Where Dreams Gather - 1
Monday morning.
Representative Baek Su-cheol, hands on the wheel, looked thoroughly rattled.
Is this the right place?
There wasn’t a single person passing through the upscale residential complex in Hannam-dong where he had arrived. And the place his car was headed for was the very center of it all.
Cold sweat broke out across his back as he said, “Is it really all right for just the two of us to come?”
“...”
In the passenger seat beside him, Kang Do-dam was sitting there with her eyes wide, too. She, too, had looked around this neighborhood and felt the instinctive certainty that this wasn’t a pond they belonged in.
So she swallowed hard.
Duryeong-nim, what on earth did you prepare?
The invitation from Big Plan.
Honestly, even when he first heard that the meeting place was Hannam-dong, he had sensed something was off. But once they arrived, it was even worse than he had imagined.
This was pressure in the shape of a place, the world of the wealthy made spatial.
It was quiet in the middle of Seoul.
Luxury homes were clustered together in a village of blue-green trees and manicured gardens. Even the process of entering this place felt like some kind of sacred rite of passage.
Up.
Up.
Slowly, up...
What they reached was a massive black gate.
The moment Baek Su-cheol’s car approached it, the mechanical gate moved on its own.
Chk-reeeak—!
As if it had been expecting them, rather than merely checking their identification.
Baek Su-cheol carefully drove inside.
“...”
Beyond the wall was a neat mansion.
Inside the modern gray boundary walls lay a green garden and a gleaming space of glass. Between the closely cut lawns, people in uniforms hurried about carrying things in and out.
Even the view glimpsed on the way to the parking area was like that. At the entrance to the underground garage, a man in a suit was already bowing politely outside the car window.
Baek Su-cheol timidly lowered the window.
“W-what can I do for you...?”
“Welcome, Representative Baek. Please leave the parking to me. If you go inside, someone will come right away to guide you.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry... I can just park it myself!”
“No need. This is my assigned work, so please leave it to me.”
“Th-then...”
Baek Su-cheol got out of the car with the key still in the ignition. Do-dam also got out and shut the door. Then the two of them followed the guide into the mansion.
“The investment briefing room is this way.”
“Are we the only ones going in?”
“There are already some people who have arrived.”
“I see...”
After nodding, Baek Su-cheol muttered dazedly, “What kind of investment briefing is this place for? It’s not like some tycoon’s mansion...”
“...”
But Do-dam couldn’t answer.
Her mind was only spinning as she thought, Duryeong-nim, this is way too much...!
The Friday evening Do-dam remembered.
Seonwoo Taek had been grilling meat at a convenience store, muttering into his phone while making calls here and there. Aki and Do-dam had thought, He’s up to something again, and paid him no mind.
And yet the thing he had been preparing in the meantime was this...
As Baek Su-cheol and Do-dam followed the guide, they whispered to each other.
“What do we do now, Boss?”
“Aigoo, this is at least on the level of a conglomerate roundtable... I’m worried I made the call too recklessly. Big Plan told me to just pick a convenient time, so I said we’d come right away. I should not have answered so quickly then...”
“What are we supposed to do now that we’re already here? And Boss, you’re in a suit, but I’m only wearing shorts and a shirt.”
Do-dam slapped her own exposed thigh several times and complained bitterly, the exact picture of someone who had walked into a restaurant alone wearing sweatpants.
No matter how much clown blood ran in her veins, there was no helping this situation.
Baek Su-cheol wore an awkward expression.
“S-sorry. They said it was an investment briefing, so I just thought it was a formality... When they told me to bring one representative creator, I brought you right away, Do-dam.”
“Hoo...”
The representative creator of Aurora Prism Entertainment.
It sounded fancy, but in the end it just meant the most-viewed streamer at a tiny little startup company.
Even so, I’m only a small VTuber with 80,000 subscribers... What exactly does Big Man-nim see in me that makes him back me like this?
No.
At the root of it all...
...You’re the one who looked me up personally and filed that report to Big Man-nim. And the one you’re actually backing, for real, is Aki-chan.
In the end.
I was just a bonus.
“...”
When that thought crossed Do-dam’s mind, they finally entered the mansion.
The guide pulled out indoor slippers from in front of a large shoe cabinet. Baek Su-cheol and Do-dam awkwardly changed into them, then walked down the spacious hallway.
Baek Su-cheol looked around the building and marvelled. “Why is their living room the size of our office...?”
“Maybe our company is just ridiculously tiny?”
“Don’t say the facts. It hurts.”
“Sorry.”
The guide didn’t react to their banter. He simply climbed the stairs in silence and led the two of them to the reception room they had promised.
At last, they arrived in front of it.
“You can go in this way. There are designated tables for each company, so please check the nameplates on the tables. If you have any difficulties, please speak to the staff member waiting inside.”
“!”
The guide finished speaking and bowed. Then he hurried off into the distance.
The two of them, left behind, stood awkwardly in front of the door.
“...”
“...”
Facing the tightly closed doorknob, Baek Su-cheol fussed with his tie with trembling fingers. Do-dam tilted her head, unable to understand why he was suddenly dragging things out.
“Are we not going in?”
“Ehh, no way.”
“Good game?”
“You can still crack jokes in a situation like this?”
“Then why aren’t we going in?”
