The Tteokguk Permission
Seon-a, give us some content. (3)
“Whoa…!! That’s insane. So… you’ll split it with me? No way. We’re doing it together… you’d really hog it all? This calls for the golden rule. If it were me? If I got a ten-million-won mission… I’d swallow it whole. So Moddeok can swallow it whole too. Okay. Fair.”
— SeonSeonSeon-a: I’m totally fine with it!!
“Huh…? Really?” Moddeok sounded flustered. My grand act of generosity had caught her off guard. Couldn’t be helped. That money was all from her fans’ donations. It was never mine to begin with.
‘Greed is poison. Treat gold like stone.’ Mom’s words. Too much greed only brings trouble. Yeah. I did good this time. Someday I’ll earn that much on my own… just not yet.
I typed while gently talking myself down.
— SeonSeonSeon-a: I love it, let’s gooo~!!
“Uh… really? Um… okay? Got it. Should we keep taking donations till the end? Do I have to split this with Seon-a?”
Moddeok, you absolute angel. A real angel. She was going to give it to me? Split it with me? For real?
I checked the chat atmosphere too.
It was amazing. If the regular viewers or non-subs had been against it, I would’ve refused. But the VIPs, the long-time supporters… even the president and vice-president of the fan club were all for it. I didn’t know where to put myself.
So… I can take it? I want it. I really want it!! If we split it… 5.5 million won. Whoa. With 5.6 million… how many gacha rolls could I do? I could even go on another trip. 5.7 million… that’s actually insane.
But. Treat gold like stone. Metaphor, obviously. At first I thought she meant “don’t buy gold.” Like, gold prices might drop, so think carefully. Then I realized it was about not being greedy with money. I was impressed once I got it.
Anyway, I won’t get greedy. It’s not even my money… but still, ugh. Argh. Huh? Ah!! Oh. Right. I should ask Mom. I need to ask her. Dad will buy me whatever I want, but his advice is kinda weak. He never gives me that satisfying, “everything clicks” kind of answer. Mom, though—she won’t buy me stuff, but her solutions are solid. Mom’s the best for this!! I’ve grown. Okay. I’ll call her tomorrow.
— SeonSeonSeon-a: I’ll ask my mom… It’s a lot of money, so I’m not sure if I should accept…
“Hahaha. Ah. Mama’s girl. Right. Gotta get permission. Still a baby. Seon-a baby.”
Yeah. I am a baby. Mom and Dad both call me their little one. Hehe. And now Moddeok’s calling me a baby too. Hehe.
“Then… ha… just a sec.”
Moddeok kept chatting for over thirty minutes. Meanwhile… ugh. If we split it, that’s six million won… It had ballooned ridiculously. Once it became official, everyone started donating. Honestly, I didn’t get it. If you already caught the fish, shouldn’t you close the stream? Why was it still going up…? I should’ve just accepted earlier. Ugh… stop rising. Turn off donations already!!
I felt so wronged. If it was gonna be like this… I have to hold back. But I can’t. No, I have to. But I can’t. I kept lifting my hands off the keyboard and putting them back… Ugh. I can’t do this. I grabbed my phone.
— Ring ring.
“Mom, sorry for calling so late!!”
“Oh… yeah…”
“We’re making tteokguk for New Year’s… with that Moddeok I mentioned before?”
“Oh… okay.”
“But the amount is huge!!”
“Sweetie… are you making tteokguk out of gold?”
“Ah… no!! Regular tteokguk!”
Mom, what are you even saying?! The same tteokguk we eat every New Year’s.
“Right… so what do you mean by huge amount?”
“Ah… so if we make tteokguk on Moddeok’s stream, they give us money. Like a mission. If you clear the mission, viewers send money to the streamer. And…”
I was talking so fast I ran out of breath. I took a deep breath and continued.
“Moddeok said she’d split it with me since we’re doing it together… If we split it, that’s six million won.”
“Huh… how much did you say?”
“I thought I said it wrong too… but no. A phone costs a million won, right? It’s in that unit. 6.05 million.”
“That’s way too much. Who gives 6.05 million won just for making tteokguk? Are they serving the king?”
“The viewers. Not just one person. Moddeok has three thousand viewers.”
