Currently Causing a Huge Accident
Click.
The moment she cut the power, her face reflected back at her in the black monitor.
Dark circles thick with a decadent, worn-out beauty. Pupils that trembled as if she were forever being hunted. Skin so pale it seemed even a single hour of sunlight a week would have been an unforgivable luxury.
“Whew~ Thank goodness. Everyone seemed happy with the stream this time too….”
She pulled open the blackout curtains she had sealed with the absolute will of someone who would not allow so much as a sliver of sunlight inside.
What came through the window was only moonlight and the glow of the streetlamps. She only ever opened the curtains at night, when neon signs took the place of the sun.
When she turned around, clothes, books, and empty processed-food packaging were sprawled across the floor like they were fighting over territory. It looked like pure chaos, but to her it had its own kind of order.
This was the moment she returned from the virtual world—where she shone, sort of, as the VTuber Haruna, basking in her viewers’ cheers—back to being simply Lee Jiyeon.
“Do the viewers actually like someone like me? What if they’re all laughing at me on the inside and only watching out of pity?”
Buried under a pile of unwashed clothes, the pessimistic thoughts started pouring out of her.
“When I look at other VTubers, they just… radiate. They’re dazzling. And me? I don’t have any confidence…. All I ever do is whine at my viewers…. If they ever saw the real me, every single one of them would be disappointed!”
She looked down. Cookie crumbs she had spilled the day before were still sitting there.
“Should I clean the room a little today? No, no, I’m too tired right now. Later…. I’ll do it tomorrow morning.”
She half-rolled her way out of the room. Hair she hadn’t cut in ages spilled past her navel, dust and crumbs clinging to it in places. She raked her fingers through it like a comb, then carefully opened her hand. Dust and crumbs came off in a perfect fifty-fifty split.
“Whoa…. This is not the time to be impressed. I need to wash. Right now.”
Lee Jiyeon slipped out of the black, frill-heavy dress she wore purely for her own satisfaction. Because it was one of her favorites, she didn’t shove it into a corner with the rest of the clothes; she hung it carefully on a hanger instead.
She passed through a kitchen she could barely remember ever cooking in and went straight into the shower. She turned on the water and waited in silence until it ran warm. Condensation slowly fogged the bathroom mirror. Once she decided the water was hot enough, she stepped into the stream.
“Aaaah…. Warm. Feels so good~.”
She soaked her hair until it hung like seaweed just dragged out of the sea.
“Na-na… na-na-na-na…!”
As her heart eased, a song slipped out on its own. It was something she had been listening to a lot lately, but she still hadn’t memorized the lyrics, so humming was all she could manage.
“Maybe I should try singing on stream tomorrow…? No way. Someone like me singing? There’s no chance the viewers would like that.”
She shook her head hard, sending water flying in every direction.
“How do I even fix this personality of mine…? If I fixed it, the viewers would like me more….”
The only sound that answered her was the steady rush of the showerhead.
Silence.
The feeling that always got buried under the stupid volume of content and information online finally caught up to her. Silence first. Then loneliness. And right after that, a solitude so massive it was almost vicious.
“I want to talk to someone…. Anyone. I just want a conversation.”
That was what Lee Jiyeon muttered once she finished her shower. Wanting to reach out was one thing; having no one to actually call was another. She was so afraid of meeting people that she barely had any acquaintances to begin with. And if she called her parents, she already knew exactly what she would hear: You still haven’t fixed that personality?! That’s exactly why you never get anywhere!
“Haaah….”
She sighed over and over while drying her hair, then pulled on something short and easy to move in from the mountain of clothes. After that she started scrolling through her contacts.
“This is…!”
One name she had completely forgotten about while streaming suddenly jumped out at her.
The second those three Korean syllables appeared, her heart started racing. This was the first person in her entire life she had ever worked up the courage to ask for a number from. And on top of that, a handsome person.
“Should I… call?”
She had only gotten the number yesterday, so calling now felt timing-wise perfect. If she waited any longer, there was a real chance she would be completely forgotten.
“There’s no way… she already forgot me, right? If I call and the first thing I hear is ‘Who is this,’ I’m literally going to have to jump out the window…!”
Gulp.
She swallowed hard. With the same resolve as someone pressing a five-hundred-million-year button, Lee Jiyeon firmly tapped Call.
“Drink…! Drink it down..!! This is the hour of heroes and great men—!”
“Hey, noonas, anything else you wanna order..? I’m a cyber bitch…! Pay me and everything’s okay, period!”
Riiing, riiing.
“What? Who’s calling me? Who dares interrupt while I’m enjoying this one-to-seventy chaos!?”
“Hello? Your voice is way too quiet, I’m putting you on speaker.”
“H-hello?”
“Ah… is this a marriage proposal? Dropping a ‘hello’ on someone who doesn’t even have a girlfriend yet…! Teacher, you’re moving way too fast.”
“Huh? W-what are you even…?”
“Umm…? Do you… remember me?”
“Of course I remember. You’re that cute noona who asked for my number at the convenience store.”
“N-noona? Then… Minseo, you were a girl…?”
“Huh? What are you talking about…? I am very clearly a man with the full equipment attached, thank you…!”
“Eh..? But… the resident registration card definitely….”
“More importantly, what’s your name, noona? You know mine, but you never told me yours…. That’s so mean! So meeean~!”
“Hwehkk…! M-mean? I’ll tell you, so please don’t say that. My name is Lee Jiyeon.”
“Lee Jiyeon, huh…. Nice ring to it. My uterus is throbbing, thump-thump.”
“Um… Kim Minseo. Could I… say something? Just once?”
“What? Weren’t we friends…? Friends are equals, right? Why are you asking permission to talk?! So frustrating.”
“I-I’m sorry..! It’s just my personality. I’m irresponsible, I always just whine pathetically…. I don’t even have any friends I can contact, and….”
“If the problem is your personality…. I can actually fix that pretty simply, you know—”
“R-really?!”
“Do you know how the alpha wolf handles an ostracized wolf in the pack?”
“I… I don’t know.”
“The alpha makes sure that wolf can’t keep doing stupid things by first giving them a partner to be responsible for…! People or animals, once you’ve got something to take responsibility for, you naturally start acting like a proper adult.”
“So that means…. With me….”
“Heh heh heh…! So you’ve finally figured it out. If I get Lee Jiyeon pregnant and load her up with responsibility, that sense of duty is going to explode into existence!”
“Uh….. So what you’re saying is….”
“I’ll send my sperm data straight into Lee Jiyeon’s vagina like a communications exchange~! C’mere…!”
“So what were you trying to say earlier? Go ahead and speak freely.”
“That…. Um… are you drinking right now, by any chance? You sound really drunk….”
“I am drinking, but..! I’m not that drunk~! I’m still streaming perfectly fine, aren’t I.”
“Streaming….?”
“Yes. Streaming.”
“Ah….”