Something Feels Off About My Agency Coworkers (6)
I never expected Seryn to go as far as teasing me right in front of my parents. When Mom knocked cautiously on the door, Seryn finally released me from her embrace. Of course, my mind was so thoroughly scrambled that it took me a while to return to anything resembling normal. Still, somehow I managed to stumble out of the soundproof booth drenched in sweat, pretending like nothing had happened.
What the hell am I supposed to do with this atmosphere…
Maybe it was because we’d just been clinging to each other and practically devouring one another’s lips. Seryn and I sat across from each other in awkward silence, quietly demolishing the fruit Mom had brought in. Before long, it was time for her to leave. She’d already called a limousine, so there was no need for me to drive her. Besides, she still hadn’t changed out of her outfit. In multiple ways, that was a relief.
Mom and I saw her off at the front door.
“Well then, see you next time.”
“Y-yeah. Take care.”
“Madam, I’m sorry for intruding today. The fruit was absolutely delicious.”
“Oh my, intruding? I should be the one thanking you for becoming friends with my daughter. Please keep getting along with her from now on, okay?”
“Of course. Seolhwa is a very precious person to me, after all.”
“U-uhm.”
I awkwardly wedged myself between them, cutting the conversation short. The two of them were getting along suspiciously well, and it looked like they were about to exchange contact information. Seryn’s eyes widened for a moment before she let out a small, adorable laugh.
“Hehe… Seolhwa, I don’t think you need to be jealous of the relationship between me and your mother.”
“Shut up. Who said I was jealous? Just hurry up and leave already. Shoo, shoo.”
“So shy~”
“Huh…?”
Seryn, who had been putting on her shoes as if to leave, suddenly stepped right up to me. Then she planted a quick kiss on my forehead while I was completely off guard.
W-wait a second! Mom’s standing right there—what are you doing?!
Truly startled, I reached out and shoved her backward. Seryn simply flowed with the momentum, gracefully stepping back as if the push had never happened.
“I’ll text you when I get home.”
“Y-you…!”
My face burning up, I glared at her with gritted teeth. She gave me a wink and skipped lightly out the front door.
Ugh… Seriously, next time I see her I’m definitely smacking her butt!
As I grumbled and absentmindedly rubbed the spot on my forehead that still tingled with that soft sensation, Mom—who had been covering her mouth with one hand the entire time—stared at me with wide eyes and muttered,
“So you two are… like that? Two girls… Well, if that’s what my Seolhwa wants, Mom will try to understand…”
“We are not! Mom, your mind is way too open!”
I thought it was great that she lived younger than her age, but she didn’t need to be that progressive! I desperately insisted that Seryn and I weren’t like that at all, that it had just been a silly prank between friends. If she got the wrong idea, she might start treating us with some weird kind of consideration, and I absolutely had to avoid that. Mom was still such a romantic at heart…
She didn’t watch the stream, did she? I specifically told her not to watch today’s broadcast…
Thankfully, it seemed Mom really hadn’t watched it. After listening to my excuses, she simply chuckled and said, “Ah, so that’s how kids these days play,” and let the matter drop.
After finally sending Seryn off, I changed clothes right away and headed straight into the bathroom. I’d sweated so much during the stream that I looked like a total mess. There was no way I could lie on my bed like that. After showering, I patiently dried my long damp hair with a blow dryer until I was finally in a state where I could lie down. I returned to my room and collapsed face-first onto the bed.
“Ughhh… what the hell is even happening to me…”
It probably wasn’t something I should be saying after declaring that I would make her fall for me, but honestly, my head was still completely blank. The whole situation didn’t feel real. I never imagined Seryn would confess to me. How did things even end up like this?
Still, judging by her attitude, it looked like she planned to continue being a VTuber… So how exactly was I supposed to deal with an agency coworker who whispered that she liked me and then kissed me? If there was some kind of proper manual for this, I really wished someone would share it. Preferably the beginner version.
The most troubling part is that I don’t entirely hate it…
I still had zero intention of progressing into an actual romantic relationship. I should have firmly pushed her away and said we couldn’t do this if we weren’t dating. But every time Seryn’s lips touched my body, all the strength left me. I couldn’t put up any real resistance. Plus, her face was unfairly beautiful. There was no helping the way my heart raced. At least I had managed to stop her from using her tongue.
Maybe this kind of relationship is… okay?
No, it’s not okay at all. This is completely trashy behavior…. If I have no intention of dating her, I should reject her properly!
Frustrated, I hugged a pillow tightly to my chest, squeezing it like I was trying to strangle my own feelings. But because of my chest getting in the way, I couldn’t even squeeze it properly.
…Fine. Today I’ll let it slide since I was also at fault. But next time I see her at the agency, I’m going to give her a proper scolding. After all, I’m the one being courted here, so I should at least have that much right!
“Next time… I definitely won’t allow it…”
Muttering to myself, I crawled across the bed like a caterpillar until I reached my smartphone, which had been rolling uselessly in the corner. I picked it up with great effort. Maybe because I’d turned off all notifications while streaming, the moment I unlocked it and opened my messenger, I was greeted by an unbelievable mountain of messages.
