The Second Vlog (1)
I shoved the last bite of bagel into my mouth and immediately regretted it.
“Mmmph! Mmmph-mmph-mmph?”
“What are you even saying? Swallow first, then talk. I can tell you’re excited, at least.”
We couldn’t keep talking in the lecture hall, so I dragged her to the café inside the school building. We sat side by side at a table, and Chae-ryeong, determined to show me the stats right away, was currently speaking with half a bagel still stuffed in her mouth.
“Mmm… gulp. So honestly, I was kinda nervous too, so I didn’t check until today?”
She’d skipped lunch, so she really must have been starving. Watching her talk with a bagel clamped between her teeth made her look exactly like a puppy chewing on a dog treat. I half-expected her to start barking any second.
As that useless thought crossed my mind, a sharp voice snapped from beside me.
“Yoon Taeo. Are you even listening?”
“Yeah, of course I’m listening.”
The reason I kept drifting into ridiculous daydreams was probably because none of this felt real. I’d never run a YouTube channel before, so I was basically a total noob, but she’d just told me our first video had already hit a hundred thousand views. I’d never heard numbers like that in my life.
“I should’ve checked on the first day. First-day views alone were thirty thousand. Then fifty thousand on the second day. And now, on day three, we’ve already ridden the algorithm all the way to a hundred thousand!”
The graph was split into three sections—day before yesterday, yesterday, and today. The steep upward curve looked almost unnatural. Chae-ryeong’s voice was pure, unfiltered excitement.
“And the subscribers? We’ve already passed nine thousand and we’re closing in on ten thousand!”
“Is that really that huge? I mean… is it?”
“Of course it is, you idiot! We’ve already blown way past the monetization requirements. In just three days. There are tons of people who can’t reach that even after months!”
“But you’ve never even run a channel before. How do you know all this?”
That was the part that confused me most. Sure, she was obsessed with YouTube, but this was her first time actually standing on the creator side of things.
“Well… I watched a ton of stuff while I was preparing to start one. Communities, blogs, all that kind of thing…”
“Ah, so you’re a basement-dwelling expert. If you knew so much, you should’ve started sooner.”
“I didn’t have any good ideas back then, okay? But it worked out perfectly now, so who cares! All my hard work is finally paying off!”
Chae-ryeong turned her head away, looking a little stung by my jab. Still, I knew how hard it was to actually start something. I decided not to nag her any further. Besides, she wasn’t wrong—her effort really had paid off. Otherwise, no matter how lucky we got, there was no way we could’ve blown up this fast.
At the very least, I knew the content ideas she’d come up with and the editing points she’d suggested were actually pretty professional.
“…More importantly, monetization?”
The moment money entered the conversation, my ears perked up. I wasn’t clueless about how many YouTube stars were making serious cash as creators. I just hadn’t thought or hoped that we would become one of them, so I’d stayed calm. Now that it was actually happening, I was just as excited as she was.
“Yes! Exactly. Monetization! We can’t skip that part. Anyway, we’ve already met the requirements, so I submitted the application. It’ll probably take some time, though. It doesn’t happen instantly.”
“Really?”
“Yep. And like I said before, we’ll split the earnings fifty-fifty.”
“Fifty-fifty? This is your YouTube channel. You even gave me an appearance fee.”
Honestly, I never expected her to actually split it evenly. I thought she was just saying it casually and that she’d change her mind once real money started coming in. Maybe she’d throw in some performance bonus on top of the appearance fee. After all, I wasn’t the one aggressively pushing for YouTube, and it wasn’t even my account. Plus, after already taking a ten-million-won appearance fee, asking for more felt pretty shameless.
“Hmm… that’s true, but aren’t we both doing about the same amount of work?”
“You mean splitting the labor?”
“Yeah. I handle content planning and picking the editing highlights. We both act in front of the camera. You do the filming and editing. That’s roughly fifty-fifty, right?”
“…Well, if you’re just counting the tasks, I guess it is.”
“So half. Deal? And once money starts coming in, you’ll be more motivated to work hard, won’t you?”
“……I can’t deny that. Mm-hmm.”
“Money grubber.”
“What did you say?”
“Huh? Nothing. I didn’t say anything.”
Anyway, from a motivational standpoint and considering the actual workload, she seemed to think fifty-fifty was fair. She wasn’t the type to get greedy about money in the first place. Her family was rich, and for her this was closer to self-fulfillment than anything else.
“If that’s what you want, I’m not complaining.”
“Then it’s settled. No take-backs later, okay?”
“That’s my line. Don’t come complaining that the split is unfair. I won’t change it once we start.”
I snatched the mouse from her laptop and started scrolling through the comments under the video. I was genuinely curious what kind of mindset made so many people watch us.
Aside from a few troll comments, most of them were compliments about the video or about us. But the ones that really stood out were the comments about our looks.
