I Unknowingly Rejected My Favorite

My girlfriend was angry.

It seemed like she was trying her best to walk faster than me, but the overwhelming difference in our leg length made it meaningless since I could just close the gap quickly.

But, I wasn’t good at comforting people, so I could only walk obediently next to her.

“...I’m sorry.”

“You don’t need to.”

It felt like I was facing a huge wall.

“No, really, I like your singing.”

“Even if you do, I’m still worse than Leah. Whatever.”

Her pouty lips showed how sulky she was.

Taemin, you dumbass!

You should just tell her that she was better in the first place! Why the hell did you even hesitate?

See? You ended up saying it anyway, shoulda cut the crap and do whatever it was that she wanted!

At that moment, Doah stopped walking.

“Haah, just forget it.”

Her voice was full of irritation.

“Seriously, you already know that I’m insecure about my singing, but you… In front of Junseok oppa…”

After reprimanding me in a cold voice, she started walking again.

I was at a loss of words since my apology didn’t work, so I could only trail behind her.

Monday was a leisurely start for the week, since there was only a single class we had to attend.

Compared to when we commuted to school, where we walked side by side, holding our hands, now we were walking in a single fine line just like in the military.

I really needed to do something before she entered her house.

Honestly, it was a bit unfair.

Because it wasn’t like I was lying or anything…

She was worse than Leah, objectively speaking.

It was an irrefutable fact, there wasn’t even a room for rebuttal.

Also, it wasn’t like I told her right to her face that she was worse than Leah… Ugh…

We reached the uphill alley past the bus stop.

After contemplating for so long, I made up my mind and stopped her.

“I won’t do that again.”

“Won’t do what?”

“I’ll only take your side from now on.”

After saying that, I bent down to meet her eyes.

“...Can you forgive me?”

I saw my reflection in her deep brown eyes.

Doah’s eyebrow went up sharply on one side, then soon returned to normal.

“Haaa...”

The sound that she let out together with her deep sigh was buried in the noise of the bus stopping.

“Buy me ice cream then.”

“Ice cream?”

As I tilted my head, Doah nodded hers repeatedly.

“I’ve realized how much of a clueless idiot you are, Oppa! So, I’ll give you some advice!”

She showed me a complicated look as she sneakily grabbed my hand.

“Han Taemin-ssi.”

“Yes.”

“If a girl is angry. No, wait, not that. Let me run it back.”

She then cleared her throat and continued.

“Oppa, if Luka-tan, who you daisuki so much, seems to be in a bad mood…”

Her unopposable other name was mentioned.

“Go buy her something sweet, got it?”

Being treated like a child by her didn’t make me feel great, but I decided to take her advice to heart.

“Got it.”

When I gripped her hand harder as a sign that I understood, Doah looked up at me, shooting me a glance that had written on it.

“...Is this not it?”

“...I know what you’re thinking. Don’t buy it from an unmanned ice cream shop again.”

But, wherever I bought it, the taste was still the same!

I turned toward the main road, still couldn’t understand what she was on about.

Seriously, this dating thing…

Why was it so hard?

* * *

「Ah. Ah. Can you hear me?」

「Yeah. I hear you.」

「Wow. This is so cool.」

Normally, working on a group project meant you’d meet the other group people in real life, similar to how you’d hold a meeting somewhere. That was why I expected that when they said we should do it online, we’d do a video call or something.

Surprisingly, we didn’t do that. Instead of using a typical online platform, we did it inside a VRWorld map, modeled after a Chinese Castle.

Of course, since I didn’t have a separate VR headset, I was controlling my avatar through my PC.

Before the midterm evaluation, everyone except Doah had to do that, but this time Minji said she could borrow a headset from a friend of hers.

「Doah, I feel a little dizzy from this…」

Minji’s avatar’s head glanced around awkwardly, like a foreigner who had just arrived in an unfamiliar city.

「Ah... I heard that people who aren’t suited for it keep getting dizzy, while others adapt after a while.」

Hey, Kim Doah-ssi.

If you gave such detailed feedback, you’d get caught as a Vtuber.

Helping others was good and all, but you still needed to take care of yourself too!

I let out a sigh. Yeah, I’d need to have a word with her after this was over.

「Guys!」

Junseok’s avatar came running from the distance, bouncing up and down.

「I finished setting up the cameras.」

Being the diligent guy he was, Junseok did quite a bit of practice controlling his avatar with his PC and became quite skilled at handling the camera.

