Confucian Logic
“Um, so... if that’s the case, would a long-term project be all right with you?”
“A long-term project?”
“Yes. You’d live together for a set period while you filmed... I was curious what you’d think.”
In that instant the donation alerts and the chat fell deathly silent again. Even the donations already queued up were canceled and vanished. What was this atmosphere? A little different from a moment ago. There was a strange anticipation in it. Unable to read it, I scratched my cheek and answered.
“It’d depend on how long we’re talking.”
“S-say about a week to a month, if you were thinking along those lines?”
“A month is a bit long. Is there really content that runs that long?”
“Of course. This.”
Bae Jihyun pulled up a browser and turned a program page toward me.
I Want to Date Too
Season 2
“I Want to Date Too...?”
“Oh, you don’t know it?”
“No. First I’m hearing of it. Seeing that it’s Season 2, I guess it did well?”
“Well, yeah. Women love it. A lot of the men hate it, though.”
“What’s it about?”
“Well...”
What followed wasn’t anything special.
“Season 1 was just YouTubers getting together with the idea of setting each other up. A little networking on the side. The setting was one YouTuber’s village out in the countryside, and the scenery and the mood were incredible.”
“Mm. I see.”
It looked as if they’d borrowed a hit variety format built by a famous entertainment producer and stirred in the feel of a dating show. Strictly speaking, only the backdrop and the concept were similar—the actual content was entirely different—so there didn’t seem to be a problem. And if it had already succeeded, I had nothing to say about it. She watched me read through the description, swallowed once, and slowly opened her mouth.
“And this Season 2 is getting the full backing of the Ministry of Maternity and Childcare. The quality should be really solid.”
“Ah, I’m about to say it, so just be quiet.”
“There was some kind of problem, I take it?”
At that, Bae Jihyun carefully studied my expression and went on.
“At the start it was all soft flirting and that almost-dating feeling, like grown-ups playing house, and it was pretty good. But later everybody got blinded by the prize money, and things turned a little... aggressive. Forced. On top of that they burned through the production budget way faster than expected, so it just fizzled out.”
“Hmm. Aggressive. Hard to go into detail?”
“...A few of the female YouTubers who didn’t get chosen tried to force themselves on one of the men. Th-they all faced criminal charges, of course.”
“...They were out of their minds?”
“Th-the thing is, everyone signed a consent form to appear, so a one-on-one relationship isn’t a problem, but...”
“What?”
“Wh-why? What’s the matter?”
The absurdity of it had pulled the question out of me before I could stop it, but Bae Jihyun only tilted her head, as if she couldn’t see what was strange.
“...You’re saying they sleep together during filming?”
“Yes. That’s the whole point of a dating variety show...”
It was shocking, but not past understanding. In the world before this one, I’d seen community joke posts about how explicit the adult variety shows got in Europe and Latin America, and about an American show where mothers and their sons appeared and the broadcast simply followed whatever happened. But that was Europe, and this was Korea, the country of Confucian scholars. ...Oh. Right. In this world, Confucian logic would never hold. If it did, the nation really would collapse.
...Why hadn’t I thought of that?
So that was it. Now it made sense. I felt something in my head snap clear all at once. Confucian logic didn’t apply. If that was true, then a great many things I’d never managed to adapt to suddenly had an explanation.
“...And they broadcast that? No—they even put it out on YouTube?”
“Ah. Of course not. The really explicit stuff, maybe on Webflix, but you can’t monetize that on YouTube either. If you actually wanted to make money you’d put it on Pornhub, except nobody bothers. And not many of the men are willing to accept things going that far.”
“Then once the mood is set, how do they wrap it up?”
“They cut on the scene of the two of them going to bed, and end it with something like, ‘They spent a passionate night together.’”
Easy for her to say. That already meant it had been publicly certified on a broadcast, didn’t it? And saying you couldn’t monetize it sounded, to my ear, like you could still upload it so long as you gave up the revenue. I’d known from Bae Jihyun’s videos that the rating ran hot, but I hadn’t thought it went that far. Then again, once you landed on the multimale list, or whatever it was called, you were publicly certified either way. It was just that the shape of the thing felt a little off.
“...And that works?”
“Huh? Obviously. It’s not an educational broadcast. You need at least that much if you want views.”
She said it so matter-of-factly that I couldn’t find a reply. The nuance was basically, what’s the big deal about a kiss scene? So this was what Korea became the moment the Confucian brakes came off. And I was still running into things I was learning for the first time. This was exactly it.
“So?”
“Ah, to explain again—you really don’t need to worry this time. It says outright they’ll be picking participants based on character. A few unusual people might show up for the sake of a varied cast, but.”
“...Hmm.”
Of course, by now I knew perfectly well that the more women a man in this world took to bed, the more respect he received rather than blame. I simply wanted to enjoy myself while keeping a little dignity, and a little of my image, intact.
