Eric comes clean.

I furrowed my brow in pure confusion at seeing Eric here. I mean, classes had started already. “Eric? What are you doing here?”

“I told the teacher I needed to go to the bathroom,” he said. “I… I saw you carrying Noelle to the infirmary. I needed to talk to you without anyone else listening.”

I suppressed a groan. Eric had a crush on Noelle, so you can imagine where my thoughts were going. Was Eric bold and crazy enough to confront me about me dating her again? Making an excuse to get out of class just to catch me alone? Apparently so.

Eric swallowed nervously, probably sensing my mood souring even more. “H-How is she? Is she sick?”

“No, just tired. She had a terrible night.”

Eric bit her lip. “So… The Yuria harassment really got to her.”

That made me snap my head to look at him, eyes wide as plates. I suppose Eric expected my reaction, because he smiled nervously at me.

“Eric… Be careful about whatever it is you’re going to say next,” I told him.

“It wasn’t me, I promise! It’s about that crap that I wanted to talk to you about, I swear!” Eric shook her head and waved his hands in front of himself.

I decided to believe him for now, but I still couldn’t help but glare at him. I put my fist in my pockets and clenched them there, taking a deep breath to calm my head. Eric knew something, and now that he had admitted to it, I’d have him tell me everything.

“How long have you known about Yuria?” I asked him.

He moved from the middle of the stairs to lean back on the railing. “A few months already.”

Months? What? “How?”

He grimaced and awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck. “Can I not answer that?”

“Sorry, but I’ll need you to tell me everything. You started this, now see it through.”

Eric winced. “I guess. Ugh. Well, you see… Um… That clip of Yuria shooting down a simp?”

Oh no.

“I was the… simp.”

Oh god dammit. This damn world really is as small as a tissue. But then again, it made enough sense.

“But how did you find out?” I asked him, keeping any judgmental tone out of my voice.

“I… I like V-Tubers, okay? I always browse streams with low views, then one day I caught Yuria’s first. Her avatar was so high quality that I stayed to watch. I ended up becoming a regular.” He was fidgeting, fingers tapping on the railing. “Months later, I heard a random conversation in my classroom. Your sister was telling some friends that she had a cat now, that Noelle and Alice found her and brought her to her place. She complained that you were against it but ended up convincing your mother. I didn’t think much of it, but then I heard that exact same story from Yuria.”

“Could be a coincidence,” I told him.

“It could, but…” He clicked his tongue. “The girl I had a crush on being my new favorite V-Tuber… I wasn’t thinking straight, okay? If Yuria was Noelle, then her friend’s brother was likely you. I got scared and… did that stupid thing. Ended up on the internet for it.”

Eric’s face was red from shame. Almost felt bad for making him tell me the story, but it was necessary. Honestly, Eric and I weren’t that different. We were both extremely withdrawn and bad with people. Difference was that I ran away from others while he was a yes-man. Despite the crap he and Julian pulled, I couldn’t bring myself to really hate Eric. That doesn’t mean I like him, either.

He took a deep breath and continued. “What really confirmed my suspicions was that time later she was playing a game with a character creator once and made her boyfriend. The guy was literally you. She even called him Olivier.”

I winced and held my forehead. “I told her that could get her caught. I really did.”

“Now, don’t get me wrong, Oliver. I don’t have a crush on her anymore. I’m not THAT pathetic. I want to move on.”

I nodded. “And… you haven’t told anyone about her true identity?”

Eric shook his head. “Like I said, I want to move on. But that I don’t have a crush on Noelle anymore doesn’t mean I hate her. She wants to keep that secret, so I have no business revealing it.”

I smiled, relieved. What I felt wasn’t strong enough to call it mind reading, but I did know that Eric was being genuine. “Thanks, Eric.”

He nodded seriously, meeting my eyes. “So now that I’ve told you that, I hope you’ll believe what I’m about to tell you next. I think I know where the Yuria harassment started.”

“Where?”

“I said I like V-Tubers, right? I’m in a few dedicated fan groups. You know, forums, DC channels, image boards… That includes an unofficial fan group of AniLove V-Tubers.”

I blinked. That was the agency trying to recruit Yuria. Grace did a background check on them yesterday and found them to be legitimate as well as fairly respected as a company.

“Oliver, you… haven’t changed your phone number, right?” Eric asked me.

“Since freshman year, you mean? No, it’s the same.”

“Then I’ll send you some images. Screenshots I took when I realized something might happen.”

Eric and I had exchanged numbers back when we were in the music club, though we never actually texted each other for more than club related stuff. He sent me the screenshots he mentioned and I looked them over.

They were images of a chat log. In it, people were discussing the Yuria clip that went viral and how someone had found out that AniLove had extended an offer to her. Little by little, a couple of people in the chat began to turn the rest against Yuria, saying that she clearly hated her fanbase, treated them like shit and would be an awful addition to the ‘AniLove Family’.

“What the fuck?” I muttered.

“It gets worse,” Eric told me. “I said that group is unofficial, but I’ve spent enough time in it to notice a few things. I’m fairly sure the two people egging the others on are two V-Tubers already contracted by AniLove using alt accounts..”

…

What the hell was happening?

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