Ha Yeeun's Belated Regret (2)
Three months had already passed since Lee Junwoo left Aegis.
When An Yumin first proposed banishing him, Ha Yeeun had thrown her full support behind it. Now, though, she was beginning to feel — with a growing, desperate certainty — that the choice had been a terrible mistake.
He was a creepy, self-serving creep, sure!! But we never should have kicked him out!!
There had been several reasons she'd steeled herself to drive him away, and those reasons flickered through her mind one by one.
If he had been nothing more than a garden-variety simp, she never would have voted to exile him. Being adored by so many men — a beautiful nun, no, a noble saintess like herself — was a thoroughly pleasant feeling. But Lee Junwoo was a talentless nobody. If he truly wanted to date her rather than simply be a fan, he needed outstanding ability as an Awakened, too.
"Hmm. His only Authority is summoning mirrors, and on top of that he's an orphan. Far too lacking for someone like me."
Romance with him had been out of the question. She had generously permitted him to serve her, of course.
"Well, setting aside that blonde-tanned punk look, his face isn't bad. I can allow that much."
Even so, Lee Junwoo had crossed the line. He had abused his manager privileges on Saintess TV. Under the constant pretext of teaching her stream setup and War World, he had visited her home far too often.
"He keeps trying to come over to a girl who lives alone… his ulterior motives are overflowing. Well, it is necessary for the stream, but…"
And then he had started intervening far too much as her broadcast manager, as if he were already her boyfriend. Even someone as full of loving kindness as herself had found it irritating.
"You don't even understand streaming! Stop telling me what to do all the time!"
Still, she hadn't cut him loose — not with that Authority of his, that mirror power that made for such excellent broadcast lighting. Then came the decisive incident.
There was the fan café president who always sent long messages to her stream account email. A loyal enough fan to rank in the top five for donations. And yet Lee Junwoo had constantly tried to drive a wedge between that woman and Ha Yeeun.
"Ignore what she says. She tries to remote-control your stream too much. And don't get involved with the Mungseokkyu Crew. Not at this stage."
As luck would have it, that female president was a former manager for the Mungseokkyu Crew. She had tirelessly tried to build broadcasting bridges for Ha Yeeun — and Lee Junwoo had opposed every single one. He had meddled in everything, down to the long chat messages the president left. Even the precious broadcast feedback her fans left behind — he blocked it all.
And after all that…
Naturally, she had assumed he simply disliked the woman. But late last autumn, she had caught Lee Junwoo meeting that fan café president in secret. They had even been holding hands.
What a shameless man!
That was why he had tried to separate the president from her. The woman had been a fiercely loyal fan — she wouldn't have fallen for ordinary temptation. So he had needed the wedge-driving to seduce her.
He really was a man completely insane for women!
She had watched him leave countless pickup lines for An Yumin and Song Sia, too. Especially for Song Sia, the rich girl — he had put on such a sweet act. A pervert with nothing but women in his head, without a doubt.
"But… even so, I should have kept Lee Junwoo around!!"
Lately, Ha Yeeun's thinking had completely reversed.
She needed Lee Junwoo desperately.
As a human being and as an Awakened, he was pure garbage. But as a broadcast manager? Looking back now, his skills had been excellent.
Saintess TV's fans — including that fan club president who had ultimately never fallen for him, and other top-tier supporters — were now helping as managers. But Saintess TV had been built the Lee Junwoo way. She had focused solely on being on camera, and she had handed him far too much authority. She had grown far too accustomed to his methods.
Thinking about it, Lee Junwoo was right about some things.
Sitting at her desk, Ha Yeeun stared at her monitor. Recent YouTube metrics were grim. Song Sia's family had assigned a new freelance editor, but even to Ha Yeeun's eye, the videos were painfully ordinary.
"These are mass-produced, zero-sense videos!! I'm falling asleep watching them!!"
Until recently, every video uploaded to Saintess TV had been storyboarded by Lee Junwoo. He had even handled the final review. And now the YouTube comment reactions had turned strange, too.
