There's Someone Who's Been Trolling My Stream for Seven Years
Stalking.
Put simply, it's the word you use when someone follows a particular person around.
"......Would it be all right if I asked why you're asking me that?"
I was a little startled. A few years back, Choe Seohyeon had gone through hell over a stalking incident, and I remembered every bit of it, so of course the worry came naturally. I had even seen him then with my own eyes, right here in this convenience store. That was why I'd asked.
"Ah, this is......"
He looked as if the reason was difficult to say. As a fan, I wanted to know more clearly than that. At the same time, I didn't think it was my place to step any closer than a mere convenience-store part-timer and a customer. So I offered a condition, and let the moment ease forward on its own.
"If you answer my question, I'll answer yours."
"......"
"So—why did you ask me something like that?"
Even before the worry about stalking, I was curious about that. Why, out of nowhere, a question like this aimed at me? For the past seven years he had never once stepped outside the bounds of customer and part-timer. A hello when he came in; when he left, he paid and turned his back in the same breath. That was all. Not once in all that time had he tried to ask me something like this, or to start anything that resembled a private conversation. I wanted to know the reason.
Choe Seohyeon worked his lips at the question. At last, he spoke.
"......I'm sorry. I was drunk, and I said something I shouldn't have."
"......"
"I'll be going, then."
He left without answering me.
A feeling I couldn't put into words closed over me. I spent the rest of that dawn in a blank daze, never even putting on the movie I'd been looking forward to.
The next day.
"......Ugh."
I woke from the short sleep I'd grabbed after my night shift, boiled water, stirred up a packet of instant coffee, and slurped it down in long, satisfied pulls.
"......"
And then, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, I remembered what had happened at dawn.
"Haah......"
Yesterday, for the first time, he had tried to have a private conversation with me. It had lodged itself too vividly in my memory, and it kept gnawing at me.
"......Is something really going on?"
They say that when a person does something they've never done, they're as good as dead. I wasn't much different. He was doing something he never did, and I couldn't stop worrying.
"Ugh......"
Coffee cup in hand, I paced the room. A notification drew my eyes to my phone, and I realized it was already time for his stream.
"......Mm."
I hesitated, briefly, before I watched. Should I just ask, once? The thought died as soon as it formed. Blurting out Are you being stalked these days? would be about as jarring as a question could get.
But.
"Mmm......"
I was worried. What if—what if he really was being stalked? The worry wouldn't leave me alone.
"......Hoo."
I drew in a light breath. And then, all at once, a clever little move occurred to me.
......What if I asked sideways?
Yeah. That was better. An alt I'd never once used on his stream, a roundabout question about whether anything had been hard lately—that much ought to be fine.
"Perfect."
I put the plan into motion at once.
So it wasn't Naopu today. Rather than Naopu, he seemed to have brought along whatever game was making the rounds lately, through the streaming scene and the rest of the industry. I waited for a lull—a moment when the audio looked like it might go empty—and sent a donation through.
A donation message brimming with soft, tender charm—nothing like the TSGoDie days. At that, Choe Seohyeon paused.
"......"
There wasn't the slightest shadow on his face. Truly. Seven years of his streams, and all those meetings as part-timer and customer—on the strength of that, he looked like someone with genuinely nothing wrong.
......So it really isn't stalking.
In the end, it seemed it hadn't been stalking at all. But then why? I couldn't make sense of it. At dawn—why had he, who in seven years had never once approached me in any private way, approached me then? And with a question about stalking, of all things.
"Ugh......"
I still hadn't solved it by the time he ended the stream that day.
"Oppa, what are you doing?"
Haeun came up beside me. Phone in hand, I scratched my head.
"Nothing."
"Nothing?"
"......Haeun. If the owner of a cafe you went to all the time suddenly, dead serious, asked you to hear them out about something on their mind—what would you do?"
"Ugh. Got drunk and screwed something up again, didn't you?"
"......"
