I was lying in bed right now.
The problem was that I wasn’t lying in my own bed.
I was lying in Vine’s bed.
No.
Whatever you’re imagining, that’s not it.
Yesterday, I made plans with Vine and set a meeting place.
The meeting place was Incheon Station.
The problem was that Vine was a severe case who hadn’t left home for 6 whole months.
Unlike me who at least went to convenience stores or the neighborhood hair salon, he was a serious hikikomori who learned to cut his hair from YouTube videos, and got most daily necessities and food delivered. When I asked how he earned money, he said he made it through Bitcoin.
The world really is unfair.
To be blessed with looks, gaming skills, and Bitcoin skills too.
Is Bitcoin even a skill?
I was about to protest “how can someone like this exist” but then I thought about it.
Even in my previous world, there were a few people who were good at both League of Legends and Bitcoin.
Anyway, such a Vine eventually asked me for help.
So I came to Vine’s house, and when I first saw his face, it was truly miserable.
You’re asking if he was ugly? No, rather, among all the people I’d seen on the streets, even on Twitch, his looks were top tier. The problem was elsewhere.
His eyes were bloodshot, probably from staying up all night due to nervousness, his cheeks were hollow, dark circles were deep, and he was so tense even around me that his eyes were trembling, only looking at the floor.
“I think you should rest a bit…”
“No… I already failed to keep our meeting place… I should at least keep the meeting time”
“You can get even a short nap…”
“Still…”
After some back and forth, Vine finally agreed to rest. He said he’d sleep for about an hour or two, and the problem came after this.
Whether due to guilt or because he was bothered by me sitting in the computer chair, Vine couldn’t fall asleep and kept apologizing, so I told a white lie.
“I’m sorry… Daeju-nim…”
“No no, I was actually feeling sleepy too.”
“Ah! Then use this bed!”
“…What?”
“It would make me feel better… Please…”
As a result, I ended up sleeping in Vine’s bed for about 2 hours.
I hadn’t planned to sleep. It was because I’d recently developed the good habit of falling into deep sleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.
“…Slept well…”
Checking Tgether, it was blazing hot.
I could guess why.
I’d said I would probably start streaming around 10 or 11 if I did stream, but now it was 1 o’clock. The viewers seemed to be burning up thinking that Vine and I had chosen not to stream at all.
[If you’re Daeju sneaking a peek at the burning bulletin board right now, hit like]
[Do streamers take breaks?]
[Unforgivable.]
[From this moment on, Daeju is my enemy.]
[Let’s give Vine a pass. If the boss had said to stream, he would have, so it’s Daeju’s fault for not telling him to.]
These were the posts with the highest likes on the bulletin board.
It’s messy.
But it wasn’t necessarily bad.
Because we were going to stream anyway.
“Alright! I’m ready!”
When I turned my head, I saw Vine with water still on his face and hair.
After the nap, his looks were radiant. Rather than handsome, it was more of an idol-like delicate face. The only consoling point was that he was short.
It felt like a small mercy.
His clothes were normally well-dressed.
For someone who hadn’t gone out for a long time, it was a normal outfit.
I opened the door and walked out, while Vine hesitated.
Then after swallowing once, he walked out with small steps.
Even though it was just one step out, Vine was taking deep breaths.
“Can you stream?”
“Actually, I think streaming might help me feel better”
Is that so?
Like how people think about other things when getting a shot, or look far away to feel less pain, it seemed he wanted to divert his attention somewhere.
Without being told or instructed, Vine skillfully started the stream as if he had practiced hard.
[??? They’re streaming?]
[2 hours late. Death penalty.]
[Vine oppa why so late ㅠㅠㅠㅠ]
[Daeju you bastard, wanna die? No words needed for you. Bow down]
[What’s with the temperature difference between fans lololol]
[Huh??? Huh???]
But something felt off.
I had that feeling.
You know how sometimes parents call your three-syllable name in a cold voice.
That feeling when your heart sinks like a death sentence, and your body trembles.
That kind of feeling.
And my phone started ringing with overlapping sounds of calls, KakaoTalk messages, and texts.
When I turned to look at Vine, his eyes were welling up.
“Daeju-nim….”
“…Yes”
“We’re f*cked…”
I reflexively touched my lips, just in case.
I could feel my lips.
