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Later that same day, after my usual hour at the gym after school, I went to work and found Grace and Thomas there, sitting together at the counter. Thomas was talking to Maria while Grace was on her laptop.

“Hey dude,” Thomas greeted me. “How much are you lifting now?”

“120kg,” I told him as I walked behind the counter, taking off my jacket and putting my apron on. “Don’t think I’ll try for more. I don’t want to have to buy a whole new set of shirts. Good afternoon, Maria.”

“Good afternoon, Oliver,” my boss greeted. “I’m getting an order ready now. I’ll take it to the table, so can you take out the trash meanwhile?”

“Sure.” I nodded, then turned to Grace. “And what are you doing here?” I asked her with a smile, just happy to have her around.

“Didn’t feel like drinking coffee alone at home, so I came to bother you,” she said. “The others are busy today. Mila is going with her parents to check out a modeling school, even. Man, where does the time go?”

“Tell me about it,” Thomas nodded. “Felt like yesterday I felt like a grownup for getting into high school. Now we’re months away from graduating. It’s a bittersweet feeling.”

“Right?” Maria said, giggling. “I remember I couldn’t wait to get to university, but I also couldn’t stop crying the day I graduated.”

“I want to believe that won’t happen to me but I can’t make promises,” Grace said.

Thomas smirked and looked at me. “Will you cry, Oliver?”

I snickered. “No.” Then I went to take out the trash.

Me? Cry about leaving high school? The only reason I’d do that was if it meant I’d be separated from the girls. And we weren’t going to let that happen, so I had no reason to cry.

When I came back, Grace called me to look at something. “Love, check this out.” She turned her laptop towards my side of the counter and, curious, I leaned in to see.

It was a news article about AniLove, the agency that wanted to enter business talks with Noelle. I was in the middle of work so I couldn’t sit down and read it, but in my quick skimming I saw it mentioning that they were a newer, rising company with about 30 contracted V-Tubers that, between them, totaled around 18 million subscribers.

“They’ve been around for about two years, apparently,” Grace said. “Considering that, they’ve grown pretty quickly. They’ve focused on scouting new, undiscovered talent and promoting them a lot. No wonder Yuria caught their eye the moment she got some attention.”

You know, considering recent events and things I now knew… “Please don’t tell me this company is also owned by You Know Who,” I whispered to her.

Grace’s eyes widened. “I’ll check. I doubt he knows who Yuria is, but…”

“Hm? Yuria? Who’s that?” Thomas asked.

Right. He didn’t know. “Tell you later, but only if you can keep a secret.”

“If you don’t want me to find out, don’t tell him,” Maria said behind me.

“Uh…” Thomas and I muttered in unison.

“Man, she really has you by the balls, huh?” Grace teased.

I made my escape by going to wait on a new group of customers that had arrived. It was a fairly normal day, and that meant we were busy but nowhere near overwhelmed. I relaxed even more when Grace confirmed that Mr. Luke Allen didn’t own the AniLove company, stocks in it, and that they had no parent company.

So with that scary thought out of the way, I was free to think about other stuff in the short moments where I was filling cups of coffee or washing dishes. I still kept thinking back to the offer Noelle got, though, and I didn’t know whether to be happy for her or not.

She enjoyed live streaming, so being offered to make more money from it was a good thing. But like she said, she didn’t want to make a job out of that. To her, streaming was just a hobby. Besides, if she was going into medicine in university, a job like that would take up a lot of time from studying.

…

Then I started to think about my own channel with Isabelle. What did I want to make of it? Was it enough to leave it as a creative outlet or did I want it to grow? Isabelle wanted it to get bigger, at least.

When I had a five minute break, I took out my phone and checked the views and comments our videos were getting.

The pattern continued. Cake’s videos were still the most popular. Next, with about a 50% drop in views, were my song covers from games and such. That was actually better than it used to be. Huh. Lastly were my original songs and short pieces. They had the least views, but… they were consistent. They’d gone up to about 400 to 600 views. And then there were the comments.

TheBlackSwordsmanXX: Oh wow. I really like this one. It’s your best yet. Keep it up!

JustColors: I don’t know how to explain it, but your songs really make me feel stuff.

Evening-wear: Good at guitar, handsome and with a cat. Any chance that you’re gay? Asking for a friend.

Whosparkle: Um… I hope I don’t sound weird but this feels like something I’d hear in a strip club, lol. Only better.

Palmnor557: Another good one! Thanks for posting!

FastMeh: Boring.

NightRider226: I just love how Cake just chills there beside you. Cat has taste.

AugHumanC4-621: This one’s cool to listen to while driving.

Undergr0undV4mp: Pretty bad.

JustColors: I’ve been listening to your originals and covers while working. Thanks!

They were… surprisingly positive. We had a few bad ones but they were easy to ignore since they were just a couple of words at most. But as I checked the comments, I noticed something.

We had some regulars, yeah. People who listened to and commented every once in a while. But there was one in particular that was in every video. Not just in my originals, but also in my covers and in Cake’s videos.

JustColors: Cake is really cute. Seeing her really cheers me up. Thanks for sharing.

JustColors: I’ve never even heard of this game but listening to this song made me want to check it out.

JustColors: Oh wow. I had a really bad day and you posted this just as I got home. Now I feel a little better.

JustColors: I was working while listening to this and then 1:35 came in and I felt so pumped!

JustColors: Thank you for all the videos. They really make my day.

So… Was it just me or did these comments sound like they came from someone really depressed? That was the vibe I was getting, at least, but I didn’t want to assume anything.

…

We made it no secret that Isabelle and I ran the channer as a pair. Isabelle, being the more social one, usually replied to comments and added her name under it to signify she was the one replying. I rarely ever said more than a thank you.

…

I replied to that latest comment from JustColors, saying: No, thank you very much for the support. Wishing you the best. -Oliver.

I hoped I didn’t say anything wrong, but I didn’t have time to think about it too much more. My break was over and I needed to go back to work.

Grace was kind enough to drive me home when I got off. She stayed and had dinner with us at mine and mom’s insistence, then went home some time after.

Overall a quiet day.

The next one, though…

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