Busy, Busy
Cassandra seemed worried I might let the chance to film with Vanessa slip away.
"Jun, hearing from an influencer far bigger than us is not the kind of opportunity that comes around every day."
"You're right…"
"We can take our time deciding what content to shoot together, but I think it would be good if you at least met Vanessa once and had a meal."
I nodded without protest. Meeting a stranger was uncomfortable in all sorts of ways, but if I treated it as an extension of work, it wasn't something I couldn't manage.
"All right. I'll reach out to her myself, then."
No—actually, it wasn't that I could manage it. I needed to go after this with real energy.
Only after hearing my answer did Cassandra nod, satisfied, and add, "You've got the kids, so going somewhere far would be hard, right, Jun? And if inviting her to your place feels like too much pressure, what about treating her to dinner at Lemon Soup?"
"That sound good?"
"Yes. If we invite Vanessa to a performance, the excuse is perfect, and she'll get a full day's worth of filming material out of it, so I don't think she'll turn it down."
There was still some breathing room before next week, so I nodded again without fuss.
"Okay. I'll ask if she's free next week."
"Okay."
Strike while the iron's hot—I grabbed my phone right away to message Vanessa.
"……"
I hesitated for a moment. We seemed around the same age, but she was a senior in the industry, so I probably ought to keep it formal. Then again, something too stiff would feel weird…
I wrote and deleted, wrote and deleted, composing the message with genuine seriousness before finally sending it. Cassandra let out a short laugh.
"How on earth an introvert like you ended up on this career path—you never know how the world works, do you?"
"I know. I never imagined it either."
"If I were you, I'd be like a fish in water—daily vlogs, parties every night, mixing with people nonstop."
"Just hearing that makes me tired…"
If it were work, I wouldn't have a choice. At my reaction, Cassandra burst into high-pitched laughter.
After the show, Greg left, saying he had a prior engagement. Cassandra and I had dinner together and talked shop a little longer.
"The pottery collaboration we talked about last time—we've signed the contract, and it's moving along without any issues."
"That's a relief. With the pottery, we'll only be able to make something on our end once we've seen the samples, right?"
"Yes. Or maybe it would be nice if you went to the studio yourself and filmed the process of making the selected designs. I'll talk that over with their owner."
"Okay… Oh, and for the record, I'll need to bring my own wheel and carving tools to work with. Absolutely. Otherwise I can't guarantee the results."
Cassandra nodded as if it were no big deal, but carefully entered my request into her planner all the same.
"If we say you've got a jinx about using anything that isn't your own, they'll understand. Artists are finicky and hard to figure out as it is."
"I feel like that last part is genuinely rude to real artists…"
"Ah, and this might be a little early to bring up… or actually, maybe it isn't."
"What is it?"
"I've been thinking we should start looking into an office and a filming studio."
"Oh…"
That was not something I'd expected.
"I started thinking about it while we were setting up the pottery collab and after Vanessa reached out… If we had one more video editor, I could get out there myself and look into ways to grow the channel from all angles."
"That does make sense. And editing already takes a fair amount of time as it is, doesn't it?"
Cassandra shrugged.
"If it were only editing, it'd be fine—but that's all I end up doing. Marketing is essential if the channel is going to keep growing. With a studio, even the same kind of content would look more varied in background and framing, and we could bring in guests too."
If we were going to treat this as a real job, every bit of that made sense. Having a PD frame the shots and film would produce far better results than me shooting on a couple of smartphones. Guitar covers would come out with better audio quality, too. I could even invite Greg into a proper studio and put up real cover-song videos.
"And since it would be our company, we could do whatever we want. We could put a playroom right next to the studio for Luca and Reni—and Charlie, when he's around—open up a big window, soundproof it, and if Dad's right there in view, they wouldn't feel as anxious, right?"
"That actually sounds amazing."
"Of course, money is still the issue… but I think we should keep the idea on the table and keep thinking it through."
"Yeah. I'll work even harder."
"No, I didn't say that to put pressure on you. I just meant that seems like the direction we should start heading."
Right now, the YouTube revenue was just enough to cover my living expenses and Cassandra's salary. And that was with me getting help from the Manito App—so in truth, things were a little tight. Compared to the beginning, the growth was beyond words, but adding another employee and a fixed monthly office lease was another matter entirely…
"Seriously, don't take it as pressure, okay? The fact that we're even discussing things like this means the channel is growing. That's a good thing, Jun."
"Yeah. Honestly it feels more like motivation than pressure. I've got two kids now—I've got to hustle."
Cassandra grinned and clapped me on the shoulder.
"You're a rare, solid young man for your age, you know that? At your age I was busy running around having fun. Before I had Charlie, I partied like crazy."
