Ah. Fuck.

I can’t exactly say my mood improved throughout the last few lessons of the day. I kept noticing the Bitchqueen sneaking glances at me throughout the day, throwing me dirty looks like I was something she had stepped in.

Yeah, scowl at me all you want, I’m not exactly fond of you either, cunt.

When the day’s final bell rang out and signalled an end to the day, I breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, reprieve from the stares of nosy classmates and judgement from that one in particular. Time to just play some chess and let the exhaustion melt away. I slung my bag on my back and quietly left the room, the din of conversation only serving to aggravate me further.

However, I wasn’t far down the hallway before I felt something tug at my sleeve.

“Hey… were you gonna go to club without me?” Pep asked, looking a little sad.

“Sorry, just… it’s a little loud in there at the moment. And I… may have caused a scene earlier that I’d really prefer not to deal with right now.” As if I didn’t disdain attention enough as it is.

“Did it… have something to do with Ranchan?”

“You noticed, huh?”

“I didn’t like the way you kept looking at each other. I know you don’t get along, but it was different this time. What happened?”

Ah, what a pain. I would really have preferred not to get Pep involved in this, but considering I had literally just this morning told her to communicate with me more, I would have been rendered a hypocrite far sooner than I had hoped. Why does no good deed ever go unpunished?

“She said some… less than tasteful things about Sai, and I may have gotten more than a little annoyed about it.”

“About Sai-chan? Why were you talking about Sai-chan? What did she say?”

“She… asked about why you had seemed so down recently, and I told her there was some miscommunication in the club. As for what she said about Sai… I’d rather not repeat it.”

It was rare for me to shy away from saying anything, but between the venom in Bitchqueen’s voice and the fact that she and Pep are quite close, I didn’t feel comfortable repeating what she had said out loud. Besides, thinking about that conversation still had me more irritated than I’m willing to admit.

“...why can’t my friends just get along with each other? Why does this always have to happen?”

“I… think she and I are just incompatible people. Even when I try to be civil with her we’re just at each other’s throats.”

“But even with Sai-chan now! Why does everyone have to fight like this?”

“Sorry, but I think you’ll have to ask Bitc- Ran that one yourself. It’s… not my place to say.”

It’s not like I owed a damn thing to the Bitchqueen, especially after the shit she said about a good friend of mine, but I wasn’t gonna be the one turning Pep against her friends, even if I couldn’t stand them. If Pep herself talked it over with Bitchqueen and decided her attitude was unacceptable, that would be all well and good, but I’m not some manipulative prick that’s gonna whisper bad words in her ear about her own long-time friend.

Pep herself was, perhaps unsurprisingly, exasperated.

“Haaaaa… this wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t asked to take your place at lunch, would it?”

“I suppose not, but blaming yourself is pointless, there was no way to expect it.”

“I s’pose…” she seemed a little bummed out that she was indirectly to blame, though she perked up a little a moment later. “I did have a good talk with Sai-chan, though. I’m glad I got to talk to her alone, at least.”

“Oh yeah? Same sort of thing you and I talked about this morning?”

“That, plus some other girl stuff you’re not allowed to hear about. Then we spent, like, ten minutes making out.”

“What?!”

“Hehe, I’m kidding.” She stepped out in front of me with her hands behind her back, just as she did this morning, but this time the smile was more mischievous. “You sounded awful jealous there for a moment, though. Feeling left out, hmmmmm? Which of us were you getting jealous over?”

“So you planning to stream again today?”

“Don’t just change the subject!”

“Lovely weather we’re having.”

“It’s raining!”

“Did you watch the game last night?”

“What game? Neither of us watch any sports!” she sighed heavily and dramatically, turning back around and continuing down the hallway. “Should have known I wouldn’t get a straight answer from you, I s’pose. If you were any better at deflecting you’d qualify as a ninja.”

“Thank you, I work very hard on that.”

“It wasn’t a compliment, Kabucchi.”

Despite her protesting, she dropped the subject and continued on towards the clubroom, which we reached a moment later. Despite my swift exit from the classroom, Sai still managed to beat us there.

“Ah, you’ve arrived,” Sai said. Her tone was notably less tinged with worry than it had been the day before, so it seemed the talk she had had with Pep had assuaged her concerns.

“Yep! Sorry to keep you waiting~” said Pep, throwing herself down in the chair in front of the computer monitor. I simply responded to Sai’s greeting with a nod, which seemed to be enough for her.

“So Pep, you didn’t actually answer my question yet. You planning on kicking stream back up today?” I asked, taking my own seat opposite Sai and lazily pushing e-pawn two places on the pre-set-up board.

“Nope, just got some set up to do today, that’s all.”

“Set up? I thought you did all that already?” I replied, trying to respond to Sai’s Sicilian defence with literally anything but the Dragon variation.

