Sweet as Honey
Eve's stream had been going for seven hours before anyone noticed. She was starting to look tired, clearly angling for a sign-off.
Of course, the Adami could only mourn.
Okay, that was cute. Heart just skipped.
These days, simply summoning Kiri — the one person who could actually make Eve log off — was enough to get the Adami ready to let her go. Watching their resignation, Eve waved goodbye.
Eve waved right at me as she said goodbye. Technically it was already today, but she'd promised to meet us again tomorrow — and then her image vanished and the stream ended.
Feeling the usual pang of regret, I closed my eyes for a moment and scored today's broadcast... Yeah. Eighty-eight points. It had been a good stream.
"Still, it's already two a.m. Kiri's stream is... already over. Classic big-sister energy. She really practices what she preaches."
Recently Kiri had said Utopia ought to cut back on the excessive marathon streams. A few weeks ago, when Eve had gone past the twenty-four-hour mark, Kiri had marched straight to her place and half-forced her to sleep.
Whether it was the scolding that stuck or not, Eve had been careful ever since not to stream more than ten hours unless it was a special occasion.
"Wonder if Wa Sol unnie is asleep."
Checking Kiri's stream times, I saw she'd signed off about an hour ago. We had the same class tomorrow, and we'd both already been late to it once, so I figured she must have gone to bed.
So she'd been waiting for me after all.
I tilted my head, running through what I might have done wrong — and then the donation I'd sent Kiri during her stream flashed through my mind.
Right. It must have thrown her off while she was broadcasting.
I texted back that it was fine, then tidied the room while I waited for her. Just in case, I even spritzed some air freshener.
Knock knock.
Perfect timing. I opened the door right away, and there she stood — same outfit I'd seen her in on the stairs last time, only now wrapped in a blanket. Probably reflecting on that time she'd caught a cold and bundling up properly for the walk over.
"Come in. And good work on the stream."
"Thanks. Uh, excuse me."
"Yeah."
It was only her second visit, and neither of us was used to it yet. We exchanged a slightly awkward greeting and headed into the room together.
I sat her down in the chair and handed her the honey water I'd warmed up just in case.
"Honey water? You drink this stuff, Gachi?"
"Not really. I just heard it's good for your throat. So I bought some in case you ever came over."
Unnie took the cup with an expression that looked half-pleased and half-unsure what to do with the feeling.
"...Thanks."
She took a sip, looked at me for a moment, then let out a short sigh.
"Haa... I came here to complain, but how am I supposed to complain when you do this... Seriously."
"Ah, so the donation really was a problem. Still, you work so hard. I just wanted to cheer you on, too..."
"I know that... but don't send donations."
She took another sip of honey water. Her lower lip was pushed out a little, but it only looked cute — less like she was angry and more like she genuinely had a grievance.
"If you want to spend money... spend it on me. We can go to a café together, get a meal. Plenty of ways to use it."
"That's true, but... watching a stream without donating feels kind of empty, too..."
"Then just type in chat."
"It's just... I don't know, it feels lacking somehow..."
"Anyway! No!"
Wa Sol unnie took another little sip of honey water as she laid down the law. She seemed to really like the honey water, though. Good.
"But spending it on you and spending it on Kiri — isn't that basically the same thing?"
"...It's a little different."
Different? Ah — if you factored in platform fees, what I sent didn't go to her dollar for dollar. And while one silver coin was worth ten thousand won from the streamer's side, a viewer had to pay closer to twelve thousand to buy it.
"Donations I get as Kiri are... like cheers from all the Hara. But what you give me is a gift from my boyfriend. The second I see it, I stop being Kiri and turn right back into Wa Sol."
Ah. I roughly got it. RP — role play. In other words, it could break her immersion in the character. No matter how well Wa Sol unnie streamed, Kiri's personality and her own were distinctly different.
Kiri was warm and embracing with everyone. Wa Sol unnie drew clear lines — and only showed that beautiful smile to the person she'd given her heart to.
That was about the size of the gap...
"More than anything... when I get something like that from you, Gachi, I want to run straight to you so badly it hurts... and I can't have that while I'm streaming."
"..."
When she put it like that, there really wasn't anything I could say. Unless I was sitting right there watching her stream in person, that particular problem probably wasn't going away.
"...Okay. I'll do it your way."
"Mm. Thanks for understanding. Sip. Ah, it's all gone."
"Want more?"
