Running a Little Late

An Excel Broadcast ran eight hours at the very least. That was the floor, and only for the ones that couldn't fill the silence or had no content to offer. Seed's show, the original Excel, averaged closer to twelve.

Donation Winds did not keep bursting through all those hours. You built the broadcast around the stretches when they hit, and when the wind went quiet you filled the air and ran content. Seed's signature segment was drinking on camera.

"Mmm. As expected. All of you used to be real talents. No joke today. Yes. But... mmm. One person's score is a little. Mm. No. Far too low. What happened here? Hwayeon?"

They called it an Excel Broadcast because the donations received scrolled down the screen the way figures ran down a spreadsheet, so that viewer and BJ alike could see at a glance who had taken how much. Today Hwayeon's count sat at two thousand. Even that was pity: a thousand tossed in like a sympathy vote by a Whale she had known in the old days, and another thousand her core fans had wrung out of a dry rag.

The other female cams had already cleared ten thousand, cleared twenty. The rank directly above her was something like ten times her total. An Excel Broadcast was a contest in who could pull more money, and if your numbers failed to show, the needling and the side-eye were only to be expected.

"Hwayeon? Why aren't you answering."

Seed dug at her. Hwayeon couldn't answer. The whole situation felt like a lie. Why. Why today, of all days. She had begged. She had pleaded. She truly had not believed Kim Taeyoung would do this to her. They said you could know a river ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a fathom deep and still never know a person. She had watched him spend, and she had confirmed he was the loyal type. She had not expected the knife in the back of the head.

"Oppaaa. Stop it, please. As if unni wanted it to turn out like this."

They said the sister-in-law who stepped in to hold you back was worse than the mother-in-law doing the hitting. Seed jabbing her outright was easier to take than Dohee at her side, slipping in a helpful word at a time. Even so, Hwayeon could not open her mouth. Her pride was too badly wounded, her self-respect in pieces. Why did I come out here to be treated like this.

The viewers were not particularly kind to Hwayeon either. There was pity in the room, a sympathy vote or two, but that came mostly from Dry Crackers. The Whales and Mid-donors who actually sent money were hammering out lol after lol, delighted by her fall. Emboldened by the reaction, Seed moved to twist the knife once more.

"Honestly. Is this a joke. For real."

But the Donation Wind that burst in that moment cut him off. On an Excel Broadcast, a Donation Wind meant you performed your signature reaction, no matter what else was happening.

Hwayeon looked at the prompter with the face of someone ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠hoping against hope. It was not Kim Taeyoung this time either. Disappointment moved across her expression. Across from her, Dohee stepped out onto the stage wearing a smile soaked through with superiority.

Two hours passed. Hwayeon thought the tears might come, and she held them down. She was already a confirmed has-been. Cry here, and she would be the ugly bitch who was finished and still couldn't admit it, sniveling on a live broadcast. So she ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠endured, whatever it took. She was angry at Kim Taeyoung, but she tried to let it go. Anger could wait until she saw him.

And so she barely survived the hours of humiliation and contempt. By now, even when a Moon Balloon donation climbed the prompter, she did not bother to hope. In two hours she had barely cleared five thousand.

Then something broke. The first to catch it was the chat, which had been thrashing with excitement. A donation of one million had dropped. In money, a hundred million won. A sum that had been gifted on KoreaTV only a handful of times.

The viewers forgot even the shoutout owed to a Whale. They just sat there stunned, spamming the blank cheer, and it was that shocking. Who on earth? CoinGodGodGod? The name had been mentioned once on the community boards, but he was not famous enough for everyone to know. Nine out of ten had never heard of him.

What they wanted to know even more was who this insane Whale called CoinGodGodGod had actually paid. Chat showed only that a donation had landed. The message did not. A million would take not only first place in today's donations, but the team victory with it.

"Whoa."

"Uh... uh?"

The BJs caught the shift in chat at once. They lived in that window; of course they did. The air was wrong, so they hunted for the reason, and learned that a million had been donated. Every eye went straight to the prompter.

The prompter printed twenty Moon Balloon donations at a time, and at the very tail of the list sat the million. Unlike chat, the prompter showed the message.

One million. The recipient of a hundred-million-won donation was Hwayeon. Yung Seah, beside her, tapped her arm. Hwayeon had been staring at the floor, face dark. She looked up at the prompter. One second. Tears gathered, shining, at the corners of her eyes.

