After I Finished What I Had to Do
After parting with Bian, I immediately took a taxi toward the mansion. Stuck at a red light and growing restless, I climbed out near the mansion and ran straight to the studio apartment where Wa Sol was waiting.
I found her in an unexpected place.
“Hah… hah. Why… are you waiting out here?”
“…No matter how long I waited, you never came, Gachi.”
“Hah… hah… You could’ve just called.”
“It’s fine… Just hold me.”
At those words I pulled Wa Sol into a tight embrace right there in front of the mansion entrance. I was a little sweaty, but luckily she accepted me just as I was.
Holding her, I could feel it. She was trembling.
“I was so scared… What if… what if you really didn’t come back…”
“It’s okay. I came back properly. I’m right here with you now.”
“Yeah… I’m sorry… for not being able to trust you… I’m sorry.”
That again. Honestly.
“I told you it’s not like that. If you really hadn’t trusted me, you never would have let me go in the first place. So… don’t say things like that.”
“…Okay. Thank you.”
The trembling that had been running through her a moment ago eased a little. In its place—
Maybe it was the relief.
“…Hic.”
Something wet began to soak into my shoulder. Knowing exactly what it was, I quietly stroked her back.
I didn’t want to make her anxious anymore.
Because I loved Wa Sol.
So for now, I would let her pour out everything she had been holding in. The way I once had.
“It’s okay. Let it all out. You can say whatever you want.”
Hearing that, Wa Sol held me even tighter and spoke in a voice thick with tears. No—she was crying.
“Why did I only meet you now…? If I’d met you sooner… if everything about you had been filled with me… if your first love, and the person who reached out a hand to you, had all been me…”
The last part was about Bian and Eve, wasn’t it.
Yeah. If that had been the case… No… no.
Everything that happened is what made me who I am now. I can’t deny that.
“But the person standing next to me right now… is you, Wa Sol.”
“Yeah… yeah…”
I can’t be your first love. But your last love—there’s only you, Wa Sol.
The only person who will keep walking forward by my side from now on… is you alone.
Whether that sincerity reached her or not, Wa Sol’s crying gradually quieted. When the tears stopped, still nestled against me, she called my name.
“Gachi.”
“Yeah?”
“Am I… a high-maintenance girl?”
“Not at all.”
“Then… am I too clingy?”
“You’re pretty jealous, yeah.”
“So you hate it?”
“I like it, actually.”
“Pfft… Don’t make me laugh.”
Sorry. But I mean it.
When you act like that, it just makes me more certain—you really do love me.
And that makes me think I have to love you even more so I don’t lose to you.
So, Wa Sol.
“Stay by my side just like this, always.”
“That’s my line. Why are you saying it?”
“Because I want to say it too. Is that not allowed?”
“…I don’t know. I’m going to mark you. On the neck today.”
“…Go easy, please.”
“Hmph… Mwah.”
I asked her to go easy, but watching her suck on the skin now… looks like the mark is going to stick around for a while.
After the marking ceremony ended, we went home. Outside it had been too dark to see properly, but once we stepped into the bright apartment, Wa Sol looked at the red bruise on my neck and wore a thoroughly satisfied expression.
“Feel better now?”
“Yeah! I feel like if I marked you a little more I’d feel even safer?”
“…Please hold back.”
“Hehe.”
Before I knew it she was back to her usual self, flashing that ninety-two-point smile and wrapping her arms around me the same way she had earlier. Only this time there was no trembling, no crying.
If anything she looked far calmer than before. Maybe because her heart had settled, she carefully asked,
“…Did Bian cry a lot?”
“Yeah. She did.”
“You’re a bad man, Gachi.”
“Guess so.”
“A bad man like you shouldn’t meet a good girl. You’ll just make her cry the way you made Bian cry.”
“That’s a problem. I fell for the best girl in the world.”
“No!”
Rejecting my words, Wa Sol pulled away, pressed a kiss to my cheek, then looked up at me and said,
“Mwah. The girl you fell for is the worst girl in the world. She’s ridiculously possessive, gets jealous all the time, and won’t let you go anywhere.”
“Meaning we have to stay together always?”
“Yeah. You can’t go anywhere. Wherever you go, you’re with me.”
She said it like a child throwing a little tantrum.
It’s strange, really.
My first impression of her had clearly been of a composed, cool older woman.
When did she turn into this jealous, clingy, adorable girl?
Did I make her this way?
“Mwah. Churp. Hmm.”
“Mmm… churp.”
Then I have to take responsibility.
By pressing our lips together, by letting our tongues tangle, by losing ourselves in each other.
By staying at Wa Sol’s side forever.
