Stimulate Her and She'll Actually Do It
The girl who actually follows through when stimulated—Seon-a. Pyeongjipja polished off the rest of the meat plus the extra orders we’d made, while I happily slurped down my cold noodles. Meals were for eating, not talking. We could gossip all we wanted once we hit the café. “You finished everything?” “Yeah. It was delicious, thank you.” “Great, great. Then let’s head to the café and chat!” I stood up to pay. I had my card! No worries. I was loaded. This much I could definitely cover… “…” Huh? Without thinking, I scratched the back of my head. I must’ve misread the zeros. How much could the two of us possibly eat? It felt like the world had flipped upside down. Um… yeah. The price was shocking. With this money I could buy dozens of bowls of gukbap. Three cuts of premium beef—flower sirloin, that inside skirt thing, whatever it was called—plus cold noodles, and it came to over two hundred thousand won? The world had to be glitching. My money… the value of my money had gone completely haywire. I blanked out for a second. “I’ll help you with the payment.” “Here…” “Would you like a receipt?” “Ah… no thanks.” Seeing the receipt would only make me sadder. I had to shake this off. I couldn’t look like a cheapskate in front of the staff. Always put on a cool front… cool. Sniff. My head spun and tears almost spilled out. Seon-a, you’ve really grown. You’re impressive. I praised myself again. I just felt like complimenting myself. No particular reason. With a heavy, dragging feeling… I walked. It was the first time a single meal had cost over a hundred thousand won. “I-I’m fine!!” I told Pyeongjipja, who was looking at me with pitying eyes. “I wanted to treat you. Really. I was just surprised because I’ve never seen prices like this before. I’m okay. Seriously. I earn a ton. So, um. You don’t need to worry. Really. Right? I’m serious, aren’t I? I look like I am, don’t I?” “Y-Yes. Thank you.” “No need to thank me!! I really wanted to treat you!! Now let’s go to the café and eat chocolate!!” I needed cocoa. I was crashing. Something sweet would perk me right up~ Fighting~!! Pyeongjipja and I stepped into a quiet café nearby. We were going to talk our heads off in there. Or maybe not… hehe. “I’ll have cocoa!! What would you like, Pyeong?” “I’ll… just have an americano.” “Iced or hot?” “Iced, please.” “Got it!!” I was such a good boss. Where else would you find a boss like me!! Ehehe. Since I was the boss, I had to lead the conversation with proper formality too. Mom, Dad, and even Maru always took the lead whenever they talked with me. That was just how it worked with adults. “Hmm…” But what should I talk about? I didn’t really have anything. I needed to steer the conversation somehow… Focus. There was that saying about entering a tiger’s den—if you kept your wits about you, you’d win, right? Yeah, just hold on tight to my sanity. “Speak slowly.” I muttered, trying to organize my thoughts. One of my bad habits was rushing. I rushed everything. It would be nice if I could think things through first… but that never happened. It was so frustrating—how was I supposed to wait?! Dad was always telling me to think ten times before speaking, but how was I supposed to do that?! “Um… so.” Slowly. Slowly! Slowly!! We had plenty of time. I just needed to bring up something we both had in common. Easy~!! I racked my brain while muttering. “Ah!! Right. What do you think about getting an office, Pyeong?” The fresh fantasy I’d cooked up today. This was perfect. It had to be interesting, right? I was interested, at least. Ehehe. “An office?” “Yeah!! It’s something I was daydreaming about today. We get ourselves an office. I stream there, you edit there… and when we clock out… it’s just like being office workers. Isn’t that awesome?” Pyeongjipja’s expression was strange. She stared at me with furrowed brows. “Um… what do you think? Hmm… listen to my idea? An office… so, working there… right…” Judging by her face, I’d messed up… My voice lost confidence with every word. “I mean, we’re VTubers, so we don’t really need one, do we? Even if we had it… I don’t see how we could turn it into content.” “Ah… aha… I just… thought it would be… yeah.” “Is your place not soundproofed?” “Soundproofing… I already did that…” It was just a fantasy, but if she reacted like this I was going to shrink into myself. I wanted empathy based on feelings, not logic!! At this rate I was going to go dark and start dropping bombs. “Th-then should I just do a face cam?! Boom!!” “Eeeeh?!” Shocking, right? You’re surprised, aren’t you? If you won’t empathize I’ll keep saying crazy stuff?! Scary, huh? Heh… heh…? Was that bomb too much? Pyeongjipja’s eyes had gone wide with shock. Seeing an expression I’d never seen before… surprised me too. “A-ah… I was joking!!” I wasn’t doing face cam. I’d already invested way too much into being a VTuber!! I was going to keep streaming until I made back my investment and then some. “I-I’m staying a VTuber!!” The café was pretty empty, but I still lowered my voice just in case. I also had enough self-awareness to know face cam wasn’t happening. I’d have to do makeup every day. Dance every day. Wear cute clothes every day. Smile every day. I didn’t have the stamina for any of that. Viewers complimented me sometimes, but that didn’t mean I could become an idol. And the rest was even more impossible. Singing, dancing… these days they even spoke fluent English. Plus I’d need to act with my face and only say pretty words… It was completely impossible. “Really!! Let’s change the subject!! What should we talk about? Um…” I couldn’t think of anything. Being an adult was hard. I don’t know. I really don’t. I stopped thinking and let my body take over. I had no choice. My brain was overheating so badly that even the cocoa didn’t help.
