There Was No Need to Rush
I checked the broadcast.
Seola was talking with Kang Seongjin, the head of Excel.
They both looked serious enough, given the size of the audience watching.
-So... nothing’s changed? You still want to leave?
-..Yes.
What?
Looks like Seola was planning to quit Excel.
No wonder the mood had felt so grim.
To be honest, it was pretty welcome news to me.
I’d become a fan back when Seola was still doing regular interactions, and I’d followed her into Excel as a fan too—but I hadn’t liked her because of what she was doing now.
If anything, seeing the Seola I’d liked so much back then dancing sexily in skimpy clothes had never sat well with me.
Kang Seongjin, his expression hard as stone, called toward the door.
-Everyone involved, get in here.
Three female streamers came in.
With stiff faces, they unfolded chairs and sat down.
Even with the serious atmosphere, I found myself checking their faces before I knew it.
As expected, Seola was the prettiest.
-You girls tell me.
-Well... I think Seola must have misunderstood something?
-Misunderstood?
-Yes.
At the word “misunderstood,” Seola snapped her head around and wore an expression of utter disbelief.
-I said I worked hard on a food date stream and hit number one. But Seola must’ve thought I was talking about her. So she figured I was badmouthing her behind her back.
-Hang on. Yejin unni, you said it yourself. You said Ahee unni was talking crap about me.
-I...? Seola, I think you may have misunderstood...
-What the hell. Your stories don’t match.
-Seola’s been going through a rough time lately. I think she may have gotten confused.
-..
Seola said nothing after that and lowered her head.
She even let out a bitter, incredulous laugh.
She really must have felt wronged.
Then she lifted her head and said it with a defeated look.
-Yes, okay. I must’ve misunderstood.
-Seola, misunderstandings can happen between people. But this has blown up too much already. You can’t talk like that.
-..
-I know you’ve had a hard time. After Joolbuja left, you stopped getting the same Star Balloons as before. But that’s one thing, and this is another.
-Yes, that’s one thing, and this is another. I don’t know why that’s even being brought up.
-You know that’s not what I meant.
-Ha...
I checked the community.
All sorts of things were being said.
It didn’t really bother me.
For me, this wasn’t a bad situation at all.
***
Han Seonhwa swallowed her frustration.
The four of them had teamed up to bury her alive.
Nothing she said here would get through.
More than anything, she was sick of them. She didn’t even want to talk anymore.
If she kept going, the viewers would eventually notice something was off, wouldn’t they?
But even if they did, would they side with her?
She was just a female streamer with around a hundred viewers.
That wasn’t a small number to her. But in the bigger picture, it was nothing.
Especially compared to Kang Seongjin, who had two thousand viewers as a male streamer.
The truth didn’t matter.
“Then let’s wrap this up here. Looks like there was a misunderstanding on both sides. Seola, what do you want to do?”
“..I’ll leave.”
“Are you sure you’re okay with that?”
“Yes.”
He acted like he was worried about her.
Disgusting.
He’d sacrificed her to protect the people left behind.
He’d set up this whole scene to do it.
And yet he’d once said that even if she quit, they should lay everything out and talk honestly.
That was why they were doing this broadcast, wasn’t it?
But now, by blowing this thing wide open, they were using her as a scapegoat to protect the rest.
“Want to head out first, Seola? The others can stay and talk a bit longer.”
“..Yes.”
She stood up from her seat and left the room.
Laughter drifted out from inside.
So she was the only one who ended up looking like an idiot.
“Ha...”
Truthfully, even without this mess, she’d been planning to leave Excel in the first place.
She’d already been on the verge of getting kicked out.
Her stay had only been extended because Joolbuja came looking for her.
Now that Joolbuja was gone, the old expulsion crisis had simply returned. That was only natural.
Of course, things were even worse than before.
The other big spenders who couldn’t hope to match Joolbuja’s Star Balloon power had already left the room.
The rumors probably played a part too. That she’d eaten with Joolbuja on a food date stream and then slept with him.
So there really were a lot of viewers after all. When had they even seen her ride up from the Signiel basement parking lot in the elevator together?
“It’s my fault, I guess.”
There was no one to blame.
It was her own fault for becoming a female streamer without even being prepared to drink with a big spender.
She’d been greedy.
The Star Balloons big spenders throw at female streamers are worth tens of millions of won. There was no way they’d support her for nothing.
On top of that, the Excel scene was even more blatant.
Other people went on food dates, drank together, and even slept together.
