Chapter 37: Watch party(1)

“I’m full—.”

“Of course. I could have eaten three servings by myself.”

Yu-ah said that with a satisfied smile, putting her hand on her stomach.

As usual, I immediately told her the facts.

Then, Yu-ah got angry.

“What are you talking about! I only ate two servings of tteokbokki, fried food, and sundae!”

“That’s more than three servings.”

“And I didn’t eat it alone; you and I ate it together. You’re being too harsh.”

But no matter how much I denied it, Yu-ah had eaten enough for three.

That’s because I didn’t even finish one serving of tteokbokki, and I barely touched the fried food and sundae.

In fact, Yu-ah took care of the rest by herself.

But I didn’t point that out to her; I didn’t want to make her upset.

Yu-ah is sensitive to being told that she ate too much.

I don’t know why she hates it so much.

Honestly, I didn’t think it was that bad to see her eating so much.

The words adults use to describe eating happily seemed to suit Yu-ah very well.

When I see Yu-ah eating, I feel like I want to eat more too.

“I’m full, so I’m craving something sweet. Sigh. Do you want some ice cream?”

“You’re really going to crave it then? Be careful. I think your cheeks have gotten fatter recently…?”

“Really? Then I don’t want to eat it. I suddenly don’t want to eat it. Yeah.”

Yu-ah looked at the unmanned ice cream shop nearby and turned her head at my words.

She checked her face on her phone, then put it down as if she was relieved.

“Huh… This is about right…”

Did she think it was still okay?

I don’t know her standards, but since my words were groundless slander to begin with, there was really no need to worry about it.

Yu-ah then looked at me and grumbled as if she didn’t like it.

“More than that, who teases a woman for gaining weight lately? You have no sense.”

“You were a woman? I didn’t know.”

“You want to lose? Really?”

People say whatever they want, even on dates.

We chattered on our way home.

Then Yu-ah asked me if I remembered something.

“Hey, did you see that too? Is it an octopus game or something?”

“Octopus game?”

A survival game OTT drama with 45.6 billion won at stake, “Octopus Game.”

How could I not have seen that?

It was a hit nationwide and also popular overseas.

Especially, there was no way a nerd like me would dislike the survival genre.

The excitement that comes from extreme situations, the ugly nature of humans revealed in desperate survival, the three-dimensional appearance of humans when they are driven to death.

It was a format that was often used in Japanese games like “Danganronpa” and subculture genres.

“Is there anyone who hasn’t seen it?”

I asked out of genuine curiosity but stopped talking.

Come to think of it, Yu-ah hasn’t seen “Octopus Game.”

I remember talking about that in the chatroom of the Rikyuel broadcast a few days ago.

We ended up discussing what was fun on OTT.

[The octopus game? Oh, I haven’t seen that octopus game.]

That’s what I said, and the Baemons got all upset.

Yu-ah said to me as if she was annoyed, “No. Should I say my friends? Anyway, people keep making a fuss about watching it. If you don’t watch it, you’ll lose half your life.”

“Oh… that’s true. It’s fun.”

I don’t know about Injeolson, but it would be a lie to say it wasn’t fun.

There’s always a reason why a piece of work becomes popular.

“I was going to watch it because I was so pissed off by all the nitpicking, but when I took a quick look, the content seemed a bit scary…?”

Those people who nitpicked were obviously viewers.

When Rikyuel said she hadn’t watched “Octopus Game,” they asked her what she was doing for a living, told her to watch some dramas and movies, and urged her to stop living in reality and use the internet.

The teachers threw a fit and nitpicked Rikyuel.

Of course, our venomous Rikyuel responded by saying…

[It’s that fun? Hey. It’s just a drama after all~!]

And she nitpicked in the chat window.

I remember a huge war breaking out…

If you look at it this way, she’s definitely a tsundere.

She fought so viciously because she wanted to communicate with the viewers.

You were thinking of finding something scary to watch, right? But here’s the strange thing.

“Is it scary? There’s nothing really scary about it?”

“Huh? But it’s rated R19 or higher, right?”

“Oh, it’s a bit brutal. There are a lot of scenes that are really gross.”

“Well, that’s a bit… unless you have someone to watch it with…”

Yu-ah is a neo-hyper-coward among cowards.

Of course, “Octopus Game” is closer to a thriller genre than a horror genre.

Yu-ah wasn’t immune to gory or gross scenes, either.

So I can understand why she’s scared.

“Hmm. Then should I watch it with you? Since season 2 came out anyway, I was going to binge-watch season 1 again.”

“Oh. Really?”

“It’s been so long since I watched it that I forgot the content. I have to watch it again anyway.”

Even though it was a fad that had already ended, I couldn’t let our Rikyuel remain a nerd.

I couldn’t let Rikyuel live her whole life with the title of fad killer.

“But where are we going to watch it together?”

“It’s an OTT drama, so you don’t do it in a movie theater or something?”

Yu-ah was right.

Normally, if we were watching it together outside, a place like an internet cafe would be the best.

