I Thought She'd Be Upset
I was sure she would be upset. I thought I had crossed the line by sticking my nose in where it didn't belong.
“What? Why aren't you saying anything? Is it really like that?”
But why was she smiling? And not just any smile—she looked genuinely happy. Like she'd been waiting for me to say exactly that. No, like she wanted me to admit I was flirting with her.
So brightly. Just looking at her face made me feel like I might fall into some strange delusion.
That led to an even stranger thought flickering through my mind. What if I just said yes? Why did I get the feeling that Arine would keep smiling like that and actually fall for it? Was it because her expression toward me was that friendly?
But the delusion ended there. It could never be real. That was the promise we'd made.
What the hell are you thinking?
The buoyant feeling that had floated up in my head crashed straight back down to the ground. The smile was just an act. She was probably annoyed but couldn't show it openly to me—the guy who'd have to keep watching—so she was just smiling to brush it off. It was nothing more than the usual mask girls wear. I couldn't let these weird delusions continue.
“What nonsense is this? Did it look like I was trying to hit on you again?”
“Wasn't it? Acting all weak so I'll listen, then sneakily suggesting we call each other. That's a tactic guys use all the time.”
“Ah~ that stings my pride. You think I'm some lame guy who pulls cheap moves like that?”
“...”
“If I like someone, I confess straight up like a real man. I don't do shady stuff. You know what I'm like, so why are you acting like this?”
“......Never mind, then. I guess I misunderstood. It's happened to me a lot. Sorry.”
Why did Arine's face look so disappointed as she said that? Staring at her drooping eyes, I had to fight back that strange thought again. There was no way she'd be disappointed. Not Arine. I was just seeing what I wanted to see again, interpreting things in the most flattering way possible. Her actions carried no intention whatsoever.
She grumbled like her mood had completely soured.
“Ah~ Yeah, that's right. You did say you weren't interested in me at all, oppa. You even stamped that contract.”
Her face seemed to say this isn't fun anymore, but I looked away from that expression and answered.
“Yeah, so stop thinking unnecessary things. There's no hidden meaning. I just thought, like you said, that it would be nice to have at least one streamer friend.”
That had been my original intention anyway, so there was nothing for her to feel disappointed about. Still, for some reason, a faint unease lingered in my own chest.
“Ah~~~ Okay. Normally I shouldn't fall for this kind of flirting, but since it's you, oppa, I'll make a special exception and fall for it.”
“Didn't we just finish that conversation? What are you going on about now?”
She stared at my face for a moment, then held out her hand. It was pure white, glossy, and small. As I gazed at that genuinely cute and feminine hand, wondering what she was doing, I looked up at her. Then Arine said,
“What are you waiting for? Hand over your phone.”
“Huh?”
The pace of this conversation had been impossible to follow from the start. When my brain froze and I just stared at her blankly again, she shook her head in frustration.
“Your phone. You said we should call each other. We need numbers to do that, don't we?”
So she was really going to give me her phone number right now? The number everyone was dying to know, the one people went crazy trying to get even once. She was just going to hand it over to me this easily?
No, more than that—why? Why give me her phone number? We'd been doing fine calling through Discord like before...
“Calling through Discord has been a bit inconvenient. If you're not online, I can't reach you at all.”
“......”
“We've managed to stay in touch somehow, so we never got around to exchanging numbers. Let's do it now. Add me on KakaoTalk and Instagram too. That should work.”
“...Ah... Uh.”
I had no idea what to say, so I just numbly handed over my phone in a daze. She tapped away at it with her manicured fingers at lightning speed. After a few quick movements, she called her own phone from mine and immediately hung up. A moment later, the phone was back in my hand.
What was this?
She had already saved a name with the number. Complete with a heart emoji that no guy would ever use. The name was so ridiculous I couldn't help but snort out a laugh.
“Your wife?”
“Yep. Your wife. At least for now.”
Pfft.
We looked at each other and burst out laughing at that stupid exchange. In a way, her very streamer-like naming sense made me think she'd be good at games like Pokémon.
“We're almost at my place. You should head out now, oppa. It's right up ahead. You saw it earlier, so you know.”
Only then did I snap back to reality and look around. Sure enough, the luxury officetel I'd seen before came into view. She had mentioned she didn't need a huge place and preferred good security, so she'd chosen here.
