While his audience was waiting, Tristan took the opportunity to channel his Mr. Loveboy persona. Making sure that all of his practices result fruitfully.

After a minute, Tristan felt he was ready to start. He grabbed his mouse and changed scenes from the loading screen to the main screen on OBS. The sight of Mr. Loveboy in a dim, sparkling room made Tristan feel a little better.

“Hello everyone.” He spoke in a calm, whispery tone. Seeing his avatar move when he spoke made him feel giggly inside. “Welcome to the grand opening of my clinic. Before we start our session, I want to introdu-“

The words got stuck in his throat when he heard the sudden sound of rainfall.

Tristan quickly got up from his chair and dashed to his window to close it swift, letting out a loud clacking noise from the impact of the frame. However, he cringed as he could still hear the sound of rain, just muffled.

With nothing he could do about the rain, Tristan went back to his chair and wore his headphone back. “A-Apologies, sudden rain fell down.”

Tristan could still hear the faint sound of rain even when wearing headphones. He tried his best not to cringe further. “Before we start our session, I want to introduce myself so we would get to know each other better. My name is Mister Loveboy, a being from the stars. I floated from cosmos to cosmos, exploring the vast, beautiful space, until I got pulled to this planet quite literally.”

“I don’t know how it happened, but it left me curious. So I searched far and wide to make sense of the situation… until I realized from my observation that humans are emotional beings. Ranging from happiness, sadness, anger, fear, and disgust. But a specific emotion struck me the most.”

“Love.”

Tristan paused to give his current five viewers to grasp Mr. Loveboy’s backstory and to contain his excitement. Finally able to tell the story he’d worked so hard to create.

“Love is the emotion that attracted me from this planet. Love is the emotion that humanity needed the most. And love… is missing to many humans…”

“So I decided to help humanity by opening a love consultation clinic, to be your helping hand, to help you and everyone on this planet with their love problems.”

Tristan clasped his hand and smiled, feeling a sudden rush of excitement. “Now, I am happy to announce that the clinic is officially open.”

He muted his mic, then let out an enormous sigh. Shoulders slouched from relief.

Tristan glanced at the number of his viewers. To his surprise, it raised from four to eight, and a few comments welcoming him. It energized him more to continue.

So he straighten his body, reached for the mouse, and unticked the hide button of the slideshow on OBS that contained question submissions, causing the first question to appear on the screen at the same time.

He took another deep breath, cleared his throat, then unmuted the mic. “For our first question. ‘Hello Mr. Loveboy, my boyfriend recently turned vegan, and I had no problems with it. In fact, I was supportive of his decision, but recently he’s been forcing me to be vegan as well’

‘I love him, I really do, but this is causing a rift between us. Should I just give in for the sake of our relationship? Or do I stand with my choice? What should I do?’”

 

Tristan hummed, acknowledging the question to his audience. He took a few seconds of silence, trying to think of an answer, but at the same time, he was panicking inside.

He pondered for a proper response as quick as possible. The atmosphere in his room felt heavier as more seconds passed. Until he let out a soft gasp as he finally thought of an appropriate answer, simply clasping his hands instinctively.

“It is rather unfair you are being forced to become someone that isn’t you for the sake of your relationship. It sounds like your boyfriend doesn’t fully respect you, trying to assert a silly dominance, especially over eating habits.”

“Try to have a long talk with your boyfriend about how his behavior is causing issues on your side of the relationship. And if he’s still stubborn and refuses to listen, then it’s probably better to wonder if it’s worth staying with someone who doesn’t respect your choice.”

Tristan’s nervousness dissipated when he let out a satisfied sigh. He leaned back in his chair to recollect his thoughts.

He glanced at the live chat. There were a few comments of amazement, sympathy about the girl’s issue, and how they agree on his response. Seeing the comments helped to calm his nerves further.

And with more motivation flowing in, Tristan enthusiastically continued to answer the remaining questions. Each answer he gave felt more and more fulfilling, smile got wider and wider to the point where his cheeks started to hurt.

But he didn’t mind. The satisfaction of helping others was worth it.

After ten minutes, Tristan clasped his hands. “That is all the questions I have today. I hope I was able to serve you all. If you want to submit your love problem, please check out my marshmallow page. The link is in the description below.”

“The clinic is officially closed for today. Thank you all for attending my grand opening, and I will see you all next time.”

Tristan changed the scene to an outro screen of a tilted sign hanging on a white door that says “Closed” in a curvy magenta text. He then muted his mic, removed his headphone off his head, and leaned to his chair as he let out a satisfied sigh. “I can’t believe I just finished my first stream!” He shook his clutched hands in excitement.