My little sister had hit the mark so cleanly that I shut my mouth. Fortunately some sibling feeling remained; Haeun answered me anyway.
"Well, wouldn't you just let it go?"
"Huh?"
"Assuming you've been going there a long time, I figure it could happen once."
"Mm......"
"Of course you'd think it was weird. But the world's full of weird people. I think you could move past it with, oh, the owner must've had a rough day."
Right. I managed a nod at that.
But.
"So what kind of problem did you go and dump on the girl at the convenience store?"
"Pfft—!!"
I sprayed the water I'd been drinking. Coughing, I scrambled for a tissue. Haeun's questions didn't stop there.
"Around here, the only person you've kept visiting for that long, who's also worked there for that long, is her."
"......"
"Come on, then. What did you ask her, Mr. Choe Seohyeon?"
There was no way out of it. Under the force of her, I came clean.
"......I asked what you do if you're being stalked."
"......"
Stalking. At that single word, Haeun's face went hard.
"Oppa."
"It's not that."
"No. I need to know for sure. Look me straight in the eye and answer."
Her eyes were vicious.
"Did that crazy bitch tell you to hand over your home address again? Threaten to jump off somewhere if you didn't?"
"No, Haeun. Nothing like that really happened."
"......For real?"
"Yeah......"
Even with an honest answer, she didn't easily let go of that sharp glare. But it wasn't long before she seemed to decide to believe me, and she let out a sigh of relief.
"God, you scared me. I thought it was happening again."
"......Sorry for worrying you."
"Forget it. Anyway, if it didn't happen, that's a relief. So why did you ask the convenience store girl something like that?"
"......That's."
I hesitated. Because even I thought the reason was nonsense. Absurd, on top of that.
"......You know TSGoDie."
"Huh? Out of nowhere? Why them?"
"Well, I got to thinking that day, and......"
People say drink turns you into a dog. I've got a bit of that in me. Namely—once I'm drunk, my thoughts run on pure stream of consciousness, straight into places they should never go.
"She runs into every kind of nightmare customer there is, right?"
"Yeah, that's true."
"And TSGoDie, if you look at it a certain way...... you could call them a nightmare customer too, right?"
"......Yeah, that's true."
"So it just hit me. If she's someone who deals with that many nightmare customers, wouldn't she also know how to handle a stalker-grade one, like TSGoDie?"
"......"
"So yesterday I was out drinking with the guys, and on the way back, in the heat of it......"
That was when.
Smack—!!
"Ghk!!"
I took a hit. When I turned around, Haeun was scowling, already spitting venom.
"Oh, brilliant. Really nice work."
"N-no, I......"
"What do you mean, no? Getting drunk and blurting out some bizarre, nonsense question out of nowhere?"
"......"
"Anyway. Next time you see her, apologize."
"......For real?"
"What, should I be fake about it?"
She said it smiling. Her eyes didn't match. Only the corners of her mouth were lifted, and I had the distinct feeling that if I kept this up, I'd take another one across the back.
"......Got it."
"......What's this?"
12:40 at night. Choe Seohyeon, appearing out of nowhere, held a drink out to me.
"......An apology, for the rudeness I committed a few days ago."
An apology for the rudeness of a few days ago. I blinked.
"......"
"......"
A brief silence. I looked at the drink he was offering, and only just managed to speak.
"......It wasn't upsetting enough to need all this."
"Even so."
"To begin with, we've seen each other's faces in this store too many times for me to get upset over that."
It was true. We weren't exactly people who'd only met once or twice. If you asked whether that day had been normal, well, no—but I could say for certain that I hadn't been in a bad mood.
But.
"......Still, I'd like you to accept it."
He looked like he wanted the apology taken. In the end I decided to take it. If I didn't, he'd probably wear that uncomfortable look for days.
"......Haah. All right."
I accepted it. At once, his eyes filled with relief.
"Thank you."
His thanks. He seemed to think that was the end of it.
