Together
Please stay with unnie the whole day today. Gachi oppa.
It had been such a short sentence. And yet that voice kept ringing through my head without end.
I'd been like this ever since I handed Gyu-ri over to the manager who'd come to pick her up after we finished our hamburgers.
I'd managed to keep the feeling buried as long as we were still together, but the moment Gyu-ri and I parted ways, an emotion I couldn't put into words kept welling up and spilling over inside me.
"Why have you been zoning out like that this whole time?"
"Ah... well..."
"Something on your mind?"
"Ah... well..."
"You've been doing that forever..."
Wa-sol, walking beside me with her arm linked through mine, was looking at me strangely. God, how was I even supposed to explain this...
I genuinely couldn't put it into words.
"Did Gyu-ri say something to you?"
"...Yeah. She said something."
"What did she say?"
"She spoke."
"What?"
"To me... she said it out loud. With her actual voice."
Even Wa-sol was startled by that. Her eyes went round and her mouth fell open — then her expression shifted into something that looked almost happy, almost relieved.
"That's good. Even if it was just a little, she took a step closer."
"Yeah. I'm really happy about it."
"But if that's the reason... you've been thinking about another girl this whole time while your girlfriend is right next to you?"
...Huh?
Is that how that works...?
"N-no, that's not—! It's not like that! I only ever look at you, Wa-sol."
"Ehh, I don't think so~!"
"Ugh..."
"Aww~ my boyfriend, cheating right in front of my face~ I'm so jealous~"
"...I'm sorry."
"Heheheh. I was kidding. As long as you know."
She was absolutely not kidding...
Exhibit A: look at this. She was clinging to my arm hard enough to snap it. My bones were screaming.
Why do we always have to suffer because of our idiot owner!
Sorry, body parts of mine. But what can you do — we're one and the same.
"So what did she actually say? If she went out of her way to speak out loud, it must have been something important..."
What did she say?
That... for some reason, I didn't want to tell her.
"...It's a secret."
"Hmm~"
Ow ow ow ow ow!!!
Please, owner! Treat your body with some care!
My bones' screams reached me again, but there was nothing I could do about it! Saying it out loud and then still hanging around together would just be lame!
"Well, the closer you two get, the more secrets just between the two of you you'll end up with! That's fine! I understand!"
Wa-sol said it in a tone and with an expression that understood absolutely nothing.
And the way she pressed even closer against me, her lips sticking out in a pout — yeah, I needed to comfort her, and fast.
I pulled her into my arms. Wrapping her up, holding her close — we were pressed tighter together than before.
She didn't resist as it happened, but her voice came out a little snippy.
"What, you think you can just get away with this?"
"Yeah, that's the plan."
"Tch."
Even as she said it, Wa-sol wrapped her arms around me too.
Fortunately there weren't many people in front of the apartment building, so we could hold each other without worrying about anyone watching.
"That's so unfair."
"So you hate it?"
"Asking it like that is unfair too."
"Haha, sorry."
"Hmph."
She made little sulky noises, but Wa-sol still wouldn't let me go. We stood there like that, feeling each other in the slightly cold night wind.
Honestly, there was one thing I wanted to add to what Gyu-ri had said.
Not just today — from now on, too, I was going to keep being with Wa-sol.
I'd promised as much. And I wanted to.
For some reason I'd wanted to be with Wa-sol today, so even knowing it was a streaming day, I'd been about to say I wanted to go to her place.
"Want to... come over to my place today?"
But Wa-sol beat me to it. I nodded without a second thought, and we headed into Room 105.
For the record — and I only learned this after going into Wa-sol's room — the units ending in 5 at the far end of this apartment building weren't studios. They were two-room apartments.
Wa-sol had turned the room near the entrance into a soundproofed booth for streaming.
The inner room she used as storage for her clothes and the gear she needed for broadcasts.
Personally, I wasn't fond of that room and didn't really want to go in there. Something about it reminded me of my old cave of a bedroom.
"Kiriring! Welcome to paradise, my Haras!"
