This Still Doesn’t Count as Dating?
I was lamenting the fact that my body couldn’t even handle alcohol diluted to about sixteen percent in a mere 360 milliliters, and somehow the conversation drifted in that direction.
“I seriously don’t remember anything after the second drink.”
“I’m not saying my limit is two drinks. I’m saying that was just how it was yesterday.”
“I’m telling you, my limit is two bottles.”
Back in college, if I really set my mind to it, I could still drink three bottles with my friends. So if people were going to make such a fuss over me blacking out after two drinks yesterday, that was seriously unfair.
I had two drinks yesterday. After that, there was nothing. There wasn’t a single lie to be found in those two sentences, if you scrubbed your eyes clean and looked hard enough. But it needed context, front and back… it needed…
What kind of explanation would I even need?
For a guy who usually drank around two bottles, what excuse could possibly lead to the result of blacking out after two drinks? Unless I was seriously sick, it didn’t make any sense at all.
And then, as that thought fully settled in, another one struck me. Then what about Si-a? How many drinks had Si-a had before getting drunk?
“How much did Si-a drink yesterday?”
Two bottles? There had been two empty liquor bottles on my desk?
“Then I got beat by Si-a?”
The facts were brutally cold. For some reason, the fact that I couldn’t hold my liquor as well as Si-a was even more despairing than the fact that my limit was only two drinks.
While I was talking with the viewers about alcohol, an alert popped up saying Si-a’s broadcast had started. But the title was a little strange.
Please join with the volume turned down
I had no idea what was going on, so I asked the viewers to bear with me for a second.
“Si-a just went live. Hold on, I’m going to check.”
What on earth was she doing that her broadcast title said to come in with the volume turned down…
“Aaaah! You idiot, Luccia!”
At Si-a’s shriek, which sounded like some kind of pterosaur had suddenly appeared out of nowhere, I quickly turned the volume down. So that was why the title said to come in with the sound lowered.
It wasn’t as if she was trying to keep it from going out on broadcast, so the viewers must have heard her too, because the chat was immediately flooded with lol. Teasing a streamer after learning about their black history? Of course they couldn’t resist.
“Was I possessed or something yesterday? Can’t I delete the clip? Oh my God, I’m insane!”
Watching Si-a keep squealing like that made my inner troublemaker rise up all on its own. After all, I’d been a viewer from birth too.
I considered messing with her a little, but in her current state it seemed better to wait until she settled down and then call her instead. That would be fine, right? It would probably take a bit.
“I’m nowhere near this bad.”
“Two drinks versus the whole world seeing my aegyo? Obviously the first one wins, right? That balance is totally broken.”
“You’d better watch it. I remember your nickname now.”
Even if I said the first one won, the truth was that, just like the viewer said, everyone on Watch had seen my aegyo too. But it was fine. There was Si-a, who had made even worse black history than I had. That was strangely comforting.
As I thought that and watched Si-a still shrieking on screen, I had a feeling today’s broadcast would end up being much longer than yesterday’s, when I’d blacked out.
*
It took Si-a nearly thirty minutes after going live to stop screaming. I didn’t know whether it was because she realized regretting it was already too late, but either way, the Si-a on stream now looked no different from her usual self.
“I’m blocking donations today, as a way of protecting the player.”
Even though she’d calmed down, she apparently couldn’t stand watching yesterday’s aegyo video again, so she blocked donations entirely. Regular donations, video donations, and missions were all shut off, leaving nothing to do. It seemed she really didn’t want to face the black history that was her aegyo.
Still, compared to when she had first gone live, she seemed a lot better, so I started a voice call. There was a brief signal, and then, just as I thought she’d answered, the connection dropped immediately.
“…What?”
Just in case, I tried one more time, but the result was the same. Voice chat stays connected unless the other person hangs up, and both times now the ringing had been cut off. Which meant Si-a had rejected every attempt to contact her.
“Looks like I got dumped.”
“What a shame. I was going to ask for some cheese-burger aegyo if she answered.”
While I was smacking my lips in disappointment at the sight of her hanging up, a familiar nickname appeared in the chat.
Lucia: Are you insane?
It was Si-a.
“Oh, honey, you’re here? Why didn’t you pick up? I’m hurt.”
Si-a showing up in my chat had been unexpected, but still, once a guest had come, there was no reason to kick them out. In order to give her a grand welcome, I replayed the video donations I’d gotten earlier.
[One plus one is cutie! Two plus two is cutie!]
“You were really adorable, honey.”
Si-a’s shrieks were mixed in with the chat exploding at a monstrous pace. But it was so fast she probably couldn’t even see it. If she wanted this to stop, she knew exactly what she needed to do.
With that thought, I played the next video.
[Ti-ia wants to eat cream puffs!]
“My personal pick is this one. This is the cutest.”
Just as I was about to play another video donation, Si-a suddenly sent a voice chat request. So she could reject me when it was her turn, but when things got urgent, she was the one calling first like this.
Watching that, I slowly and carefully moved my mouse and clicked the reject button. Hearing the little ring of the rejection notification, the viewers fanned the flames even harder in chat.
“All right, then. Shall we look at some other aegyo?”
Just before I clicked another video, another voice chat request came in. Should I reject it again? No, if I did that twice in a row, she might get upset. Should I just pick up? I hesitated for a moment, then asked the viewers for their opinion.
“Should I answer this or not?”
That last comment made me think for a second, but then I laughed at the chat from Si-a, who was angrily telling me to hurry up and answer, and clicked accept.
“Hey, honey. Good evening.”
“Who sent that?”
The moment she picked up, our adorable fake-marriage partner started asking about the culprit, clearly curious about who’d been spreading her black history around.
But no chance. To her, that person might be some traitorous snitch she wanted to catch and ban, but to me, they were a kind soul who had not only paid me but also sent me a compilation of all her aegyo.
“That’s hurtful. I said hello, you know. And you won’t even say hello back?”
“Good evening. There. Happy? So who sent it?”
“I can’t tell you. Keeping secrets is only natural, isn’t it?”
And to me, they were the one who had generously sent a donation, too. At my words, Si-a let out a long sigh and said in a shrinking little voice,
“Seriously, what am I supposed to do now? I’m never getting married.”
“You’re definitely never getting married. A video of you acting all cute while drunk is just floating around the internet, after all….”
“Aaaah! Stop, stop!”
Watching Si-a, buried under her black history and dying of embarrassment, made me want to keep teasing her. The way she’d suddenly bark like a detective interrogating a suspect and demanding the culprit’s name, then turn bright red all over again, was exactly what people meant by gap moe.
Even now, a tiny jab at her saying she was never getting married was producing a great reaction. People say boys like to pick on the girl they like, and I felt like I was only understanding why now, at this age.
“So, you still aren’t going to tell me who it was?”
I didn’t actually have any intention of telling her. But since it looked like I might be able to bargain with her now, I decided to throw out a little bait.
“Honey.”
“Yeah?”
“Then if you do what I want, I’ll tell you.”
If she took the bait, great. If not, no harm done. That selfish kind of deal, with no downside, was something I could never seem to get wrong, and this time was no different.
“If I can do it.”
“Really? You said you would?”
“What are you trying to make me do?”
“Cheese-burger aegyo for m—”
Before I could even finish, I heard the sound of Si-a leaving the voice chat room.
Negotiations, broken down.