Trickle-Down Effect

“Uwaaaaaaaaah—”

I stretched as hard as I could and sat up on the mattress. Thanks to the blackout curtains over the window, the room was pitch-black.

“What time is it?”

I fumbled around until I finally found my phone. The screen read 2:00 p.m.

“…Being unemployed rules.”

There was a reason I’d been dead to the world until this hour. It was the stream-end condition I’d set last night.

I’d boldly declared a five-win streak. But I kept collapsing at four wins, so the stream just… kept going. In the end, I failed the mission entirely and passed out at six in the morning.

Still, it was fine. I wasn’t a construction worker anymore. No more getting up at seven.

And over the past three days of streaming alone, I’d made two hundred sixty thousand won. That was two full days of construction wages — just from turning on a cam and playing games.

“…Wait. What’s my follower count right now?”

I’d forgotten the whole point. The entire reason I was streaming in the first place was that damn status window.

“…Status window?”

“Ten times in a single day?”

Before yesterday’s stream, I’d only had around three hundred followers. Now the number had already blown past ten times that — nearly four thousand.

“…So this is what they call the big-corp trickle-down effect?”

The phenomenon where a tiny streamer who collabs with — or even just gets tangled up with — a major streamer suddenly gets flooded with new viewers. It had only been a one-day spillover, but it was clearly working.

“…Wait. Am I going to hit this faster than I thought?”

Five days since the mission started, and I was already almost forty percent of the way there. A little relief started to settle in.

“Nngh— hup!”

I got up, stretched again, and opened the delivery app on my phone. I tapped the tonkatsu-and-naengmyeon place saved in my favorites and thought to myself:

“Eh, another week of streaming should do it.”

I was fucked.

I had clearly jinxed myself into oblivion.

One week since the collab with Seonuyang. I’d streamed every single day without fail, played games nonstop — and the followers I’d gained?

A measly five hundred.

Viewer counts might have ticked up a little, but followers? Not so much.

“…Ah, no. No no no.”

A strange tingling sensation ran along my side. I’d rather die than taste that pain again.

“M-Maybe I should collab with Seonuyang again…?”

But she was buried in tournament prep. And even if we did collab, I doubted the followers would climb much. Anyone who was going to follow me had probably already done it during the last one.

So what options did that leave me?

Nothing I could think of.

“…F-First, part-time job.”

Today was Monday — the day I went back to work at the PC Room. Getting ready and heading out had to come first.

After a long stretch of prep, I opened the front door.

Rumble. Crash.

“…Is monsoon season starting or what.”

I was already anxious enough to die, and now the weather too. What a thoroughly unpleasant day.

“Good afternoon, Boss!”

“Full of energy again today, Ari.”

“Haha… am I?”

I greeted the boss, finished getting ready in the staff room, and stepped out.

“Raining hard out there?”

“Ugh… it’s pouring like crazy. Look, my pants and shoes are completely soaked. And it’s so humid I’m ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠sweating.”

I showed her the sweatpants and shoes I was wearing. The gray track pants had turned a deep charcoal from the knees down, and my old shoes looked like a disaster.

“Thanks for coming in. Still, with the rain, we probably won’t get many customers today.”

“Isn’t that a bad thing, though?”

“It’s fine. Thanks to you, last month’s sales are already covered.”

Thanks to me? I didn’t know what she meant, but if I’d been helpful, that was good enough.

“Alright, let’s give it our best today.”

“Yes, Boss!”

Just as the boss had said, there weren’t many customers today. Maybe because a lot of people came to PC Rooms just to kill time. Even the regulars who were always parked in their seats were nowhere to be found.

Which meant the boss and I could sit side by side at the counter and actually talk.

“Boss, how old are you?”

“Me? Thirty-one this year. Why?”

“No reason. We don’t seem that far apart in age, but you’re already a boss. Just thought it was impressive.”

That seemed to put her in a better mood.

“You’re pretty good at flattery.”

“I’m serious! When I first met you, I thought you were just another part-timer.”

“Hahahaha, thanks. While we’re at it, why don’t you just call me unnie?”

Unnie?

I had to call her unnie…?

“Un…nie?”

“Yeah. We’re not that far apart in age. If it feels weird, don’t worry about it.”

“Ah, ah, it’s not that it’s weird, it’s just… I’ve never really used that word before…”

Of course I hadn’t. There’d never been a reason to. There shouldn’t have been a reason to.

“Then start using it from now on. It’ll be good practice for you later, Ari.”

“Well then… Un…nie.”

Crack.

Another piece of my inner masculinity shattered.

“That’s it, Ari. Looking forward to working with you from now on, okay?”

“Yes, Bo— I mean, unnie.”

I said it and sat blankly at the counter for a while. Then the boss spoke up first.

“Hey, Ari, is something bothering you? You’ve got this whole ‘something’s wrong’ vibe going on.”

“…You can tell?”

“Obviously. I’ve got six years of social-life experience under my belt.”

