The Last PUG Broadcast
The game broadcast hosted by PUG kicked off at seven on Friday evening. As the title made perfectly clear, tonight was the third session — and the last. They could have kept the show going, but from the next episode on, I wouldn't be in it.
The chat had the atmosphere of a funeral parlor before we'd even gone live. I sat in the PUG waiting room and refreshed the situation on my phone like a woman possessed.
"Unnie. I think I need to keep doing this broadcast. Look at how people are reacting."
I held the phone out to Kang Hoyeon.
"I already checked."
"Already?"
"As a manager, checking this much is mandatory. And... you look pretty."
Kang Hoyeon inspected my outfit down to the last detail and did not spare the compliments. I had dressed up for the first and second broadcasts too, in my own way — but today was different. This was my official last stream, so I had gone all in. Right now, I was unstoppable. Not so far that it would wreck the student image, though.
On the way over I had stopped at the salon a second time to have my makeup and hair reset, and the clothes themselves had been sponsored by a fairly successful brand. A white shirt, faintly sheer now that summer was coming on, paired with light-wash jeans: I had been made over into something innocent and fresh. Like this.
Haa... I'm nervous.
Was it because I had pushed too hard? Or because I had checked the chat? My heart started hammering and bouncing around like it had somewhere better to be.
"Heart. Please quit messing around. Just like always... you hear me?"
Every piece I had on boasted an outrageous price tag, and I had even spritzed on expensive perfume I never usually touched.
I look like a total celebrity.
I had already shot a drama and commercials; my profile photo was up on every major portal. That alone was enough to let me say, yes, I am a celebrity — but honestly, it still didn't feel real. More people recognized me when I walked around outside, sure. And every time that attention landed, the pressure to do better piled on a little heavier.
"Calm down... I've got this."
I faced the mirror installed in the waiting room, took three slow breaths, and talked my rattling heart back into its cage. Kang Hoyeon, who had been staring at me the whole time, put a hand on my shoulder.
"Jiwoo. Today's not special just because it's today. And today's not even the last, is it?"
"...What? What do you mean?"
Today wasn't the last? Had the contract been extended? That wouldn't have been bad news at all. Kang Hoyeon saw my face brighten and shook her head.
"It's not a contract extension. Today's broadcast ends here."
"Then..."
"You... no. We have another broadcast, don't we?"
"...Ah."
The "we" here was not Kang Hoyeon and me. It was us: me, Tsuki, Lee Yuwol, and Jina. In other words, we still had the VTuber idol streams.
"So don't get tense. This is just the running start for that."
"A running start... not a bad way to put it."
The approach you take before you jump. I hadn't jumped yet. I hadn't even left the ground. I had only taken a few steps forward. Getting scared already, when I hadn't even tried the leap...
"Then I'll go have fun."
"Yeah. Go get 'em."
I left Kang Hoyeon behind with her fist raised and stepped out of the waiting room. On the walk over I traded greetings with the surrounding staff, and before I knew it I had arrived on set. Off in one corner, people I had never seen before were staring a hole through me.
Who are they?
That was when a man started toward me, and the rest of them came trailing after him.
"You're actress Lee Jiwoo, correct?"
"Yes, but... who are you?"
"I'm from the mobile game company Alt. I believe there's still time before the broadcast starts... would a brief conversation be all right?"
I pulled out my phone and checked the time. Six-fifty. Ten minutes until the show started, and another ten until I was supposed to appear — twenty minutes in all. Plenty of time for a short conversation. I looked over the others as well, the way you look at people when you're telling them that if they have something to say, they should say it now. Everyone produced a business card.
"I'm from Rasim. We'd like to cast you as our next model..."
"I'm from Photoss. You know us, right? Photoss. PUG's rival."
I had not expected Rasim — the crown prince of the instant-noodle world — or Photoss, PUG's actual rival, to show up in person.
"Just a moment. If this is business, please speak with me. I'm Kang Hoyeon, actress Lee Jiwoo's manager."
Kang Hoyeon stepped in at exactly the right time and led them somewhere else. Continuing the conversation right here would have been a nuisance for everyone.
