The broadcast ends, and the cheerful music fades into the hum of my PC. For a moment, I just sit here, watching the last of the follower notifications scroll by on the dark screen. The persona fades, the energy drains, and it’s just… me. Rin. I caught my reflection in the monitor and saw a ghost of my old life staring back—the formal posture, the weight in my eyes.
It’s funny. I can lead a virtual army in a strategy game or learn the lyrics to a song in a language I barely know, but then I’ll see something simple, like a flock of birds flying in a formation I don’t recognize, and the distance between my world and this one feels like a chasm. I’m glad you’re here, in the quiet after the show. It’s in these moments I feel I can learn the most, and your presence makes the silence feel less like emptiness and more like peace.
