Nazuna Haname is the 'pure and innocent' idol of the popular Vtuber group 'Eclipse Palette.' But she has a secret she can't tell anyone: she's genuinely, hopelessly in love with her groupmate, the flashy gyaru Vtuber Kaname Grace.
During a live collab stream, Nazuna accidentally blurts out her true feelings. Not as a joke, but with a bright red face and streaming tears, she confesses 'I love Kaname-chan!' in front of thousands of viewers. The chat explodes. But instead of outrage, fans go wild:
Nazuna Haname Can't Tell a Lie - First Love Runs Even When You Run Away! The True Face of a Gal Found in a Late-Night Stream
Three days had passed since that day in the conference room "Spectrum."
Kaname Grace had vanished completely from Nazuna's life. She didn't pass her in the office hallway, and her messages on the app remained unread. It was as if she had never existed in this world to begin with.
In her small room at the "Corpo Hanamizuki" apartment, Nazuna sat hugging her knees.
Mochi, the white cat who ruled the room, rubbed anxiously against her legs. The fluffy fur tickled her bare skin.
" Mochi... do you think she hates me now?"
"Meow."
Mochi cried out as if in answer.
Outside the window, leaden clouds hung low and heavy. A sky that looked ready to weep at any moment. The eighteen-year-old wooden apartment building smelled of damp and mildew.
Soundproofing panels lined the walls. Her streaming microphone and monitor were still on, abandoned. The agency had ordered her to "refrain from streaming for a while." The aftermath of that live, serious confession still hadn't been settled.
(*Maybe I'll get fired as a Vtuber, too.*)
The thought flickered through her mind.
But right now, more than that—
She wanted to see Kaname.
That feeling was far, far stronger.
Nazuna opened her laptop. The screen's glow floated up in the dim room. This was what she had been doing for the past three days.
Rewatching Kaname Grace's stream archives. Every single one of them.
The "Eclat Parade Friday" group streams. The horror game playthroughs. The collab chats with popular Vtubers. The sponsored PR streams. The live broadcast where she tried cooking and failed spectacularly.
Every one of them was perfect.
Bright, energetic, a little risqué at times, but a gyaru-style Vtuber who was incredibly good at looking after her juniors. The comment section was always popping off. The Super Chat amounts were insane. Her subscriber count easily exceeded eight hundred thousand.
" Seriously? That's hilarious!"
On the screen, Kaname was always laughing. Her ash-blonde hair swaying, her narrow, sharp eyes crinkling into crescent moons.
But the more Nazuna watched, the tighter her chest constricted.
*No.*
*This—all of it—is an act.*
Nazuna knew what Kaname's face looked like when she truly smiled. That pained expression she had shown for just a moment in the agency's conference room. That face, on the verge of tears, saying she didn't deserve to be loved.
(*Where is Kaname-san right now, crying all alone?*)
The thought made it impossible to sit still.
Nazuna kept scrolling relentlessly through the archives. Three years ago, two years ago, one year ago, six months ago. She went further and further back in time. Her eyes grew bleary. The blue light from the screen stabbed at them.
She was practically past caring now.
*Something.*
*Isn't there something?*
*Something that shows me who Kaname-san really is.*
That was when it happened.
Buried in the deepest corner of her watch history, tucked away at the edge of the page, a single video appeared.
The title was "Late Night Chat."
The thumbnail showed Kaname's avatar sitting with her head slightly bowed, in a room lit far more dimly than usual.
Play time.
18 minutes.
The upload date was winter, one year ago. And what caught Nazuna's eye most of all was the status label.
"Private."
It wasn't on the agency's official channel. It didn't come up in searches. It was ghost data, lingering quietly only on someone's external archive site.
With trembling fingers, Nazuna clicked the video.
A low hiss of static.
On the screen, Kaname sat in silence. No trace of her usual gyaru speech. Wordless. Only her avatar's eyes seemed to be gazing somewhere far away.
