because in the end, it led to Yuna feeding me takoyaki.
— ...Oppa. If I feed you this, will you forgive me?
Yuna holding out the fork with that gloomy face. Even thinking about it now, it was way too cute.
If I could type in chat, I'd want to spam the screen with [ㄱㅇㅇ]. How could a person be that adorable? To think that expression while saying it. And then that look where she kept sneaking glances at me with her red face, checking if I was still mad. Ugh. I'm seriously ascending to heaven. I feel like I could die a happy otaku right here.
"I really couldn't taste anything."
Honestly, the takoyaki had no flavor at all. The moment I realized Yuni was feeding me, even the texture disappeared. I never really liked it because of that dry flour taste, but now I felt like I could easily eat a hundred pieces a day.
I washed my face with cold water to calm my excitement and stepped out. After patting my face dry with some tissue, I returned to my seat.
"Should we play again now?"
Yuna's expression was much brighter than before. My mood had improved dramatically too, so I didn't care what had happened earlier. I could probably endure being called dadak a thousand times.
"Yeah. Let's go."
We started queuing for the next game.
"Want to go with a full poking combo?"
"Sure? That sounds fun."
The combination we picked was Jhin and Xerath. It was famous as one of the strongest poking duos.
"Oppa, let's push really hard in the early game and just turn them into sandbags."
"Yeah. I'll just dump all my skills on the minions."
The enemy ADC was Caitlyn, so their push speed wasn't that fast. From the very beginning, we poured our skills into the minions to seize control of the wave. We pushed the lane all the way to their tower and started beating them down.
"I'll ult for the kill."
"Got it. Me too."
We chipped away at their health, then used our ultimates at the same time. Caitlyn, who had been panicking about which way to dodge, was left completely helpless.
"One shot."
Caitlyn's movement speed slowed after getting hit by Jhin's Curtain Call.
"Two shots. Three shots."
Obviously, if she couldn't dodge it at full speed, there was no way she could avoid it while slowed. Caitlyn's health kept dropping. On top of that, Xerath's barrage rained down on her.
The remaining Yuumi tried to scurry behind the tower somehow.
"Kitty~ Where are you going? You have to go with your owner."
Yuna said something absolutely terrifying in the cutest voice imaginable. It was scary even for me listening from the side.
"Four shots, you jerk."
Bullets and energy blasts rained down on Yuumi's head at the same time.
The cat exploded while letting out a sad "Nooo~".
"Mmm~ This is fun. Why does killing Yuumi relieve my stress so much?"
You're a little scary, Yuna.
Uni seemed to have a pathological obsession with killing Yuumi. Maybe because she'd been screwed over by Yuumi on the same team too many times. The way she got as excited as a little kid whenever she killed one reminded me of an innocent but purely evil child pulling the wings off dragonflies.
We rolled through the lane phase again and won the game smoothly.
"Oppa, should we just go pro as a duo like this?"
"I really like SK, you know~."
"You too? Me too."
We were giggling and talking nonsense for a while when two guys who had been gaming behind us stood up and approached.
"Um, excuse me. I'm really sorry to bother you."
"Yes?"
One of them—the guy with glasses and messy hair—spoke to Yuna. The other guy behind him kept his head down, mumbling in embarrassment.
"Ah... I don't think so. For real."
The messy-haired guy standing in front of Yuna looked nervous. He swallowed once, then spoke. His eyes sparkled with what looked like determination.
"By any chance... are you the streamer Uni? Your voice sounds exactly the same."
At those words, Uni's face turned deathly pale.