Comments that used to top five hundred had plummeted. A mere hundred and fifty was all she had left. And even the ones that did appear were bland, safe remarks. When a video was well-made, the comment energy was completely different. Something was clearly wrong. The "this is boring" complaints kept rolling in.
Stop going on about vlogs and whatever!! We can't post hero activity footage because An Yumin completely wrecked everything!!
That idiot An Yumin and Song Sia still hadn't noticed — but Ha Yeeun had. In their three-person hero operations, Lee Junwoo had been performing far beyond expectations as an operator, too.
Honestly, the three remaining members of Aegis weren't particularly close. There was a subtle power struggle among them, and none of them were the type to listen to each other. An Yumin, the nominal party leader, was the worst of all. In recent operations she had been all raw emotion and barely contributed as a damage dealer. They still managed to clear dungeons and take down villains somehow, but their coordination along the way was abysmal. The speed and immersion that had defined their earlier content had dropped off a cliff. With the current editor's skill level, there simply weren't any good angles to cut.
But YouTube is the least of my problems!! At this rate… SaintessLand is in real trouble!!
The biggest crisis was still her live personal streams. Ever since the collab with the Mungseokkyu Crew had gone sideways, she hadn't been able to recover the completely tanked public sentiment. The managers recruited from the fan café did nothing but fight with fans in chat.
They said that — and then banned even chats that could have been left alone. More trolls poured in and turned the chat into a complete mess. Posts were already flooding streaming community boards about how Saintess TV's managers had gone too far.
"If Lee Junwoo were here, this never would have happened!!"
He had taken flak for abusing his mod powers, sure. But Lee Junwoo had known exactly which viewers to ban and which to leave alone. And he had never disrupted the flow of a stream. Unlike the current managers, he had never typed in chat mid-broadcast to pick fights with the audience.
Today is the last… the last chance…!!
She had been teamed with a female gaming streamer from the Mungseokkyu Crew. Same bottom-tier War World rank — but that girl had pro gamers glued to her side, personally coaching her. From a recent live stream, she was already playing at an average level for that tier.
I… no matter what I do, my skills never improve!!
Of course they didn't. Even before, Lee Junwoo had stayed up all night for weeks putting her through War World boot camp — and she had forgotten everything the moment she walked away. She had neither talent nor interest. At least when Lee Junwoo had been nagging her, she had managed to play about as well as that female streamer.
On top of that, she had recently been focused on collab content with a popular YouTube trainer. That trainer had her eating only four meals a day. She was so hungry she had no time left to practice games.
"Hic… sob… sob… uwaah…"
Suddenly the self-pity hit, and the tears came. She needed someone to whine at. Whenever she got cranky from hunger, or on days when her makeup just wouldn't sit right, she had always taken it out on Lee Junwoo. She had sent him on cake errands from the shops near the high academy. And he had quietly done everything she asked.
Lee Junwoo… thinking about it again… he was kinder than I thought…
Well, being nice to women was baseline for a playboy. Maybe the reason he had started looking at other girls was because she had put up such an iron wall. She hated to admit it — but right now, she missed him.
She kept sending DMs.
She had no intention of making him Aegis's operator again. If he came back, he needed to focus on her alone. Or… maybe it wouldn't be so bad if she tried seducing him herself.
Lately… I've been a little lonely from all the stress.
An Yumin and Song Sia still had no idea of Lee Junwoo's true value. She needed a man who would take her frustrations. Lee Junwoo was perfect for the job.
Well… his looks are decent enough. Dating him on the condition that he works only for me wouldn't be so bad.
And above all, that special Authority. With his mirror lighting, she could capture her beautiful real self on live stream anytime.
"So why isn't he replying?!"
Only thirty minutes left. Honestly, she felt a little bad about how much she had used him. So even though he was a womanizing pervert, she had decided to forgive him. She was the one pleading now. And yet Lee Junwoo was still playing hard to get.