Usually during cam streams, I couldn’t feel them because of the mask.
Did I take it off while napping and forget about it?
On Vine’s phone screen, there were endlessly increasing viewer numbers and wildly flying chat messages.
And on the broadcast screen, both our faces were showing.
“Ah… We’re done for”
***
First, we went back to Vine’s room after ending the stream.
Vine was sitting in front of the computer chair like a criminal, head down low while watching my reactions, and I was checking KakaoTalk and text messages with a expression wondering what to do.
When I asked what we should do about this situation, Yeonhee sent a playful message saying ‘Why did you end the stream when it was about to blow up’ while also trying to cheer me up with jokes, and Se-na was cheering enthusiastically saying ‘It’s already too late. Let’s face it confidently.’
Most reactions from other streamer applicants including Soo-ah, the editor, and Miyeon were along the lines of ‘You’re good-looking so why not just cleanly reveal the face that’s already been exposed!’
“…”
I quietly looked at Vine’s streaming setup.
As expected, since he had decided to scam, the streaming environment wasn’t good.
“Let’s go”
“What?”
“Let’s buy lighting and a camera.”
I had made up my mind.
Although Vine hesitated at first, perhaps compared to the shock of having his face revealed due to his own mistake, going outside wasn’t much of anything. He started walking behind me.
Normally I would take care of Vine but right now my head didn’t have room to take care of anyone.
Thankfully, it seemed only the first step was difficult as he soon walked well.
However, I could feel him tensing up and standing closer to me when women would stare blankly from the side.
Walking with a good-looking person was indeed different.
Even though I usually walked wearing a mask and occasionally felt gazes, today’s gazes were on a different level.
I could feel gazes directed at us wherever we went.
Even the gazes flying from inside when we passed by a cafe made even me frown a bit.
Maybe enjoying attention only applies to people who actually prefer receiving attention.
Still, we were able to reach our destination.
The place we arrived at was a large building selling various electronic products.
Once we arrived, things moved quickly. Having basic knowledge about the products, I bought without hesitation. The problem was lighting, when we asked people, most responded with ‘Lighting?’
Occasionally there were women who started with ‘I don’t know about lighting but…’
At first I thought they were hitting on Vine, but there were people hitting on me too, making me think the world really has diverse tastes.
When Vine was being hit on, I had to cover his mouth when he started to say “Hey, are you trying to hit on me, you her-”
I couldn’t believe he was about to say that word in real life, even if it might be okay during streams.
He was definitely about to say “herjup” (loser).
He said it was an occupational habit.
How could that word stick to his tongue when he hasn’t been streaming for that long?
We finally succeeded in buying all the necessary items, and now we’ve finished setting them up at Vine’s house.
Although it was Vine’s house, since we’re revealing anyway, we decided to do the face reveal on my stream to maximize attention since I had more followers and subscribers.
The posts I glimpsed before the reveal were overwhelming in number.
Not just my usual Tgether bulletin board users and viewers, but people who had heard the rumors were flooding in, creating complete chaos.
Vine also had a stern expression.
He hadn’t planned to reveal his face today, but he told me he was really glad he could reveal it together with me.
What’s this? Showing off looks? Is he saying his looks are emphasized when he’s with me?
Of course that’s not what he meant, but such thoughts briefly crossed my mind. When I took a deep breath, my breathing quickened from nervousness. With eyes tightly shut, I started the stream and people came in, with the cam showing both mine and Vine’s faces.
“Hello everyone?”
The chat stopped momentarily before messages started coming up one by one.
[Is it Daeju?]
[Is it you? Say something]
[Seems like it’s really them]
[Why isn’t this a 30-something auntie using voice modulation? Disappointed lolol]
[Looking at that… well… not bad]
“Yes, it’s me, and this is Vine-nim”
[So hot…]
[Holy shit these guys are getting me excited for once lolol]
[Daeju and Vine oppa, I’m dying~]
[Please die]
[From today on, insulting Daeju is considered insulting me]
[Why are these kinds of guys staying in their rooms? Even took hikikomori away from us;;; These normies]
[Now that you’ve done a face reveal, next is a body reveal right?]
Right after, due to the flood of chat messages, we had to switch to subscriber-only chat mode.
* * *
(End of chapter)
T/N:
Long awaited face reveal lol.
