Chapter 101: The Essence of Luka

「Ah~ Our Pink Army loves this kind of thing, huh~?」

Luka said in a tone as if she was dealing with children.

She then grabbed the camera and shook it around, treating the viewers like kids.

[Lu… Luka-nim! Please!]

[ahhh!!!!]

[I’m getting dizzy! Stop!!]

[so cuteee]

「Lalalala~ I know you Pink-kuns are all pretending not to like it when you actually do.」

It made me feel dizzy, but honestly, I liked it.

Anyway, it was now January 1st.

The New Year’s stream continued until dawn.

Since they started the stream later than usual, the CLOSER members said that they’d end the stream later than usual too. And they really did that, as they actually ended their streams after 3 am.

「A-Although Luka-tan doesn’t age, please take care of me in the future too.」

Luka blushed and put her hands behind her back coyly.

Everyone knew this was just an act, but who were we?

[Luka-tan, please marry me this year!!]

[Please take care of us this year too!]

[kyaaaaaaa]

[happy new yrs~ happy new yrs~]

「Oh my! You want more? You should have said so earlier~」

As she shook the camera even more violently, I couldn’t take it anymore.

Doah… please think about your viewers too…

「Anyway, it seems everyone has enough fun, so let’s end the stream here for today!」

Her viewers begged for more and asked her to end the stream later, but she had a perfect excuse to stop it now.

「Chat. Even though I look like this, I’m the last one standing in CLOSER, you know?」

Like she said, the other CLOSER members had already ended their streams.

She was the last man standing who stayed this late to stream.

「I’ll prepare many more fun things this year too. Let’s meet again next time! Bye!!」

-The stream has ended.

Honestly, it felt like a shame.

I couldn’t shake the feeling that it ended too soon.

Her new model was so cute, and spending my time sharing the same emotions with everyone without leaving our own rooms was enjoyable.

You know, if I were to say the thing I typed in chat out loud in real life, people would definitely treat me like a weirdo, but here, it wasn’t the case.

In the chat, everyone enjoyed themselves. They freely made otaku jokes and just had fun in general. It felt like a second home to me.

Anyway, had Doah finished cleaning up by now?

It had become some kind of routine for me to pick her up from the studio when her streams ended late at night. But, today, it felt like I needed to go there a little later.

While debating whether to contact her first or not, I took out my phone.

「Hello?」

「Oh, Doah. Should I come pick you up now?」

「Oppa, aren’t we going to have our VR date?」

Her voice was quite lively.

Normally, she’d sound tired around this time, but today she seemed unexpectedly energetic.

「Aren’t you tired? We can just do that later.」

「Ah, I took a nap after our date earlier. Also, the stream wasn’t that long, so I should be fine.」

「Alright if you say so. Should I turn it on now?」

「Give me about 5 minutes! I’ll invite you!」

「Uh, wait…」

I was about to ask which model was she going to use, but would it be okay to ask that?

Wouldn’t she get angry at me if I were to show too much obsession with Luka?

「What is it?」

「Uhh… I was just wondering if we were already friends in game.」

「Didn’t we add each other before when we did the group project? Unless you deleted me— Wait, you did you…?」

「Of course not. Why would I do that?」

「Who knows? Maybe you removed me and tried to hit on some other girl with a cute model.」

It seemed like she realized how ridiculous that line sounded as she started to laugh towards the end.

「Anyways! It’s not every day we do this, so take a seat.」

「Yes!」

Every time Doah used Luka’s voice, I felt my loyalty towards her suddenly skyrocket.

It was like an instinct as a Pink Army member ingrained in my DNA.

That seemed like the most appropriate expression.

After hanging up, I opened the game and put on the VR headset Doah had gifted me a while ago.

-Ding

The first thing I saw when the headset turned on was the battery level.

Huh? Wait, I didn’t charge it?

I frantically felt around for the cable with my non-existent eyes.

Like other electronic devices, the VR headset’s battery could run out, so you’d need to charge it.

Moreover, the battery drained quite quickly, that was why I hurriedly plugged in the charger. It felt like I was a doctor giving an emergency transfusion to a patient.

“Phew…”

After a moment, I could feel my blood pressure stabilizing.

As VRWorld booted up, the familiar start screen came into view.

I was standing in front of a mirror, transformed into the model I had downloaded before.

It was a character with an ordinary male appearance.

There were some similarities between the model to my real-life self, but this golden hair that he had definitely wasn’t one of them.

To be exact, his hair was platinum blonde, almost white, the color you’d see often in games.

As I was turning around in front of the mirror, an invitation message popped up and I instantly accepted it.

Almost immediately, the loading screen appeared in front of me, then my surroundings completely changed.

