Going With the Flow - 3
Live on Air: Glittering Girl Clara's Friday Water Festival livestream~!
Live viewers: 4,807
Friday evening, seven o'clock.
By then, the opening-day schedule for the water festival — which had already become a topic of conversation from the moment it was announced — was in full swing.
“Wow!”
Clara laughed brightly. Because she was broadcasting in 3D, you could see every tooth in her grin. She stared at the relay feed and marveled aloud.
“Ahaha! What? That looks so fun.”
“Hey, Clara's a loner nerd too, but when I went with no one around, it looked fun. Come on Saturday and let's all play together safely and happily.”
“Exactly! We’re all just old, broken-down otakus, right? It’s better to have fun together. Clara gets that feeling too, so I’ll get everything ready with Aki-chan.”
“And the gummies and peppermint candy?”
“Our Carrots' favorite snacks!”
Giggle, giggle.
Giggle, giggle.
As you'd expect from a channel with the oldest average age among ABCD viewers, the atmosphere was warm and friendly, with not a single curse word in sight.
And then, drifting through that cheerful mood, came an old man who tried to slip in a sly little question.
“Ah! Thank you for the donation! As for ‘are you coming in a swimsuit tomorrow too?’ Well, I guess you'll have to come and find out?”
“Ah, you caught me.”
Clara and the Carrots kept talking for a while, then looked over at the relay screen she had pinned to the side.
There, two groups in yellow and pink raincoats were having a water-gun fight. Whenever their water guns ran dry, they refilled them from the pool beneath them.
Then they fired again.
“Our Boomerangs~! If you lose, Berryri's going to cry!”
“If you want to see Berryri unnie's crying face, you'll have to lose!”
“H-Hey?!”
Under Aki and Berry's cheering, hundreds of people were blasting water at one another.
The whole thing had the force of a fountain show.
The place shown on the relay screen was the Han River pool.
The gathered ABCD fans were playing a team game there. It was after the opening greeting and after Berry and Aki's mini concert.
On the huge monitor, Aki-chan hopped in place in a yellow bikini. Then she cheered on the fans firing water at one another.
Time Remaining: 02:11
Berryri Team: 56%
Aki-chan Team: 44%
It was a game where they used water guns and buckets to move water from one pool to the other. The rules were so straightforward that the yellow- and pink-raincoat players had thrown themselves into the fight with near tragic intensity.
The old, weak nerd Carrots watching all this were electrified.
...
...
...
Out of nowhere, the worship of Big Man began.
Clara was about to casually bring up Big Man as if it were second nature.
“Come to think of it, Big Plan...”
But before she could go any further, another donation came in and cut her off.
“!”
Clara's eyes went wide at the sudden large donation. She'd assumed, as always, that it was Big Man, but the nickname in the donation window belonged to a stranger.
Sun Tax...? That's a seriously unusual nickname...
Still, she laughed brightly and offered her thanks.
“Wow! Thank you for the donation! If you have time tomorrow, come by and play together as fellow Carrots. Glittering Girl Clara will get some fun games ready with Aki-chan.”
“...”
Oh no, everyone's gone and turned this into another Big Man conversation.
Clara gave a wry smile.
Come to think of it, if you looked at what had been happening in the VTuber industry lately, it was true that an ordinary high-value donation wasn't much of a headline anymore. There was always Big Man, donating a million won to everyone, every single time.
Still, that's no reason for other people to get ignored...
Clara brought up the forgotten donor again. She couldn't let his support pass by unnoticed like this.
“Anyway, Sun Tax-nim, I hope you'll be able to come play with us tomorrow too. I'll have the gummies and peppermint candy ready for you, so....”
*
Do-dam sat in a display chair from a massive furniture store and snickered while holding my phone. Then she handed it back to me. Her eyes were sparkling as she looked at me.
“Ah, so that's what Big Man-nim feels like. Ahem, this is kind of amazing.... Does Duryeong-nim also do this sometimes? Just... donate without asking for anything?”