Still, I didn’t want to tell her I was streaming. It was just… embarrassing.

I asked as casually as I could manage.

“Unnie, if someone wanted to get famous on Instagram as fast as possible, what should they do?”

“You’re on Instagram, Ari? With that face of yours, not being on it would be a waste.”

“No, it’s not about me — it’s a friend. She’s in a situation where she urgently needs to boost her follower count.”

She didn’t even seem to hear the last part. She propped her chin on her hand, thought it over carefully, and then spat out an answer I never saw coming.

“First, you need to increase exposure.”

“Excuse me??”

My body reacted faster than my brain. I immediately covered myself with my arms.

Ugh, I really don’t want to do stuff like this — why does my body keep reacting on its own?

“…Why are you suddenly doing that?”

“Because unnie said something like that first!”

“I don’t know what you were thinking, but I meant media exposure. Getting your face out there.”

Ah.

So the weird one was my brain.

“Aaaah…”

“I used to work in the PR team ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠at my company. At the end of the day, what captures people is how often you show up in front of their eyes.”

I see.

So the most important thing was how widely you spread. And by that measure, I’d done absolutely nothing. Just streamed and never promoted myself beyond that.

“Then what kind of promotion should she do?”

She answered without a single second of hesitation.

“Depends on the content, but the common rule is: post everywhere. Instagram, YouTube, TikTok — wherever. That’s how more people see you and come find you, right?”

She finished and squinted at me. What now?

“So, our Ari — what do you want to get famous ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠for?”

“No, no, I told you it’s not about me! It’s my friend!”

Even so, she didn’t drop the look. The eye contact was getting uncomfortable.

“Well, if you don’t want to say, that’s fine. Everyone’s got their own circumstances.”

“I’m really not talking about myself.”

The boss shook her head and said:

“Still, if it’s you, I feel like you’d blow up somehow. Not sure about short-term, though.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“You need to work on your self-objectivity a little.”

“…”

Just then, the PC Room door opened and a man walked in.

“Delivery~!”

“Yes, thank you~!”

The boss went out to take the thoroughly soaked delivery box, so I followed and took it for her.

“What’s this?”

“Ah, Ari. There’s a favor I wanted to ask. You can say no.”

I was already nervous. What now?

“…Tell me the favor first and I’ll listen.”

“I ordered a few pieces of clothing, and…”

Mid-sentence, she snatched the box out of my hands. She sliced it open with a knife and lifted out what was inside.

The clothes that emerged were…

A fluttering black fabric ending in two thin straps, with dense lace detailing stitched along the neckline.

A so-called string tank top.

“How about wearing this for your shift? It’d be pretty cool for a hot summer day.”

Her expression was weird. Like someone fixated on something.

“…Me?”

“You can refuse, but want to try it on first and decide? Oh, and I’ll raise your hourly wage to twenty thousand won.”

Insane.

Trying it on immediately.

“Yes, Boss! I’ll try it on real quick!”

I grabbed the clothes and went straight into the staff room. I roughly found the wide opening, stuck my head through, and hooked both straps over my shoulders. It seemed to fit…

And then I checked the mirror.

My reflection was, how do I put this — way, way too revealing. Shoulders completely bare, sides and underarms fully exposed…

At that moment—

Bang.

“Kyaaaaaah—!”

“What’s with the ‘kyaah’? Between girls it’s— ah, yeah, this isn’t going to work.”

What the hell was that aegyo-drenched scream? Wait. Did I just make that sound?

“Ari… you’re a lot bigger than I expected?”

“Ah, get out, Boss, hurry!”

I shoved her out and changed back as fast as I could.

No matter what, making me work in something like that?

I dragged my exhausted body back home.

Honestly, with the rain, there hadn’t been that many customers. But I felt mentally drained somehow.

And somehow, a black plastic bag was dangling from my hand. Inside it: the black tank top I’d tried on earlier.

Take it. I’ve got plenty of those anyway, and it doesn’t fit my size.

That’s what the boss had said.

I picked up the string tank top again and stared at it for a long time.

“…Why am I embarrassed?”

Thinking about it, it was strange. Back when I’d done overnight construction gigs right after discharge, everyone stripped down together and I hadn’t felt a shred of shame.

And right now, the boss and I were both… women. So why was I feeling embarrassed about my own body?

I sat there wrestling with it for a while. Then a thought suddenly flashed through my mind.

“…No way. The status window?”

Without hesitation, I tapped the Shame entry with my finger.

Th… this…

This couldn’t be real…

This fucking status window had gone so far it was messing with my emotions now.

“Upper body f-fifty percent? Doesn’t that mean I can barely even wear short sleeves?”

And “action disabled” — was that what happened earlier, when I covered myself and couldn’t do anything?

“…I don’t know who the hell forced me to awaken as a girl streamer, but—”

I roared with pure rage.

“I’ll fucking kill you, you son of a bitch!!”