Chuseok
"What the—? Is that the VTuber thing?"
Instead of panicking, I calmly shot a question right back at her.
"It's you, isn't it?"
"What are you talking about?"
"You said you were gonna start internet streaming!"
…Did I ever say that to you?
Tch… Have I come down with early-onset dementia?
First I forgot the apartment passcode earlier, and now this. Why can't I remember…?
Anyway, if she's this convinced, then I must have said something along those lines.
"I'm a nobody. I've been doing it for what, five minutes? How would I have become some corporate giant?"
"No! I mean, that's fair! But knowing you, I could totally see it happening! And forget all that—you two are literally identical!"
"They say everyone's got about three doppelgängers walking around out there."
"I'm not talking about faces! Personality! It's a VTuber—how would I even know what she looks like?!"
Hmm… Not getting through to her.
Apparently she came here with a fair amount of certainty already.
"Oh! Wait, no! I do know what her face looks like! Sort of!"
"Huh?"
"People say she's genuinely terrifying to look at? And that's when it hit me—ah! It's you! Case closed!"
…So that's how it played out.
Yeah, you really shouldn't talk about the red medicine too much.
If I kept this up, she'd start comparing our hands over cooking streams, and then it'd be game over. I steered the conversation away, fast.
"Does that VTuber have an original song?"
"Uh? Yeah. She does, I think? Why?"
"Because if I were that VTuber, I'd have done a feature under my own name and my own track."
"No way! She'd have turned it down for the sake of her public image! Bae Seyeon would never take that kind of risk!"
…She's a total fangirl, isn't she.
And the kind who camps in VTuber chat rooms twenty-four seven, at that.
"So what you're saying is, I went out of my way to build a whole alter ego just to do a featured vocal, and then—also very conveniently—went to the trouble of hiding the fact that I'm that VTuber from you, specifically?"
"Uh? Well, yeah…?"
"Me?"
"That's… true…?"
Whew… Okay. Now what.
Instinct had carried me through the denial, and only now was my brain catching up.
Ah, tch… This is a tough call.
Come clean… or not….
Forcing myself to stay calm, I weighed the pros and cons of telling Nayeon the truth.
First, the pros….
…There aren't any?
Unless I was planning to drag her onto my stream as a guest, there was literally nothing in it for me.
What about the cons, then?
Three of them came to mind immediately.
One: I've never done aegyo or anything like it on stream, and I never plan to—but if it somehow happened anyway? At that point I wouldn't just be disciplining Nayeon. I'd be hitting the factory reset button.
So no, that's not just bad for me. It's bad for her.
Two: knowing her personality, she'd absolutely backseat my stream. I already hate when viewers backseat—imagine my own sister doing it to my face? Yeah. Unpredictable disasters would follow.
Three—the most important reason of all.
I just don't want to.
She came digging on her own before I ever told her anything. Admitting it now would feel like losing.
Funny how two out of three of my reasons were for Nayeon's sake….
I'm just too kind for my own good, honestly.
Anyway, decision made, I gathered my words and opened my mouth.
"Why are you so obsessed with making my life difficult?"
Full denier mode, all the way to the end.
"You're really not her?"
"Nope."
"Really?"
"Nope."
"Really, really?"
"…Get out."
"Ahh~ wait, wait~ I still have questions~"
"…Make that noise in front of me one more time. I dare you."
A disgust I had no words for crawled across my body.
If I felt that sensation one more time, my body would move before my brain even registered it.
"Okay, first—can you maybe unclench your eyes? I have a pretty high tolerance for your face, but that expression is a lot even for me."
"You brought this on yourself. Suffer."
"Fine, whatever… I just won't look at your face, then."
Any more of this conversation and my blood pressure was going to spike, so I decided to answer her questions quickly and then boot her out.
"Ha… So what else do you want?"
Nayeon fired back, practically vibrating with excitement.
"Even if you're not Roze, you ARE signed with Gaon Entertainment, right?"
"…I guess?"
Did I ever actually say I had an agency?
I'm pretty sure I just mentioned doing a one-off featured vocal.
Well, correcting her would be more trouble than it's worth, and she's not technically wrong. Moving on.
"Have you met other celebrities?!"
"Yeah, a few. Why?"
"Whoa! Then—Do Hyunwoo?! You two are classmates, come on! Have you met him?!"
…Was she a boy-group fan?
That would explain a lot, actually.
Any girl-group fan at this particular moment in time could not possibly be unaware of Do Hyunwoo.
"Yeah."
"Seriously?! What was he like?! Is he even hotter in person?!"
"Yeah. Photos don't do him justice either."
"Insane! If you're saying that, how good-looking is he?!"
"Hmm… Very."
"Did you talk to him?!"
"A few words, briefly."
"His number! Did you exchange numbers with Do Hyunwoo?!"
"His number? We're not close, and I'd have no reason to contact him. Why bother?"
"Wow! You absolute smooth-brained idiot! That's a connection with 'success' written all over it! You're supposed to stay close to people like that!"
Sweetie, I know exactly how well he's going to do. Far better than you do.
Smack!
The sheer audacity earned her a well-deserved reprisal.
"Ow! Not the head!"
"Then don't do things that get you hit."
"Ugh… talked to Do Hyunwoo himself… must be nice…."
"Hmm…."
"…What's with the thoughtful humming?"
"Do well on the CSAT, and I'll set up a meeting with Do Hyunwoo."
"Really?!"
"Yeah."
"Wait, you said you two aren't even close!"
