Afraid of Zombies
The news that Park Woojin was even getting a drug test came through Jiyun nuna.
"A drug test? What for?"
That was what everyone else was thinking, but I already had a pretty good idea. It was probably because of the Hallucination Spray I'd hit him with back then. He'd gone and done something insane, and now they were testing him for drugs.
"I got curious and looked into it. Apparently he started ranting about some weird zombies chasing him and then assaulted a cop?"
It lined up so perfectly I didn't know whether to laugh or just sit there stunned.
Shows the sprayed target hallucinations composed of the things they fear most. Getting hit in the eyes or ears may sting, but this is not a harmful drug.
It had said the spray showed the target hallucinations of whatever they feared most. So Park Woojin's worst fear was... zombies?
He had a surprisingly childish side to him.
Or maybe not. If you actually saw something that looked like a zombie, yeah — that would be pretty terrifying.
"Wait... he wasn't actually on something, was he?"
Dayeon nuna's reply to Jiyun nuna's report was dripping with disbelief.
"Wow, that's actually terrifying. You're telling me we've been working with someone who does drugs this whole time?"
Eunchae chimed in too, shuddering from head to toe.
"Anyway, they said they won't be holding him in custody. Still, everyone should be careful for a while."
We'd already filed a restraining order, so if he showed up here again he'd be looking at enhanced charges. But the police couldn't stand guard around us twenty-four seven, which was why Jiyun nuna sounded so worried.
"Is that why you came all the way over? Because you were worried?"
She'd said she'd be slammed straight through next week, so I'd figured we'd be stuck with just texts and wouldn't get to see her face. The fact that she'd shown up anyway meant she was genuinely worried about us.
"Mm, well. I wanted to see everyone's faces too. That's why I came. I already got off work today anyway."
She'd been pulling a lot of late nights lately. She must have gotten off early today, because she looked like she was in a great mood.
"Oh, and Dohyun. I took a good look at the proposal you sent over. I was thinking we could try filming something based on it today — think you could give me a hand?"
It was my proposal, so of course I could help. I nodded.
"Since we're already at the studio, how about we film it in my soundproof booth?"
"Huh? Are you sure? What about your stream, Dayeon?"
"It's my day off today~"
"You come to the studio even on your day off? That's some serious dedication."
"I just came to hang out, that's all. And Dohyun's probably already finished everything he needed to do this week anyway."
Dayeon nuna glanced over at me as she said it, and I nodded in confirmation.
"She's right... everyone's off today. Everyone except me..."
Eunchae, who'd spent the week slacking off because "the work just wasn't flowing," was now scrambling to get things done — and apparently she'd even have to pull an all-nighter.
"You should've been working on it throughout the week."
"But... this week I just genuinely couldn't focus, okay?"
"That's what we call a self-own. Skill issue. Tsk tsk."
"Ack! Choi Dohyun! Stop teasing me!"
She'd come and bothered me the whole time I was working, and now look. This was textbook reaping what you sow. A self-inflicted disaster, through and through.
"Anyway, while Eunchae works, Dayeon nuna can help me film Jiyun nuna's video."
"That sounds fun! I mean, I mostly do livestreams so I don't know much about this kind of thing, but still!"
"Urgh, you guys are the worst...!"
Eunchae shot us a look of pure betrayal, but a disaster of your own making is yours to deal with. Unfortunately for her, not a single person in the room felt even a shred of sympathy.
Most people pictured a mountain of expensive equipment when they thought about filming a video, but these days you could get perfectly good quality just using a phone.
"The iPhone camera quality is actually pretty solid."
I said it while framing the shot on Jiyun's iPhone.
"Right? I heard a lot of people actually film with these. Still, I'd like to buy some proper equipment eventually."
Jiyun had clearly done her homework — she'd watched a ton of other videos and a bunch of filming tutorials — and she launched into talking about all the gear she'd seen.
"The expensive stuff is like, ridiculously expensive. This is the one I want, though."
"Eek, unnie, that one's actually way too expensive?"
"Yeah, that's why I've been putting money into a savings account."
Jiyun had a surprisingly serious gear itch. Dayeon, on the other hand, wasn't particularly greedy when it came to equipment. The one thing she'd splurged on was her computer, since she had to stream and game at the same time.
"Whoa, Dayeon's computer is actually really nice."
Which was why the specs on that thing were no joke.
"Yeah, I kind of have to, since I'm streaming and gaming at the same time."
"Doesn't it get exhausting, streaming to that many viewers with the cam on?"
"Well, I'd be lying if I said it wasn't hard."
Dayeon genuinely loved what she did. She loved talking with her viewers, and she loved gaming — all of it. But that didn't mean the job came without its headaches.