「I think we just need the actors to perform now.」

Originally, Doah had to do all the acting alone, but now that we secured 2 headsets, she didn’t need to do that by herself anymore.

Moreover, having more people involved in it would naturally result in a more lively video, so we decided to modify the script we had originally prepared.

[What were we supposed to do in the China scene again?]

[It’s the ending where Doah waves her hand and runs over, and I move the camera along to do a close-up.]

「Hmm…」

Minji’s avatar shook her head, making her hair sway gently.

Her model had orange hair, the hair color that you wouldn’t find in CLOSER.

「Since the theme is travel... How about we taking pictures of each other?」

「Ah. I thought of that too.」

「Minji and I can alternate taking pictures of each other like this. And when we add the editing later, it would be nice to add a click sound and the taken photo image as if it was actually printed.」

She’s definitely got the feel for it.

As expected of an active idol!

All that time she took to shoot music videos gave her the sense of a seasoned pro!

「Taemin, can you edit it like that?」

When Junseok asked that question, I let out a snort.

「Of course. I wouldn’t have said I’d edit if I couldn’t do that much.」

Imagine asking ME, a one year veteran of the Pink Army if I could do that much.

I hadn’t only been clipping, but I’ve also frequently made short compilations with snappy editing, so that level of work was nothing to me.

「Alright, great. Then let’s start the shooting now.」

Junseok moved in front of the camera, while I stood far away, watching the avatars of the two hoobaes giggling, like a director.

How should I put this?

I didn’t know if it was because I was very interested in this field, or because I didn’t have anything significant to do yet, but this whole process felt a bit like playing house to me.

「How was it? Did it come out well?」

After Junseok gave the cut sign, the girls approached us.

「Hmm... It came out as we planned, do you guys want to take a look?」

Junseok shared what he filmed while we meticulously reviewed it for the shortcomings of the recording, just like real idols going through their own performances.

「Minji. When you hold up the phone, raise your arm a bit more. I think that will look better.」

「Or what if I sit down when I take the picture?」

「That’s not a bad idea, but let’s try doing it while standing up one more time. If it still looks weird, we can try that.」

「Okie dokie.」

I never thought it would be easy, but the experience of actually making an ad seemed to further fuel my fear of joining an advertising agency.

Because there were no correct answers, only guidelines on what to do and not to do.

You couldn’t do whatever you wanted, even though it wasn’t exactly an artistic piece or something.

There were a bunch of constraints that you had to follow, all while trying to emphasize novelty and uniqueness.

If that wasn’t ironic, I didn’t know what was.

「Cut!」

That was already the seventh take on this map alone.

The girls reviewed the take once again, and this time they finally seemed somewhat satisfied with the result.

「That looks so good! Doah, you look really pretty in this.」

「Eh. You can’t even tell if it’s you or me anyway」

Since the characters didn’t reflect real-life appearances, viewers couldn’t know who played which role.

It was a bit funny to think that we’d probably get the same result even if Junseok was one of the actors.

「Taemin, do you have time for editing?」

「Of course, the video isn’t even that long」

It was less than a minute.

And it wasn’t like I needed to edit a bunch of things either.

「Alright, good work everyone. Then let’s call it a day here, and Taemin, please upload it to the group chat later when you’re done editing.」

「Okie okie.」

「Ah! Then I’ll get going first! I had plans to drink with a friend, I told them I’d go as soon as I finish this.」

「Okay okay. Hurry and go then.」

As soon as she finished speaking, Minji logged out of the VR.

Riajuuswere just different. They were always busy.

「I'm leaving too. Bye.」

After Junseok’s avatar disappeared, the only ones left on the map were Doah and me.

Doah’s avatar, not Luka, approached me.

It was an avatar with long black hair that you could commonly see.

「What should we do now?」

「Well, I have to edit the thing.」

「Is that so?」

Doah lifted her right hand and moved it, seemingly pressing on something.

「Then...」

After that, the blue loading icon that appeared a few moments before your avatar changed came out.

Surprised by her sudden action, I put down the mouse as I was about to log out.

Then what appeared in front of me was...

「Wanna hang out for a bit before you go?」

Neatly tied light pink hair.

An exquisite outfit that looks like she could go on stage right away.

The Virtual Idol, Luka.

She had manifested before my eyes.

***

https://ko-fi.com/genesisforsaken