If I can lock in a few clauses, I could probably wipe out most of the risk.
If I controlled things well, I could walk away with some decent footage. It was worth thinking over. Of course, I also needed Hyang—needed Bae Jihyun, and the viewers, to see me deliberating, even if I had to put the look on on purpose. I folded my arms and sank into thought. She simply watched me and waited for an answer, and the chat and the donations did the same.
“...Are you really sure?”
When I asked, a bright smile spread across Bae Jihyun’s face, and the donations that had vanished, along with the chat that had all but frozen, began racing upward at incredible speed.
“O-of course.”
Everyone’s delight was nice to look at, but I scratched my cheek and went on.
“I’m a little disappointed, though.”
“Huh?”
“I was asking whether you were really all right with it, Jihyun.”
“...Me?”
“If you take me out there, I end up paired off with someone else, don’t I?”
“Ah...?”
A hush fell over the donations and the chat. I let a faint smile show and gently caught Bae Jihyun’s chin, drawing her in. My hand brought her closer than before, and she came without resistance. I could see her back arching in a lovely curve, like a cat’s.
“...Ah...”
Whether she had understood me or not, her face had flushed red as a beet, and the moment our eyes met I watched her eyelids begin to go slack and whispered.
“You really are all right with this?”
“Th-that’s... hnn...”
I kept speaking, quiet, and stroked just beneath her chin with my fingertips. As they glided softly down the line of her neck, goosebumps rose along it. Sensitive there?
“If I meet someone else. And have a good time?”
“Ah, that’s... nnh...”
I watched her throat bob as she swallowed, and the choker lying over it, then quietly took my hand away.
“If you say you don’t want that, I could think it over.”
“...Ah...”
I quietly drank in the wistful look on her face, and in my peripheral vision the chat’s speed went insane as the donations burst.
Bae Jihyun, who had been gazing at me through a dazed haze, jerked back to herself at the sound of the donations still rolling in. She straightened, slipped free of my hand, and wiped the disappointment spreading across her face in an instant.
“Th-ah, anyway. Everybody shut up. He hasn’t said he’ll do it yet.”
“If I can get just a few clauses added, I’ll consider it.”
“Which ones...? I’ll do everything I can to get all of them in for you.”
“How about we talk about that after the stream?”
“Ah, yes... I’m sorry.”
I took the glass, caught the straw between my lips, and waited for the piled-up donations and chat to finish rolling through. Bae Jihyun watched the chat, glanced at me, cleared her throat, and stood to straighten her clothes.
“I, um... I’ll just run to the bathroom real quick.”
“I understand, so it’s fine. I think the viewers will, too.”
A moment later she stepped out of the studio. A faint dampness had gathered on her chair. So that was it. She was more sensitive to being touched than I’d expected; it seemed to be from the contact a moment ago. What I’d been worried about was the mood in the chat, but from the way they treated a thing like that as perfectly natural, most of the viewers were clearly women, and they understood one another without anyone having to say it.
“I really still have no plans for a solo stream. I’m sorry.”
“Sure. You all made it so comfortable today that I had a good time too. But you’re not wrapping up already just to send me off, are you?”
“And I never said I’d only stay for two hours.”
At that the donation alerts and the chat log exploded all over again, and I quietly held a mouthful of coffee.
This is basically free money.
It felt as if our positions had flipped. Every time I said a single word, the viewers’ reactions were genuinely fun, and with donations bursting through at this rate I was going to walk away with a pretty nice cut. Of course, it might only have been because it was my first appearance, so there was no need to be purely pleased about it.
Still, I wasn’t about to turn down found money.
Rough as the estimate was, what had already come in easily cleared the price of Hyunji’s dress and my coat; the donation amounts were that large. I was only human, so my eyes couldn’t help drifting toward the bigger ones. Even so, putting up with a little inconvenience was better than being called money-mad, and I made a point of trying to read the regular chat as well. That was when it happened.
“Ah, don’t mention other streamers.”
Bae Jihyun came into the studio with a packaged sushi bento in each hand. Choi Soojung moved the table that had been sitting off to the side over in front of the computer desk and the two of us, then left the studio.
“Sorry I’m late. Looks like the delivery got backed up.”
“It’s fine. It looks good.”
“This place is pretty decent.”
After that we ate, read the chat, and talked, and the time passed. It hadn’t been hard at all. If anything, I’d done so little that I almost felt bad about it.
“Ah, you gonna keep bringing it up?”
“...What happened?”
“What?”
“...She didn’t seem like that kind of person.”
“You know I can’t say anything about that, right?”
“Still no. Stop. Mention another streamer and it’s an instant ban.”
I watched her work the mouse while she chewed her sushi, nodded, and put a piece in my mouth myself. She might have looked a little guileless, but she was no fool. Mindlessly joining in just because everyone else was tearing someone down was dangerous, and it would ruin the mood of the stream besides.
Maybe I ought to help a little.