But I didn’t really need to do that. It would be a waste of money.

“Let’s watch it together at home. I have a beam projector.”

“Huh? A beam projector? You have one at home?”

“Uh… well… I had some circumstances… I installed it at home after I was discharged.”

Yu-ah asked me as if it was new.

Of course, these days, the number of households with beam projectors has increased considerably.

But there weren’t many households that personally owned beam projectors.

It wasn’t that big, but it was still a struggle to install one.

There was a reason I installed a beam projector in my small studio apartment.

One of them was because of Lee Cheong-ha, my ex-girlfriend.

After we started dating, I saw a couple vlog on the internet where they were having a sweet date at home with a beam projector.

I was so fascinated by this strange romanticism that I installed it to try to recreate it with Lee Cheong-ha.

Thinking back now, it was such a stupid thing to do.

In the first place, Lee Cheong-ha didn’t come to my house except for one or two times in the beginning of our relationship.

And the other reason was Rikyuel.

I thought it would be nice to watch Rikyuel’s broadcast on a large screen.

I bought it with that thought, but when I actually bought it, it was also a total waste.

Since I watched her broadcast so often, I didn’t want to turn on the beam projector and connect it every time I watched it.

I just watched it while lying in bed with my phone.

Of course, neither of those things were easy to say to my current Yu-ah.

“Then that’s good. I don’t like watching on a small screen because my eyes aren’t good. Heh.”

“Really? Then let’s do a proper screening of ‘Octopus Game’ tomorrow.”

It’s a bit long, but if you think about it, you can watch it all in one day.

It would be impossible to watch all of season 2.

“Oh, tomorrow is a bit much. I have a busy schedule.”

“Then next week?”

“Yeah. Let’s do it next week.”

There was nothing I could do about her being busy.

She probably had vocal training and work to do.

I held back tears and decided to wait for the next week’s break.

“But there’s nothing really scary, right? You’re just going to torture me and stuff?”

“No. And stop asking. It’s a spoiler. You wimp.”

“You’re just teasing me and I’m scared, but if you say no you’ll really die?”

“Oh my. No. You’re really being pushy.”

Yu-ah was the one who was scared.

But she was really coming… Rikyuel to my house…

That’s how I invited my favorite Rikyuel to my house.

***

And so a few days had passed since my first date with Yu-ah.

I was watching Rikyuel’s broadcast as usual, counting the days until her next hiatus.

The title of the room was, [Peeking into the Viewers’ Room Hehehe].

A really obscene title for Rikyuel.

She had just finished chatting and was about to start the content she had prepared.

[So what are we going to do today? Of course, let’s sneak a peek into our Baemons’ rooms!]

[You probably know how I usually live, but you don’t know me, right?]

[I was curious about how you guys usually live, so now I’m going to try some content where I sneakily spy on viewers’ rooms.]

This might be enough to elicit an ‘Oh…’ reaction.

As expected, the chat window was filled with ‘?’ and strange reactions, and Rikyuel giggled.

You were definitely going for this.

However, Rikyuel continued her comment as if nothing had happened.

[Then, should we really get started without further explanation?]

[I posted the notice a month ago, and so many people participated. Almost 200 people?]

[If I make a mistake, I think I’ll have to do it until the end of today’s broadcast, so please understand that I proceed quickly!]

Over 200 people participated in this small event.

That really showed how famous Rikyuel was.

The average participation rate is less than 1/10th of the average viewer.

[If there are 200 people, it’s 3 hours even if you count 1 minute per person]

[Really ]

[This is fucked up Today’s long night is On]

[Stalking voyeur pervert Rikyuel’s peeking hole cc]

And the moment I opened the familiar fan cafe bulletin board, I remembered.

Wait a minute…?

The laughter that had been laughing out loud disappeared.

Goosebumps ran down my spine and I felt something strong.

Just like Rikyuel said, I had uploaded it a long time ago so I had forgotten…

Thinking about it, I had participated in this event.

Of course, at the time, I didn’t even know that Rikyuel was a child.

I took really pretty pictures of every corner of my room and uploaded them.

I was proud of myself for being a good viewer who actively participated in viewer participation.

But now that I think about it….

….If a child saw this, it would be a big deal.

I had a strong feeling of being screwed.

I had gotten a new room after being discharged from the military.

If a child saw that it was my room, they wouldn’t have known right away. But…

“You were supposed to come over to my house next week…”

I promised her that I would have a screening at my house next week.

She might have forgotten because of all the posts, but if by any chance Yu-ah were to remember my house because it left an impression on her and the layout or appearance, then there is a possibility that she will notice that I am a viewer of her broadcast.

“I have to delete it… I have to delete it quickly…”

I turned on the Rikyuel broadcast and hurriedly started accessing the fan cafe.

I really hoped that she wouldn’t see the post I made so quickly.

And the first post she started seeing on the broadcast was.

[Hmm. Something is off from the beginning? MS Youngjae’s Corner Baeksubaemon’s College Student’s Studio?]

Why the f*ck, the first post was mine.

What the heck.