Gather Here - 3
[July 29, 6:34:12 PM]
[July 29, 6:34:13 PM]
[July 29, 6:34:14 PM]
[July 29, 6:34:15 PM]
...
...
...
Thursday evening.
It was the day before the live stream.
Most of the ABCDRD members under the Big Plan were either taking a short break or preparing for a late broadcast. The one who went live that evening was Legend.
Her name was Hae-rin.
She wailed, "Utyatya--!"
A purple-haired beauty with her hair tied back.
She had gone to Japan for a collaboration trip, only for a wave of corporate policy changes to cancel the collab one after another. On the way back, a new regulatory bill had nearly driven her agency to ruin.
"Utyatya, tyaaa~"
It was a brutal ordeal. She was the top VTuber in Korea, with countless fandoms behind her, and yet one bad turn after another had finally left her mind loose at the seams.
"Utyaa. Kyahng."
Her whole concept had always leaned toward brain-melt broadcasting. But today, especially, she had lost the ability to speak human. The fans who loved this atmosphere cheered at her babbling all the more.
"Ttuu, tyaaa... tya-hang?"
Hae-rin shook her head nonstop. She rattled her little 2D cutout body and tested the limits of facial rigging. Her purple hair flew every which way.
"Tyaa! Tyaa! Tyaa... ttya? Utya?"
Fifteen minutes into the stream, she still hadn't said a single human word. Neither had the fans. They were communicating in a language of their own. A very simple, instinctive language.
"!"
Hae-rin confirmed her fans' sincere comfort. For a moment, she seemed to choke up, swallowing hard. Then she clapped her hands briskly and answered in a voice full of feeling.
Clap clap clap!
"Ttutyu! Tyaaa! Tya! Ubyabyap, uhihi.... ppap!"
"!"
Hae-rin was startled by the enormous donation amount. She reacted with such affection that she looked like a baby sparrow searching for its father sparrow.
"Big, man? Ppikman?"
Then she began clapping with her tiny little hands, a rhythm like a child who'd just been handed a fistful of candy in both palms.
Clap clap clap clap clap--!
"Ttyattya! Ppikmang! Ppimang! Ppimang! Ppyaaah! Tyaaa! Ttyattya! Hehe...."
That fierce reaction made the fans happy too. They didn't necessarily know exactly what it meant, but they were the kind of people ready to resonate with it, ready to be glad as long as Hae-rin was glad.
It was fifteen minutes later when the group utyatya session ended.
Hae-rin spoke in a bright, cheerful voice, with the head she had been shaking wildly only moments ago now held still and calm.
"Ah, thank you all. It's been a really good time together after so long. Have you all been well? Hae-rin came back, and suddenly I became the icon of total collapse, which was kind of upsetting."
"Sigh... then should we do one more utya?"
"Ah, right. I had something I wanted to show the Sunny Class kids, but I almost forgot. Let's do the utya later."
Hae-rin naturally let the incoming crude jokes slide right past her. Then, while working something on the computer screen, she said,
Click.
Click.
"You know ABCD seniors are preparing for their live stream tomorrow, right? They did their final rehearsal today, and Hae-rin and her friends went to watch. I got to see the ABCD seniors there."
"So I got permission from the seniors and recorded some of what they were preparing. Want to listen?"
"Just wait a second...."
Click--!
A black playback window appeared on the screen.
When she pressed the button there, cheerful music spilled out. The sound quality was rough, as if recorded from far away on a cellphone.
Like the opening of an old animated series,
it was a childish, tacky pink melody.
Pambam! Pabababam! Pambam-bam--☆
Berry's voice came from there. It wasn't the voice through a stream microphone, but a real voice full of static.
[Berryling! Miracle cute lovely magic--☆]
Then a grand sound rolled out around it. A bouncy effect, the kind you'd expect from a magical girl anime.
Bapam!
Shwoooong--!
Jjararang--☆
The playback ended there.
"Done."
"We'll watch the rest together with our RD friends when we relay it."
Watching those reactions, Hae-rin naturally drifted into small talk. It was one of the episodes she'd gone through over the past few days.
"Oh, come to think of it, it rained the day before yesterday. I was going to ride my bike around the Han River after a long time, but it suddenly started raining. I hate riding in the rain, so I gave up. Then I was pushing my bike and trying to take the subway, and right then it stopped?"
She sighed.
"No, even that shouldn't have to follow me around as part of the total collapse aura...."
*
In front of the convenience store.
The outdoor table was quiet.
Before I knew it, time had passed and night had fully settled in.
Silently, I turned off my phone.
That was because Hae-rin's stream, the only one among ABCDRD that had been live until just a moment ago, had ended. It had been her first broadcast this time.
....
Ayoung-sunbaenim would occasionally forget how to speak like a person. So this was who she'd been influenced by.
There really were things worth learning from the number one VTuber in the industry.
The Utyatya Rite, a code that didn't seem to exist at all, was easy to imitate. New arrivals could join in without thinking and get close that way. If you played along naturally, you'd wind up slipping into her pace.
Like building compound interest on stocks.
A sensibility for locking in incoming viewers without forcing it.
Honestly, as a broadcast itself, it was easier and more entertaining than DoDa's madness.
....
Still, Doda tends to hold the hearts of game people in place through jokes. And in the Big Plan tied to real-world spaces, Doda's temperament is actually the better fit.
In the end, there was meaning in the fact that the two shows, childish and simple as they might be, had split the current top two live-viewer spots in the Korean VTuber world.
VTuber viewers liked cute, kitschy, stimulating things.
Much more than I'd expected.
....
If I'd accounted for that ahead of time, I would have prepared a place for even more stimulating, even simpler content. Or I could have learned through collaborations with famous streamers.
Even while I was just going through the process of setting up the Big Plan corporation, I'd belatedly realized there were all sorts of other efficient methods. There were more ways to help an obscure company than I'd imagined.
But.
This was the first time for me.
It was the only world where I'd discovered a small-time VTuber broadcasting somewhere.
So I made a lot of mistakes.
There were too many things I only learned too late.
....
If I were given another chance.
Could I do better?
....
Start Ayoung's stream again.
Throw out 1 billion won.
Make a promise with her.
Build the corporation again.
And then.
Again.
Again....
It's a pointless fantasy.
As I muttered it, I looked up at the darkened night sky.
....
Even now, the stars were still glittering overhead. Under the soft curtain of light that shimmered like aurora because of the neon glow of downtown Seoul....
And this sight was something you could only see right now.
The angle of the light.
The place from which you looked.
The glow of passing cars.
All those variables coming together to make this scene.
That was why.
There would be no next time.
....
The ten-thousand-won bill in my pocket.
The bracelet wrapped around my left wrist.
The camping car parked beside me.
The memories piled up on the second floor of the convenience store.
All of it.
That day.
Right here.
Even the moment I had met Ayoung by chance....
There would be no next time.
....
With that, I put my feelings in order.
I tapped the outdoor table.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
It was the same sound it had made when I'd tapped it with the headlight that day. The material of the table was the same, after all.
"It's the same."
Sometimes, when I missed this world too much, all I had to do was tap the convenience store's outdoor table.
....
That was enough.
I stood up.
And then.
Leaving the convenience store behind, I went back to my one-room apartment.
....
Tomorrow.
Her stage begins.