Chapter 124: Top Comment

A week passed by since that disastrous meal with those shitty friends of mine.

[It’s scheduled to be released at 6 PM today!]

I replied to manager-nim’s message, which had been rare lately, before poking at my rice with a spoon.

“Ugh…”

Fuck, I was so nervous…

By now, about half of our break had passed.

January wasn’t over yet, so there was still a little more than half of it left, but I still hadn’t achieved anything yet so far.

Recently, I had even quit my part-time job, so now I had to completely live-off my allowance from my parents.

I didn’t know I’d make it big as a celebrity, but that didn’t matter for now. The thing that mattered was I barely had any money left.

“What’s wrong? Who was that?”

When I let out a sigh, Doah, who was sitting across from me, asked that question.”

“Manager-nim.”

“What did he say?”

“He said that the part I briefly appeared in will be uploaded today.”

“Really?! What time?”

Doah asked excitedly, as if this news was about her own. Did she want us to watch it together the moment it came out?

“But still… I don’t know if I feel happy about this…”

“Well, we should at least watch the one episode you appeared in, no?”

“But, it’s not even interesting! It’s boring!”

I hated that they showed us those fake otakus. Also I hated that I had to expose my embarrassing friends.

“Even though I can’t say it’s interesting, even as a lie, it should be fine, your face is handsome enough! That’s how these things usually go anyway.”

Before this, Doah told me that she couldn’t hang out with me much in the evening because she had a stream scheduled.

So, before she went home, we decided to get some coffee at our usual cafe, our usual menu.

“Green tea latte, please!”

Doah smiled happily before she brought the mug to her lips with both hands.

“Aren’t you cold, Oppa? You always drink that.”

“Well, you know…”

To me, it was the price of the drink that mattered, not its taste.

Besides, this one didn’t taste bad for its price.

“By the way, is there any news about your album?”

The last time I heard about this was that they wanted to release a total of three albums.

Considering the time they had left, they’d need to release a song at least once every four months then.

“Hmm… About that, I believe they’re currently having internal discussions about it. Our role here is rather passive, you know?”

“…Passive?”

“Like, we just do whatever the company tells us to do and such.”

She said so while shrugging her shoulders. I see, I got it.

“Ah… I see.”

“Like, I’m not an aspiring or whatever, but that’s just how it is for everyone, no? Whether you’re an actor or whatever, you’d need to do what the agency tells you to do at first.”

Come to think of it, I wasn’t really in a position to say anything about this, considering that I had just jumped into this filming industry headfirst without knowing anything.

“I don’t really care about that now, it’s the solo concert I’m really concerned about!”

“Ah, right.”

“Do you know how much pressure I’m under since I’m the first one and all?”

Though there was a smile on her face, she shook her head, as if finding this a hassle.

“We’re having a bunch of meetings about cover songs right now… You know, which songs to sing during the concert and stuff…”

“Really?”

Our Luka-tan.

What song was she planning to sing to move our, the Pink army’s hearts…?

“So, have you decided on something yet?”

“Well, nothing’s confirmed yet… But I think I’ll do one YM idol song and probably one anime OST too…”

“I guess it’s a little awkward to sing songs from other companies, since you’re part of YM and all?”

“No, they aren’t that strict. The Production Director did tell me that it would be nice to sing at least one of YM songs though.”

That being said, YM artists have made many famous songs.

Doah should know plenty of those.

“So, is there anything that you want to sing?”

“That’s the thing that has been driving me crazy! Like, I have songs I want to sing, but would they suit me well…?”

Her words sounded like something that would come out of a middle school career guidance session.

You know, the whole dilemma between what you wanted to do and what you should do.

“What are they?”

She then took out her phone from her fluffy white fleece pocket and showed me her playlist.

“So, these two… They’re my favorites… From here down are the ones I’m considering.”

Somehow, I could imagine what she looked like when I wasn’t around.

Sitting in front of her phone, scrolling through songs and singing by herself. I could imagine how cute she was… Oh no, I was starting to lose it…

“I tried singing this one at karaoke— Oppa? Are you listening to me?”

Perhaps noticing the irrepressible smile on my face, Doah frowned at me.

“Of course I am.”

“Then, what’s with that smile? What? Do you think it’s funny that I’m considering singing this song, huh?”

She thrusted her cute little fist towards me.

“No, of course not! I was just imagining you doing that in the studio alone. I can just picture how cute you are.”

“What’s so cute about me working my butt off, huh? You don’t understand because you haven’t experienced it! Like how annoying it feels when a bunch of people flood in trying to talk with me!”

“Should I try being a VTuber too?”

I threw that comment jokingly, but her response was cold.

“No. You won’t make it at all.”

“…Okay, that’s just mean.”

