Debate!! Debate List (2)
Such a waste. A real shame, honestly.
If the panties had been something sexy, or cute… or at least a little adorable, this would've been so much more fun.
But these are just a clump of polygons.
I couldn't feel a shred of philosophy in them. Maem-nim, are you really this unphilosophical? What a disappointment.
"Hmm…"
"What's wrong?"
"Ah, nothing."
I swore, didn't I? No mean comments. I have to keep that. Like a knight's pride… I'll keep it. I will.
"Shall we keep going, then? No being stubborn this time, okay?"
"Hmm… alright."
"Next topic is: can men and women be friends or not…!!"
"They cannot."
I said it without hesitation.
Let me think back on my school days.
I didn't have many friends myself, but I overheard plenty of stories.
Popular kids are loud, so everything carries. If you just sit there on your phone, you hear every word they say.
Watching those popular kids, the boys and girls were always hanging around in packs, laughing it up.
But… even the ones who were constantly going "we're just friends," "he's my guy friend," "she's my girl friend" eventually started dating, then broke up, and things got awkward.
"They cannot. I'm certain of it."
"Then I'll go first this time."
"Why?"
"Because I lost last round."
"Ah… no? Have you never played basketball?"
Since when does the loser go first? Doesn't the winner usually take the opening move?
"Basketball? I've never played."
"Neither have I. I've watched, though."
"Uh… so why bring that up?"
"In one-on-one basketball, the person who scores keeps possession."
"Oh… really? Why?"
"That… I don't know either."
If you ask me, I have no idea… they just do it that way?
"We'll do it differently, then!! I'll take the first turn."
"Ugh…"
Think about it. Maem-nim is definitely going to take the "men and women can't be friends" side. That puts me at a disadvantage.
I need a counter, but no logic is coming to me.
At this rate, I'm going to lose.
"Then I'll go? I'll take the 'they can' side."
"Huh? What?"
She made a choice completely opposite of what I'd expected.
I was genuinely flustered. I truly could not understand it.
"Why on earth? I just can't wrap my head around it."
"In that case!! Duel!!"
"F-fine. Come at me!! Duel!! Poo-pang-pang. Tang-tang. Tiiiiiing. Tang-tang. Too-pa-pa-pa. Sweeiii. Ting-ting. Toong-tang-tang."
"Hahahahaha. For real, for real."
A duel field had been generated.
"That was the sound of the duel field generating."
Having already taken one win, I could afford to glance at chat and banter a little.
"What? You can't have a duel without a duel field."
Shouldn't I be the one getting mad here? How do you duel without a duel field?
The idea of people scolding me for respecting tradition was just absurd.
"I did great. Don't yell at me. Don't throw rocks!! Does everyone agree? Yes. We agree."
I said it with both confidence and discipline.
Hmm… I scratched my forehead. I'd walked myself into a fight I absolutely could not win. You don't beat public opinion.
No matter what I did, I couldn't win. These people kept calling me combative… vicious… when the most combative and vicious party here wasn't me—it was chat.
"I lose…!! I surrender… I'll behave."
This is what growth lets you do—just move on. If I hadn't grown, I would've argued every single point.
Seona is truly amazing.
To think she'd come this far—I was moved all over again.
I wanted to say it to everyone.
"A-are… are you afraid of Seona's growth? Are you… scared of Seona's growth?!"
The words just came out. I'd wanted to say it once.
I'd really, really wanted to say it.
But I held it in. Way too random. Me. Eheheh.
"Huh? Out of nowhere? Who said that? Heehee."
"Huh?"
"Eh?"
"What is it?"
"Pfft heehee. Seona-nim, you're so random. You just asked if anyone was afraid of your growth."
"Huh?"
That was supposed to be an internal thought? She heard it? Another slip-up.
I'm numb to it now. It's not a one- or two-day thing—I mess up constantly… so at this point I just roll with it.
Keeping it internal would've been ideal, but I already said it out loud, so oh well.
