Chapter 121: Sneeze

Everyone had their own way of keeping track of what day it was. Back in my high school, my way of doing that was webtoons.

On Mondays, I’d read shonen ones.

For Tuesdays, I’d read martial arts ones instead.

From there, it went on as I waited for each update until a week passed. Now though, Luka had become my sun, basically.

Morning, after CLOSER’s regular Saturday collab stream.

Me waking up this early on a weekend meant that I was feeling rather anxious.

After throwing off the blanket and getting up, the first thing I did was to check my phone.

To be specific, checking out the chaotic group chat with my high school friends.

[No vtuber talk. No weeb talk. Act like normal people, please.]

I knew that telling them this wouldn’t be enough. At least one or two of them would definitely slip up and say something stupid in front of Doah. That was why I sent each of them an ice cream gift card in advance.

“Haa…”

Ugh… But, for some reason, I still felt so anxious…

Those guys were human too, so they wouldn’t say anything weird, right…?

Part of me really wanted to call this whole thing off, but Doah wanted to meet them so badly, so I couldn’t just turn her down…

Also, honestly, they were good guys.

They barely smoked or drank.

Also, they weren’t delinquents or anything.

They were just harmless beings who stayed in their rooms to watch whatever anime they liked.

Most of the guys I stayed friends with were like this.

Well, we were planning to just have a meal and coffee, so as long as they watched their mouths, it should be fine.

I thought about having drinks, but those guys didn’t even drink.

After taking a shower and drying my hair, I came out to see a few notifications on my phone.

One was from Doah, while the rest were from the guys’ group chat.

So, I gave my girlfriend, who I was about to meet soon, a call.

「Hewwo?」

It seemed like she was brushing her teeth.

Because her word was muffled through the water.

「Brushing your teeth?」

「Yeh.」

「Should I hang up?」

Honestly, it wasn’t like I had much to say anyway.

[Ehhhhh?]

Instead of saying no, Doah raised her voice.

After the sound of water came from the other side, Doah started speaking properly again.

「You woke up early?」

「We’re meeting at 1, no?」

「But didn’t you stay up late watching the stream yesterday?」

Pretty much, since Luka’s stream ended at 3.

「Well, you know, I need to prepare and all…」

「Wooow… Is this the same person who’d just wash his face twenty minutes before meeting me?」

If I were to explain the cause of my anxiety, I’d have to tread over too many landmines, so I opted not to.

「Well, uh, the place we’re going to is further away, so…」

The place we were meeting my friends was near the neighborhood where we went to the VR experience center before.

We’ve all lived far away from each other now, that place was relatively close for everyone, the middle ground I guess.

「I just need to do my makeup, do you want to come over?」

「Nah, I have things to do too. Let’s just meet at the agreed time.」

「Tch… Fine. I’ll finish this up, so see you later then!」

「Got it.」

After hanging up, I opened up the group chat to pin the message I had sent yesterday.

[No vtuber talk. No weeb talk. Please act like normal people.]

Once I did that, the chat was filled with LOLs.

[taemin-kun~ scared?]

The one who said that was Gyuho, the fucker with the worst personality among the three guys we would be meeting today.

[Yeah yeah real scared.]

[LMAOOOOO should’ve treated us better normally]

What the hell did I do wrong normally?

[If you just shut up today, I swear I’ll be nice to you.]

[ah… but it hurts my heart that your girlfriend doesn’t know your true nature.]

Fuck you, she already knew!

She knew all about me being a hardcore Pink Army, no need to say it!

[I swear to God, please…]

[LOOOL c’mon, you know how we are. not like we can say much when in front of ppl anyways.]

Actually, he got a point.

The people in this group…

Uh, if I had to pick a characteristic of this otaku den, it would be that our communication skills were trash.

We might look normal on the outside, but we didn’t really enjoy socializing offline with others.

The term ‘keyboard warrior’ fits us perfectly.

We were a group that preferred darkness to light, 2D to 3D.

[Damn I’m excited. Tell it straight Han Taemin.]

As Seongjin also poured oil on the fire, I let out a sigh. Seriously, these guys were hopeless.

Haa… So annoying…

I wonder which one would end up being harder on me, another double date with Fumurin couple or…

Having a meal with Doah and these fuckers?

Both were just as bad I guess, ugh. Unable to decide which one I preferred more over the other, I grabbed my coat and headed out.

