The Clarification Broadcast Begins!

I'd only gotten a single word out, and the chat detonated.

I'd figured there would be a reaction. I just hadn't figured on this. The comments were pouring in like a flood.

"Okay, okay! Everyone? You really never saw this coming, right? I nearly jumped out of my skin the first time I met him, too. I'd been so sure this person was a girl, and then I find out he's a guy? I didn't even know what to think."

Dozens of viewers were screaming at once, the chat scrolling so fast it was barely readable, and Seoyeon just kept talking like it was nothing. I could barely pick out a single comment in that mess. Was she actually following all of this?

That was when a donation popped in.

"Ah— ahaha..."

The second that donation asked if we were a couple, Seoyeon turned her head and snuck a look at my face. Was she worried the question would put me in a bad mood?

If that was it, I should be the one to answer.

"No, it's not like that. We're just friends. Close enough to drop the formalities, right?"

"Y-yeah... we are?"

Seoyeon answered in a strangely awkward voice.

Streamers really were something else. You had to sit there and take this kind of reaction from this many people, live?

I'd run across the occasional gender-reversal story where the male lead made it big as an internet streamer, just like Seoyeon. Watching it happen in person, though... I had no idea how anyone managed this.

Did you just get used to it if you kept doing it?

"Ahem! Yes, we're the same age. Um... I can't give out his real name, so I'll just go with Gosu, from his username. That's okay, right?"

"Yeah, that's fine. Being called Gosu feels a little weird, though."

We'd already talked this through beforehand. If Seoyeon put my real name out on stream, there was no telling what personal information might leak — and a man's personal information, especially, was something you absolutely could not throw around on a broadcast.

That tracked, given this was a gender-reversed world. Who knew if some unhinged woman would take my name, do something insane with it, and show up at my front door?

I'd actually seen a few news clips on YeongTube about women tracking men down with knives, threatening them, and raping them. Just imagining that happening to me was genuinely horrifying.

"And here's something even more amazing. Remember how I told you I helped a guy who was getting groped on the subway? The Gosu sitting right here is the person I met that day. Can you believe it?"

The chat's mood was pretty clearly I don't buy it. Fair enough. Even I still had trouble believing a coincidence like that was possible.

"I, uh, know it's hard to believe, but it's true. I was getting groped, and Seoyeon stepped in and helped me. And the person they called Gosu from the Gosu-Yeon duo in Overmatch — yeah, that's also me."

Every time I opened my mouth, the chat seemed to heave like a living thing. Was being a man really this much of a bombshell?

Wait. The viewer count...

A thousand people?

I was sure it had been around three hundred before they started talking about me. When had it ballooned like this? It had nearly tripled.

Ah. I knew why.

It was the stream title. The clickbait.

While I'd been busy staring at the chat, Seoyeon had quietly changed her title from "Surprise Guest Appearance" to something else entirely.

Of course people were going to click that out of curiosity. Back at Starbucks, when she'd told me about her streaming, she'd said she started in her sophomore year of university. Pulling an average of two hundred viewers as a woman was apparently no small feat.

She'd built up a decent amount of recognition by now, but a man had never once appeared on her stream. She'd done collabs with other streamers, sure — just never with a male one. Which meant a male voice showing up on this broadcast was a first, and that first was me.

The second word got out that a male guest was appearing on Seoyeon's ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠stream for the first time, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠someone had dropped the link on some site, and people had come pouring in.

My being a man had done a lot of the heavy lifting, too, I was sure.

A climbing viewer count wasn't all upside, though.

"Everyone, this should go without saying, but sexual harassment is not allowed. I didn't mention it because I thought it was obvious, but from this point on, anyone who says anything weird is getting banned on the spot. Mods, if you would."

A crowd this size was always going to include people who wanted to throw sexual jokes at me. Seoyeon and I had even predicted this back at Starbucks — but watching the harassment just... tumble out, as naturally as breathing, was something else.

Seoyeon glanced over at me, probably because of the chat. I gave her a small grin to let her know I was fine. A man from this world might have been wrecked by that kind of thing. Me, though... hearing it wasn't going to do any real damage.

Seoyeon's warning cut down on the harassment in chat and donations, but there were still people who kept toeing the line. I didn't know who her mods were, but they banned those people without a second of hesitation.

"Alright, shall we move on to the main topic? I didn't call Gosu on today just to have a male guest. Right?"

"I'm here because of the video of me that went up on YeongTube. If you look at the comments, there's a lot of talk that I was using hacks, or that I hired a booster. Seoyeon contacted me and asked if I'd come on and help clear up the controversy. That's why I'm here."

Seoyeon clicked her mouse a few times, and the stream layout changed. Everything from our necks down filled the screen.

The thought of my body going out on stream was kind of embarrassing.

"We'll go with half-cam today. Technically we should do a hand-cam to prove Gosu's mechanics, but... you all like it better this way, don't you?"

"Alright, let's boot up Overmatch~"

Wow. I'd seen it coming, but the clickbait was actually insane. More than triple my usual viewer count... no, wait. We were already pushing past twelve hundred.

A man showing up on stream really was a blank check. I'd heard there were streamers who built their whole format around guest appearances, and that male guests pulled way harder than female ones — but I hadn't expected the gap to be this wide.

Part of me was even a little jealous he was a guy. If I'd been a man, would my stream have taken off more...?

No. I shouldn't think like that. It was rude to the people who'd been watching and enjoying my stream this whole time. All I had to do was be the kind of streamer who made people have fun.

That aside — this was Minho's first time on stream, and he wasn't even nervous? He was just sitting there, perfectly comfortable, talking while he watched the broadcast screen.

I'd been shaky even when I was streaming to a single viewer, with no idea what to say.

He really was something else.

And... I'd nearly jumped when that donation asked if Minho and I were dating. I'd frozen up so badly I couldn't get a word out, and then Minho had gone and answered that we weren't a couple, that we were just friends...

Hearing him cut it off so cleanly — just friends — left me a little disappointed, if I was being honest. It felt like he was drawing a line.

Not that he'd said anything untrue.

Whatever. We were friends right now.

Right now, that is.

Who's to say what happens later?

For today, I needed to focus on the stream.

First things first: proving Minho's Overmatch skills.