Chapter 1: Group Date.

“Woo-hyuk. Can’t you just come with me this once?”

“You know I don’t do that kind of thing. I said no.”

Kim Jaemin.

This guy from the same department as me had been following me around and begging for a while now.

What he was selling was going to a department mixer together…

“Please. Just this once~! There’s exactly one spot left, you know? If you come, we’re good. Seriously.”

“So fill that spot with someone else. Come on.”

A department mixer? What department mixer.

For someone like me who didn’t even join department activities.

I had zero intention of making a girlfriend when I barely made friends after starting university.

“There’s no other decent-looking guy among my friends besides you. If you really don’t like it, you can just leave right away, okay?”

“…”

“And how often do opportunities like this come around. Wouldn’t it be nice to make some friends from the same department while you’re at it?”

If I was going to leave midway anyway, it was better not to go at all.

No point wasting each other’s time.

I just felt uncomfortable in places where people drank and hung out like that.

I’d rather hole up in my studio apartment and watch streams.

And this mixer was weird even for a mixer.

Which department held a mixer with people from the same department.

Even if ours had a lot of people. That was just a regular meeting.

“No.”

“Haa… Fine. I wasn’t going to use this, but I’ll cover the mixer fee. How about it?”

“Sigh…”

A sigh slipped out.

He wasn’t the type to back down no matter how many times I refused.

Jaemin looked at me with desperate eyes like a believer praying for a wish.

I knew why he was like this.

This bastard. His girlfriend cheated on him and they broke up last week.

Since then he’d been burning with revenge and loneliness, going crazy about getting a new girlfriend.

…I did feel a little sorry for him. Maybe I should go with him just once.

Honestly, I didn’t have anything particular to do even if I went home.

I’d play some games, watch VTube, and sleep.

Normally I’d finish the day with my favorite streamer’s broadcast at home.

But there had been a notice this morning.

[Taking a break today due to personal reasons. I’m sorry ㅠㅠㅠㅠ.]

It was a sudden break notice.

She rarely did this, so other viewers would understand.

Understanding it didn’t stop my heart from tearing apart.

It was Friday, so I’d planned to end the week properly with chicken and beer while watching the stream.

Fine. Since I had nothing else to do, I’d just fill the numbers and leave early.

“Alright. I’ll go. But I’m really just filling the numbers and leaving.”

“Really?”

“I’m only going because I feel bad for you. I shouldn’t have seen you sniffling. Ugh.”

He’d gotten completely drunk that day and come to me, crying his eyes out.

Saying his heart hurt so much while pounding his chest.

Even someone as cold-blooded as me found it hard to just ignore that.

“I love you. Kang Woohyuk. You’re the only one. Really.”

“That’s cringy, so shut up.”

“Yes sir.”

Jaemin exaggeratedly covered his mouth with a flourish.

Seeing him like that made me feel like we lived in different worlds.

His reactions were on a completely different level.

I’d die of embarrassment before I could ever do that.

“Hey, then get ready and wait in front of your place by five. I’ll pick you up in the car.”

Jaemin came from a relatively well-off family.

Not a golden spoon, but somewhere between a bronze and silver spoon.

Having parents buy him a car at that age said enough.

I still had no idea how I ended up friends with a guy like him.

“Yeah. You’ve got class next, right. Hurry up.”

“Okay. I’m going.”

Jaemin headed to the next lecture hall.

I had no more classes today.

I walked toward my studio apartment about ten minutes on foot from campus.

I connected my Bluetooth earphones to my phone and opened the VTube playlist.

[Uni (Uni_) Cover Collection]

I opened the song list of my favorite streamer that I’d organized and hit autoplay.

A soft piano melody flowed out along with a pleasant, sweet voice.

[I won’t cry. So I won’t be sad anymore.]

[I want to shake off all the painful days now.]

She was seriously crazy. Her voice was so sweet it felt like my ears would melt no matter when I listened.