"Sometimes a pack of total weirdos floods in and starts stirring up drama, and I swear I feel like I'm going to lose my mind."
She couldn't completely ignore the YouTube comments either, and the people there were even worse. With livestreams, at least, you could ban someone the second they started picking fights, and the other viewers would usually jump in to dogpile them. But on YouTube, they'd just make a new account and come right back, which was a constant headache.
"Well, mine's nowhere near as big as Dayeon's, but I get random weirdos leaving comments on my YouTube too, so I totally get it."
Jiyun ran a pretty small channel, but even then, YouTube had no shortage of people who'd go out of their way to crawl in and start trouble. Which was why Jiyun had at least some idea of how rough it must be for Dayeon.
"I bet Dohyun would be really good at streaming, too."
The two of them had been bonding over troll stories, and then, just like that, the conversation arrow whipped around and landed on me.
"Huh? Me? Where'd that come from?"
The sudden shift caught me completely off guard.
"Right, unnie?"
"Yeah, someone like Dohyun would do really well."
The two of them — everyone except the person they were talking about — launched into it with way too much enthusiasm.
"He's pretty handsome, and more than anything, he's just got this charm, you know?"
"Right? And he's not as good at games as I am, but he's definitely solid."
"...No, I'm not handsome, and I suck at games."
I tried to shut it down, but Jiyun and Dayeon didn't seem to hear a word I said.
"If he actually did it, I could push the hell out of him!"
"Hah~ I'm so jealous! If I were on the gaming side, I'd be riding Dayeon's coattails too!"
"I know, right! It's such a waste!"
It must have just been one of those passing bits of gossip, because they moved on to something else a moment later. All I could do was let out a long sigh.
Girl talk... it just sucks the life right out of you.
The topic bounced around so many times that just keeping up with it was exhausting. We talked like that for a good long while.
"Ah, right! We need to film! The filming!"
It took almost a full hour before the conversation finally circled back to filming.
"We're finally starting?"
I asked, sounding as drained as I felt. Jiyun flashed a thumbs-up and nodded.
"Alright, let's do this~!"
The shoot went smoother than I'd expected. We wrapped it up in no time.
"Dohyun planned it out so thoroughly that it went super fast. Plus it just fits my style perfectly."
Matching Dayeon nuna's style hadn't been hard — I'd been watching her for a long time. Jiyun nuna was a different story, though, so writing the proposal had taken a decent amount of time. Still, thanks to my stat bonuses, it hadn't been all that difficult.
"I'll edit this and send it over sometime tomorrow, so take a look and let me know if anything feels off."
"Okay! I'm so excited!"
"By the way, unnie, you're really good at talking. You said you do livestreams too, right?"
"Yeah, nothing too long. I do a short one every now and then."
I'd caught a few of Jiyun nuna's livestreams, and yeah — she was a really good talker. I guess the lawyer experience didn't just vanish. She had this sharp, no-nonsense way of speaking that was honestly pretty charming.
It'd be nice to have some content that played to that communicative side of hers, too. She'd said she wanted to focus on art, so we'd keep that as the main thing and maybe add some talking-head videos as a side series.
"Anyway, you really worked hard today, nuna."
Her actual job was already hectic enough. Adding a film shoot on top of that had to be completely overwhelming. That was why I'd originally planned to wait until her busy stretch was over before we filmed anything.
"It's fine. Looking at the proposal just made me want to try it right away."
That kind of passion was honestly really nice to see.
"Ugh, watching unnie's passion is making me suddenly want to stream too...!"
"Oh~ and we're already at the studio, so you can just go live!"
"Huge W."
Dayeon nuna taking a day off was nice and all, but if she streamed on her day off, that was a massive win from a viewer's perspective.
"Well then, I guess I'll go watch the stream."
"I never said I was doing it."
"You just said you were starting to want to, didn't you?"
"But it's my day off."
She was clearly having way too much fun teasing the viewer sitting right in front of her. I gave her the hardest glare I could manage.
"Heh heh, I'm kidding, I'm kidding. I'm turning the stream on, so everyone out, please~"
Dayeon nuna streamed with her camera on, so having other people inside the soundproof booth could get messy fast.
"Oh wow, I've been wanting to watch one of Dayeon's livestreams! Perfect timing! I'll watch it with Dohyun!"
We settled into the living room and started getting ready to watch Dayeon nuna's stream.
"What? What's going on? Unnie's streaming? I wanna watch too!"
Eunchae came bounding over, all fired up.
"Nope. Go finish your deadline."
Her deadline was still very much a work in progress, so I just blocked her path.
"Sss...! This is so freaking annoying!"
She could throw as much of a tantrum as she wanted. Some things just weren't negotiable. Who told her to slack off and mess around all week instead of working? She should've, you know, paced herself a little.