For petty reasons.

Yeah, I don’t know what it is about animals, but they really can just tell when someone isn’t feeling great and they want to go and do something about it. We all sat down in Diana’s living room, and while Noelle was eating ice cream off a small bowl, Red went and put his snout on her lap and looked up at her, making the redhead laugh at the cuteness.

“He probably just wants ice cream,” Sarah teased.

“Go away, it’s mine!” Noelle laughingly told the dog, moving the bowl away but putting no effort into pushing Red away.

Grace sighed. “Maybe I should get a pet, too. I always get jealous when I see how much Cake loves Oliver. Now seeing this makes me wish I had a pet that would cheer me up at home.”

“Same, but I know I’d suck at taking care of one,” Mila admitted. “Besides, my little brother is kind of rough with animals.”

“Well… let’s return to the topic of pets in about six or seven months,” Alice said, smiling. “We’ll see what we can do then.”

Six or seven months. By then we’d likely be living together if all went to plan. Gotta make sure it does.

“Pets are a very big commitment, but if well cared for they are a joy to have around.” Diana looked fondly at her dog. “I miss having horses, though.”

Noelle’s head snapped towards Diana, green eyes shining like emeralds. “Horses!?”

“Oh, I suppose I didn’t tell you. I’m originally from the countryside. We used to have a ranch. We had goats, chickens, cows… But our main thing was breeding competition horses. I had my own, too. Toothy. The girl had unusually big teeth.”

Noelle squealed, and God was I glad to see that. Diana was doing a better job at cheering her up than any of us. Then again, Noelle really liked animals but couldn’t have pets. She was probably equal parts envious and thrilled to hear Diana’s stories. Which made it even more surprising when her smile fell, leaving her empty bowl of ice cream on the coffee table with a sigh.

“I’d like you to tell me more some other time, if possible,” she said. “But let’s stop beating around the bush. I know you’re all trying to cheer me up and it really means a lot, but I’m not a baby that needs to be coddled… Even if I did look like it today,” she added sheepishly.

“Very well,” Diana nodded in approval, then turned to me. “Then catch me up. What is this about her online persona getting harassed?”

I got her up to speed with everything. I told her that Noelle had a hobby of streaming video games online with a virtual avatar, that she was known online as Yuria, that she had gotten some sudden fame due to a clip going viral, how an agency found her and offered a contract, and how after that there seemed to be a campaign against her for unknown reasons.

“But from what we’ve learned now, I think we can get a pretty good idea of the motive behind it,” Alice said with a frustrated sigh. “Can’t say I expected it, but it doesn’t surprise me.”

“Yes. I was willing to bet on the agency itself doing it to put pressure on Noelle. I was sure they’d contact her soon to offer her protection or backup of some kind. I have to say, the truth is a lot more realistic.”

“W-Wait, what did you find out?” Noelle asked, eyes wide. “Why didn’t you tell me at school?”

“We were… coddling you,” Mila admitted with a wry smile. “Sorry. You didn’t look well, so we figured we’d tell you later.”

Noelle pouted, but didn’t argue. “W-Well, yes. So? What is it?”

“It apparently started in an unofficial AniLove fan group,” I told her. “They heard you were getting an offer, didn’t want you in and decided to create drama.”

“Yeah, I was told the same,” Mila said. “I asked my followers and I got sent screenshots of chat logs, too. Though they don’t seem to be from that same first group.”

“Eric is the one that told me,” I said. “You… remember him, right, Noelle? The drummer from the music club?”

“Eric? Yes, of course I know him. He’s in my class. But how would he know?”

“He’s… a Yuria fan. You got caught when you made a character in a game look like me. Remember I told you that would happen?”

Noelle flinched. “Uh…”

“I’m sorry, but I’m a bit out of the loop. I don’t really understand this about video game streaming,” Diana said. “So… you play video games and people watch you?”

“Y-Yes, that’s about it,” Noelle said.

“But… isn’t the point of games to play them yourself?”

“There’s… an audience for people who want to watch others,” I told her. “Sometimes seeing someone play a game can convince you to give it a try yourself. For others, it’s just background noise, much like having the TV on while you do other things. There’s also the fact that since there’s a more direct connection between streamer and viewer due to the live chat room, some people can get really invested, for better or worse.”

“Oh, okay, I think I get it. So a bunch of people don’t want Noelle, rather Yuria, to be part of their little group, so they’re basically scaring her off.”

“Exactly,” I nodded. “And if Eric’s guess is true, then we also know who started this.”

“Huh? Wasn’t it a bunch of AniLove fans?” Noelle asked.

I shook my head. “They’re the ones doing it, but the ones who pushed them were apparently a couple of contracted AniLove V-Tubers.”

“W-W-What?”

“Ugh, fucking typical!” Sarah groaned, holding her forehead. “So this is nothing more than a fit of jealousy and fear, huh?”

“Is it?” I asked. “Couldn’t it be… I don’t know, something more behind it?”

“I doubt it,” Grace said. “I don’t like to generalize, but this is prime women's behavior, Oliver. And I say that as a woman.”

“W-What?”

Diana nodded. “You see it all the time. Men are more direct with each other. They’ll yell and punch each other, but get their issues over and done quickly. Women, on the other hand, talk behind each other’s backs.”

“Seriously?” I asked, jaw dropping.

“Yeah…” Alice admitted. “We’re a closely-knit group here, so you don’t see that, but I’ve been approached many times by girls telling me stuff about people they dislike. A lot of it turns out to be lies.”

“There’s a female soccer player I’ve been following for a while,” Sarah said. “She’s a rising star, arguably the best the country’s had in years. But she’s getting bullied by other soccer players because she’s getting all the attention and earning more than anyone else.”

I looked back to my own issues with other guys. Mark had decided to just straight up tell me I was weird and creepy. Eric had decided to come up to me and admit he wanted to see me fail. For all his sneaking around, Julian wasn’t afraid to personally put me down. Kevin and Ben apologized to me right the day after they did something that upset me. And even Thomas told me to my face when he thought I was getting carried away with something.

Huh. I never noticed.

My amusement at the revelation came to a stop when I looked at Noelle and saw the deep, furious scowl on her face. It was one of the very rare times when we got to see our Noelle very, very angry.

Author's Note: Forgot to say this before, but I'm now on Literotica as well. Just in case some of you use that site, too, and would like to check out my stories there. I'll be posting this Spirit of Lust branch there in chunks of 10 chapters as well as other projects as time and moderation allows. Still trying to understand how the site works, honestly.

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