Chapter 6: From Apology to Opportunity: Hayoon’s Game Plan

The next morning.

Hayoon, who woke up around 9 a.m., heated up the leftover spinach soup she had eaten last night, ate it for breakfast, rinsed her mouth with fruit, brushed her teeth, and returned to her room.

“Hmm…”

Then, she buried her face in her arm and smelled it.

The sweet scent of a woman’s unique body odor rose up.

It was a scent that felt so sweet, it was as if she would smell like this even if she didn’t wash her whole life.

But even if Hayoon’s body was fragrant, her clothes weren’t.

The pajamas shirt she had been wearing for three days was showing signs that it needed to be washed soon, and after getting her underwear to change into, Hayoon went to the bathroom, showered, and came out.

Then, she came back to her room, stared intently at her reflection in the mirror wearing pink underwear…

“Why does it feel like I’m getting more and more used to this… it shouldn’t feel this natural…”

Phew, she sighed and put on her pajama pants and shirt.

“Let’s work, let’s work.”

I’ve eaten, I’ve showered, and I’ve changed my clothes, so it’s time to get to work.

Hayoon grabbed the boxes of goods that had been piled up in one corner of her room and dragged them next to her desk, and then placed the desk mats and acrylic stands that she had pre-opened on the desk that had been cleaned.

Next, she hung her phone on the stand so that the view would be from top to bottom.

Ding!

With the start of the recording sound, she started.

“I am sorry.”

The title of the post that this video was going to be uploaded to was an apology.

***

After its high-speed growth period ended, Korea began to become bleak.

And the place where this phenomenon is most prominent is the Internet.

The Internet is a place where you get cursed at if you stay silent about a specific issue, and get cursed at again if you apologize.

It’s so bad that even these words are circulating in the entertainment industry.

‘Why apologize? The moment you do that, it’s like you’re advertising to the entire neighborhood that you want to be cursed at.’

Like this, at this point in time where the act of ‘apology’ has lost its true value in Korea.

At 2 PM on a golden Saturday afternoon.

An apology post was uploaded to the Girls’ Frontline gallery.

The author is Haru, a rookie artist who is opening a booth for the first time at the December Seo-pe.

She was also the author who caused a controversy regarding the pre-order info last night…

“She’s posting an apology? What a complete amateur?”

M4BabyRoomGuard, who was idly scratching his stomach and going back and forth on community boards from his room, clicked his tongue at Haru’s actions.

The mods who apologized for not properly managing the Girls’ Frontline gallery have all disappeared into the pages of history as they were being endlessly ridiculed.

In the Internet world, an apology is nothing more than a masochistic declaration of wanting to be beaten, and like a rookie author, she began to become submissive as if she had never had any guts.

“I’m a little disappointed.”

Since she’s so obviously showing that she doesn’t know the sentiments of this community, M4BabyRoomGuard, who has 461 consecutive days of attendance in the Girls’ Frontline gallery, was not fond of it…

“O!?”

In the post that he expected would just be a repetition of insincere and half-hearted apologies, there was a video uploaded.

The video title was an apology.

Setting aside the fact that she was apologizing, she had even filmed an apology video…

“That’s a perfect recipe for a personal attack.”

Even that seemed amateurish.

If she apologizes in a video, there will be a lot of trolls who will nitpick her pronunciation or voice, and tear her apart.

“Ha, f*ck, what’s she thinking?”

As someone who had already completed the pre-order of 75,000 won worth of goods just yesterday, M4BabyRoomGuard could only be worried.

He was going crazy as he imagined Haru being cursed at, giving a short apology, and then no-showing at the December Seo-pe…

[I am sorry.]

“Huh?”

Why was it…

A clear, feminine voice was heard in the video, where a gruff male voice should have been heard.

It was not just the beautiful voice, which even gave off a graceful feeling, but even her pronunciation was perfect, so it was inevitable that everyone would be taken aback by this…

[There were many comments asking why I only sell the kimono acrylic stand and swimsuit wall scroll if they were pre-ordered. I started ordering them in the order that I finished the illustrations, but the schedule was too tight…]

Haru explained her situation in detail.

[I am currently receiving support by uploading these kinds of illustrations on my Pixiv, Fanbox, and Patreon…]

In that process, some of the arousing pictures that Hayoon had uploaded to her Pixiv account appeared and then disappeared.

It was an apology video that had been personally edited, and in order to gain the favor of the Girls’ Frontline gallery users, all the characters that were the subjects of the arousing pictures were Girls’ Frontline characters.

In the midst of that meticulous and frightening mind game, the apology video continued.

[Usually, support money is deposited into my account at the end of the month, and in the case of mass orders of acrylic stands or desk mats, it sometimes takes more than a month depending on the circumstances of the supplier.]

Hayoon appealed to the emotions with a tearful voice, saying that if she waited for the money to come in, there wouldn’t be enough physical time to complete the mass production of goods.

[If the volume increases, the time it takes to produce the goods also increases, so I judged that the best way to provide goods to as many people as possible on the day of the Seo-pe was to make the maximum use of the pre-order system.]

“Oh…”

M4BabyRoomGuard sighed at the explanations in the continuing apology video.

Due to his particular build, M4BabyRoomGuard has almost no experience interacting with female classmates.

In the first place, it was more fun to hang out with other guys, and even then, it was much more rewarding and enjoyable to play games or translate HK-M4’s doujinshi while lazing around in his room.

“Well, there’s nothing we can do about it.”

Is that why?

M4BabyRoomGuard accepted Haru’s actions as a ‘mistake made by a woman who doesn’t know the community.’

The same goes for using the pre-order system.

