Chapter 88 : It’s suspicious

After Rine joined, there was a brief awkward silence, but Rine broke the ice, making the atmosphere more natural.

Soon, the broadcast naturally shifted to just me and Rine talking, and I handed my smartphone to Ji-hye to fully immerse myself in the conversation.

I wasn’t particularly fond of or good at talking to people, but after interacting with many, I had become comfortable with conversations.

That didn’t mean I enjoyed talking to Rine so much that I was blooming with excitement.

It was more amusing to see Curry, who was driving beside us, fidgeting as if he wanted to join the conversation.

However, being human, I couldn’t keep up the talk show with Rine indefinitely, and as soon as I took a break, Curry spoke up.

“Um…”

“By the way, Rine, I noticed you were watching the broadcast when Curry and I played the Pocky game last time…”

I immediately cut off Curry’s words and brought up another topic.

Seeing Curry’s face crumble in real-time gave me a boost of energy.

“Oh, that… I didn’t watch the whole thing live! I just happened to have a break and caught that part, but I couldn’t watch more.”

“Really?”

Rine responded to my question with silence.

To uncover the truth, I reached out to Curry.

“What?”

“Lend me your phone. I want to check my broadcast chat.”

“Well… if you check with Barcode’s account… Oh, I handed it over to the manager. Here you go.”

After receiving Curry’s phone, I logged into Twitch immediately.

It seemed to have automatic login enabled, as I accessed Curry’s account.

At the top of the followed channel list, I saw Barcode’s channel.

Instead of entering the broadcast directly, I checked the list of followed channels.

I thought any guy would have at least one female cam-related channel followed.

But there wasn’t a single female cam streamer or even a general female streamer in Curry’s followed channel list.

I was looking for material to tease Curry with.

Seeing how suspiciously clean his list of followed channels was,

Could it be that Curry’s bizarre rumor wasn’t just a rumor but the truth…?

“…I knew something was off.”

I muttered softly, so quietly that Curry sitting next to me couldn’t hear, and logged into the broadcast.

Due to the broadcast delay, the chatroom was still flooded with messages about Rine.

[Info: Rine didn’t disappear from the viewer list during the Pocky game broadcast.]

[Rine’s excuses are ridiculously cute LOL.]

[Rine, didn’t you type ‘I envy Curry’ in the chat during that time?]

[Of course, Curry is enviable LOL…]

[His only flaw: ‘Top.’]

[LOL If he gets over his top syndrome, he’ll be perfect.]

[How do you cure top syndrome? It’s incurable.]

“Rine, did you really type ‘I envy Curry’ during our Pocky game broadcast?”

“Huh? No, I don’t remember typing anything like that!”

“Really? The viewers say you did, but you say you didn’t… This is quite the puzzle.”

To an outsider, it might look like I was simply teasing Rine.

But in reality, I was tormenting Curry, who was staring ahead with a dejected expression.

Teasing Rine was mildly entertaining, but without Curry, I wouldn’t have been able to laugh naturally.

“Rine, the replay is still available. Should we check if you typed that chat or not?”

“No, that wasn’t my intention at all! Really, it wasn’t. But now that I think about it, it could be interpreted that way… Oh no, what am I even saying…”

Rine, clearly flustered by the mention of the replay, started rambling and eventually hung her head.

Perhaps Rine’s reaction was endearing.

Before I knew it, Curry’s face was blooming with a smile.

“What could Rine possibly lack to envy Curry? I’m curious.”

“Well, it’s just because you’re living with Barcode! It’s purely fan admiration! That’s all!”

I could have stopped the conversation on this topic, but I decided to continue.

I couldn’t help it—my twisted nature wouldn’t let me quietly watch Curry.

“Hmm… It doesn’t seem like it’s just fan admiration, though?”

 

“It really is… Please believe me…”

Still, since we were practically strangers, I decided to stop teasing Rine and turned to Curry.

“Alright. Honestly, isn’t it common for fan admiration to work like that?

When a streamer struggles, it’s entertaining, and when they’re happy, it’s also entertaining.

That’s what fan admiration is.”

Curry, however, gave me a tired look, as if to say, “That doesn’t apply to you.”

By now, we were running out of things to talk about, and my throat was getting tired from the constant chatting.

At that moment, the pension we were heading to came into view.

“We’re almost at the pension. I’ll end the stream for now, unpack our luggage, rest a bit, and then start streaming again.”

[Hurry up and get here!]

[Mom, where are you going without me? Mom, where are you going without me?]

[Ending the stream like this? Just torture me instead.]

[Do a real live pension review broadcast!]

[The world suddenly stopped.]

And with that, I wrapped up the impromptu drive stream.

Curry wiped the sweat off his forehead as he looked at the neatly organized luggage.

“Phew… Is it finally over?”

Since arriving at the pension, Curry had been carrying the luggage packed into the trunk.

Not only did he carry it, but he also organized it inside the pension all by himself.

It wasn’t that the three women had dumped the task on Curry; he had volunteered to do it.