“I got the basics and stuff set up last time, but we’re likely to get more attention this time round so I’m adding stuff like donations and links to my socials.”

“Wow, you ruthless capitalist.”

“Hey, you guys are the ones who said we shouldn’t let it go to waste, right?”

“I hate that I have no counterargument to that.”

Though, I couldn’t deny that if I were in her position I’d do the exact same. As someone who disdains attention, it’s certainly not for me, but if I were someone who thrives on it like Pep I would feel like a golden goose had just fallen into my lap. Honestly, she’d be silly not to do everything she can to cash in on it.

“Actually, on the subject of your streams,” Sai said, quietly tutting over my choice to play the aggressive Alapin variation, “I realise you’ve to tell us what exactly our part in this will be. Considering the main appeal of live streaming is the visual aspect, how do you intend for us to contribute with neither of us showing our faces?”

It was a good question, one that I had wondered about myself. Of course, the clip that brought us such virality in the first place was practically audio only, but that was a four minute clip, not an entire stream.

Of course, Pep had thought of that long before the two of us got around to it.

“Worry ye not, dear Sai, for I have concocted a machination of great intellect!”

“I’m pretty sure you’ve used at least one word in that sentence wrong.”

“Shut it, Kabucchi, I’m trying to monologue. Anyway, what I was saying is that I’ve got a plan.” She leaned back in her chair and put her hands together like a supervillain, which made me more than a tad concerned about what she was about to pull. “First of all, the visuals will be split between two things: my face, and your chess game.”

“Our game? How are you planning to record our game without recording us too?” I asked.

“Because you won’t be playing over the board, duh. I’ll have you guys play against each other online over your phones, and I’ll spectate and stream it on the PC. That way we’ve got me there to add a face to the stream and make it more personable, plus some actual gameplay for those who are there for the chess!”

I was fully prepared to rebut whatever idea she came up with, but after ruminating for a moment, I realised this suggestion was actually the best of both worlds, and probably the only solution that works for everyone. Sai and I get to stay off camera, Pep gets to establish herself as the face of the channel, and the viewers get both a pretty girl to look at and some chess to watch. Visually speaking, this was probably the best approach. That being said…

“And… what of the spoken aspect? You can hardly expect me to believe the only role you wish for us to play is a game of chess, no?” Asked Sai. That was the obvious question, and one Pep seemed to be beating around a tad.

“Thaaaaat’s a little more complicated…” Pep said. And I could tell when she said ‘complicated’ she really meant ‘contentious,’ because she didn’t expect either of us to like the idea. “I know you guys like to keep your conversations private, but what I would want you to do is talk over the game while you play, sort of the way you already do. The back-and-forths, the snarkiness, the ‘supervillain speak’ that made that clip popular in the first place. It doesn’t have to be deep and philosophical like last time, just engaging enough to keep people listening. Is… that okay with you?” she asked tentatively.

Of course, Sai and I were both hesitant to say yes right away. Even if we lowered it just surface-level banter and bickering, our arguments were a personal part of our friendship, and sharing it outside of those we trusted was an idea that I wasn’t completely fond of. Judging by the slight twitch in Sai’s face, I assumed she felt similarly.

Even so, I had been prepared for this.

“So long as it’s alright with Sai too, I can accept this. It’s more or less what I had expected anyway,” I said, letting out a slight sigh but not pushing back at all.

“It is less than ideal, to be certain, but acceptable. Considering the nature of the video that brought us this attention in the first place, I can hardly say any other course of action would make sense,” added Sai. “Though, I must ask. If Kaburi and I are to be speaking over our match, what role will you be taking? I suppose you don’t expect to just be a pretty face in the corner for degenerates to leer at, no?”

“I’ll just be doing the streamer thing, y’know? Replying to chat, keeping the audience engaged, all that mumbo jumbo.”

“You gonna be alright trying to keep up with a chat that’s way more active than you’re used to?” I asked

“Of course, it’s not like we’re expecting thousands upon thousands of viewers or anything. I mean, the clip only had around ten… thousand… uh oh.”

Pep’s casual demeanour changed sharply, which was hardly ever a good sign. Y’know, as if the ‘uh oh’ wasn’t enough of a sign that something was wrong.

“Oh, god, what? What could possibly make you pull an expression like you just ate a sour candy without thinking?” I asked.

“It’s just uh… the clip might have a little bit of a bigger view count than the last time I checked…” she said, obviously hiding something.

“How. Much. Bigger?”

“Just… add an extra digit… o-or two…”

“What?!”

Not believing her at all for a moment, I stood up from my chair and moved round to look at her monitor screen. And yet, there it was, clear as day. The same clip posted by the same account. And right underneath it was the label ‘2.3 million views.’

“Ah. Fuck.”