Chapter 9: It’s been a month since the broadcast-9

People were coming tomorrow, and I couldn’t just sit around doing nothing. I had recently cleaned, but that just meant picking up visible trash and hiding the things I used.

The floor was still sticky, and the musty smell wouldn’t go away even after airing out the room.

“Hmm… Then I should get an air freshener, a broom, and a mop, right?”

That should be enough for cleaning. What else should I buy?

I thought hard, counting on my fingers, when ‘Ah!’ I remembered one more thing.

I needed food!

“Jin Ramen Mild Flavor!”

Ramen is the best when it’s mild.

If you disagree, you’re a noob who dips their sweet and sour pork.

Ahem, I nodded proudly and headed to the discount mart.

Jin Ramen with rolled omelet, imitation crab meat, egg, and kimchi was really delicious.

It was my first time having guests over, so was it time to show off my cooking skills?

“Should I splurge a little more?”

I knew delivery food would taste better, but there was meaning in serving food ‘I made myself’.

“Yeah, let’s buy cheese too!”

I put the yellow square cheese in my basket and looked for my next target.

How about crunchy bean sprouts?

Cheap, delicious, and plentiful, truly the perfect food!

“I’m confident in stir-fried bean sprouts too!”

I did get a little sick of them after eating only bean sprouts for a month, but there were few vegetables as delicious as bean sprouts.

I ended up buying a lot.

“I hope they enjoy it…”

Giggle.

The day passed without much incident.

And the very next day, with a pounding heart, I knelt in front of the door, politely waiting for someone.

I looked at my phone every 30 seconds.

As the time approached, my breathing became heavier.

The cleaning was done.

So much mopping that my knees were bruised!

I solved the musty smell by airing out the room and spraying a lot of air freshener!

The food…

I practiced making it myself yesterday, but it tasted so bad I threw it in the toilet.

I’ll have to order delivery…

It tasted good last time, so why was it so bad this time?

I grumbled and checked the time again. 12:51 PM.

Not yet.

“What should I say…?”

Hello?

Welcome?

I already received instructions on how things would go using the public Wi-Fi on the street this morning.

Dragon told me two things: watch my mouth and dress properly.

He said they would be streaming, right?

I knew what kind of broadcast accidents they were worried about, so I covered myself completely.

No skin exposed except for my face.

Even my face was more than half covered by a mask.

It looked very safe, even to me.

No chance of getting banned, completely flawless!

I felt proud of my appearance and looked at the door.

When would they arrive?

Should I practice my pronunciation in the meantime?

Ah, eh, ee, oh, oo. Ah, eh, ee, oh, oo….

Knock, knock-!

Speak of the devil, I heard a knock!

“Ah! They’re here! Ahem, Hello… Oh…?”

I immediately stretched out my upper body and opened the door. I saw Dragon’s flustered face.

And I belatedly realized that Aram’s camera behind Dragon was pointed at my face.

Probably a broadcast accident.

I awkwardly smiled and waved at the camera.

“Um… Hello…!”

– Zombie girl
– LOL
– Look at those eyes, that’s a corpse LOL
– Doesn’t match the voice at all?
– LOL a zombie
– But she’s really tiny
– Cute

“Um… Sorry.”

I couldn’t see the chat, so I observed Dragon’s and Aram’s faces. Their expressions weren’t very good.

Was the reaction bad?

Was I too ugly?

I shrank back, and Aram reached out and ruffled my hair.

“Hello!”

“Ah, hello…! Aram-nim!”

“Ahem, you should call me unnie!”

“…Unnie.”

I looked at Aram, who approached me in a friendly manner.

From her voice, I thought she would be small and cute, but she was very glamorous!

And very pretty.

Was this a twist?

I wanted to be like her.

I scanned Aram with envious eyes, and Aram smiled slyly and poked my waist with her finger.

“Eek!”

A strange squeal.

“Hard to interrupt.”

Dragon muttered, and Aram and I looked at him, having forgotten about him.

Then, Aram whispered in my ear,

Whisper, whisper

“Want to get a reaction?”

“How…?”

“What you said when we first met!”

I thought for a moment, and my face turned red when I remembered. I looked up at Aram with teary eyes.

“Really?”

“It’ll boost the views, too.”

Ugh…

If I received something, I had to repay the favor.

So I mumbled the words that wouldn’t come out several times and closed my eyes tightly.

