Chapter 50 : Reunion (1)

Sunlight seeped through the curtains, gently warming the soft blanket.

Mmm… So cozy.

It’s not morning… more like afternoon sunlight, though.

Still, I buried my face in the blanket, basking in the warm light.

A pleasant drowsiness settled in.

I squirmed under the covers, happily shifting my body.

But that coziness didn’t last long.

‘…Yeah. Since everyone seems to want it……’

‘Let’s do it. The concert.’

“Gaaah…!”

Like a vampire with a stake driven through my heart, I rolled around in bed.

The moment I stopped running from reality, the drowsiness completely vanished.

Last night.

Why did I say that?

I must’ve been out of my mind!

‘It’s totally different from a game…!’

When I play games, I get fully immersed—how should I put it?

Even performing in front of a lot of people only gives me a slight sense of nervousness.

It’s never been too much of a problem.

And although it was only in Rydel’s room, I’d gotten somewhat used to doing things in front of people.

But… a concert is a whole different thing.

Even if it’s a concert inside the Pixel Wars streamer server,Tens of thousands of people will be watching.

Not the viewers who are used to me, but streamers and viewers seeing me for the first time.

And I’ll be singing live in front of them.

I don’t plan to dance like an idol or anything.

Just stand still and sing quietly.

But even that made my whole body want to curl up and disappear.

This was nothing like just streaming or appearing on a broadcast.

“Eek!”

I imagined the moment I’d walk into the concert venue.

A shiver ran down my spine.

The feeling of regret crept up and grabbed me by the ankles.

“If I try to cancel now, that’d be super lame, right?”

Aah, there’s no escape now.

Once I said I’d do it in front of so many viewers, I have to see it through to the end.

I pulled the blanket up over my head.

My perfect, cozy little fortress.

Relieved by the darkness under the blanket, I curled up into a ball.

Felt like I was in a cocoon.

For no reason, I stuck my toes out from the end of the blanket and wiggled them a little.

I let myself imagine—foolishly—that time could just stop like this.

“…Should I eat something?”

I thought about it, but didn’t actually move.

There’s a thing called inertia in all things in life—once you stop, it takes a lot of energy to get moving again.

So to escape the gravitational pull of the blanket, which is stronger than a black hole, I’d need an even stronger force—like hunger.

But since I’d just woken up, I didn’t feel hungry yet.

Which meant it was perfectly reasonable—physically speaking—for me to grope around under the blanket looking for my phone.

“Sigh.”

The pressure from the concert was real.

So much so that I had to keep distracting myself with silly thoughts just to cope.

Even in my dream last night, I had a nightmare where I forgot the lyrics halfway through the concert.

It felt so real I actually woke up in the middle of the night.

Maybe it was because I’d been anxious for so long.

My whole body felt weirdly lethargic, and I had no motivation to move.

Even though I slept, I was still exhausted.

I just wanted to stay in the blanket like this and do absolutely nothing.

Beep beep beep – chirp.

Just as I buried my head deeper under the covers,I heard the sound of someone entering my home security code.

“…Huh?”

My body froze.

This was my place—I lived alone.

The only people who ever came were delivery drivers, couriers… you know, service people.

But no one should be entering the passcode and coming in.

For a moment, a cold chill ran down my spine.

“Unni! I’m here~”

A clear, cheerful voice followed right after.

The moment I heard it, the tension that had been holding me tight suddenly melted away.

Peeking my head out from under the blanket,I saw a neatly dressed girl in a school uniform with straight black hair.

A familiar face.

My one and only younger sister—Yoo Seoha.

Even though she’s still in high school, she’s way more mature than I am—my precious little sister.

And even after I became Yoo Seoyeno, the bond of family hadn’t changed.

‘Ah…’

When my body changed, I wondered if I would lose even my precious family.

Secretly, that fear had always been in my heart.

Even though the name remained the same, what if someone completely different showed up instead?

I was too afraid to confirm it, so I hadn’t been able to reach out.

But Yoo Seoha—my one and only little sister—was the same Yoo Seoha I knew.

Was it because I confirmed with my own eyes that she hadn’t changed?

My nose stung, and tears welled up in my eyes.

“I came to check in on you, and… oh dear…”

A deep sigh came next.

A sigh filled with concern.

“Is this even a room someone lives in?”

Her voice dropped a bit.

Not angry, but a tone mixed with worry and disappointment.

“Wh-what about my room…?”

I kept my reply short, afraid I’d cry if I said too much.

I trailed off at the end of my sentence.

I didn’t want to show her my tears for no reason.

Come to think of it—It had actually been quite a while since I last cleaned my room, using the excuse that I’d been busy with stream prep and other stuff.

