Cheat Keys and a Mother's Laptop
Park Dain peeked at the book Ha Suyeon was reading. It was crammed with messy screenshots on every page. The title: Even a Monkey Can Hit 1 Million YouTube Subscribers.
"Why're you reading crap like this? Thinking of starting YouTube?"
"Yeah."
To Dain, reading some dumb book like that wouldn't help with YouTube at all. If you wanted to do YouTube, you had to film videos—not sit around staring at a book.
"You gotta start with the basics from books like this before anything."
"Come on, that's lame old-man talk even denture-wearers wouldn't buy. Just watch YouTube tutorials—why blow money on a book? At least you borrowed it from the library."
Suyeon flinched a little at that, but Dain rounded up the others. The girls sidled over and burst out snickering at the sight of the book.
"Yeon-su's gotten way too cute lately, huh? Learning YouTube from a book like that."
"She's turned into a total Bingoo."
"Heh heh heh."
They yanked at her cheeks, and Suyeon just mumbled for them to stop without fighting back. Her eyes stayed glued to that ridiculous book, dead serious. Watching her, Dain thought how much Suyeon had really changed. Even Kang Chaerin, who was tugging her cheeks right now—if this had been a month ago, she'd have gotten an instant "Hey, Kang Chaerin, you psycho?" followed by an Instagram story of a black screen bubbling with comments like [Ugh, this crazy bitch is turning school into hell -_-].
Anonymous terror on Ask, rumors flying among friends, juniors, seniors, and guys: "Kang Chaerin's a total psycho slut, who knew?" Stuff like that. But things were different now.
Chaerin's only doing that 'cause it's her...
The old Suyeon had been like that. Fun to hang with, but she never really treated them like true friends. Constantly ranking everyone, backstabbing, demanding they serve her. But the current Suyeon was different. Indifferent to seniors. Indifferent to middle school juniors. Indifferent to kids from other classes. After school, she went straight home—no evening hangouts. Even girls she used to be close with came looking, but she'd give a half-hearted response and that was it. Never initiated anything herself. Rumors flew that she was a total nutjob, but whereas before she'd have thrown a fit, now she didn't give a damn.
"Yeon-su, you've got Instagram. Why bother with YouTube? Just post pics like before, and sponsorships will roll in. Easy money."
"Eh, not really."
Ha Suyeon shot Chaena a flustered look. Chaerin and Chaena exchanged "what's up with her?" glances.
"What, going all prim and proper?"
"Got a boyfriend or something?"
"Kinda feels like it. Not a boyfriend exactly, but..."
Kang Chaerin and Chaena gawked at Dain with wide-eyed "hieeeek" faces. Fair enough. The old Suyeon used to muse things like "Subtle sexiness is key" while plotting which pics would boost her followers on Insta.
She wasn't a total goody-two-shoes now, though. She'd always said stuff like "Looking good for teachers pays off" and actually paid attention in class. Lately, though? Non-major subjects, and she'd just slam her head down to sleep or doodle weird crap in her notebook. Taken all together... it was like a whole new person.
How do I make money on YouTube?
Myeongjeon closed the book. It gave a rough grasp of the basics. But it was a bit outdated. Media like this lived or died on freshness—you couldn't rely on just one source.
Won't get anywhere asking those girls.
Their advice would be standard high school girl level at best. No point hearing it. He wasn't going to do any of that stuff anyway. Taking their suggestions and ignoring them would just piss them off.
Still... maybe a general direction?
"Say I start YouTube. How do I build subscribers?"
"Doesn't the book say?"
"Just stuff like 'promote on external communities,' 'use foreign language translations,' 'comment well.' That's it."
"Well, if we knew that, we'd be doing it ourselves."
Obviously. Myeongjeon sighed. Watching her, Dain scratched her head and spoke up.
"YouTube, Insta—girls like you have a cheat code."
"What's that?"
"Like this, for example..."
Dain pulled out her phone and showed a video. Some Vlog: top student blah blah, dropout blah blah, vacation routine blah blah. Titles no one would click.
"Pretty girls just shove their face in frame, ramble a bit, and boom—foreigners, guys, kids swarm in with 'omg so pretty~' It's the cheat code for the chosen ones."
Or... To Suyeon's blank face, Dain showed another. A woman playing piano. Skill was good, but the real hook was...
"Showing off the cleavage like this."
Suyeon's face flushed red watching it. Her brows furrowed too—definitely not the old head-bashing reaction.
"You want me to do that?"
