[TS] Malicious Sniper

After Rine joined us, there was a brief awkward silence, but when she finally spoke, the tension eased somewhat.

Before long, the broadcast progressed with just Rine and me chatting, while I handed Ji-hye my smartphone to dive deeper into the conversation.

I wasn’t that great at talking to people, but as I interacted with various folks, I got used to the act of conversing.

Well, it’s not like I was enjoying chatting with Rine that much.

I found it amusing to see Curry fidgeting next to me, wanting to join the conversation, which encouraged me to keep talking with Rine.

But even I’m a person, so I couldn’t just keep up a talk show with Rine forever, and just when I was about to take a breather, Curry chimed in.

“Um…”

“By the way, Rine, I saw you watching when I did that Pocky game broadcast with Curry last time…”

I immediately interrupted Curry to change the subject.

Watching Curry’s face get crumpled in real-time filled me with unexpected joy.

“Oh, that… I definitely didn’t tune in live! I had a short break and only caught that part before I couldn’t watch anymore.”

“Really?”

Rine answered in silence to my question.

I reached out to Curry for the truth.

“What?”

“Can I borrow your phone? I want to check my broadcast chat.”

“Well… if you check with Barcode’s, oh! You handed it to the manager. Here it is.”

I took the phone from Curry and immediately accessed Twitch.

It seemed I was automatically logged in to Curry’s account.

I confirmed that Barcode’s channel was at the top of the follow list.

Instead of jumping into the broadcast, I checked the list of followed channels.

I thought a guy would definitely follow at least one female streamer, but…

There wasn’t a single female streamer in the channels Curry followed, let alone any girl cam channels.

I was looking for material to tease Curry, but the suspiciously clean follow list led me to think…

Could it be that those rumors about Curry weren’t just baseless gossip?

“…Somehow, it seemed odd.”

I muttered under my breath where Curry couldn’t hear and logged into the broadcast.

Due to the broadcast delay, the chatroom was still flooded with messages related to Rine.

[Info) Rine didn’t drop off the viewer list during the Pocky game.]

[Rine’s excuse is super cute ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]

[But Rine, you did type ‘I envy Curry’ back then.]

[Curry-shiek, I’d be envious too ㅇㅇ…]

[His sole blemish is ‘top’.]

[For real, if he can cure his top syndrome, he’ll be perfect.]

[How do you cure top syndrome? It’s an incurable disease.]

“Did you really type ‘I envy Curry’ during our Pocky game?”

“What? No, I don’t remember typing that!”

“Are you serious? The viewers say you did, and you’re saying you didn’t… this is a headache.”

If someone were to see this situation, they might think I was just teasing Rine, but…

In reality, I was teasing Curry while he stared blankly with a defeated expression.

While poking fun at Rine was entertaining in its own right, I wouldn’t have laughed so naturally without Curry around.

“Rine, the replay is still available, should we check if you really typed that or not?”

“No, it wasn’t meant that way at all! Really! But thinking about it, it could be interpreted as such… Ahh, what am I saying…”

Upon hearing about the replay, Rine became quite flustered, stammering until she eventually hung her head down.

Maybe it was just too cute watching Rine like that.

Before I knew it, Curry had a smile blooming on his face.

“I wonder what Rine was lacking that made her envious of Curry? I’m curious!”

“W-well, it’s just because you hang out with Barcode, so it’s fan feelings! I said I was envious out of fan feelings!”

I could have stopped the conversation at this point, but I kept it going.

Watching Curry in such a sweet state was too tempting for me to resist.

“Hmmm… that doesn’t seem like fan feelings at all.”

“It’s true… please believe me…”

Since we were still in the early stages of knowing each other, I decided to stop teasing Rine and turned to Curry instead.

“Okay! But isn’t it common to feel that way as a fan? When you see your favorite streamer struggling, it’s entertaining, and it’s fun to watch them enjoy themselves too. That’s fan feelings.”

“…”

Curry’s expression seemed tired as if he was saying ‘not really’ despite my monologue.

At this point, I was running out of conversation topics, and with our ceaseless chatter, my throat was getting sore.

Just then, I saw our destination, the pension, coming into view.

“We’re almost at the pension. First, we’ll unload our stuff, take a short break, and then start the broadcast.”

[Hurry up!]

[Mom, where are you leaving me? Mom, where are you leaving me?]

[Are you really going to end it like this? I’d rather be tortured!]

[Please do a real live pension review broadcast!]

[Suddenly, the world stopped.]

With that, I wrapped up the impromptu driving broadcast.

*

Curry wiped the sweat from his forehead while looking at the neatly organized luggage.

“Phew… finally done.”

Since arriving at the pension, Curry had been hauling all the stuff packed in the trunk.

He didn’t stop at just carrying things; he even organized everything inside the pension by himself.

