My Virtual Lover

Live 32: Denial Stage

Logging out of APEX, she screams in frustration when she looks at the man he adores so much. Kani is the personification of a bully, he bullies her almost every day even when she’s idle. She often listens to the music bot in the Discord server, he joins in almost immediately but only comes there to bother her.

He likes to show off his APEX skills and remind her that her aim sucks, this triggers Jury’s perfectionism tendency to the maximum. Kani admits that teasing her is cute and he likes it, Jury hasn’t said anything about liking the treatment he did to her. She just thinks sometimes his jokes are too aggressive.

Jury jumps on her bed, screaming on top of her lungs as she curses Kani with all of her heart.

“Curse you Kani! I hate you!” she growls as she slams her pillow on the wall, hitting the wall with the apartment pillow. “I hate you! I hate every bit of his-”.

Not long after she receives a call from his father, she sees the screen flash the notifications of her father’s name. She opens her cellphone, answering the call from her father with a snort.

“Yes, father?” she growls annoyed.

“Are you having a bad day?” her father raises his eyebrows. “You sound like you’re angry”.

“Well, yes” she sighs heavily. “Anyway, what’s the matter father?”.

Her father cut to the chase that three days from now, he had to attend a Galla party for his friend’s son’s birthday. He wants her to join thus telling her to shop for more dresses, her father will be also there to choose the dress; otherwise, Jury would probably choose the worst dress for a birthday party.

“That’s a stretch!” Jury grumbles. “I’m not that bad”.

“Yes, you are! Don’t tell me you forgot the dress you picked the other day in London” Julius curt his lips. “You chose a gothic dress for your friend’s birthday party! With a skull necklace! How omen indeed”.

“That’s a choker” she corrects him while crossing her hand. “Relax father, I got it”.

“Enough Jury! You will have to come shopping tonight with me! We will go shopping until you get the perfect dress for a birthday party! Not a graveyard!” he yells at Jury’s ears. “Now, free your time around five o’clock in the evening! I’ll pick you up in the Jeep car”.

He closes the call abruptly, presumably busy with his architecture work. Jury groans as she lays on the bed, she needs to haste for her Livestream since she’ll be busy for the night. She prepares the Livestream equipment, practices her vocal chord for the Livestream. After that, she ensures that no faulty will take a turn in the Livestream.

She prepares for her gamer maid persona, knowing that she’s in a bad mood and all; hoping it doesn’t affect her performance as a Livestreamer.

* * *

Performing as the gamer maid lifts her spirits quite a bit, an hour has passed by from her playing APEX. She sees the ugly comments and good comments in the chat, strangely enough, none of the comments affect her mood. Rather remembering Kani’s comment about her terrible gameplay affects her greatly, which is strange.

She mumbles to herself then some of her followers notice the displeased tone of hers, it’s visible for her loyal followers to see that their Idol is in great distress. They ask her about her distress, Jury thinks for a while if it’s wise for her to share her problem. Her manager would be against the idea, hence she furrows her forehead as she thinks hard.

“So what’s wrong?” they ask the distress idol. “You look sad Rhapsody”.

Jury coughs awkwardly as she explains her ordeal in simple ways, she doesn’t go into much detail as she explains that she’s currently interested in someone online. She’s uncertain with her feelings of discomfort when that person teases her too much, it usually doesn’t affect her that much but his sharp words stung more than before.

She knows that Kani’s jokes are meant to be jokes, but the more she talks to him the more she wants to be serious. Kani’s action is unpredictable, so is his offensive joke. Jury is the type of person who wants a serious answer when it comes to something that needs to be addressed, but Kani is not that kind of person.

“Why am I angry about him anyway? I just admire him cause I like his gameplay but I don’t understand” she thoughts again. “Have I gone mad?”.

Her thoughts are then disturbed by her fans’ comment, saying that she might be accidentally falling in love with him more than just a friend. They all agree on the same thing that perhaps Rhapsody is upset because he doesn’t want to take any further step into the next relationship, which is probably why she is upset.

“The angry gamer maid is in love! No joke lol” the comment section is getting wild every second.

“I wonder who’s the lucky guy, he would be so lucky! Talking to the heavenly Jury every day as if she’s just a colleague!” another comment.

Various comments show in her stream, Jury is a bit overwhelmed with her fans’ reactions. Some of them disagree with the fact Jury likes someone since she’s an Idol, but some of them are also supporting her relationship. Jury thinks about it for a while as she remembers Kani’s first word when they met.

“Do you want to play together with me?” he asked nonchalantly back then.

Perhaps for Kani, those words mean nothing since he’s used to inviting someone to play games with him. At first, Jury feels enthusiastic as well, not because she likes him romantically but because he’s a pro APEX gamer. However, the more she hangs out with him, the more her feelings flourish into something more.

“No! That can’t be! No way!” she screams internally in her mind. “I don’t want to accept it! Not like this! I’m in the middle of my career!”.

Love is nothing but a hindrance in her path to success, hardships that are not investing according to her mind that is. She remembers how painful it is to be invested in a relationship called ‘love’ between two partners, it’s painful to be the one who’s more invested than the other party. It would be wiser for her to stay away from the relationship itself.

“She’s in disbelief, I can see that in her eyes” one of the fans commented on her eyes twitching on the screen. “Her avatar capture that! Good job face tracking!”.

“OMG! She’s in love with someone, doesn’t she!” another comment. “Sheesh! Fall in love with me instead! I’m not sure if that person is the right person for you!”.

The annoying fan then comes, she recognizes the name Maya021 everywhere, he always shows up to tease him when she’s upset or angry. He comments on the chat with a sarcastic smirk emoji on his comment. It’s an arrogant and boastful line of a child, something that attracts her attention.

“So what if she likes someone? It’s none of our business, I’m sure she picks that person because she likes her! But lol I wonder who wants to be Rhapsody’s girlfriend? This pouty angry girl? Heh, I doubt it” he smirks with an emoji. “That boy lacks a decent mind”.

She ignores Maya021 comment since he’s been contributing his super chat like a waterfall, something tells her that Maya021 is not as honest as he looks. Rather, his choice of wording reminds her of the times she chats with Kani, a suspicious coincidence. Her mind already wanders to Kani as she plays her APEX sloppily.

“Geez, she’s not even focusing on the game, I bet she’s thinking of that man she talked about just now! Now I want to know who’s the lucky person!” her fans discuss in the chat section. “Is it another Vtuber?”.

Everyone keeps spamming the chat with theories, Jury tells them to calm down and not spam the comment section with chats.

“Everyone, please calm down! I can’t read them all! Slow down!” she asks them to stop spamming. “You’re all so hyped up about this mysterious person I like, huh? It’s no big deal! I’m sure it’s just a momentary affection because I’m lonely! That’s true!”.

Denying her feelings, her determination is as stubborn as a rock. Jury keeps playing APEX until her eyes become red, exhaustion, and fatigue are nearly overwhelmed her body. She’s looking at the clock on the wall, noticing that she needs to prepare herself in an hour. Sadly enough, it’s time for her to bid her farewell.

“Alright! I need to go! I’m quite busy today so I’ll be back another day” she nods. “Thanks for coming everyone, I hope you have a good day ahead!”.

Jury sees her fans bid her farewell, she turns off the Livestream to take a bath before the appointed time.

"I wonder if I'll have enough time to take a nap, I'm sleepy" Jury jumps on the bed, rubbing her face on the soft bedsheet. "Work is so tiring".