༺ No Backseating Allowed! ༻
The next morning, after I got a call from Junseok oppa.
I felt uneasy beyond words.
“…What do I do?”
Actually, I knew what I was supposed to do.
Go downtown, experience VR at the VR Experience Center, docunt it and take a photo as proof. That was all.
But that wasn’t the main problem.
It was the thing that was left behind by Junseok oppa’s sudden absence…
The fact that I had to go with Taemin oppa alone…
If Minji or Junseok oppa were with us and we went in a group of three, I wouldn’t have any problem with that.
Junseok oppa was the type of person who’d keep talking about the group project, while Minji would constantly babble about different things, so there was no need for to keep the conversation going.
anwhile, Taemin oppa and I were the type of people who’d just sit there and react or listen to them speaking.
In terms of MBTI, the two of us were an obvious I.
I took a shower, dried my hair and opened the closet.
What should I wear…?
As I rummaged through my autumn clothes, I felt a little sad.
…It felt like I was going on a date.
Then again, whenever people saw a man and a woman hanging out together on the weekends, that was the first thing that ca into their minds.
There was a ti when I wanted us to do sothing like this together…
Never in my wildest dreams did I expect that we would end up doing it this way.
If I could turn back ti, I wanted to take back my confession.
Maybe if we got to know each other naturally like this, things would go a little differently.
I probably ssed things up by confessing too hastily.
When looking at Taemin oppa’s attitude toward recently, it wasn’t hard to think as such.
I wasn’t really trying to make a move on him or anything, but Oppa didn’t seem to hate all that much.
After all, who would volunteer to do the work of soone they hate?
Rather, it seed the opposite… He probably liked …?
I shook my head to get rid of such useless thoughts.
“Wake up! Kim Doah!”
I steeled my heart and took out a new cardigan I deed pretty among my autumn clothes.
* * *
I t Doah in the empty spot in front of the subway exit.
As it was the weekend, people were bustling about.
Well, at least the air was cool, and the weather was nice.
I had only been staring at my monitor at ho anyway, so it felt nice to go out like this.
Anyway, it was about ti she showed up…
Almost ti for our appointnt…
“…Hey. Why don’t you go talk to him?”
“Ah. You said you like him. Why are you telling to do it? You crazy bitch.”
…How cold.
The invincible antenna inside bristled as I listened to the two won talking in front of the tree across the street from .
This was what happened whenever I ca to crowded places like this.
People kept watching from a distance, whispering about . Whether I was alone or with soone else didn’t matter, they’d still do it anyway. I hated this.
Like, couldn’t they just go on their separate ways?
Why the hell did they talk about strangers anyway?
As those won, whom I had labeled as villains at this point, began to approach , I let out a heavy sigh.
I thought I should play it by the book, so I put on a cocky expression…
“Hello.”
A voice that was a little spiritless compared to the usual Luka’s tone.
Still, hearing Doah’s voice made happy.
Noticing those won stopped in their tracks, I thought of an idea as I let out a bright smile.
“What’s this~ Why are you so late~?”
I wasn’t the type to show a grin like this.
But it was a surefire way to destroy those villains.
When I looked sideways, I saw those won walk past , clearly looking ashad.
Doah-tan, you saved ! Like, seriously!
After making sure that those won were gone, I finally looked at Doah’s face properly.
“…Do you feel hot?”
“Sorry? No…?”
“Your face is red, though?”
“Huh? M-Maybe because I was rushing to co here? H-Haha….…”
She lowered her head slightly as her bangs turned into a curtain that covered her face.
“That so? We can sit here for a while if you’re tired.”
When I gestured my head toward the bench behind , Doah waved her hand.
“No, no. It’s fine.”
“Alright.”
I pulled out my phone, opened the map app, and led Doah in the direction pointed by the arrow.
Doah wasn’t that tall.
Just by looking at her, I could tell that her height didn’t even reach 160 cm.
Maybe that was why her feet looked especially active compared to , who was walking normally.
Wait, actually, maybe it was because I sped up my pace a little since it felt awkward that we didn’t have a proper conversation at all.
And so, I opened my mouth.
“Doah, you-”
“Yes?”
She replied with a startled voice.
“Ah… it’s nothing serious. Do you… um… do you hang out here often?”
