A Hundred Million, Then They Ran
He had them squatting for about five minutes when Bobbaki's room suddenly started filling. A broadcast only four people had been watching blew past a hundred viewers, then two hundred, in a blink.
The Coin God effect. Today alone he had sprayed more than four hundred million won across Bamboo TV, the price of stripping twelve female cams. Three of them didn't even run a nude room, so those had cost him plenty.
"Waaah! Hello! Hyung-nims!"
"Great to meet you, hyung-nims! We're Bobbaki, couple BJs in our first year of marriage. Beside me is my wife, Han Love. Please look after us!"
The moment the viewers started piling in, Choi Haneul slammed his forehead into a greeting. He was mid-squat, but a hello like that could not wait. Nothing like this had ever happened on Corea TV. What on earth?
A glance at the chat told him it was thanks to that whale, Coin God. Once the squats passed fifty his legs burned, but quitting was out of the question. A whale who dragged floating viewers around behind him? He'd never even heard of such a thing. Coin God had to be caught, no matter what.
Something in the chat looked off. He couldn't read it closely while he was squatting, but the hunger for a nude room was pouring out in a flood. He'd listed the nude room at a million. Why were they acting like this?
How much longer it went on, he couldn't have said. In the end Han Sarang was the one who broke.
"Ugh, nngh! I—I can't do any more!"
Two hundred and seven squats. She'd lasted a good while. For her, that was everything she had.
"Come on, honey... just a little more. We already got twenty thousand."
Choi Haneul said it fidgeting, unable to settle. He was a thug and a layabout, but his head turned well enough to know that taking the money and running could land them on fraud charges. Even setting the law aside, a BJ who pulled a donation-and-run once had nowhere left but the gutter. Skip a whale's mission, and who would ever set another? It would be the BJ cutting off their own income with their own hands.
"I don't caaare. My legs hurt. I can't anymore."
But Han Sarang really was at her limit. Her legs shook under her. Too much exercise wrecks a body, and any further and the muscle might actually tear.
"Coin hyung-nim, I'm sorry. I really don't think we can keep the reaction going. What should we do?"
Choi Haneul felt like he was losing his mind. Even so, he was plainly the weaker of the two. For a few months at least, he would have to live by humoring Han Sarang's mood, and so he begged the whale even while he knew the broadcast was about to go wrong. He could not make himself say I'll refund you. Two million won — what kind of money was that? Hand it back? So what came out was what should we do?
"Ah... a refund..."
"Yes! We'll do something else instead! What should it be?"
"What? A—a nude room...? Hyung-nim, ours is a million. Haha..."
As if it had been waiting for the word, a million Bamboo Shoots burst onto the screen at once. The viewers who had been hanging on that donation exploded into cheers, and Choi Haneul and Han Sarang froze where they stood, like a DDoS had just hit them.
"O-oppa... i-is that real? Is it really a million?"
"Huh? Uh... I... I think so?"
Five seconds until reality sank in. Han Sarang's eyes went huge, and then she screamed.
"Kyaaaaaaah! A hundred million! A hundred million, oppa! This is insane! We're rich now! Waaaaah!"
"Hahaha! Right? What did I tell you! I said if we streamed, it'd work out!"
"Oppaaa!"
"Ahahaha!"
The joy was so enormous that both of them forgot they were live. Dopamine washed the ache out of their bodies for a moment, and without either of them leading, they grabbed each other and spun in place. It didn't last. Choi Haneul was the first to come back to himself.
"Ah... the nude room..."
"Huh? Oppa? What are you talking about?"
"We said if we got a million, we'd do a nude room."
"What? Oppa, are you insane? Did you forget every promise you made me?"
"N-no, that's not—"
Bamboo TV was an adult platform, and the chat ran viciously hotter than anything on Corea TV. Swearing was the baseline. Insults came without a flinch. Viewers hurled abuse by the dozen at a couple who had taken a hundred million won and still wouldn't do the nude room.
Then, in the middle of the fight, Han Sarang force-quit the computer. The broadcast everyone had been watching cut off without warning. A donation-and-run.
"Huh... they actually ran?"
A black screen, and the system alert sitting on top of it. He waited another five minutes or so. They did not come back. Kim Taeyoung let out a hollow laugh. These people were completely out of their minds. He picked up his phone at once.
"Hello. Counselor."
"Yes, Client. Is there another matter you'd like to commission?"