Baek Su-cheol let out a long sigh. “Didn’t they say there were people who arrived before us? Usually that means you’re under a microscope.”
“Why?”
“If they prepared an investment briefing on this scale, then... at the very least, it’d be a meeting discussing a mid-sized agency or a major entertainment business. That means everyone in that room must be terrifying. That’s why I’m nervous.”
“...”
Do-dam tilted her head again.
“Big Man-nim only backs VTubers with subsidies and donations, right? Would someone like that suddenly call in movie actors or idols or something?”
“...”
An unexpectedly sharp point.
Baek Su-cheol, who had been swept up in the mood and grown flustered, stiffened.
He had only gone numb because the donations had been pouring down like rain lately, but in the past fifteen days since Big Man had appeared, there hadn’t been a single rumor of him touching any field other than VTubers.
So he tilted his head as well.
“Huh? Come to think of it, you’re right. Why VTubers?”
“Hoo, let’s just go in. I’ll open it.”
“W-whoa?!”
Do-dam just grabbed the doorknob and pulled.
And the room inside came into view at once.
“...”
It’s smaller than I expected.
A reception room smaller than expected.
It had lighting and furniture arranged in a natural, comfortable way, almost like a cafe. There were two sets of tables and chairs that could seat two people each, and at the far end, a large display screen.
There were only two nameplates on the tables.
『Aurora Prism Entertainment』
『Studio Romance』
One was our company.
The other was that famous company from way up the food chain.
That was it.
“?”
Huh, there really are only two VTuber companies.
Then Do-dam caught sight of two people already seated there. They looked back too, nearly jolting with their teacups still raised to their mouths.
Their gazes crossed.
A middle-aged man and a young woman.
A composition similar to theirs.
Faces I don’t know.
The middle-aged man, who bore a similar impression to Baek Su-cheol, broke into a sweat and carefully spoke up, while the woman with glasses beside him watched them cautiously.
“A-are you perhaps from Aurora Prism Entertainment?”
“!”
Baek Su-cheol hurried forward.
The two men exchanged an awkward handshake.
“Yes... that’s right. I’m Baek Su-cheol, the representative and CEO of Aurora Prism Entertainment.”
“Ah, I see. I’m Jo Tae-sik, CEO of Studio Romance.”
“Ah, yes. Nice to meet you.”
“Likewise.”
“No, this side is more...”
“No, this side is...”
With their hands clasped together, the two men began a contest over who could bow their head lower. Once their heads dipped below shoulder level, only murmuring filled the room.
In the middle of that.
Do-dam glanced at the woman in glasses. She was dressed properly in a suit. Her hair wasn’t styled all the way, but she was still clearly dressed with formality in mind.
Dammit. Am I the only one here in shorts...
“...”
“!”
Perhaps sensing Do-dam’s stare, the woman with glasses offered a shy greeting.
“Nice to meet you. Um... are you a VTuber?”
“!”
Oh.
So this was the red-pill exchange?
How considerate.
I couldn’t tell because she was wearing a suit. So she’s a VTuber too.
“Ah, yes... Well. That’s right.”
“Ahhh, I see...”
“I’m Doda of ABCD.”
“I’m Danhui of Romantic Drive.”
Do-dam nodded.
Ah, I see.
Somehow she’s all pure and feminine-looking... she kind of looks like a panelist. Is she the same type as Aki?
Dammit.
Is this really an age where you have to dress up even your insides just to survive?
Truly, a red ocean.
The world of VTubers was both hot and cold.
She had thought the red-pill reveal for the other company’s VTubers would involve lots of goofballs, like Eri noona. But seeing someone so neat and proper instead made everything awkward.
So Do-dam hesitated.
And the other side was the same.
“...”
“...”
Awk
ward
“...”
“...”
Awkward.
Awkward.
“...”
“...”
Something.
Something about this didn’t feel right...
Do VTubers really introduce themselves by real names in person...?
Just as Do-dam’s head began to spin in confusion, someone opened the door in front of them and came inside.
The four people in the room all looked forward at once.
Do-dam’s eyes widened.
“!”
The man who had entered was.
Very.
Very...
familiar.
The instant she saw his face, a laugh almost slipped out of her.
Duryeong-nim...!
Seonwoo Taek was wearing a suit. He crossed through the awkward atmosphere and walked toward them with firm, unhurried steps. Then he bowed politely and greeted them.
“First, I’d like to greet everyone who came here today. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
When he straightened again, a nameplate pinned to the front of his suit pocket came into view.
『Big Plan Holdings Korea』
『Investment Director Seonwoo Taek』
“I’m Seonwoo Taek, and I’m in charge of consulting for the Korean branch of the Singapore- and UK-based investment firm Big Plan Holdings.”
“!”
The moment he finished speaking.
The display screen behind him turned on.
Large letters appeared on the massive screen.
Seeing them, Do-dam murmured, “Big Plan D...?”
“Yes.”
Seonwoo Taek said, “This is the test model for our corporation’s new subculture investment business, planned by our representative, ‘Big Man.’ It’s also the name of the Korean corporation.”
Baek Su-cheol asked, “What does the ‘D’ after Big Plan mean, exactly...?”
“...”
The man said,
“It means dream.”
“!”
And there was only one person who understood what that meant.
-What kind of game is it?
-A dream, of course.
“...”
Do-dam’s face turned a little red.