I was currently watching Kiri's stream live from inside the soundproofed room. Of course, after about an hour of this I planned to switch over to Eve's stream. The reason for that... well, I probably didn't need to say it out loud.
But if I watched Wa-sol stream and then watched Eve's stream too, wasn't that killing two birds with one stone?
...No. Remembering what happened last time I tried that, it was better to just honestly watch Eve's stream on its own.
"And the game we're playing today is... what could it be~?"
Dangling the answer just out of reach, Wa-sol was enjoying the back-and-forth with her Haras. Watching her, I reminded myself again that I needed to be careful not to interrupt during a stream.
So I was being extra careful about any noise that might leak in, and yet...
Why did my nose always get itchy at times like this...
"...Achoo."
I'd tried to stifle it as much as I could, but a pretty loud sound still rang through the room.
Seeing those messages pop up, I panicked and looked over at Wa-sol — but she didn't flinch at all. She just kept talking.
"Ah~ that startled me. A sneeze just came through the window all of a sudden."
"What scandal~ At this rate if a car drives by outside people are gonna start asking if I'm streaming from the road."
Wa-sol smoothed the situation over like a professional and carried on with the stream. Then, as if warning me, she made her eyebrows into a V and mouthed hey at me before turning back to the monitor.
A pro is a pro...
"Alright then, shall we get back to the game!"
Come to think of it, it had been a while since I'd watched Wa-sol stream in person. Just in case, on streaming days I usually went back to my place to watch, and only met up with her after she was done.
"Okay, here... and here! Done! All solved!!"
Today's game was a mystery adventure — go to a riddle village, solve a bunch of puzzles, and uncover the village's secret. I'd figured even Kiri's top-tier mechanical skill wouldn't carry her through a game like this, but...
Apparently Kiri was just good at everything.
"But is this even okay... Honestly I started this thinking it'd take two days. At this rate I'm gonna clear it today?"
We weren't even an hour into the stream and chat was already saying she'd gotten through twenty percent. At this pace she could full-clear it in five hours.
"Whatever! Tomorrow's me will figure something out!"
Pfft. It was something I always noticed — once Wa-sol became Kiri, she had this whole go-with-the-flow energy. Not that she was being sloppy about it.
Charging ahead without hesitation, without fear, no matter what came at her... like a warrior.
Maybe that was the version of herself the Wa-sol of back then had always dreamed of becoming.
From what she'd told me, the Wa-sol of the past had been nothing like that — withdrawn, introverted — and that personality had landed her in all kinds of trouble.
"...Amazing."
I murmured it soft enough that only I could hear.
Unlike me, Wa-sol had overcome the wounds of her past through nothing but her own effort. That fact felt incredible. It made me respect her.
If the me of that day had become a VTuber and worked as hard as she had, could I have become someone like the Kiri of now?
...No chance.
Even carrying a dark past, Wa-sol was shining brighter than anyone right now. And I had sworn I would stay by her side.
I... needed to put in the work too.
I still didn't know exactly what or how, but I'd keep getting a little better. For now, I'd study hard.
That was the best the current me could do.
"Hm? Why's my energy so high today? ...Hehe, good question. Hmm~ maybe because I'm happy?"
Wait — just now... at the end there, that hadn't been Kiri's voice. That had been Wa-sol's.
The Haras had caught it too — chat was on fire over Kiri's voice from a second ago. And seeing a donation from Hae-an in the middle of it, that guy was watching this stream too.
You've fully become a Hara now... wait, were you always one?
"Ahem, ah~ I have no idea what you're talking about~"
Playing dumb, Wa-sol went back to the game. Then she glanced back at me just slightly.
The face she made — tongue out, smiling, I messed up written all over it — was so cute I wanted to give it a ninety-two out of a hundred.
Maybe it was because of that Wa-sol. I gradually got pulled deeper into Kiri's stream.
And before I knew it, Kiri's stream time had already gone past the one-hour mark.
That was how I ended up late to Eve's stream for the first time in my life.