" ...Ahh, yeah, maybe I should just delete this."
Kaname's voice.
Small, frail, a voice that sounded like she was talking to herself.
" I'm sure I don't have the right to be someone's number one."
Nazuna's heart leaped in her chest.
*This is it.*
*This is Kaname-san's real voice.*
" Every time I fall for someone, I just end up hurting them. So I've thought so many times... maybe I should just disappear on my own."
Kaname laughed, a small laugh.
But she absolutely wasn't laughing. The facial features traced the motion of a smile, but her voice seemed on the verge of fading away entirely.
" Ahh, crap, I don't even know what I'm saying. Forget that! I'm deleting this! I'm definitely deleting this!"
Suddenly, Kaname reverted to her usual gyaru tone. But her voice was breathless, and it was painfully clear she was forcing herself to be loud.
*Click.*
The video ended there.
Nazuna took off her headphones. Deep in her ears, Kaname's voice—"I don't have the right"—kept spinning around and around.
"Meow."
Mochi rubbed against her leg again.
Nazuna felt a sharp, burning heat behind her eyes.
*No.*
*That's absolutely wrong.*
*You were my number one. That day fifteen years ago, at Midori Park, you were the kindest big sister in the world who saved me when I was crying.*
Nazuna rose from her chair. Forcefully. At the sudden motion, Mochi, who had been on her lap, let out a startled "Mew!?" and jumped off.
" Sorry, Mochi! I'm going out for a bit!"
Nazuna grabbed a hoodie, clutching only her smartphone and her house key. She shoved her wallet into her pocket. A light rain was beginning to fall outside. She didn't have the presence of mind to grab an umbrella.
Her destination was decided.
Setagaya Ward.
Where Kaname Grace's home was.
—Though, she didn't know the exact apartment name. All she knew was the nearest station and a vague recollection of a building called "Grand Forte" something-or-other.
Even so, she couldn't stay still.
She had to see Kaname. Right now.
She had to tell her.
"You do have the right."
She jumped onto the train.
From the next car, she could hear the cheerful laughter of young people. Caught slightly in the evening rush hour, the train was moderately crowded. Holding onto a strap, Nazuna stared out the window.
The rain was gradually getting stronger. Droplets streaming down the window glass blurred and smeared the streetlights outside.
(*This time, it's my turn to save Kaname-san.*)
The scene from fifteen years ago surfaced on the back of her eyelids.
Herself, crying in the spring sunshine with a scraped knee. The other kids calling her "germ," throwing sand at her.
Then, a shadow fell over her.
"Hey, what are you doing?! Stop it!"
It was a voice so loud it was almost frightening. But the face that turned toward the crying Nazuna was incredibly kind.
"It's okay now."
The hand that reached out to her then had been so warm.
Fifteen years since that day.
*This time, I'm the one.*
Repeating that in her heart, Nazuna stepped out into the streets of Setagaya.
The rain was now a full-on downpour.
For the time being, she searched for apartments with "Grand Forte" in the name on her map app. Three hits. The first was near the station. The second was near a row of cherry blossom trees. The third was in the middle of a residential area.
Nazuna went to all three.
She passed students on their way home from school, running without an umbrella. Water splashing from puddles stained the hems of her jeans.
The first one. Wrong.
The second one. Wrong.
The third one was wrong, too.
None of the "Grand Forte" buildings held any trace of Kaname. She stood frozen, staring up at the auto-lock doors.
"Hah... hah..."
She was out of breath. The rain plastered her bangs to her face, obscuring her vision. She had been wandering aimlessly for over an hour and a half. The lukewarm pre-summer rain mercilessly sapped her body heat.
She found a small, deserted park in the residential area.
As if drawn in, Nazuna stumbled into the park. Just as she was about to collapse onto a bench—
*Creak... creak...*
Mixed with the sound of the rain, she heard a regular, metallic sound.
