The Life of a Hako Streamer (8)
Was her pride hurt? It made sense—some women had a pretty strong sense of self-worth. Pretty girls like Arine were probably even worse. They knew exactly how beautiful they were. If an average-looking guy like me said he didn't want any skinship, it might have chipped away at her confidence as a woman. If that wasn't it, then it had to be the other thing: having feelings for the person who rejected your touch. That was more than enough to sting.
......But that was just my own delusion. Since the second possibility didn't exist, I figured Arine was angry because of the first one.
"No, it's not that I don't like it..."
"Then why did you say it like that? Like you hated the idea of skinship with me but were forcing yourself to do it anyway?"
That was because I wanted to look cool. But saying something like 'Hehe, I love having skinship with a pretty girl' would have been creepy as hell. Honestly, the moment the words left my mouth, I knew I'd messed up. I should have given a nice middle-ground response. I'd tried too hard to make it clear I wasn't into it, and my tone had come out way too strong.
"...So even earlier, you hated it but did it anyway because I asked?"
Flustered, Arine took a step toward me. The distance had already been narrow; now it felt even closer. Under the streetlight, her fair face came into sharp focus. Her eyebrows were shooting straight up, and the corners of her eyes looked a little watery. She really had been stung badly. The alcohol was probably fueling her emotions too.
I decided Arine had more pride than I'd given her credit for and started looking for a way to calm her down.
"Wait, wait. It's not like that, so just calm down for a second."
"Then what is it... ugh..."
I grabbed the shoulders of the charging Arine like she was a bull and barely managed to stop her. She glared at me with a look that said, If you don't explain yourself properly, I'll kill you.
There was only one solution in a situation like this. From my experience in long-term relationships, telling the truth was always better. Trying to twist your words or make up excuses here wouldn't work on a girl who'd switched into full interrogation mode. Besides, I wasn't exactly a skilled liar.
"Sorry. I was just trying to act cool."
"...Huh?"
"I like having skinship with you, but I was worried you'd think I was creepy if I showed it too obviously. So I tried to play it cool."
"Wh-what? What?"
At my words, Arine stuttered, her face flushing bright red again. The heat was still there, but the earlier anger had vanished completely. What came out of her mouth now was a soft, mushy voice with all the fury drained away.
"Ah~ what the... So that's what it was? Ahem. Right. Of course you wouldn't hate doing it with me. Hmm."
It was kind of cute how her mood improved instantly. Like calming down a five-year-old after buying her ice cream. At least I'd protected one girl's pride. Even if my own pride had taken a bit of a hit.
And now that we were this close, I noticed something I hadn't seen before. The lipstick on the right side of her lower lip was slightly smudged. It hadn't been obvious from a distance, but with our bodies pressed so close, I could see it clearly. I spoke to her carefully.
"Your lipstick's smudged. Right here, bottom right."
"Huh? Really? Hold on, I have some wipes. Oppa, take this."
She handed me her phone so she could dig through her bag. Soon she pulled out a small packet of wet wipes, closed her bag, and held it out to me.
"Exchange."
"Huh?"
"I said exchange it for the phone."
"Why are you giving it to me?"
"Oppa, wipe it for me. It's annoying to do it myself. Plus there's no light here so I can't see properly."
"Ah, I see. You're really putting me to work, huh?"
"Hehe." She smiled mischievously and waved the wet wipe in her hand. Like I'd suspected earlier, she really was drunk. Normally she would've done it herself.
"......Why are you hesitating? You said you didn't hate skinship."
"Why are you bringing that up now?"
"Prove it. This is basically the same thing, isn't it?"
She still seemed to be holding onto some of that earlier grudge. Was Arine always this comfortable being casual with guys once she got close to them? Asking someone to wipe your lips could almost come across as aegyo. No. She could only do this because she didn't see me as a man. She really thought of me as just a friend. Girls did stuff like this for each other all the time. Some even fixed each other's makeup. I told myself that and tried my hardest not to let any weird thoughts creep in.
I took the wet wipe from her hand and gave her phone back.
"I'll do it, so stay still."
"Okay."
Her sparkling eyes stared straight at me. The gaze felt strangely heavy, so I focused only on her lips.
=This is getting a little worrying. What am I supposed to do next time? Do I actually have to kiss her or something?
Then the words Arine had said earlier flashed through my mind. Kiss. Bird kiss. A kiss between a man and a woman. Would those lips touch somewhere on my face? Or maybe our lips would...
As my thoughts spiraled that far, my heart rate shot up without warning.
What the hell am I thinking? Idiot. I'm just wiping off some smudged lipstick.
"......Oppa?"
When I stayed frozen, Arine tilted her head in confusion.
Don't look at me like that. You're making the atmosphere weird.
"Aish. You keep moving and I can't do it properly. Can I hold your cheek? Just lightly?"
"Ah, yeah."
She hadn't actually done anything wrong, but I made up an excuse to smooth things over. I gently reached toward Arine's cheek. I placed my hand so lightly it was barely touching, just enough to keep her still. The sensation was incredibly soft, like a child's cheek. I carefully wiped the smudged lipstick below her lip with the wet wipe.
Thump thump thump thump thump.
My heart pounded wildly at such a simple action. With slightly trembling fingers, I finally pulled my hand away from her lips. Arine slightly avoided my eyes and muttered.
"......But now that I think about it, our position is kind of weird. If someone saw us, they'd totally misunderstand."
I'd been trying so hard not to think about it. Why would she say something like that? Her single comment made the whole situation feel even more awkward and unnatural. A man and woman standing in the middle of the street, bodies pressed close, one hand on a cheek, faces nearly touching. It was dangerous. I didn't know exactly why, but it was definitely dangerous.