…Where is this?

I had never seen this world before.

At the very least, I hadn’t seen it in Luka’s stream.

It felt familiar though, like a house you’d swear you had seen somewhere before, but couldn’t quite remember where.

From the visuals, it looked more like a cabin out of a Western fantasy than a Korean house or apartment.

There was a fire in the fireplace that wouldn’t burn you even if you put your hand in it, and next to it was a small decorated Christmas tree.

「Hello?」

Wondering where Doah was, I called out to the air as if talking to a ghost, and a reply came from the other side.

「Oppa!」

If where I was now was the living room, Doah’s voice was coming from further inside.

I interacted with the door and entered, and what was waiting for me there was…

「Ta-da!」

「Oh…」

Smooth, white shoulders entered my view.

I could see a glimpse of cleavage between the shoulders.

The model Doah was using right now was the special one she had during the Christmas stream.

She even styled her hair to twin tails.

「How is it? Do you like it?」

「Wow… Yes, of course! You look so pretty.」

This was something that I could say over and over again.

I could literally stand here all day just to repeatedly call her cute and pretty.

Then again, that was what I had been doing in her chat.

「Come here and sit down.」

Luka’s model sat on the edge of the bed.

I swallowed hard and sat down next to her.

「So, did you enjoy the stream today?」

「Yeah.」

「I think I had a lot of fun today too.」

Sitting next to me, she started sharing various behind-the-scenes stories from today’s collab.

Like how Clover was almost late.

Everyone’s reaction when the company pre-released the illustration.

And how discussions for their second album had already started.

「Can I hold your hand?」

I moved the controller towards the air, and our hands overlapped.

「So, what do you think? Do you still like Luka more?」

「Um, sorry?」

「I’m asking if you still like Luka more even though you can’t touch her directly like this.」

Luka moved her hand a bit more forward.

In VRWorld, models were like illusions.

Her hand passed right through my body and went over to the other side of the bed.

「I mean, I never said I liked Luka more.」

My heart was racing, but there was no lie in my words.

「When did I ever say I liked Luka more?」

「Mhm, sure. That means it’s okay if I turn this off now, right?」

Doah said as if she was moved by my words, but my body stiffened up at her words.

「I’ll just come over right now then.」

Fuck. I knew that a man should keep his word once he’s said it, but…

Ugh, fuck that. Dignity or whatnot, that wasn’t important!

「Why don’t we play around for a little longer before doing that…?」

And so, I exchanged my dignity for pleasure.

Okay, look, just think about it for a little! If she didn’t want to do this, she wouldn’t do this for me in the first place!

Hearing my words, her eyes immediately were filled with contempt.

「Wow… Oppa…」

But, for me, seeing the expression I had only ever seen on streams being reproduced right in front of me was nothing short of a reward.

A very big reward.

「Seriously, you’re too much!」

As she clenched her fist, trying to hit me, I immediately pretended to be hit by her.

You know, I wanted to do this with her for a while now.

So, I let my body fall and got up. Seeing what I had done, Luka blinked in bewilderment.

「Wait… Did you really fall down? No, wait! Why the hell did you do that?」

「Uh, I just wanted to try doing that…」

Just think of it as the desire of a random Pink Army passing by, Luka-tan.

「Jeez…」

Luka laughed as if she couldn’t believe what she had just heard.

「Haa… Alright, if there’s something else you wanted to do, here’s your chance.」

「Something else…?」

「Don’t a Pink Army usually have a thing or two they wanted to do if they were to meet Luka?」

Yeah, but the problem here was…

There were too many things I wanted to do, Luka-tan.

All sorts of devils started whispering in my ears as I racked my brain hard.

Should I ask her to berate me while staring at me in disgust?

Or should I ask her to act sweetly like a real girlfriend?

No, wait, I was her boyfriend, I should ask for something more than that, no?

What did I want to do to this pink-haired girl…?

「Can I… kiss you?」

I had a second option in mind, since I was expecting to get rejected, but…

For some reason, Doah agreed to my request without hesitation.

「Where do you want to kiss me?」

「…Your cheek?」

「Okay.」

I moved my face towards the empty air that didn’t actually exist.

Then, our models overlapped.

Regardless of what I had done, I felt nothing on my lips.

When I pulled away, I could see Luka-tan’s seductive smile.

「Doah-tan’s real cheek feels better to kiss doesn’t it?」

Luka-tan slowly approached me and whispered in my ear.

「…I’ll be waiting at the studio.」

As soon as she finished speaking, Doah logged out.

Taking off the VR headset, I came to a definite conclusion.

It wasn’t that Luka was a fox.

Doah herself was the fox spirit all along.

I hurriedly put on my padded jacket.