I would sacrifice myself for Dragon’s views!

I got on all fours.

I raised my head, looked at Dragon, and barked loudly.

“Woof, woof…!”

Dragon was flustered and pulled me up.

“W-wasn’t it this…?!”

“Aram, you crazy woman! What are you making her do!”

“Hahahahaha!”

While they were fighting, I was flustered, biting my lip. Aram put her palm out to calm Dragon down.

“Sit!”

“What are you…”

Dragon glanced at me, grunted, looked around, sat on my bed, and took a deep breath.

“Sigh… I shouldn’t have brought her.”

“Oh, what were you going to do alone in a high school girl’s house?”

“That’s not what I meant!”

Th-they shouldn’t fight.

Was it my fault?

Was it my fault?

I apologized with my head bowed.

“I-I’m…! Sorry!”

“Huh? Why are you?”

“It’s not your fault, Liera! Stop that!”

“I-I’m not crying…?”

I wiped my eyes with my fingers, thinking I was crying, but they were dry.

“Stop it!”

“Stop…?”

What did that mean?

I pretended to stop crying, saying ‘stop’, and Aram gently scratched my chin.

Was I supposed to purr?

“Good girl!”

Somehow I felt a sense of déjà vu.

I calmly let Aram pet my head and fiddled with my fingers.

After about two minutes, Dragon spoke to me.

“The house is pretty small, huh?”

“Oh, I moved recently!”

“Oh? When?”

“About four months ago?”

“Not long ago, huh?”

Knock, knock, knock~!

Ah, they came on time.

“Were you expecting someone?”

“Ah, food delivery! It’s lunchtime, you know?”

“Oh, good sense. I was hungry. What did you order?”

“Jajangmyeon and sweet and sour pork!”

“I’ll get it!”

Aram raised her hand, showing off, and brought the food from our regular Chinese restaurant.

Three bowls of jajangmyeon, a large sweet and sour pork, and fried dumplings.

I set it up on the floor and poured the sweet and sour pork sauce over it.

Pour.

“Hehehe…”

Sweet and sour pork is best when poured!

– That’s crossing the line
– So bold for a small streamer
– Guwaaaah!

“Liera…?”

I looked at Dragon, expecting praise.

“Yes!”

“Are you crazy?”

Oh.

“Sweet and sour pork is for dipping.”

A serious expression, like he was talking about the truth of the world.

Aram nodded vigorously while slurping jajangmyeon.

“That’s…!”

I wanted to refute.

That it was heresy, a lie, and pouring was right.

But the large box Dragon brought.

And the expensive parts I received yesterday.

It was a battle I couldn’t win.

“Sorry…”

I put a soggy, slightly soft piece of sweet and sour pork in my mouth and grumbled.

Pouring is the truth…

It’s so delicious…

But I wasn’t stupid enough to ruin Dragon’s mood with this.

I just mumbled quietly and crunched on a piece of bell pepper from the sauce.

Sweet, sour, and bitter.

“But is it okay to just eat like this?”

Honestly, it seemed boring…?

Was it because I wasn’t good at talking?

Was it my fault?

I nibbled on the end of the chopsticks and kept looking at the camera Aram had set up. Aram chuckled and put a piece of radish in my mouth.

Crunch, crunch.

“It’s okay! IRL collabs usually don’t have much to salvage.”

Of course, there were exceptions.

Aram gave an example.

Like the first IRL meeting of popular streamers who had a sweet ‘We Got Married’ concept.

“Ah, I heard about that! They had 40,000 viewers?!”

“Oh, Liera knows about it?”

Aram touched my cheek, seeming surprised.

Was it a compliment? Excited, I explained the situation in detail.

“Hehe… I donated back then, too!”

In the end, they sang a duet, and it was so sweet.

Giggle.

But something must have displeased her. Aram’s hand that was touching my cheek started pinching it.

My head swayed helplessly in Aram’s hand.

It hurts!

“Pay your phone bill with that money…”

“Oh… Uh, no one calls me anyway…!”

Why did I intentionally not pay the bill even though I had the money?

Because no one called me!

“Oh, so we’re not people?”

I shivered at Dragon’s sudden cold words and raised my hands.

“I-I’ll pay! I’ll pay right now!”

“Why do you make it sound like someone’s extorting you!”

