It Was Winter
It was winter.
Kayak's test stream on Jijijik wrapped up a success.
The broadcast itself was no different from usual — Kayak playing Abyss while the viewers watched her do it. And that alone was enough. It was only a test stream, after all. As long as the stream ran without technical issues, nothing else really needed fretting over.
Kayak finished her Jijijik test first. Over on Daeryuk's side, they were practically dancing in place waiting for her to flip the switch on their platform.
With Twish streamers flooding the free-agent market en masse, both Daeryuk and Jijijik had started making big, strategic moves to absorb as many of them as possible. Meetings with streamers were part of that push. For a handful of the bigger names, they even started dangling signing bonuses — cash support if you came over to our side.
Kayak's Daeryuk test stream went live right around then.
I'd already fired up Jijijik once, so now it was Daeryuk's turn.
Most of the chat consensus was don't go to Daeryuk, go to Jijijik — but then again, I'd never been the type who listened to people. Some viewers even argued Daeryuk might be better, that the platform had changed a lot from its old reputation.
Either way, I had to try both before deciding. At the recent meeting with the Daeryuk rep, I'd even gotten the whole why haven't you done a Daeryuk test stream yet treatment.
A test stream on Daeryuk was inevitable. Even if the viewers hated it, I had to turn one on at least once.
So I logged into a community overflowing with Daeryuk intel for some advance research. Gotta know what you're walking into, right? Same as with Twish — I was surprisingly thorough about this kind of thing. Even freeloading takes a certain amount of effort if you want to do it right.
"Hmm…"
After skimming for about twenty minutes, the overall framework looked pretty similar. Like some of the viewers had said, there didn't seem to be a huge gap between Daeryuk and Twish anymore.
The terminology, though — that was pretty foreign. Corps, Enter, Groups… at first I thought they were MCN-type companies, that Daeryuk BJs were just sorted by the agencies they belonged to.
Turns out that wasn't it. They simply bundled BJs who hung out and collabed together under those labels. More like crews or clans, I guess.
The deeper I dug, the more interesting stuff I found. For instance, Daeryuk was crawling with VTubers too.
But they were different from the real deal. Barely any roleplay, and nobody seemed to care much about the modeling either. More like the old no-cam streamers had just… evolved. Slap on a decent enough model plate and stream — that was the vibe I got from the community posts.
I kept researching. There were BJs who played Abyss like me, people who ran talk-focused streams, people who only did outdoor broadcasts.
That was enough advance scouting. I'd gotten a feel for the atmosphere. It was just a test stream anyway — might as well fire it up with a clear head.
Twenty-eight-year-old Lee Janghyeon was watching streams again today.
Internet streams, that is. When had he started? After getting discharged from the military, maybe? He couldn't quite remember why, but that was roughly when it began. Twenty-three at the earliest — five years already, by the calendar.
He used to be one of those wandering ghosts, hopping from room to room, chasing whatever looked fun that day. The floating audience streamers always talked about. Janghyeon had been that type of viewer.
Lately, though, he'd settled on one stream.
The streamer's name was Kayak. Six months of subscribing, and he'd already decided she was the broadcaster he'd stick with for life.
The first streamer in years who'd actually clicked with him. So Janghyeon had gone all-in — donated when he never used to, subscribed hard — and then a trial landed on his doorstep.
The problem was simple: Kayak might be heading to Daeryuk — the platform he hated.
Twish collapsing was the cause. Streamers had been forced to scramble for a new home, and the old traditional platform that had been chugging along all this time — Daeryuk — had slid right into the crosshairs.
Janghyeon did not like that one bit. He'd despised Daeryuk for a long time.
He'd never liked the BJs who streamed there, never liked their style, and from the day he first got into internet broadcasting he'd stuck with Twish the whole way.
From where he sat, watching Kayak fire up a trial stream on Daeryuk — watching Daeryuk's audience welcome her, watching her rake in star balloons and react to them — none of it sat right.
Just go to Jijijik already. What's with this test stream nonsense…
He wanted Kayak to transfer cleanly to Jijijik and keep streaming the way she always had on Twish.
Streaming on Daeryuk like this, her style might start morphing into something like the other Daeryuk broadcasters. That was the scenario Janghyeon feared most.
Even as he posted territorial warning threads on Daeryuk's community boards telling people not to poach Kayak, he kept watching her stream the whole time.
"KayakDaeryukOrigin just sent another fifty thousand star balloons… aigoo, thank you. It's my first stream here and you're already… I don't even know if I'm coming to Daeryuk or not, are you sure about this…?"
She was hesitating, but she couldn't hide how pleased she was. Of course she couldn't. Who wouldn't be happy when bundles of cash started raining from the sky?
Normally Janghyeon celebrated his favorite streamer's donations like they were his own — but right now, all he felt was sour.
How the hell does anyone have that much money.
Were they just rotting in cash? Dumping money on a streamer who hadn't even confirmed a transfer?
People said Daeryuk had big spenders, and sure enough, it showed. The donation firepower was clearly stronger than Twish's.
All Janghyeon could do was chew his nails in anxiety. That was why he couldn't look away. He didn't particularly want to watch a Daeryuk stream — but what if Kayak fell to the platform's wicked clutches?
Of course, that wasn't the only reason he was watching.
After the Daeryuk stream ended, Kayak had said she'd announce which platform she was choosing before the day was out.
For Janghyeon, whose life now revolved around her streams, that was a major event he absolutely had to catch live.
It was a scenario he didn't even want to imagine — but if Kayak chose Daeryuk… he'd have to steel himself and make an important decision of his own.
"Say you're going to Jijijik. Please…"
Janghyeon muttered at the Kayak on his screen.
A voice that would never reach her.
"What do I do…"
The moment of choice had arrived.
Having finished test streams on both platforms, I spun in my chair and kept turning it over.
The Daeryuk stream hadn't been bad. In some ways it was more comfortable than Twish; in others, more awkward. The money side of things, the new floating audience, the opportunities, the possibilities — Daeryuk felt like it might be a slightly different kind of challenge. Jijijik felt like continuing as before. The upside of Jijijik was that most Twish streamers were transferring there, so the relationships I'd already built wouldn't change.
"Haa…"
Both options had real pull, so of course I was stuck. Seriously, why did Twish have to die and dump this trial on me? If I could've just kept streaming there like always, I wouldn't be fretting like this.
How long did I keep at it?
Tapping my feet in the chair, rolling around on the bed, pacing the room for ages.
And then, finally, I made my decision.
"Alright. That settles it."
No matter what, my stream wasn't going to flop — once I thought that, my mind cleared right up. Thanks to that, I could make a choice I wouldn't regret.
I'd wrestled hard enough for this decision that I had no intention of walking it back. Even if people around me pushed back, I'd ignore it and push through.
And so, with a lighter heart, I was about to post the announcement for my viewers when—
A call came through out of nowhere.
Yu Sia.
Wondering what she could want at this hour, I picked up — and heard a voice that sounded urgent and relieved all at once.
"Boss — Twish, Twish is—!"
"Yeah? Twish is what."
Unlike her usual Boss, so the thing is— windup, Yu Sia went straight to the point. And a second later I understood exactly why she was talking so fast.
"They're not pulling out!"
"…What?"
Summarizing Yu Sia's jumbled rush of words: the various issues had been resolved, and Korean streamers would be able to keep broadcasting on Twish going forward. VODs were coming back, and the quality would run at 1080p instead of 720p.
"Oh…"
It was such massive news that all my careful deliberation felt almost silly. I just sat there for a while, letting out little sounds of awe.
And then I hurriedly rewrote the announcement I'd already drafted.
It was winter.