༺ Stop Running Away ༻
「Oh shit! No, no, no, wait! Not like this!」
Luka’s champion moved frantically.
「No! Spare me, Hyung-nim! I promise, I’ll behave! Aaahhh!」
During the exam period, Luka announced that she’d hold a short stream today.
A short League stream to be exact. She was playing top for some reason though.
「C’mon! I was under the turret and I still died!」
Bang!
Hearing the table slam at the end of her sentence, her chat spammed her with [Cute].
By the way, she picked Sett.She was up against Darius, a champion who could tower dive easily.
「Who told me to pick Sett before this?!」
She suddenly started to blame her chat for it, but they were having none of it and spammed question marks instead.
「This is impossible to win! Isn’t this a terrible match-up?!」
[Lmaooooo]
[Luka-nim! I think you would have won if you used ignite…]
[LOOOL why are you playing so aggressively when u’ve never played him before?]
[Luka-nim! What’s the most important thing?]
A meme that was trending on the internet recently.
Luka responded immediately while holding back her laughter.
[To have an unbreakable heart!]1T/N: ‘The most important thing is to have an unbreakable heart.’ This is something Deft, a League of Legends pro player said at the end of the 2022 World Champions when they won after overcoming all odds, when nobody expected them to win and they almost didn’t even make Worlds in the first place. In the 2022 World Cup, the Korean national soccer team also won against Portugal by 2-1, and the players had an inscription of that phrase, so it became a widely recognized meme in Korea due to that.
But, in contrast to her lively shout…
-Hanamuramoroyo is on a killing spree!
-Enemy double kill!
-An Enemy is Dominating!
[Chat… I think I fucked up…]
Hanamuramoroyo, the enemy’s Darius, now completely fed, destroyed Luka’s turret before moving towards another lane and killing the rest of her team.
[Luka-nim! What’s important in this situation?]
「No, guys! I am unbreakable! But I think our team will break before me.」
Meanwhile, in the in-game chat…
Luka was getting a ton of passive-aggressive comments.
[stop! u need to just farm more to play the game!]
[Ah… Why is it always our top lane that’s a fucking fiesta…]
Luka, probably reading through the chat, smiled in embarrassment.
「You know what? I’ll just mute the chat~」
Yeah, that was a wise decision.
Not for her sake, but for those players’ sake.
Because the Pink Army would definitely rail those guys if Luka were to feel bothered by them.
Unfortunately, even after that, she still lost the match.
Her team, excluding herself, put up a good fight, but no one could match the overly-fed Darius. In the end, he destroyed their nexus with ease.
「T-That wasn’t too bad… A-Anyway! Who was the bastard who told me to play Sett? I’m going to ban you!」
After seeing the chat being filled with ‘lol’ Luka heaved a sigh.
* * *
「Alright~ That’s it for today’s stream.」
「I’ll play until dawn after the exam next week!」
「Ugh, I haven’t even studied for it… Can I even do well?」
「Fine, fine, I’ll play until 5! Deal!」
After she made the 5am promise, the Pink Army finally let her end the stream.
「Then, Lubye everyone~ Have a good night~」
The moment she ended her stream, I reached out for my phone.
Now it was a safe time to contact her.
I told myself that as long as I didn’t disturb her streams and stuff, it should be fine to text her, and so I did.
[Doah.]
Her reply only came after ten minutes.
[yes?]
[Do you want to go out sometime this weekend?]
She shouldn’t mind if I were to reschedule our previous plan, right?
[oh… im a bit busy on the weekend…]
Well, I already knew that she would be busy with collab on Saturday, and I guess she already made a plan on Sunday…
That left tomorrow and Thursday.
Huh, now that I think of it, she didn’t have a lot of free time. Well, made sense since she had four scheduled streams each week.
[What about tomorrow?]
[we need to finish our midterm project presentation by wednesday.]
…Oh, yeah…
Our group decided for each of us to choose at least one world and shoot a short video to bring as a sample.
[how about Thursday…?]
[i have liberal arts exam on friday.]
Suddenly, I had this strange sense of deja vu.
I was familiar with this type of response… Way too familiar…
[What about next week?]
[ill see later.]
This was the kind of thing that I used to do to ward off the annoying girls.
The realization made me have a mental breakdown.
But why?
Didn’t we have a good time?
The fact that I couldn’t think of a reason right away made me feel nervous.
It was the first time I’ve ever felt this way.
Why was she pushing me away?
Did she not like the gift?
But, she looked so happy when receiving it the other day…
[oppa. i need to study now, so ill text you back later :<]
That last text was basically her telling me to stop talking to her. The impact knocked me out as I collapsed on the bed.
I swept on my face, trying to recall the day when I last saw her.
…Nah, I was too sick, I couldn’t remember much…
I tried really hard to rack my brain, but even after that…
“Ugh… I don’t know…”
Maybe I just couldn’t keep up with a woman’s intricate feelings.
I should’ve tried dating before.
At my current level, I didn’t even have the right to say anything about a woman’s feelings.
