I Unknowingly Rejected My Favorite

When I stepped outside, the snow was falling.

“It’s cold...”

I pulled the padding zipper all the way up and stuck my hands deep inside the pockets.

The distance from my house to Doah’s studio was about a seven minute walk.

If I ran, I could get there in three, so I went down the slope at a fairly fast pace.

When I arrived, I took out my phone.

「Doah, I’m outside.」

Less than thirty seconds after I sent that text, Doah came out to greet me.

After that, she gave me a tight hug. She was wearing fluffy fur slippers and sweatpants that looked even fluffier.

“What’s wrong? Don’t you need to go back quickly now?”

“I fucked up…”

Doah went on and rambled incoherently, seemingly unable to cope with the fact that she had to play a horror game.

If we were in a cartoon, they would probably add the spinning eye thing to her eyes. Imagining it made me laugh.

I placed my hand on top of her head then persuaded her to quickly go back inside.

Her stream was currently muted.

Inside, I waited for her instructions on what she wanted me to do.

“For now, can you just stay next to me, Oppa?”

“But, wouldn’t that be weird?”

“...Actually, yeah…”

If I made any sound by accident, things would turn messy real quick.

“Then, just stay over there, Oppa.”

“There?”

She pointed at the small lounge area with a sofa.

“Yes, just sit there and don’t say anything.”

“Will that really work?”

In my case, I could just turn on the stream, plug in my earphones, sit down and watch, but she was the one who’d need to tank all the jumpscares.

“If it gets too scary, I’ll run over there, so just sit there.”

I nodded, indicating that I understood what she wanted. Then, she went back to her chair, wearing a grim expression, before giving me a signal that she would be continuing her stream.

「Ahemm!」

As soon as she began, I took out the wireless earphones in my pocket.

When I felt the delay between her actual voice and the stream, I forcibly turned up the volume on my phone.

「Now finally... I’ll really...」

Luka’s model had tears welling up in her eyes.

But the chat ruthlessly ignored that. If anything, it just added to their passion to force her to play the horror game.

[Luka-tan! Start it quickly!!!!!]

I didn’t know if this emote was made for this purpose, but the Pink Army was spamming a ton of pArmyGlowstick.

Seeing Doah slapping her forehead with her hand, I could tell that she was having a headache dealing with these guys.

「Now then... as promised... I’ll playyyyy... the... horror gameeeee.」

Luka made a wailing noise.

Oh, whoops, I shouldn’t laugh.

She could see my face at any moment.

But, ugh, she was so cute! Even if I tried to hold back, I’d end up smiling! What was I supposed to do?

Like, if I were seeing this at home, I woulda burst out laughing from the very beginning.

「T-Then should I press play now?」

After she pressed the start button, a chilling background music played as the screen went dark.

Like most horror games, this game was in first person.

The small Luka chibi was floating on the side, showing the changes in her expressions in real time.

-Creaaak

The eerie sound effects unique to horror games crept through my ears.

「Ah… Seriously... I’m just opening the window! Why is it so scary…? Ugh…」

No ghosts or monsters had appeared yet, but she kept looking up at the ceiling.

By the way, this game that I recommended to her was one of the less scary ones among the horror games.

It had a decent story and it wasn’t too difficult, so even she, who couldn’t handle scary things well, should be able to clear it,

The first thing she had to do was to find the key to enter the basement.

Using the direction button to move around, she just aimlessly wandered inside the abandoned house.

「Huh? The interact button isn’t working here?」

…That wasn’t an object you could interact with!

Things had barely started, but I already got frustrated watching her!

The Pink Army must’ve felt the same thing as me. Look at them go, they were going crazy in the chat.

[Huh]

[Luka-nim! Not there, go to the right!]

[fr lolll]

[Ah… I’m gonna die from high blood pressure…]

See! Someone was thinking the same exact thing as me!

Seriously, if I was allowed to go right next to her and move the mouse myself, I would.

Go to the right! C’mon!

「Ah. Right here.」

Only then did Luka discover the key inside the drawer. Finally, she was able to enter the locked basement,

Inside, the first event was waiting for her.

