307. A Coincidence That Wasn't a Coincidence
307. A Coincidence That Wasn't a Coincidence
***
Their conversation continued with Yujeong asking most of the questions and Serin answering. And Sua, who watched the two of them with an odd expression, occasionally chimed in with an answer.
"Oh, and I watched your stream yesterday, Rin. There was something that really surprised me, you know?"
"What surprised you?"
"At the end, when you spun the roulette to appease the viewers—I got picked."
"You got picked... by the roulette?"
"Yes! Rin, you said my name yourself. Ah, but there were so many people, so you probably don't remember?"
As Yujeong spoke with a bright smile, Serin tried to recall whether that had actually happened.
'Yujeong, Yujeong... Yujeong?'
She had spun the roulette for at least fifty viewers yesterday, so it was hazy, but she did seem to remember calling the name Yujeong.
"I think I might have called it, but I don't remember exactly. I was a bit out of it then."
"Hmm... It's a shame you don't remember, but I understand. You were really busy, Rin. Ah, then here's a question! What question did I ask you? Try to guess."
As Yujeong kept firing off questions, Serin tilted her head and tried to remember.
Sua wore a subtle expression.
She didn't know why, but a displeasure that only seemed to keep worsening.
Those emotions were slowly eating away at her.
'What is this unpleasant feeling...?'
The sight right in front of her, where only the two of them seemed to be carrying on a conversation.
It almost felt as though she'd suddenly been completely shut out of the space around them.
Normally, when other people talked, she would just think, oh, that's how it is, and not feel anything in particular.
But now that she'd invited Serin, seeing someone else monopolize the conversation with her made Sua feel unpleasant all by itself.
It felt as though Serin had been taken away from her.
Under her black bob, Yujeong was carrying on the conversation with an uncharacteristically loose, melted expression, and Sua was starting to dislike that too.
Resting her arm on the table and propping up her head, making coy little gestures, or subtly smiling with her eyes—every single little thing grated on her.
The gladness she had felt when they first met now seemed like a lie from that moment, transforming into displeasure.
As that emotional shift felt enormous, Sua soon realized what she was feeling.
'Am I... seriously jealous right now?'
Like some eight-year-old kid, the moment Serin's attention was taken away, she seemed to be getting jealous over it.
"...Sua?"
Then, at the sound of her name, Sua snapped out of her thoughts and looked up with a dazed gaze.
"Ah, yes, did you call me?"
Serin was looking at her with a puzzled expression.
"Yeah, you said you watched my stream yesterday too. I was wondering if you saw the part where I spun the roulette."
When Serin asked as if curious, Sua nodded.
"...Yes. I watched all of the roulette part too. Why?"
"It's nothing, really. Do you happen to remember how I answered the question about what color I like? I was so out of it yesterday that I can't remember how I answered."
When Serin asked with an awkward smile, Sua tilted her head and thought back to last night for a moment.
There had been countless questions during the roulette segment.
With over 100,000 viewers, everyone had shown heated reactions to the celebrity and to Serin.
'Serin's favorite color.'
The image of Serin answering that question on yesterday's stream came to mind immediately.
—My favorite color right now is red. I've been preferring red tones lately.
"Red."
As soon as she answered, Yujeong, who was nearby, let out a prim little laugh.
"See, Rin. Just like I said, it's red."
Sua gave Yujeong a hazy look, wondering why she was the one answering, and at that moment Serin nodded.
"You're right. I really did answer red, it seems. Now that I think about it, maybe I got swept up in the mood back then? It's not a color I like that much..."
"Then what color do you like now?"
Yujeong looked at Serin with an affectionate gaze, as if trying to capture her in her eyes, and spoke again.
"Blue."
This time, before Serin could even open her mouth, Sua spoke first.
"...?"
Yujeong turned her head to look at Sua, and Serin also unconsciously turned her gaze toward her.
Under the two people's gazes, Sua smiled as if an opportunity had arrived, looked straight at Serin, and parted her lips.
"Serin, you usually like blue, don't you?"
At her confident voice, Serin nodded blankly in agreement.
"Right. Blue. Did I tell you I like blue, Sua?"
Then she asked back instead.
As far as Serin remembered, she had never directly mentioned it or answered that she liked blue.
Sua smiled faintly and shook her head.
"Not directly, but you mentioned it once in passing. You said, 'It would've been better if it were blue.'"
"...I did say that. I like blue."
When Sua said it with a smile, as if she remembered, Serin couldn't help but admire her memory.
Since no memory came to mind right away, she clearly hadn't outright said what color she liked. Sua seemed to remember something she had murmured in passing.
Yujeong, who had been watching the two of them, suppressed her emotions and spoke a little more calmly.
"So you originally liked blue."
At her answer, Sua twisted the corner of her mouth, and Yujeong's eyes narrowed before she realized it.
But Serin, as if unaware of any of it, smiled and spoke.
"Ah, then while we're on the subject, what about you two? What colors do you like?"
Since the conversation had somehow ended up revolving only around her, she figured this was a good chance to ask, and also, unlike the consistently lively Yujeong, Sua's words had noticeably dwindled, so she thought they needed a common topic they could all talk about.
"Blue."
"Blue."
As if they had rehearsed it, Sua and Yujeong answered blue at the same time, and I couldn't help but laugh.
"Pfft... What an amazing coincidence."
How could all three people gathered here like the same color?
