284. I Don't Think That's a Very Good Attitude
284. I Don't Think That's a Very Good Attitude
***
There's a saying: seeing once is better than hearing a hundred times.
It means that experiencing something once is better than hearing about it a hundred times from someone else. It was a fairly well-known saying.
And right now, the two people whose eyes had just met were feeling exactly that.
Even if they had already known each other in advance through images and videos.
Meeting face-to-face like this was a completely different feeling.
Seo Eunwoo appeared in Serin's house space in a cluster of light.
Looking at him, Serin calmly parted her lips.
"Hello?"
Feigning nonchalance, she looked at his face and thought to herself.
'It really is him.'
The person she had met at the glamping site she'd visited with Eunha. The moment she saw a face that looked exactly like his, she was certain.
"...Yes. Hello, Rin."
Eunwoo, who answered with a natural smile, was also having a subtle reaction.
'Where have I... seen her before?'
Because the Rin he was now facing in person felt strangely real.
Unlike watching her through videos and streams, meeting her directly like this gave him a different feeling.
As if he'd run into her somewhere before.
"I'm live right now, and there are a lot of viewers who came to see you, Seo Eunwoo. Would you mind saying hello to them too?"
Out of habit, Eunwoo's eyes searched for the camera, and when he realized this wasn't his usual streaming setup, he laughed awkwardly.
"You don't even have to ask. Of course I should. But since this is my first time on a streaming broadcast—should I just look toward you, Rin?"
"Yes, that's fine."
Serin gave an awkward smile and nodded, and Eunwoo smiled brightly and parted his lips.
"Hello! I'm the actor Seo Eunwoo. Please take good care of me on today's stream."
After that brief greeting, the two sat down on a bench in one corner of the personal house, keeping some distance between them.
Scrape.
As he sat on the bench, Eunwoo found himself glancing around Serin's house space.
And he got the impression that the space was quite bare.
"Your house design is really simple."
He said it partly to make conversation, but she just gave a light nod.
"I'm not very interested in decorating."
From that answer, Eunwoo thought Serin might be more easygoing than he'd expected.
A house was a user's "personal space," so its design was also a place where a user's personality showed.
But on the other hand, there were also plenty of people who had no interest in decorating their house at all.
People who found decorating a hassle and didn't want to invest time in it.
People who didn't attach much meaning to something unless it was practical.
And the prime example of that might be the Rin right in front of him.
Now that he was actually facing her, unlike Rin's beautiful and mysterious appearance, her house space looked almost abandoned.
It seemed she'd put at least a little thought into this particular space, but the rest of the house looked almost untouched.
Brushing aside that brief impression, Eunwoo looked at Rin and shared his thoughts.
"As a fan, meeting you like this, Rin—how should I put it? I guess I'd call it deeply moving? It feels different from watching you on stream. You know, you're much prettier in person than on your streams or RinTube."
He naturally complimented her, trying to lighten the mood, and Serin responded calmly.
"...I was a little surprised to see you too, Seo Eunwoo. Even though we're meeting through Another World, you're even more handsome... Did you project your real-life appearance onto your character?"
Eunwoo looked at her as if her answering a compliment with a compliment was unexpected, then broke into a bright smile.
Even knowing it was just flattery, it felt good.
The mere fact that Rin was talking about him satisfied some strange sense of gratification.
An indescribable, alien feeling, as if it were on a different level from other women complimenting him.
He found himself looking at Rin again.
Her shining silver hair that reached her waist was mysterious, but her blue eyes, which seemed to glow on their own, drew his gaze more than anything.
She seemed to naturally possess a charm that could bewitch people, and yet he couldn't tell what emotions lay within those blue eyes.
The mysteriousness he'd felt while watching her streams felt even stronger now that he was actually facing her. In that strange feeling, he slowly opened his mouth.
"Yes, I projected my real appearance as is... but it's not too bad, right?"
He said it playfully to lighten the mood, and she let out a small laugh, nodded, and then suddenly reached out her hand.
"Oh, right. One moment."
After gesturing right in front of Eunwoo, she finished manipulating the system.
[What's this, what's this?]
[He's seriously so handsome lololololol]
[Why is Rin so calm? Damn.]
[Eunwooooooo!]
[Wow what's with that smile]
[Seriously... is he even human]
[What even is the range of Rin's fans?]
[What's with the vibe between those two?!]
[Is it just me or does Rin's voice sound more excited than usual?]
[That eye smile is melting me... I think my heart's melting too 😭😭😭😭😭]
The chat window that suddenly appeared at the edge of Eunwoo's vision was scrolling upward like a rushing wave.
Eunwoo, who had been wondering why she reached out her hand, blinked without thinking.
It was his first time seeing a chat window inside Another World, so he found it fascinating.
"I've seen the chat while watching your streams, Rin, but seeing it shared like this feels different. By the way, does the chat always scroll this fast?"
He seemed to be asking on purpose even though he knew the answer, and Serin gave him a dumbfounded look and let out a hollow laugh.