Said event was none other than…

「KYAAAAAH!」

Before it even came up on the stream, her scream came blasting through my earphones.

Doah covered her eyes with both hands.

This was because as soon as she entered the basement, a bright red hand grabbed her character.

The next thing that appeared on the screen was the face of a woman with a twisted neck.

Shocked, she took her hands off the keyboard for a good while.

「Ah... Euh...」

She looked over my way, nearly bursting into tears,

I wanted to tell her it was okay, but I couldn’t make any sound.

So I just nodded and encouraged her to continue playing.

「...Everyone.」

Luka’s avatar started to tear up.

「If I don’t make any sound after five minutes, you have to call 119, okay?」

Led by the ghost, her character woke up in the deepest part of the basement.

What she had to do from now on was simple.

Escape the place alive.

Of course she needed to get some items and clear some quests before she could do that.

Sometimes she’d need to get keys or lamps or even exorcize the ghosts of a grudge-filled family.

「W-What should I do now?」

As she asked that in an extremely frightened voice, the backseat gamers in her chat kindly told her what to do, step by step.

「Go left from here?」

And my girlfriend was diligently looking at the chat while carrying out their instructions in order.

As with many horror games, dark spaces were scary.

Moving around with limited vision was a horrifying experience.

She was moving her fingers, her back hunched, even though he wasn’t actually inside that house.

「...Chat, when will the ghosts appear?」

Just walking while listening to the eerie background music was already stressful for her.

The constant tension that lingered in the back of your mind, not knowing when or where something would pop out to eat you.

Well, actually, our Luka-tan didn’t need to worry about that.

Because…

「Should I touch this?」

She found a doll in the shape of a child.

Without even feeling the slightest bit of suspicions, she listened to her chat and ended up letting out another high-pitched dolphin-like scream.

「KYAAAAAAAAAH!」

Like, seriously?

Did she not feel suspicious at all when she saw that doll?

No matter how you look at it, that thing was definitely a cursed doll.

As soon as she pressed the interact button, the doll’s face transformed creepily. Something seemed to possess it and it started chasing after her character like a hunting dog.

Its movements were inhuman, like a monkey.

Doah smashed her keyboard as she ran away with all her might.

「YOU TOLD ME TO TOUCH IT, YOU FUCKERSSSSSS!」

Honestly, she was twice as cute now that she didn’t hold back on her swears.

Too bad that she rarely swore after her debut.

It seemed like she couldn’t hold it back at the moment, though.

After she managed to lock the doll behind the bars, she brought her shaky hand to her tumbler.

「Chat... My hands are shaking... I tried to drink water from my tumbler just now, but I can’t stop shaking…」

After drinking some water and catching her breath, she asked the chat, like a student waiting for lunchtime.

「How much have I done...?」

If you ask me, well, around halfway there, I guess.

Some pretty scary scenes came up, but the highlight hadn’t even started.

Momhadn’t even appeared yet.

I swear the clipmakers would have a field day today.

Like, if my exams were over, I’d definitely join in and make some myself, too bad I didn’t have that kind of leisure yet.

The game was getting closer and closer to its climax.

It was around the time for Mom, the peak of the game to finally appear.

When the background music changed, Luka noticed that the atmosphere was off. Her face irl turned pale.

「Chat. What’s this? What is this? Someone say something quickly.」

However, the chat only laughed at her.

It was like they had teamed up to not say anything to her.

Her character reached the heart of the winding underground passage.

I also bit my lip hard so that I wouldn’t make a sound.

Because even if I had already seen it once, the scene was still creepy as fuck.

Well, in my case, it’d still surprise me rather than scare me.

At that moment, Doah turned around.

The BGM was cut abruptly and the screen was filled with the face of a woman who had bugs pouring out of her eyes.

“OPPAAAAAA!”

Throwing away her earphones, Doah ran over and hugged me.

On the other side of my dropped phone.

[oppa...?]

[Did she say Oppa just now?]

[not appa?]¹

[where did luka-tan go?]

...Fuck. Doah-tan.

How would you explain this?

While hugging her, I started to sweat profusely.

***

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