She felt her body lift off the ground. Gravity was now working its physics only on two arms supporting her.

“I’ll get you out of this.”

A voice cut through the darkness.

She strained to get a look at his face, but it became too tiring to keep her eyes open.

The arms felt strong. She closed her eyes.

* * *

“I know, I know - I’m sorry I had to go away. But distance makes the heart grow fonder, does it not?”

Byul said. No, it was Hoshizora Martini speaking, Byul’s VTuber self. The anime girl with stars as her motif sat perched on her diamond-studded barstool with anonymous figures surrounding her. Each of the figure had a username glowing in green above their head. Sparkles materialized out of thin air as she blinked her unrealistically large, unrealistically sparkly anime eyes.

“You’re all here now to show for that. Even though I left you in the dark for weeks.”

She put on another layer of glittery silver lip gloss onto her puckered lips.

Martiniiiiii

Of course we’re here

I can’t live a day without you

We missed your voice

“Aww, did you really?

She asked, leisurely. Of course she already knew the answer.

We did!

Your voice is so good

“Good.”

Martini said, popping the cosmetic closed and turning to her followers.

You were on a date, weren’t you? Sut.*

She calmly swiped left on the username glowing in green above the last speaker’s head. The glow turned red and he immediately glitched away, disappearing from the bar as if turning off from a video game.

“I’m still in a lot of pain, and on a lot of pain meds too. So forgive me if I’m a little…out of pocket tonight?”

Martini winked, tilting her hand holding her signature martini glass. The alcohol spilled onto her chest, trickling in between her cleavage.

“Oopsy.”

She said with a cheeky smile.

The crowd went wild.

* * *

Clicking “End Stream”, Byul watched the animated star graphic come down. She triple checked that her mic and cameras were not picking up anything. After a three-week hiatus, even a seasoned Twitch streamer like Byul had doubts whether all her ducks were in a row. Back to reality and - look at the time. Already 2:00AM.

She stretched her lower back, pushing out deeply from her gaming chair. Stretching had become a bit more precarious for her with the back brace she was wearing for faster recovery. She hauled herself up.

As soon as she clicked open her bedroom door, the Golden Retriever puppy that was the reason for Byul’s existence rocketed up at her.

“Veggie-weggie!”

Laughing, she caught Veggie mid-air. She grimaced momentarily at the pain still apparent in her arms and torso, but it was a worthy price to pay for a puppy hug. The floor was warm where Veggie had been rolled up like a pretzel, waiting for her.

Everything was back to normal.

Except for one guy.

* * *

Let’s turn the clock back to three weeks ago. Mere hours after the car accident that left Byul as minced meat. She opened her eyes on a hospital bed.

“Where…am I?”

Pfft. She couldn’t help but chuckle at herself at the cliche K-drama damsel-in-distress line she just spat out.

“I should have said ‘That’s an unfamiliar ceiling’, in honor of Evangelion.”

In fact, what in the world was she doing here? Her voice was hoarse. She felt how sore her body was and tried to get up, but couldn’t move a finger.

“I feel like I remember meeting some rando who thought he was all that…”

Yes. That guy. The one with the cascading black hair.

Then, she remembered. The ear-piercing mechanical screech. The smell of smoking engine. The car that headed straight for her. The crunch her own body made, first against the car then against the concrete. And the guy.

The guy who ordered her to lick his boot.

The guy she kissed instead.

The guy who, she thought, had left her there to die.

The guy who…ended up saving her anyway?

She tried to recall whom it was that picked her up from the asphalt at her very last second of consciousness.

‘Was it the same guy?’

She wondered. Then, she felt cold sweat running down her spine.

Where was Veggie?

Where was her two-year-old Golden Retriever, the light of her life, the reason for her existence? Ice cold panic darted out of her eyes. She tried to bolt up but couldn’t. The thought of not knowing where Veggie was blinded her to pain, and She yanked at the needle bandaged onto her arm, the IV drip seeming to slow-mo to a halt. Where was he? Was he okay? Was he hurt? Was he-

The curtain partition click-clacked open. A giant, yellow mass cannonballed into her area of the hospital room.

“Veggie!”

Her eyes widened at her dog, busy bombing her with licks and kisses. She could barely get a word out without his little wet snout bumping against her cheeks.

“Veggie - you’re okay!”

“I’m here too, hi.”

A blonde woman with a lip piercing peeked from behind the curtain. The name tag “DR. WEISS” gleamed on her white coat.

“Is everything okay with Veggie?” Byul demanded to know.

“This ain’t a vet, doll. But I can tell you you’re clearly the one who was in any kind of danger.”

The doctor said.

“Oh, thank god…”

Byul let out a deep sigh of relief.

“You’d be bleeding out on Santa Monica Boulevard if not for Troy.”

The doctor tipped her head back. Byul looked over to where the doctor was directing. There was nobody there.

“Who?” She asked, tilting her head in confusion.

Dr. Weiss looked behind her own shoulder and shrugged.

“Guess he didn’t stick around. He brought you over on his own back. White shirt drenched in your blood, that one.”

Said Dr. Weiss calmly, scribbling something on her clipboard. She ripped off a page and inserted it in a clear folder by Byul’s bed.

“He sweet on you or something?”

The doctor said after a bit of silence. She sounded incredulous.

“Huh? No, I don’t even know who you’re talking about.”

Byul said.

‘Is it him? The one who told me to lick his boot?’

Byul thought to herself. Even reminiscing what an atrocity to her he was made her face red with anger. This was the first time she was hearing of his name.

“Troy.”

Byul reiterated with grit in her teeth, as if she was remembering the name of her arch-nemesis. Tapping her pen on her chin, the doctor stared at Byul for a few seconds longer than she was comfortable with.

“Wait around til the IV bag is drained, and the nurses will come tell you next steps. You’ll be here a few weeks.”

Dr. Weiss went on, dropping the subject of Troy. Byul’s jaw dropped.

“A few weeks?”

“You should be glad you’ll be able to walk again, dolly.”

The doctor said. Byul knew she was right.

“Oh, and it’s a secret I let the dog in.”

Dr. Weiss added, then turned around to walk away.

Byul giggled at Veggie’s soft, warm fur tickling her chin. She was reminded of how giant of a hospital bill she probably racked up and how putting her life back on track after these few weeks would be hell, but none of that mattered. She’d make money back. She’d fix everything.

As long as she had Veggie, she could do anything.

* * *

Byul opened her walk-in closet. She pulled up a pair of vintage tights, sheer black, and slipped into a Burberry patterned mini skirt. Positioning the black eyelet lace headband behind her ears, she checked her hair in the mirror hanging on the closet door rear.

In the world of pretty girls, there was “boy pretty” and there was “girl pretty”. Serena van der Woodsen, boy pretty. Blair Waldorf, girl pretty. The math was obvious in the case for most pretty girls. Then there was Byul. Her side always swarmed with girls who idolized her influencer status, dark academia fashion sense, and old money aesthetic. Her sultry eyes and plump lips perfectly stained red, however, made her just the kind of girl every frat boy did a double take on. Checking that every strand of her bangs fell exactly in place, she walked out of the closet with an approving look.

Because after all, who could dare approve her besides herself? Surely, there was no one who could shake her from this undeniable truth, this indestructible sense of I-know-my-worth.

She would put the car accident behind her. She would put Troy behind her.

She would once again become the two-time modern day celebrity she was, book influencer “im_byuristar” on Instagram and star femme-fatale VTuber “Hoshizora Martini” on Twitch. The rest of her time, she would devote to Veggie.

Nothing and no one would come between her way of doing that again.

No one at all.