“...”
I nodded.
We'd come to a furniture store.
Do-dam had been on her feet all day, and her legs must have hurt, because she sat down immediately in one of the store's executive chairs. Then she muttered that she wanted to feel what it was like to be Big Man.
So I handed her the phone with the donation window open.
Of course, not on the Big Man account.
On my personal account, the one I kept as a backup.
And yet, the moment I went straight into ABCD's broadcast and donated to Clara, it still seems like that side is the one I'm paying the most attention to.
Well....
That made sense.
Along with that quiet conclusion of mine, Do-dam stretched while still sitting in the executive chair. The expensive blue dress she was wearing stood out all the more now. Thanks to shopping all day yesterday and today, she was no longer dressed in those shabby clothes.
Her hair had been styled too, and as she yawned, she looked every bit the picture of a proper young lady.
“Yaaawn.... Eating, sleeping, and spending money nonstop... is weirdly exhausting. Cough. Guess that's why rich ladies say life is boring. It'd be good material for a story, at least.”
Her throat seems a lot better after two days of only eating good food. And she took her medicine properly, too.
I remembered the conversation we'd had the night before yesterday.
Do-dam had tilted her head at my suggestion and asked me back, “Where are we going?”
“Anywhere you'd like to go, Do-dam-ssi.”
“Mm, let's see. I've only ever played games, so I don't really know. Even if I had money, I never used it for anything except computers, game consoles, and my phone....”
“You've never used it?”
“Nope. When I was little, I only wore the clothes Father bought me, and after I came to ABCD, Ae-ri unnie picked my stuff out for me. The suit I got recently was chosen by Ae-ri unnie too.”
“I see.”
I had told her, “Then let's go spend some money.”
“W-what money?”
“Anything you want to try, anything you think, ‘I want to do that.’ We'll go to the right place for all of it, and I'll show you around.”
“Mm.... That feels like I'd turn into a nouveau riche or something.”
“I'll pay.”
“W-what...? You'll... pay?”
Do-dam had gaped at me. Then she asked in a dazed voice, “Why... would you go that far...?”
“Because you're Do-dam-ssi. And if you can't find any more momentum in your past, I think it would be better to look for it in new experiences.”
She had fallen silent.
For a very brief moment, the room had gone still.
Then she answered, “Then, you know. I've always wanted to....”
My memory ended there, with Do-dam calling out to me.
“Duryeong-nim.”
“!”
I turned my head.
Do-dam was still sitting in the executive chair, holding onto my sleeve. She shook her head with a smile. Her voice was a little rough, but gentle.
“This chair's not it.”
“Is that so?”
“Yeah. I was trying it out to see what it felt like, like Big Man-nim. But this doesn't seem very good for gaming.”
“Understood. Then let's go take a look at the office chairs downstairs.”
Do-dam nodded shyly. Then she held a hand out toward me, a little awkwardly. Because she'd sprayed perfume at the department store, a crisp, fresh scent spread along with the gesture.
“Um... can you hold my hand?”
“...”
“These heels make it hard to walk on my own now. I've been debating whether to say it since earlier.”
...
After going to the department store, her feet must have hurt, so she just sat down right away. I nodded.
“...”
I'll have to buy her some comfortable shoes at the shoe store nearby.
Do-dam said, looking embarrassed, “Sorry. I wanted to try heels, even though I'm not used to them.”
“It's fine. You're trying out all kinds of new experiences, after all. Keep trying whatever you want, and if it doesn't suit you, you can always back out.”
“New experiences....”
Do-dam smiled bashfully.
“Honestly. Cough! Since yesterday I've only been doing new stuff, my brain feels like it's about to explode. So I guess it's better to buy something familiar for the chair.”
“I see.”
As I said that, I took her hand. And when I tugged gently, Do-dam rose lightly to her feet. The hem of her blue dress fluttered after her.
