Bail!
After a brief moment of fluster, Donovan quickly regained his composure.
I'm a pro. I'm a professional.
Back in the folk village and Itaewon, he'd handled far more absurd consultations than this. There was no reason to be shaken by a TikTok view-count problem.
...This isn't hard.
Donovan forced himself to stay calm as he quietly studied Mia's face. A subtle red glow—the aura of peach blossoms—flowed smoothly around her slender eyes and the slightly upturned corners of her mouth. It was the physiognomy of a born entertainer, one that naturally drew countless gazes and earned blind affection.
"No wonder you're popular. You've definitely got talent."
"See, mister?! I told you! My views used to be crazy good!"
Beside her, Lily, who had been munching on a lemon macaron, nodded vigorously.
"That's right. When Mia danced, people would just smash the hearts and leave comments."
Donovan propped his chin on his hand and gave a small nod.
Talent to spare.
If they'd just left her alone to do her own thing, she would have thrived on her own.
"Then why not just film by yourself like before and upload again?"
At Donovan's words, Mia's face instantly crumpled into a pout.
"I tried! But my channel's algorithm is already completely wrecked! All my subscribers ran away because of Mom and Dad!"
"...Oh, really?"
"It's too late! My world is over! My beloved TikTok is ruined! Waaah, what am I gonna do now?!"
Mia collapsed onto the desk and began wailing as if the sky had fallen. Watching her, Donovan lightly pressed his fingers to his brow.
Haa... So kids these days really do stake their lives on TikTok.
He was floored by the childish, over-the-top sobs of a ten-year-old, but he'd taken the money, so he had to provide a solution. His gaze shifted to Lily, who was quietly eating her macaron beside them.
Wait a second.
When Lily had first walked through the shop door, he'd seen an incredible aura on her face. From the tip of her nose to her forehead, it had been dyed in golden light—the physiognomy of Munjeonseongsi, the one that gathered people like clouds.
Donovan tossed the words casually toward Mia, who was still face-down and sniffling.
"The solution's simple. Film with Lily next to you."
"...What?"
Mia's head snapped up. There wasn't a tear in sight—her face was perfectly fine.
"That's it?"
"Yeah. Just film together and it'll blow up on its own."
Donovan lightly added an explanation for the bewildered Mia.
"Lily has the power to draw people in. So trust me and give it a shot."
At that, Mia tilted her head skeptically and looked at Lily.
"No way. Lily's super quiet even at school. She doesn't even like TikTok to begin with."
Mia turned her sulky eyes back on Donovan.
"Mister, are you really someone who can fix everything? You're not a quack, right?"
That was when Lily, who had been listening quietly, spoke up.
"No, he's right! Mia, this mister is really amazing! So let's try filming together once. I'll help you!"
"...Really? You're okay with being on TikTok?"
"Yeah!"
At Lily's confident answer, Mia pursed her lips for a moment, then shot to her feet as if she'd made up her mind.
"Hmm... Okay! I'll trust you this once!"
Mia grabbed Lily's hand and started bolting toward the door. Then she grabbed the doorknob, whipped around, and shouted at Donovan.
"But if the views don't go up after we post, you have to give Lily her dollar back! Let's go, Lily!"
Whoosh—!
The two girls who had stormed in like a whirlwind flung the glass door open hard enough to break it and vanished in a flash. In an instant, the shop fell silent.
Donovan stared blankly at the closed door for a moment, then leisurely took a sip of his black tea and shook his head.
Teenagers... not easy.
Anyway, the one-dollar TikTok consulting seemed to be settled with that.
The next afternoon, Donovan was enjoying a thoroughly peaceful leisure that was a world apart from the day before.
It'll take quite a while for the algorithm to recover, so things should stay quiet for a bit.
He was savoring a calm afternoon with a mouthful of warm black tea when—
BAM—!!
The shop's thick glass door flew open as if it might shatter, and the two girls came scrambling in.
"Sorry for the barging iiiin!"
