Valentine's Day

February 14th.

That famously named day — Valentine's Day — had rolled around once again this year.

Originally a day for confessing love, corporate schemes had twisted it into an occasion for exchanging chocolate, standing shoulder to shoulder with White Day as one of the twin holidays of romance. For the vast majority of internet ghosts who haunted the online communities, though, none of that applied.

If you really thought about it, whether you received chocolate or not barely mattered. Whether today was Valentine's Day or Christmas, the daily lives of the people who lived in these communities barely changed at all.

They just needed something decent to chew on. And right in the middle of that hunger for content, word had come that Ming-chan — one of the more well-known female streamers — was making chocolate for her viewers.

Ming-chan was already known to have a boyfriend. On top of that, she had a history of trash-talking her own viewers after thinking the stream was off. The first wave of mockery was aimed squarely at the OP for still watching her after all that.

The bait that followed was, as always, bait about Kayak.

Honestly, now that Kayak had her own fan café, there was no real reason to keep spinning threads about her in the gallery. One of the reasons she'd made the fan café in the first place was so that talk about her would stop showing up here. With an official community now in place, the proper thing would have been for Kayak-related content to live over there.

But people who didn't even listen to their own parents were never going to listen to Kayak. Even if she politely asked them to please take her discussions to the fan café, only ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the ones who wanted to listen would listen. The people still hanging around here were not, even generously speaking, the well-behaved kind of viewers.

Meanwhile, over in Kayak's fan café, everyone was busy waiting for her stream. She had already announced ahead of time that she would be going live today.

Unlike usual, she'd even pinned down a rough window yesterday — saying she'd be on around lunchtime — so from the waiting viewers' perspective, all they could do was refresh Twish's lagging page over and over, craning their necks for any sign of her.

And then the stream went live. Today's broadcast came on much earlier than usual, just a little past noon.

Kayak's stream was noisier than usual today. Bustling voices of people, the blaring of car horns, the rush of wind brushing past the mic.

A few sharp-eyed viewers figured out what kind of stream it was before the camera even came on.

At the very least, it didn't seem like she was going to sit at home and play games like usual. So where exactly was Kayak headed?

While the viewers' questions piled up, light gradually began to filter into the dark screen.

"Hi everyone, Twish hello. I said I'd start early and I still ended up a little late."

Kayak appeared inside some kind of building. A clean space finished entirely in white. Behind her, something that looked like a display case came into view.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"Alright, so what we're doing today…."

As Kayak moved toward the back, the camera angle naturally followed. It panned across the display behind her. Inside the glass cases, pretty, mouthwatering cakes filled the frame.

"Looks like some of you already figured it out. Yep — I've come to a handmade cake specialty shop. Today I'm going to make handmade cakes myself. In honor of Valentine's Day."

They say the higher the expectations, the greater the disappointment. In cases like this, the reverse was just as true.

Because no one had expected anything, it was even better. Like a surprise event, Kayak was doing something no one had predicted — something she never did — and the chat erupted in cheers.

"I haven't really set a number. It's my first time making something like this, so I might mess up a lot along the way. Of course, there's a professional here who'll be helping me. Still, I'll probably keep going until I'm satisfied?"

Ideally, she wanted to make several and hand them out to people around her. That was Kayak's plan.

"Of course. I came here to make them for you guys, so obviously you get some. Why am I suddenly doing something I never do? Hmm… I just felt like it all of a sudden?"

Kayak's explanation was that she'd simply started this out of pure curiosity. It was a far cry from the usual girl-streamer reasons — brewing fan service, doing it out of love for the fans, and so on.

While the chat kept bouncing around, Kayak had already moved further inside. The space looked like the actual cake-making area.

Piping bags filled with whipped cream in all kinds of colors sat on the table, along with plain round cake bases waiting for toppings.

"This is the handmade cake master who'll be helping me a lot today."

"Hello~."

After introducing the professional to her viewers, Kayak got straight into the consultation.

The topic: cake design.

"Do you have a design in mind? Something pretty you saw online, maybe?"

"I want to make a cake like this…."

The moment the expert asked, Kayak pulled out her phone as if she'd been waiting for exactly that question.

The manager who'd come along angled the camera at Kayak's phone screen, and the photos sleeping inside it came into view.

Camilla throwing up a thumbs-up. Snow Queen Camilla. Camilla with a wistful expression. All kinds of Camillas, rendered as little character figures, filled the phone display.

Only then did the viewers catch on to Kayak's real intention — and they lost it.

Meanwhile, the expert — who still hadn't grasped the situation — asked with a bewildered look on her face.

"What is this?"

Kayak answered with a resolute expression.

"I want to make a cake that looks like this."