Chae Ji-hyun couldn’t stop Seon-a’s madness. Once Seon-a decided on something and started offering flimsy logic, there was no stopping her. When Seon-a talked about the “office,” it was exactly like those socially awkward people who latched onto a single word and repeated it endlessly. There was no way to fix it. While being pushed back by Seon-a’s illogical arguments, Chae Ji-hyun came up with a clever move. “Did you get permission from your parents?” “Huh…!!” Parents were the most effective and powerful way to control Seon-a. Even Seon-a, who wouldn’t listen to anyone else even if it killed her, couldn’t argue against her parents. “You need to ask them.” “B-but I’m an adult…” “Even so, you should get permission for big decisions.” “I’m an adult.” “You’re not an adult yet.” Chae Ji-hyun couldn’t bring herself to acknowledge Seon-a as an adult. From everything she’d seen, Seon-a was still a baby. “I have my ID. I’ve got my resident registration card… Want me to show you?” “That doesn’t… make you an adult.” “Me? I’m definitely an adult. I’ll show you.” Seon-a reached into her pocket, then made a flustered face. “Oh, right. I paid with my phone so I don’t have it on me.” She looked at Chae Ji-hyun with genuine panic in her voice and expression. The more she did that, the more firmly Chae Ji-hyun resolved in her heart that Seon-a could never be an adult. “Right. Then I suppose I’ll have to call your parents.” “No… it’s at home. I really do have it at home.” “Understood. Either way, you need to get permission.” “Why? I’m an adult.” Realizing this was a fight she couldn’t win, Chae Ji-hyun immediately changed tactics. “I heard adults usually ask for advice when they’re making big decisions.” “Oh? Who said that?” “A famous entrepreneur.” She had no idea if such a person existed, but Chae Ji-hyun’s words were extremely effective. She’d successfully taken over Seon-a’s mind. “Wow!! Really? That’s awesome. Then I’ll try calling them. What do I do after I get permission?” “I knew you’d say that.” “What do you mean?” “Nothing. Just do your best.” Chae Ji-hyun thought “as expected” to herself. A boss who was always far from any plan. Someone who lived purely on impulse… Put nicely, a free spirit unbound by anything. A woman who always acted first. A woman whose innocence suited her best. “Oh!! Really? I’ll get permission. I promise.” “Good.” “Really? I was just daydreaming about the office at first… but I’m going to keep poking until it happens. That’s the kind of person I am. I’m actually a scary person.” Feeling like she’d lost some of her authority as a boss, Seon-a made up her mind. She didn’t want to lose even an ounce of a boss’s dignity. It was her only source of pride. “Yes. Good.” “Ugh!! I’m really going to make sure you keep every single thing I poked you about!! We’re making a promise, right? Really?” “I promise.” Chae Ji-hyun made the promise with Seon-a. She figured it would never happen anyway. There was no way she’d actually get an office with zero reason or justification, right? With that careless thought, she stamped the promise seal. For the next two hours, Seon-a kept asking “We promised, right?” while Chae Ji-hyun kept answering “I promise” in various ways.
Three days after they made that promise, Seon-a called. “Pyeong!! Pyeong!! Start packing for the move!!” “What?” “Dad said he’d get me an office right away!! He also promised to get you a one-room apartment!!” “What?” “So, ah, let me say it again… slowly. You promised, remember? If I got an office, we’d go there together!! I asked and he promised he’d do it!!” “Uh… yeah?” Chae Ji-hyun had overlooked one thing. It was true that Seon-a couldn’t go against her parents, but Seon-a’s parents were the people who wanted her to live in Seoul more than anyone. They’d only let their daughter live far away because of her stubbornness; if given the chance, they wanted her close by. Her parents were the type who wished for Seon-a to live well on her own more than anyone, yet also wanted to keep her nearby—a contradictory pair. “So I took an emergency day off today!! Let’s go look together!! Ah! I called Maru too and she said she’d come. Isn’t that awesome?” “Uh…” Chae Ji-hyun could feel the spark she’d lit growing uncontrollably. She’d made two mistakes. Asking Seon-a to check with her parents, and poking the girl who actually followed through when stimulated. Deciding there was no stopping it anymore, Chae Ji-hyun answered weakly. “Understood…” “Ehehe. Isn’t this seriously awesome? I’m super excited right now!! Hehehe. I feel like doing a medley of catchphrases. My parents acknowledged my business sense!!” Seon-a was also a little mistaken.