The Tip-Off

I was sprawled out on my bed, watching Noona's stream for the first time in a while. This used to be my everyday routine, but lately I'd been getting out of the house a lot — and spending so much time with the real Dayeon, not the one on a screen, still felt almost too much like a dream.

The moment she brought up the outing, the chat flooded with people saying they wanted to be her editor, or that they wanted to be her thumbnail artist.

Back then, I would have been right there with them, thinking I wish I were that editor..! But now I actually was that editor, and I couldn't help feeling how strange that still was.

She picked out a few of the shots of herself alone — the ones I had taken — and put them up on stream. A warm, proud little feeling bloomed in my chest for no good ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠reason.

Noona had always liked chatting with her viewers for a while before starting the game, but today's outing story was running long. It looked like she was settling in for a much longer talk session than usual.

But then...

Up until the part about the outing, she'd looked genuinely happy. The second she started talking about going home and going to sleep, though, I felt her energy drop off a cliff.

The other viewers didn't seem to pick up on it at all. Nobody in chat said a word about the shift.

"Did something happen after she got home?"

She'd looked like she was having a great time right up until we said goodbye, and when we'd been sending photos back and forth afterward, none of them had seemed depressed either.

"...Hrm."

I was worried, but she was in the middle of a stream. Calling her was out of the question. I settled for leaving a text and went back to watching.

It had been a string of days off, but Dayeon's condition still wasn't great, so she'd kept the stream short. After she wrapped up, she found Dohyun's text.

"..How did he know..?"

Nobody in chat had said a thing. Even Eunchae — who would have been the first person alive to catch ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠something like this — hadn't contacted her. Dayeon had been sure she'd hidden it well. Getting a message like this from Dohyun left her genuinely thrown.

She sat there in silence, chewing over whether to write back like nothing was wrong or tell him what had happened after she got home yesterday. She bit down hard on her lip, then picked up her phone and started typing.

Not long after she sent it—

"Noona! I'm here!"

She'd figured he was busy when no reply came. Dohyun, apparently deciding that waiting around to text back was a luxury he couldn't afford, had gotten up on the spot and come straight to the studio.

"Huh? Ah — I thought you were busy since you didn't reply.."

"It's close anyway, so I figured just coming over would be faster than waiting for a text. So what's going on?"

Living nearby really did have its advantages. She'd been sitting there with her chest in a knot, and then he was just... here. The fact that he'd come running like that moved her more than she expected.

"Well, you see.. when I got home yesterday, I got an email."

She started talking as she brewed the coffee Dohyun always liked.

"It had photos in it, and some other stuff."

"Photos?"

"Yeah. It was a tip-off."

A tip-off. Dayeon wasn't some info YouTuber who built videos out of anonymous submissions. Which meant the tip was about Dayeon herself — or about someone close to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠her.

"It was about Park Woojin."

"Park Woojin? What the hell did that bastard do?"

Dohyun's face twisted. His first thought was that Woojin had been out somewhere using Dayeon's name to pull something slimy.

"No, it's... haah. That crazy son of a bitch..."

Dayeon was not someone who swore. She didn't even curse when she gamed — people liked her for that. The fact that she was swearing now meant something truly, genuinely bad had happened.

"...What? What kind of— what photos..?"

Dayeon pressed a hand to her forehead, her face drawn tight, and Dohyun's words came out in a stammer.

"Is that bastard actually insane..?!"

Taking illicit photos was a crime, full stop. Which meant they had been keeping a criminal right beside them this whole time.

"..He didn't take anything really sick, but apparently he was taking everyday pictures of us. Sometimes he'd take shots of... underwear, they said. And then he shared them with his friends..?"

Her voice was shaking as she said it. The one mercy was that aside from the occasional underwear shot, there weren't any truly grotesque photos — but calling that a mercy felt grotesque in itself. She looked like she'd been hit by a truck.

Of course she did. This was someone she had trusted enough to keep close. She'd known he was a jerk, but she had never once imagined he would be out here committing actual crimes right under their noses.

"One of those friends gathered up the evidence of everything Park Woojin had been doing and sent it to me."

She was trying so hard to stay calm, but her voice kept trembling in a way that was almost painful to hear, and the hand wrapped around her cup wouldn't stop shaking.

"Noona, are you oka— no. Of course you're not okay."

He'd started to ask if she was all right, then clenched his fist instead.

That fucking psycho was doing that kind of shit?

He should have driven Woojin out a long time ago. If only his own skills had been better, he could have. Dohyun's head throbbed, a dull, sickening ache behind his eyes.

"First things first — he took photos of underwear, so let's file a report."

Secretly photographing someone in a way that captured exposed body parts was more than enough to constitute a crime.

"..Yeah. I already reported it. I organized all the evidence and turned it in."

So she'd gone to the police station after getting the email, before she even turned on the stream.

"They said illegal filming is a huge issue these days, so he'll actually get punished properly."

"Did you contact Park Woojin separately?"

If she hadn't, he would absolutely show up to work tomorrow acting like nothing had happened.

"I told him I know about the hidden-camera stuff and that I reported it. And I told him not to come to work."

She'd been thinking about cutting Woojin loose for a while now, but she had never imagined it would happen like this. Dayeon let out a long, heavy sigh.

"I just... how could someone do something like that..? How could he do that and then just casually come into work and say hello like it was nothing?"

She bit down on her lip, muttering like she genuinely could not make it make sense.

"I know you can't calm down right now, but try to stay calm for a second. Criminal charges are one thing — let's think about whether there's anything else we can do to him."

He wasn't as shaken as Dayeon, but Dohyun's head was a mess too.

I wish I knew more about the law.

He barely knew anything about the legal side of this, and he'd never once imagined something like this would happen around him. That made it worse.

Wait. Didn't the manager at the convenience store I used to work at have a daughter who's a lawyer?

The manager had bragged about his lawyer daughter often enough that the thought surfaced on its own. Dohyun's eyes lit up.

"Noona, give me a second. I need to make an urgent call."

"Huh? Oh — yeah. Go ahead."

He bolted out of the room and punched in the manager's number.

The phone rang twice.

"Ah, Manager! How have you been? Yes, yes. Oh, I've been doing well. Work's going great too. Haha."

After a round of small talk, Dohyun gave him a brief version of what had happened and asked whether there was any chance he could get some help from the manager's lawyer daughter.

The answer came back so readily that the tension in Dohyun's shoulders eased a little.

"Ah, thank you so much."

"Yes, thank you!"

At least now it felt like they might actually get some real help. He hurried back inside to tell Dayeon the news — and stopped.

"...Haa.."

She still couldn't settle. She was trembling far too hard, sitting there like the shock had nowhere left to go.