Desperately Seeking a Camera
“Ugh... I paid good money for this thing, and now it’s completely wrecked. Was that installment plan a total waste?”
I prodded the camera. Its neck was twisted at an angle that should never bend, as if an Imposter had snapped it clean off.
It wobbled loosely. Definitely dead.
“What a weakling.”
I tossed the pathetic camera that couldn’t even handle my body weight into the trash without a second thought.
“Am I going to have to stream without a camera for a while...? No. That’s not happening. Viewers only watch my streams because of my face.”
With zero talk sense and zero gaming skill, who would find my stream entertaining otherwise?
Yesterday’s donations had barely covered living expenses.
But once food, phone bills, and everything else came out of it, nothing remained.
Which meant money for a new camera had never existed in the first place.
“I’m going crazy! I’m stuck with no options either way.”
As a final, final resort I could beg my parents by claiming I was short on living expenses... but...
“I have to stop that from happening.”
I refused to let money make me any more miserable than this.
“Think. Just think. Count primes to calm down... two... three... five...”
The moment the primes crossed into double digits, a brilliant idea flashed through my mind like lightning.
“Living expenses are money I’m going to spend all month anyway. So I’ll buy a camera and somehow earn the money back through streaming before the month is over.”
An uneasy plan loaded with uncertainty.
I tried predicting the risks and returns like an accountant who lived for numbers.
“If the camera’s expensive, the odds of paying it off this month skyrocket. On the other hand, if I go cheap, the quality tanks.”
Lower stream quality would mean smaller donations from viewers.
“Should I just drink and AFK auto-hunt the whole thing?!”
No.
Drinking on stream one more time and who knew what disaster I’d unleash.
Like declaring support for some political party (not that I support any).
Or suddenly recommending porn codes while my eyes lit up.
Either way, another black mark on my permanent record was guaranteed.
Worst case, I could even get banned.
High risk, high return, sure.
But the return had a ceiling while the risk climbed without end.
For example: the return maxed out at 99, while the risk went from 0 to 999999—a number even a scouter couldn’t measure.
“Passing on that method. Way too dangerous.”
To lower the risk, I executed Plan B (just thought of it).
A place where you could snag something cheap that might even perform well if you got lucky.
“If I dig through the used marketplace, something’s bound to turn up. Like a little sister secretly listing her older brother’s camera after he left for the military.”
With that thought I hurriedly logged into the used-goods sites and started hunting for a decent camera.
“This one’s too expensive. That one’s cheap but the specs are trash...”
I scoured every domestic used site until my fingers cramped.
But.
“I found a few that looked okay, but nothing that really clicked.”
Defects on used goods are perfectly normal, yet none of them satisfied me.
“Among my acquaintances, is there anyone who’d buy a camera, forget about it, and leave it stuffed in a corner...? Nope.”
I’ll hold the mean comment that my only acquaintances were my parents.
Apparently this world’s version of me actually had things called “friends.”
“Wait a second... friends?”
A soft, gentle voice brushed through my mind.
Well... I mean... now Ms. Kim Minseo is my friend, after all.
There is one!
An acquaintance—no, a friend—who, given her profession, probably owned multiple cameras.
Asking a big-shot corporate-level Vtuber for a favor like this was rude, and the kind of thing only someone whose conscience had packed up and left would do.
But.
“Haruna said she watches my apology streams, so she’d probably understand my situation, right?”
Friends help each other out. That’s how it works.
If it came down to it, I could just push with this face and force the issue half-forcibly.
“Alright then. Time to give Haruna a call.”
“I wonder if Konoko is okay after yesterday? Looking at the end, it seemed like she fell toward the camera...”
Lee Jiyeon muttered to herself as she dusted off the camera boxes.
Just as Kim Minseo had predicted, she owned several cameras.
Befitting a popular Vtuber on the platform, they were all high-quality, high-resolution models.
“Should I call and ask if Konoko needs a camera? She said I could call anytime... but what if I ask and all I get back is ‘What business is it of yours!’?”
As if trying to settle her wavering heart, she kept wiping a box that already had no dust left.
“Konoko is kind, so she wouldn’t say that... but I’m still too nervous to call.”
She repeatedly turned her smartphone screen on and off.
Bzzzt—!
“Ah..!”
