That's Lewd
Light peeking through the slightly parted blackout curtains tickled my eyes. "Ugh… too bright."
I dragged myself out of bed, scratching my head as I looked around. My eyes refused to open properly. Yesterday's crying fit was to blame. I'd bawled my eyes out from sheer joy at gaining a teacher, then passed out cold. Apparently I'd been that happy. "Hnn… my nose is still running."
After roughly checking the time, I shuffled carefully into the bathroom. "Whoa…"
I stared at my swollen, ugly face—the only compliment I'd ever received in this life was "Your face might be useful later, so I won't hit it." Now it was so puffy it looked even worse. "This is better, actually." A strange sense of relief washed over me, like I'd finally become a completely useless human being.
After washing my face and dragging my sore throat along, I sat down in front of the computer. [11:31 am]
I'd woken up earlier than expected, so I planned to play a bit of EoW and browse the community. Streaming had been on the schedule after EoW, but—
"Koff, koff… ughhh…" My voice was completely shot. Streaming was impossible. So instead, I idly moved the mouse while wondering if I should just watch my teacher's stream instead.
"…She's not live yet."
Teacher's stream still hadn't started. I'd wanted to play EoW while watching her, so the disappointment stung a little. I stubbornly hit F5 over and over, refusing to give up. Of course, the stream remained offline.
"Maybe the universe is telling me to just play EoW…"
I was about to stop the pointless refreshing and launch the game when—
"Huh…?" A message flew in through Discord that left me wondering what she even wanted. I was still flustered when another notification popped up.
"…!!"
A newbie was asking for EoW lessons. "A newbie's request…"
I stared at the screen for a long time before muttering timidly, "Y-yeah… lewd…!"
People always said newbies were lewd, so I'd tried saying it too. It was way more embarrassing than I'd expected. Saying "lewd" out loud felt mortifying. I whipped my head around, checking if anyone had heard.
"…Phew. Thank goodness."
As expected, I was alone in the house. Smiling faintly, I opened Discord. I had to reply to Teacher, after all.
"What should I even say…"
Then the problem hit me. It had been so long since anyone asked me for help that I'd completely forgotten how to respond. "She's waiting…!"
The image of Teacher waiting pitifully for my reply flashed through my mind. But nothing came to me. All I could picture was her getting tired of waiting and drifting away. Now I could even hear her voice in my head.
'What the hell, this bastard ignores me when I'm being nice?'
"S-sorry, I'm sorry…"
'Haah… what a pain.'
"Hic! Hnn… I'm sorry…"
I started apologizing to the hallucination. I couldn't even reply properly. My throat hurt like hell and tears kept spilling out. Sniffling in front of the monitor, I pecked at the keyboard with trembling hands. Desperate to send something—anything—I finally managed to type a message that reached Teacher.
"Ah…"
I'd messed up. "I'm sowwy…"
In the end, I could only send a flood of apologetic DMs while bawling.
She wouldn't accept my apology. "Hic! I'm trash…"
I sniffled as Teacher's incoming call perfectly harmonized with my crying. All I could hear was my own pathetic sobbing and—
Incoming call
"She just wants me to pick up so she can yell at me… hic!! Hnnngh."
Only the ringing tone echoed emptily. It was summer.
Haram was extremely flustered. "That's lewd"
"Huh?!"
The sudden sexual harassment caught her off guard. She replied with a single question mark the way she usually did with friends, and the aftermath was spectacular.
"Huh?"
"Hmm…?!"
"N-no, it's fine though?"
She quickly tried to explain that it was okay, but Suhyun kept insisting she was trash while sobbing. Haram hurriedly called her.
Y-yes hello… p-please don't sue me…
'Oh my god…'
Suhyun's voice was noticeably hoarse from how much she'd been crying while typing those messages. 'First, damage control… You can do this, Haram!'
She pep-talked herself and began the Suhyun recovery operation. "…Sis, are you okay? I'm sorry, that was really funny! It was a newbie joke, right?"
Fortunately, Haram had figured out the intent behind the message and let out a sigh of relief internally. From now on, she just had to shower her with endless compliments.
"Ahaha…!! That was so funny! You're the best!"
"Seriously, wow. If you ever stream properly, you'll definitely succeed. You're really good at talking."
A faint laugh came through the mic. Haram cheered internally. 'Sis, what the heck!? Your laugh is way too cute…!! It's a different flavor from Minu's!'
Suhyun's laugh was so adorable that Haram added one more reason to her list of why she absolutely had to win Minu over. For the next twenty minutes, Haram unleashed an endless barrage of compliments, and within those twenty minutes, Suhyun broke in an entirely different direction.
"Yes…! Absolutely!"
"You're pretty!"
"No, you are."
Even the smallest compliment sent her into a giggling fit.
"Haa… sniff."
Teacher's gentle voice came through. At the question about whether I'd finished blowing my nose, I nodded and answered. "Y-yeah… I blew it all out."
"N-now I won't laugh even if you compliment me."
When I said that, Teacher clicked her tongue and stopped complimenting me. Still, I'd received a lot of comfort thanks to her. "Thank you for comforting me…"
She giggled. I could only fidget with the box cutter in my hand. "By the way… you said you wanted to learn EoW…?"
I didn't dislike passionate newbies. "What's your EoW tier?"
"Did the mic cut out?"
When I said that, Teacher whispered her tier in a cautious voice. "…4"
"I'll turn the volume up a bit. Why is it doing this, is it broken?"
As I raised the volume—
"Eeeek?!"
I nearly passed out from Teacher's sudden shout. "Hic! Th-that's right." "S-sorry!"
Teacher apologized in a rush. I told her it was fine. "I-it's okay… I used to hear way louder voices than this. Haa… I've been living quietly lately, so I got startled…"
I said that while clutching my chest. Honestly, it wasn't fine. Breathing was difficult, but I didn't mention it. My pain was mine alone to bear. "Hnn… So, where were we? Your tier?"
"That's serious."
I smiled faintly as I spoke. Bronze 4 was fine. It wasn't like I couldn't teach a chimpanzee. "It's okay…! The uncles at the construction site liked how well I trained the butterflies."
"Yes, the stray cats that kept stepping on the cement."
"Ah."
Was that how it sounded? It had been so long since I'd had a real conversation that I couldn't tell. "I'm sorry… Please don't sue me."
Teacher laughed and said she wouldn't sue me. Normally people would've hit me or dragged me to the police station. She really was a good person. 'A good person…'
I really wanted to help her become a proper human being.