༺ No Backseating Allowed! ༻
The next morning, after I got a call from Junseok oppa.
I felt uneasy beyond words.
“…What do I do?”
Actually, I knew what I was supposed to do.
Go downtown, experience VR at the VR Experience Center, document it and take a photo as proof. That was all.
But that wasn’t the main problem.
It was the thing that was left behind by Junseok oppa’s sudden absence…
The fact that I had to go with Taemin oppa alone…
If Minji or Junseok oppa were with us and we went in a group of three, I wouldn’t have any problem with that.
Junseok oppa was the type of person who’d keep talking about the group project, while Minji would constantly babble about different things, so there was no need for me to keep the conversation going.
Meanwhile, Taemin oppa and I were the type of people who’d just sit there and react or listen to them speaking.
In terms of MBTI, the two of us were an obvious I.
I took a shower, dried my hair and opened the closet.
What should I wear…?
As I rummaged through my autumn clothes, I felt a little sad.
…It felt like I was going on a date.
Then again, whenever people saw a man and a woman hanging out together on the weekends, that was the first thing that came into their minds.
There was a time when I wanted us to do something like this together…
Never in my wildest dreams did I expect that we would end up doing it this way.
If I could turn back time, I wanted to take back my confession.
Maybe if we got to know each other naturally like this, things would go a little differently.
I probably messed things up by confessing too hastily.
When looking at Taemin oppa’s attitude toward me recently, it wasn’t hard to think as such.
I wasn’t really trying to make a move on him or anything, but Oppa didn’t seem to hate me all that much.
After all, who would volunteer to do the work of someone they hate?
Rather, it seemed the opposite… He probably liked me…?
I shook my head to get rid of such useless thoughts.
“Wake up! Kim Doah!”
I steeled my heart and took out a new cardigan I deemed pretty among my autumn clothes.
I met Doah in the empty spot in front of the subway exit.
As it was the weekend, people were bustling about.
Well, at least the air was cool, and the weather was nice.
I had only been staring at my monitor at home anyway, so it felt nice to go out like this.
Anyway, it was about time she showed up…
Almost time for our appointment…
“…Hey. Why don’t you go talk to him?”
“Ah. You said you like him. Why are you telling me to do it? You crazy bitch.”
…How cold.
The invincible antenna inside me bristled as I listened to the two women talking in front of the tree across the street from me.
This was what happened whenever I came to crowded places like this.
People kept watching me from a distance, whispering about me. Whether I was alone or with someone else didn’t matter, they’d still do it anyway. I hated this.
Like, couldn’t they just go on their separate ways?
Why the hell did they talk about strangers anyway?
As those women, whom I had labeled as villains at this point, began to approach me, I let out a heavy sigh.
I thought I should play it by the book, so I put on a cocky expression…
“Hello.”
A voice that was a little spiritless compared to the usual Luka’s tone.
Still, hearing Doah’s voice made me happy.
Noticing those women stopped in their tracks, I thought of an idea as I let out a bright smile.
“What’s this~ Why are you so late~?”
I wasn’t the type to show a grin like this.
But it was a surefire way to destroy those villains.
When I looked sideways, I saw those women walk past me, clearly looking ashamed.
Doah-tan, you saved me! Like, seriously!
After making sure that those women were gone, I finally looked at Doah’s face properly.
“…Do you feel hot?”
“Sorry? No…?”
“Your face is red, though?”
“Huh? M-Maybe because I was rushing to come here? H-Haha….…”
She lowered her head slightly as her bangs turned into a curtain that covered her face.
“That so? We can sit here for a while if you’re tired.”
When I gestured my head toward the bench behind me, Doah waved her hand.
“No, no. It’s fine.”
“Alright.”
I pulled out my phone, opened the map app, and led Doah in the direction pointed by the arrow.
Doah wasn’t that tall.
Just by looking at her, I could tell that her height didn’t even reach 160 cm.
Maybe that was why her feet looked especially active compared to me, who was walking normally.
Wait, actually, maybe it was because I sped up my pace a little since it felt awkward that we didn’t have a proper conversation at all.
And so, I opened my mouth.
“Doah, you-”
“Yes?”
She replied with a startled voice.
“Ah… it’s nothing serious. Do you… um… do you hang out here often?”