"Kyaaaaah! Mister!!"
Mia and Lily came in screaming like pterodactyls.
"Pffft—!"
Donovan nearly sprayed the black tea he was drinking. The two kids, faces flushed and panting for breath, didn't even give him a chance to speak before thrusting their smartphone screens right under his nose.
"Mister! You're the best! It really blew up—look at this!"
The number on the screen was a staggering—
And it wasn't just one or two videos. Three or four short-form clips were playing one after another. No fancy lighting, no perfect camera angles. Just two best friends goofing around and playing with pure excitement. Because Lily couldn't dance, it was closer to clumsy kindergarteners' movements than actual dancing—but that awkwardness made it lethally cute. There were even videos of people imitating the two of them. It had gone beyond a simple view spike and was turning into a meme.
"You were talking about the algorithm and all that, and this... this blew up in a single day...?"
Before Donovan could even finish his dumbfounded question, Mia planted her hands on her hips and launched into a triumphant brag.
"Hehehe! The old account's algorithm was so wrecked it looked like it'd take forever to recover. So we just made a brand-new 'besties account' together with Lily!"
Mia snapped her fingers with an edge.
"We uploaded with a completely clean algorithm, and it just exploded in one day!"
Donovan inwardly clicked his tongue in admiration at the ten-year-old TikToker's resourcefulness—she hadn't just followed his advice, she'd completely rewritten the game. Mia puffed up with pride and snorted.
"Who am I? A million-view TikToker!"
Beside her, Lily's ears turned bright red as she clenched her fists and shyly chimed in.
"M-me too! I'm a million too!"
"That's right! We're both million-view TikTokers!"
"I-it's true! My phone keeps buzzing nonstop! People keep saying we're super cute and smashing the hearts! Mia and I... we... we got really famous!"
Then the two of them looked at Donovan at the same time. A gaze so intense it made Donovan flinch.
"Mister, you're a total genius! The real god of TikTok! Times Square's number-one producer!"
"Th-that's right! Mister is really... a wizard who solves every problem!"
One of them was one thing; two of them was a whole different dimension. The girls' cheers and stomping feet filled the shop to the brim. The explosive tension of two teenage girls whipped the narrow store into a frenzy. Absurdly enough, their bright and cute energy wasn't unpleasant to watch, so he couldn't bring himself to stop them. Donovan just leaned back in his chair and had to endure the extreme sensation of his soul being sucked out of his mouth in real time.
"Heh... heheheh..."
Only hollow laughter escaped Donovan's lips.
The next morning, in a high-end apartment in Manhattan.
She, the chief producer at OBN Broadcasting Station, was sunk deep into the living room sofa, letting out a long sigh.
Truthfully, when Mia had first started uploading videos to TikTok, she had felt a quiet pride. She was proud of a daughter who wanted to walk the same path as her, and she had even been secretly moved by the surprisingly solid quality of the videos. The problem was that the platform was TikTok—a place where people, blinded by view counts, pulled every stunt imaginable and were left completely exposed to every provocative trend. As a parent, she could never allow her still-young daughter to get swept into that mud pit.
If she waited until high school and started properly, I'd support her with everything I have.
But right now she was simply too young. At the same time, Mia's passion was so fierce that snatching the smartphone away by force was out of the question. Clamp down too hard and the girl would almost certainly rebel and cause an even bigger disaster.
So she had consulted her husband. Her husband, a culture-department producer who specialized in documentaries and educational programs, had come up with a brilliant idea.
—"TikTok's lifeblood is free-spirited chaos, right? So we take that and remake it as stiff and rigid as one of my documentaries. Perfect lighting, fixed scripts, a clear beginning-middle-end and a moral lesson—just like an educational broadcast."
—"Once we drain all the fun out of it the adult way, the views will tank, and Mia will get tired of it on her own. When she's a little older, we tell her the truth and push her properly then."
Together, the couple had turned Mia's TikTok into perfectly boring content. They had succeeded in dropping the view counts, yet she could not feel happy about it. Every time she saw Mia's dejected face and slumped shoulders, guilt and regret washed over her.
