A Midnight Stroll
I started walking down the street with Lua, who was wearing my padded jacket.
"…It's cold."
Even after stealing my jacket, Lua started rubbing her hands together.
I pointed at the pockets with my finger, offering a bit of advice.
"Try putting your hands in the pockets."
"The pockets?"
"There's a hand warmer in there."
"Ah, I know that, but…"
Lua deliberately stretched her arms straight down, and that was when I finally understood.
…They're a little short on her.
"Pfft."
The moment I laughed, Lua glared daggers at me.
"It's a long padded jacket made for a guy who's around a hundred and seventy-something centimeters. Of course it's short on me, right?"
"Well, yeah~"
"You're dead."
"I'm sorry~"
"Wow, I really want to hit you. Just take one hit."
"Ah, why~"
I tried to run, but Lua had already punched me once.
—Thwack!
"Ow!"
"Hmph!"
Lua attacked me with a show of full-blown anger, and even as I took the hits, I couldn't stop smiling.
Honestly, she was so cute it was almost unfair. Lua Im, that is.
"…So, Jinwoo. How was today's stream?"
"Today's stream?"
"Yeah."
Well… how was today's stream, huh…
"…It was fun."
"Really?"
"Yeah. The songs were good, and watching everyone cheer you on was fun too."
"I see. That's a relief."
Seeing Lua smile so gently made me feel strange somehow.
Not in a heart-racing kind of way—just genuinely weird.
"……Is something wrong?"
"No, it's not like that… um…"
Lua hesitated for a moment, then looked at me and asked,
"Jinwoo, what's your favorite song?"
"My favorite song?"
"Yeah. Out of every song ever."
My favorite song—that one was already decided.
"Sweet Mare's Sweet Dream."
"Hmm~ And which part do you like the most?"
"Lulu's solo part."
"Heehee."
The way Lua smiled, as if completely satisfied, made that strange feeling from earlier vanish without a trace.
What was it about her that made me feel that way? I still wasn't sure.
After that conversation, we just walked for a while.
Aimlessly, without any destination—just walking.
Somewhere along the way, Lua looked at me and asked another question.
"Jinwoo, there's something I'm curious about."
"What is it?"
"Why did you start video editing?"
"Why I started?"
"Yeah."
Why I started? The reason was simple.
"Because I didn't want to study."
"Huh?"
Lua looked completely caught off guard by my answer.
Her expression was so perfect I almost wanted to take a picture of it on the spot.
"What, you weren't expecting that?"
"No. I thought there was some other reason."
"There isn't. I just figured if I did video editing, I wouldn't have to study, so I started."
"What is that? You still have to study editing, don't you?"
"It was more fun than Korean, math, or English."
That was the truth.
With regular school subjects, the results of studying didn't show up right away, and even when they did, there wasn't much satisfaction in it.
But with video work, the more effort I put in, the clearer the results were.
On top of that, the studying itself was fun. Maybe it just suited me.
Lua snorted a little laugh at my answer.
"What is that? You're reeeally like an idiot."
"Yeah, I guess I am."
I really was an idiot. In the end, thanks to Lua, I'd started studying again, so the original goal of video editing—"not studying"—had completely failed.
Still, I didn't regret it.
I'd started editing, become a clipper, grown close to Lua again as if it were the most natural thing in the world, and even found out that my favorite VTuber was Lua herself.
I didn't regret a single bit of it.
And starting next week, I was going to be editing videos as a contracted freelancer for Fantasy Live—Lua's company.
How could I possibly regret that?
Regretting it would just mean I was spoiled.
Come to think of it, there was one thing I hadn't asked yet.
Something I was desperately curious about, but had held back because I was watching Lua's reaction.
I needed to ask it.
"Hey, Lua. There's something I'm curious about too."
"What is it?"
"…How did you end up becoming a VTuber?"
At my question, Lua gave a small smile, then looked at me and asked something in return.
"Jinwoo, do you remember what we used to do most when we played together?"
"What we used to do?"
The first thing that came to mind was tag—me, Lua Im, and a few other friends chasing each other around.
Then the games the two of us could play together.
And last of all, watching anime together.
Lua and I had really loved watching anime side by side.
"…We played tag, played games, and watched anime."
"Yeah. And out of those, what did the two of us do the most?"
"Watching anime."