She turned around.
In the corner of the park. Under a large cherry blossom tree, an old, weathered swing set.
Someone was sitting there.
Long hair, soaked with rain, clung limply to their shoulders. She couldn't see their downturned face. But above the left ear, something glinted. Several colorful hairpins, fastened in a crisscross pattern.
Her heart felt like it was going to leap out of her mouth.
"...Kaname-san."
Her voice trembled.
The person on the swing flinched and looked up.
It was Kaname Grace.
Not her usual streaming avatar. No makeup, bare-faced. Her ash-blonde hair had darkened, soaked by the rain. Her narrow, sharp eyes were opened wide, as if she were looking at a ghost.
"Na-Nazunacchi...!? What are you doing, in a place like this..."
Kaname was clearly shaken. She tried to stand up from the swing, slipped, and stumbled.
" Whoa, you scared me! What a coincidence! You got business in Setagaya?"
*Again.*
*She's putting on the gyaru mask again.* A bright voice, a light tone. But the frail, soliloquizing voice from the "Late Night Chat" she'd just heard was far more real.
Nazuna planted herself in front of Kaname.
She spread her arms, blocking her escape. She found herself looking up at Kaname, who was a good ten centimeters taller than her.
" I know."
"Huh? Know what?"
" Last night, I found it. The stream you deleted right away, from a year ago. You said, 'I don't have the right to be anyone's number one.'"
The color drained from Kaname's face.
Before her eyes, Kaname's lips began to tremble.
" ...You saw that."
"I saw it."
" I deleted that! Why would you—! I mean, that was a lie! It was just, like, a bit to hype up the stream, that kind of thing, I was just doing my usual thing—"
"You're wrong."
Nazuna said it flatly.
" You're really not cut out for lying, Kaname-san. That was your true feelings."
"Shut up! What the hell do you know?!"
Kaname's voice cracked. There was no trace of the gyaru vibe left. Just a single, wounded twenty-two-year-old girl standing there.
" I've been watching you. All this time."
Tears spilled from Nazuna's eyes. Mingling with the rain, it was impossible to tell which was which.
" Fifteen years ago, at Midori Park. When I was being bullied, the big sister who saved me. That was you, Kaname-san. Do you remember?"
Kaname's eyes widened.
" ...Midori Park."
" Ever since that day, my number one has always been you, Kaname-san. Rights, or whatever—I'm the one who decides that!"
Nazuna shouted with all her might. Straining to be heard over the sound of the rain.
" I love you, Kaname-san! Of course you have the right to be someone's number one! Because you've been my number one for a long, long time!"
After she finished shouting, silence fell over the park.
Only the sound of the rain continued to pour down between them.
Kaname stood rooted to the spot. Her face was crumpled, looking ready to burst into tears at any moment, but she was desperately holding them back. The gyaru mask was nowhere to be seen now.
" ...Are you stupid or something?"
It was a strangled voice.
" I'm fine with being stupid."
" ...What's so good about me? I betrayed my best friend, I've told a ton of lies. I'm just a horrible woman who only hurts people."
Tears finally fell from Kaname's eyes.
The chains of the swing creaked as they swayed in the wind.
" No matter how much I run away, you just keep chasing after me. You haven't changed a bit since you were a kid."
Wiping her tears roughly with the back of her hand, Kaname laughed, a small laugh. This time, it was a real smile.
" ...It's pointless, isn't it. Running away."
Kaname's trembling hand gently squeezed Nazuna's hand in return.
Fingers chilled to the bone by the rain slowly intertwined with fingers just as cold.
Nazuna squeezed back. Determined never to let go.
For a while, the two of them just stood there in the rain.
Words were no longer necessary.
Only the warmth of their touching palms spoke volumes.
—However.
Neither of them noticed. From the shadow of a streetlight at the park entrance, a single smartphone was steadily capturing their figures in photo
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