Chapter 2: Voicecord

༺ Voicecord ༻There were tons of girls who flirted with me, so I couldn’t remember each of them.

None of their confessions were genuine anyway.

They didn’t even know enough about me to confess.

Only did it because I was tall and handsome.

Probably thought that I was a nice object to show off.

But I still remembered Kim Doah’s name.

Because the face she made when I rejected her was still so fresh in my mind.

Neat brown hair. 

Dark brown round eyes.

The eyes that were half-filled with tears after rejection.

Why was she crying when she only confessed to me for my looks?

We didn’t exactly have a close relationship. So why did she have to put me in this uncomfortable situation by making an expression like a heroine in the last episode of an anime?

As I recalled what happened back then, I shook my head.

“Forget it… It’s been already months ago.”

It wasn’t like I was blaming Doah or anything. She didn’t deliberately make me be in the same group as her.

The professor’s random picker was the one at fault here. It couldn’t read the room at all.

Setting Doah aside, I grabbed my mouse and browsed Luka’s clips posted this week.

I saw this.

And this one.

This one was the one I uploaded.

Luka usually streamed about three times a week, as she said she was unable to do it often due to real life matters.

Her fans, the so-called Pink Army, including me, were always telling her to forget about real life and stream seven days a week. But she kept on ignoring our cries, using the words, ‘But I need to go to school!’ as an excuse.

Basically, her infrequent streams made her viewers thirstier.

I was thirsting for Luka like crazy.

“Haa… I watched everything… Fuck…”

Using my hands, I rubbed my tired eyes.

Of course, it wasn’t like I had no other ways to kill time, but Luka was still number one in my heart.

I loved how talkative she was, how she understood otaku slang very well, how she’d sprinkle in a little bit of Japanese in her sentences… And just how real her reactions were instead of feeling fake.

Ugh… I can’t…

I immediately went to Youtube and started binge-watching. It wasn’t until then that I was able to find peace of mind.

How nice would it be to have a girlfriend like Luka-tan…?

I could die happy…

Dingdong-

Suddenly, there was a notification from the Voicecord group chat.

[is everyone on voicecord?]

The sender was Junseok, the group leader of the project this time.

[Yeah, I’m here]

[me too!]

The other person was Park Minji.

We were in the same department, but I’ve never talked to her before.

In the first place, I only spoke to a small number of my female classmates as I was trying to avoid talking to girls.

[taemin and minji are here, so we’re just waiting for doah i guess?]

[She’ll come soon. I guess.]

[we need to decide the theme first anyways, let’s start the call when she’s here.]

[yesss]

After about three minutes of chatting among ourselves, Doah finally showed up in the group chat.

[oh, sorry for being late. something came up hehe.]

[alright starting the call now join up]

When I put in my earphones and pressed the voice chat button, I heard Junseok’s voice.

「Ah, can you hear me?」 Sᴇaʀch* Thᴇ ɴ0velFɪre.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

「Yes! Sounds good.」

「I can hear you too, Minji. Hey, Taemin. Say something.」

「Yeah, I hear you.」

「Okay… Taemin is fine… Is Doah late again? Why isn’t she joining?」

At that moment,

Tiriring.

The sound of a new person joining in.

「Ah, can you hear me?」

「Yes, Doah. Why are you so late?」

Junseok scolded her in a playful manner.

「Oh… I’m sorry…」

「What’s this? Are you playing a game at the same time, Doah?」

「Sorry?」

「I mean, it says under your name that you’re playing a game, you know?」

「Ah… I played it earlier today and left it open. I’m not late because of that.」

The more I listened to their conversation silently, the stranger it became.

That Kim Doah.

Why was her mic quality so good?

I could tell from the background noises that Minji and Junseok were wearing regular earbuds, but in Doah’s case, there were none of those. It was as if the world around her was silent.

It wasn’t much different from Luka’s stream a while ago.

「Really? Doah, what rank are you?」

「I’m not good.」

「Silver?」

「No. It’s bronze.」

「Hey. Quit rambling.」

I quickly brought them back on track when I noticed they were rambling on rather than starting the meeting,

「Alright, alright. Now that we’re all here, let’s start the meeting. Let’s review the theme that was discussed in class…」

Since I wasn’t all that pumped about making this advertisement, I was fine with anything they came up with.

