Yeonhee was flustered.
Though I couldn’t see her face to be certain, if you listened carefully, you could hear her stumbling over her words, saying “Ah, no” and “That’s not it.”
She wasn’t the only one who was flustered.
Se-na, who now realized her words might have been a bit mischievous, kept apologizing to me in embarrassment.
“R-right? I went too far… I’m sorry… Daeju-nim…”
“No, it’s fine”
I ended up being flustered too, unexpectedly finding myself on the receiving end of apologies.
The only ones not flustered in this room were the viewers watching the broadcast.
[Oh something… something seems to be starting]
[Is this a battle for Daeju? Let me join too]
[Basement Lu Bu vs Real-life Lu Bu, what’s with this balance]
[Yeonhee has more money though]
[The balance might be good?]
“I’m sorry… Se-Se-na-nim? I just unconsciously…”
“No, it’s okay… I was too mischievous on broadcast because we’re close. It’s my fault…”
“Ah. So you’re very close?”
[Yeonhee’s voice ’Shiver’]
[This is why older folks watch weekend dramas]
[Ah lol They were secretly enjoying this fun stuff lol]
[Confiscate the red ginseng candy from the elderly who’ve been secretly enjoying this for 2 weeks!]
[Poor Grandma Bokja crying ㅠㅠ]
Just when things seemed to settle down with Yeonhee’s courageous apology, something else seemed about to start.
I’d never heard Yeonhee use that tone of voice except when she got into arguments during her solo League of Legends streams. In other words, it suggested that Yeonhee’s current psychological state wasn’t exactly positive.
I didn’t know why.
Conversely, even while apologizing, Se-na’s voice was high-pitched as if she was in a good mood.
I’d never heard that tone from her except when she was making me exercise.
I didn’t know the reason for this either.
“Alright! Se-na-nim’s interview is over!”
“What? Did I fail?”
“No, you passed so it’s over! I’ll kick you out!”
“Wait—”
I forcefully ended the interview to prevent confusion. It wasn’t much of an interview, but I passed her anyway. The interview was originally meant to check basic character and personality. In that sense, it was questionable whether Se-na or Yeonhee even needed this interview.
I knew their personalities and characters well enough without an interview.
They were two of the few normal people around me.
Though Yeonhee sometimes showed peculiar behavior on stream… but that’s just for the broadcast, right?
“So, are you feeling less nervous now?”
“Yes, I am but… but”
“But?”
Her tone suggested she had something to say, but she didn’t continue.
[She knows how to make people angry]
[The first way to make someone angry is to stop mid-sentence… and the second is]
[What’s the second way you bastard]
“That Se-na from earlier? Are you very close with her?”
“Very?”
The standard was vague.
If asked whether we were close or not, I’d say we were close, but as they say, different words have different meanings, and being asked if we were “very” close made it difficult to answer.
She’d been to my house, we chatted on KakaoTalk fairly often, and she taught me exercise, so you could say we were close.
But thinking about it again, we hadn’t dropped formal speech with each other, didn’t know each other’s ages, and I was hiding my name, so it was hard to say we were very close.
“I’m not sure…”
“Do you have each other’s contact information?”
“Huh? Ah… yes, we do”
“Do you contact each other often?”
“KakaoTalk sometimes… occasionally?”
[Is this an interview or what lololol]
[The interview world has been reversed lololol]
[Why are you the one sitting there answering questions, idiot lolol]
[That awkward side is actually charming]
Only after seeing the chat did I notice something was off.
“Huh, why am I the one answering?”
“Ah, y-you’re right”
“Then let’s start the real interview…”
“Yes”
[He finally noticed something was wrong lololol]
[Interview (For Real)]
After that, I asked normal interview questions, and Yeonhee, now more relaxed, answered smoothly.
A relaxed Yeonhee was indeed good at broadcasting.
She answered in her own entertaining style even to relatively serious questions that could have been boring.
By Yeonhee’s style, I mean she had a slightly arrogant but lovable way about her.
For example, when I asked what games she was confident in, Yeonhee smiled without hesitation and answered ‘All of them.’
Her gaming pride seemed to have already surpassed even the men from the previous world.
After the interview, Yeonhee said one last thing to me.
“Um, Daeju-nim.”
“Yes?”
“I’m 22 years old”
“Ah~oh~ I see~”
What am I supposed to do with that information?
