"Are you interested in internet streaming, by any chance?"
Lee Sae-a's breath caught in her throat.
Her hands and eyes trembled against her will, but she couldn't make them stop.
Internet streaming.
For her, it was a word wrapped in equal parts love and hate.
It was a welcome means of earning her living expenses.
And it was also a suffocating endeavor — one that demanded she engage, without pause, with a nameless, faceless crowd.
She had never revealed to anyone that she streamed.
Lee Sae-a and the streamer Rea.
The moment the boundary between those two blurred, the ordinary life she had barely managed to maintain could come crashing down.
*…Could it be?*
And now.
Ryuzaki was shaking that very boundary.
"What prompted you to ask that?"
"Oh, nothing much — I was just wondering if you were into it too. Don't worry about it."
Why streaming, of all things?
Even if he watched streams himself, there was no reason to bring it up with her specifically.
But then — why ask me?
To get closer?
If that were the case, there was no reason to bring up streaming as a topic. People didn't usually ask a girl their age whether she watched streams just to get to know her.
And if he'd genuinely wanted to get closer, he wouldn't have ended the conversation right there with *"Don't worry about it."*
That left only one possibility.
"Actually, I came across a streamer yesterday whose voice sounded a lot like yours."
"……"
Her heart plummeted.
And Lee Sae-a knew it instinctively.
This guy knows I'm Rea.
He's probing me about it right now, in his roundabout way.
The moment that realization landed, a wave of nausea rolled through her.
A secret she had never shared with anyone.
A secret she had fought desperately to keep — and the one person who had found out was her club's only other member.
Of all people, a delinquent.
…Though, to be fair, judging by how he'd conducted himself lately, his behavior and manner of speaking were surprisingly proper, whatever his appearance might suggest.
But no one ever truly knows another person's real face.
Lee Sae-a slowly closed her eyes and steadied her breathing.
She had no patience for dragging things out.
She had no desire to dance around the subject, burning through her emotions, when they both already knew what the other was thinking.
"As you've guessed, I make my living through internet streaming. You found out rather cleverly."
"Well, it just sort of happened."
"Does anyone else know?"
"No. I haven't told anyone."
And so Lee Sae-a cut straight to the point.
"What is it you want?"
"……"
"If it's within reason, I will give you whatever you ask. In exchange, can you keep this matter a secret?"
She was prepared to accept any reasonable demand.
It was better to end this now than to drag it out and spend her days trembling with anxiety.
But if he crossed a line.
If he demanded a large sum of money, or something involving her body —
she would go to the police immediately.
Ryuzaki blinked once, then tapped the desk lightly with his finger.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
That steady rhythm slowly gnawed away at her composure.
Fortunately, the torment didn't last long.
"Then… could I have that?"
Lee Sae-a swallowed without thinking.
"…That, meaning?"
"The chocolate bread in front of you."
…Chocolate bread?
There was indeed a piece of chocolate bread sitting in front of her. It was one of the breads she'd bought for lunch — a 200-yen chocolate roll.
"That's what you want?"
"Yes. Oh, if you'd rather not, the cream bun next to it is fine too."
It wasn't a matter of chocolate bread versus cream bun.
She'd eaten enough that she was reasonably full, so giving up one piece of bread was nothing.
The question was why bread, of all things.
If it was hush money he was after, there was actual money.
He could ask her to take over student council duties on his behalf.
There were any number of far more practical demands he could make.
"…That is no problem."
—Slide.
Just like the water bottle they'd exchanged before.
This time, the chocolate bread glided across the desk and came to rest in front of him.
"Thank you for the meal."
He didn't seem to have any intention of eating it right away — he set it aside to his left.
Watching him, Lee Sae-a asked again.
"And — what else do you want?"
"That's it."
"…Pardon?"
Her mind went blank.
"You're saying — that's truly all?"
"Yes. Or did you want me to squeeze more out of you?"
"No… that's not what I meant."
Her common sense and every expectation she'd had were betrayed without ceremony.
"You don't like it, so I have no reason to go around talking about it."
Don't do things that others dislike.
It was something everyone had heard at least once.
But the people who actually upheld that simple principle to the end were, surprisingly, few.
Most only kept up appearances.
The moment something to gain appeared before them, they'd start working out how to exploit the other person's weakness.
But this guy — why?
Looking at him, you'd think he was the type to dig up everyone's secrets and hold them over their heads.
*…Is he putting on an act?*
The thought crossed her mind for a moment, but she dismissed it inwardly.
If he were truly calculating, he would know that leveraging her secret for personal gain was far more profitable than simply spreading it around.
"Oh — then, would it be alright if I asked you one thing instead?"
"Go ahead."
Was he finally showing his true colors?
Her confusion shifted back into tension —
"When you're streaming, how do you manage to talk so easily with that many people? I feel like it would make me sick."
— and then shifted back into confusion.
Contrary to her expectations, his question was almost disarmingly wholesome.
Was there any information to be gained from this question?
No.
Then…
Why?
"Sae-a?"
"Yes."
"Are you alright?"
"I am fine."
"You don't have to answer if it bothers you. I don't want to put you in an awkward spot."
A look of genuine concern turned toward her.
