An Ordinary PC Bang Part-Timer and His Not-So-Ordinary Streamer Friend (Part 2)
“Whew, thanks man.”
“Get lost.”
It was 4:38 a.m.—prime time for the afternoon shift part-timer like me to still be wide awake. Standing at the door was the guy who'd been my "boyfriend" for the day, flashing an awkward grin while waving a bag of pig's feet.
“Is this all the compensation I get for the mental trauma you put me through today?”
“Dude, think about pig's feet prices these days. Plus, I got the big size so you can eat some tomorrow too.”
“You still haven't snapped out of it, huh? My dignity got shredded because of you today. My brain got polluted turning those filthy memories with your thick skull into something straight out of The Love with that Ho-jun or whatever guy. Ugh, even thinking about it again... ugh. Fucking gross.”
I dry-heaved for real and flipped him the bird, but he couldn't come up with any excuses and just silently tore open the pig's feet packaging.
Ha... I knew the guy was a massive show-off, but who lies about having a girlfriend like that? And he had to brag that she was prettier than top-tier female streamers—leaving me suddenly cast as this stunning beauty. Obviously, I'd covered my ass on stream earlier by saying it was just my boyfriend hyping me up to sound good, and the streamers chalked it up to content, so no big reactions. But the chat went nuts wondering what my boyfriend's face looked like, doubting him every time he ranted about how gorgeous I was. Stuff like "prove it," "jealous," "no way," "shake a carrot if your girl's scary"—all sorts of crap scrolling by lightning-fast.
Thinking back, it pissed me off all over again. Why rave like that about a fake girlfriend's looks? Total psycho. Classic reply guy syndrome. Only reason I'm putting up with it is 'cause these pig's feet slap.
“Damn, these are fire. Where'd you get 'em? Nom nom.”
“Heh heh. You know Mi-pi?”
“Mister Pig? The YouTuber?”
“Yeah, that bro hooked me up. Tasty as hell, right?”
“For real~ Dude, how do you have such random connections? How'd you even meet that guy?”
I knew Mister Pig, the mukbang king—I often had his videos on in the background while eating. Pretty sure he had over 2 million subs, and he'd only been at it a few years. How the hell did this guy know him?
“Mi-pi-ham was introduced through Ho-jun-ham too.”
“That Ho-jun guy's got some reach, huh?”
“Bro's sitting at like 1.5 million subs.”
“No shit?”
“Straight facts.”
Wow, if you're not into YouTube, you wouldn't even know about creators with hundreds of thousands of subs. The YouTuber world's huge. I only cared about mukbangs, games, and sports, so total blind spot.
“What kinda content gets that many subs?”
“He films workouts, trips, fishing, whatever with his girl crew. Back when he was solo, he'd go overseas and charm local girls with that face—tons of that content.”
“That works?”
“With that face? Yeah.”
“Ah...”
Something us squids could never pull off... Jealous. So jealous.
“But it's basically just travel vlogs. The girls' reactions are always so thirsty that it comes off like pick-up artist bait disguised as travel.”
“He totally knows he's hot and milks it.”
“Yup. In his travel vids, every time he asks locals for directions, it's always girls.”
“Jealous. If only I'd been born with a face like that!”
“Uh...”
“Why're your eyes so wide?”
“Ahem. Nothing.”
I swear I caught a pitying look, but I let it slide.
“Oh, lemme use the computer real quick.”
“No more pig's feet?”
“You eat it, fatty.”
He ignored my middle finger as I scarfed noodles and pig's feet, shook his head like I was pathetic, and headed into the room labeled "19+ Stream."
“This punk—close as we are, you gonna jerk off right in front of me?”
“Pfft, shut up, asshole.”
“Then why the 19+ stream?”
“Not every 19+ means stripping. Gonna show you the most popular girl in Ho-jun-ham's crew.”
“Oh? Prettier than the ones at the PC bang earlier?”
“Personally? Prettiest in the domestic streaming scene.”
“For real~”
“But buy that ad-free preview shit already. How cheap can you be?”