Anyway, it was time for me to go home. If I stuck around any longer, it might actually start looking like I was being clingy.
As I pulled out my phone to call a taxi, she waved and said goodbye.
“Then I'll head in now? Oppa?”
“Yeah. Get inside safely.”
She deliberately added one more thing with a smile.
“And I'm really going to whine a lot. So brace yourself when I call, okay?”
“I whine pretty well too, so don't worry. You'll get tired of me first.”
“Then I'm going. Oppa. Thanks for today~”
“Yeah. You get home safely too.”
I watched her back as she walked away after our goodbyes. Then I looked down at my phone again. The notification that my taxi would arrive soon chimed, but I didn't even see it. My eyes were fixed on only one thing.
Her phone number, saved under the name Your Wife ♥. My gaze wouldn't leave it for the longest time.
......Because I had the feeling this might be the greatest achievement of my entire life.
The elevator doors opened. Her heart pounded violently. Like a thief who'd been caught, she hurried to her front door, quickly pressed the keypad, slipped inside, and shut the door with a heavy thud.
Beep.
The lock clicked again. Only after confirming she was alone in the familiar space did she finally let out a long sigh.
“Haa... I really thought my heart was going to drop and I'd die...”
All the strength drained from her body. She didn't even have the energy to take off her shoes and simply collapsed right there in the entryway. Part of it was the fatigue that had built up all day crashing down on her at once, but that wasn't the main reason.
It was because of her WGM partner and fellow streamer, Do Doyun.
......I gave my number to a guy? Me? What the hell did I just do?
It had never happened before. In her entire life, she had never once offered her number to a man first. There had only ever been men begging for her number, and she had never responded to any of them.
“What are you getting so excited about... you idiot... You just gave it to him as a fellow streamer and friend, right?”
Yes. It wasn't like she had given it to a man. She had simply handed her number to a colleague who wanted to be friends. But then why was her heart pounding like it was going insane? Why did her head feel like it was ringing from how fast her blood was rushing?
She couldn't understand it at all.
And there was one more thing whose reason she couldn't grasp.
“......Why doesn't it bother me?”
She generally disliked men's advances. The reason she had chosen Doyun as her WGM partner was precisely because he wasn't the type to act clingy. While she had considered the broadcasting risk, her personal preference had played a part too. She'd experienced it too many times, so that kind of behavior had become nothing but annoying. Whenever someone seemed to be making a move, irritation would spike first. Ugh, here we go again? I wish you'd stop already.
Yet even though it had only been her misunderstanding, when it felt like Doyun was making a move, she hadn't gotten angry at all. Not even a trace of irritation had risen in her. Instead, she had even caught herself hoping it really was him making a move. No—when she heard it wasn't, she had actually felt disappointed.
“Am I crazy? Have I finally lost it from working too much?”
She couldn't understand her own emotions. She had lived her whole life this way, yet now it felt like a broken machine whose operating system had suddenly changed. Why did it only happen with Doyun? Because they were close? Because being virtual marriage partners had lowered her psychological barriers? Or was it because he took such good care of her? Because of what he had said last time?
Why did her heart keep growing weak around him? Why did she keep treating him as special?
......Could it be that she... toward oppa?
A thought straight out of a drama heroine flashed through her mind for a second, but Arine quickly shook her head. There was no way. She had never liked anyone before. Like any other girl, she didn't particularly hate romance movies, dramas, dating shows, or WGM. But the way other people fell in love had always been a mystery to her.
Since she had never liked anyone before, there had been times she thought someone was nice, but it had never turned into those dramatic emotions—I can't live without this person, I like them too much. So of course she didn't think this was love either.
It was just that they had grown quite close recently. They had shared a lot on a personal level and talked about their struggles together. That was why the same actions that would annoy her from other men didn't feel bad when they came from him. That was all it was. Or so she tried to convince herself.
But she couldn't stop the thought from rising in her mind.
“......What if oppa had said it really was a move?”
How would she have reacted? The answer that should have come immediately—Of course I would reject him and push him away—refused to surface. In the end, Arine couldn't give herself any answer. She could only sit there, blankly staring at Doyun's phone number saved under My Husband ♡.