Chapter 14, Second Niece's Shorts Success Story
Chapter 14, Second Niece's Shorts Success Story
Right, the car needed for the business is sorted.
Now, I just need to solve the advertising issue for the Baek Ha-rin Channel.
I returned home and sat at my desk.
I brought out the decrepit laptop I'd been using since middle school, placed it on the living room table, and opened it.
"It's been a while since I took this out."
Back in the day, I used to carry this laptop around and relax wherever I went.
I especially enjoyed watching movies and anime while sitting on the rooftop bench.
I looked into the business inbox of the Harin-geongdyu channel, which I had pulled up on the screen, once again.
Advertising.
Usually, when you entrust an ad to a YouTube creator, they either hold the product, film a video, and upload it, or they naturally showcase it while streaming live.
I watch quite a bit of YouTube and live broadcasts, so I know this well.
It's mostly limited to gaming streams, but I know very well how they handle ads and make viewers open their wallets.
'But to film that kind of ad video, you need a proper place.'
Until now, Baek Ha-rin has been filming dance videos wherever she could—on her bed, the living room sofa, or even out on the street.
But this is an ad for a major conglomerate.
It's an official business deal from Daehan Electronics, the top company in South Korea.
I couldn't just casually film an ad video in a messy living room where all the household clutter is visible.
This isn't just a matter of courtesy; it's basic common sense for a creator.
'I guess I really need a proper studio.'
A room with stark white wallpaper.
A clean desk in the center to make the product stand out.
And a professional space with tons of lighting.
'But finding a decent studio like that in the middle of Seoul is easier said than done...'
Between the deposit and monthly rent, even if I were to rent a studio, the hourly rental fee and travel time are no joke.
After filming the ad, hauling equipment around and renting places just to shoot a single video would be a huge hassle and inefficient.
The one saving grace is...
The house of my eldest sister, where I'm currently crashing, is unnecessarily large.
It's a two-story detached house with a yard in Gangnam.
Fortunately, there are several empty rooms left unused in the house.
'Should I ask my eldest sister for an extra room?'
It would be best to casually bring it up to her.
If I made the excuse that I want to separate my workspace from my resting space, she'd definitely agree.
She knows I've been doing editing work in my room lately.
She'd probably nod and say yes, if only because her youngest brother is cute.
I mentally estimated the rough budget for the studio.
'Ah, but there are unexpectedly a lot of extra items needed.'
To film properly, the smartphone Baek Ha-rin was using has its limits.
I need a professional mirrorless camera, and for lighting, I can't just get away with a single ring light; I need to buy various things like reflectors and continuous lighting.
Plus, a roll screen for a clean background and soundproofing materials.
My head hurts just thinking about picking and paying for each item myself.
[AI App.]
[Yes. How can I help you?]
[I'm setting up a personal studio for YouTube filming. Can you pull up a list of decent equipment and handle the payment for everything? Don't worry about cost-effectiveness; just get high-quality stuff.]
The voice recognition picked up every single word without missing a beat.
At my words, a short loading animation spun on the smartphone screen.
[Understood.]
[Compiling a list of entry-level equipment optimized for building a 1-person creator studio.]
[The total purchase cost is estimated to be between 1 and 2 million won.]
That price is perfectly fine.
I can just get the money from Baek Ha-rin later.
Anyway...
This guy's efficiency is truly top-notch.
What would I have done about all these annoying tasks if not for this thing?
Feeling proud, I tapped the smartphone screen.
"Now, once the equipment arrives, I just need to set it up, and that's it."
I let out a big yawn and stretched.
I was leaning back into the sofa, enjoying the lethargy with my eyes half-closed, when it happened.
Tudadadada!
A loud sound of footsteps, like an elephant rolling down the stairs, echoed from the second floor.
I wondered what it was, and it turned out to be Baek Ha-young.
Dressed in comfortable sweatpants with her hair messily tied up, she came running into the living room with a udangtangtang crash.
"Samchon!!"
Baek Ha-young, who had charged at the sofa, immediately wrapped her arms around my neck and started clinging to me.
My hand instinctively went to her butt again.
"Argh! You're heavy, you brat. Why are you acting like this all of a sudden?"
"Samchon, help me with filming, okay? Please?"
Baek Ha-young rubbed her face against my chest.
Help her film?
I burst into a chuckle.
"Hey. I'm an editor by trade; are you asking your editor to help with filming too?"
"Aiiing. Pleeaaase!"
Despite my scolding, Ha-young just giggled and tugged on my sleeve.
"If you're an editor, you should obviously be thinking about how to get the footage with me! Come on, hurry up!"
"Alright, alright. You're stretching my clothes. Let go. What do you need help with?"
"Just follow me! To my room!"
Baek Ha-young grabbed my hand and led me to the second floor.
I jumped up and headed to Baek Ha-young's room on the second floor, matching her pace.
As soon as I opened the door and entered, a faint smell of oil hit my nose.
"Hmm?"
I wondered what she was doing, making all that pposhirak pposhirak rustling noise.
In the middle of the room, an object I'd seen somewhere before was sitting there all alone.
"Why is that in your room?"
The place my finger pointed to had a small mini deep fryer bubbling away.
Wait, isn't that supposed to be in our kitchen?
Why is it sitting brazenly in the middle of a middle school girl's room?
I walked closer and saw the oil inside the fryer bubbling noisily.
Inside, something dark and breaded was sizzling away.