“No. I’m the type who rarely leaves the house.”
Well, I already knew that.
「I don’t like hanging out outside that much.」
「Uhuh~ I do have friends~ Don’t lump in with you all!」
「But I don’t go out unless soone contacts first.」
“Ah… Really?”
Normally, this would be the part where I ask her what she did at ho.
But I didn’t want to slip up and reveal myself, so I just glanced back at my phone screen.
“…Have you been here recently, Oppa?”
“? I think it’s been about a month?”
This ti, it was Doah who asked first.
“Just to hang out?”
I nodded bitterly, recalling the day Yoonje took to the club.
“Sohow, yeah.”
“…I see.”
An inexplicable expression appeared on her face, followed by silence.
The VR experience center was about 15 minutes from the subway station.
“We’re here.”
“Whoa.”
Before coming here, I’d already read the place’s blog so I knew what kind of place it was, but after seeing it in person, I could safely say that it really was a flashy place.
“Have you tried VR, Oppa?”
“No, how about you?”
I have seen you doing it a lot, though.
“This is also my first ti, so I was just wondering if Oppa had so experience.”
I turned a blind eye to her smooth lie.
As we were standing still, glancing around unsure what to do, an employee wearing a na tag approached us.
“Co on in!”
“Thank you.”
“Is there any specific model you want to try out?”
A friendly-looking young man with bright eyes was staring at us.
“Ah… I just want to look around…”
Oh, no…
Ah. This had turned annoying already.
I got this a lot when I ca to a clothing store, but I was more of the ‘please leave alone’ type of guy.
“Ah~ then please co this way. I’ll guide you.”
Following what the employee said, I went in further and found various corners that caught my attention.
“This is where you can experience FPS gas firsthand. On the opposite side, you can experience sports, like ping pong or skiing! Also…”
The place was larger and had more variation than I expected. When the staff finished talking, we thanked him and stood in one of the corners.
“I guess it’s better to try everything while we’re here.”
“Maybe we should? That’s what Junseok oppa asked us to do anyway…”
“What should we start with?”
Among them, there were several gas that Luka often played on the stream.
She stread VR sports before, and recently, she also did rhythm gas.
“Uh… Then let’s start with an easy one…”
After looking around inside, Luka stood in front of the rhythm ga.
“Let’s start with this. It doesn’t seem too crazy.”
“Okay, let’s do that.”
Another employee, who stood in front of the device, explained to us how to use it.
“Which one of you will be playing the ga…?”
Since he handed the headset, I decided to play it first.
“I’ll do it. Doah, take pictures from behind, please.”
“Yes, yes.”
After I said that, Doah took a few steps back and took out her phone.
Sigh… Well, this would be quite sothing.
VR was very fun, but you’d look silly from a distance.
Then again, wearing a helt by yourself while swinging into empty air would obviously make you look silly…
Still, it was for the group project.
Even though I felt embarrassed to show my ugly side to Luka, I still put on the VR headset.
Then, my vision was filled with pitch-black darkness.
Before long, I could hear an elevated beat in my ears and clusters of stars in front of .
So it was like this…
The list of songs popped up when I shook the controller in my hand.
It was fascinating.
So this was how it felt.
When I picked an upbeat song and started playing, cubes with direction marks plastered on them started flying in my way.
“Dammit.”
Those cubes flew toward at a pretty high speed, and it was quite scary, so I waved the lightsaber in my hands.
Why was this so hard?
I used to have the [Lmao, skill issue] attitude when I watched Luka’s stream, but after experiencing it, that attitude was gone.
The sound of misses when I failed to hit the beat in ti kept on coming.
I probably missed half of them.
“Phew…”
After what seed like less than thirty seconds, I got a ga over, so I took off the headset and caught my breath.
I wanted to ask Doah to delete the video if she took one…
But her tiny lips were trembling.
Her round, scrutinizing eyes were glaring at right now.
“Do you want to say sothing—?”
“I really wasn’t going to say anything if you were sowhat decent, but…”
It seed she really had sothing to say to …
“No! Why are you shaking the controller like that?!”
…Luka-tan I thought were just going with the idea that we weren’t familiar with VR.
I was at a loss for words at Doah’s outburst.
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