I bit my lip and scrambled for the safest, most normal answer I could possibly give.
"KielZie," I said. "I'm a fan of your StreamTube videos."
Aside from being a bookworm by day, he was also a streamer by night. I had stumbled onto one of his streams while doom-scrolling StreamTube one evening, and somehow ended up watching the whole thing. And then the next one. And then… all of them. His content was chill, his commentary was fun, and—okay, fine—his voice was ridiculously soothing.
There was a pause.
Then his voice wavered. "How did you know I'm KielZie? I only ever enabled my mic."
I shrugged, still staring at the darkness behind his hands. "I recognized your voice. I watched for a bit… then I watched everything." I added casually, "I sometimes drop by your livestreams too. Don't forget my username—@LiaMeri."
That part, at least, was completely true.
Another pause.
A longer one.
The silence stretched so thin I could practically hear it creak.