“No, really! If you’re gonna stream, just show your face instead of using an avatar! You already have a handsome face, why spend money on a model?”

Her unexpectedly realistic response made me at a loss for words.

“Look, Oppa, even though nowadays the company’s the one doing this and that for me, back when I first started, I had to scrape together everything out of my own pocket, you know?”

While it wasn’t my intention to treat her job lightly, she seemed to be offended by my words and went on a rant.

“Y-Yes, yes, I get, I get it! I knew you went through a lot before we started talking.”

That wasn’t a lie. I mean, I was one of the OG Pink Army who had been there since her early days.

I took pride in the name Lucario.

“You know, that makes me wonder. If I had told you that ‘I am Kim Luka’ when I first confessed to you, would you accept me?”

Now, that was a difficult question.

What would my response be if she were to tell me from the beginning that she was Luka and asked me out?

“I don’t think… I’d accepted you…”

“Why?”

“Because we only got together after becoming closer naturally, no…?”

No matter how much I liked Luka, it would have been difficult if I had zero information about Kim Doah as a person.

“Of course, you being Luka is extremely important to me, but… I still think I would have either rejected you or at best told you something like ‘why don’t we get to know each other first?’ after some consideration…”

“You really love that phrase don’t you, Oppa? ‘Why don’t we get to know each other first?’.”

Suddenly remembering the words I had said before, I felt my ears getting hot.

“W-Well, we already got to know each other well, no?”

Feeling awkward, I gulped down my already cold coffee. Meanwhile, Doah pinched my cheek as if she found me cute.

“Ahhh~ Really~”

Nowadays… I felt like I couldn’t live without her…

It wasn’t exactly a drama screening… but anyway.

We turned off all the lights and lay side by side on my bed with the tablet propped up.

6 PM.

Doah said that she’d go back to the studio right after watching this.

“Oh…! It’s up, it’s up! Let’s go, let’s go!”

When Doah’s index finger tapped the center of the tablet, episode 3 of [Love Rides the Waves] popped up on the site.

…Damn, this was embarrassing…

Was this how she felt whenever I was playing Luka’s clips?

Now I started to understand why she’d start coughing up blood when I watched Luka videos.

As expected, the setting of the drama was a high school.

The screen showed us the now-familiar main characters chattering noisily in the classroom.

While I knew that it would be best to watch these things while turning my brain off, I just couldn’t. I was too nervous since I didn’t know when I’d appear.

After some pointless banter went on, it was after school time.

The scene zoomed in on Shin Gyumin, the otaku character I previously criticized, going home.

That was when I could sense it.

The moment he entered that alley, that was when I’d appear.

Doah fixed her bright eyes on the screen.

For some reason, the sound of me gulping sounded particularly loud.

Meanwhile, Shin Gyumin and the male lead entered the alley, chatting leisurely.

This was the very alley where I had filmed.

[Hey, Gyumin. Couldn’t you have just brought the workbook yourself?]

[But that… Hyerin might feel bad…]

[What’s with all this Hyerin, Hyerin? Dude, what kind of man are you?]

[What do you know?!]

Shin Gyumin raises his voice for the first time, fitting his loser otaku concept.

[No! Even before that! I said I didn’t want to do it, but you…!]

At that moment, we could hear the sound of approaching footsteps.

Ah… fuck… wait…

The two people who were talking turned their heads towards the camera.

Then, the one who appeared at that moment, was none other than me.

[Otaku bastard, you should know your place.]

Fuck, I couldn’t have looked more like a third-rate villain if I tried.

The moment I appeared, Doah was busy trying to hold back her laughter beside me.

[Ah! It’s Eojin! Run!]

That was when the main characters immediately ran away upon seeing me.

Now, it all finally made sense.

The reason why I didn’t have more lines was because the kids ran away as soon as they saw me.

Thinking back, they did say that I didn’t even have any lines planned at all.

In any case, it seemed I had properly fulfilled my role as a background character.

Since I appeared right at the end of the video, it ended after about five minutes.

I let out a short sigh and looked at Doah’s face.

“Aww~ Our Oppa did well~”

Doah ruffled my hair vigorously, treating me like a Pink Army and gave me a bunch of kisses on my forehead.

“H-Hey, don’t expose me.”

“I’m sorry for being a troublesome otaku, Oppa. Boo hoo.”

Seeing Doah even pretending to cry now, I felt my head spinning.

“Stp bng so rldiculs. Kim Doah.”

“What? Shh, I wanna leave a comment.”

After she said that, she actually went to the comment section, as if she really was going to post something.

And the top comment waiting for us there was…

[kim eojin is so freaking handsome;; what’s this actor’s name?]

One that was unrelated to the story at all.