On the evening of Christmas Eve, Esme was streaming. It was typical for Vtubers to work on holidays, and if anything it was one of the busiest times of the year. Viewers were often especially generous with donations on holidays, so there was no way that a small indie streamer like Esme could miss out on the event.

As a result, Ilani was left in the apartment to experience the holiday cheer all by himself.

He stirred a large pot of stew on the stove and watched the surface of the water, waiting for it to boil. Technically he was cooking dinner for the both of them, except Esme probably wouldn't eat until she was done streaming, which likely wouldn't be for several hours. In the meantime, Ilani had peeled a bunch of potatoes, chopped up a few carrots, and seared several pieces of chicken thighs in an aluminum pot. It was a relatively simple recipe with extremely basic ingredients, except Esme's refrigerator was empty, so Ilani was forced to go grocery shopping earlier in the afternoon.

The internet idol tended to order takeout or eat microwavable meals, but Ilani couldn't afford to splurge like his host. It was much cheaper to cook for himself, so Ilani took it upon himself to colonize the kitchen in Esme's apartment. He cleaned out the pantry and reorganized the pots in the cabinet. 

At this point, there wasn't anything else for Ilani to do other than to wait for the pot to boil. Once it started rolling, he could turn it to down a low simmer and walk away.

He leaned against countertop as he quietly watched the electric stove.

It would have been nice to have some bread.

+ + +

Predictably, Ilani's thoughts started wandering.

He really wanted to talk to Esme, especially after the whirlwind of events that had happened at the Christmas party. At the end of the day, he wanted to learn a little bit more about the mysterious man named @Cosine before agreeing to anything. Was he really trustworthy? Since they were colleagues, Ilani figured that Esme might have some additional insights.

Ilani had heard various rumors about shady transactions occurring in the entertainment industry. There were predatory contracts that put people into severe debt, producers that engage in blackmail, and an abundance of sexual harassment. It was natural to be skeptical of unusual propositions like the one that Ilani received.

The issue was that Esme had immediately jumped off from one online event and gone to the next, and there wasn't an opportunity for Ilani to have a serious conversation with her.

The young musician was left feeling restless.

+ + +

He ended up aimlessly messaging @FaradayHaze on Twitter.

「Hey. Are you there?」 Ilani wrote slowly.

Just like last time, there was an instant response on Ilani's phone. The notification ping bounced back immediately, almost as if he was talking to a chatbot that was programmed for impromptu conversation. It was almost inhumanly fast, which made Ilani wonder if he really was conversing with a human being.

@FaradayHaze: 「Yep. What's up?」 

@iris_muse: 「Why do you always reply so fast?」 

@FaradayHaze: 「You messaged me on Christmas Eve to ask me *that*?」 

@iris_muse: 「Forget it...」 

Ilani suddenly changed his mind. He didn't know why he had been compelled to message a stranger (fan?) on Twitter. Moreover, it wasn't like a random person would have any insight for his dilemma. Esme would probably say it was unprofessional to contact a fan like this, especially since Ilani barely knew that person.

He was probably just being stupid, like usual.

@FaradayHaze: 「I'm curious now. You can't message me and then say it's nothing.」 

@iris_muse: 「You can just forget about it.」 

@FaradayHaze: 「Request denied. Unable to forget.」 

@iris_muse: 「...」 

@FaradayHaze: 「It's a joke. I'm not actually an advanced artificial intelligence program.」 

@iris_muse: 「Really? I was starting to think you were a chatbot.」 

@FaradayHaze: 「I'm not!」

@iris_muse: 「Sure.」 

@FaradayHaze: 「You can test me if you want. Ask me anything!」

@iris_muse: 「What's your real name and home address?」 

@FaradayHaze: 「Lol what? I'm not answering that.」

@iris_muse: 「There. Chatbot 100% proven.」 

@FaradayHaze: 「Fine lol.」

The pot of stew started boiling in the background, and Ilani glanced away from his phone with a faint smile on his face.

This stranger was kind of funny, and he liked talking to them. Even though they hadn't known each other for very long, the person always responded very fast and without fail, and there were already hundreds of messages in their conversation log. Time on the Internet always seemed to move fast, and it already felt like they had been talking for days.

「Do you have a favorite Vtuber in Hanabi?」 Ilani typed slowly into his phone.

@FaradayHaze: 「Fleure, hands down. I'm totally in love with her.」

Ilani smiled at himself.

@iris_muse: 「Aren't they all doing a collab Christmas Eve stream right now?」 

@FaradayHaze: 「I'm watching it right now.」

@iris_muse: 「Hm? Even while messaging so quickly on Twitter?」 

@FaradayHaze: 「I can multi-task perfectly fine, I'll have you know.」

@iris_muse: 「Mhm.」 

@FaradayHaze: 「Jealous? Do you want my undivided attention?」

@iris_muse: 「lol no... You should watch your stream. I'm cooking.」 

@FaradayHaze: 「Hah.」

Ilani forced himself to put down his phone to attend to his pot of stew. Several notifications popped up on his mobile device, but he ignored them for the time being, if only to show that he wasn't that invested in a random Internet stranger. With that said, he struggled to resist the urge to peek at the screen.

He wasn't that lonely.

Probably.

It was hard to explain why it was so much easier to talk to strangers.

Moreover, this was weird. 

Idols and fans weren't supposed to get this close. @FaradayHaze was hurtling through the friendship barrier at the speed of sound, and Ilani struggled to maintain a formal distance from that guy. It was difficult for Ilani to ignore messages, and their long conversation chain snaked endlessly. They were already very casual.

Ten minutes later, Ilani finally gave in and checked his phone again.

He sat down on the sofa and looked up towards the ceiling.

 

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