"No. Of course not."
As she answered, she casually checked the viewer count.
—Viewers: 30,347.
It had only been a few minutes since she'd started the stream, but the viewer count had already passed thirty thousand.
'How much more is this going to grow?'
On top of that, the main broadcast—the TSJ match commentary featuring Eunha—hadn't even started yet, and it was already like this. She couldn't imagine how many more viewers would come.
She'd fully expected the chat to surge like a wave, but seeing it in person was dizzying.
......
After that, as they carefully exchanged words and continued the stream, the atmosphere became more warm and friendly than either of them had expected.
The conversation ranged from light questions about hobbies and recent news to talk about Seo Eunwoo's recent drama, "A Thousand Faces."
You couldn't exactly say the two had rapid-fire banter. But they weren't failing to respond to each other either, so the conversation, carried along in a soft and calm atmosphere, was more than enough to satisfy the viewers.
And behind that, Seo Eunwoo's role was significant.
Having declared himself a fan of Serin's, he didn't try to put himself forward in front of her.
Even when he showed interest, he didn't ask questions that would be hard to answer, and he kept his boundaries strictly.
His consideration for her, making sure she never felt burdened, was visible from the outside—so much so that Serin, who was keeping the conversation going, actually felt puzzled.
So she occasionally read chat comments on purpose and tried to talk him up.
"I heard 'A Thousand Faces' hit number one in the country on Beplix... Isn't that really amazing?"
"I'm always grateful that so many people have enjoyed it."
Instead, he smiled and gave what felt like a formulaic answer, trying to brush off anything about himself.
After that.
As if proving that his years in the entertainment industry were no joke, Eunwoo led the conversation, and Serin, though composed, answered with care, making sure not to seem indifferent.
And as the conversation went on, Eunwoo found his gaze drawn to her again.
'How is she so natural?'
He'd already felt that her behavior was natural when watching her streams and NewTube videos, but actually facing her and talking like this felt completely different.
Characters met in Another World almost inevitably had a certain unnaturalness about them.
No matter how well-made the character was—build, appearance, expressions they didn't normally make.
In the end, the moment a user was placed into a character that wasn't originally their own, awkwardness was bound to show in the person controlling it.
They say the user actually moving and speaking doesn't feel that unnaturalness much themselves, but the people around them perceive that subtle gap and inevitably find it awkward.
But the Rin he was seeing now had none of that awkwardness at all.
They'd already been talking for over twenty minutes, but he felt no such unnaturalness—if anything, he was only now feeling something beyond that.
"Why are you... suddenly looking at me like that?"
As Serin asked in confusion at the gaze fixed on her in the middle of their conversation, Eunwoo snapped out of his thoughts and shook his head with a faint smile.
"Oh, it's just... because you're so pretty, Rin? I guess I was staring without realizing it, like I was spellbound. The viewers really should see you like this in person, you know. You're even more beautiful than on stream."
***
The official arena where the ACK League matches were held.
—ACK Park.
Current time: 6:27 p.m.
The players were spending time in their respective waiting rooms.
Among them, some players were warming up by playing Another World, some were snacking to stave off hunger, some were playing games on their phones, and some were passing the time in meditation.
Even the way players spent their waiting time varied from person to person.
And in one corner of the TSJ team waiting room, where today's match would be played.
Two women were looking at a single tablet.
A cold-looking beauty with jet-black hair and a cute-looking woman with short red-dyed hair.
They were none other than Eunha and Seola.
—Oh, it's just... because you're so pretty, Rin? I guess I was staring without realizing it, like I was spellbound. The viewers really should see you like this in person, you know. You're even more beautiful than on stream.
As Eunwoo on the screen spoke with a faint smile, Seola covered her mouth and made a fuss without realizing it.
"Did you hear what he just said!? Wow, even I'm getting butterflies just listening to it, you know? Rin is so lucky. Seriously."
Eunha, on the other hand, had a strange feeling.
Seeing Serin being complimented by someone like that should obviously be a good thing.
But for some reason, the more she watched the stream, the less she liked the way the celebrity Seo Eunwoo was acting.
'Every single thing about his tone and behavior is so blatant.'
He was openly staring at Serin and calling her pretty.
Even the way he said things playfully, using the viewers as an excuse, got on her nerves.
"Isn't he trying to close the distance too much on a first meeting?"
When Eunha muttered without thinking, Seola looked at her as if she found it fascinating.
"Oh? That's how it looked to you, Eunha? I actually thought he was being considerate of Rin, so he seemed really thoughtful."
But Eunha didn't like Seola's answer.
Eunha glanced sideways at Seola and parted her lips.
"I don't know. I don't think that's a very good attitude."
Knowing Serin's personality, she would dislike someone who suddenly approached her like that.
—When you suddenly say something like that... I'm a little flustered.
When Serin appeared on screen with an awkward smile, Eunha's thought grew even stronger.