"Not saying you have to. But like your old Insta posts—pretty and sexy always wins, guys or girls. Blessed girls like you gotta cash in on that looks."
Suhyeon and Chaerin nodded along.
"You used to rock it—why stop?"
"Honestly, with a smoking hot body like that, not using it should be illegal."
Their peanut gallery comments left Myeongjeon regretting asking them at all.
* * *
"I'm home."
"Welcome back. How was school?"
"Eh..."
Coming home to 'Mom' already there. Greeting her casually, he dumped his bag. Hadn't she gone to work? He vaguely remembered eating breakfast together before she left.
"Company anniversary today—got off early. Didn't I tell you yesterday?"
Staring blankly as he pondered, Lee Hyein spoke in a hurt tone. Had she? Myeongjeon couldn't recall. Whatever—not important.
He nodded vaguely and headed for the guitar. But 'Mom' called out.
"Honey, let's go shopping today."
"Huh?"
"Mom's off early, wanna buy you something. Yeah?"
"If you've practiced guitar this long already..."
Suyeon grumbled, but Hyein chuckled softly. What got her was how Suyeon's feet kept following despite the complaints—so endearing.
Elementary school days? Early middle school? They'd shopped together a lot back then. Buy wanted clothes, eat whatever. But somewhere along the way, that stopped.
But somehow, we've patched it up.
These days she holed up strumming guitar, no interest in outings. Better than the old screams of "Mom, go by yourself!" or vanishing entirely. She came out now, grumbled but followed.
Hyein recalled years ago, when Suyeon ditched mid "Going to the bathroom"—nearly filed a missing person report. Compared to that, this was heaven...
Hyein felt happy. But Myeongjeon? Dying inside.
How long does shopping take, exactly?
He figured thirty minutes tops. Came along to humor 'Mom.' But nope—even one store took thirty minutes. Her epic sense of time left him floored. "This suits you, try it on." "This looks good on me?" Try on, take off, repeat. "Be right back." Three times over. After all that, she bought three outfits for him and one for herself.
Heard women shop forever, but...
Even his exes from his past life hadn't dragged it out like this. Consideration for him being a guy? Who knew.
"Bored, huh?"
"...Yeah."
"Heh heh, knew it."
'Mom' pinched his sullen cheeks. As Myeongjeon pondered why do women love yanking cheeks..., Lee Hyein led to the department store's electronics section.
"You've been playing guitar a lot lately, right?"
"Yeah."
"Thought I'd get you a gift. An amp?? But you have one at home. Asked the staff what music kids like."
Hyein clacked her heels ahead without looking back.
"They said these days, a computer's all you need. But you don't have one. So as a hospital discharge gift, Mom's buying you a computer."
She picked up a laptop with a Bear Moon apple logo. Over two million won—high-end for music and video work.
"What do you think? Nice color?"
'Mom' grinned confidently, sure it'd land. Myeongjeon felt a pang of pity seeing it.
What kind of life has this kid lived...?
Myeongjeon hadn't been the perfect son either. Closer to a deadbeat. Ditching the family business to scrape by on guitar? Hardly filial. But self-defense, kinda. What do you say to a dad swinging a stick to force you into it? He just ran, sent occasional updates: "Doing fine."
Still, he'd done his duty as a son. Once earnings stabilized: monthly visits, trips, caregivers before passing. Didn't follow their wishes, but enabled his dreams without starving.
Even so, guilt lingered over abandoning them. Even at his age.
They must've loved me to push so hard...
But this girl? Unknown backstory. Puberty moods, sure. But a widowed mom with no time—did she really need to be that harsh?
Couldn't ask the dead Ha Suyeon. He was stuck with the remnants. Meaning it all hinged on how he acted.
Suyeon's sudden silence made Hyein's heart drop. Why? Telling her not to act mom-like? Or some other issue? Had she upset her?
One hesitant move calmed her: Suyeon shuffling into her arms, unsure.
"Uh... th, um... th-thank... Thank you."
Tears welled in Hyein's eyes at the words. Whatever the reason—mood swing, the gift, calculation—didn't matter.
What mattered: her daughter reaching out.
"Okay."
Hyein hugged back. The girl's frame trembled, bigger than remembered.
When did she grow this much...?
Hadn't held her in ages, missing the growth? Sad, but whatever. Past didn't matter. Now did.
"Um..."
"Yeah?"
Still embraced, Suyeon spoke up.
"S-since you're buying... c-can you get a bit more? There's so much I want..."
"Just say the word. You know Mom's loaded. Buy the whole store if you want. No worries."
For her daughter? Anything.