For a moment, she felt as light as a blue butterfly.
So light. Is it because she usually doesn't take care of herself?
We held hands like that and went to buy a gaming chair downstairs. After Do-dam picked through the options and tried a few for herself, she finally found one she liked.
Once we'd finished paying and set the delivery address to Do-dam's arcade, D-GAMERS, a middle-aged female clerk looked at our linked hands and smiled with obvious amusement.
“Looks like you're preparing for your wedding home. I hear these days young couples who love games fill their entire honeymoon homes with gaming furniture.”
“...”
“...”
We both shook our heads.
Then we bought comfortable shoes that fit Do-dam's feet. Thanks to the easier stride that followed, she no longer needed to hold my hand, and went walking ahead of me instead.
Just like that, we left the furniture store and walked the night streets.
Before my eyes, a girl like a blue butterfly was strolling along. She carried the white heels she'd taken off earlier in one hand, while white sneakers carried her steps forward.
Swish.
Swish.
Do-dam looked back with a mischievous grin.
“Heh. Thanks. Like you said, trying this and that... actually helped me sort my thoughts out faster than I expected.”
“Is that so?”
“Yep. Cough! Maybe it's because I got a dopamine rush from blowing money. My head was starting to feel like mush, but now it's working again. I think I should throw money around whenever I get depressed.”
“...”
Do-dam muttered blankly as we walked down the street with cars passing by. That was what we'd done for the past two days.
“Sleeping in separate rooms at a five-star hotel, eating omakase and fancy restaurant food, wandering into whatever shop I happened to see when I got bored....”
“...”
“Trying on clothes I liked in the luxury section, wearing grown-up heels, getting salon treatments worth hundreds of thousands of won, even sitting in an executive chair at a furniture store....”
“...”
“Wow, Kang Do-dam really made it big.”
“...”
She stopped walking.
Then she turned back to me.
Do-dam's face held both delight and regret.
“Still, I think I'm happiest when I'm doing ABCD activities. Going along with the Doda crowd's nonsense, cracking jokes while playing games. That was more fun than blowing money.”
“Is that so?”
“Yeah. Turns out being a champion and being a VTuber aren't all that unrelated after all. The fact that I keep thinking about it proves that much.”
“...”
“Actually, among everything we bought today, I liked the gaming chair and desk the most. I can't use them at the dorm because of the space, but I'm going to put them in the arcade and use them for a long, long time.”
“I'm glad.”
Do-dam nodded at my answer. Then she took a step closer and bumped my shoulder lightly with her head. The crisp scent that still clung to her rushed over me.
“...Thanks.”
“...”
“Your idea about new experiences was right, Duryeong-nim. If I hadn't done this, I think I would've shut myself away and started wondering whether I should quit being a VTuber.”
“Do-dam-ssi.”
“I'm not quitting. Don't worry, okay.”
“...”
Do-dam drifted back a little. She was still smiling, but the feeling behind that smile had changed.
“...Thanks.”
For some reason, it sounded relieved.
And a little sad....
“...”
“...”
Do-dam laughed again, bright and lively.
“All right, let's go play games now. Friday nights are for gaming — that's just common sense.”
“Back to the arcade?”
“Nope. Right now, everyone's focused on the Han River, which means we've got an absolute jackpot spot all to ourselves.”
“!”
“The champion has to go back to her home ground.”
So we headed for D/FENCE, the stadium Big Plan had bought up. But there, an unexpected guest was waiting for us.
The middle-aged man in glasses bowed his head.
“Good evening. I'm Nam Jinwook, a reporter. I couldn't find your contact information no matter what I tried, so I came all this way uninvited. Would it be possible to ask for an interview?”
“...”
This was....
Unexpected.
Isn't that the guy who was at High Fence Stadium before?
Do-dam and I looked at each other.
“...”
“...”
Looks like our easy gaming night had just been thrown out the window.