The moment I decided I needed to pull away from her quickly—
Beep beep~!
A car horn blared from behind us.
"Whoa!"
"Kyaa!"
Startled, Arine and I hurriedly put some distance between us. When had it arrived? Maybe because it was a nice car. Or maybe because all my attention had been locked on Arine's face. I hadn't even noticed the car pulling up behind us.
The front passenger window whirred down, revealing a woman's face that looked somehow familiar.
"You're Yoo Harin, right? What? Just now? I got so startled I thought it wasn't you for a second."
"U-unnie. Sorry. I forgot I was supposed to be watching for you. Ahaha."
"So what's going on? Who's that guy? Explain. Now."
I wondered who the woman was. Why did she look familiar? As I stared at the front seat, Arine quickly ran over, chattered something to the woman, then glanced back at me.
"Oppa. Sorry. I'll head out now~ Today was fun~!"
"Uh... yeah... Get home safe."
Arine's face looked even redder than before as she stared at me, but I didn't have time to examine it closely. She climbed into the back seat with a thud and closed the door. Through the still-open front window, I could hear the two of them talking.
"Unnie. Drive. Quickly."
"Okay~ Why are you rushing so much? You won't even tell me what happened. Tch. Goodbye?"
"Ah, yes."
With that woman's farewell, the car pulled away. As I watched it disappear into the distance, I finally realized who that face belonged to. The lighting had been too dark for me to recognize her properly before.
.......Wasn't that Naty streamer Lemia?
I'd just seen another celebrity in person. Again.
My heart was still pounding. The buzz from all that alcohol had completely vanished the second I saw Yeonju unnie.
.....Even if it was because of the alcohol, what on earth had I been doing with oppa?
Arine was usually the type to show a lot of aegyo, but she thought it felt different with men. She'd never really acted cute toward them before. So what exactly had she just done to Doyun? It was like those sly, fox-like girls who acted coquettish toward men they were interested in.
She'd told herself it was just because oppa felt comfortable to be around, and because it was hard to see the smudged lipstick in the dark, and because having someone else wipe it would be faster. She'd given him all sorts of excuses and made him do it. After she'd asked, she'd realized how strange it seemed.
......What if oppa misunderstood? What if he thought she was actually trying to seduce him? Or that she was the kind of light woman who flirted with anyone even if she didn't like them?
Complicated thoughts swirled through her head.
"So what's the story? Who was he? A guy you're talking to? Or your boyfriend?"
Her self-reproach lasted only a moment before Yeonju unnie's voice came from the driver's seat. In the rearview mirror, she could see unnie's eyes sparkling with interest.
...Why did it have to be this particular unnie who caught her?
Yeonju unnie was pretty sharp and quick-witted, so it was hard to brush her off with a vague answer. Plus, maybe because of her own virtual marriage content, she took a lot of interest in other people's love lives.
"It's nothing. I don't know what you're imagining, unnie, but it's not like that."
"What's not like that? You were literally about to kiss. If I hadn't shown up, you would've gone for it, right? Uhuhuhu."
"Aish. I told you it's not like that. Why are you being like this, unnie?"
"Okay, okay. If you say so. So who is he?"
"I already told you. Like I said last time, I found a partner and we started our virtual marriage."
"Ah, so that was the guy—what was his name again? Doin or something?"
"Not Doin. It's Do Doyun."
"Hmm. So he's our dear Arine's virtual marriage partner? But why were you two out together?"
"We did a broadcast together today. We had some drinks too. He followed me out because he was worried."
"Oho... so that's how it is...? He seems pretty thoughtful, this Do Doyun guy?"
Her tone was somehow annoying. It felt like she was slyly teasing her for hiding something.
"And what about how you two were stuck so close together earlier? Is that also part of the virtual marriage content?"
"That was... a misunderstanding. I just had him wipe my lipstick. I couldn't see well, so I asked him to do it."
"You asked him to wipe it for you? Wow, what a fox. Arin, you're basically a dating master now?"
"Aaaaah~ It's not like that! It was seriously just annoying, and it was hard to find the smudged spot in the dark while holding my phone, that's all!"
"Ah~ I see~ So that's it? You have zero personal interest in that man. You simply asked him to wipe your lips. Right?"
".........Yes. That's right."
It was the truth, so what else could she say? Even she didn't fully understand why she'd acted that way. But Yeonju unnie clearly didn't believe a word of it. She just kept grinning like she was having the time of her life.
"...Hmm. For two people who aren't like that, the atmosphere between you looked pretty good?"
"Unnie, are you a virtual marriage addict? Stop pushing it. I keep telling you it's not like that. We're strictly business. Business."
"But there are so many cases like that. People who catch real feelings while doing virtual marriage content."
"That's why I'm saying it's not like that with me and oppa! And most of those stories don't end well anyway..."
"There have been good cases too. Some people actually dated and got married."
"I don't know. Anyway, it's not me. So stop digging at that bait already."
"The way that guy was looking at you earlier seemed pretty dreamy. Like he has feelings for you."
"Ugh. Unnie!"
"Okay, okay. Puhuhu."
What kind of answer was she even looking for? This unnie. There was no way oppa had feelings for her. She'd checked multiple times before. No. This person was probably just enjoying the situation because she could tease her. Despite how she looked, this unnie was a total dopamine addict.
"Then what about you, Arine? How do you feel? You really don't have any feelings for that man at all?"
Her having feelings for oppa? There was no way. No, she shouldn't have any feelings. She was the one who'd brought up that clause in the first place. If she developed those kinds of feelings for oppa, how incredibly rude would that be?
"........No. It's not like that."
But why was it so hard to say she had no feelings? It felt like her conscience was pricking her, as if she were lying. At that time, she still didn't know.