Chapter 4: After the Storm, Her Sky Clears

Turned out a coworker had a spare room, so I moved in without having to look for a place. She greeted me with takeout and a hug. We spent the night watching reruns of old sitcoms and eating ice cream straight from the carton.

I thought I’d be depressed after the breakup, but to my surprise, I felt oddly calm. Maybe, deep down, I’d already prepared myself for it. When the day finally came, it wasn’t that hard.

Because after all those days and nights together, I’d already sensed that Carter had changed.

Looking back, when did he start to change? Probably half a year ago, when he played with a top streamer and his popularity exploded.

One night, I was keeping him company during his stream. He never used a webcam, so I could sit beside him. He streamed in two stages: solo squads first, then teaming up with others after I got home from work. I’d sit with him, keeping an eye out to make sure he didn’t break character. If a random teammate talked to him, he’d glance at me for cues, and I’d type out what to say. If a girl complimented his skills, I’d type, "Just need skill," and he’d repeat it in a cool, detached tone. The fans loved it.

"My Lone Wolf really is a steel-hearted straight guy—if anyone can get him to flirt, I’ll be impressed!"

"Another fake-innocent pick-me trying to seduce my man—get lost!"

"This girl’s just a try-hard!"

That night, after I sat down, Carter finished his solo runs and started teaming up. The game started, and the first three teammates rushed to the hot zone. The third teammate died right away, leaving only Carter and the second teammate. They were both strong and wiped out the enemies in the container area. The fourth teammate, probably a girl, had landed alone in a remote area.

Carter and the second teammate each had seven or eight kills. They drove to pick up the fourth teammate, who was holed up in a three-story house. Just as they arrived, she got knocked down and opened her mic—a girl’s voice.

"What’s your problem? Just kill me already!"

I could hear another man’s voice on the open mic, lewd and disgusting: "Come on, call me babe, give me a kiss, let me touch you…"

Carter stormed up the stairs and shot him on sight, but it was too late—the girl had already died. The second teammate must’ve thought one person was enough to handle him and didn’t move from the stairs.

"Spare me, man!" the guy begged as soon as he went down.

Carter was about to finish him off, but I stopped him, typing: Tell him to apologize.

Carter opened his mic for the first time that match: "Apologize!"

"Huh? What?" The guy played dumb.

"Apologize to her!" Carter pointed at the girl’s loot box.

"Sorry, girl, I was out of line. Don’t take it to heart," the man said quickly.

"Thanks, number one," the girl said.

"No problem," Carter replied.

I typed: Make him swear.

Carter said, "Swear you’ll never bully girls in games again."

"I swear, I’ll never harass or bully girls in games again. If I break my word, may I die instantly every match," the man said sincerely. "Can you let me go now?"

Carter muted and asked me, Kill him or not?

I shook my head.

"You apologized, so I’ll keep my word," Carter said, putting away his gun and leaving.

But as he turned, the man used a self-revive and shot Carter in the back, killing him instantly. The second teammate, who’d been waiting in the car, rushed upstairs and finished the man off just as he started gloating.

The chat exploded, cursing the guy for breaking his word.

Even though Carter died, he earned a wave of goodwill—he made the guy apologize to the girl, kept his promise not to kill him, but got betrayed in return. Like a cool gentleman, even his downfall was graceful.

With Carter out, the second teammate spoke up.

"Bro, that was awesome! Want to team up for another round?"

The voice sounded familiar. After watching so many streamers, I realized—it was that top streamer with millions of followers!

I excitedly nudged Carter and nodded furiously.

"Sure," Carter said.

They teamed up and dominated, winning game after game. I checked the big streamer’s channel—he wasn’t streaming. Maybe it wasn’t him, but even if not, it was good to make friends.

But it was him. Two days later, he posted a highlight video of their match, which got a million likes. Thanks to that video, Carter blew up—he gained over 100,000 followers in a single day, and the numbers kept climbing by tens of thousands every day. That one video brought him over a million new fans. He even added the big streamer as a friend and started teaming up occasionally, which made his popularity soar.

His stream went from just over a thousand viewers to tens of thousands. With popularity came more money. His ad rates multiplied.

Maybe the fame felt too good—Carter started to change. It showed in all the little things. Since I worked a regular job, he was home all day. He used to help with chores sometimes—cleaning, cooking. Sometimes I’d come home to dinner already on the table, which was a nice surprise. But gradually, he stopped doing chores at all. I couldn’t even remember the last time he cooked. I figured he was making more money, so I let it go.

He also started getting an attitude. He used to be gentle, never lost his temper with me. But once, I accidentally included a clip of him messing up in a video. No big deal—nobody’s perfect—but people joked about it in the comments. For the first time, he snapped at me.

"Are you blind? How could you miss such a big mistake?" he yelled.

I was stunned.

"I worked late, then watched two hours of stream footage and stayed up editing. I was exhausted—"

"A mistake is a mistake—don’t make excuses!" he snapped.

"Fine, get a professional editor. I’m clearly not good enough."

I was editing for free—he had no right to talk to me like that.

As soon as I said it, he backed down and apologized, coaxing me until I calmed down.

On top of that, his attitude toward money changed. I used to have access to all his accounts. I knew exactly how much he made each month. Then, suddenly, I couldn’t log in anymore—he’d changed the passwords. He said it was for security and that there was no point in giving me the new ones since he’d just change them again soon. From then on, I had no idea what his actual income was, but it was definitely a lot more. After he blew up, it only took him six months to save enough for a down payment.

We’d planned to buy a new place together, but once he had the money, he wanted to buy it himself, before marriage. He didn’t even tell me—he went alone to look at places, signed the contract, and only told me after the fact, calling it a "surprise."

What kind of surprise was that? Our marital home—where it was, how big, which floor, the whole process—I wasn’t involved at all. It was obvious: he wanted to buy before marriage so the property would be his alone. I didn’t call him out. I had no intention of taking anything from him. If he paid, it was his. Still, I couldn’t help but feel disappointed. After five years together, building from nothing, he still guarded himself against me. He didn’t trust my character.

Now I realized: it wasn’t that I wasn’t good enough—he’d just changed. With fame and money came more temptation, more options. His top donors were all women—rich young ladies. Who could resist that?

I didn’t know if he’d added any of those fans on Instagram or DMs. But none of that mattered now. My feelings for him had been worn away by disappointment.

I’m not one to force things. Since he wanted out, I’d let him go.