The Promotional Broadcast
Today was the day before the song's release.
It was also the day of the second promotional stream I'd mentioned earlier, so I set the stream title to something suitably simple: "Song Comes Out Tomorrow."
"Yes, everyone, today is the joint promo stream for our first single!"
It really had been a while. But there was a very deliberate reason to ration my collabs.
"Scarcity is everything, you see. And once your dopamine threshold climbs too high, cooking up content becomes a chore."
The more often you collab, the faster you run out of material and the higher your dopamine threshold climbs — whereas doing them rarely means you gain a lot every time. The biggest gain? Rarity value. Every collab draws a bigger crowd.
"Everyone — if I were genuinely putting effort into planning content, do you think you could handle it?"
These people! I do it all for the viewers! And this is the thanks I get — no one understands my heart!
Ah, so that was the reason. And that one too.
"Yes, as everyone so kindly pointed out, that's exactly why I don't do them. Everyone, be grateful."
Yes, well. I had faith they'd all understand.
"Shall we head into the Discord call, then?"
Boop!
"Rose, you here?"
"Yes, hello! This is Rose."
"Hold on, say that again. Let me get my sound levels sorted."
"HELLO, EVERYONE!"
I bellowed it out of nowhere.
"GAH!"
"HYAH!"
"Whoa! You scared me!"
"My, everyone's ears are in such healthy shape! As expected! Must be from listening to our song — it opens your ears right up, doesn't it?!"
I shot out a silent telepathic message: You know what to do with that line, right? Right?
"Oh — ah! Yes! Exactly! Listening to our song just blows your ears wide open, doesn't it?!"
Minseo picked up on my intent instantly and played along beautifully.
"What on earth are you talking about? If our songs actually did that, I'd have gone into business by now."
But it seemed my hidden agenda had slipped right past her. She must not have been great at Korean back in school. I'd bet anything she always got the "author's intent" questions wrong.
"HEY!"
I left Minseo's familiar shout behind me and turned to the chat.
Ever consistent, this side of the stream too.
"So, what are we doing today?"
"HEY! There she goes! Changing the subject AGAIN!"
"Ack! She's finally striking back?!"
"So, what are we doing today?"
"HEY!"
"Rose?"
"BWAHAHA!"
"So, what are we doing today?"
"…I'm sulking now."
"Wooju unnie! Snap out of it!"
"So, what are we doing today?"
"…Rose, you're mean."
"Unnie! Don't cry!"
If you're going to break someone's brain, you have to carry it to the very end for it to be art. Stopping halfway would've just killed the joke.
"So, what are we doing today?"
One more lap around the track, shall we?
"…Okay, now I'm ACTUALLY sulking."
Ah, that's the limit, then? It was fun while it lasted — time to wrap it up.
"Yes! What we're doing today is: watching our label's senior groups' debut stages and giving our reviews!"
When the idea first came to me, I honestly wondered if I'd lost my mind. Am I insane?
But it was a genuinely brilliant plan!
No hype work needed from me — I just watch the videos, look at the materials, and react! The footage comes straight from the company, so zero copyright worries! I get to piggyback on famous idols' name recognition for rage-bait traffic! And because we're an idol-concept VTuber group, the justification is airtight!
The manager even marveled at my proposal when I submitted it, you know?
"Whoa!"
"That sounds fun!"
"…Rose."
Minseo called my name in a low voice.
Hm. Did I tease her too hard earlier? Or is this just a broadcast beat she's setting up?
"Yes? What is it?"
Figuring the latter was far more likely, I softened my voice into my broadcast register too.
"…Say 'Unnie, I'm sorry~' once, and I'll let it slide."
…Ah. So it was the former after all.
Well, that's a small ask. Easy enough to grant. But did that really need such a dramatic build-up?
"Yes, Wooju. I'm sorry."
"No, no! UN! NIE! You have to say UNNIE!"
Oh.
"Rose seriously never calls me unnie."
"Right? Have I ever heard it even once?"
"Exactly! I think I've only heard it like twice?"
Thanks to the members' testimony, the viewers started slandering me. Hey, it's not that it's embarrassing…
Sigh… Honestly, being TS'd is just plain inconvenient sometimes. But I couldn't let this go unanswered, so I mixed a whine of a nasal note into my usual sly drawl.
"Yep~. Unnie~ I'm sooo sorry~."
"No! Drop the bit! Say it in your normal voice!"
Oh, come on. Can't you just let it slide? I did say it, didn't I?
…Apparently no one on this stream is on my side. Fine. Let's just rip the bandage off quickly and be done with it.
"Unnie, I'm sorry."
I said it as normally as I possibly could.
"YES! Our maknae granted my request! That's how it's done!"
"Rose! Me too! Me too!"
"U-um…! Rose! Could I get one too…!"
Sigh… Is my saying "unnie" once really something worth this much fuss?
"How precious…."
No, why is that one acting like this too? As if things weren't hard enough already.
Feeling a genuine chill crawl up my spine at Yerin's murmured words, I turned to the chat.
Ugh.
So saying it as deadpan and normal as humanly possible read as "embarrassed" to the audience, apparently. Fantastic.
"Shall we get to the main event now?"
I couldn't bear to look at the chat anymore.
"YES! Our maknae granted my request! That's how it's done!"
Auugh. She copy-pasted it.
"…Let's get on with it."
"Yes! Just like Rose said earlier, we're going to watch our label seniors' debut stages and share our thoughts on each one! Our own debut is tomorrow, so there's bound to be plenty to learn, right?!"
"Wow."
"WOW!"
"This sounds fun!"
"And! The whole concept was planned by our maknae, Rose!"
Hm? Did the planning credit really need announcing?
No, this part wasn't build-up… It just kind of turned out this way by accident…
…Well, it's a compliment, so I'll take it. And the chat had returned to normal, anyway.
"Alright! Our first group is — Evermore!"
Huh? That group?
"Rose, didn't you drop our seniors' songs during the World Cup?"
Right — the very group I'd dodged during the tournament with "we'll never actually meet anyway." I knew they'd show up eventually, but first thing out of the gate?
And considering the mood earlier…
"Boooo! You dropped OUR OWN LABEL'S seniors?!"
"Rose, apologize! Apologize!"
"Rose, shall we have you record a video message for our dear seniors?"
Today's collab was shaping up to be anything but easy…
No — change of mindset! Yes! They told me last time over drinks I was free to get murdered on air, didn't they?! Today, let's try a brand-new role for once!
When have I ever gotten to play the tank?! In real life, even if I wanted this role, I could never have it!
So then — what does the tank say in this situation?
"Should've picked songs that suited my taste then, shouldn't you?"
…Ah.
"Uh…?"
"Rose?"
"HEY! Snap out of it! You maniac!"
…It just slipped out before I knew it.