He thought that by showing such a sweet side, Rine would surely take an interest in him.

This backbreaking labor was the result of his unrealistic delusions and inflated expectations.

Though he himself didn’t realize that what he was doing was backbreaking labor.

In any case, after finishing the luggage organization, Curry stepped out to check what the women were up to.

The pension had three floors, and since the women weren’t on the first floor, Curry climbed the stairs to the second floor.

“Huff… Huff…”

Having exhausted his energy on the luggage, Curry was out of breath just climbing one floor.

When he reached the second floor, the first thing that caught his eye was the large spa in the center.

Next, he saw the women gathered around the spa, sitting close together.

The women had their feet dipped in the spa, but Curry’s eyes were only drawn to Rine,

who was sitting between the manager and Barcode, laughing joyfully.

Only.

The women sitting on either side of Rine were undeniably beautiful, but Curry couldn’t help keeping his eyes on Rine, knowing full well that she only cared about Barcode.

For some reason, his gaze kept drifting toward her, and he couldn’t stop the smile from forming on his lips just by looking at her.

‘In a way, thanks to Barcode, I get to travel with Rine…’

Curry shook his head at the thought that this whole situation was made possible because of Barcode.

Of course, without Barcode, this trip wouldn’t have happened.

But the reason Barcode invited Rine on this trip was painfully obvious, making it hard to accept.

“Curry, why are you standing there blankly?”

“Huh? Oh. I was just lost in thought.”

Before he realized it, Barcode had come up right in front of him, narrowing his eyes.

Whenever Barcode was about to do something unpleasant, he always had that expression.

“The facilities here are better than expected, right? You must have had a hard time moving all the luggage. You should enjoy the spa.”

“Oh, yeah. Right…”

Of course, Curry also wanted to enjoy the spa, so he casually agreed with Barcode.

However, drenched in sweat from carrying all the luggage, he couldn’t enter the spa just yet.

“The bathroom is over there. You should clean up and enjoy it properly.”

Barcode smiled slyly and, out of nowhere, linked arms with Curry.

Caught off guard, Curry tried to pull away, but he couldn’t.

Surprisingly, Barcode was strong, and with Curry already exhausted from moving luggage, it was difficult to resist.

“What’s this all of a sudden…?”

“It’s a ‘marriage arrangement,’ right? Since we’re on a trip, let’s not be distant and awkward.

We don’t want things to feel unnatural during the broadcast later, so just think of this as a rehearsal.”

With no good rebuttal coming to mind, Curry simply walked along as Barcode led him.

As he passed by the spa with Barcode still holding onto his arm, Curry caught a glimpse of something.

Just moments ago, Rine had been laughing and creating a lively atmosphere.

But now, she had lost her smile, looking at him with a cold expression.

“Curry, do you not exercise?”

“Huh? Oh, no. I don’t do any specific exercises.”

“Exercise is important, especially for someone who streams.”

As if a good idea had struck him, Barcode continued in a subtle tone.

“Why don’t we do a joint exercise stream together sometime?”

“Haha… I’ll think about it.”

Though Curry politely declined, Barcode’s determined gaze made it clear he wouldn’t give up.

For some reason, Curry felt like he’d end up exercising with Barcode soon and hurried to the bathroom.

He washed thoroughly, but the sweat smell lingering on his clothes still bothered him.

He couldn’t take a full shower since he hadn’t brought a change of clothes.

While there were robes available, he couldn’t wear one without anything underneath in front of the women.

Reluctantly, he opened the door to fetch his clothes, only to meet Barcode’s gaze standing right outside.

“What brings you here…”

“Here are your clothes, Curry.”

Barcode handed over neatly folded clothes to Curry.

Seeing his underwear included, Curry was momentarily flustered but quickly regained his composure.

He felt that showing his embarrassment would be playing into Barcode’s intentions, so he forced himself to act unaffected.

“How did you know I needed clothes…”

“We walked arm-in-arm earlier, remember? I caught a faint whiff of sweat then…”

After Barcode finished speaking, an awkward silence settled between them.

“Oh, uh… I’m sorry if it bothered you!”

Visibly embarrassed and flustered, Curry hurriedly apologized.

Watching Curry’s reaction, Barcode smiled mischievously and spoke softly.

“Actually, the sweat smell wasn’t that bad.”

“What?”

“I was just joking.”

Hearing it was a joke, Curry let out a hollow laugh.

“Hah… Well, I’m glad it was just a joke. I thought I’d die of embarrassment.”

“Wash up thoroughly and come out. I’ll be waiting.”

With that, Barcode left, leaving Curry feeling uneasy.

Barcode wouldn’t normally back down after finding a good opportunity, yet he did this time?

“Suspicious…”

Something about Barcode’s behavior felt off, but Curry couldn’t do anything about it for now.

He took off his sweat-soaked clothes and started showering.

Ssshhh—

At this moment, Curry was unaware.

He hadn’t yet retrieved the phone he lent to Barcode during the drive stream.