She said it with a light laugh to ease the mood.
But even so, Sua and Yujeong were facing each other, exchanging strange looks.
Right after, she saw Sua twist the corner of her mouth into a peculiar smile and part her lips.
"It really is amazing, just like you said, Serin. Yujeong usually sticks to black-toned fashion. I thought she liked dark colors."
When I looked at Yujeong, she looked back at me with a bright smile.
"That's just a kind of fashion. The color I actually like is blue. And I should be the one saying that—I didn't know you liked blue, Plea. The golden armor you're wearing now, and that mythic rapier 'Mistilteinn' you have equipped—isn't that a golden sword with a gold blade? I was sure you liked gold... but I guess not?"
Then she glanced at Sua and said something meaningful.
'...What is this?'
Suddenly she had no idea what was going on.
Sua was looking at me as if gauging my reaction, and the situation felt strange.
"I just matched my appearance. I actually like blue."
At Sua's outwardly calm answer, I momentarily wondered if the two of them were lying.
It wasn't impossible for three people to coincidentally like the same color. But the probability was clearly not high.
And in fact, both of their appearances and outfits seemed far from blue....
The moment that thought crossed my mind, I suddenly found myself checking my own appearance.
When I looked at myself, I let out a silly laugh at how ridiculous I was being.
"Pfft..."
For starters, I was wearing red light armor and carrying a pure white Crescent-Moon Weight imbued with moonlight. On top of that, the cord attached to it was embroidered with gold thread.
She was wearing equipment in colors that had absolutely nothing to do with blue.
So what was she doing judging them by their equipment?
Baffled, she swept her hair back and turned her gaze again.
She saw the two of them looking at her.
"Why are you both looking at me like that?"
When she blurted that out, they each reacted differently, as if startled.
Sua shook her head with an enigmatic expression, as if to say no. Yujeong hurriedly averted her gaze from me and bit her lip hard.
***
At that moment, while the three of them were meeting and talking about the project, on Another Level.
The trending board on Another Level, the largest Another World community, was hotter than ever.
With the ACK League entering the playoffs, interest was on a different level, and the vast majority of posts were related to TSJ—above all, posts about Jeanne d'Arc's performance made up the overwhelming majority.
While the trending posts were plastered with pro league content, there were also several posts about "figures outside the league."
*
————
—[To the nonbelievers fueling the Jeanne d'Arc vs. Rin debate]
Author: NonbelieversDie
(Playoffs Game 1 Jeanne d'Arc highlight.gif)
(Game 2 Jeanne d'Arc breaking the enemy line.gif)
(Gauntlet Match Jeanne d'Arc all-kill highlight.gif)
After watching Jeanne d'Arc's interview yesterday, I truly couldn't help but lament.
No matter how much Rin's divine might is being deified day by day in pro scrims, and no matter how she's mass-produced so-called 100,000 dancer cultists and is called the god of the Dancer Class, churning out trending posts every single day.
Seriously, did none of you feel anything watching Jeanne d'Arc's return match in yesterday's playoffs?
Game 1, a miracle where she flipped the entire battle alone.
Game 2, a super play in the middle of a chaotic brawl.
Game 3, you watched the all-kill in the Gauntlet Match and still felt nothing?
Even today people are saying, if it's Rin, she might beat Jeanne d'Arc. Are people still spouting that ignorant nonsense?
In the interview, Jeanne d'Arc directly mentioned Rin and rated her so highly.
And you're still trying to compare them?
Seriously, let me say one last thing.
If you can't trust Jeanne d'Arc, just quit Another World. Your eyes are rotten.
————
*
Upvotes 2,557. Downvotes 1,993.
A trending post with such a bizarre ratio of upvotes to downvotes was proof of the community's atmosphere.
Among the trending posts that were practically plastered with Jeanne d'Arc, the occasional posts about the streamer Rin were receiving enormous attention.
"Rin really must be something else. To be compared to Jeanne d'Arc herself."
And right now, there was a woman browsing those community posts and muttering in a disgruntled voice.
Long jet-black hair down to her waist, eyes bleary with fatigue.
The woman, who looked to be in her late twenties and wore an overall cynical expression, was one of the editors at SJ MCN and had a fair amount of experience.
She was Kim Haneul, the editor who had been assigned to Serin for the Five Million Project.
"She's this famous and still has no agency—that probably means she's testing the waters."
Haneul frowned as she checked the file organizing information about Rin again.
'Just how much of a position does she want guaranteed that she's testing the waters this long?'
She knew agency offers had already been sent to Rin countless times, and the lack of any clear answer made her think Rin really had been testing the waters for a long time.
A streamer and NewTuber who had appeared like a supernova within the last month—Rin.
They absolutely had to secure her. But because someone who had gained such huge popularity in such a short time was this cautious, dealing with her inevitably felt tricky.
"Hmm..."
Haneul let out a long sigh and mussed her own hair for no reason.
"This is really stressing me out."
As a result of her deliberation, it seemed she needed to gather more material on Rin rather than approach her too hastily for now.
'Let's think carefully.'
There was no one in this world who didn't know their own worth. And that was surely true of Rin, whose stock was rising rapidly these days.
What kind of offer would it take to bring her into the agency?
"I just... can't get a read on it."
This was the first time Haneul had been put in charge of such a big name, so her worries had grown.
It was an enormous opportunity, but that also meant she had no choice but to be that much more cautious.