He vaguely understood and accepted that women are generally kind and have a lot of feelings, so she must have wanted to share the goods that she made with her art with as many people as possible.

-Ah, if she doesn’t have production costs, then there’s nothing we can do about it.

-After looking it up, it costs a minimum of 10,000 won to make one desk mat or wall scroll. If you order 100, that’s 1 million won, which is not a small amount of money.

-Agreed. If her monthly salary is 2.5 million won, after taxes that would be half, and if she makes three or four kinds of goods like that, that would be two months’ worth of salary down the drain.

After pausing the video and scrolling down to check the comments, most of the other users had forgiven Haru’s strange actions a long time ago.

The fact that men are weak to women is like an instinct that is engraved in their genes, and this was the same for Girls’ Frontline users.

“No, as long as the goods are made well, that should be enough, right? Looking at it, there were a lot of guys who verified their purchases, so why were they getting so angry yesterday?”

M4BabyRoomGuard, who was initially suspicious of Haru’s intentions, was now in the position of being at the forefront of cursing at the trolls who were getting so angry last night.

He shook his head at the trolls, as if they were pathetic, and turned the video back on.

[This, the production costs were a bit expensive… So I just couldn’t handle it with the money I had saved up…]

Haru raised a large acrylic stand on her pale white arm to show the real thing.

So, the reason why she made it into a video was to show the state of the goods that had already been ordered.

“Wow, it looks like it would cost a lot of money…”

M4BabyRoomGuard, who saw that scene, stared at the acrylic stand in the video with his mouth wide open.

It was a large acrylic stand that was the size of a figurine.

A rookie artist, who is opening her booth for the first time next month, had boldly ordered a large acrylic stand that many doujin artists don’t order due to production cost issues.

“There was a reason why she was making them through pre-orders, those trolls are the problem, anyway? Didn’t they have anything better to do on Friday night?”

M4BabyRoomGuard, who didn’t have a large acrylic stand in his showcase yet, had already become Haru’s guard and was now in the position of denouncing the trolls who had cursed at her.

[And some of you might have noticed, but the pad under me is also a good that I will be selling this time. It’s also made of a very soft material with clear printing, so it’s great to look at even if you don’t use it and keep it for display.]

“Keuh…!”

Every time, the perfect illustration quality and the finishing touches on the goods that emphasize it, make me automatically sigh in admiration.

“I’ll see you next year too. It’s a must.”

How would it feel to go to Haru’s booth in a month and receive those goods?

Also, what would the unrevealed goods feel like?

If I display them in my room, they would definitely be arousing, right?

Just as he was thinking about that, M4BabyRoomGuard’s loyalty towards Haru’s booth was skyrocketing…

As if it wasn’t over yet.

[Still, it is true that I caused a stir… I was wondering how I could apologize, and I thought that it would be good to do an event?]

She dropped a bomb.

[So, I’m thinking of giving away one of each of the goods that I introduced in this apology video through a lottery.]

Free lottery of goods.

This was an event that otaku, who enjoy the game enough to fill a room with goods, would participate in with their eyes wide open.

***

That evening.

“Ah, this is it.”

Hayoon, who was smirking, couldn’t hide her smile as she looked at the number of Pixiv followers that were accumulating, and the number of Fanbox and Patreon supporters that were gradually increasing.

Hayoon’s art style and completion were already proven to be commercially viable a long time ago.

What she needed now was an opportunity to gain more traffic, a place to promote herself and make as many people as possible into her potential customers…

The Girls’ Frontline gallery was playing that role very well.

It hasn’t even been a full day, but she already has almost 300 new Pixiv followers, and more than ten new supporters.

-Noonaa……

-Heueung….

And on top of that, there are even simps who are happy just because Hayoon is a girl.

I don’t usually say this, but being a woman in the doujin scene is a clear advantage.

In the 2020s, even men are pretending to be women and broadcasting with virtual avatars, so what if a ‘real woman’ is making the goods that they want to buy?

And even the quality is good?

Even if the price conditions are the same, people will open their wallets more for a booth run by a woman, rather than a booth run by a man.

-But I’ve been saying this since yesterday, but the quality is insane, for real.

-Honestly, setting aside the quality, just the size of the acrylic stand is enough of a reason for me to buy it.

-Agreed, there are a lot of shrewd people who calculate the profit and loss of goods lately, so you rarely see those kind of things.

-I hope this person can make a lot of money.

-I also feel good because it seems like you really like Girls’ Frontline.

As a result.

Despite the post title being an apology, the comments were full of praise for Hayoon.

The blatant praise and attention that I could not properly receive when I was a man made Hayoon’s lips rise to the sky.

“Aww, you guys are cute. Anyways, there’s no one who’s better at sucking up than you guys.”

Hayoon, who had become inexplicably proud, replied to some of the comments and started to build her self-satisfaction and image making…

-Do you happen to cosplay? There are a lot of cosplayers that come to Seo-pe these days. People who run booths often do it too.

Someone who didn’t read the mood crossed the line.

└Ah, f*cking simp, he’s at it again, another sudden burst.

└There’s always people like this, don’t worry about it, author-nim…

While several comments were criticizing him.

“Well…. If the sales from the pre-orders are good, then I’ll be thankful, so should I… cosplay..?”

Hayoon tried to laugh it off while leaving some room for possibility…

ᄂ????

ᄂAre you really going to do it?

└Specifically, how much?

“No, why are they so persistent…?”

This time, even the other comments started to get fixated on cosplaying.

└So how much.

└Answer.

Honestly, it was scary.

It was scary, but…

‘Ah, f*ck… I don’t want to back out in this atmosphere…’

It didn’t seem like there would be another chance for virality like this, and it was a shame to back down and run away here.