They were all talking about our appearances. Seeing those comments reminded me of what Chae-ryeong had told me before.
“See? The comments are nothing but compliments, right? Hmph.”
I still didn’t understand why she was so thrilled, but Chae-ryeong looked incredibly proud.
“Yeah. I have to admit I’m a little surprised. It looks like everything you said really worked.”
“Right?”
“Yep. Perfect visual couple. Destined soulmates. Visual couple this, that. Seems like a lot of people are watching just because they like that stuff.”
“……See? I told you. I’ve completely figured out the current vlog meta.”
Watching her puff out her chest and brag made me feel both annoyed and impressed at the same time. It also meant she really had nailed what people wanted to see. Maybe Chae-ryeong actually had real talent as a YouTuber.
The flood of reactions from viewers. The view count that turned our uncertain expectations into solid proof. And the income that, while still small, was clearly on the horizon. Once the results started showing, I couldn’t help but feel a spark of real passion.
Something fun had finally appeared in my otherwise boring daily life.
……Maybe I should put gaming on hold for a while and focus on YouTube instead?
The thought actually crossed my mind.
“So?”
“Huh?”
“So we’re not stopping here, right? What are we doing for the next video?”
Chae-ryeong looked momentarily flustered by my question, then broke into a bright, adorable smile.
“What’s this? Yoon Taeo? You were so lukewarm about it before. Now that it’s doing well, you’re having fun too?”
“Hmph. Well… let’s just say that’s about right. So what’s the next plan?”
“I’ve thought of a few ideas… but I haven’t decided yet.”
“Then show me the proposals now. Let’s brainstorm together.”
“Okay, okay. A passionate team member makes the leader happy. Let’s go, Yoon Taeo. We can become million-subscriber YouTubers too!”
“Alright, from now on we’re uploading at least one video per week. Got it?”
“Of course. I’m not making any weekend plans from now on.”
That was how the two of us, shoulder to shoulder and full of excitement, planned our next project. For beginner YouTubers, it was a pretty good start.
“……And that’s how we ended up filming our second video, everyone. We’re truly grateful. Hey, hurry up and say thank you too.”
“Thank you so much. We’re incredibly grateful for all the interest and reactions from our very first video.”
“A lot of people especially praised the editing. They said it doesn’t look like a first attempt. Are you a professional editor?”
“Professional might be a stretch, but I’ve edited short clips here and there.”
Honestly, it was mostly just editing game streams I liked or the occasional solo videos I’d filmed. When I gave a polite thank-you to the camera, she looked at me with satisfied eyes. Good boy. Well done. The whole thing felt like dog training, which gave me complicated feelings.
“Anyway, they say you have to row when the tide comes in, right? Your humble creator Yoo Chae-ryeong has no intention of missing this opportunity, so we’ve come here to film the next video right away.”
She rattled on in a tone that sounded like she was narrating a special forces documentary. She really was good at talking in front of the camera. She probably would’ve done well with internet broadcasting too.
“Cameraman. What comes to mind when you think of spring?”
“Spring? New semester events? Limited spring skins?”
“Ugh, you just killed all the romance…”
“What? Spring events are super romantic! They shower returning players and new users with gifts to hook everyone.”
You wouldn’t understand a guy’s heart. I shook my head at her with a pitying look. Chae-ryeong stared back at me with an exasperated expression before delivering her next line.
“When you think of spring, isn’t it cherry blossoms? Cherry blossoms! So that’s why we’re here. At the cherry blossom festival. Shall we show them?”
“Ta-da.”
I smoothly turned the camera, capturing the stunning cherry blossom path in full bloom. After a long discussion where we’d both racked our brains, we’d decided the second vlog would be a cherry blossom festival date. It was the perfect couple vlog activity, and it was scenery you could only capture in spring. Chae-ryeong had pushed hard for seasonal content, saying it was something we absolutely couldn’t miss.
“Isn’t it beautiful, everyone? The colors are just… wow. It’s so pretty. Let’s walk along here and keep filming. Missing this would be losing half your life.”
Chae-ryeong gazed at the cherry blossoms with an enchanted expression. As I looked at the flowers through the camera with her, I suddenly remembered the flower language she’d asked me about last time.
“Chae-ryeong. Did you know the meaning of cherry blossoms?”
If it were Ezreal’s flower language, it would be ‘No support needed.’
“Oh, what is it? Yoon Taeo, did you actually look up the flower language of cherry blossoms just for today? I’m getting my hopes up. What is it?”
With eyes full of equal parts curiosity and anticipation, she looked at me. I answered,
“The flower language of cherry blossoms is midterms. Student. Go study.”
I was kindly informing her of the true meaning of cherry blossoms.
“Ughhh! Seriously! We came all the way here, don’t ruin the mood by talking about midterms!”
……And that was how our second vlog began.