Just Call Me Unnie
"Choi Shin, thank you so much for the donation. You really don't have to send that much."
"You really don't have to send any more, Choi Shin. That's way too much allowance."
Choi Shin had started throwing around enormous donations the moment she joined the stream. I was grateful — truly — that she was being so good to a beginner streamer like me, but I couldn't help worrying. I understood wanting to get closer even though we'd only just met, but if she kept donating like this, she was going to end up living off instant ramen.
"You're a streamer too, Choi Shin. You shouldn't just throw money around like that."
There were actually people who streamed as a hobby. I was doing this to make a living. If I could start earning real money, my sister's life would get easier.
The little donations here and there didn't weigh on me — those were fine. But receiving huge sums from a single person made me feel incredibly guilty. Like maybe she was skipping decent meals just to send me money. I couldn't even imagine doing something like that. She said she was rich, but I'd still rather she donated at a more comfortable pace. If she spent like this every day, her account might hit rock bottom.
"Still, please keep it reasonable, Choi Shin."
"Ten thousand is way overselling it. My friends said I'd blow up if I streamed, so I started yesterday out of curiosity."
"Yeah. We've been friends since we were little. We're still the closest."
It was one of those friendships that had started with our parents and carried on to their kids. Our parents had been close, and even after mine passed away when I was little, Mina's family had never stopped looking after us. When my sister came of age and Mina's family was moving, they offered to take us in, but my sister declined. Even so, they still always wanted to help — and day to day, Mina took care of me herself.
"Jiyoung's been super cute since we were kids. She was insanely popular at school."
"My friends do say I'm cute."
"You know you have a fan club, right?"
"What? I'm not a celebrity. I'm not pretty or cute enough to have a fan club."
"That's a scam and you know it."
A flood of donation messages poured in, and the viewer count had already surpassed two thousand. A thousand yesterday, two thousand today. I still couldn't believe I had this many people watching.
"I mean, this stream isn't even that entertaining. Thank you so much. Two thousand already..."
I was so grateful to my viewers. I was really lucky there weren't any toxic ones in the mix. And even if one showed up, my friends would deal with them immediately.
"I'll keep going as long as nothing bad happens on stream. My friends are here as managers too."
The more times you got banned by streamers, the more likely you were to get suspended — or even permanently banned. That said, if a ban was unjustified, the streamer who issued it would get penalized too. Since both the manager who hit the ban button and the streamer would take the hit, you couldn't just hand out manager status carelessly.
WeTV had given up a portion of its revenue in exchange for looking after streamers' mental health. That's why it had far fewer toxic viewers than other platforms.
"That's why they had me stream here. If it were any other platform, I wouldn't have even started."
"Mina told me about this platform too."
Come to think of it, it wasn't an exaggeration to say I spent more than a third of every day with Mina. She looked after every little thing for me. Could I even survive without Mina?
If we were going to keep talking, I should at least grab some drinks.
"Mina, want a drink?"
"I'll get them. What do you want?"
"Me? Cola."
I preferred Coke Zero. The clean aftertaste was nice, and they said it was better for you than regular sugary cola, so I tended to stock the fridge with a bunch of it.
"Hehe. I don't do things like buuurb~"
It wasn't that I didn't — more that it barely showed. To other people, it probably looked like I just never did.
"Little? I'll have you know I've grown as much as I'm going to."
These people were making fun of me. Alright, that's it. Time to hit back.
"Well, I'm still popular. You guys aren't, right?"
Now I just sounded like the bad guy. I felt weirdly guilty.
"It's okay. You can just be friends with me, everyone."
"I wasn't trying to get donations, but thank you. I'd be happy if you just stayed well-mannered."
"Don't worry about toxic viewers. Me and my friends will catch them all."
Mina handed me a cold cola. I stood up from my seat the way I always did and pulled her into a hug. She always lit up whenever I hugged her after she'd done something for me, so I made a habit of it.
"Ahh, that's the stuff."
I sat back down and drank my cola. The cold fizz put a small, contented smile on my face. Eating something tasty really was the happiest I'd ever been.
The chat exploded all of a sudden.
"Choi Shin, aren't you overdoing it? Even if you say you're rich, watching you play games yesterday, you didn't look like you had money to spare."
"But you've already sent like two thousand dollars..."
"Is there anything you'd like to ask of me? I'll do it if I can."
She'd donated two thousand dollars. Of course I could do that much. It was such a modest request that I granted it without hesitation.
"Thank you, Shinye unnie. Anything else?"
"No. It's fine. Please don't donate."
"No, please. Stop. I'm not doing that."
"ChoiShinTV, if there's anything you want, just tell me. You've given me three thousand dollars."
"No, why would you donate again?? Fine. I'll do a collab with you."
"Mina can come too, right?"
ChoiShinTV is now a Manager
"I'll give you manager, ChoiShinTV."
"You're welcome."
I figured it was about time to start the game. I checked the clock — thirty minutes had already gone by. I'd turned on the stream to play, and I'd spent a whole half hour just chatting. The people who'd come to watch me game had probably already left, cursing.