After both Kiri's and Eve's streams ended, we washed up quickly and lay down in bed together. In a state that had already become natural, we felt comfortable instead — just soaking in each other's warmth.
"That sneeze earlier was close... sorry."
"Seriously~ you almost gave me a heart attack~ Ugh, next time I should just make you watch from the other room."
"...Please spare me that."
"I know, I'm kidding. You hate that room, Gachi."
...Huh?
Had I ever said that? I didn't remember mentioning it.
"...You knew?"
"Of course. We've been together constantly since we started dating. You can just tell by looking."
"Ah..."
I'd let my guard down and she'd just walked right in. This was the Wa-sol who'd managed to seep into me in such a short time.
"It's not that I hate it, exactly. It just... kind of reminds me of my old room."
"It's fine. I don't want to make you do things you don't like either. I only want to make you do things you enjoy."
"Thank you."
"That's why I don't force you to skip Eve's streams either. Even when you're watching Eve right in front of my face and I don't say a single word about it!"
"...I'm sorry."
There was a bit of an edge on that last part, but I decided not to dwell on it. Decided not to bring it up.
Also decided not to mention that the arms holding me were getting tighter.
"So is there anything you want to make me do, Gachi?"
"If you ask me what I want to make you do, I'm not sure."
"Then something you want to ask of me. A request."
Something I wanted to ask of her.
Just having Wa-sol beside me already made me so happy that there wasn't much I wanted to request. But if I said that, would she feel like I didn't want anything from her at all?
Hmm. Something I wanted to ask of Wa-sol...
Besides just being together... ah.
"Always stay with me — does that sound like I'm just copying you?"
The request Wa-sol had made of me last time.
I said it right back to her, word for word.
"...Not at all. It makes me happy, actually."
As if she were trying to listen to my heartbeat, Wa-sol pressed her face against my chest and spoke in a soft voice. That voice traveled through my ears all the way down to my heart.
"Ah, your heartbeat just got really loud, Gachi."
"Yeah. It was pounding pretty hard."
"Hehe, is it still pounding?"
"Probably for the rest of my life?"
Well — with a girlfriend like this.
Even when we got old, even when we were elderly, I was pretty sure Wa-sol would still make my heart race.
In which case, I should probably be careful with that heart of mine.
"Let's stay together forever. And as proof... mmm."
In the end, today too, Wa-sol slipped under my clothes and left her mark.
Still, it didn't hurt as much as last time — just a ticklish, pleasant feeling.
After the meeting that day, once I'd run out alone.
Tita had come after me. And she'd caught up pretty fast.
"Haa... and you can't even run properly."
"Haa, haa... you're just too fast, Tita."
Caught by Tita, I told her everything that had just happened, right there on the spot. She already knew enough about our situation that she understood quickly.
"Huu, seriously... I told you not to do that."
"I know. Honestly I wasn't planning to go that far... but..."
The way Wa-sol had treated me was fair. I knew that too.
...But it had just been so frustrating.
That had been my place. It could have been my place.
Wa-sol's role... there had clearly been... a chance for me too...
So I'd said things I didn't even mean. Because I wanted Wa-sol to get hurt...
Why did it have to be Wa-sol of all people... If only she'd just been a bad person...
"You shouldn't do that to anyone. But Bian — especially not to Wa-sol. That girl is..."
"I know. I know better than anyone. Wa-sol is..."
My number one, after all.
I knew that better than anyone.
"Haa, nothing for it. You're planning to apologize to Wa-sol, right?"
"...Yeah."
"Then I'll roughly set the stage for you. You handle the rest."
"The stage?"
"We're doing a collab stream. All four of us."
Ah. So that's what she meant.
"Okay. Thanks."
"Huu, please don't pull this stuff on stream too."
"...Okay."
At the time, I was sure I wanted the same thing Tita wanted.
But... I hadn't known either.
I had no idea my lingering feelings for Gachi still ran that deep...
That I was still that emotional, that stupid... I hadn't known that either.