“Streaming's just your broadcasts and sports for me—no need. YouTube Premium's tight enough monthly.”
“Ugh. Then stream from home after work or something. You're killer at King of Fist.”
“Nah. You know game skills alone don't cut it if your chat game's weak. I love King of Fist, but I don't watch pro streams—just tournaments.”
“Still, streaming beats just gaming solo. Might make bank. Oh, you upload game clips to YouTube or whatever—monetized?”
“Shut it. You escaped poverty like five minutes ago—what do you know? Just skip the ad, pleb.”
Dunno why, but while I was in the army, this dude started streaming, and by the time I got out, he'd already built a solid following. His streams weren't even that hilarious—just casually watchable—but he had steady ~1k viewers. Mystery. Even cute girl streamers don't always hit 1k average...
No way. Absolutely not jealousy. Nope.
“Whoa.”
“See? Hot as fuck, right?”
Skip the ad, and bam—a girl in an outfit where covered and exposed areas were about equal, dancing to the music. Crop top sailor suit with some strap across her hips that could be underwear or a swimsuit, hair swept up, eyes cool and detached but lips curved in a slight smile. Killer vibe.
“She's gorgeous.”
“Right? One of the clips that blew up Ho-jun-ham's YouTube. She took the biggest share. His virtual marriage with her spiked subs hard.”
“She on YouTube too?”
“Nah, just lives. That's why she gets credit for his sub growth.”
“Makes sense. Look at those donations popping.”
Non-stop alerts raining in!
The donation pings were insane. I wasn't big on streaming, but compared to my buddy's streams? Night and day. 100k+ won donations were rare there, but here they went off like 10k or 1k ones, steady as hell. In just minutes, she'd passed my monthly wage.
Whoa. Legend.
“Do girls always rake in this much?”
“Girls out-earn guy streamers on average. But she's the GOAT in this niche. Not all girls make bank like that. Plus, streams like this are rare—check the title: No VOD. Exclusivity draws the viewers and cash.”
“Streaming world's wild.”
“And title says it's her birthday today.”
Donations exploding like Korea's loaded. Holy—million-won bombs too.
I forgot to eat, yelling at the sight of half my monthly pay vanishing in fanfare. Even the streamer mid-dance stopped, hand over mouth, eyes wide.
“Ten million in a donation? For real?”
“Rare even for named girl cams on birthdays. Not impossible, but yeah.”
“Argh! I should've been born a girl!”
“A pretty one.”
“Fuck yeah—a pretty girl!!”
Past Life Recall Service!
“Huh?”
“What the?”
Right as I finished yelling, the screen flipped to some ad, making me and my buddy throw up question marks. Cartoon character straight out of a sketchy game ad, speaking in stiff AI text-to-speech.
“Shoulda bought preview. You're such a cheapskate.”
“Wait 15 seconds. Don't you know the beauty of patience?”
Normal ads let you skip after 15, so I told him to shut up and wait. He grumbled, but post-first line, it went silent... and no skip button after 15 seconds.
“What? One-minute ad?”
“They don't do those anymore, right?”
“Unless it's big budget, but who sinks a minute into this bait?”
Not some corporate spot—just typical clickbait game ad. You know the ones: winter mom-daughter poverty story that installs a random puzzle game. Installed once on a scam, never again. Figured this was the same.
But a full minute? Must've scammed a ton like me.
“Why no skip? Minute's up.”
“Preview's your fault. Buy it now.”
“Screw preview—maybe click through to the site and back?”
Clicked the ad screen. New tab: game homepage or whatever.
“For losers dreaming they'd coast through life as pretty girls. We'll summon your past life? What the fuck?”
“Pfft—haha. Voice recognition for targeted ads now?”
“Right? Timing's legendary.”
Weird timing on our convo, but solid agro whatever it was.
Check My Past Life
“Kinda curious. Hit it.”
“Won't install a virus?”
“Click gonna serve malware to users?”
“True...”
Felt sketchy, but curiosity + logic won. Clicked Find My Past Life.