That was right. The thing Lua and I did the most was watch anime.
We'd even fought over it when we wanted to watch different shows.
The result of those fights was a light scolding from my brother.
"I remember us fighting over the remote."
"Right? And Junwoo hyung ended up yelling at both of us."
"He said the one who yields is the better person, so we both kept trying to let the other one pick what they wanted."
"Yeah, yeah."
It was a memory only the two of us could share.
And right in the middle of that memory, Lua said something I never would have expected.
"Back then, do you remember what you said to me?"
"What did I say?"
"…You don't remember?"
There was a faint look of disappointment in Lua's eyes.
But as sorry as I was, I truly didn't remember.
I'd said so many things to Lua over the years, and none of them had stuck out enough to stay with me that clearly.
When I lowered my head a little and looked at her, Lua gave me a bitter yet somehow light smile, as if she'd known that would be my answer.
"You told me my voice was pretty, like a character's voice."
"…Really?"
"Yeah. Really."
Thinking back on it, maybe I had said something like that.
"So from then on… it's a little embarrassing, but becoming a voice actor was actually my dream."
"A voice actor…"
"Yeah. A voice actor—someone who performs as game or anime characters."
A voice actor, huh.
If Lua became a voice actor, it would suit her ridiculously well.
Even the tone she was using right now was subtly different from Lulu's, and both of them were charming in their own ways.
She could probably pull off plenty of other voice tones too.
"I actually started going to a proper voice acting academy from middle school. Academy lessons and regular studying… I was ridiculously busy."
"So that's…"
"Yeah. That's why I drifted away from you a little. I'm sorry."
"No. I… didn't really try to get closer to you either."
"That's not it. I was the one who pulled away first, and that's what made you pull away from me."
"If I'd wanted to get closer, I could have."
"But still…"
"Even so…"
Suddenly we were both apologizing to each other, and the one who cut it off was Lua.
"…Anyway. So I'd come home after working hard at the voice academy and study, and then one day my mom made me a proposal."
"What was it?"
"She asked if I'd ever thought about trying VTubing. Do you know what my mom does for work?"
"Something law-related… wasn't it?"
Lua nodded, then told me something even more surprising.
"Yeah. And around the time I entered middle school, she started taking a lot of legal consulting work and other jobs from the MCN side. There's a surprising amount of work over there, and it pays pretty well. Plus she'd done work with entertainment agencies before, so she has a lot of connections in that world."
"…Ah."
That was when everything finally connected.
"Because of Mom's suggestion, I got to meet the current CEO, and from my first year of high school I started preparing to become a VTuber. And then…"
"You debuted last year."
"Yeah. That's how it happened."
Hearing this side of Lua's story for the first time, the first thing that rose up in me was…
"I'm really sorry, Lua."
Guilt.
"Why are you suddenly sorry?"
"I… honestly thought you'd started keeping your distance because you didn't like me anymore."
"Huh…? Suddenly…?"
"Well… I wasn't good at studying, I wasn't particularly handsome, and my personality wasn't great either. And you weren't like that, so…"
At my words, Lua suddenly stopped right where she was, then grabbed both of my cheeks with her hands like she was about to slap them.
—Smack!
"Ow!"
"…Who told you that?"
"Who…?"
"Who said you were bad at studying, not handsome, and had a bad personality?"
"……Me? (Mmf?)"
"You?"
With my cheeks still being held, I could only answer by nodding, and Lua started tugging on them.
"Ow ow ow ow…!"
"…You've got a funny-looking face, but you're definitely not ugly."
No, I was definitely not handsome.
Even my own mom had said, "You're not as good-looking as your brother. But your face has more character, at least."
Though that was a little unfair—my brother was just on another level.
"Besides, when we were little you were better at studying than me, and your personality is really good."
"Mmf…"
"I'm right, aren't I?"
—Tuuuuug
"Ow ow ow ow ow…!"
—Pop!
"Ah!"
Lua roughly let go of my cheeks, and I rubbed them while looking at her.
At a thoroughly sulky-looking Lua, that is.
"Anyway, I don't think that about you."
"…I see."
"So, Jinwoo."
Looking down at me, Lua asked a question I never would have seen coming.
"…Later on, will you be my editor?"
I hadn't expected it at all—and yet it was the thing I'd wanted to hear more than anything.
But…
……I'm already the second-generation editor right now, though?