Time Flows, Yet Spring

Through Jin Ju-yeong, Jin Gyeo-wool was able to take an objective look at her situation that day. Lighting the incense candle again just to summon Hon Gyeo-wool felt like a waste, so she poured every question she could think of onto Ju-yeong instead.

Ju-yeong would freeze up and cut the conversation short now and then, spooked by her intensity, but Gyeo-wool's sheer tenacity carried them through. By the end, both of them had gotten the answers they needed.

Once they'd finished talking through everything in an effort to recover her memories, Ju-yeong had a clear picture of her condition. And so the news that Jin Gyeo-wool had lost her memory spread quickly through the people around her — courtesy of a brother who couldn't keep his mouth shut.

It reached her father, Jin Man-ho, and her mother, Min Cheong-ha. It reached her old friend Lee Do-jin as well.

Of course Do-jin welcomed the news. He had already suspected amnesia, and he was more than a little relieved that the unconditional affection Gyeo-wool used to direct at him had finally cooled off.

Above all, the old Gyeo-wool had been a walking disaster, and there was no guarantee she wouldn't cause another one the moment she came back. The kid who had once declared she'd become a pro gamer just to stay by his side was now genuinely working toward that dream for its own sake — and that, he found genuinely interesting.

Not some reckless demand, but a challenge she was taking on with a clear-eyed sense of where she stood. If that was the case, Do-jin was more than willing to help.

But ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Lee Do-jin was a public figure, and he had spent years being hounded by Jin Gyeo-wool. Naturally, making the first move to approach and help her was difficult.

So he waited, hoping she would come to him with questions of her own. Instead, the amnesiac Gyeo-wool turned to Ju-yeong before Do-jin — and rather than lean on Ju-yeong either, she chose to handle things herself.

The emotional leash Gyeo-wool had spent years fastening around him. Do-jin probably never realized that the unpleasant feeling he got watching her rely on someone else ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠came from that leash.

A leash that yanked tighter every time she drifted further away. To drown out the frustration, Lee Do-jin found himself naturally starting to obsess over Jin Gyeo-wool.

She had dropped an apology video, and the reception was surprisingly warm.

The out-of-nowhere apology stream had clearly stirred up enough controversy that her previously sluggish subscriber growth started climbing.

Riding that momentum, preparations for her first cam stream were complete. Jumping straight into a face cam felt like too much, so she decided to keep the voice live and put a motion-capture 2D character on screen in her place — one that tracked her facial movements.

Coincidentally, the character looked almost exactly like Jin Gyeo-wool's real face with a couple of horns stuck on. It wasn't all that different from the real thing.

"Hello. I'm ValKyrie from the Devil Maiden channel."

"Oh, nice. You're good at this?"

Ju-yeong had been worried his little sister would freeze up on her first live stream, but he dropped that concern almost immediately.

The way she delivered the intro felt so natural it was less like she'd lost her memory and more like she'd swapped souls with a professional streamer.

"I'd believe you if you said you were a streamer in a past life."

"…."

Gyeo-wool flinched.

"Practice. I practiced a lot, that's all."

"Yeah, that makes sense."

But it wasn't a problem. As long as she gave him a halfway decent explanation, Ju-yeong filled in the rest himself. Gyeo-wool had no idea how that internal reasoning process of his actually worked, but good enough was good enough.

From Ju-yeong's perspective, it was just plain fascinating.

She's definitely… gone back to that diligent, well-behaved kid she was before she met Bom.

Just to be safe, they'd even gone to a psychiatric clinic two days earlier, and the doctor had found nothing unusual beyond the amnesia diagnosis.

Of course not. Most of the evaluation had been cross-checked against what Ju-yeong remembered, so that was the only conclusion they were going to get.

It hadn't been intentional on Gyeo-wool's part, but there was no real downside to her simply inheriting Bae Do-hyun's hardworking style from the past.