'Is that pork cutlet?'
Judging by the shape, it looked like a frozen pork cutlet from the supermarket, but the surface was dark and blackish, as if it were slightly burnt.
"Hey, Ha-young. If you deep fry in your room, oil will splatter everywhere and the smell will soak into everything. Do you want to get smacked on the back by Omma?"
"Uh, I'll just ventilate the room thoroughly before Omma gets home! Besides, I'm in the middle of filming content right now."
Baek Ha-young lightly brushed off my nagging and pointed to the camera stand.
"Since you've been editing my videos, my mukbang channel has been blowing up lately. So, I didn't want to just film myself eating; I wanted to try challenging myself by cooking things myself, so I even brought the fryer from the kitchen..."
Baek Ha-young looked at the pork cutlet struggling in the fryer with a sullen expression.
"But as I was frying it, I started wondering if I was doing it right, so I called you. The color is a bit off. The outside keeps burning, and I don't know if the inside is cooked or not."
As she said that, she looked up at me like I was her savior, blinking her eyes pitifully.
"Samchon, you're really good at cooking, right? Can't you tell just by looking if this is frying properly? Please help me."
"Sigh... I wonder if you'll ever be able to get married later."
"I'm not getting married? I'm going to live with you forever and ever, Samchon!"
"The ones who always say that are the ones who get married first."
Seeing her fumbling in front of the fryer was kind of cute.
It was also true that I was worried she might burn herself if she kept frying clumsily.
"You're cute, our Ha-young. Filming a cooking video and all."
"Ung-hihi."
I chuckled, lightly wrapped my arm around Baek Ha-young's shoulder, and patted her butt a few times.
"Ouch!"
"Hand over the tongs."
I rolled up my sleeves and took the tongs.
First, I checked the temperature of the fryer.
190 degrees.
Crazy, no wonder the outside burned.
For thick meat like pork cutlet, to cook it through to the inside, you have to cook it slowly at a moderate temperature of around 170 degrees, then raise the temperature at the end to make the outside crispy.
I lowered the temperature, took out the pork cutlet that had been suffering in the fryer, and checked its condition.
"You've made a piece of charcoal."
"Ugh... I'm embarrassed..."
"The oil temperature was too high. Look, only the outside is burnt, and the inside is undercooked."
I took a new frozen pork cutlet from the table and slid it gently into the oil.
I tapped it with the tongs to make sure it didn't stick to the bottom, frying it until it turned golden.
I even showed off the technique of slightly raising the temperature at the end to evaporate the moisture from the batter, and the pork cutlet looked crispy just by looking at it.
"Wow... the color is completely different. Samchon, you're really like a pork cutlet restaurant owner!!"
"Your Samchon has confidence when it comes to pork loin cutlets."
Baek Ha-young dropped her jaw and poured out exclamations of admiration.
I took out the fried pork cutlet and placed it on a rack to drain the oil.
"Wait for it. It's not over yet."
I went straight down to the kitchen and found some store-bought Western-style sauce, butter, and milk.
I mixed the ingredients in a small pot, boiled them once, and brought up a smooth, deep-flavored special Western-style sauce.
I poured plenty of the steaming special sauce over the pork cutlet, which was prettily plated on a dish.
Baek Ha-young gulped as the savory smell of oil and the sweet and sour scent of the sauce filled the room.
"There. It's done. I'll film it for you, so go ahead and eat it deliciously."
I took Baek Ha-young's smartphone off the tripod and set the angle.
I framed it so that the mouth-watering pork cutlet and Baek Ha-young's face were perfectly captured on screen.
"Action."
At my signal, Baek Ha-young picked up her chopsticks.
Perhaps because she was in front of the camera, she looked slightly nervous as she carefully picked up a piece of pork cutlet.
She popped the sauce-covered pork cutlet into her mouth.
Crunch.
As she chewed, Baek Ha-young's expression brightened up instantly.
"Wow..."
It wasn't acting.
That was a look of genuine, sincere deliciousness.
"Samchon, this is seriously so good! The outside is perfectly crispy, but the inside is moist, and what on earth is this sauce? It's a hundred times better than what they sell at restaurants!"
Baek Ha-young launched into a storm of mukbang, seemingly forgetting that the camera was rolling.
The sight of her devouring the pork cutlet in an instant, with sauce smeared around her mouth, was captured perfectly on the lens.
When I turned off the recording button, Baek Ha-young patted her full stomach and gave a thumbs up.
"Samchon is the best! I want to fry things every day!"
"If you fry things every day, you'll get kicked out by Omma. Just make sure to ventilate the room thoroughly."
"Okay!"
I chuckled and slipped out of the room.
A few days later.
The Shorts video of the pork cutlet mukbang, fried with the mini fryer in the corner of Baek Ha-young's room, was properly chosen by the algorithm as soon as it was uploaded.
A cute frying challenge by a middle school girl and a pork cutlet completed with her Samchon's help.
And the genuine, touched reaction that burst out when she took a bite.
That video easily hit 10 million views on YouTube Shorts.
It even exploded with overseas traffic on other short-form platforms, recording an unrealistic number of 100 million views.
"Sigh... what's with all these advertising inquiries..."
So this is what it means to be in trouble because you're doing too well.
But my second niece is still a middle schooler, so I have no intention of making her do things like ads.
The eldest is an adult, so it's up to her, but for a minor, you need Omma's permission, right?
And there's no way Omma would give her permission.