"Wow~ I knew you were popular, Jiwoo, but I didn't think even Photoss would come charging in like that."
Gu Chang-shin, PUG's game director, watched the Photoss rep get hauled away and wore the smile of a man who had already won. The two companies had launched in Korea around the same time. PUG was a Korean company built on Korean capital and exported overseas; Photoss was a foreign company run on foreign capital that had come into Korea. They still competed with similar FPS games and similar material every season, and a rivalry had taken root whether anyone wanted it or not.
"So? Today's the last broadcast. Any thoughts of extending, or...?"
"Well... I'll do my best."
Do her best at what? Gu Chang-shin couldn't tell whether I meant I would throw myself into the broadcast, or that I intended to extend the contract.
"At the broadcast, I mean. I'd love to extend too, but starting next week I have a filming schedule... Ah! That's still confidential, so please keep it secret?"
I set a finger against my lips. Gu Chang-shin got the idea, nodded, and swept a look around the set. It was almost time to go live. Little Boy had already taken his seat and was loosening up his mouth for all he was worth. He was going to suffer plenty in the ten minutes before I appeared.
"W-wait, everyone! Please calm down for a moment!"
Little Boy's face had been on the broadcast for one minute.
Public opinion hit rock bottom. Little Boy GGed, threw up both hands and both feet, and called for help.
"Jiwoo! Help! Save me~"
"Can't be helped. Well then, Director. I'll be going."
I parted from the director I had been talking with and pushed my way onto the set. The first words out of my mouth:
The chat flipped a hundred and eighty degrees the instant I appeared. Little Boy let out a long sigh.
"Maybe I should just retire..."
He lamented his lot in life.
Jiwoo ran the games with Jeup-tle Boy — no, with Little Boy.
"To drop on this piece-of-crap island... three times."
At thirty minutes a match, this was already the third one. By now her line had mutated into a catchphrase.
Only "this piece-of-crap" had survived. Everything after it had mutated into something unrecognizable. At first she couldn't understand why it had become a catchphrase at all.
What? Why is that funny?
Little Boy supplied the reason.
"Of course it is. This may be a game stream, but it's still an official broadcast. Calling something a piece of crap on a show like that, yelling 'shit' as a swear — and you don't remember? On the first broadcast you even fired a shotgun and smashed a keyboard."
"Ah..."
She remembered. They had collected the wrecked keyboard and asked, strangely, whether they could put it on display inside PUG headquarters. She was pretty sure she had told them to do whatever they wanted... the memory was fuzzy. She had been angry about losing the game.
"I knew. I planned all of it."
Jiwoo tossed her hair back and walked it out shamelessly. At which point:
"Right. I think that easygoing, almost boyish side of yours is a big part of why you're popular. If you grab the easygoing concept wrong, you just end up making weird jokes — but you don't do any of that."
Little Boy soothed her the way you soothe a baby, all there-there, I get it, don't sulk.
"No... I'm serious? I planned all of it."
Jiwoo had gone past shameless and laid an iron plate over her face.
"Aigoo. Fine, whatever. We just got a match. Starting!"
Little Boy turned his eyes to the game that had just begun and ignored her completely.
I-I got ignored?
She bit down lightly on her lip. The viewers detonated.
"...I'm not mad. And I don't smash things. I'm a harmless creature, after all."
Little Boy's eyes went wide.
She's something else. Someone with this little broadcast experience would usually beg people to stop if the chat started attacking. This... if I play it right?
Little Boy had a duty to give tonight's last broadcast a proper finale. From the moment the second stream ended all the way through to now, mid-finale, he had not come up with a single decent idea. And then a good one landed in his eye.
"Jiwoo. I've got a proposal."
"A proposal?"
"Yes. If anyone manages to get a really big rise out of you today, how about you come on as a guest on their next stream?"
A guest? He wanted her to make a bet with the viewers? Jiwoo tried to read what Little Boy was thinking, then gave up. She had no idea why he had said it.
"Call!"
Even if she couldn't eat it, it was still meat. And then the regret of taking the bet began.
"S-stop! Stop killing me! You sons of bitches!!!"