Dusk (BL Light Novel)

A pure white glass floor, walls made of mirrors and glass, and a grand, towering castle gate standing in the middle. It was the illustration of the dungeon entrance added in the last update. Considering loading screens usually showed art related to the area your character had logged out in, it seemed Moon Seonhwa had quit the game while still at the quest location.
Unlike me—who had stood in front of the gate alongside Abrea—Ceylontea was standing there all alone, since this wasn’t the Hidden Story route. I was watching the character when a notification pinged on the phone in my hand.

I turned on the screen and saw that I had received an email. As soon as I saw the mail icon, I drew in a quiet breath. If someone was emailing me at this exact moment…
I hurriedly dragged down the top bar, and there it was—three very familiar letters: Kang Jae-su. Just as expected—it was Retaking. But why was it “Kang Jae-su” and not “Retaking”? He denied it on stream, but is his real name actually Kang Jae-su?
The curiosity tugged at me, but first I opened the message.

Consolation money lolol thanks, got it.
Kang Jae-su
20XX. 6. 7.
To: Me
I was actually going to ask if you recorded the video, so thank you.

But on another note, kinda a shame you brought it up first…
I was planning to kill you and then ask, lol.
My first thought reading it was: Ah. Lucky I struck first.
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Re: Consolation money lolol thanks, got it.

You were all happy on stream asking if it was a proposal, and now you're acting all prickly, lol.
Re:Re: Consolation money lolol thanks, got it.
Kang Jae-su
20XX. 6. 7.
To: Me
Oh… So you watch my full streams, huh?

Well… he wasn’t wrong. It wasn’t exactly a big deal to follow the most popular Dusk streamer, but something about the way Retaking worded it—like he was teasing me for being a fan—got on my nerves.
I mean, I was a fan, but the smug tone pissed me off. So instead of replying honestly, I shifted the topic.
[So… is your real name really Kang Jae-su?]

This time, the reply took a bit longer. As expected, the message was longer than before.
[I told you it's not;; I made a new account for streaming, and I thought you still had to write the first name before the last name like the old days—but apparently it changed and now it’s last name first. So I typed in “Kang” then “Jae-su” and it turned out like this. Do you want my name to really be Kang Jae-su?]
Who's saying there's anything wrong with the name? I just asked. But clearly, from how often he’d been pestered about it on stream, he was super bitter.

[Kang Jae-su can totally be someone’s real name, okay? There’s gotta be a bunch of people in the world named Kang Jae-su. Why’re you acting like it’s some kind of insult?]
[My real name’s way prettier, okay. ‘-`)!]
Well then. Must be a really pretty name if he’s that confident.
[So what is it?]

[You’re awfully smooth today for someone who claims to be shy during streams.]
He’s the one who made it sound like a mystery and got me curious! And now asking his name is “making a move”? That’s some twisted logic.
I gave a baffled little snort—and across the room, Moon Seonhwa, who was running around a field to finish his daily quests, glanced over at me.

“You texting someone?”
“Uh…”
Not technically a text, but it was a Talk. If I said email, he’d ask who I was emailing back and forth with. So I just gave a vague nod, and Seonhwa hummed in understanding and went back to his game.

I stood up from my awkward, half-leaning posture and flopped onto the bed. As my body slowly rocked with the mattress and settled still, I reached for my phone again and started tapping out a reply.
[Fine, don’t tell me then...]
I sent it just as it popped into my head—but for some reason, it nagged at me that I hadn’t denied his “making a move” claim. It felt like I was making a move and got caught, so now I was trying to play it off…

Even though I wasn’t making a move, the whole thing left a weird aftertaste. ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ I nervously tugged at my hair until another reply came in.
[But if we Talk, you’d find out my real name… My Talk name’s set to my actual name.]
Oh, really now? He just finished calling me out for flirting—and now he goes and pulls this smooth-ass move? That was an obvious “let’s move this to Talk” attempt.

[You realize you’re the one being smooth right now, right?;]
I laughed under my breath as I hit send. Right then, Moon Seonhwa spoke again.
“Who’re you texting that’s making you smile like that?”

I looked up—and there he was, staring at me with a weirdly bitter expression, a grayscale broken screen left idle behind him. He must’ve died in the field and was stuck waiting for respawn, watching me laugh like an idiot.
Should I just say I’m emailing Retaking? But then he’d get all curious and start asking questions or meddling with the content. So I brushed it off with a blunt response.
“Mind your business.”

“I’m not Mind or Your Business, thanks.”
“Sure thing, Mr. Moon. Not really your concern, is it?”
“Ugh… You sound just like my professor. I hate it.”

He groaned and slammed the “Respawn at checkpoint” button. His over-the-top reaction was too good to resist, so I kept teasing him in that professor voice—until I finally got smacked in the side.
One more word and I’d probably get hit somewhere worse, so I wisely shut up and went silent.
As I watched Seonhwa mutter to himself and refocus on the game, I lowered my gaze and checked for any new emails. And right on cue—the mail icon lit up again.

[So… do you not want to Talk with me?]
Maybe it was because I’d rewatched his streams so much that his voice was burned into my brain—but the second I saw those words, they played back in his voice automatically. That slightly sulky, pouting tone.
The mental voice aside, it really did feel like he wanted to talk to me. That thought made my thumb freeze, unable to type.

Me and Retaking, chatting on Talk? Are we even that close?
I thought it over. But no—there wasn’t much to think about. I’d exchanged Talk IDs and chatted with complete strangers from the game before. So why not Retaking?
Sure, we were close. But still—Retaking was a public figure with over 450,000 subscribers. And I? I was just… an unknown. From his perspective, I could be some fame-chasing creep trying to leech off his popularity, or worse—some shady weirdo trying to get his private info by pretending to be friendly.

Then again, he could be the shady one using me for his own gain. Just because someone’s famous doesn’t mean they’re good.
So yeah—I couldn’t just casually say “sure thing!” to his suggestion.
[How do you know what kind of person I am?? For all you know, I could be trying to get close just to hurt you.]

I tried to phrase it without sounding too guarded, then hit send. Up until now, his replies had come quickly—but this time the inbox stayed quiet. Maybe he realized I had a point?
Not being able to see his face or hear his voice made it hard to guess what he was thinking. That uncertainty left me slightly frustrated.
But his reply came sooner than expected—and it was… something else.

[So what? That’s a problem for future me to regret.]
I just stared at the email, speechless. “That’s a problem for future me to regret.” …I mean. He’s not wrong.
Before I could recover, another email landed in my inbox. I tapped it out of habit.

[Not trying to pressure you or anything, so don’t feel burdened. Just… if you ever want to talk later, you can. Here’s my ID. I think you’re really interesting and cool.]
He likes me? Does he mean, like, like me? Or just generally… likes me?
As I hesitated, another mail hit.

[By like I didn’t mean in a romantic way or anything I swear I don’t even know your gender and I never really thought about it and I’m not interested in that I just think you’re fun to talk to like a friend so don’t misunderstand ㅠㅠ?]
The guy who usually sent perfectly punctuated, typo-free messages had clearly panicked and smashed this one out without proofreading. It was painfully obvious how flustered he was.
Seeing him flail like that—someone usually so composed—ironically helped me relax a little. I guess he was nervous too, huh?

Maybe that’s why, unlike earlier, I didn’t hesitate this time. I copied the ID he’d sent, opened up Talk, and pasted it into the search bar.
I don’t know why, but my heart was beating just a little faster.