The Uninvited Guest
After finishing our meal, we left the café.
"Alright, now that we've eaten, shall we go shopping?"
The words left Han-gyeol's mouth the instant we stepped outside, her arm already looping through mine.
…Right.
She had said we were going to buy clothes.
No matter how I looked at it, though, that was nothing but a pointless waste of money.
"Han-gyeol, we already have plenty of clothes at home. Do we really need to buy more? Think about it. Clothing is ultimately a functional good—something that covers the body. If the closet is already overflowing with garments that fulfill that exact function, then buying yet another scrap of fabric that does the same thing… isn't that waste rather than consumption?"
Han-gyeol narrowed her eyes at me.
"Unnie… what century are you living in? Sure, clothes are functional, but they're also a matter of manners and etiquette. You're not seriously planning to show up to a job interview in a tracksuit, are you?"
"……"
Ugh… I had nothing.
To get completely crushed in logic…
"Stop complaining and just follow me. Before I call Mom."
"…Yes…"
I had no choice but to let myself be dragged along, limp and defeated.
The place Han-gyeol pulled me into was a women's clothing store that looked extravagantly stylish.
The moment the two of us stepped inside, a staff member approached with a bright smile.
"Welcome~ Oh my, both of you are so pretty. Please feel free to look around!"
"Thanks~"
Han-gyeol lit up and began hauling me from rack to rack.
"Unnie, what about this? Cropped tweed jackets like this are really in right now. If you wear a thin sleeveless top underneath and throw this on, it'll look absolutely killer."
She plucked clothes off hangers with practiced efficiency and held them up against my body…
Tweed… what?
I didn't understand a single word she was saying.
More importantly—she wanted me to wear this?
"Isn't this way too small…? My stomach's completely showing."
"That's how it's designed."
"And the pockets are tiny… Where am I supposed to put my phone and wallet?"
"That's what a mini bag is for! If you cram stuff into the pockets, you ruin the whole silhouette!"
After a long stretch of further selection, Han-gyeol shoved a pile of clothes into my arms.
"Here! Try on the ones I picked!"
She stuffed me into the fitting room.
"W-wait a second."
"Just put them on and come out!"
…What a merciless reality.
I stood in front of the fitting-room mirror, let out a long sigh, and stared at the women's clothing Han-gyeol had chosen.
It was a dress.
A skirt, in other words.
I had vaguely expected a day like this might come eventually… but wasn't this a little too soon?
"Unnie~ You're changing, right?"
"Haa."
An unavoidable reality, then.
Let's think this through.
Wearing a skirt does not make my identity female.
A skirt poses absolutely no threat to my essence.
Besides, this isn't even really my body, is it?
If I just think of it as dressing an avatar in a game, it isn't that difficult.
Any male gamer worth his salt knows you pick the female character, and putting women's clothes on that character is perfectly normal.
Right.
This is simply dressing the character known as Jeong Eun-gyeol.
My identity is in no danger whatsoever.
Having finished my self-justification, I swallowed hard and began awkwardly changing into the clothes.
Once everything was on and I looked in the mirror…
There stood a beauty so striking it was genuinely breathtaking.
The silhouette followed the line of waist and hips in a natural cascade, making an already slender waist look even more pronounced.
The deep black of the fabric set off Jeong Eun-gyeol's pale skin to perfection.
Her cat-like face, frozen in an awkward expression, somehow triggered a quiet protective instinct.
"You almost done, Unnie?"
Han-gyeol's voice from outside the curtain snapped me back to myself, and I stepped out.
"I'm changed."
At my words, both Han-gyeol—who had been browsing—and the staff member turned toward me at the same time.
"……"
"……"
A strange silence settled over the store.
"Wow… I picked it myself, but I really outdid myself…"
Han-gyeol murmured in open admiration.
"Ma'am! It suits you so perfectly! It looks like it was made just for you! Wow. Are you sure you're not a celebrity?"
The employee stared at me with sparkling eyes, equally impressed.
I could admit that Jeong Eun-gyeol was beautiful, but still…
"It's uncomfortable."
"Unnie, shut your mouth. From today on, this is how you're dressing. Excuse me, we'll take this one as-is. Please ring it up."
After that, Han-gyeol dragged me from store to store, making me try on one outfit after another and paying for every single one.
I walked down the street with shopping bags piled in both hands.
It was uncomfortable.
The clothes themselves were one thing, but the stares… the gazes of passersby had grown far more blatant than when we first left the house.
And the majority of those stares belonged to men, which was more than a little irritating.
I was doing my best to bury that irritation and letting myself be pulled along with Han-gyeol's arm linked through mine when it happened.
"Excuse me! Just a moment!"
Someone called out to us in an urgent voice.
When I turned, a man in a neat semi-formal suit who looked to be in his mid-thirties stood there, slightly out of breath.
What now—another guy trying to ask for my number?
"Ah, I'm truly sorry for startling you. It's just that…"
The man caught his breath and pulled a business card from his wallet, holding it out.
YS Entertainment.
Even someone as uninterested in the entertainment industry as I was knew the name—one of the major agencies.
"I was walking by when your aura was simply too overwhelming, so I took the liberty of approaching. Might you have any interest in acting or becoming an idol? Ah, and if you already have an agency…"
The man's eyes were blazing.