Ryuzaki had said it — if she didn't want to answer, she didn't have to.
Under normal circumstances, she would have gladly accepted that consideration.
"It is nothing like that. I can answer."
But not right now, at least.
For some reason, she didn't want to turn away from his question.
She drew a breath and looked at Ryuzaki.
The kind of gaze that fixed itself squarely on what was in front of it, as if determined not to miss a single detail.
She had seen that look from him before.
It was the same expression he wore when he pored over documents.
And when he studied the textbooks he always brought with him.
Being on the receiving end of that gaze brought with it a strange, inexplicable pressure.
"The truth is, I am not particularly fond of talking with others either."
"Yeah, that seems about right."
"…You do not need to agree so readily."
"Ah, sorry."
Ryuzaki's deadpan quip made Lee Sae-a's expression flicker for just a moment.
But perhaps because of it —
the nameless pressure that had been weighing on her seemed to ease, just slightly.
"I create a mask. A mask by the name of Rea. So when I stream, I think and act not as Lee Sae-a, but as Rea."
"You separate who you are in everyday life from who you are when you stream."
"You could think of it that way. It is similar to acting."
Ryuzaki gave a small nod, as though something had clicked.
And then, the next question.
"So are you wearing a mask right now?"
"……"
The words stopped in her throat.
Not because she didn't want to answer.
She genuinely didn't know.
Whether she had always been this kind of person.
Or whether she had worn the mask for so long that she had come to believe it was her real face.
"…I am not quite sure."
"Is that so."
This had started as a conversation in which she was guarding herself against Ryuzaki.
Yet somehow, when she came back to herself, it had become a moment of quiet reflection on who she was.
The feeling that stirred in her because of it was — how to put it —
she couldn't quite articulate it, but it made her heart beat just a little faster.
Lee Sae-a watched Ryuzaki in silence.
He was staring into the middle distance, deep in thought about something, continuing to eat his lunch.
Lee Sae-a steadied her quickening pulse and asked.
"…Then, what about you?"
"Me?"
"Are you wearing a mask?"
Ryuzaki said nothing for a long moment.
Then, with a wry smile, he confessed quietly.
"I'm trying to take it off."
Lee Sae-a's perception of him shifted, just a little.
From someone suspicious —
to someone a little unusual.
"Is that so."
Lee Sae-a watched him for a while longer.
When had she last looked at someone for this long?
She felt oddly unlike herself today.
"Ryuzaki."
"Yes?"
"I am rather full, so — would you like the cream bun as well?"
It wasn't a bad feeling, all things considered.
Lee Sae-a peeled off a sticky note without a word and pressed it to the back of the cream bun's wrapper.
Then she wrote a small note in neat, compact letters.
[Weekdays: Live 7 PM – 2 AM]
[Weekends: Off]
***
—Creak.
A blond man stepped into a young woman's room.
"Beatrice. You got a minute?"
"Whether I do or don't, you never care."
"Ha, why so harsh."
The man dropped into a chair with a thud and laughed heartily.
Not that it mattered — the young woman didn't spare him so much as a glance.
At a passing glance, it might have looked like an ordinary sibling exchange.
"So. What is it?"
"We've got the west completely locked down now, so shouldn't we start eyeing the south?"
"The south? That's Ryuzaki-kai territory. Weren't you the one throwing a fit about not wanting anything to do with their boss?"
"Well, yeah. That old wolf Genma's no joke when he gets his eyes on something."
They might have looked like ordinary siblings, but neither of them was anything of the sort.
Nexus — the mafia organization that controlled the western district of Academy City.
Orta was the boss of its Tsukuyomi Academy City branch.
And Beatrice was his adopted younger sister.
"There's something I need you to take care of."
"…Does it have to be me?"
"Yeah. This kind of thing is your specialty."
"What is it."
Orta lit a cigar and spoke.
"You remember the Ryuzaki-kai young master?"
"I remember him. The reckless one who loses his head the moment he sees a pretty face."
"That's the one. Genma's precious son. Word came in that Genma and the young master had a big falling-out recently. Apparently things are pretty strained between them right now."
"So?"
Blowing out a stream of smoke, Orta continued.
"Go in while he's at his lowest and reel him in. Make him wrapped around your finger."
"You want to swallow up Ryuzaki-kai through him?"
"Exactly. Going after Genma directly is too risky, so we go after the son."
"I'm not following."
Beatrice glanced briefly at the cigar smoke.
"Genma's sharp. Last time, you lost the mind game and took a real hit because of it."
"…That's true."
"You're not thinking Genma would just abandon the kid?"
"Nope. Not at all."
Beatrice tilted her head for a moment.
Orta was far from normal, but he wasn't the type to make bold claims without a basis.
"Genma won't abandon Ren. No — he can't. There's a promise."
"…Well, if you put it that way."
"So go take care of it, my dear little sister. This is your specialty."
*My dear little sister.*
A grating phrase.
Coming from someone who didn't even think of her as real family.
But she had no choice but to comply.
Orta was her superior before he was her brother.
"I've told you how many times — smoke that outside."
"Ah, my bad~"
She would not fail.
The word *failure* did not exist in her vocabulary.
And it never would.