For this particular subject, I just needed to follow the group’s lead to do well.

I wouldn’t contribute much even if I did step up anyway.

「To sum it up, I think the first and second drafts are good? What do you guys think?」

「I think the first one will earn us a higher score?」

「Minji chose the first one, how about you, Taemin?」

「Personally, I like the second one more.」

「Okay. How about Doah?」

「I…」

There was hesitation in her voice.

「I also like the second one…」

「I see… Then, we should proceed with the second one for now. Are you alright with this, Minji?」

「Yes yes. I’m fine with either, so let’s just go with the second one! I think it’ll be easier when making the visuals later too.」

「Okay… Since it’s still the first week, our goal is to decide on a theme and find any relevant articles or materials separately before the next class.」

In other words, he was saying that we weren’t doing anything in particular because this was our first meeting.

Despite being online, I felt uncomfortable having to spend time working together with Doah.

「Is that all?」

「Uh… I guess so? Does anyone have other suggestions?」

「Ah, Oppa. About next week.」

「Yeah, what about next week?」

「I don’t think I can attend if our meetings are on Tuesday and Thursday… Will that be okay?」

Tuesday and Thursday, huh?

I couldn’t help but secretly jump for joy inside.

Because I needed to get ready for Luka’s virtual idol audition on Tuesday and Thursday.

Phew… If there was a meeting on those days, I was going to attend it while having my tablet right next to me.

As Luka’s fan, I absolutely couldn’t miss that stream.

She had already passed the second round.

Only the third round and the finals were left.

Of course, I had no idea how the finals would proceed, but anyway!

Thank you… Thank you so much… Doah…!

I thought it would be rude to skip the meeting with a lame excuse, so I thanked Doah from the bottom of my heart.

「Ah… If that’s the case, I’m only free on Friday. What about everyone else?」

「I’m free on Friday and Saturday!」

「I’m fine with Friday, too.」

「Then let’s do it next Friday at around 7 or 8 pm after school. Okay?」

As expected, the world needed people like Junseok.

He made the meeting progress and concluded smoothly.

Not only that, he also had a sense of responsibility for the group’s grades.

If the group only consisted of four people like me, the project was doomed to fail.

「Ah. Thank you so much… I have a really important personal matter next week. I’ll do my best!」

Doah sighed in relief, probably just as much as I did.

「Alright, alright. Let’s wrap it up here! I’m leaving first.」

Ding dong.

Junseok was the first to leave.

「Then I’ll be going too~」

Followed by Minji.

I returned from the bathroom, thinking that it was over, and when I was about to disconnect from the call…

「Will the spring we spent together return again?」

‘Huh?’

At that moment, I was wondering if I had left Luka’s stream or clips on.

But only the Voicecord window was currently displayed on my desktop.

I looked at the desktop again, wondering if my eyes were playing tricks on me, and noticed that my heart was thumping even faster.

‘No… This…’

‘But why…? It’s…’

Swallowing hard, I turned the volume to the maximum.

「The warm sunlight and that blinding smile.」

It didn’t sound like it was sung in front of the microphone.

Instead, it seemed like the mic picked up the voice that came from afar.

But the voice was too raw and lively for it to be a recording.

And I could recognize this voice.

There was no way I couldn’t.

「Even now, you’re the reason I breathe.」

As the sound grew louder and closer, I could hear someone’s footsteps accompanying it.

「Hum~ hmmm~ hummm~」

It was a cheerful hum.

Followed by the sound of mouse clicking…

「Hello…? Taemin Oppa…?」

When I heard Doah’s perplexed voice, I kept my mouth shut.

「Hello…?」

When she received no response even after she waited for a few seconds, Doah disconnected from the call.

Ba-dump! Ba-dump!

My heart felt like it was about to explode, as if I had just run a marathon without catching my breath.

‘It can’t be, right…? I must’ve heard it wrong, right? This is…’

I had no choice but to pray earnestly that I just made a mistake.

‘This is absurd…’

‘There’s no way, Doah and her…’

But, if my suspicion was correct…

That meant, she was my idol, my ideal girl…

Luka-tan… I was the one who rejected Luka-tan.

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