Chapter 67 : Aftermath

The day after successfully completing the Kyunwang collab stream,

I returned home, skipped breakfast, and lay on my bed staring blankly at the ceiling.

Sure, living with Curry had been enjoyable, and that damn stalker had been dealt with.

But for some reason, I felt a suffocating sense of frustration and a complete lack of motivation.

I recalled Curry’s face from last night in front of the police station.

The expression of pain on Curry’s face as she called me “Nayeon Queen” in her bitter voice lingered vividly.

I never expected the police to call out my name, and honestly, I was just as flustered.

To hide my embarrassment, I forced myself to act as though I was calm.

And to Curry, who was leaving in torment, I threw out an utterly inappropriate question for the situation.

“When do you think I’ll get to do a virtual marriage?”

Was I regretting that question now?

No matter how much I thought about it, regret didn’t seem to be the reason for my frustration.

I’d always walked a fine line for the sake of entertainment,but even I had to admit that I’d crossed the line several times recently.

If regret was the source of my frustration, I should’ve felt it back when I first stepped over the line.

Lost in my memories, I suddenly thought of my childhood.

A distant past that I could hardly recall clearly.

I remembered feeling this same suffocating emotion back then.

May 8th. Parent’s Day.

I pinned a carnation onto my father.

But that man heartlessly tore the flower off and threw it into the trash.

And as my younger self watched that scene unfold in real time,

I felt this same suffocating emotion.

Back then, I liked that man, my father.

And now, as a fan, I liked Curry, the streamer.

But my father hated me.

And now, Curry hated me—not as “Nayeon Queen,” but as “me.”

So this is what it feels like to be hated by someone you like.

Now that I understood the reason behind my frustration, I sat up.

There had been a time before when Curry’s hatred for Nayeon Queen had reached its peak.

When my sniping had gone too far, I realized my faults and took a break from my sniping activities.

Good memories and bad ones alike eventually get beautified with the passage of time, given the label of “nostalgia.”

This suffocating feeling, and Curry’s hatred for me—

with time, they too would fade away and become just a memory.

…They had to.

As I ate lunch, I felt Ji-hye’s intense gaze on me.

“Ummm…. how was living with Curry?”

“It was… just fun.”

“Nothing unusual happened?”

“Something unusual did happen.”

“Wh-what happened?”

Ji-hye cautiously asked her question, her gaze subtle but curious.

I could immediately tell what kind of story she wanted to hear.

Still, I wasn’t about to recount what happened with Curry in front of the police station.

Instead, I told her about the stalker incident.

“That person who followed me around was your stalker, unni? Ugh, gives me the chills.”

“You don’t have to worry about that bastard anymore.”

“You don’t need to worry about me. Honestly, I wasn’t even paying much attention to it.”

I couldn’t tell if she was pretending to be fine for my sake or if she genuinely didn’t care.

But seeing Ji-hye’s lively demeanor helped lift the gloom lingering from yesterday, even if just a little.

After finishing lunch, I headed upstairs.

Since I’d decided to take a break from sniping, I needed to find something else to do.

“Should I just grind Leorim all day?” I thought, hesitating.

There were only four days left until the new season started. Playing ranked games now would be pointless.

It wouldn’t amount to much, and I quickly lost interest in solo queue matches anyway.

My gaze shifted to the streaming program icon tucked in the corner of my desktop.

“Should I stream? Or maybe snipe another streamer?”

As I debated, I found myself leaning more toward streaming.

I remembered how I’d felt when I sniped Nomadic Swordsman.

Sniping other streamers wasn’t as fun anymore—

not unless it was Curry.

But after everything that happened yesterday, I couldn’t bring myself to snipe Curry, either.

Deciding to pass the time with a stream instead,

I began preparing to go live for the first time in a while.

The co-op Kyunwang stream with Curry and Barcode had an incredible impact.

As the video of the stream went live, Curry’s Youtube channel surpassed one million subscribers.

Even Barcode, who had only uploaded four videos to her channel, hit a milestone of 600,000 subscribers.

The chemistry between Barcode and Curry was magnetic, drawing viewers in effortlessly.

The video titled Are We Getting Virtually Married? uploaded to Curry’s channel soared to #1 on the real-time trending list.

It was just one minute long, but the content—a surprise virtual marriage declaration from Barcode—was enough to make it happen.

While Curry’s channel rocketed upward like a jet engine,

Barcode’s remained oddly quiet. She rarely uploaded or streamed live.

New viewers, curious about the discrepancy, dug into Barcode’s story.

Discovering her “love(?) history” archived on RootWiki,

they began to understand why she didn’t stream often.

But understanding something with your head isn’t the same as feeling it with your heart.

Even if they knew she had little reason to stream, they couldn’t help but long for her to go live.

[Open the door!!!!]