He's the type who'd come back if I just keep asking. He's being prideful over something completely pointless!
But she was uneasy. What if An Yumin and Song Sia had been thinking along the same lines?
What if they're already seducing Lee Junwoo behind my back…?
The thought made her even more restless. Her own charm was obviously the best — but Song Sia had her family background, and An Yumin had the potential of a future famous hero. Either of them could seduce Lee Junwoo whenever they wanted.
"No wayyyy!!!"
Rage flooded through her. True to her gluttonous nature, once she had decided to seduce Lee Junwoo, she would rather die than let another woman snatch him away.
Of all times — next week is Hell Week!!
During Hell Week, High Class and Middle Class members naturally crossed paths. Days of continuous training. What if An Yumin and Song Sia made a move on him?
N-no, that won't happen. They're not nice enough to feel attracted to a talentless nobody.
Which meant she had to make the first move. The stress was so bad she wanted to devour all six macarons at once — but…
"Munch… munch…"
She barely managed to soothe her appetite with two, then turned back to the problem at hand.
"How dare he! Playing hard to get with me — I'll let it slide just for today!!"
He was definitely holed up in the dorms, asleep. His reputation was so bad that finding a new girl would have been hard. The thought of him meeting anyone else was unbearable.
Instead, Ha Yeeun hurriedly sent a DM to another man.
At this rate she was guaranteed to get flamed mid-match. The only man she could ask for a boost right now was that guy from the Yoho tribe.
Well, as long as I don't get caught, a boost counts as my own skill.
And after polishing off the rest of the macarons, Ha Yeeun made her decision.
Next week's Hell Week! I'll definitely seduce Lee Junwoo there!
She had absolutely no intention of letting those two bitches steal the man she had claimed.
A short while later, the Mungseokkyu tournament preliminaries began.
Ha Yeeun had made the worst possible choice.
Contrary to my expectations, she caused zero problems in the Mungseokkyu tournament prelims. She actually outperformed the female streamer from the Mungseokkyu Crew who had competed alongside her.
Idiot. Getting someone to boost for her.
Ha Yeeun truly had zero gaming talent. I had done a few rounds of voice-chat brain-boosting for her before — but that had been subtle help, carefully hidden so it wouldn't break the stream's flow. The Mungseokkyu Crew's tournament, though, had total prize money in the hundreds of millions. Even if that kind of cash was pocket change to an Awakened, it was serious money for ordinary people.
If that boost gets exposed, she's finished in the streaming world.
Still, the tournament had layered on all kinds of conditions specifically to prevent cheating. If someone had helped her without leaving a trace, it was definitely Jeong Ungyeong. He — no, she — was a Yoho, skilled in all kinds of illusion arts and sorcery.
Of all people, she went and handed leverage to that ambitious little fox.
Sure enough, Ha Yeeun kept texting me out of anxiety.
She was sending so many messages it was annoying — but thinking about it, there was no real downside. If she wanted, I could meet her once, someday. Ha Yeeun belonged to the Goddess Religion's sisterhood. Dark-attribute villains sometimes corrupted clergy to obtain special skills.
But that was something to consider later, when I was operating as Unknown.
I sent that short reply and didn't check any DMs after that.
Before I knew it, the weekend had arrived. This week had been busy helping with Jiyu's tournament, but I still couldn't skip prep for next week's Hell Week. In the original story, that was the physical ability test where An Yumin scored a victory against the High Class. The positions were reversed now — I would be the one facing Aegis's three members directly.
And so I decided to stop by Rain Weapons one more time.
"Have you been waiting long!! Nice to see you!"
I met Choi Hana in front of the weapon shop. Hm? She was in her maid uniform again today — but somehow she felt a little different from usual.
Is it a bit hot because it's noon?
Her face, looking cleaner than usual, was faintly flushed.
"Let's go in."
I entered Rain Weapons with her.
"Lee Junwoo?"
And there I ran into someone I never expected.
An Yumin was standing inside.