[What’s this? Is she bragging about being younger?]
[Sigh, isn’t it obvious? She’s telling the old person to back off]
[From what I can see, I think Daeju is telling his age too]
[Is that so?]
Why suddenly bring up age?
Just as I was wondering this, one possible reason suddenly occurred to me.
“Ah~ You mean I can speak casually?”
A sudden ‘pffft’ spraying sound came from Yeonhee’s side.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t the sound of an actual spray bottle, but rather the sound of Yeonhee spitting out whatever water or drink she had been drinking.
She must have been quite surprised, as sounds of coughing followed, along with a sigh as she looked at the liquid that had sprayed on her monitor and microphone.
“Isn’t this what you meant?”
“No! That’s exactly it!”
“Well then…”
After agreeing to speak casually, Yeonhee left.
Afterward, I replied “okay” to Se-na’s KakaoTalk message asking to speak casually with her too, and continued interviews with other people.
“Two people failed the interview.”
There were two failures even though I hadn’t planned on failing anyone.
One was a minor who had lied about their age and was discovered. The way it was discovered was interesting – none other than the applicant’s father appeared. In the middle of our call, the applicant’s father opened the door and came in, saying a high school senior should be studying instead of doing strange things, and the sound of several smacks could be heard through the microphone before they ended the call from their side.
At that time, the chat’s reaction was seriously advising that high school seniors should please not watch streams.
I wonder if they had some experience with this.
The other participant started se*ually harassing me as soon as they entered, unable to contain their excitement.
No matter what, I couldn’t work with someone who casually se*ually harassed their boss, so I failed them.
[So everyone who passed the interview is accepted?]
[That’s too many]
[Come to think of it, Vine just passed straight through, but why is he being so strict this time?]
[Is it strange that a good-looking guy stuck in his room passed as a streamer right away?]
[Is being good-looking everything? Looks are important, but I think men with a broad mind like Daeju are more popular. If I had to choose between Vine and Daeju, I’d definitely choose Vine]
“Next, the people who passed the interview will try streaming on their own for about a week…”
Among the applicants, there were people like Yeonhee who regularly streamed, but also people like Se-na who had no streaming experience at all. However, if you want to become a streamer, it was natural to at least try streaming a little. Broadcasting came with more mental stress than expected.
Vine?
He was an exception.
He seemed to stream to relieve stress, if anything.
Anyway, the viewers agreed with my second test.
[For real, this is right. It would be troublesome if they pass but run away after streaming]
[And we were running out of streams to watch]
[For real lol watching just Vine and Daeju leaves too much free time lolol]
[Please get a life]
[Life? Do we have such sweet things?]
Anyway, this concluded one stage of streamer recruitment.
With my acquaintances participating like this, I was more tired than usual.
Looking at the time, it hadn’t taken that long, but I could feel fatigue in my neck and shoulders.
“Everyone, I’m tired but…”
[You’re tired… but isn’t the broadcast more important than your health?]
[You can rest a lot when you’re dead, so broadcast while you’re alive]
[How heartwarming]
[Where?]
“No, I’m going to continue broadcasting but those words are rather disappointing…”
[Oh what hehe you were going to continue? You should have said so lol]
[You were tired ㅠㅠㅠㅠ]
[Who were the bastards who cursed at Daeju who’s continuing to stream!]
Still, I had to continue streaming.
Why? Because the viewers had exceeded 5,000.
The saying “row when the tide comes in” was helpful advice for others, but it was especially essential for streamers and YouTubers.
Though I’m not sure if these viewers will stay after seeing the game I’m about to play.
It’s a famous game, but the genre itself was somewhat niche.
Because the genre was fighting games.
“Do you know this game?”
[It’s Tekken]
[Wow, I played this a lot in arcades]
[For real lolol time flies when you play Tekken and 1945[2] at the movie theater lolol]
[I saw a couple playing Tekken and went to the other side to beat up the girlfriend lolol]
[Evil woman lolol]
The response was unexpectedly good.
Well, even if not many people played this game deeply, it was a game everyone had played or seen at least once.
I grinned.
“Should we do viewer matches with prizes?”
I was fairly confident in this game.
* * *
(End of Chapter)
T/N:
- “Red ginseng candy” – Popular health supplement among older Koreans
- “1945” – Refers to a popular arcade shooting game