What if she completely loses interest in video work? Did I go too far...?
Doubt crept in from time to time. But whenever it did, her husband was the one who steadied her. He would show her articles about every bizarre incident and accident trending on TikTok and say firmly, "Even if she hates us right now, protecting our daughter is a parent's job."
But this morning, the face that should have been gloomy was far too bright. No—bright wasn't enough. Her shoulders were practically floating up to the sky with smug pride.
"Mom! Look at this!"
The moment she sat down at the table, Mia thrust her smartphone screen under her mother's nose.
"See? Two million! See, I was right! You and Dad were wrong!"
She stared down at the screen in shock. It was real. The view count was still climbing in real time. Her heart plummeted as she hurriedly checked the video, terrified that her young daughter, blinded by views, might have copied some trashy TikTok trend or provocative dance.
But the Mia on the screen wasn't doing anything of the sort. She was simply goofing around with her quiet, timid friend Lily, flailing through clumsy little-kid choreography and dissolving into giggles. Adult worries looked ridiculous next to the pure, silly joy of two ten-year-olds. More than anything, her daughter on the screen looked utterly happy.
She felt as if she'd been hit over the head. She had no choice but to admit they had been wrong. At the same time, a sharp question rose.
"But Mia, how did you end up filming with Lily? Lily's quiet even at school—she's not the type to jump in front of a camera first."
At the pointed question, Mia's proudly raised shoulders flinched and stiffened.
"Uh... there's a reason! Anyway, I'm uploading whatever I want from now on, so don't interfere!"
Mia mumbled her way out of the answer and bolted into her room. And just like that, the battle between the elite broadcasting couple and the TikToker ended in the TikToker's victory.
That afternoon, at Zen Psychic.
"Mister, we need to hit five million next—what should we film?"
"Can you tell us the best time to upload too?"
The shop was once again filled with the voices of the two girls who had clocked in for another day. They even looked ready to use Donovan's wooden desk as a backdrop and film a two-million-view celebration dance right then and there.
Haa... somebody save me.
Donovan sank deep into his chair, staring into empty air as he felt his energy being drained in real time. That was when—
Bzzzt— bzzzt—.
The old flip phone in his inner pocket vibrated heavily. To Donovan, that vibration sounded like the peal of a salvation bell. He snatched it up in a hurry.
"Yeah! Boss! It's me!"
"The contract extension went through successfully. The deposit just cleared too."
"Ah, okay. Got it. But Boss, by any chance... is there a job I can run to right this second?"
A short silence followed on the other end of the line. It was a workaholic question completely unlike the usual Donovan, who normally clocked out the instant the money hit.
Donovan glanced at the two little kids throwing cat punches and meowing in front of his desk and screamed inside.
Please, anything—just give me an excuse to escape these beagle-level TikTokers!
"...As it happens, a pretty decent job just came in."
"Okay! I want the job! I'm coming right now! See you there!"
Click.
Donovan hung up before the Boss could even finish speaking and rose from his seat. Liberation already flooded his face, spreading a smile so wide it nearly reached his ears. He shrugged on his coat and spoke to the kids.
"Mia, Lily. Mister just got an extremely important business call. Looks like I have to close up and head out for the day."
"Whaaat? Already?"
Donovan herded the pouting kids out of the shop almost by force. Then, at lightning speed, he flipped the sign on the glass door to CLOSED and locked it with a solid click.
"Uh, sorry! Two-million-view TikTokers! See you tomorrow!"
Leaving the stunned kids behind, Donovan sprinted for the waiting Lincoln sedan without looking back. He vaulted into the back seat, gasping for breath, and shouted,
"Call! Let's go! Floor it!"
"Y-yes, sir!"
Vrooom—!
As the sedan slipped out of Times Square, Donovan finally exhaled a long sigh of relief and sank deep into the seat.
Haa... finally free from the TikTokers!