Mom doesn’t know about internet broadcasting. She thinks “streaming” means YouTube videos. Even when I explain, she doesn’t believe me. “Who in their right mind sends a million won to a stranger? Or a hundred thousand?” She even asked if I was doing political streams. I told her no and explained as hard as I could.
“So Moddeok’s giving it to you?”
“Yes!! I already got permission. But I told her I’d ask you first and get back to her.”
“Then go ahead and do it.”
She gave permission so easily. Score!! Now I can quickly… Hehehe. Money money money. I’m gonna gobble it all up like a hippo.
“Really?”
“Yeah. Ah, wait. Ask your dad tomorrow.”
“Okay!! I’m hanging up!!”
I ended the call. That was basically permission. Dad would definitely say yes. Hehehe. I was happy I got the okay… but now Moddeok was telling travel stories on stream. It’d be awkward to brag about the permission now. Still, I really wanted to tell her. My fingers were itching. I have to hold back. Ah… right. Right!! I’ll just text her.
Moddeok never checks her phone during streams. She only saw Seon-a’s message the next day after waking up for lunch.
The moment she read it, she burst out laughing. She’d never planned on doing an off-collab. But with Seon-a… she wanted to. With someone brave enough to risk being disliked, it would be fun and problem-free… A baseless confidence welled up inside her. So she’d used the “drown them in money” tactic. Who hates money? Especially that much money. Plus it would bring in floating viewers… For an ambitious streamer, it was a golden opportunity.
‘For an ambitious streamer…’ Moddeok was the type who just wanted to go with the flow, but even so… she made a big decision. Purely because she’d heard Seon-a’s sincerity at the hot spring. A very ambitious woman. A streamer. She’d seen enormous ambition hidden inside that innocent smile.
“Okay. Okay.”
Moddeok smiled brightly as she typed. She’d already gotten permission from the boss yesterday… Now she just needed to book a studio.
The reply came back in less than a minute. Moddeok rubbed her eyes when she saw it.
“Huh?”
She ran a hand through her hair and read the message again. While she was staring at it in confusion, another text arrived.
Moddeok tilted her head, fingers still in her hair.
“…This has to be a joke, right?”
She stared at the messages with wide eyes. Normally she would’ve brushed it off as a joke. But the image of Seon-a she’d seen so far flashed through her mind like a highlight reel. Sometimes eccentric… and that eccentricity wasn’t an act. Her on-stream and off-stream selves were 99.9%… no, 100% in sync.
‘It might not be a joke…’
Just in case, Moddeok pressed the call button.
“Hello!! Moddeok, what’s wrong?!”
“Ah… Seon-a. This text… it’s a joke, right?”
“A joke? I’m serious!! I already got permission!! My parents were supposed to go on a trip, but they said they’d cancel it!! Isn’t that crazy? I really got the okay.”
“Uh… yeah?”
“Ah… Pyeongjipja already said she’d come!! I’m going to ask Maru now… What about Raming?”
“Well…”
Moddeok was completely flustered. Her brain had gone into full emergency shutdown. The only thought that came to mind was… ‘How is she this fast?’ She’d bulldozed straight through everything.
“For now… uh. Just give me a second. I need time to think.”
“Oh… aha!! Okay. Take your time. How many minutes should I give you?”
“Wow.”
“You already decided?! That’s awesome! You’re giving permission? Okay?”
“…It is pretty awesome.”
Moddeok felt dizzy trying to keep up with the bulldozer of a woman. Where had things gone wrong? She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to trace it back. She had no idea. And then that terrifying voice came through the receiver again.
“Actually, TMI… I called my dad this morning. I told him if we split it I’d get over six million won and asked if he needed anything for New Year’s. He said, ‘You have to work that hard for it. Getting paid that much just for this is freeloading.’ So I thought really hard about it. Situation reenactment number one, ta-da!!”
There was a short silence. After about three seconds, Seon-a’s cheerful voice returned.
“Moddeok said, ‘Seon-a, give us some content.’ So I said, ‘Okay, here you go!!’ Hahaha. How’s that? Pretty great, right?”
“You… you were serious. Hahahaha.”
Moddeok could only let out a hollow laugh at the sight of Seon-a cheerfully bulldozing through everything in her path.