"I kind of envy that energy."
Cassandra laughed out loud.
"There's no one like you in my circle, so every time I see you I'm amazed. Oh, right—did you see that comment? The one on the Starlight Canopy making video."
When I shook my head, Cassandra found the comment in the video for me. Someone wanted the canopy pattern so they could try making one themselves.
"But a pattern… all I have is the sketch I drew…"
"It's popular because it's handmade, so a hand-drawn sketch is even better. What if you filmed a video walking through the process step by step? And uploaded it as a membership exclusive."
"Hmm…"
She'd been saying we should open a membership for a while. I was still skeptical. Content like that was free to find almost anywhere, honestly.
As if she'd read my hesitation, Cassandra smiled a little.
"Think on it a bit more, Jun. Either way, it's another way to raise income from the channels we already have."
I smiled softly at her words. I was really lucky to have such a capable manager.
The next morning.
For the first time in a while, I had a lazy Sunday morning with Luca. After a whole week of finally having my undivided attention, he seemed in high spirits. I had been worried he might have felt left out, so I threw myself into playing with him even more wholeheartedly than usual.
Now that he had started crawling, the range of games we could play had exploded. Of course, so had the drain on my stamina…
Only after that infinite-battery baby finally dropped into a nap could I rest for a moment myself.
"…Not that I can just lounge around forever."
With a groan, I got up and sat at the desk. There was a lot to think about, so I put pencil to paper and got to work—drafting ideas for the second set of recipes to send the publisher, puzzling over content that might work as membership-only videos…
Then Luca woke up, and every scrap of my attention went right back to him.
"Aaah!"
"There he is, my Luca."
Maybe it was just me, but he seemed to smile even more brightly than usual. He had played well with his big brother for five days, but he must have been under some stress all the same.
When it came time to wind down the day, though, Luca—once I'd laid him down—sat back up and looked toward Reni's empty spot.
"……"
I gently patted the baby's small back and asked, "Luca, do you miss big brother Reni?"
"Mmm…"
"We're picking Reni up tomorrow morning. So let's go night-night now."
I laid him down again and rubbed his back, and the baby rolled his big eyes up at me.
"Don't worry. I'll bring your brother home tomorrow."
Once he was asleep, I set an alarm for a few hours later and closed my eyes for a short rest of my own. Because I had to pick up the kids, I'd asked James for understanding and moved the dessert delivery time back to the early morning again. I needed the delivery done by six-thirty, which meant getting up at least a couple of hours earlier and rushing through prep.
Maybe it was the pressure of having to get up early for the first time in a while, but I barely slept at all before getting up to bake cookies and cake. Then I took the taxi I'd reserved and went to pick up Reni.
"Dad!"
I scooped Reni into my arms as he came scampering over.
"Reni, did you have a good weekend?"
"Yeah! I missed you, Dad. And Luca…"
At Reni's appearance, Luca kicked his feet in the air and watched us. It was a very different look from the days when he would make threatening noises the moment his brother got into Dad's arms. Luca really had missed his big brother after all.
"Reni, want to say hi to Luca too?"
"Yeah."
I settled Reni into the stroller with Luca, and he gently stroked his little brother's hair.
"Luca, did you go forward-forward a lot?"
Was he asking if Luca had crawled a lot?
"Abu, ababa."
Luca answered in a stream of babble, and Reni nodded with solemn seriousness. Well, as long as the two of them understood each other, that was enough for me.
On the way home, we got off at a nearby market to do some grocery shopping before heading in. I figured if the kids helped make what they were going to eat, they might eat a little better.
I set the shopping basket in the empty space of the stroller and started pushing it like a cart. Every time I dropped something into the stroller, the kids' attention locked onto it.
"Luca, what do you think this is?"
"Abua! Eeh…"
With Reni back in the mix, Luca's babbling exploded. We bought the kabocha squash and lemons Reni said he liked and kept walking—then Reni called out to me in a hurry.
"Dad, Dad. That one."
"Hmm?"
I followed Reni's small pointing finger. Packaging that glittered like jewels, primary colors engineered to bewitch children. It was nothing other than a box of powdered Jell-O mix.
"Daaad…"
As if he were afraid I might not buy it, Reni called for me urgently. I picked up a box and put it in his hands. Only then did his face brighten.
"Does Reni like Jell-O?"
"Yeah!"
"That's cherry flavor. There are other flavors too—do you like that one?"
"I like all of them!"
"I see."
So maybe it was the bouncy texture he loved more than the flavor. A few recipes I could make for him flickered through my mind at once. On the way to the checkout, I added a pack of gelatin powder to the basket as well.