༺ I Shouldn’t Have Recommended It ༻
“Achoo!”
Next to me, Doah suddenly let out a sneeze.
“What’s wrong? Did you catch a cold?”
Junseok stopped typing on his notebook and glanced at her.
“I think so— Achoo!”
See, I knew that she dressed too lightly yesterday.
Now she caught a cold because of it.
“Oh my god. I heard that the temperature’s been so bad recently because the season’s changing. Seems like you caught a bad flu, Doah.”
Minji, feeling concerned for Doah, offered some empathetic words.
Wednesday morning.
Today we had a class on advertisement planning.
Since we had to submit some VR world samples for our filming to the professor, we decided to meet up at the cafe thirty minutes before class to discuss it.
“By the way, where the hell did you two get these worlds from?”
Minji and Junseok seemed to be impressed by the world samples that me and Doah brought.
Junseok especially seemed dumbstruck.
“Well, when you find a good world, you can check the creator’s name. Then, you can just check on their other works.”
The question was directed to both of us, but I could only keep my mouth shut here.
Because all of those samples were prepared by Doah.
“Really? Can you show me some more? I like these ones, but I want to see other options too.”
“Okay, I’ll post in on our group chat later— Achoo!”
When I saw her sneeze again, I couldn’t help but feel guilty about it.
I should’ve lent her my hoodie…
Then again, it was too late to regret it. Besides, I wore a short sleeved shirt underneath my hoodie…
“Alright, that should be enough for our presentation~ Now, we just need to report to the professor~”
Junseok closed his notebook and stretched out.
“Don’t we have midterms next week?”
“Right. My god. I still have two liberal arts exams.”
Hmmm.
It felt like I was thrown into a popular group clique when I heard those two talking.
Midterms, huh?
Honestly, I wasn’t the type who cared too much about exams, but it did feel like I had been having a little too much fun lately.
I spent most of my time hanging out with Doah.
Well, technically, I spent half of it hanging out with Doah, and the other half with Luka-tan when she was streaming.
“Doah.”
Oh yeah, she took more classes than I did, right? Would she be okay?
Like, I was feeling overwhelmed enough already…
“Yes?”
“Your exam, uh, will you be okay?”
We were close enough to talk casually with each other now.
“…Uh, yeah?”
She looked at me, confused, as if questioning me why would I ask such an obvious question.
“Well, I’m just going to take it easy this semester.”
Right.
If she didn’t have that kind of mindset, Luka wouldn’t even exist in the first place.
And I wouldn’t become close to her like I am now.
It was impressive enough that she managed to juggle between school and Closer’s schedule.
According to what she said during her stream, it seemed that she also worked hard on recording songs.
Which meant she was also working when she was off-stream.
Despite having such a small body, she was able to handle such a tight schedule, what an amazing girl.
“D-Doah, taking it easy is good and all, but you’ll be doing our group project until the end, right?”
After hearing about Doah’s plan, Junseok asked in a panicky voice.
“Ah, of course, I’ll work hard.”
Doah let out a playful smile, glancing at me.
“…It’ll be a grade we earn together, after all.”
…Cute.
Maybe it was a coincidence that she glanced at me as she said that, but the thing that mattered was I could feel her Luka persona coming out for a second there.
I had to calm my otaku heart down so that I wouldn’t end up fanboying over her.
“Oh, god, we have to go now!”
After checking the time on her phone, Minji hurriedly took her bag.
“How much time left?”
“Five minutes.”
“What the hell? Already?”
“You know that the Management Building’s elevator is being repaired today, right?”
At Minji’s remark, the air instantly froze.
“…Both of them?”
Please say no.
We had to climb a steep path from this place, now you were telling me that when we arrived at the campus, we had to climb up the stairs?
“Yes.”
Why did you keep saying yes to things I dreaded to hear?
“D-Does that mean we have to go up to the fifth floor by foot? Achoo!”
Doah’s face turned white.
Minji, you shoulda told us that in advance if you knew that!
Why did you have to tell us such important information now?!
For a second there, my Pink Army side took over and I was about to say something nasty to her, but I didn’t even have the time to flame her.
“Hurry up, let’s run!”
With Junseok’s voice as a cue, we ran out of the cafe. We hadn’t even finished our drinks before we took off.
