Six Hundred Thousand Balloons

Kim Taeyoung got home and went straight for the computer. Without a second thought, he logged onto Corea TV, the way he did every day.

Ah. I still have that backlog of games to get through.

Since quitting the department store there was no shortage of other things he could have been doing. His hands, though, kept opening Corea TV out of habit. Maybe this was his chest giving the orders — and he didn't mean his heart. Games could wait. He'd already played them sick of it. Better, for now, to do what his chest was telling him.

He rolled the mouse wheel down the page. Corea TV's front page was packed, as always, with BJs lined up five across. The hour was awkward, so there wasn't a major or a named Female Cam in sight. Nothing but middling Small Fries.

Who to watch. Corea TV's heat level climbed by the day, and the screen was wall-to-wall with tempting thumbnails. Which room should he go play in? It was a real dilemma.

See-through mesh pants, blatantly filthy? A pure-faced beauty with her breasts covered by a thread? A cute little idol type?

Kim Taeyoung turned the happy problem over once, then picked a broadcast.

What he chose was the pure-faced beauty with her breasts already half out. See-through mesh pants got him going, sure. Breasts, he could not pass up.

The second he entered, macro chat popped up. The mic emote was the BJ's auto-message; the office-worker emote belonged to the room manager.

Call it the charm of a Small Fry room — the scramble to hold on to anyone who wandered in. To a Small Fry Female Cam, a Dry Cracker and a Floater were the same thing. What mattered was filling the viewer count to some respectable number.

The money worked a lot like a mobile game. What kept a game alive was the top one percent, the nuclear spenders. Recruiting ordinary users mattered almost as much, though. You needed plenty of so-called filler users, because that was what made the whales feel satisfied when they opened their wallets.

Internet broadcasts were no different. Corea's whales rarely stepped ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠into a Female Cam room with nobody in it. They wanted to spend where there was already an audience.

It could sound strange, until you thought about it the easy way. Pretty girls with good figures existed in droves outside any stream. Spend the same money on a woman in real life and it came out far cheaper. If all you wanted was a one-on-one conversation, why come to Corea TV at all? Take that cash to a parlor or a top-tier room salon and you'd be treated like royalty. People came to Corea TV for the envy and the awe of a faceless crowd of Dry Crackers — and for the pleasure of handling, however they liked, a Female Cam those Dry Crackers could only dream about.

"CoinGodGodGod, welcome in."

"Really? I look like an idol? Which one?"

Donating in coin came with a one-minute delay. Su Yeoning offered a hello and then gave Kim Taeyoung nothing else. He hadn't greeted her. He just sat there. A silent Floater wasn't anything unusual — viewers who only watched, never speaking, were more common than people thought. And even a silent watcher was profit for her. The count went up by one.

Ten thousand on entry. The moment Kim Taeyoung walked in, he planted ten thousand Moon Balloons. The delay held the gift back a full minute, and then he blew straight through to Hot-blood Fan. It was a Small Fry room, so the Hot-blood cutoff was a joke — push, and it gave. The donation ranking the BJ had set up flipped on the spot. The old number one sat at 1,309. He passed it without breaking a sweat.

In more than four hours on air, Su Yeoning had earned 2,698 balloons. Four times that much popped in a single shot. Chat, which saw it first, started to murmur.

Three seconds behind the chat, Su Yeoning reacted. She'd probably spotted it at about the same time the messages did. There was just another delay before her voice and her face actually went out. She'd been talking quietly over soft music. Now she jolted, startled.

"Kyaaa! Ten thousand! What? Why ten thousand all of a sudden? No — thank you! Coin God! Thank you so, so much for coming to my shabby little room!"

Six hundred thousand?

Su Yeoning gushed her thanks and still kept one eye on chat. A whale who'd just fired ten thousand might type at any second. Then she caught what the ordinary fans were writing. She didn't live on the community boards, so she had no real idea what had happened yesterday.

One thing she did understand. Coin God was a whale of monstrous size, and a chance had just walked in that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠could change her entire life on air. She shot up out of her seat. She had to look good. She had to look perfect.

Face and figure, she trusted. But Female Cams on her level were everywhere in this world. Step outside and she'd be worshipped as a goddess; on Corea TV she had never reached the very top. This was a place where even a decent idol, set beside the Female Cams, failed to crack the highest tier. You had to drag in a visual center before anyone said, wow, she's actually stunning.

So she sold the desperation instead. More desperate than anyone. I need you to choose me. Whatever you want, I'll give it to you.

"Ah! Look at me! I didn't even introduce myself properly. Hello! My name is Su Yeoning! I'm twenty-two!"

She bowed at seventy degrees. She didn't go to ninety, because then her hair would hide her chest. Her chest was her pride and her weapon. It was a greeting every viewer could be satisfied with — the round shape swayed just right.

"A reaction! Of course I should! What should I do? Want me to dance?"

"Yes, sir. Then I'll take one ride on the rototiller!"

It was the reaction she trusted most, and the one viewers loved best. A natural G-cup shaking on camera looked grand even to her. Su Yeoning folded forward at the waist and came in close to the cam. While she split the screen into three and started the song, the viewers were already typing.

A bright track spilled into the broadcast, and Su Yeoning danced to it. The Rototiller Dance was simpler and easier than most. Viewers still lost their minds over it, because it was a naked excuse to shake her chest in their faces.

In time with her bounce, the natural G-cup rose and fell. With her breasts already half bared, every tremble showed that much clearer.

She shook harder than she ever did on an ordinary night. She did ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠not want to miss the chance sitting right in front of her. This was not some everyday whale who fired ten or twenty thousand and called it a day. Coin God had already proved the money. He was a Super Whale who could drop six hundred thousand in a single day.

"Kyaaaa!"

Then the accident happened. A thin top with her chest already half out of it was never going to have the strength to hold her up, and her breasts made a break for it. They surged free of the flimsy fabric and put on a grand display.

The trouble was that she wasn't wearing a bra, either. Corea TV's rules punished a BJ for showing underwear, so most sexy Female Cams preferred to go braless and stick on nothing but pasties. Su Yeoning was the same. This time that habit turned on her. Her chest was out in the open, bare as it got.

Still mid-rototiller, she clapped her hands over herself and dropped into a crouch. Exposure was her trade, but showing absolutely everything still embarrassed her. She turned her back and put her chest back in order first.

Chat split in two. Her true-fan buffaloes put on a show of worry. The Floaters who'd poured in at the word reaction treated it like a festival. And Kim Taeyoung...

...had the same nasty streak as any Floater.

"Ugh.... Everybody just forget you saw that."

Unlike the moment the ten thousand landed, Su Yeoning's face had gone bleak. Kim Taeyoung hurried another donation through. He chased fun with a mean little grin, same as the rest of them — but he wasn't like the other Floaters. He had the money.

"Kyaa! Ah.... Coin God. Thank you."

Another ten thousand. Su Yeoning started into a shout of joy, then remembered where she was — still sunk in the gloom of having flashed her chest. Laugh, or cry. She offered her thanks with a face that couldn't decide.