The former prosecutor's form of address had shifted from customer to client once again. Taeyoung had already hired the firm over Sally's illegal stay, and over finding Jennifer's father and pulling her out of statelessness. The stay itself wasn't something a lawsuit could fix, so he had taken only legal advice. For the search, the firm would send official letters to the relevant agencies under its own name. If that failed to settle it, they meant to sue and secure Jennifer a nationality.
"This isn't about what I called you for earlier. It's a different case."
"Haha. Another case? Keep this up and Client Kim Taeyoung will become our firm's biggest VIP."
"Yes, haha. True. I don't know why trouble keeps breaking out like this."
"Not at all. For us, the more cases there are, the more grateful we are."
"Right. And I'm always grateful for the help. To explain, first — my hobby is watching internet broadcasts. This time I made a rather large donation. A hundred million won. And they pulled a donation-and-run on me. The BJ didn't do the reaction. Just ran. What happens in a case like that?"
"An internet broadcast. So you donated, and they fled without delivering the promised intangible service. Is that it? That constitutes deception. And deception is one of the textbook forms of fraud. A criminal complaint is entirely viable."
"Ah, I can file? Then would you proceed with it?"
"Of course. One thing, though — identifying the offender requires the broadcast platform's cooperation. We can send an official request ourselves, but before that, would you contact them once?"
"Understood. I'll call Bamboo TV."
"Yes. Thank you. Whichever matter starts moving, I'll be in touch again."
"Yes. Thank you."
That made two calls with the lawyer in a single day. He wanted to live like a decent man. He couldn't understand why the world refused to leave him alone. As the lawyer had suggested, he called Bamboo TV, dug up the number from last time, and dialed at once.
"Hello?"
"Hello. Am I speaking with someone from Bamboo TV?"
"You are. And who is this?"
"I'm a viewer who goes by CoinGodGodGod. We spoke before, didn't we?"
"Ah! Good to hear from you, sir. I was the one who called last time, about raising your cash-out rate. And I heard in passing that you came by Bamboo TV today."
"Yes, that's right. I had a pretty good time. But listen. A BJ took my hundred million won and ran."
"I'm sorry? What do you mean?"
Kim Taeyoung laid out the hundred-million donation-and-run for the Bamboo TV man. Flustered, the staffer promised to hand over the replay at once, along with whatever information was needed to sue the BJs.
"My lawyer will contact you shortly. Pass the materials to him."
"Yes. I'm truly sorry something like this happened."
"Don't be. What crime did the platform commit? The BJ who ran is the problem. Just cooperate properly with my lawyer."
"Of course. Don't worry. And please do visit Bamboo TV again next time. We'll put stronger rules in place so this sort of thing can't happen."
The call ended on the staffer's earnest plea. They had dared to pull a donation-and-run. He meant to show them, properly, what getting wrecked in real life looked like.
"Haa... I'm a little pissed."
A hundred million. To Kim Taeyoung it was nothing special. His account held more than twenty billion won, and the coin wallet still carried coin worth ninety-nine trillion nine hundred billion. Even so, being on the wrong end of a donation-and-run left a bad taste.
Don't dwell on it. He tried to forget the Bobbaki couple as fast as he could. Switching emotions at will was one of his gifts, and thanks to it, even back when he worked as a department-store manager, he had weathered the jin-sang — those abusive, impossible customers — far better than anyone around him.
Love is something you heal with love. A broadcast is something you burn off with another broadcast.
It was nine. Hwayeon's broadcast wasn't far off, and he was seriously worked up. Kim Taeyoung killed a little more time on Bamboo TV, waiting out the hour.
Then came a knock at the door. In this house, only one person knocked.
"Come in."
"Boss. I brought fruit and drinks..."
Sally opened the door with careful manners and froze exactly as she was, tray still in her hands. Around the house Kim Taeyoung wore nothing but a robe. It was comfortable. He used to live naked; with Sally and Jennifer here, the robe was the concession.
The robe itself was familiar, so that was fine. Skin showing while he lay on the bed was fine too. The huge thing hanging between his legs was not fine — but it was fine so long as she didn't look.
This, though. On the computer screen a naked woman was dancing, and Kim Taeyoung watched without a shred of shame. Sally tried to calm herself. Far wilder things had happened all the time in the Philippines. This was nothing. It was nothing, so why did that low pull keep starting in her belly?
"Sally?"
"Ah... s-sorry. Should I leave the fruit here?"
She set the fruit on the computer desk. Kim Taeyoung turned back to the broadcast and offered a light thanks.
"Yeah. Thanks."
He didn't so much as look at her. For reasons she couldn't name, a hot little indignation rose in Sally. She was far prettier than the woman on that screen, and her figure was better, too.