“W-well, it’s just the natural flow of the universe where entropy increases over time…”

I tried to explain why my room looked like a pigsty, recalling a science channel video I watched on  YouTube before bed.

With a voice muffled by a stuffy nose.

It was nonsense, but…If I didn’t say something—anything—I felt like I’d start crying for real.

“I seriously… I’m really worried seeing you like this, unni. Are you even eating properly?”

Don’t worry about that—I’ve been ordering plenty of delicious food with the streaming revenue I got from Hayun-nim…I couldn’t bring myself to say that.

Talking about streaming still felt embarrassing.

Especially since I wasn’t even officially a streamer yet.

“Sigh. It’s all delivery food, huh.”

Muttering her concerns like scolding, my sister began moving around like it was routine.

She picked up the clothes scattered on the floor and folded them neatly,

Then started clearing away the mountain of delivery containers stacked on the table.

I just stared blankly at her back from under the blanket as she moved busily.

“I-I can do it myself…”

I said in a barely audible voice, but—“You always say that, and then just leave it like this until I show up.”

“Urk.”

Right on target.

How could she see straight through me like that?

Seoha was the same as ever, just like before.

***

‘Sigh…’

As she swept the snack wrappers scattered on the floor into a bag, Yoo Seoha let out a sigh without realizing it.

Her one and only sister, Yoo Seoyeno’s house, was as messy as ever—as if a bomb had gone off.

I don’t hate tidying up, though.

Yoo Seoha began cleaning up the house with practiced ease.

Since she usually kept things clean, organizing and tidying were second nature to her.

Swiftly, she swept the empty delivery containers and snack wrappers into a large plastic bag.

“Still, unni…”

She glanced over at her sister, then stopped speaking.

What is this…?

Something.

Something about Yoo Seoyeno felt very different from usual.

Yoo Seoha paused her cleaning and slowly approached her sister.

“Unni?”

She cautiously called her name and looked closely at her face.

And then—Yoo Seoha suddenly held her breath.

Her sister’s eyes… were unnaturally red.

The eyes she always thought were beautiful had lost their usual sparkle,Now filled with tears, like they might spill down at any second.

“…!”

Perhaps sensing Seoha’s gaze, Yoo Seoyeno flinched and lowered her head even further.

Her hunched shoulders made her look just like a frightened little animal.

Yoo Seoha’s heart sank with a thud.

Did she cry?

Or is she holding it in right now?

The messy room no longer mattered at all.

“Unni, did something happen?”

Worried, Seoha’s voice trembled without her realizing it.

“N-no… it’s nothing…”

Yoo Seoyeno’s voice was terribly hoarse.

It was obvious she was holding back tears, her words trembling so delicately and dangerously, they could collapse any moment.

It felt like her chest was sinking.

Was it… was I nagging too much?

She hadn’t meant to.

But whenever she looked at her sister, she couldn’t help but start nagging.

She never meant to hurt her.

She just couldn’t help but worry when her sister stayed cooped up in her room all the time.

But what if that had actually hurt her sister?

Her sister had always been so sensitive.

What if something bad had happened, and she’d kept bothering her without realizing?

I didn’t even think about how unni was feeling.

A wave of guilt and worry rushed over her all at once.

She even started to hate herself a little—for barging in and nagging right off the bat.

She’s not sick, is she?

She gently placed a hand on Yoo Seoyeno’s forehead, but there was no fever.

Still, that alone wasn’t enough to ease her mind.

Unni was always someone who didn’t easily show her emotions.

“Is it something you can’t tell me?”

A soft, gentle voice.

Yoo Seoyeno gave a small nod.

“…Yeah. It’s just… kind of…”

Her words trailed off, voice thick with emotion.

Even just saying she was okay seemed too difficult.

“Unni…”

With her flowing silver hair and mysterious eyes—She had always struggled throughout her school years because of her slightly different appearance.

With her timid personality, she found the constant attention overwhelming,and always tried to hide away in corners, avoiding people’s gaze.

Even being told she looked like a doll probably felt more like a burden than a compliment.

Seoha had hoped her sister would feel more at ease now, having finally graduated and living alone.

But every time she visited, it was the same—Seoyeno shut in at home,either holed up inside or lying around listlessly—and it always made Seoha’s heart heavy.

Did something hard happen while she was living alone?

Thinking about her sister suffering silently all by herself made Seoha’s chest ache.

She loved and cherished her sister so much, but Seoyeon always looked so fragile—it kept her in a constant state of worry.

This won’t do.

I need to get her to eat something.

Nagging could wait.

First, she needed to lift her sister’s spirits.

“You’ll feel a little better if you eat something warm. Just wait a bit, okay?”