The sheer determination to land this casting no matter what was plain to see.
A street casting from a major agency.
For an ordinary woman in her early twenties, it would naturally be the kind of moment that set the heart racing.
Needless to say, I had not the slightest intention of becoming a celebrity.
I was barely managing as a VTuber—and they wanted me to show my face to the public?
Jeong Eun-gyeol herself would probably have refused too.
"I'm sorry, but I have no interest."
I declined politely and firmly.
"I understand this must be sudden and overwhelming. I won't pressure you, so if you would simply accept my card, I would be grateful."
Turning down even that much would be a little too cold, wouldn't it?
I reluctantly took the card he held out.
"I'll be waiting for your call."
With that, the man left.
Throughout the entire exchange, Han-gyeol had been staring at me with a stunned expression.
"Unnie. That was amazing…"
"What was? Getting casted?"
Honestly, walking around with Jeong Eun-gyeol's face, it would be stranger not to get scouted once or twice.
"No—I'm shocked you handled a conversation with a complete stranger so well."
Was that really so surprising?
The Jeong Eun-gyeol that Han-gyeol remembered had been a total shut-in, after all.
"See? Streaming really does help."
"Still, isn't your personality changing way too dramatically? Just now you felt like a completely different person."
"Th-that can't be. C-come on, let's head home."
Feeling a guilty prickle, I hurried Han-gyeol along.
By the time we reached the apartment, it was already four in the afternoon.
Being dragged around by Han-gyeol for more than six hours straight had left my body feeling like a limp rag.
On top of that, the shoes were unfamiliar women's footwear…
I had sworn I would die before wearing high heels, so she had bought me a pair of low-heeled women's loafers instead.
Even so, this outing had brought Han-gyeol and me considerably closer.
I had also gathered quite a bit of information.
Han-gyeol was twenty-one—born only a year after Jeong Eun-gyeol. They were consecutive-year sisters.
I also learned that the Jeong family's home was in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province.
There were various other details as well, but I'll spare the minutiae.
After hauling the shopping bags into the studio apartment, I saw Han-gyeol off as she headed back to the family home.
"I'm heading out. You went to bed late last night, so sleep early tonight, Unnie."
"Yeah. Get home safe."
In truth I needed to start a stream, but I simply nodded rather than risk another round of lectures.
"I'll keep the secret from Mom and Dad like I promised. And that streaming thing… give it your best. Seeing you change like this is really nice."
With those words, Han-gyeol left.
The front door closed, and I was alone in the studio once more.
"Uwaaah… finally free."
I immediately stripped out of the uncomfortable women's clothes and changed into a comfortable tracksuit.
Then I collapsed onto the bed and lay there staring blankly for about thirty minutes.
Jeong Eun-gyeol's younger sister, Jeong Han-gyeol…
She really was a good kid who worried about her older sister.
Thanks to her, I had also learned why Jeong Eun-gyeol became a hikikomori.
Bullying…
I didn't know the precise circumstances, but for someone to develop an appearance complex severe enough to turn into a shut-in, it must have been pretty bad.
And in an attempt to peel away that trauma, she had decided to become a VTuber—only for me to end up occupying her body.
Where was Jeong Eun-gyeol now?
I had no way of knowing, but what mattered was the fact that I was alive and breathing inside her body.
And a normal human being always retains the will to live.
It was time to do the thing that had already become my routine.
I got up from the bed and turned on the computer.
It was five in the afternoon.
Still quite a while until stream time—maybe I should do a little web surfing?
Before that, though, I should check the streaming email account…
"Hm?"
Even among the usual junk mail, one message stood out.
"Hina-nim?"
Jeong Eun-gyeol's favorite VTuber—the very person who had dragged me into this profession in the first place?
I clicked the mail, and a longer message filled the monitor.
"Hmm."
If it was Hina-nim, she was certainly someone I could call a "benefactor."
It was thanks to her that I had started VTubing at all.
A collab, though.
Looked at one way, this was a huge opportunity.
But…
Honestly, it also sounded like a hassle.
I was still a small streamer, but I was making decent money and losing very few viewers.
Let's think this through.
Could my stream actually get any bigger from here?
I wasn't a proper VTuber.
I was just borrowing the VTuber format to read philosophy books aloud…
Basically a faceless streamer?
In fact, the gap between me and the avatar was so large that chats praising the cute model barely ever appeared.
Would someone like me even be able to collab with a mainstream VTuber like Hina-nim?
Hmm…
Maybe I should just refuse after all.
That was what I thought—until the memory of Hina-nim's raid came back to me.
I had made over 2.5 million won that day alone.
A collab wasn't something we'd do every day; it would just be a single session.
I could treat it like a little bonus.
Besides, Hina-nim was Jeong Eun-gyeol's favorite.
If Jeong Eun-gyeol was watching from the sky… or wherever she was, she would definitely be happy.
I hit reply and began tapping at the keyboard.
The content was simple enough—yes, let's do a collab.
After sending the email, I leaned back in the chair.
Now that I had actually decided to go through with it, a flutter of nerves tickled my stomach.
Hina-nim… her average viewership was over ten thousand.
I would have to spout nonsense in front of that many people.
It would be stranger not to be nervous.