Gamst's Live Call: From Rival Rant to Heartfelt Welcome

Heh. That's more like it. They're finally seeing me for what I am.

Reading the articles, a warm satisfaction settled in my chest. They were finally looking at me as World Class — not some prospect. Right up until the United match, they'd acknowledged my ability while still locking me inside frames like "Asian player" and "so young," never quite willing to peel the prospect label off.

"Hey, Tae-woo, look at this!"

Chan-kyu called me over, voice bright with excitement, and shoved his phone screen in my face. Playing on it was a clip from Gamst, the streamer famous for being a Manchester United fan.

Chan-kyu burst out laughing at the raw, full-throated reaction.

"Bwahaha! You know Gamst, right?"

"Yeah, the internet streamer."

"Right. I watch a lot of his videos, and he never, ever talks like that about Korean players. You must've actually been that good... You're not, like, offended or anything, are you?"

"What? That's high praise. High praise. In soccer, getting cursed out by rival fans is about as big a compliment as it gets."

"But it looks like Gamst is catching some heat over it."

Chan-kyu lowered the phone, and the comments stacked under the video came into view.

The mood's worse than I expected.

If it had been one or two comments dragging Gamst, they would have been buried in no time. But the further I scrolled, the more comments attacking him kept appearing, one after another. And there were far from few of them.

"I don't think this is something he should be getting flamed for..."

"Well, you're basically a superstar in Korea now, so that might be part of it, but yeah — it is a bit much."

The comment section also had malicious remarks so vile they were barely fit to put into words. As I kept scrolling ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a little further, a clarification from Gamst himself appeared pinned at the top.

"Now I feel kind of bad, for no real reason..."

When I had lived under the name Kim Chan-ki, I had been buried under countless hate comments. Even if they were only words, I knew exactly how deep those wounds could cut.

"Hyung, should I just comment myself?"

"Even if you comment, nobody's going to believe it's actually you."

"That so?"

Chan-kyu was right. These days anyone could slap a celebrity's name on a comment, and even if it really was you, people generally wouldn't believe it.

"Then what do we do? Seeing him get piled on like this doesn't sit right with me..."

"Ah! This'll work!"

Chan-kyu suddenly grabbed his phone and pulled up Gamst's live stream. He was live right now, and as it happened, he was in the middle of an apology.

"Hey, just donate right here and verify it's actually you. He's streaming right now."

I quickly pulled out my phone, wrote Gamst on a piece of paper, snapped a selfie, and posted it to Instagram.

"I'm truly sor— huh? Wait a second. A million won? No... is this actually Jung Tae-woo?"

Gamst, who had been in the middle of his apology, froze at the huge sum, then looked even more stunned as he read the message that followed.

The chat exploded in an instant.

"Ah... no... are you really Jung Tae-woo? I am so, so sorry. What do I do, the call... of course I'll take the call! One moment!"

On screen, Gamst looked genuinely startled, fumbling and stumbling over himself as he went on.

"I'll send you my number in a whisper! Would it be all right if we took the call on the stream?"

The chat went even more wild.

"Oh, Tae-woo, this must be it."

Chan-kyu pointed at my phone. A whisper had come through in the AfreecaTV chat.

I called immediately. On the broadcast, the sound of Gamst's phone ringing could be heard.

Bzzzzzt— bzzzzzt—

"Hhhk! Everyone, the call actually came through! Hoo... I'm going to pick up."

Gamst answered with trembling hands.

"H-hello?"

"Is this Gamst?"

"Yes, it is! Jung Tae-woo... would it be all right if I put you on speaker?"

"Haha, of course."

Gamst's heart felt like it would explode. Jung Tae-woo — a player actually competing in the Premier League — had just called into his stream.

In all the years since he had started broadcasting, he had never been in a situation like this. No — even looking at streamers as a whole, he was almost certainly the first to have a player competing in Europe donate on air and then get on the phone.

And a single word from Jung Tae-woo would snuff out the current controversy in an instant. His palms were sweating, he was so tense.

Still. This is content I can't let slip away. If this goes well...

"C-can you hear me?"

"Yes, Jung Tae-woo, I can hear you. Could I ask you to introduce yourself? Of course there's no one who doesn't know Jung Tae-woo, but just in case."

"Hello. I'm Jung Tae-woo, Manchester City's goalkeeper — the one who just received some high praise from Gamst."

"Hahaha, I'm sorry one more time. You were just so good I couldn't help myself..."

"No, no. I had a great time watching it. If anything, I feel good — like I got recognized by Gamst?"

"If you put it that way, I'm really grateful. As expected of Jung Tae-woo — your personality is as good as your face."

Gamst kept talking while sneaking glances at the mood in the comments.

"You must be exhausted... I hope I'm not taking up too much of your time."

"Not at all. I reached out first, and if anything, being over in Europe I don't get many chances to see the fans back in Korea, so having a chance to talk like this is really nice. I think it'd be great if you ran it like an interview, Gamst."

"Oh, for real? Then would it be okay if I picked a few questions the fans would be curious about?"

"Yeah, sounds good. Oh, and you can speak comfortably. As you know, I'm still a student, haha."

"Th-then, Tae-woo..."

"Yes, St-hyung!"

"Khhh~ everyone, Tae-woo and I are this close, hahaha."

Gamst quickly checked the viewer count. It had already blown past the forty thousand the chat had mentioned, and it was still climbing.

It was the highest number of his entire streaming career.

This is... this is huge...