"...Yeah."
Watching her shyly hold the cup out to me, I couldn't help a small laugh. I poured the rest of the pre-warmed water into the cup and stirred in the honey. It had been sitting a while after boiling, so it was only lukewarm now — better for drinking, actually.
"Here."
"Mm... hehe. It's warm."
"..."
Was she smiling like that because the honey water tasted good and felt warm? Or because I was right here beside her?
How nice it would be if I could read her heart all at once. Of course that was impossible... but there was at least one way to check whether she felt the same as I did.
Her lips, faintly glistening from the honey water.
I leaned in toward them, little by little.
Seeing me come closer, unnie quietly closed her eyes.
And then our lips met. Maybe it was the honey, but the kiss was even sweeter than usual — and before I knew it I was tracing her lip with my tongue, gradually slipping inside. She seemed startled at first, but soon she was letting me in.
After that sweet exchange of breath, I pulled back. And when I looked at her face afterward — ah. I could be sure of it. She felt the same way I did.
Of course, her expression flipped right back into that prickly tsundere look a second later.
"Gachi, is this really your first relationship? Somehow, when it comes to kissing, you're ridiculously proactive and good at it?"
"A guy's instincts. Or talent, maybe."
"Annoying... sip."
Heh. I couldn't help laughing. What was I supposed to do... she was older than me, but every time she pulled one of these cute faces lately, I just wanted to pinch her cheeks.
If only real life had donations too...
Ah.
"What are you doing?"
"Just a second... you said not to send donations to Kiri, right?"
"Yeah. I did."
Then... would this be okay?
I did something on my phone, and unnie's phone buzzed. She caught on immediately that I'd done something, checked her screen, and then—
"Pfft... seriously... what is this?"
"This doesn't count, right?"
Watching me say it so playfully, unnie covered her mouth with the cup and started laughing in little stifled bursts, like she couldn't help herself. Looking at that ninety-point smile, I checked the message I'd sent.
More precisely, a message using one of TrainTalk's features — the money-transfer function.
I'd used it to send her ten thousand won, then followed up with another text.
"Seriously, hehe. You've never once said you love me until now. This is so very you, Gachi."
"Is that a compliment?"
"Who knows... hehe. Ah, but the donation doesn't have a voice~ It'd feel more like a real donation if it had a voice~"
Huh? That was not the reaction I'd expected. Looking at her tone and the glint in her eyes, she was clearly fishing for me to say those lines out loud...
"It's a donation, so it should play from the phone, right? A voice message would be even better~"
And she was going to archive it, too...
...Fine. I could take this much! Be a man and go for it!
I opened TrainTalk's voice-message function and spoke in a slightly trembling voice.
"U-Unnie, I love youuu... Always... let's be togetherrr..."
"Pfft— ahahahaha!!"
She looked like she was having the time of her life. Now this mortifying black mark of history was permanently pinned in our chat. And on top of that—
"Why are you pinning it?"
"Because it's a commemorative first donation from Gachi?"
"Please..."
"Oh, and for the record, I already downloaded that voice message and saved it to my phone, the cloud, and my email. Unless the world ends, I'm never losing it."
Well, isn't that just wonderful.
"Haa. I don't think I could ever be a VTuber. My voice shakes this much over just a few words."
"Everyone's like that the first time. Let's do better on the next donation."
"Ah, you're doing another one?"
"You're not going to donate to me?"
"...You told me not to send them to Kiri."
"To Wa Sol is fine, though~ Hehe."
And then a notification popped up in the chat that Wa Sol unnie had received the transfer. And then—
Ten thousand won came right back to me.
I was about to tell her she didn't have to, but she sent a message first.
Unlike mine, there was no donation message attached. Or so I thought — until unnie held the mic part of her phone up to her mouth and spoke.
"Of course~ We're going to keep being together! I love you too!"
The moment she finished, a voice message appeared in the chat.
"Hehe. Doing it right in front of you is a little embarrassing, honestly."
"Still, you did amazing. A real pro. Ah, I'm saving this message to my phone, the cloud, and email too."
"You learn so fast... hehe."
She looked half-appalled and half-delighted, laughing in spite of herself. Watching her, I ended up snorting out a laugh of my own.
We kept talking like that until it was already three in the morning. We had a class tomorrow we absolutely couldn't be late for — and still we lost all track of time, spending those hours together that were every bit as sweet as honey.