"…Sorry."
"I didn't know… that microphone was that sensitive…"
"It's not your fault." Su Yu let out a long sigh—the kind that sounded like it was emptying out half a lifetime of hardship. "Come on. We still have to follow procedure."
The scene felt painfully familiar to last night.
A few minutes later, Su Yu was once again standing outside the cramped bathroom door, facing the wall in silent penitence.
Reciting Memorial on the Expedition wasn't going to cut it anymore.
He tried to dredge up The Preface to the Pavilion of Prince Teng—made it as far as "The setting sun flies with the lone wild goose," and then his brain hard-stalled.
Forget it. The Chancellor was still the most reliable.
"Before the late Emperor's great enterprise was half complete…"
At last, the agonizing stretch of time passed.
When Kiana emerged from the bathroom, Su Yu sat back down at his computer.
He put on his headset, turned his mic back on. The game screen was still paused.
The game was paused, but the chat's intensity was ten times hotter than when he'd been racking up a pentakill.
[SU BRO'S BACK!]
[SAY IT! WHO WAS THAT GIRL?!]
[GIRLFRIEND? IT'S A GIRLFRIEND, RIGHT?!]
[THE SINGLE-DOG ALLIANCE LEADER HAS DEFECTED!]
[I DON'T LISTEN I DON'T LISTEN I DON'T LISTEN]
[SU BRO YOU'VE CHANGED—YOU USED TO LIVE WITH YOUR RIGHT HAND!]
Su Yu cleared his throat, trying to sound casual enough to cover up the disaster from earlier.
Pause ended. The game resumed. The next round began.
"Alright, alright—like I said, it was anime."
[LIAR]
[ANIME SAYS 'I WANT TO USE THE BATHROOM'?!]
[SU BRO YOU THINK WE'RE IDIOTS?]
[WHICH VA DELIVERED THAT 'I WANT TO USE THE BATHROOM'? THAT WAS GOD-TIER!]
"It really was anime." Su Yu didn't even blink. "I've been following a new show lately. The female lead is cute."
[WHICH ONE? SAY IT SO WE CAN GIVE UP]
[YEAH, DROP THE TITLE]
[IF YOU CAN ACTUALLY NAME IT I'LL BELIEVE YOU]
"…My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As I Expected."
Su Yu went silent for a second. In the blank white noise of panic, he grabbed a random scrap of memory from his past life and threw it out like a smoke grenade.
[IS THERE EVEN A SHOW LIKE THAT??]
[SU BRO IF YOU'RE GONNA LIE, AT LEAST LIE DECENTLY]
[I JUST SEARCHED—THIS WORLD DOESN'T EVEN HAVE THAT ANIME!]
He was done. He'd forgotten this was a parallel world—who knew if "Hachiman" even existed here.
Yeah. This world really didn't have that anime. He'd made it up.
Right on cue, Elysia's voice chimed in from the co-op window.
"Su Yu-chaaan~"
Her voice got even sweeter—sweet enough to marinate him.
"Pink Fairy Miss has very sharp instincts, you know That voice just now had such an adorable tremble, and that… mm, such a delicate sense of distance. It was obviously a real person"
She leaned closer to her camera, her breathtaking face enlarging on-screen as she blinked.
"And it sounded so young~ Is she Su Yu-chan's girlfriend? Or… is it an even closer, more unspeakable kind of relationship~?"
[ELYSIA'S STARTED]
[GOSSIP DETECTIVE ONLINE]
[PINK FAIRY MISS' INFO-GATHERING IS SSS-RANK]
[SU BRO YOU'RE FINISHED—NOTHING'S HIDDEN FROM ELYSIA!]
"Nothing like that." He charged his character toward Site A, trying to drown the conversation in gunfire. "It's just that the audio was too loud. Seriously."
"Really?" Elysia's doubt was thick enough to drip. "But Su Yu-chan, when you play FPS games, you always wear headphones for sound cues, don't you?"
[SPOTTED THE KEY POINT!]
[OH SHIT, TRUE!]
[IF HE'S WEARING HEADPHONES, HOW COULD 'LOUD SPEAKERS' GET PICKED UP BY THE MIC?]
[THE LOGIC LOOP IS CLOSED!]
[DETECTIVE ELYSIA IS SLAUGHTERING HIM!]
Su Yu's hand twitched. His crosshair drifted up into the sky.
Was this woman a demon? She remembered details like that?!
"I lent my headset to a friend today," he forced out.
"Oh really?" Elysia smiled like a fox that had stolen fish. "Then what is that big black thing on Su Yu-chan's head right now…? A new kind of hairband~?"
[HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!]
[CAUGHT ON THE SPOT!]
[SU BRO: THIS IS MY TRUE FORM, NOT A HEADSET.]
[GIVE UP, SU BRO—YOUR LIES IN FRONT OF ELYSIA ARE LIKE BEING NAKED.]
Su Yu fell silent.
He was, in fact, wearing headphones.
"…A spare pair."
The moment the words left his mouth, even he felt like a complete idiot.
[HELP, THIS EXCUSE IS SO BAD I WANNA CRY]
[SU BRO JUST ADMIT IT—IT'S NOT EMBARRASSING]
[I'M CRINGING SO HARD I'VE DUG OUT A WHOLE GOLDEN COURTYARD FOR YOU]
Elysia covered her mouth and giggled lightly.
"Su Yu-chan, honestly You're hiding such a cute girl, and you're still so shy"
She tapped her chin with a slender finger, looking like she'd seen through everything.
"Let me think With a voice that nice, she must be adorable too, right? And at this hour, still talking so… 'casually' in your home—your relationship must be very close"
"Is she the pure, cute type who gets shy and hides behind you~?"
[ELYSIA'S DEDUCTION IS HERE]
[SHERLOCK ELYSIA]
[SU BRO, YOU CAN'T HIDE IT ANYMORE]
Su Yu's temples were about to explode.
He glanced at the game—this round was nearly over, and his side was winning by a landslide.
He glanced at the chat—nothing but demands for him to "confess." Nobody cared about the match anymore.
If he kept playing, forget MVP—he might become the first streamer in internet history to die of shame live on air.
"This is my last game. Then I'm done."
He dropped that line and began a suicide-charge rush straight into the enemy.
[WHY RUNNING?]
[GUILTY CONSCIENCE! GUILTY CONSCIENCE!]
[DON'T YOU DARE LEAVE—CONFESS FIRST!]
[ELYSIA! STOP HIM!]
"Ehh Su Yu-chan is ending stream already?" Elysia sounded regretful. "But Pink Fairy Miss hasn't finished asking yet~"
"Another day. It's late. I'm tired." Su Yu kept it to a minimum, fingers blurring on the keyboard, desperate to end the execution as fast as possible.
Match over.
Victory.
Su Yu didn't even look at the scoreboard. He instantly alt-f4'd at light speed.
"Alright then~" Elysia sighed helplessly, then blinked playfully at the camera.
"But Su Yu-chan—running from the first day won't save you on the fifteenth~ Next stream, you have to introduce that mysterious little cutie to everyone, okay~♪"
[MISS ELYSIA IS RIGHT]
[SU BRO YOU OWE US AN EXPLANATION]
[NEXT STREAM MUST INCLUDE THE GIRLFRIEND]
[NO GIRL, NO STREAM]
Su Yu didn't respond.
"I'm off. Goodnight."
Click.
Disconnect. Stop streaming. Pull the plug.
All in one smooth motion.
But that was only the end on Su Yu's side.
In Elysia's stream, the carnival was just beginning.
She turned to her own camera with a meaningful smile.
"Everyone Su Yu-chan may have ended his stream, but Pink Fairy Miss' deduction time has only just begun"
Counting on her fingers, she started a neat recap:
"First, the voice sounded young—so she's probably not very old."
"Second, the accent was a bit unusual—not like a local."
"And most importantly—she said 'I want to use the bathroom' instead of 'I'm going to the restroom.' That unpolished straightforwardness…"
"Ahh—she must be a darling little kid with no scheming at all, maybe even a bit clumsy~♪"
Elysia's own chat exploded too.
[DETECTIVE ELYSIA IS TOO PROFESSIONAL]
[THIS ANALYSIS IS INSANE]
[SU BRO'S 'GIRLFRIEND' GOT STRIPPED DOWN BY ELYSIA]
[WAIT, NOT VERY OLD? SU BRO WOULDN'T… RIGHT?]
[DON'T TALK NONSENSE—SU BRO ISN'T THAT KIND OF GUY]
[BUT COHABITATION IS CONFIRMED, RIGHT?]
Elysia covered her mouth and chuckled.
"Either way Pink Fairy Miss sends her blessings to Su Yu-chan and that mysterious girl"
She leaned closer to the camera and lowered her voice.
"But if Su Yu-chan still refuses to confess next time Pink Fairy Miss might have to use… a few little tricks, you know~"
[ELYSIA'S GONNA MAKE MOVES]
[CAN'T WAIT]
[SU BRO YOU'RE DONE]
[PINK FAIRY MISS' METHODS ARE TERRIFYING]
....
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