Chapter 61: My Melting Heart

༺ My Melting Heart ༻People often made mistakes. 

I was genuinely trying to make Doah happy.

And so I said those words, thinking that she would be elated after hearing it.

Without realizing that I had only been thinking of myself all this time.

“G-Girlfriend?”

Jihee stuttered, almost like a person caught listening to something she shouldn’t hear.    

“Your ears are still working, at least that’s something.”    

Since it was decided that we’d be making our relationship public, when or where I’d announce it wasn’t particularly important.

I added more weight onto my hand that was resting on Doah’s shoulder.    

Consequently, her petite frame began to lean against my own.    

“So hurry up and apologize.”

I didn’t know exactly what she had told Doah, but it likely wasn’t anything good.    

Jihee bit down on her lip fiercely.

“What are you saying, Taemin?! You said it yourself, you didn’t have the luxury to go around dating anyone!”

“Well, once upon a time that was the case.”

That was because I was too busy watching Luka.    

“Now, it isn’t the case anymore, so you either apologize to her, or just fuck off quickly.”    

Class would be starting soon.    

Just as that thought crossed my mind, the professor entered the classroom.    

“Ha. What bullshit.”     

When she saw the professor prepare to take attendance, she swiftly turned and left through the back door.

Good, hurry up and leave.  

I took a deep breath before sitting down and turned my gaze to Doah.

“…Are you alright?”    

Sorry, Doah.

For yesterday’s matter too.

Because of me, she was harassed by some strange girl… 

“…How could you say something like that when everyone is watching?”    

Anxiety filled her small voice.

“Weren’t you the one who wanted this? Like, you were the one who said to publicize it since we’re gonna get caught anyway, no?”    

I wanted to see her expression, but her bowed head and cascaded hair shielded it from my gaze.    

“But there was no reason to be that harsh…”    

Harsh? I tilted my head, reflecting on what I had said.    

“I wasn’t being harsh at all, though?”    

“You called her ugly in front of everyone, Oppa…”    

“Oh, that.”    

I let out a smile. 

Well, that wasn’t any of my concern.    

Some 3D girl that was caked with makeup had no physical appeal whatsoever to me.

“Well, to me, everyone is ugly except you.”

It was half truth, half joke.    

As I let out a laugh, Doah jabbed at my thigh.     

“…Oppa, you’re a complete weirdo, do you know that?”    

That was the last thing she said to me before class started.    

* * *

「Alright~ What we’re doing today is~」

The viewers cheered as the stream’s immersion reached its peak.

「Coin Karaoke with Luka!~~ Yay~~」

Sitting in front of my desk, I opened a bag of snacks and prepared myself to enjoy the stream.     

Coin Karaoke, huh?    

How long had it been since she did a karaoke stream?

Before she auditioned for Closer, she did this often, but after the debut, she kinda stopped doing it. As someone who made sure to watch every one of her streams, this was wonderful news to me.

「Huh? You’re asking why it’s called Coin Karaoke? Because you all have to feed me coins so I can sing!」

Luka’s avatar showed a brilliant smile.    

At the same time, many question marks began to fill the chat.    

But that only occurred for a second.

After the first $5 donation, accompanied by a song request, the rest of the chat did the same thing and requested songs of their own.

「Alright~ this isn’t something that occurs often~ It’s a premium, limited edition event! Yahoo! Thank you for the $5 donation PinkEarthenPotSquid-nim!」

The songs they requested were quite diverse.

From the pop songs that everyone liked to the anime songs that would only appeal to hardcore otakus.

「Alright chat, it’s about time to close the request session! Any more than this, I’d spend the whole night singing instead of sleeping!」

Phew. Should I make a request as well?

Normally, I’d just do it without much thinking, but Doah knew my username now, so I couldn’t just do that…

Should I? Or should I not?     

「Alright, one last song! Does anyone have a request~? If not, I’ll wrap things up here~」    

Ah! Whatever!    

She should blame herself for being so cute.

As I made the donation, the notification rang out in the stream.   

「Finally~ the final request today was made by none other than~」     

Luka’s avatar, which had been smoothly moving, briefly paused.     

The camera captured the slight change in her expression.    

A slight furrow of her brow.     

「I’ll be singing Lucario-nim’s ‘Lovesick’!!!」   

As if nothing had happened at all, Luka wrote down my requested song into the notepad app on her computer.    