[Host, do you want me to die?]

[Aaaaaarghhh!]

[I’m holding my breath until Barcode starts streaming! Hup!]

[So… when’s the next stream?]

[Screeeeech!!!!]

It got to the point where, even when Barcode wasn’t streaming,messages continued flooding her channel chat.

Despite her channel being offline, 1,500 viewers were logged in,
staring at a blank, black screen.

And they all had just one wish.

For Barcode to start streaming.

Perhaps their prayers reached the heavens.

[zxcv1234 is now live!]

Barcode’s stream began.

During the Platform Championship, the mid-laner for Team Curry Breakers, captained by Jericho, was a streamer named Ain.

However, before the team qualifiers, Ain was involved in a car accident and couldn’t participate in the tournament.

Barcode stepped in to fill the vacant spot.

At the time, Ain was wracked with guilt, believing the other team members were suffering because of him.

The accident wasn’t his fault, and no one blamed him for it.

Yet the fact that he couldn’t keep his promise continued to haunt him.

But Barcode, who joined in his place, carried the team to overwhelming victories throughout the tournament,leading Team Curry Breakers to the championship.

Had the accident never happened, Ain would have been in that position.

Even so, rather than feeling jealousy or resentment toward Barcode,

Ain was grateful to her for leading the team to victory in his stead.

“Whew!”

Now discharged from the hospital, Ain took a deep breath, savoring the fresh air.

He pulled out his smartphone and called Jericho.

“Hey, Kyunghoon. What’s up?”

“Hyung, I’ve been discharged.”

“What? Why didn’t you tell me sooner—? Never mind. I’ll head over now.”

“No, don’t come. I actually have a favor to ask.”

Ain hesitated for a moment before speaking softly.

“The team hasn’t had a celebration yet, right?”

“Huh? No, we haven’t. Back then, it didn’t feel right to get together.”

“Things have settled down now. How about holding one? I’ll cover all the costs.”

“Why would you pay? If anyone’s paying, it should be me.”

“I owe the team, and I’m grateful to Barcode for working so hard in my place. It’s only fair I take care of it.

Besides, I wasn’t even technically part of the Curry Breakers. Consider it my entry fee for joining the celebration.”

When Ain chuckled lightly, Jericho couldn’t help but laugh along.

“You and your stubbornness… Fine, I’ll ask everyone. I’ll check with Barcode, too.”

“Thanks, hyung.”

After wrapping up the call, Ain headed home with a spring in his step.

When I went live for the first time in a long while, I was stunned.

I couldn’t help it. The moment the stream started, the viewer count surpassed 10,000.

Within ten minutes, it had jumped to over 20,000.

Confused, I checked my follower count—and my jaw dropped.

Not my Youtube subscribers—my Twitch followers.

Fifty thousand followers?

That number was only achievable for someone famous beyond the platform itself,
and here I was, barely three months into streaming, already hitting it.

[So when’s the virtual marriage with Curry? When’s the virtual marriage with Curry? When’s the virtual marriage with Curry?]

[Thank you so much for streaming, Barcode. Seriously, thank you.]

[Did you and Curry do anything spicy?] – [This user has been banned.]

[She’s the “Empress” of Twitch.]

[Look at all these newcomers, lol.]

[Tell us stories about living together!]

The chatroom was absolute chaos.

The messages flooded in so fast that Ji-hye couldn’t keep up, no matter how hard she tried to manage it alone.

The chat moved so quickly that the text was completely unreadable.

It wasn’t until Ji-hye applied every restriction she could to the chatroomthat things finally began to calm down a bit.

I had only planned to have a simple conversation today.

I never expected so many people to show up.

Should I just end the stream here and look for another hobby?

That thought crossed my mind when—

Ring~ Ring~

Ring~ Ring~

Jericho called me on Discord.

Caught up in the chaos, I quickly accepted the call.

“What’s up?”

“Oh, Barcode. It’s nothing urgent, but we never had that team celebration, did we?”

“Right. Back then, it wasn’t really the right time.”

“Well, we’re thinking of holding one soon. Would you be interested in joining us?”

Jericho’s suggestion for a team gathering was unexpected but welcome.

I had nothing planned since I’d decided to put tormenting Curry on hold for now.

Refusing here felt unnecessary.

“Ain said he wanted to thank you and the team, and he’s covering everything.

You can just relax and enjoy yourself.”

“With him going that far, I can’t exactly say no. When is it happening?”

“We’re thinking of three days from now. Does that work for you?”

“Yes, that works for me.”

“Great. I’ll send you the details on Discord!”

The call ended, and shortly after, I received a direct message from Jericho.

Switching the stream screen to a standby page, I checked his message.

With nothing better to do for the time being, I saved the location of the meeting.

This felt like perfect timing.

Satisfied, I returned to the stream.