Dragon exclaimed, startled, glanced at the hallway window, scratched his head, and pointed at my computer.

“Anyway, let’s start assembling since we’re done eating. That’s it, right?”

“Ah, yes, that’s it!”

My computer, now a cold corpse.

Dragon examined it closely, sighed deeply, and mumbled without looking at me.

“Wow… This is really… Liera, these are expensive, so take good care of them!”

“Yes, I’ll take really, really good care of them! I’ll wipe it three times a day! I’ll cover it with a blanket when I sleep and send you pictures regularly!”

“Are you raising a kid…?”

Aram looked at me with a slightly disgusted expression, which made me a little sad.

Anyway, Dragon seemed amazing.

He seemed so skilled at computer assembly that I asked Aram about it, and she said something unexpected.

“Dragon oppa used to be a scalper.”

“Huh?”

A criminal?

“What are you looking at? Our oppa was a good scalper, okay?”

“How is a scalper good?”

I had never been to one, but their notoriety reached even me, who lived in a corner of my room.

Weren’t ‘How much did you look into it before coming?’ and ‘Do you want to get hit, customer?’ famous?

Of course, I couldn’t imagine Dragon doing such things, but the word ‘scalper’ was that scary.

“Oppa never fought with customers and didn’t inflate prices.”

“Then how is that a scalper?”

“Right?”

Aram also seemed curious, tilting her head like me and looking at Dragon.

Was our voice too loud? Dragon stopped assembling the computer and looked at us with a sullen expression.

Oh, was I being too rude?

If I were helping someone and they were digging into my past, wouldn’t I be upset?

Thinking I should apologize, I opened the refrigerator, poured water into a cup, and bowed my head.

“I’m sorry!”

“Huh? For what?”

Dragon took the water I offered and looked at me, not understanding.

Was he testing me?

Was he testing how sincere I was?

If I hesitated here, he would think even worse of me, right?

I exaggerated my apology and bowed deeply to Dragon, showing my sincerity.

“For… Asking about your past without permission…”

“Why are you overreacting again! I don’t have anything to hide, it’s fine. Anyway, the assembly is done, so let’s turn on the computer.”

“Yes!”

I got up, plugged in the cables, and turned on the computer. It turned on without any problems.

Dragon sat in the chair, fiddled with things I didn’t understand, shouted ‘Done!’, got up, and put me in the chair.

“Wh-what?”

“The performance should be good enough to run most games at the highest settings now. There shouldn’t be any more problems with the stream, right?”

And Garam gave you a microphone, right?

If you use that, it’ll be even better.

“Ah… Thank you so much…! Really!”

Kindness without expecting anything in return.

How unbelievable.

Honestly, when Dragon said he was doing an IRL collab, I was scared.

What would he make me do?

What should I do?

If he helped me this much, I had to do whatever he asked.

Because I received so much.

So last night, I trembled in fear, but it turned out to be all in my head.

I felt even more sorry.

Dragon and Aram came with good intentions, but I imagined rude things because of my paranoia.

“Th-that…”

…

Something seemed to be blocking my throat, and I couldn’t speak.

Should I just pretend I didn’t know?

But my heart felt too heavy to do that.

I hesitated, then finally spoke.

“I’m sorry…!”

“Huh?”

“For what?”

They asked what I meant, but all I could say was sorry.

Dragon muttered in a dull tone.

“If you’re sorry, please take care of us in the future.”

Oh…!

“…I’ll do anything!”

“Crazy…”

He frowned and picked his ear as if I said something cringeworthy, but even that looked radiant.

“Oppa.”

“What?”

“I don’t want another incident/accident added to your document.”

“Me neither.”

What were they talking about?

Incident/accident?

Had they caused incidents/accidents before?

Of course, they had, but they were all minor.

Simple mistakes.

And I just confirmed their character today, just now, right?

I waved my arms at the camera and talked about their character.

“Aram-nim, Dragon-nim are very, very good people! Don’t misunderstand!”

Aram and Dragon both wiped their faces.

“Doesn’t it look like we’re bullying her?”

“Yeah.”

“Another incident/accident will be added, right?”

“Yeah.”

“No… They’re really nice!”

It was just a brief misunderstanding, but the misunderstanding between us and the viewers deepened for a while, and the collab ended ambiguously.

And a week later, on the exact day I started streaming a month ago, a small incident happened.