Before meeting Lee Bom — before getting tangled up in all those incidents with her — Jin Gyeo-wool had been stuck in a good-kid complex, a diligent, effort-driven child.

"Alright. Prep's done, so shall we get started?"

"Yeah. Just hit go and play, right?"

She'd need to throw in some commentary here and there to keep the viewers engaged. But Ju-yeong didn't want to pile any more pressure onto Gyeo-wool for her first stream.

"Yeah. It's the first day, so just treat it like practice. Talk to yourself a bit, try stuff out."

"Got it."

Talking to herself. Easy enough. Drawing on memories of streaming as Bae Do-hyun, Gyeo-wool started mapping out strategies for drawing reactions from the chat.

Same approach as before should work…

Truth was, Bae Do-hyun's stream — "Bae Doraji" — had never been particularly popular.

It was a tiny channel that struggled to crack a hundred concurrent viewers, the same regulars showing up every time with almost no new blood coming in.

And for good reason. His wordplay was dull, his commentary lacked any real spark, and every punchline he'd considered a masterstroke landed as forced, brain-melting garbage.

So the people who watched him fell into set categories. The loyalty crowd who'd been there since day one. The bizarre-taste crowd who actually found his terrible jokes funny. The idle crowd who just needed something on in the morning. And finally the pity crowd, who felt bad watching someone with solid game sense keep failing to crack Master because his mechanics couldn't keep up.

Each group made up roughly twenty-five percent.

But no matter how sharp Bae Do-hyun's mind was, he wasn't a genius, and he never figured out what was wrong with his stream or how to fix it.

He lacked creativity and originality. He was a coward who couldn't let go of the comfort of the familiar, locked into the same tired patterns.

For now… just stick to what I know. It's not like I can pull off anything special right this second.

Right. She could figure out better methods later. There was time.

Gyeo-wool calmed the impatience rising in her chest, then slowly clicked the go-live button.

Seeing the stream start, Ju-yeong hurried back to his own room. From here on, his job was to sit tight and give everything he had as her manager, making sure Gyeo-wool didn't mess up.

Even so, he felt far more at ease than before. Because Jin Gyeo-wool was no longer the foul-tempered girl she used to be. She wouldn't smash her keyboard when a game went badly, or roar into the mic, or pull any of those other deranged stunts.

That alone was enough. There were female streamers who'd built their brands on a big-sister, no-nonsense vibe, but objectively speaking, Gyeo-wool's looks leaned more young lady than big sister — specifically the villainous young-miss type with a rotten personality.

So on a voice-only stream, being kind, unassuming, and hardworking was more than enough to win people over.

Why?

"Ah, welcome! I was just about to start a game."

The Newtube subscribers already knew the person playing the games was a high school girl, but they had no idea just how devastating that girl could be.

You had to show up in person to feel the full impact — and the moment you did, the realization hit.

This girl. Her voice was incredible.

"Ah, welcome! Should we wait for a few more people and then start? Looks like you're coming in from the Newtube live notification."

Simultaneous broadcast on Hades, the dedicated gaming stream platform, and Newtube, where existing subscribers got the alert.

No need to worry about whether the streaming PC could handle the load. While prepping the apology video, Ju-yeong had already cleaned out his emergency savings and built her a gleaming setup.

And part of that emergency fund had come from Newtube ad revenue. It was a big brother's gift celebrating his little sister's rehabilitation — and also a gift from a friend who'd gone on ahead, commemorating the fact that his friend had finally pulled herself together.

"Oh, already ten people. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Shall we get started? I'm itching to play so bad my hands are twitching."

"I'd prefer if you didn't, but that just now is fine~. Uh. Is my phrasing weird? Too old-fashioned?"

"Oh, really? What do I do. Uh… okay, I'm gonna play!"

There were maybe a tenth as many people as when she'd been Bae Do-hyun, but even with a tiny audience the chat was warm and lively. There was no way Bae Do-hyun wouldn't notice. It was nothing like his old streams, where one bad joke could turn the whole atmosphere hostile.