It wasn’t like the three women had just dumped everything on Curry; he’d taken it upon himself to do it.

If he showed such a sweet side, Rine would definitely take an interest in him, right?

This delusion and inflated expectations led to a huge hassle.

He didn’t realize he was in over his head, but…

Anyway, finishing the unpacking, Curry stepped out of the room to see what the girls were up to.

The pension had three floors, and since there were no girls on the first floor, Curry took the stairs to the second floor.

“Huff… huff…”

Had he wasted too much energy on unpacking? Just climbing one floor had him gasping for breath.

Upon reaching the second floor, the massive spa in the center immediately caught his eye.

Then, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted the girls gathered around the spa, with Rine happily laughing between the manager and Barcode.

The women were dipping their feet into the spa, but all Curry could see was Rine, glowing without a care for anyone else and enjoying herself with Barcode.

The women beside Rine were also quite beautiful, but knowing Rine liked Barcode made it tough for him to look elsewhere.

He couldn’t help but keep watching Rine, each glance drawing a smile on his face.

“If you think about it, thanks to Barcode, I get to travel with Rine…”

It was true that this situation could only happen because of Barcode, but the reason Barcode invited Rine was all too clear, leading Curry to shake his head.

“Curry, what are you doing just standing there?”

“Huh? Oh, I was just lost in thought.”

Barcode had approached so close that he had to squint his eyes.

Whenever he seemed about to do something sketchy, Barcode would always wear that sort of expression.

“This place has better facilities than I expected, huh? You must’ve had a tough time moving your stuff around. You’ve got to enjoy the spa!”

“Oh, yes, right…”

Of course, Curry wanted to enjoy the spa too, so he nodded along to Barcode’s words.

But with all the sweat from moving things, he really couldn’t relax in the spa just yet.

“The bathroom is over there. You should hurry up and wash up!”

With a sly smile, Barcode suddenly crossed his arms.

Curry, caught off guard, tried to uncross his arms but found that he couldn’t.

Unexpectedly strong, Barcode’s grip was holding Curry back, and he was already tired from moving the luggage.

“What’s going on…?”

“It’s our couple practice, right? Since we’re on a trip, we can’t just keep it stiff and formal… If we seem awkward on stream later, it won’t do. Just think of it like rehearsal.”

“…”

Curry couldn’t think of a valid rebuttal, so he moved along with Barcode as he pleased.

As they passed by the spa with their arms linked, Curry caught a momentary glimpse.

Rine, who had been radiating warmth and laughter just moments ago, suddenly lost her smile and was looking at him with a cold expression.

“Don’t you exercise, Curry?”

“Huh? Oh, no. I don’t have a specific workout routine.”

“Exercise is important, especially for someone in broadcasting.”

Then Barcode spoke in a tone that seemed to spark an idea.

“How about we do a workout collab later?”

“Ha ha… I’ll think about it.”

Though he tried to politely decline, looking into Barcode’s eyes made him think he wouldn’t give up easily.

For some reason, Curry felt like he would end up working out with Barcode soon, so he hurried off towards the bathroom.

He washed up as thoroughly as he could, but the smell of sweat lingering on his clothes was still unpleasant.

He couldn’t even take a shower because he hadn’t brought a change of clothes.

Though there were robes provided, he certainly couldn’t wear one without anything underneath in front of the girls.

Reluctantly, he opened the door to grab a change of clothes and immediately locked eyes with Barcode standing right outside the door.

“What do you need…?”

“Here are some clothes for you, Curry.”

Barcode handed him neatly organized outfits.

Curry was shocked to see his underwear in the mix, but he quickly regained his composure.

He felt that if he showed embarrassment now, it would play right into Barcode’s hands, so he forced himself to act casual.

“How did you know I needed clothes…?”

“Well, you were walking around with your arms crossed, and I could smell a hint of sweat coming off you…”

After Barcode finished speaking, an awkward silence settled between them.

“Oh, um… If it offended you, I apologize!”

Curry hurriedly offered his apologies, visibly flustered.

Seeing Curry’s panicked state, Barcode took on a teasing grin and said softly,

“Honestly, you didn’t smell that bad.”

“Huh?”

“It was just a joke.”

Curry let out a relieved laugh after realizing it was just a prank.

“Haha… I’m glad it was a joke. I thought I was going to die of embarrassment!”

“Make sure to wash up well. I’ll be waiting.”

With that, Barcode left, but Curry felt a lingering sense of unease.

There was no way Barcode, who had just captured a juicy tidbit, would just back off like that.

“This is suspicious…”

Something about how Barcode had acted felt off compared to usual, leaving Curry feeling uneasy.

Yet, with nothing to be done about it for now, he peeled off his sweat-soaked clothes and started the shower.

Ssssssss—

Little did he know at that moment…

He still hadn’t gotten back the phone he had lent to Barcode during the drive broadcast.

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