Uni was a general game streamer, but she had an unbelievably unique sweet voice.

And it wasn’t just an ordinary sweet voice. It was a distinctive one you rarely heard elsewhere.

The kind of voice people described as jade beads rolling on a tray.

There were even viewers who begged her to debut as a singer.

[A singer? I’m already your idol, you know.]

There was even a clip of her playing along with that kind of nonsense.

Anyway, because of viewer requests, she had quite a few cover songs for a general game streamer.

She mostly sang the Korean ballads she liked.

Our Uni was good at so many things.

She was good at games, good at singing, good at talking.

I hummed along to Uni’s songs as I walked and before I knew it I’d arrived at my studio.

I opened the door and stepped inside to a dark, empty home.

The only furniture was a bed, a fridge, and a desk with a computer.

“It’s really quiet here.”

The studio was in a somewhat out-of-the-way spot, so there was almost no noise around.

A neighborhood where you barely felt any human presence.

Maybe that was why. Living alone often felt a little lonely.

Not that I had many friends anyway.

There was no one I could invite over either.

So whenever I felt empty, I just put on a stream.

That’s how I found the streamer called Uni.

She was like the only hope that soothed the lonely life of an outcast.

The meeting time was five. It was three now, so two hours left.

“I should kill some time before going.”

With that thought, I lay on the bed and naturally opened VTube to put on Uni’s VOD.

True fans like me preferred the VODs over edited videos.

Clack clack, the sound of a keyboard being hammered urgently.

It was right in the middle of a team fight.

Uni’s marksman character was kiting hard.

She was poking the enemy jungler who kept dancing in front of her and chipping away at his health nicely.

[Ah…?]

In the blink of an eye, she got deleted by a single combo from the ridiculously fed enemy top Akali.

[Wow! Seriously. What the hell is this damage.]

Uni’s screen went black in an instant.

When she spoke in a dazed voice, the chat started rising.

[ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Is Akali’s damage real?]

[What just happened?]

[She really died in one shot. For real]

Uni seemed to check the chat reactions and continued in a grumbling voice.

[This is pure top gap. Why is it always our team?]

Even though Uni got deleted instantly, their mid Viktor, who played like a mysterious Chinese master, carried the fight and it was heading toward Uni’s team’s victory.

[Our mid is cracked! Nice! Kids. This is how you play the game.]

Uni’s words flipped like a palm in an instant.

And the complaints poured in right away.

[Why is it always our team? (actual quote)]

[Nice-type marksman is crazy]

[ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Cheerleader-type marksman]

[This is why spoon… mph. Who are you people?]

[Spoon! Spoon! Spoon! Spoon! Spoon! Spoon! Spoon! Spoon! Spoon! Spoon! Spoon! Spoon!]

Then came Uni’s specialty.

Media control.

Uni was a dictator through and through.

[Manager~! Ban everyone who just typed spoon right now.]

[I’m putting temporary bans on everyone above and below who said spoon.]

[Why are you killing us? Exactly! You should’ve managed the chat properly!]

I couldn’t stop laughing while watching the video on the bed.

The back-and-forth between Uni, who had completely shed her small streamer vibe, and the viewers was the most fun part of the stream.

There were even comments saying the chat carried Uni’s streams.

In the end the game that turned around thanks to Viktor’s carry ended in a win.

[Everyone. You know I carried this whole game, right? If you don’t, you really don’t know games.]

When she dropped that kind of nonsense, the chat caught fire again.

It seemed Uni enjoyed making the viewers mad.

[Please stop the bullshit]

[Crazy btch…. Crazy btch.]

[Bus-type marksman! Bus-type marksman! Bus-type marksman! Bus-type marksman!]

Yeah. This was the real deal. This was the club.

No matter what anyone said, that was the truth for me.

My mouth corners wouldn’t come down for a while.

*

“Jaemin.”

“Huh?”

I asked while looking at Jaemin who was holding the steering wheel.