With a vibe like this, it felt like she could get away with a little nonsense.

Maybe it was because no one had ever fussed over her like this before in her life, but Gyeo-wool found herself getting drunk on the atmosphere without meaning to.

The "cute" comments are a little annoying, but if they like it, fine.

The streamer runs the broadcast, but in the end, it's the viewers who make the stream what it is.

If the chat ever got so flooded with "cute" that it became unbearable, that would be one thing. At this level, it was fine. More than fine, even.

If it gets me popularity. If it builds my name recognition. I can put up with that much.

She was already grinding herself down to the bone — eroding her own soul — to go pro. She had no idea what waited at the end of that road, and still she'd started running without rest.

Inside Jin Gyeo-wool's body, her mechanics and game sense had finally found balance, and her rank was climbing steadily as a result. The higher the erosion rate climbed, the closer the path to becoming a pro gamer would naturally become.

But sitting in the lobby after queuing up for a ranked game like always, she found herself hesitating.

Familiar was fine, but nothing but familiar got boring. That had been Bae Do-hyun's chronic disease — something he'd known about for years and never managed to fix.

But things were different now, weren't they? She wasn't just Bae Do-hyun anymore.

Soul Assimilation never said it had a function like that… but.

If the ability was about calling forth Hon Gyeo-wool's soul and synchronizing with it, couldn't she pull in her mid-lane play as well?

Wouldn't people get more fired up watching someone swap freely between top and mid without missing a beat, rather than the same old top-lane grind?

Even without flashy commentary, constantly switching lane roles could hold their attention, couldn't it?

And so Jin Gyeo-wool made her decision.

She would trust the power of Hon Gyeo-wool, the one who had lent her this body. She would stand in the mid lane herself — something she'd only ever seen in videos.

"Ah. Should I play mid today, for the first time in a while? I've only been doing top in the recent videos."

Six years younger now, even a moment's hesitation felt like a luxury.

Just like that, Jin Gyeo-wool threw herself into a brand-new challenge.

The viewers' reactions were good.

The queue popped, and Gyeo-wool got assigned to mid — her first-priority pick.

To crank that anticipation even higher, which champion should she lock in?

"The Black Rose Order… will bloom once more."

Obvious, wasn't it?

Go hard from the jump.

She hadn't spent the last few days just playing games. To be able to pass as Hon Gyeo-wool at any moment, she had studied Devil Maiden's old videos with her eyes — especially the playstyle Hon Gyeo-wool had used under the ValKyrie tag.

It wasn't on Lee Do-jin's Montblanc level, but her Montblanc put on a dazzling show even in Platinum tier. And that was pure mechanics alone.

So what about the evolved Jin Gyeo-wool now? With improved mechanics and game sense loaded on top?

"Kill angle!"

Level three. A casual ranked game, and the opponent got careless — sticking their head out even after losing about a third of their health in the early trade.

Gyeo-wool didn't miss it. Q/Arcane Seal into W/Arcane Distortion for the bonus damage combo. The enemy mid laner, who'd stepped up because their jungler was pathing mid, panicked and flashed backward to escape.

But Gyeo-wool's Montblanc had Flash too. And Ignite.

Flash over the enemy minion wave into a landing E/Arcane Chains, Council Summoner Spell Ignite, and two auto-attacks to finish.

Even with the opponent chugging a potion, the damage calculation was perfect. Hon Gyeo-wool might have botched the fine number-crunching and let it slip — but Jin Gyeo-wool wouldn't miss.

One last leisurely escape upriver toward her own jungler, dodging the enemy jungler walking up from bot. Gyeo-wool smiled, pleased with the clean solo kill.

At the same time, the warning chime of memory erosion rang in her ears.

Thinking she'd been right to try something new, Jin Gyeo-wool carried the game to an easy victory.