Chapter 50: Reunion (1)

Sunlight seeping through the curtains gently warmed the soft blanket.

Mmm… cozy.

Morning—well, not really.

More like the warmth of a noon sun.

Either way, I buried my face under the covers, basking in the gentle glow.

The warmth made me feel pleasantly drowsy.

I squirmed and shifted under the blanket with content.

But that comfort lasted only until—

‘…Since everyone seems to want it…’

‘Let’s do the concert.’

“GRAAAAH…”

Like a vampire with a stake through its heart, I rolled in bed, clutching my chest.

The second I stopped escaping reality, all sleepiness vanished.

Last night.

Why… why did I say that?

I must’ve lost my mind!

‘This isn’t the same as a game!’

When I’m playing, I can zone in and stay focused.

Even in front of an audience, I just feel a bit nervous. Nothing major.

I’ve gotten used to doing things in front of people—at least within Raidel’s stream.

But… concerts are different.

Even if it’s still inside the Pixelwars Streamer Server,

there’ll be hundreds of thousands of viewers.

People who aren’t familiar with me. Streamers. Viewers I’ve never met.

And I’ll have to sing—live.

No dancing like an idol.

I planned to just stand there and sing quietly.

But even that made my whole body curl up in anxiety.

It wasn’t like just appearing on a stream.

“Eeep!”

I accidentally imagined myself stepping into the concert venue.

A chill ran down my spine.

Regret crept in and clung to my ankles.

“If I back out now, I’ll look like a coward, right?”

Ugh, there was no escape.

I’d said yes in front of so many people.

Now I had to follow through.

I yanked the blanket over my head.

My perfect little fortress.

Safe in its darkness, I curled up like a cocoon.

Wiggling my toes just past the edge of the blanket,

I let myself imagine a world where time simply stopped here.

“…Maybe I’ll eat something.”

But I didn’t move.

Everything has inertia, right?

Moving takes effort.

And breaking free from this blanket—stronger than a black hole—

would require powerful motivation.

Like hunger.

But I’d only just woken up.

I wasn’t hungry yet.

So naturally, I fumbled around for my phone in the darkness.

“Sigh.”

The anxiety was real.

It was hard just to exist without spiraling into useless thoughts.

Even in my dreams, I was messing up the lyrics in the middle of the concert.

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

Maybe I was so tense, I couldn’t truly rest.

Despite sleeping, my body still felt sluggish and heavy.

I just wanted to lie here, doing nothing.

Beep beep beep—chirrrip.

Just then, the sound of a door lock keypad echoed.

“Huh?”

I froze.

I live alone.

The only people who ever come over are delivery guys.

But they don’t know my door code.

A chill ran down my spine.

“Unnie! I’m here~”

(TL note: In Korean, “unnie” (언니) is a term of address used by women to refer to older female friends or siblings.)

A cheerful voice rang out.

Relief immediately flooded me.

I poked my head out of the blanket.

A familiar face.

My one and only little sister—Yoo Seo-ha.

A high schooler more mature than me, the person I cherished most in the world.

And a bond of family that hadn’t disappeared, even after I became Yoo Seo-yeon.

Ah.

I’d feared that becoming someone else meant losing my family, too.

Even though the name remained the same,

I’d been afraid I’d find someone totally different.

I’d avoided contacting her out of that fear.

But Seo-ha was… the Seo-ha I knew.

Exactly as she’d always been.

Maybe it was because I saw that with my own eyes,

but my nose stung, and tears welled up.

“I just wanted to check on you… Geez.”

She let out a deep sigh.

A sigh heavy with concern.

“Does this even look like someone’s living here?”

Her voice dropped a pitch.

Not angry, but clearly worried and disappointed.

“Wh-what’s wrong with my room…”

I trailed off before I cried.

Didn’t want her to see me like that.

Now that I thought about it,

I hadn’t cleaned in a while, using ‘stream prep’ as an excuse.

“It’s just, you know… natural entropy of the universe or whatever…”

I mumbled, recalling a science video I’d watched before bed,

trying to explain why my room resembled a war zone.

Nasal and pathetic.

Nonsense, really.

But if I didn’t say something, I was going to break down.

“Seriously… You’ve got me really worried. Are you even eating properly?”

I couldn’t say, “Don’t worry, I’ve been using streaming donations from Ha-yoon to order great food.”

Mentioning the stream felt embarrassing.

I wasn’t even a real streamer yet.

“Ugh. It’s all delivery food.”

She started moving around with practiced ease,

scolding me like always but clearly worried.

She picked up scattered clothes and folded them neatly.

Gathered the mountain of empty takeout containers from the table.

From under the blanket, I just watched her bustling around the room.

“I-I can do it, you know…”

I muttered quietly.

“Unnie, you always say that but just leave everything when I show up.”

“Ugh.”

Bullseye. She saw right through me.

Seo-ha hadn’t changed a bit.

---

‘Haah…’

Sweeping snack wrappers into a trash bag, Seo-ha sighed without meaning to.

As usual, her sister’s apartment looked like a bomb had gone off.

‘Not that I mind cleaning…’

She got to work efficiently.

She was used to tidying up.

Empty food containers, snack bags—everything went into the trash in swift motions.

“But seriously, unnie…”

She paused, looking at her sister.

‘Something’s off…’

Seo-yeon looked… different from usual.

Putting down the trash bag, she walked over slowly.

“Unnie?”

She peered at her sister’s face.

And immediately stopped breathing.

Seo-yeon’s eyes… were red.

Those usually dazzling eyes had lost their luster,

brimming with tears, as if they might fall at any moment.

“…!”

Sensing Seo-ha’s gaze, Seo-yeon flinched and buried her face deeper.

Her hunched posture looked like a frightened little animal.

Seo-ha’s heart sank.

‘Was she crying? Or still holding it in?’

Suddenly, the mess didn’t matter at all.

“Unnie, did something happen?”

Her voice trembled.

“I-it’s… nothing…”

Seo-yeon’s voice cracked.

Thin and shaky, as if barely keeping from sobbing.

It broke Seo-ha’s heart.

‘Did I push her too hard with my nagging?’

She hadn’t meant to.

She couldn’t help it—seeing her sister shut away all the time made her worry.

But if that hurt her instead…?

Seo-yeon had always been fragile.

What if something bad happened, and she kept bothering her like an idiot?

‘I didn’t think about her at all…’

Guilt and concern hit her like a wave.

She felt ashamed for barging in and scolding her.

‘She’s not sick, right?’

She touched Seo-yeon’s forehead.

No fever.

But that didn’t mean much.

Seo-yeon never showed emotions openly.

“Is it something you can’t talk to me about?”

Her voice was soft and gentle.

Seo-yeon nodded faintly.

“…Yeah. It’s just… a bit…”

She couldn’t even finish the sentence.

Even pretending to be okay seemed too hard.

“Unnie…”

Her sister—beautiful silver hair, strange eyes—

had always struggled with attention.

Shy, overwhelmed by stares,

always trying to hide in the corners of the classroom.

People said she looked like a doll, but to her, that was just pressure.

After barely graduating and living alone,

Seo-ha had hoped things were getting better.

But every time she visited, she’d see her sister shut in again, listless.

‘Has something been bothering her while living alone?’

The thought of her sister suffering in silence hurt more than anything.

She loved her so much,

and yet her sister always looked like she was about to fall apart.

‘I need to feed her something warm.’

Forget the scolding.

First, she had to bring back some of her sister’s strength.

“Some hot food should help. Just wait a minute.”