He glanced at the live chat. His viewers sent their farewells by text or hand wave emojis. Seeing them made him feel more joy.

“Is this what streaming feels like?” He whispered to himself, mind still filled with wonder. “No wonder so many people are doing it. It’s so different from being a viewer!”

Tristan reached for his mouse and clicked the “End stream” button on OBS. Then he went to Twitter and wrote a tweet thanking everyone who “visited the grand opening of his clinic”. Each key press sent bliss to his soul, happy that some people came to watch his debut, especially since he was virtually a no-name to the world of streaming.

He opened the archived livestream on Mr. Loveboy’s YouTube account and clicked play. The moment he heard himself speaking as Mr. Loveboy sent him embarrassed, still not used to voice acting, let alone hearing a recording of his own voice.

Then he reached the part where his introduction got interrupted by the sudden rain. He physically cringe as he could hear the muffled rain that continued throughout the entire stream.

Tristan glanced at his calendar. The next stream will start in the next two days. His embarrassment faded, and excitement replaced it, an excited smile on his face.

The cafe was almost empty because of heavy rain, with only a few customers taking their time to warm themselves with a fresh cup of coffee. Some watched the raindrops fall down on the ground.

But that didn’t deter Tristan’s spirit as he took customer orders, made espresso drinks, and serve them with a brighter attitude. He was still high in bliss from the events of yesterday.

Later on, Tristan had just finished wiping tablewares dry on the kitchen. He carried the tablewares with both arms and left the kitchen. As soon as he stepped out, his eyes locked on Fidel, arms crossed, leaning on the counter with a small frown on his face and gazing outside.

It made Tristan frown as well.

“Uh hey, wanna take a break?” Tristan asked as he placed the tablewares on the counter.

His voice snapped Fidel out of his thoughts as he turned and looked at Tristan. Fidel’s frown quickly morphed into a smirk, giving Tristan a bit of whiplash. “Technically, we’re already on a break, not much customers around.” Fidel pointed around the cafe, then went back to staring outside.

Tristan stiffened. He felt a little taken aback.

He noticed Fidel’s eyes had a hint of gloom. And it was like a gear that slowly started spinning when everything clicked.

Tristan wanted to hit himself in the head for not realizing it sooner.

Seeing Fidel look troubled sent a pang of woe into Tristan’s heart. He felt compelled to do something about it, to see that bright, cheerful smile of his back again.

He placed the dry dishware back on the dish rack, trying to come up with ideas about how to cheer Fidel up. And it took him finishing his task when an idea dawned on him.

Tristan quickly put the tablewares on the dish cabinet, grabbed a Portafilter, and began to fill it with ground coffee. The loud grinding noise of the machine got Fidel’s attention. Tristan must have felt it as they both looked at each other at the same time.

“Uh hey Fidel? Do you want to take a coffee break?”

Fidel looked a little astonished, but he quickly recovered. His expression slowly turned soft, a small smile on his face. “Alright.” He tapped Tristan’s shoulder, left the counter and went to a table in front of the cafe window.

Tristan watched him take his seat, a small blush on his cheeks.

He resumed making their drinks. While the coffee was being extracted, Tristan grabbed two small plates, went on the food display, and took a slice of cherry pie and some cookies on each plate.

After adding milk into the mug and placing them on a tray, Tristan carried it to Fidel’s table. The sound of the tray hitting the table snapped Fidel out of his thoughts again. “Ah! Thank you.” He smiled cheerfully.

Tristan gazed down and tried not to blush as he took a seat opposite of him. Fidel took the plate of cookies and began biting them while staring outside in silence.

He felt a small pang of disappointment at seeing Fidel’s unusual expression return. He held the warm mug with both hands as he thought deeply.

Tristan fidgeted with his fingers. His eyes darted around as his mind tried to think of ideas. When he noticed a customer watching something on their phone with a wide, toothy smile on their face, that’s when an idea crossed his mind.

“H-have you seen Cocoa’s latest collaboration with Komi? Her English attempts were so cute and funny!”

Fidel’s lips slowly smiled brightly. “Oh yeah! Almost forgot about that! The way Komi tried her best to speak English but ended up saying some pretty dark things unintentionally! The broken english was so cute and hilarious that hurts my sides from laughing too much!” He said, followed by a laughter.

Hearing Fidel continue to talk passionately about his favorite vtuber relieved Tristan. Seeing that familiar cheerful smile of his, Tristan couldn’t help it but to smile and fall harder for him.

They continued to chat about their favorite vtubers. And even when they returned behind the counter to make coffee for new customers, they continued to talk almost non-stop until the end of their shift.

Tristan was glad he could cheer Fidel up, and he would happily do it more next time.