It's Just Fun, Really

There were two famous male streamers on America TV: Kang Seongjin and Theo.

Even ordinary people knew their names.

They hadn’t stopped at being just male streamers; both of them had gone further and become the faces of their respective Excel Broadcast teams.

We’d known each other, at least a little. We’d even gone out drinking together back when things were more casual.

But as competition between us grew fiercer, the days when we ran into each other became fewer and fewer.

The rivalry deepened with every passing day.

Even the viewers joined in, comparing the two of them against each other.

They even made direct comparisons, putting together tables showing how much one Excel Broadcast was earning and how much the other was pulling in.

For now, Kang Seongjin was still lagging far behind.

But lately, he’d been closing in fast.

Now that the gap, which had only ever widened before, had finally started to shrink, Theo’s team couldn’t avoid the mockery.

Thanks to all that, the mood in the Excel Broadcast wasn’t exactly great.

And the female streamers underneath them felt it too.

After the broadcast ended, they held a staff dinner. It was off-air.

Theo did his best to comfort the girls, worried the backlash might spill over onto them.

“You don’t all need to feel so down.”

“...Yes.”

“There are all kinds of people in the Excel Broadcast scene. There’s probably someone on the other side doing illegal stuff. I’ve even heard talk about payback.”

“...Really?”

Payback meant returning a portion of the Star Balloons someone had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠donated, minus a certain fee.

People used it for a bunch of reasons—sometimes to pit one major spender against another, sometimes to launder illegal money before handing it over.

The girls accepted that explanation.

Honestly, everyone knew the Excel Broadcast scene was filthy. I’d even heard that in some other Excel Broadcasts, girls sold their bodies too.

Yeah, probably. That must be how they got Star Balloons worth tens of millions of won in a single day.

With that at least easing their nerves a little, the dinner came to an end.

The real problem was the next Excel Broadcast.

On Kang Seongjin’s side, one huge spender appeared and erased the gap between the two Excel Broadcasts in a single blow.

Actually, it did more than erase it. It put him far ahead.

It ended in a far more serious mood than the last time.

This time, the ridicule even spilled over into individual broadcasts.

Especially toward Hyeni, a female streamer who hadn’t been getting many Star Balloons.

She couldn’t take it anymore.

Her stream couldn’t even continue properly.

If she’d been the kind of person to bring in illegal money herself, she would’ve gotten that same treatment.

She’d started drinking on stream to try to win back public sentiment, and the alcohol had gone straight to her head.

So she blurted it out without thinking.

Both Excel Broadcasts had been drawing attention because they were competing so fiercely.

It turned into a kind of exposé.

She tried to clean things up afterward, but by then it was too late.

Whatever. Let it all burn.

That felt so satisfying.

***

It was Hyeni’s broadcast that got destroyed by the exposure.

I was pretty shocked by the sudden turn of events.

The chat was already in chaos, and the reason kept piling up there.

With the two heads of the rival teams and Kang Seongjin’s side suddenly surging in popularity lately, the community boards were now completely taken over by posts about the exposé.

There was no need to search hard for it.

The community posts were full of every kind of reaction imaginable—people saying they knew the Excel Broadcast scene was dirty, people saying it was slander, people saying it was good for them.

One thing they all had in common was that they were watching the whole mess with obvious interest.

Besides, this whole thing had clearly started with a nouveau riche big spender throwing insane amounts of money around.

It made sense that the attention had all flooded into Seola’s room.

“W-wait, everyone...”

Seola, clearly not used to this kind of situation, looked flustered and on the verge of tears.

Her hands were shaking too.

It hadn’t even been long since she’d become a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠female streamer. Her hundred viewers had instantly exploded into thousands.

And if you counted the communities too, tens of thousands of eyes were on her.

It was only natural she was panicking.

Breathing hard now, Seola picked up her phone with trembling hands and called someone.

It was Kang Seongjin, the head of the Excel Broadcast team.

“H-head. Another Excel team just made some weird accusations, and...”

“Yeah, I know. I’ve been getting nonstop calls too.”

“...I’m sorry. This is because of me.”

“Hey, why would it be because of you? Calm down. Do you have something to feel guilty about?”

“N-no, absolutely not!”

“Then that’s all that matters. I’ll go live and sort this out.”

He, who’d been off the air, hurriedly started a broadcast.

Probably because his channel was already strong, more than ten thousand viewers poured in almost instantly.

Every kind of chat flew by.

“Stay calm, guys. I’m upset too, so wait a second. I’ll call Theo.”

He opened the broadcast and called the other team’s head.

That was the easiest way.

If the other side would just apologize properly.

“Your team said something like that. Shouldn’t you step in and stop it?”

“Well, I don’t ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠really know anything about it.”

“Did you check the community?”

“Of course I did. It was making such a racket. But I don’t think apologizing is the right move here. Hyeni must have heard something elsewhere too, and I think it’d be going too far for me to interfere with that.”

“...Are you serious? Anyone can see this was an attack on our Excel team.”

“I don’t know why you’re coming at me like this. Honestly, the Excel industry isn’t exactly clean to begin with. There are plenty of people in this business who throw around huge donations and then disappear overnight.”

“So what—you’re saying our Excel Broadcast launders illegal money, and the female streamers treat big spenders like kings?”

“I wouldn’t know about that.”

The other man showed no real intention of apologizing.

He was just pouring oil on the fire.

Kang Seongjin said with a stiff expression, “I don’t know about the others, but I’m at least clean. Let me ask you one thing. What are you going to do if you’re wrong?”

“Then I’ll apologize. It would mean our Excel team misunderstood things, after all.”

“So that means... right now, you’re saying it’s not a misunderstanding?”

“I’m saying I don’t know that. I don’t fully understand the situation either. Why not just clear it up properly?”

“You son of a bitch! You only get to clear something up if you actually did something wrong!”

“...I was trying to help you as much as I could, and now you’re cursing at me. Honestly, I heard some things too, so I can’t exactly take your side.”

The call ended there.

Kang Seongjin didn’t engage with the viewers. He sat there with a hard expression and hammered away at his keyboard, apparently contacting someone.

What was certain was that things had gotten much bigger.

***

I watched the broadcast.

“He’s really going all out.”

Theo’s conduct didn’t look good at all.

Still, I was the one at the center of this, so that much was obvious.

Did it make me feel bad?

Not really.

It just felt like I was watching someone else’s house burn from across the river.

I was clean, after all.

Still, I felt sorry for Seola.

All because she’d gotten a lot of Star Balloons, she was being accused of sleeping with illegal-money creeps.

Seola sent me a KakaoTalk message.

The chat stopped for a moment.

After circling around the point for a while, Seola finally brought herself to ask the favor.

She seemed sorry, but I wasn’t especially angry, and it didn’t feel burdensome either.

It was just fun.

That this sort of thing could happen?

It wasn’t exactly a kindness or anything.

But once again, I couldn’t help feeling that this whole situation was pretty entertaining.