In a scene like that, there was no way someone like her, who really only ate the meal and nothing more, could survive.
She was so drained that even thoughts like this were starting to creep in.
“Should I have slept with him then?”
The day she had gone to eat with Joolbuja and then visited his place.
Maybe instead of posting that notice, she should have found some excuse—any excuse—and slept with him after all.
At the very least, maybe she should have drunk with him.
That must be why he left.
Disappointed.
“What a crazy bitch.”
She knew perfectly well that even if she went back to that day, she’d make the same decision again.
She was just so wronged and angry that she’d lashed out and started entertaining ridiculous thoughts.
At this point, she should just quit being a female streamer.
She was making more money than when she’d done simple interaction streams, sure. But it wasn’t a role that fit her.
Batting her eyelashes, wearing revealing clothes, doing sexy dances, managing big spenders.
Everything about it was too hard for her.
She’d rather just do game streams, even if she made a little less money.
On the way home, she decided to turn on her personal broadcast and announce that she was quitting as a female streamer and starting game streams instead.
“Ha...”
Her channel barely had a hundred viewers as it was. She didn’t even want to think about how many more would disappear now.
She was feeling bleak, but there was nothing she could do.
She was just idly fiddling with her phone, trying to figure out how to say it, when—
“Huh?”
She saw a KakaoTalk message had come in.
After leaving Kang Seongjin’s room, she’d gotten a lot of messages already.
The reason she was startled was simple.
The person who’d messaged her was someone she never expected to hear from.
It was a message from Joolbuja.
[You’ve had a rough day. I just saw the broadcast.]
She was flustered. At the same time, she was genuinely happy. And somewhere underneath that, she even felt a little resentful.
If you were going to show up, why not come a little earlier?
She knew. It was greedy. He was a free man, not hers to have.
It wasn’t as if she’d done anything worthy of making him hers in the first place, either.
All she’d done was let him look around her house and then get dragged into controversy over proving herself.
Still.
Since he’d contacted her, she replied.
[Long time no see.]
She didn’t want to sound pitiful.
She just wanted to greet him as a viewer.
What was the point of managing big spenders now that she’d already given up being a female streamer?
[I’ve been too busy with work to watch the broadcast lately. I just watched it, and I was shocked.]
Was that true?
Did he really need to lie?
Her thoughts kept spinning, one after another.
Honestly, this man...
He really knew how to unsettle a person.
He’d lift her up, then set her back down again.
***
“Could this be partly my fault?”
The more I looked at the situation, the harder it was to shake that thought.
I hadn’t done it on purpose, but somehow it felt like I might bear some responsibility too.
That didn’t mean I felt guilty, though.
If I started feeling guilty for not spending Star Balloons, I’d be a complete sucker.
Still, it did make me think about other things.
And at the same time, I once again admitted that I really was some filthy pervert.
“Hmm.”
Last time, during the food date stream, I hadn’t quite gotten used to the fact that I was rich myself.
It hadn’t been long since I’d realized it, after all.
Besides, Seola had seemed like she’d simply come to meet the vice chairman.
If I’d made some reckless suggestion there, the atmosphere might have turned awkward right away.
Maybe she would’ve stormed out.
But now it felt a little different.
In a sense, her livelihood was being shaken.
This was probably a time when my existence mattered desperately to her.
I sent a KakaoTalk message.
She replied as if trying to act fine.
Anyone who had watched the broadcast could tell she wasn’t in a normal state of mind.
[Looks like something rough happened.]
[Somehow, yeah.]
[What are you going to do now?]
[Well. I’m thinking of quitting as a female streamer. Come to think of it, maybe I should tell the chairman first, Oppa.]
Hmm.
So she was quitting being a female streamer.
So maybe she wasn’t just someone who moved for money after all.
That old line I’d felt before popped into my head again.
If you’re doing something and money doesn’t shake you at all, maybe it means you don’t have enough of it.
[I feel like I might have a little to do with this, so it’s bothering me. Want to grab a drink and talk?]
[..A drink?]
[If drinking’s a problem, we can stop by a café instead.]
[We can drink. As long as it’s near my place, I can go.]
She really was having a hard time.
Still, she didn’t refuse.
She seemed to be keeping some insurance in reserve, though.
[If that’s more comfortable, let’s do that. Can you send me your address?]
[I’ll give it to you when you arrive.]
Let’s see.
Whether that line still held true.
There was no need to rush.
What was urgent was Seola, not me.
I was curious how she’d react.