8 pm.
I was gearing myself up for tomorrow’s exam, but out of habit, I pressed my computer power button.
Well, studying for too long wouldn’t be efficient anyway~
Resting was also as important as studying! After making that excuse, I opened Twitch.
Hm? Oh, Luka’s stream had already started?
I joined right on time, but the number of viewers was already over 2,000.
“Hm?”
For a moment, I thought that I clicked the wrong stream.
Through the speaker, the ending song of the Demon Slayer Movie was playing.
Instead of Luka’s avatar, the screen was filled with Rengoku’s illustration.
The chat was filled with question marks. It seemed like the other Pink Army were also as flustered as me.
[???????]
[What’s that?]
[Uhh Rengoku-tan]
「…Set your heart ablaze.」
I could hear Luka’s familiar voice at the end of the song.
「Young Kamado… Achoo!]」
She was probably trying to dub the line in a solemn and sad tone, but the familiar sneeze that I heard earlier today prevented her from doing it.
「Ah, why do I keep sneezing?」
Accompanied by a sniffing sound, Luka’s avatar popped out her head next to Rengoku’s illustration.
「Hello, everyone. I’m Luka!」
Those who didn’t watch Demon Slayer were still spamming question marks on chat, but those who knew had already begun to throw words that only they would understand.
[Luka. So you watched it!]
[you finally watched demon slayer!]
[Rengoku is so cool lmaoo]
Luka’s avatar glanced down toward the left side as if she was scanning the chat.
「Yes~ You guys said it was fun, so I watched it. It was really good!」
…Man, it just hit differently when someone started to talk about the movie you recommended to 2,000 people in real-time.
I felt a little proud and embarrassed at the same time.
「‘Did Luka-nim cry?’ Yes, I cried. I cried so much when I saw the ending.」
Doah spilled out the emotion she felt yesterday, not knowing that I was watching her.
「Ah, wait, there are some of you who haven’t seen it, huh? …Okay, I’ll stop talking about it, sorry about that.」
Luka apologized in such a manner, and she was about to change the topic when her expression suddenly turned flat.
「No. But I’ve also been spoiled so many times in my life.」
「Didn’t I tell you? I told my friend that I’m going to watch a mystery movie and that very friend revealed who the culprit was.」
「Wow~ Thinking about it still makes me so mad.」
「Ah, whatever. You guys need to experience it too. I can’t be the only one getting spoiled.」
Well, the movie had already been out for a while, and the spoilers were all over the internet already, so honestly, it wasn’t such a big deal even if she were to spoil it.
People who wanted to watch it had already done it.
The fans of the anime should have seen it when it was airing in the theater.
「But I don’t think I can stream for a long time today— Achoo!」
「As you can see, I think I caught a cold.」
「No, I’m feeling sad here too~ What do you mean I’m happy because I get to leave work early?!」
「Mod! Please ban that guy~」
She teased a temporary ban with a playful voice.
「Jeez, but anyways I should get better the day after tomorrow.」
「Ah, of course I’ll stream on Friday! Who else am I going to celebrate my birthday with if not with my lovely Pink Army~?」
Her birthday was on Friday.
The special day that only lasted for a day every once in a year.
「Anyways!~ I’ll take some medicine and get some rest so I can get better soon!」
「Thanks for worrying about me.」
「Also, to wrap up today’s talk…」
Luka went back to talking about Demon Slayer and explained how cool Rengoku was as a character.
「I was Giyu’s fan up until the movie, you know? But I really like characters who look a bit dumb but have a total vibe change when they fight.」
「No, no. I saw the movie, and he’s just the best!」
「He’s really cool…」
Rengoku, the character that I admired so much…
She praised him endlessly.
About how handsome he actually looked after she took a closer look, about how his death would be the most memorable moment in anime history and so on. She was so passionate about her praises.
Initially, I went along with it with a smile on my face, but as time passed, I started to feel uneasy.
Strange.
Normally, no matter what she said, I would just listen with a smile.
But this time, I could feel the crease on my forehead.
「No, chat, seriously. A real man like Rengoku is the kind of person you should go for!」
“…I shouldn’t have recommended that movie to her.”
What the fuck did I just say?
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