Chapter 83: Scouting

I swear, this was just one thing after another!After putting up the stream cancellation announcement, I let out a deep sigh at the mountain of things I needed to do.

For now, I planned to dedicate my whole week studying for the exam.

Since I didn’t need to stream, I needed to make every second count.

-Riiing

Suddenly, my phone vibrated.

If this call was from Taemin oppa, I planned to talk with him briefly before hanging up, but unfortunately, it wasn’t from him.

「Hello?」

「Oh, yes, Luka-ssi, are you available to talk for a bit currently?」

「Ah, yes yes.」

I had talked with Manager-nim many times through Voicecord, but this was the first time we had a call.

Thinking about just the two of us talking made me a bit nervous.

「I’m calling you to check about the studio.」

「Yes yes.」

「First, we’ve finished the contract on our end, so you’ll need to come over to take a look at the place in person. Then, we will be moving your belongings on Thursday at 2 pm, is that correct?」

「Yes. That’s correct. I think it’ll be around then .」

「Understood. Then study hard for your exams and I will call you again on that day.」

「Yes yes, thank you!」

「Alright!」

I hung up the call, put my phone down, and stretched my body.

Since I decided to move my PC and monitor over, there would be quite a lot of luggage to bring over.

The fortunate thing was that the company would provide me with a desk and chair.

If they wouldn’t, then I’d need to sit on a hard chair for hours until I ordered a new one.

However, if you were to ask me if I disliked this tedious process or not, my answer would be no.

I mean, just imagine, I got my own office at the age of 21!

Yeah, sure, it was the company’s, technically, but c’mon! Who’d have their own office at this age?

I felt extremely proud of myself.

-Riiiing

At that moment, the phone rang again.

When I answered the call, this time I heard the voice I’ve been longing for.

「Who were you on the phone with?」

「Oh it was Manager-nim.」

「Manager?」

「You know, the person who helps out with CLOSER activities.」

「...Is it a man?」

「Geez. How many times do I have to say it’s a woman?」

I swear I’ve told him before, but it seemed he forgot about it again!

「Ah, sorry.」

He sounded embarrassed.

But the mood wasn’t bad.

「Why do you even ask? Huh? Could it be that you’d be jealous if she was a man?」

I asked teasingly while laughing, but for some reason, he didn’t respond.

「...Hello?」

「Well I would have been a bit upset that you didn’t answer my call because of another man.」

…Huh? He called me?

I moved the phone away from my face, put it in speaker mode, and tapped the notifications.

「1 Missed Call」

Ah… He did…

It seemed that I missed it because the call came right after the other one ended.

「Well, it’s fine since it’s a woman.」

When Oppa trailed off as if it didn’t matter, I didn’t persist any longer.

「Anyways, so, I’m moving this Thursday, is that time okay for you, Oppa?」

「What time?」

「2 pm.」

「So right after the advertisement theory exam ends. Can can.」

「Thank you.」

Now that I told him everything I needed to say, it was time to say goodbye.

I had no intention to talk for a long time with him to begin with, so I subtly brought the matter up.

「Then... I’ll get going now...?」

「What?」

「I have to study. You do too, Oppa.」

「We only talked for ten minutes though?」

This guy, did he really think that he was the only one who was disappointed by this?

Me too! I wanted to have fun too, you know!?

I wanted to chat and laugh together with him!

「We already agreed to play a lot after the semester ends, no?」

I really planned to play to my heart’s content during the winter break.

Like, maybe I’d go on a date with him every day except for the days when I had to stream.

I-If possible… Maybe a trip with him…?

But, the difficulty level was too high for me to suggest something like that at this point in our relationship.

「...Aegyo.」

「What?」

I didn’t overhear that, right?

「I said do aegyo in return. Kim Doah.」

A question mark popped up in my head.

「Hmm? What do you mean by aegyo?」

「Look here, I’m here sitting obediently and let you do whatever you want, but you won’t even do aegyo for me? Is that even fair?」

That was a very Pink Army-like logic, toxic. Still, I was curious to see what he had in his mind.

「Fine, what do you want?」

「Wait a min.」

I could hear the sound of him putting the phone down, followed by the messenger’s notification.

When I clicked on the mysterious link Oppa sent, it contained the clip I absolutely couldn’t do during the stream and rejected it.