“No. I’m the type who rarely leaves the house.”
Well, I already knew that.
「I don’t like hanging out outside that much.」
「Uhuh~ I do have friends~ Don’t lump me in with you all!」
「But I don’t go out unless someone contacts me first.」
“Ah… Really?”
Normally, this would be the part where I ask her what she did at home.
But I didn’t want to slip up and reveal myself, so I just glanced back at my phone screen.
“…Have you been here recently, Oppa?”
“Me? I think it’s been about a month?”
This time, it was Doah who asked me first.
“Just to hang out?”
I nodded bitterly, recalling the day Yoonje took me to the club.
“Somehow, yeah.”
“…I see.”
An inexplicable expression appeared on her face, followed by silence.
The VR experience center was about 15 minutes from the subway station.
“We’re here.”
“Whoa.”
Before coming here, I’d already read the place’s blog so I knew what kind of place it was, but after seeing it in person, I could safely say that it really was a flashy place.
“Have you tried VR, Oppa?”
“No, how about you?”
I have seen you doing it a lot, though.
“This is also my first time, so I was just wondering if Oppa had some experience.”
I turned a blind eye to her smooth lie.
As we were standing still, glancing around unsure what to do, an employee wearing a name tag approached us.
“Come on in!”
“Thank you.”
“Is there any specific model you want to try out?”
A friendly-looking young man with bright eyes was staring at us.
“Ah… I just want to look around…”
Oh, no…
Ah. This had turned annoying already.
I got this a lot when I came to a clothing store, but I was more of the ‘please leave me alone’ type of guy.
“Ah~ then please come this way. I’ll guide you.”
Following what the employee said, I went in further and found various corners that caught my attention.
“This is where you can experience FPS games firsthand. On the opposite side, you can experience sports, like ping pong or skiing! Also…”
The place was larger and had more variation than I expected. When the staff finished talking, we thanked him and stood in one of the corners.
“I guess it’s better to try everything while we’re here.”
“Maybe we should? That’s what Junseok oppa asked us to do anyway…”
“What should we start with?”
Among them, there were several games that Luka often played on the stream.
She streamed VR sports before, and recently, she also did rhythm games.
“Uh… Then let’s start with an easy one…”
After looking around inside, Luka stood in front of the rhythm game.
“Let’s start with this. It doesn’t seem too crazy.”
“Okay, let’s do that.”
Another employee, who stood in front of the device, explained to us how to use it.
“Which one of you will be playing the game…?”
Since he handed me the headset, I decided to play it first.
“I’ll do it. Doah, take pictures from behind, please.”
“Yes, yes.”
After I said that, Doah took a few steps back and took out her phone.
Sigh… Well, this would be quite something.
VR was very fun, but you’d look silly from a distance.
Then again, wearing a helmet by yourself while swinging into empty air would obviously make you look silly…
Still, it was for the group project.
Even though I felt embarrassed to show my ugly side to Luka, I still put on the VR headset.
Then, my vision was filled with pitch-black darkness.
Before long, I could hear an elevated beat in my ears and clusters of stars in front of me.
So it was like this…
The list of songs popped up when I shook the controller in my hand.
It was fascinating.
So this was how it felt.
When I picked an upbeat song and started playing, cubes with direction marks plastered on them started flying in my way.
“Dammit.”
Those cubes flew toward me at a pretty high speed, and it was quite scary, so I waved the lightsaber in my hands.
Why was this so hard?
I used to have the [Lmao, skill issue] attitude when I watched Luka’s stream, but after experiencing it, that attitude was gone.
The sound of misses when I failed to hit the beat in time kept on coming.
I probably missed half of them.
“Phew…”
After what seemed like less than thirty seconds, I got a game over, so I took off the headset and caught my breath.
I wanted to ask Doah to delete the video if she took one…
But her tiny lips were trembling.
Her round, scrutinizing eyes were glaring at me right now.
“Do you want to say something—?”
“I really wasn’t going to say anything if you were somewhat decent, but…”
It seemed she really had something to say to me…
“No! Why are you shaking the controller like that?!”
…Luka-tan I thought were just going with the idea that we weren’t familiar with VR.
I was at a loss for words at Doah’s outburst.
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