"Ah..."

"Unni. This is insane. Wow. A hundred million."

"Hup..."

Hwayeon tried to hold the tears. She had endured, stubborn to the last, through humiliation and contempt, through the scolding and the mockery. Kim Taeyoung's donation, arriving late, was the thing she could not endure. She tried to hold them and could not. In the end they spilled down her face.

The cheerful track kept playing. The room, though, had come apart. The closer the million came, the less the BJs could keep their minds on the stage. No viewer blamed them. They were just as desperate to know when it would burst, and whose name it carried.

And then the thing that was going to burst, burst.

"Unni! What are you doing! Get out there!"

Hwayeon, busy stopping her tears, couldn't move. Her teammates seized her by the wrists and hauled her up onto the stage. A donation that blew well past five digits meant every member of the team had to dance, and Hwayeon's team danced harder than they had all day. A hundred million won. Reel Coin God in, and the money would go insane. That much was certain.

Hwayeon, at center stage, could not dance properly at all. She did not want the broadcast to catch her sniveling. But a hundred million had just hit, and doing nothing was not an option. One hand wiped at her tears while the rest of her jerked through a sloppy dance. And that was how a legendary gif was born, and a clip with it, both of them destined to outlive the night.

A few hours earlier, Kim Taeyoung was sitting in a high-end Japanese restaurant in Gangnam. It was the first truly expensive restaurant he had ever set foot in, a place that had to run well over a hundred thousand won a head, and the menu did not even bother to list prices. The man who had invited him was Park Myeongcheol, head of sales at KoreaTV.

"The sashimi here is wonderfully fresh. And the side dishes are excellent."

"They are. I can feel my mouth getting happy."

"Haha, right? The prices run a little high, but it's popular enough that even a reservation is hard to get. Please eat your fill before you go."

As befitted a man who sold for a living, Park Myeongcheol's talk was excellent. He was not saying anything in particular, and still the mood loosened and warmed. When the meal was drawing to a close, he revealed why he had invited Kim Taeyoung.

"I saw you'd put in another cash-out request. Three hundred million units."

"Yes. Has a problem come up with the cash-out?"

"No. How could it. Headquarters has already secured the cash to match your exchange. And the coins are liquid enough that there's no reason a cash-out should run into trouble. But, sir—forgive me if this is presumptuous—may I ask how much more you intend to cash out from here?"

Park Myeongcheol spoke with extreme care. Everything about him said he did not want this question to disturb Kim Taeyoung's mood.

It was a strange thing to say. If he did not want to sour the mood, why ask this at all? Kim Taeyoung frowned and turned the words over. No easy answer came. So he simply asked.

"Why are you asking?"

"Because I thought I might be of real help to you. I don't know the figure, but you do mean to cash out more going forward, don't you? If that amount crosses a hundred billion, there is a better way. The forty percent cash-out fee you pay KoreaTV. Doesn't it feel like a waste?"

He had shown his hand. Only then did Kim Taeyoung have a rough sense of where this was going. He had no idea how they had found him, but other internet broadcast platforms had already been in touch, offering generous terms on the cash-out fee if he would come to their station. He had not refused. He had said he would think about it. The more cards in hand, the better. And he was curious about the adult platforms, not only KoreaTV.

"Are you trying to transfer me? Over to BambooTV, or DolphinTV?"

"Haha. Nothing of the sort. And going that way wouldn't particularly benefit you in any case. Their cash-out fees would be about the same."

Park Myeongcheol drained a cup of sake. Then, with a hard light in his eyes, he spoke.

"We build a new platform. There, I'll create a tier for you alone, and set the cash-out fee at ten percent. In return, invest in the company I'm going to make."

With that, Park Myeongcheol began to sell himself. The university he had come out of. The ventures he had made succeed in the internet broadcast business. The BJs he could bring over. How he would run a platform, and how he would promote it. He laid it all out. He certainly knew how to talk. Listen long enough, and not investing started to seem like the strange choice.

"It doesn't sound bad, from what I'm hearing. But you're not asking me to decide on the spot, are you?"

"Of course ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠not. A decision like this can't be made on the spot. Right now I'm only telling you that this is the direction I'm thinking, and if you're inclined to look on it favorably, I'm asking you to review a business plan and a contract. Might there be a chance to meet again later?"

"Hmm."

Kim Taeyoung let the sound out, thick with thought.