Staring at the screen in a daze, I started reading them one by one. First, I should reply to Airi—my classmate and messenger buddy.
Outside of streams we’d done way worse things… I barely managed to suppress the urge to reply like that. No matter how close we were, she was still just an agency coworker. If I casually mentioned that Seryn and I had kissed, she might ask, “Snow, do you like girls?” Besides, this was my personal privacy. I needed to be careful.
While my hands paused with that thought, a new message from Airi suddenly arrived.
Still, I figured Airi probably wouldn’t jump me like Seryn had. After exchanging a few more messages, I wrapped up the conversation.
There was also a message from the boss.
Confess? I was the one who got confessed to… I stared at the messages with a strange feeling and gave a vague reply that I understood. Of course the boss knew Seryn was a princess, so she was probably worried something might go wrong. There was no way she could have imagined that Seryn had already confessed to me. Even I still couldn’t believe it.
Why did that girl even like me? It made no sense.
There were tons of other messages too—from my classmate Shura, senior Reine, my manager, and more. Especially my manager, who talked more about work regarding today’s stream than casual chatter. She said the broadcast had become quite a hot topic and asked what my plans were for utilizing it. I replied that I planned to edit together just the highlights and upload them to my personal channel. It was incredibly embarrassing, but it felt like too much of a waste to throw away content that had gotten this much attention.
“That should be… all the replies. Haah, answering each one so carefully is exhausting.”
I guess my personality really is closer to an introvert than an extrovert. Just thinking about what to say so the other person doesn’t get upset drains all my energy. Still, being a VTuber was more fun than stressful, which was a relief. Feeling a bit proud of myself, I naturally moved from messenger to social media.
As expected, today’s stream had made quite an impact. The reactions from viewers on SNS were practically exploding. Then, suddenly, one particular image caught my eye.
“What the heck is this fanart.”
It was a drawing of me in an embarrassing pose with my arm raised high, exposing my armpit completely. In other words, it was fanart of Snow getting her forearm licked by Freya with a rather lewd expression. I was shocked that someone had already drawn something of this quality right after the stream ended, but I was even more shocked to see that the artist was none other than PPikko—the very person in charge of my character design.
“H-how can you draw something like this…! Mama, aren’t you supposed to protect me?!”
I immediately left a comment on the fanart filled with personal resentment. I strongly emphasized that the atmosphere had absolutely not been like that. But maybe because I had secretly done cosplay on stream, it felt like someone had been spying on what happened inside the soundproof booth. The whole thing left me with a strange feeling.
A few days had passed since the day of that offline collab between me and Seryn. If I had to describe what happened during that time… well, it was full of exhausting events in many ways. It wasn’t like there had been any major tournaments. There weren’t any special events like the Lunar New Year special either. The seniors who had been on long breaks had all returned and started streaming again. In fact, it was an unusually peaceful period with almost no incidents.
So why was I feeling so tired?
The cause was none other than Seryn. That girl was the problem.
She made zero effort to hide how much she liked Snow during her streams. Before I knew it, the two of us were steadily being treated as each other’s official partners within the agency. Naturally, this had a noticeable effect on my own streams as well. I had to work hard to turn the increasingly sticky Yuri Business back into something fun and lighthearted.
This brat is doing it on purpose! She’s trying to make things difficult for me?!
Still, the good news was that the idea of Seryn quitting VTubing seemed to have fizzled out. Even though February had ended, she was streaming more energetically than ever. Her usual game-focused content now included singing, and because her previously hidden talent was outstanding even among all VTubers, the viewer reactions during her singing streams were nothing short of explosive. Even the seniors were visibly shocked when they heard her sing. The rumor was that her clips were spreading outside of Unimori as well. The power of singing really was incredible.
Who waits until a month and a half after debut to pull out their most important weapon…
Because of that, the spotlight naturally turned back to me as well. Anyone with half a brain could tell that the reason she started singing was because of that offline collab. The exact reason wasn’t known since she hadn’t explained it, but there were already posts speculating that my fight with Seryn had something to do with it. Of course, there was no need to tell everyone that she had developed trauma from singing and nearly quit. As long as she was able to stream comfortably now, that was all that mattered. I didn’t mention it…
But that very silence seemed to be fueling the rumors instead. The number of people pairing me and Seryn as each other’s official partners only increased. For some reason.
Anyway, with that kind of noisy atmosphere, February passed by in the blink of an eye. And finally, Monday, March 2nd—the first day of school at Baekryeon High School—arrived.
From now on I’d have to balance school life and VTuber life at the same time. It was probably going to be pretty tiring… That was all I had thought, taking it lightly.
I never could have imagined what would happen.
“Seolhwa… this might sound a little strange, but…”
The me from yesterday couldn’t have predicted it at all.
“You’re Snow, right?”
“Eh.”
Crash.
I could almost hear the peaceful school life I had known crumbling into pieces.