I was just at level 0. A newbie fresh off the boat.
Should I ask that guy? He should know— Wait, no.
Think about it, Taemin! If you were to ask Yoonje now, he’ll definitely do his best to make you suffer!
Yes, he might give me some good advice, but in exchange, I’d have to deal with his bullshit throughout the rest of the semester.
Which meant, there was only one way left for someone like me…
“…I’ll talk to her directly on Wednesday.”
After the mid-term presentation.
I’ll talk to her.
* * *
It was easier said than done.
After flatly rejecting all of Oppa’s suggestions, I stood nervously in front of the mirror.
During yesterday’s group meeting for the project, we only talked about the project and nothing else.
Well, Junseok oppa and Minji were there, so we couldn’t just talk about private matters, but even so we barely talked to each other at all.
I had been trying my best to avoid him to buy myself some time, but it wasn’t like I could avoid meeting him directly forever.
Because I was in the same group as him, it was inevitable that we’d meet eventually.
But, surely I could get through it safely… Surely…
I put on my scarf, slipped into my slippers and adjusted my coat.
The ground was covered with colorful maple leaves.
Every stride I took made a soothing, crunching sound, but my head was buzzing with thoughts about Oppa.
Hanbit unnie was right with everything.
Her advice was completely on point.
But there was this thing called feelings…
No matter how hard I tried to think logically, it was still hard to change my feelings.
If Oppa were to actually say that he wanted to date me because he was curious about Vtubers, what would I do then?
What if he made fun of me when he saw me acting like Luka on stream.
Such bad thoughts came to my mind, one after another, tormenting me.
The more it happened, the more depressed I felt. When I arrived in front of the class, I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself down a little, before entering.
I looked around for my group members… and my body froze when I saw them.
No, rather, there was only one of them in the room.
Only Taemin oppa.
I had no choice but to go next to him and put down my bag. As I did so, Oppa called my name.
“Doah.”
It seemed like he had something to say to me.
“I-I need to go to the restroom!”
But I escaped before he could say what it was.
Only after a while did I come back to the classroom.
It was one minute after the class started, and the professor had just started the roll call.
Since my surname was Kim and my name was Doah, I was almost at the top of the attendance list. So, I had to bet on the chance that he wasn’t the type of person who’d do the roll call by alphabetical order.
“Next, the Metaverse Group, come forward and start your presentation.”
Our group was the third in line.
Junseok oppa, the one in charge of the presentation, stood in front of the podium.
“Hello. We wanted to try planning a travel advertisement using the themes of Metaverse and VR…”
Words came out of his mouth eloquently.
The way he talked was different compared to a streamer’s.
It left the impression that he’d be great at becoming the guy in charge of a briefing at a large company. Just look at the way he wrapped up the presentation, it was so smooth.
“That’s all from us.”
“Oooh… What are your thoughts on this, everyone?”
The professor gave a little time for the other students to give out their opinions. Most of them said that it was interesting.
Guys… It just looks fascinating at first glance, doesn’t it?
They probably reacted that way and didn’t think much more because they weren’t sure how the hard-working people in that field lived their lives.
“Well done. After the mid-term, try to make it a minute long with this as the basis. Next group, come on out!”
As we all went back to our seats and sat down, Junseok oppa whispered to us.
“Aren’t we pretty good?”
“Yeah, we’re good, right? But isn’t it thanks to God Doah’s carry?”
Next to me, Minji was making a fuss while slapping my thigh.
“But, I didn’t do anything…”
“What do you mean? You’re the one who handles the camera and other miscellaneous things, no?”
…Well, that was literally my real job.
When I glanced at Taemin oppa, he just nodded without saying anything.
Anyway, I should quickly leave as soon as the class is over.
When the rest of the groups finished their presentations, the professor gave his general review and let us leave the classroom.
“Well done!”
Junseok oppa stretched his body, clearly in a good mood.
“You guys have worked so hard.”
“Good work.”
As for Taemin oppa… He already stood up with his bag.
How did you pack up so quickly, Oppa?!
“Alright, let’s take it easy for now and continue the talk on Voicecord later.”
“Yes!”
After answering, I quickly walked out of the class without looking back.
I should have lost him with that, right?
Unless he sprinted, there was no way he’d catch up with me.
“Doah!”
That familiar voice prompted me to look back.
Taemin oppa was running toward me.
I was so flustered at that moment that I just started sprinting.
What the hell? What the hell?!
Why were you chasing me?
After leaving the media building, I tried to catch my breath. I must have lost him this time, right?
“Damn it. Why are you running away?”
But, to my dismay, he appeared behind me and clasped my shoulders hard.
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T/N: ‘The most important thing is to have an unbreakable heart.’ This is something Deft, a League of Legends pro player said at the end of the 2022 World Champions when they won after overcoming all odds, when nobody expected them to win and they almost didn’t even make Worlds in the first place. In the 2022 World Cup, the Korean national soccer team also won against Portugal by 2-1, and the players had an inscription of that phrase, so it became a widely recognized meme in Korea due to that.
***
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