But.
"So?"
I wasn't done.
"Yes?"
"That question you asked that day. Why did you ask it?"
A little sudden, maybe, but honestly I thought this much was allowed. If we'd stayed what we were—part-timer and customer—I never would have asked anything of the sort. But Choe Seohyeon was the one who crossed the line first. So a question of this size, I figured, was fair.
"Th-that's......"
He hesitated. I pressed harder.
"If you feel sorry toward me, I think I deserve to hear at least this much."
"......"
Asked for a reason he couldn't dodge, he squeezed his eyes shut. Then he spoke.
"......This is a little awkward to say, but the truth is, I stream."
"You stream?"
I played dumb. Right now, we were part-timer and customer.
"Yes."
"Were you a celebrity or something?"
"Not that...... I'm an internet streamer."
"Ah."
I performed the look of someone who had only just understood.
"And what does that have to do with me?"
"......Well."
His lips parted. Then he got it out.
For an instant I nearly lost my grip on my expression.
No—why is this about me......?
"S-so?"
"They troll so relentlessly...... they even snipe me every time I play...... but all of that trolling helps the stream, so I simply can't bring myself to shake them off."
"......"
"Then yesterday I was drinking, and, well, when I drink I have a habit of letting my thoughts run on stream of consciousness. So I thought...... if it was a part-timer who runs into a lot of nightmare customers, maybe they'd know how to handle that kind of stalking—no, that's not it. That kind of nightmare-customer behavior......"
It was a truly ridiculous reason. What kind of thought process was that? Wait a second. So he had come to me for advice, because of me?
I couldn't very well say that out loud. So what I had to say here was already decided.
"I-I understand. Anyway, it's not stalking. It's because of that trolling...... viewer? That person?"
"Yes."
Hearing it, I was relieved. Thank goodness—it really hadn't been stalking. One weight off my chest, and I could answer at ease.
"Mm...... Well then, just as someone who runs into all sorts of people in real life, I'll answer as best I can."
"Yes."
"First question, then. Are you close with that person?"
"......It's been seven years. Hard to say we're not."
"Is that so?"
Then the answer was already decided. I grinned to myself, and said it.
"Then just leave them be."
"Sorry?"
"Let me ask again. Is this someone who stops when you tell them to stop?"
"......No."
"Then do they cause enough trouble for the streaming platform to hand down a warning?"
"That, they don't."
"Then, separate from when you're streaming—do they follow you around in private?"
"......Absolutely not."
"Then you're good."
I smiled.
"They troll a lot, but all of it helps. And that's been true for seven years."
"......"
"And they don't chase your private life. Then there's no problem, is there?"
"Uh......"
"The way I see it, that's just a fan."
Yeah. Just a fan. Honestly, think about it—they troll plenty, sure, but had there been anything that could turn into a real scandal?
"All they do is kick up a little too much of a fuss. A fan whose genuine feelings for you haven't changed in seven years, and a fan who never puts you in a bind past a certain point."
"......"
"Isn't that kind of incredible? So I think it's fine to just leave them."
And I meant it. One example, if I had to explain it: every Friday night there's a customer who gets smashed and stops by our store for their usual late-night cup noodle, the one everyone calls a ppaltu. Every single time they mutter fuck, fuck under their breath, and not once have they ever said a word to me. By the owner's memory, that customer has been a regular for eleven years. In other words, even if someone looks strange and sticks out, if the heart underneath is pure, then......
"......"
Choe Seohyeon seemed to have a great deal on his mind. He dipped his head for a moment.
Then—
"......I think you're right."
Whatever he'd been sorting through, it had settled. He lifted his head, gave me a bright, easy smile, and bowed it again in thanks.
"It must have been an intrusive thing to ask. Thank you for answering."
"Not at all. If anything, I'm grateful—you help me deal with nightmare customers now and then."
"Haha."
And with that, he left the convenience store.
And then, the next day......