「I’ll let you off if you do this.」

Which would be more embarrassing?

Doing this kind of thing in front of my first boyfriend? Or doing it in front of thousands of strangers?

I didn’t know which side the scale in my heart would favor, but in the end, I couldn’t win against him.

All that crap about if you like someone, then you lose was true, after all.

I closed my eyes after playing the clip one more time.

Let’s do this… Doah…

He said he wanted to see it like that, so I’d do it for him.

I wasn’t even hiding behind my vtuber model at the moment, but whatever.

At the very least he didn’t tell me to do it right in front of his face.

「Y... You knywo... Doah~」

Ughhhhhh...

Now I remember.

The reason why I didn’t do this in the first place, even though the dono was a big one.

Like… This was too much even for me, considering my high resistance to this kind of bullshit…

「Wikes when you pat her head~」

My hands and feet started to twitch and I could feel my eyes losing their focus.

Fortunately, there was no sound coming from the other side.

If I heard a mocking laugh here, I’d just stop and throw my phone away. Not even kidding.

「Pwease tweat Doah super duper kindly in the future~ You gyot that!」

Ugh, could I just end this call already?

I only tried to soothe his disappointment, why was I the one getting hurt here?

After that aegyo was done, a very, very perverted laugh came out from his side.

「Hehehehehe.」

At first I did it with a good intention, but now I just wanted to smack his butt. Seriously.

「Recording complete.」

…Record? Did he record that?!

「Hey! Han Taemin! Delete it! You god damn!」

Unbelievable!

He saved this as blackmail material, didn’t he?!

「Doah~ Study hard for your exams~」

Hearing his shameless voice, I stomped my feet, but the screen had already turned red long ago.

“Ah! So annoying!”

Seriously, was he my boyfriend? Or was he one of my toxic fans, huh?!

* * *

The difficulty level of the advertising theory exam was so-so.

It was mostly because the questions were focused on the points the professor had covered and there were really only about two questions that were being put there to fuck us over.

After I submitted the exam sheet and went outside, my girlfriend was already there.

She was waiting for me.

“You went out really early.”

She left the lecture hall just twenty minutes after the exam ended.

I never imagined that she’d solve all those questions that quickly.

“Ah... I just solved what I could and left.”

“You didn’t touch what you didn’t know at all?”

“Yes. You know, in this kind of exam, pondering over it doesn’t suddenly make more come out.”

That usually applied to exams that had you memorize things, but twenty minutes was still way too quick.

“So what grade do you expect for advertising theory?”

“Hmm... B, maybe?"

“Just B, not B plus?"

“Yes.”

Wouldn’t that be closer to a C?

For a moment there, I was about to say something, but I swallowed my words.

I felt like if the boyfriend said something about the girlfriend’s grades, that would just lead to her being stressed out.

Besides, I knew very well how busy she had been.

“Then should we go straight to your home now?”

“Yes. If we leave together now, I think we can arrive right at two?”

Today was the day when we’d move things to her studio.

We had finished preparing early on, so we only needed to carry her PC as planned.

“Should I call the taxi now, Oppa?”

“Do it.”

While holding the computer case, I nodded.

Soon, the taxi arrived, and we loaded all the luggage. Then, the taxi took us to our destination. It was close enough that we only needed to pay the base fare.

“Ugh, we should’ve just walked.”

Man, playing the base fare felt like a waste.

“Jeez, how can we walk up that hill with the monitor?”

As we approached the entrance of the building that would become Doah’s studio, a woman with short hair was waiting for us.

“Are you Luka-ssi?”

She gave me a gentle impression.

I put down the luggage and stood slightly behind Doah.

“Ah! Yes! Nice to meet you, Manager-nim!”

The two exchanged greetings unique to women. sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ N0vᴇlFirᴇ.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

They said it was their first meeting, but they already seemed to be super friendly.

“Ah, this is...”

When the manager turned her gaze towards me, Doah delivered the lines she had prepared.

“Ah, he’s an Oppa in the same year who agreed to help with the move today!”

With an awkward smile, I bowed.

“Hello.”

I thought it would end with just that greeting.

But, the so-called manager stopped to stare at my face, as if examining it.

When I tried to turn my head slightly because I was getting uncomfortable, an unexpected sentence flowed out of her mouth.

“Do you happen to be in an agency?”

...What?

***

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