Startled by the sudden vibration, Lee Jiyeon dropped her smartphone on the floor.
Kim Minseo
The three characters glowing on the smartphone screen were more than enough to send Lee Jiyeon’s heart rate soaring.
“What do I do?! What should I do? Should I pick up...? I should, right? If I don’t answer even though she’s calling, Konoko will be disappointed in me, and then my only friend will disappear.”
With hands trembling even more than the vibrating phone, she frantically tried to pick it up.
“Eek...! My hands are shaking so much I dropped it again. Eh?! This time too...!”
Her hands shook so badly she dropped the phone several times before finally managing to grab it.
“Now I need to answer quick.... Before that, take a deep breath. Haa, haa... Okay! Time to actually pick up....”
Just as Lee Jiyeon was about to press the call button, she froze solid.
The green call button that had been glowing invitingly, as if allowing her to press it—had vanished from the screen without a trace.
After a moment of stammering confusion, Lee Jiyeon started figuring out what had happened.
And the conclusion she reached was....
“I’m too late... I was too slow answering, so Konoko hung up first...! She’s definitely disappointed in me. There won’t be any more calls...! She might’ve already blocked my number, thinking ‘This girl’s hopeless.’”
Even though it was just a slight timing mismatch, Lee Jiyeon was sinking into a swamp of self-reproach.
As if offering words of comfort, her smartphone gave a short buzz.
“A message, a message came. Don’t tell me she’s deliberately using a message to unilaterally declare our friendship over....”
Lee Jiyeon steadied her trembling breath and hands, then unlocked her phone.
Whatever the result, I brought this on myself. Even if I never get to see Konoko’s face again, I’m prepared to accept it.
She squeezed her eyes shut and read the message through the hazy gap of her eyelids.
The moment she read the message, another call from Konoko came in without giving her time to think.
This time, she didn’t drop the phone.
She chewed over the message’s contents in her head and steeled her resolve in her own way.
Finally, as if completing the ultimate stage of some ritual, she firmly pressed the call button.
“Hello? Haruna, is now a good time to talk?”
“Y-yes..! It’s fine, it’s possible. Earlier I didn’t mean to ignore the call—I just failed to pick up by accident. So please don’t block me...”
“Come on, who blocks someone just for not answering a call? Sure, rare creatures like that might exist somewhere in this world, but I’m not one of them.”
“I-I see. Understood.....”
Gulp.
Lee Jiyeon swallowed dryly to try and ease her tension.
“I’m terribly sorry and embarrassed to ask, but... the reason I called is nothing other than....”
“What should I do first to help? Should I b-book a hotel room first? Or should I bring condoms? Or if not that, just my body....”
Lee Jiyeon’s eyes were spinning round and round; she’d never expected to receive a request like this in her life.
I’ve seen it on the internet. When guys without girlfriends want to relieve their sexual desires, they propose becoming ‘sex friends’—a friend-like relationship where you enjoy each other...
She’d fantasized about it any number of times.
How she would respond if she ever got such a proposal.
“I heard every guy has a different way of proposing. I never expected you’d just straight-up say ‘something urgent came up.’ But still, it’s okay. If even someone like me can satisfy you....”
Before Lee Jiyeon could finish, Kim Minseo’s voice flowed from the smartphone.
“Um, I think there’s been some kind of misunderstanding... First, let me correct two important points.
One, I am biologically a woman.
Two, what I wanted to ask was whether I could borrow a spare camera from you, Haruna, since mine broke.”
“Th-that was it?”
“Yes. That was it.”
And from Lee Jiyeon’s mouth burst a short sigh like a bud popping open: “Ah...”
“Konoko.”
“Yes, Haruna?”
“If I jump from the fifteenth floor, I’ll die, right?”
“Of course. If you’re human, you’ll definitely die.”
“That’s a relief... In that case, I’ve been terribly rude. Goodbye!!”
“Stop! Stop it...!! Are you trying to make me a murderer?! I’ll pretend I didn’t hear what you just said, so.... Close the window!! I can hear the wind. Stoooop!!”
“A woman possessed by a lewd devil like me deserves to dieee..!”
“If you die like that, you’ll definitely get stuffed as a nominee for next year’s Darwin Awards! Please stop!!”
After that, it took roughly thirty minutes of persuasion to somehow stop her.