“Pwah… Hehe, we kissed without even breathing.”
“It did go on a while.”
“Hehe, more.”
“Yeah. Mwah.”
Our deep kisses had become familiar by now. In moments like these every worry vanished, and it felt as if only the two of us existed in the whole world.
And.
Maybe because we’d grown used to this, sometimes my hands, holding her, would almost slip lower without me realizing it.
But I had to hold back today.
“Pwah… Not touching me today either?”
“Today’s… a little different, yeah?”
“Hehe, yeah. Even so, today’s not the day.”
She laughed as if it couldn’t be helped and nestled against me again. We’d hugged so many times that this, too, felt completely natural.
“Your heart… it’s pounding so hard.”
“No matter how used to it I get, this part never stops.”
Strangely, whenever I was with Wa Sol the racing in my chest never quieted—no matter how long we spent together, no matter how much we touched.
“Me too?”
Saying that, she looped her arms around my neck and pulled my head against her chest. It was a little embarrassing, but I rested there and listened to her heartbeat.
Thump-thump.
What do you know—she was the same.
“It’s pounding like crazy.”
“Hehe, yeah. Even more right now.”
The way she blushed and smiled shyly was so pretty that—
“Mwah, churp, haah.”
“Churp, mwah, mwah.”
—I leaned in for her lips again. We lost ourselves in each other until we suddenly realized how late it had gotten.
Maybe because she registered the time, Wa Sol yawned.
“…I’m suddenly so sleepy.”
“Then let’s sleep.”
“Mm… You’ll stay next to me, right?”
“We’re sleeping together. Don’t worry.”
“Hehe. Okay.”
So we climbed into bed together.
Soft, even breaths.
It was late, she’d been through a lot emotionally, and she’d cried her heart out—so Wa Sol fell asleep almost immediately, still nestled against me.
“She’s out… Must’ve been exhausted. Well, a lot happened.”
Listening to her breathing beside me, I closed my eyes, and before long I drifted off as well.
Once asleep, for the first time in a long while I dreamed of the day I first met Wa Sol.
The dream of spotting her by chance while she was moving boxes and, on a whim, helping her carry them.
She’d called it the kind of whim that only hits me when I see a pretty girl.
But that particular whim had felt… different.
Not a sudden impulse… more like something that had drawn me in… I thought, inside the dream.
Yesterday, full of so many things, had passed, and a new day began.
Wa Sol and I ate together while looking at a post that had gone up on the Utopia café notice board. There were a few comments saying it was a shame the full-group collab stream had run into trouble,
but far more posts criticizing the trolls who had caused the mess. Looking at that, it was clear most of the viewers still didn’t doubt the girls’ relationships.
“I always think this, but I’m grateful to the Hara and to the other viewers too. They trust us like this.”
“Yeah. It’s my story too, but everyone just likes Utopia.”
“And among them, Gachi likes Eve the most?”
“…I also love Wa Sol the most.”
“Hehe, you’re getting better at dodging~”
I get hit with that every day, so even if I can’t stop the sudden ambush, I’ve at least reached the level where I can reduce the damage.
We kept browsing the café until a newly posted notice caught my eye. I pointed at it in surprise.
“Huh? Wa Sol, this…”
“Yeah, it already went up on the notice board. I saw it earlier in the group chat.”
The title of the notice I was pointing at read:
[Bibi Hiatus Notice]
So that was it. Bian was taking the day off from streaming.
“…After what happened yesterday, resting today is probably for the best.”
“Getting dumped would do that to anyone.”
“No, that’s not what I meant. I was talking about what happened during the stream…”
When I trailed off, Wa Sol snorted a little laugh and looked at me.
“Bian’s a pro. She’s not so fragile that a little hate during a stream would make her run away. So this is one hundred percent because of you, Gachi.”
“When you put it that way, I don’t know whether to feel relieved or not.”
“Want the right answer?”
“Yeah.”
“Just stay with me. That’s the answer.”
And she leaned her head against my shoulder.
Well, that really was the answer.
“Don’t worry… Everything’s going to be fine. I’m sure of it.”
“Yeah… it will, right?”
I said that to Wa Sol, but a faint unease still lingered in me. The expression Bian had shown yesterday still wouldn’t leave my mind.
“By tomorrow you’ll probably see Bibi back to normal, like nothing ever happened.”
Hearing that from Wa Sol eased me enough that I decided I could set the anxiety aside for a while.
But.
The next day another Bibi hiatus notice went up, and the day after that, and the day after that… the hiatus stretched on one day at a time.
By the time a full week had passed, I realized the anxiety had become reality.
And I realized one more thing.
This time, for real, there was nothing I could do…
Not a single thing.