“It’s not even far. Why the hell did you bring the car.”

When the meeting time came I got in Jaemin’s car and arrived at the place.

Once we got there it was a bar not far from school.

“You punk. This is also a selling point. What would you know. This hyung’s deep intentions.”

I thought he just drove to give me a ride as a service.

Apparently Jaemin had other intentions.

There were probably girls who liked that kind of thing.

Whether it was a guy’s financial power or guys with cars.

After parking, Jaemin and I went into the bar.

It had a slightly more luxurious interior than the cheap neighborhood bars.

Expensive-looking whiskey bottles were displayed here and there.

“Over there. There.”

I looked where Jaemin pointed and saw several men and women already sitting at a table.

“Looks like we’re the last ones?”

“Why is everyone so punctual.”

“Right.”

We arrived right on time, but the others had already settled in and were waiting.

As we got closer to the table I saw some faces I’d occasionally seen in lectures.

Same department, so we must have overlapped in at least one class.

Of course they wouldn’t know me.

We just lightly nodded in greeting and sat down.

“Shall we get started then?”

Jaemin tried to take the lead while the others, still awkward, just eyed each other and nodded without answering.

“Then to ease the awkwardness, shall we drop the formal speech? Anyone against it?”

“…”

When no one seemed opposed, Jaemin quickly dropped the formal language.

“Then let’s speak casually and relax. Should we order first?”

Yeah. Having someone like him to pull things along made it easier.

Places like this were especially awkward, so it helped even more.

I was just going to keep my mouth shut and stay quiet anyway.

“I’m Kim Jaemin, twenty-three, business department. Nice to meet you.”

“Wow. You’re a senior.”

“I went to the military. Same year, so just treat it as even.”

Even in the same year there was a difference in student numbers between the guys and girls.

That went for me too.

Jaemin’s self-introduction opened the way for the rest.

“I’m Jung Dabin, second year. Hello.”

“Hey. No formal speech.”

When the girls who weren’t used to it used formal language, it actually helped lighten the mood.

“Drink! Drink, drink. The alcohol is going in! Chug chug chug chug!”

He even ran drinking games with impressive skill.

Of course I, who couldn’t do drinking games, got caught a ton.

After some time passed and the awkwardness faded a little and people started getting tipsy one by one.

“I’m going to the bathroom for a bit. Ji-yun.”

“Mm. Go ahead.”

One of the girls told the girl next to her she was going to the bathroom and stood up from the table.

Lee Yuna, was it. Black bob hair and a cute impression.

I thought I’d heard it during the introductions.

Her voice was so small I couldn’t hear it well.

She seemed to have been dragged here by a friend like me.

Judging by how she just quietly sipped her drink the whole time without saying anything.

“Jaemin. I’m going to the bathroom too.”

Partly to cool the heat rising to my face from the alcohol.

I followed her toward the bathroom.

This bar’s bathroom was outside, so we had to leave the place.

Stepping outside and feeling the night air cooled the heat on my face a little.

I’d done enough. Time to head home soon.

Looking ahead, Yuna was walking a bit unsteadily.

She seemed pretty drunk.

Her walking form looked so unstable I wondered if I should support her before she fell.

“Ah. I shouldn’t have come out. Ugh.”

She started muttering to herself, something she hadn’t done inside the bar.

“Can’t even drink and… what the hell am I doing, being this stupid.”

Her pronunciation was a little slurred, maybe from the alcohol.

But that voice somehow felt familiar, like I’d heard it somewhere.

…What is this. It’s too familiar… Where did I hear it?

“…I should’ve just stayed home and streamed. Ugh.”

…Streamed?

The moment I heard that, I realized whose voice it was.

How did I not notice until now?

Uni. This voice is completely Uni’s.

“…No way.”

It must just be similar.

No matter how unique Uni’s voice was, there could be people with similar voices.

That was what I thought so naively at the time.

I never imagined my favorite would be this close.