“Final check.”

Doah spun around once on one foot in front of me.

“Do I look weird?”

“I told you already, you don’t.”

She did this already when we met up in front of her house earlier, why did she even ask me again?

“Really?”

“Yeah, really.”

I reached out trying to pat her head as usual, but Doah stopped my hand as if telling me not to.

“You’ll mess up my hair.”

“…Don’t you think you’re trying harder to dress up in front of my friends than me?”

We both agreed to stop saying hurtful things to each other, so we just held hands tightly and left the subway station.

“Will they all come on time?”

“Yeah, if there’s one good thing about them, it’s that they’re punctual.”

They were surprisingly well-mannered in this aspect, so there was no worry about no-shows.

As we rode up the escalator and looked around, I could see familiar silhouettes glancing at us.

“Hey!”

I raised my hand, as if to say ‘What’s up’, but instead, they just whispered among themselves before coming over while making a fuss.

“Uh… Hello?”

These fuckers were acting all shy, ugh, it pissed me off!

Gyuho, the one who declared that he’d send me to hell, just nodded his head with an awkward expression, as if he was on a blind date or something.

“Hello.”

I could feel Doah’s fingers trembling slightly in my hand.

Next came Seongjin and Hyunsu, the single-brain-cell duo. Those fuckers also couldn’t greet her properly.

Finally, it was my turn to step in.

“Uh… These are all my classmates, so, uh, this is Seongjin.”

“Hello.”

Realizing it was his cue, he bowed his head.

“And this is Hyunsu.”

“Ah, I’ve heard a lot about you from Taemin.”

“…About me?”

Doah looked up at me with trembling eyes.

I quickly shook my head as if to say no.

“Stop spitting out bullshit like that, you idiot!”

“Ah, by the way, I’m Lee Gyuho, Doah-ssi!”

After Gyuho’s introduction was done—he was the most sociable among those fuckers, we entered the restaurant I had looked up.

Haa… I never thought I’d come to a place like this with these guys.

Well, better than going to a more male-oriented restaurant, I guess. There was no way I’d go there when I was supposed to introduce Doah to those guys. Anyway, the place we went to was a western restaurant that served pasta and pizza.

A table with warm sunlight streaming in.

Guys sitting in a group wearing black padded jackets.

Though we had known each other for years, we had never been in a situation like this, so we were all awkward with each other.

I expected that we’d stumble trying to pick up the menu, so I just asked the staff for their recommendations and stuff instead.

“Uh… So…”

In terms of MBTI, no one in this table had an E.

But, I was the host here, so I had to lead the conversation with a forced smile.

“So, what do you think of my friends now that you’ve met them, Doah?”

Your curiosity was the reason why we were all here, Doah. You should be able to answer this much, right?

“Ah! Well, everyone seems nice!”

Hey, hey, that tone was way too close to your streaming tone!

As she used her method to avoid the awkwardness, I grew extremely nervous instead.

I’ve told those guys to not talk about Luka or CLOSER before this, so I thought things would progress smoothly, but now…

Doah still seemed to be unaware of what was going on.

If she were to keep this up, things might get dangerous…

Those fuckers weren’t particularly perceptive, but they were more knowledgeable about otaku culture than I was.

And I had to protect my girlfriend from them.

“What do you guys think of her?”

“She seems to suit you really well, Taemin.”

“Yeah, you’re a good-looking couple~ Very much so~”

Thanks for the lip service, I guess…

After that, silence fell over our table again.

As I was starting to struggle since the conversation was stuck there, Gyuho came to my rescue.

“So… How did you two meet?”

“Ah, we…”

Well, this part was easy as Doah and I had rehearsed it somewhat.

We told them about how we met while doing a group project and somehow hit it off.

Suddenly, Seongjin, who had been listening quietly, tilted his head.

“But Han Taemin, what did you like so much about Doah-ssi?”

“…Huh?”

“I mean, based on how you normally act, I thought you’d never date anyone.”

Oh, dude, just let it be!

Why were you asking me this?!

“Oh, come on, I’m human too, I can change my mind when it comes to it!”

“Good point… Anyway, you two look good together. Poor Luka-tan, oh well.”

You fuck, I told you to not talk about Luka!

“…Achoo!”

At that moment, a sneeze burst out of Doah’s mouth.