"You said it out loud just now. I was so startled when I heard it."
"I see. So, are you afraid of my growth?"
"What? Me? I—ihihihit. Nope, not at all!! Growing is good… good good. Shall we start, then?"
"I see. Excellent. Debate!! I'm going second."
The debate began.
"I believe men and women can be friends."
"Hmm… I don't. I never had any friends."
"No suddenly fishing for sympathy like that!! What even is that. If you click, you're friends!!"
"I see. But I still can't accept that. So then… Maem-nim… your viewers… all three hundred and twenty of them—are they all your guy friends? I don't think of my viewers as friends."
"Then what do you think of them as?"
"Viewers."
I said it firmly.
I spend a lot of time on the café.
There was a period when I depended on my viewers, too.
That's when I made the secret board.
The point of the secret board was to ban viewers who were stirring up trouble in other rooms, and to let people leave healthy feedback freely.
Back then I lived on that thing. It was genuine viewer feedback, so of course I thought it would help.
Back when I… didn't know what "growth" was… that is.
After I understood "growth," I stopped looking at the secret board entirely.
Looking back now, no place was more of an abyss. I even get this feeling—maybe I was actually a smart person all along?
That's how many weird people sniping others, weird people getting sniped, and weird reports filled the place.
There's a reason I not only never look at the secret board but also never mention it on stream.
"Uh… why?"
"Our room bans clique culture. The second someone outs a nickname, a sniping post goes up on the café. Our viewers are… well… they call themselves troublemakers from bad sites who don't hold back under anonymity. Plenty of them snitch and snipe the café president and vice president for not giving out hamburgers, like they think the café exists just for sniping. But reading them is fun… the reasons are hilarious."
I let out a breath, then kept going.
"What… looking at the snitching, I guess they have some community of their own—dog? crab? something. Someone from there posted on my secret board that a big donator in our room was cliquing without tossing hamburgers, and said, shouldn't we ban this person? I'll report them. I saw that and found it funny."
"Wait, how is that your conclusion?"
"Ah, the conclusion. Right. I was rambling… you need an ID to manage people… please go find the ID for me. Then I'll ban them right away."
"What? No, that's not what I—"
"Ah, and about the reports on the secret board… there are just too many weird people. What's unfair is I actually tried following one of those reports? The viewers roasted me even harder."
Around September, maybe? Someone reported me for being an idiot with my concept, so I tried speaking smartly, and the live viewers said they wanted to strangle the concept and kill it.
October-ish? Someone said not to mention other streamers, so I didn't, and the live viewers asked who I'd fought with and why I wasn't naming names—is there beef? And the whole thing drew aggro.
Also, "just ban them already"—but you have to give me standards. If I ban people just because someone doesn't like them, what am I supposed to do?
So I just handed full authority to Pyeong-nim and I don't look at any of it.
I simply believe in myself and focus only on growth.
Amazingly… that was the right answer.
"It was a really long report, so I trusted it and applied it, and all I got was hate. I'm genuinely wronged here."
"Okay, but… that's not the topic. It was 'can men and women be friends,' remember?"
"Ah. Right. I just thought of something!! So that's why I believe they cannot be friends."
Focus again…!!
I'd said everything I needed to say about the debate. Now I'd stack combos and crush her in one push.
After that, I won the debate on whether men and women can be friends, the alcohol and cigarettes debate, and the free-to-play versus whales debate—all of them.
Maem-nim wasn't strong enough to stop my combos.
She was so weak I even wondered if I should go easy on her.
"Looks like I won them all."
"No… those were all stretches."
"Can't accept the losses? Then… got anything else?"
"Um… I didn't prepare anything like that… the content's gotten weird. Seriously."
I'd said I'd help Maem-nim, but did I just stomp her too hard? I'm starting to feel bad. I want to help somehow—what can I do? Hmm… ah. Right.
"Then come to Hwabon Station."
"Why there?"
"You talk too much."