13. Donations
"And now, we'll be opening up donations."
It really was about time.
It had been long enough since we started broadcasting that the members were getting comfortable in front of the camera. Which meant turning donations on now wouldn't derail the stream.
"We're not worried about anyone else, but Rose..."
"Yes? Why?"
"Well... given your particular viewer demographic..."
Ah, she's worried about me.
Fair enough. But it was fine.
"Donations are basically the same thing as a game megaphone, you know?"
"...Pardon?"
Hm. Did that not land?
"I'm saying you just filter it down and only look at the things you want to see."
I simply explained it straight. After all, whenever I browsed chat or the community, I only read what I wanted to anyway — nothing difficult about it.
"Ah... I see..."
"That's our Yeonwoo for you..."
"Why are you worrying about her? Worry about me."
"You're all so mean to your maknae."
Still, my physical age was the youngest of the bunch.
"Our maknae is Yuna!"
"What?! Why does it turn out that way?! I'm older than Rose!"
"She's got far too little cuteness to be the maknae!"
"Hmm... look closely enough and it's definitely there, though..."
"Sorry — what?"
Jesus, that just gave me chills. I found myself running a hand down my arm without thinking. It wasn't like anyone besides my parents had ever called me cute as a kid, so my resistance to it was dangerously low.
"Yerin unnie... your taste is a little..."
"Heh. I'll be keeping that to myself."
"Exactly! Our Yeonwoo is cute!"
"Oh, please..."
Why is Minseo like this too?
"Minseo unnie, isn't it just the age gap making you feel that way?"
"Hey! Kim Yubin!"
Today, once again, Minseo's hitbox was flawless.
"Anyway — as of today, donations are officially open."
Huh? My first donation?
"Yes — thank you for the 100,000 won, our very first donation of the day."
"I did tell you I basically don't do reactions, didn't I?"
"The benefit of donating is that I will, with absolute certainty, read your message."
Sharp as ever. So they'd gotten good enough to decode exactly what my words meant now.
Then all I have to do is make her react no matter what.
Huh? One hundred? Wait — I didn't misread that, did I?!
"Uh...! A one-million-won donation!"
"Um... please don't donate this much — spend it on yourselves. My YouTube monetization should be kicking in soon, so I'll have my own way of making money."
No, seriously — actually receiving a million won is flustering. Even if I got rich off crypto, I don't think I could casually drop seven figures into a stream chat...!
"I mean, you could just order yourself some food, eat it while watching my stream, and that's basically eating Rose—"
Oh.
"Well then! Since that was my first million! How about I sing a song as a thank-you!"
To hide my flustered state, I offered up the thing the viewers wanted most.
I pulled up a song and gathered myself. Phew... well, it depends on your interpretation — and I caught myself halfway through, so it's borderline safe... right?
"Ah, thank you for the 100,000. And no, I don't. Gratitude is gratitude — but I can't let capital push me around."
Maybe if I were an indie streamer, but I'm corporate. Getting swayed by money would be a problem.
"BUT! If someone's gratitude could outweigh that, then I suppose an exception might be possible?!"
Is she insane?! ANOTHER million won?! Is she a building owner? Nobody but someone who owned a building could scatter a million won around this casually, right? With this, even the company would understand!
"Yes? Did I not tell you? That I'm a genuine weeb?"
Huh? Why's the reaction like this?
"Wait, you don't believe me? Ah — I guess you do have a point there."
I mulled over why they were reacting this way, and the answer came to me. Come to think of it... I've never once brought up anime on stream, have I?
"In that case, shall I sing a Vocaloid song or two?"
For the doubting viewers, I picked an old Vocaloid classic.
La-la-la-la, la-la-la...
"Melt."
This song really needs autotune to hit right, but that felt like a hassle, so I skipped it. Utaite cover it without autotune all the time, don't they?
And just like that, the song was over.
"Phew — it's been a while since I sang."
"Nope — I sang my one song, so the pot's gone cold."
Sing One More Song
⏱ Time remaining: 59 minutes
🎁 Prize: 100,000 won
"No. Not doing it."
I hit decline without hesitation.
"Anyway — do you believe I'm a real weeb now?"
Hmm. Does my image really clash that much with the word "weeb"?
"As you all probably know — call a weeb 'fake' or a 'normie in disguise,' and they just take it as a compliment on how well they're cosplaying. That's me right now."
"On the flip side — tell a normie they're 'fake' and for some reason they actually get sad about it. No idea why. Go try it in the other members' streams sometime."
I genuinely couldn't explain it. But they really did get hurt by it.
Oh, that's actually a good idea.
"Ah — should I just go do it myself, then?"
Sounds like fun.