"It's a small enough favor. He'd go along with it."
Even if Do Hyunwoo hadn't taken his GED yet and technically only had a middle-school diploma, he wasn't the type to be petty about it.
"Hold on—wait! Ha! I almost got played again?! You don't even have his number!"
"I could figure something out."
When I met up with the composer and Do Hyunwoo, I could just tag along for a moment and slip back out. Both of them would let that slide, no question.
Have I ever wronged either of them—
Tch… Do Hyunwoo wouldn't still hold a grudge over me dragging him on stream without asking, right?
No way to know.
It's already out of my mouth; nothing to be done about it now.
Partly I blurted it out on impulse because I wanted Nayeon gone ASAP, but….
Besides, the whole deal only works if she actually does well on the CSAT.
"Then go study."
"You better keep your promise! I'm gonna study SO hard! Fourteen hours a day, pure study time, I swear!"
"Promise only what you can actually do. Now get out."
"But really—"
"Out."
I shoved her out the door with my foot.
"Phew…."
That went well, considering I'd almost had my red medicine spilled, right?
"…Hmm. Was denying it even worth it?"
She was bound to find out eventually, so did I really need to put on that act?
No, wait—if I were the one volunteering the information, sure, fine, but why did she have to come asking?!
Whatever….
I'd figure it out when the moment actually forced my hand.
Time to go eat dinner.
Same as always, I shelved the difficult thoughts for later and stepped out into the living room.
"Oh, there's our singer! Can we eat now?"
"…Please."
"Never thought you'd be a singer your whole life, you know. When we tried to make you a child actor back in the day, you threw the biggest fit…."
"…How old was I for that?"
That's not in my memory at all?
"Six?"
Yeah, that tracks. No memories there.
"When's your next song coming out?"
Huh?
"If the featured track hits number one, they'll give you a good solo song too, won't they?"
"Uh?"
…How did I fail to predict something this obvious?
Was my brain still half asleep from waking up mid-nap…?
"Ah, was that me sticking my nose in where it doesn't belong? Right, you've got your own things in motion already, don't you."
…That's the alt account I'm throwing away, though.
I have a main account….
"I have a main—"
Hold on. If I say this out loud, what happens to all the effort I just spent lying through my teeth to Nayeon…?
…Life is truly pointless sometimes.
After a long internal struggle, I concluded I had zero intention of keeping the alt persona around, so I told my parents the truth: I had a main channel. In the process they got curious about what a VTuber even was, but I managed to explain my way past that too.
And then….
"She said no! She said no!"
"Would you admit it if someone asked you point-blank?"
"Wow! You are one cold-hearted woman! How do you say that with a completely straight face?!"
Thankfully, it seemed my act had held up.
"I was SO sure it was you, but you didn't move a single muscle, so I let it go…!"
Guess it really didn't show.
Am I talented at acting?
No—my survival instincts had kicked in. Of course I performed well.
"Well, since I've got you here, might as well ask."
Clearing my head of distractions, I asked what I was curious about.
"What?"
"How'd you find out about Roze in the first place?"
"The song."
Hmm. Music really is the ultimate traffic magnet, huh?
The power of music, reaffirmed.
"The song was so good I dug around for more, and I found that variety show you filmed with Kang Yeseul?"
Ah, that one. Fun episode.
"And there was this person who looked EXACTLY like the disaster gremlin in our house, so I looked her up."
Smack!
"Ow! I said not the head!"
"'Disaster gremlin'? Excuse me?"
"You hit me like this constantly—what else am I supposed to call you?!"
Smack!
"Ow! Stop! Keep this up and I'm exposing your true nature to all your viewers!"
I will never understand why she keeps sharpening her own executioner's blade.
"Go ahead. Try."
"Uh…?"
"I've never once mentioned having a sister. Not even to the members. You'd just end up being treated as some weirdo, and that'd be the end of it."
And the "expose" would be utterly contentless, earning her nothing but another beating. I almost felt sorry for her.
"…Damn it."
Smack!
Not that I was letting the cursing slide, of course.
She rubbed her head, grumbling, then her expression suddenly shifted—something had apparently occurred to her.
"Oh, right, unni! Then who was the guy you dragged in for the cooking stream?!"
"You want me to tell you?"
"Yes!"
"Be aware that if you curse this time, the fist comes out."
"…So it's someone shocking enough to warrant a fist, huh."
Quick learner.
I gave the expectant Nayeon just the name, short and simple.
"Do Hyunwoo."
"…What?"
"The very guy I said I'd introduce you to if you did well on the CSAT."
"Unni… is something wrong with your brain, possibly?"
Smack!
"Ow! I didn't even curse!"
"Which is exactly why I hit your head and nothing else."
"Wow…! No—! You absolute lunatic, I swear—!"
Smack!
"Agh!"
Tsk tsk… With an intellect like that, does she really think she'll ace the CSAT and meet Do Hyunwoo?
Pity made my tongue click all on its own.
"What do you mean! You clearly ARE close with him!"
"We're not close."
"Uh…? Then explain how you're 'not close' with someone you strong-armed into a stream, wouldn't let get a word in, tormented the whole time, and then used as your messenger the second he tried to leave…?"
Hmm… Said like that, it does kind of sound like I'm the weirdo here.
"Let's not fabricate things."
"…What fabrication? That's exactly how it looked in the clip I watched?"
"It wasn't strong-arming. I got his consent first."
Although, to be fair, I got that consent while he had no idea I streamed….
Ah. And he had no idea he wouldn't be allowed to talk, either.