Surprise Event
The declaration that they were her boyfriend. And the notice Kayak had posted just a few hours earlier.
Every piece of the puzzle clicked into place. Only then did the viewers grasp the truth, flooding the chat with messages of pure shock.
Kayak's face crumpled in an instant. The arms she'd been holding open toward the camera — as if inviting someone into a hug — snapped back into a crooked, crossed-arms stance.
"Ugh. I— I can't do this. Yeah. Let's just go back to normal. We've had enough fun, right?"
"Well, about that…."
To tell the behind-the-scenes story, this hadn't been the plan from the start.
It all began a few hours earlier, on Christmas Eve's eve, when I'd finished streaming and was browsing the gallery. I'd streamed on Twish myself and watched plenty of other people's streams, but always within the bounds of Abyss — I'd never dug into the deeper corners of the platform. So this was my first real look at what Twish felt like at Christmas.
There were some pretty fascinating posts lined up. Mostly about girl streamers, and just reading them gave off this sticky, murky darkness that felt seriously off. And somewhere in the middle of all that, seeing my own name come up, I briefly wondered whether I was a pure game streamer or a girl streamer — a short little identity crisis about what my channel even was.
Then a fun idea hit me. These people clearly saw me as a girl streamer, not just a pure gaming one. So why not do a little Christmas surprise event, girl-streamer style? And as it happened, Christmas also marked the two-hundredth day since I'd properly started streaming — a celebration party felt like a nice bonus.
It was a pretty radical idea, but I didn't deliberate long. That was one of the things that had changed since I'd gotten this body. Whether it was a strength or a weakness, I couldn't say for sure — but my follow-through had gotten a whole lot better.
In the end, the reaction was explosive. Way beyond anything I'd imagined. I'd deliberately thrown some firewood on, sure, but the blaze was so intense it felt like a full-blown wildfire. I even found myself wondering if this was the kind of reaction I'd get if I actually had a boyfriend and got caught.
I kept checking the community. The response was so much fiercer than expected that I seriously considered going live earlier. In the end I stuck to the original plan and waited two hours, but killing time was harder on me than anything.
If I was going to do an event, I figured I might as well do it properly — so I put on the Santa outfit and prepped some decent lines. I'd never expected that impulse-buy Santa costume to come in handy like this, but hey, all's well that ends well. Better to share the end-of-year vibes with everyone than sit around wearing it alone for my own amusement.
From the beginning, through the middle, all the way to the ending — I laid out the whole overview of the incident for my viewers.
"Hey now, deceiving? It's a surprise event. If your partner… did something like this for you, would you get mad and ask why they were messing around?"
The moment the word "partner" left my mouth, the chat went wild. Messages calling me "babe" piled up just like before, along with lines so cringeworthy they made my hands and feet curl just looking at them.
This is exactly why I didn't want to bring it up. But today's concept was one-day girlfriend, so there was no getting around it.
"Anyway, as your girlfri…end today, I've prepared something for you all."
I moved the mouse and switched the layout. From a full view of myself — upper body and all — to a screen where the computer display took center stage. The cam feed shrank down to a square in the corner of the broadcast. Viewers immediately started complaining about the smaller cam.
"'I wish you'd swap the game screen and cam sizes'… what kind of nonsense is that. I look at myself all the time anyway. What we're about to do is something you can only do on Christmas."
What on earth was she planning — curious chat messages rolled in at my words. Honestly, it wasn't anything all that special or groundbreaking. The kind of content other streamers had probably pulled out for Christmas once or twice themselves.
My Girlfriend Is Too Cute! Heart-Pounding White Christmas Operation!
"No, no way. Today I'm going to teach you all how to get a girlfriend. Through this dating sim, you'll learn a bit more about the female heart and how to treat a girlfriend — and next year, let's spend Christmas as couples instead of singles."
Really now — they had no idea how much I was thinking of them. I shook my head at the viewers spouting nonsense and pressed on.
"I'm your one-day girlfriend, right? I can't keep doing this for you forever, and you all need to learn how to date girls. What other streamer does this for you, seriously."
"Sorry… you're just not my type."
"Sunbae, isn't this a little sudden? Were we even that kind of close?"
"Kayak, you're… a good friend. But as a boyfriend… I just don't see it."
"Huh…?"
My Girlfriend Is Too Cute! Heart-Pounding White Christmas Operation! featured a total of three heroines: a quiet, pure-looking upperclassman; a cheerful, bubbly underclassman; and a childhood-friend classmate.
Honestly, I'd underestimated it a bit. How hard could a dating sim really be? Since it was just a matter of picking the right choices, I skipped through the more boring text, handed out gifts left and right, and raised affection levels. Then story time advanced to the confession scene — and I got rejected by all three.
"Man, these girls are ridiculously picky… After all that, you'd think they'd at least date me?"
The plan to teach my viewers about romance through a dating sim and turn them into couples by next Christmas had fallen apart right out of the gate. Should I restart or not? I felt like I could do better if I tried again.
I was mulling it over briefly when—
"Ah."
At the donation's words, I checked the time. 12:01. Before I knew it, Christmas Eve had slipped away and the real thing — Christmas Day itself — had arrived.
I looked out the window. Big, white snowflakes were falling. I stared blankly at the pretty snow piling up on the ground, then murmured quietly.
"…Merry Christmas."
The Christmas we were all spending together was slowly passing by.