「Luka’s Karaoke starts now everyone!!!」  

Doah began to sing the requested songs one by one.    

The chat began to fill with PArmyCheer holding up glow sticks.     

I didn’t know who drew the emoticon, but they did too good of a job.

Since this was something I wouldn’t be ashamed of even if she checked my chatlogs, I comfortably continued to spam emotes along with the rest of the viewers.    

「Gazing at these dying flowers in the winter~」      

Ah. Luka-tan’s voice was too much!

Objectively speaking, it was hard to call her overwhelmingly talented or having an insane range, but her voice had this something that could make a male’s heart melt.

「You and I. Let’s treasure these moments of ours~」    

Luka’s rendition of a passionate ballad came to an end.     

As the music stopped, Luka coughed awkwardly.    

「H-How was it? My vocals aren’t fully warmed up, so I think my performance was kind of mediocre…」     

As if she wanted to see the reactions of the viewers, her pupils kept flashing towards the chat.    

Watching her gaze flashing back and forth was just so adorable.     

Even though she knew everyone would love her performance.      

Half the chat was spamming [Cute].

The other half was filled with hearts.      

「Ah~ Thank you all for listening! Let’s keep this momentum going into the next song!」    

The next song was a famous anime opening filled with nostalgia.      

Her voice only seemed to enhance the emotions associated with the song. 

「These feelings of mine that I wish to tell you~」

While calm and emotional songs suited her well, her compatibility with this kind of genre wasn’t bad either.

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As I bobbed my head along with the music as if I were at a club, I couldn’t help but giggle at myself.     

Because I realized that the song itself wasn’t important at all.      

The language of the song, whether she was good or bad at singing, all of it didn’t matter. I would still praise her all the same.

The reason why I watched her wasn’t because I liked her singing, but because I liked her.

Now that I verbalized those thoughts, it became seemingly obvious.

The Karaoke event, having spanned almost two hours up to this point, was coming to an end.     

「Ah. Sorry, everyone! I won’t be taking any more new songs~ If I sing any more, I won’t be able to go to my collab tomorrow.」    

「No! Seriously! Do I need to get a throat infection and not stream for a week before you come to your senses? Pink Army!」    

Honestly, I was disappointed to hear that the stream would be cut short.

I mean, it was Friday night…

Couldn’t she just play with us a little more?

If she didn’t know my username already, I would be typing [Hehehe you aren’t going anywhere].     

[Alright. I’ll be singing one last song before leaving! It seems this song request was made by Lu.car.i.o.-nim?]       

She said those words in a teasing tone.

But why was she reading off my username syllable by syllable?

「LoveSick is a really good song!」    

「I really like it too, so I listened to it a lot.」     

As the music began to play, Luka began to bob her head along with the music.    

Thinking about Doah doing the same in real life magnified the cuteness by at least double.     

「Love is a terminal disease. Somebody please stop me now~」    

「I keep coming back to you. Somebody please fix me~」    

Ah. This song was too good.     

I should save it later as my ringtone.     

This was a song I listened to often.     

And with Luka covering the song, there couldn’t be anything that made me happier.    

「Ah~ Lucario-nim! Are you satisfied? It would be wonderful if you enjoyed my performance.」     

None of the viewers noticed, but my body stiffened.     

Wait, why did you ask me that question? You didn’t ask anyone else before this!

「Okay, that’s all for today…」    

Naturally.    

The Pink Army’s resistance was fierce.     

[No! Luka-nim! It’s only been 3 hours and 12 minutes since you started, why are you ending the stream?’]

[Give me my money back. Give me my money back. Give me my money back. Give me my money back. Give me my money back.]

[seriously hahahaha. aren’t you cutting it too short?]   

Luka sighed deeply in defeat.     

She then dramatically came to a compromise.     

「Two more. Two more songs of my choosing, alright?」    

The Pink Army, who had received an emergency transfusion of stream time cheered loudly.

「Since I sang a romantic song earlier, I’ll just do two more songs by this singer.」

Doah then proceeded to sing two more songs by the same artist.      

After saying good night, she ended the stream.

–Riiiing.    

Then, my phone began to vibrate.    

In the past, I would be surprised if I were to get a text right after Luka’s stream ended, but that wasn’t the case anymore.

There was only a single message received.    

[…don’t donate 5000 won and just go to karaoke with me instead.]

[i can sing 10 songs for you if you want.]

Was romance always this sweet?

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