Live Stream

Live Stream

A remarkably barebones title.

Whether that made it pure Ara or not was anyone's guess.

"By the way… where did she go?"

Jeong Yeo-un, still the sole viewer, muttered the question aloud.

He had every reason to. There was no one on screen — just the empty interior of a room, hanging in a silence so complete it might as well have been frozen in time.

Then —

Ara's voice came through the speakers.

?

"What's she embarrassed about…?"

She'd already played a brutal serial killer, a warm older sister, a zombie, and pulled every stunt imaginable on the baseball diamond. Being shy now made no sense whatsoever.

"Well, look at that."

After a long wait, Ara finally appeared on camera — and she was wrapped up like she was heading out the door, hat and mask covering everything but her eyes.

Jeong Yeo-un gave up.

"I've got work to do."

He called Nam Tae-woo.

Knock knock—

"Yes, CEO? You called for me?"

"Yeah, Tae-woo. You know Ara just started a live stream, right?"

"Yes. She just went live?"

"Yeah. Monitor it for me. If it looks like she's about to cause an incident, take preemptive action and report later."

"Yes, sir. I'll contact you if anything unusual comes up."

"Good."

"Man, nobody's showing up."

Ara propped her chin in her hand and stared blankly at the stream feed.

"Well… I guess that makes sense?"

She'd just made the account, and she hadn't said a word about it on the fan cafe or any community board. A perfect surprise stream — that absolutely no one knew about.

"Hmm. Still, you never know. Someone might show up, right? Besides the CEO."

Jeong Yeo-un had already left the stream a moment ago.

Hmm…

Ara sat there staring into the void, waiting for people, when —

Someone barged into the room and dropped a chat.

"Ah!"

Ara jumped, about to return the greeting, when —

"Ah…… Manager."

south_huge_rain

Only then did Ara check the nickname. A handle that captured the times perfectly.

Guess everyone's thinking the same thing these days.

And then the waiting resumed.

"Manager, I'm going to grab something to drink."

Feeling thirsty, Ara stepped away for a moment.

And as always, timing has a way of being exquisite.

While she was gone, someone else crashed the stream.

And just like that, the chat started tearing into the stream.

Watching the celebrity under his care get insulted was not something Nam Tae-woo could tolerate. He jumped into the chat.

While the first guest poured out a torrent of abuse —

Oh. This guy would be good in the Rift.

Or maybe he already was a ranked player.

Ara had already come back with her drink and was watching the whole thing unfold.

Our manager just got wrecked in a keyboard war… that's not how you do it.

Still, she felt grateful.

Looks like he's out there hunting down impersonators for me.

The sight of a fan playing neighborhood watch was oddly heartwarming. Of course, he might not even be a fan — but that was a separate issue.

Either way, she needed to step in before this got any worse.

"Hello? And first of all, please calm down."

Ara reappeared on camera.

"Yes. Hello. Nice to meet you. I'm not an impersonator — I'm Gil Ara."

She introduced herself politely.

The reply that came back was completely unexpected.

Ah. Right.

She remembered she was still completely bundled up.

"Ah. Yes, Manager."

He kept firing off insults without a single pause.

Ara reached up to take off the hat and mask — then suddenly a strange feeling washed over her.

Hmm. What is this…?

It wasn't unfamiliar. Her hands, which had been heading for the hat and mask, kept craving a keyboard instead. The Rift-dwelling soul sleeping inside her was clawing its way out, desperate to flame-war this guy into the ground.

Unfortunately, the keyboard wasn't connected to her phone.

Calm down. I'm showing my face… I'm not hiding behind anonymity anymore.

Barely reclaiming control of her hands, Ara pulled off the hat and mask.

Hoo—

The cool indoor air touched her skin directly.

"I really am Gil Ara."

"Stop."

She understood how Tae-woo felt, but mediation was still mediation.

"Manager, you too. That's enough now."

Tae-woo offered a brief apology, and the sole viewer's chat — which had been pouring out abuse — suddenly turned cautious.

"Yes. This is me. This is my account, so please stop calling me an impersonator, okay?"

"The reason I went live today isn't anything special. I just wanted to do a little promo and connect with people a bit…. Hmm."

Judging by how ecstatic the chat looked, he really had been her fan.

"Well, since there's one person here besides the manager, shall the two of us just talk? Is there anything you're curious about?"

The fan was about to experience the absolute best service of his life.

Human psychology works like this.

When something tastes good, you want to share it. When something's fun, you want to watch it together and trade reactions. Connecting with people and talking things over is always a joy.

That sole viewer who'd been raining down abuse —

Kang Ha-seong.

He was, of course, a member of Giljabi.

The moment he confirmed that the ItStar "impersonator" was actually Ara, he posted on the fan cafe.

Ha-seong was already a well-known impersonator-hunter on the fan cafe. People who first assumed it was pure bait started clicking the link one by one out of curiosity.

Once the fans grasped the situation, chaos was inevitable. The post rocketed to the top of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the board as a hot post and got pinned, and fans started spreading the news across every other community they could find.

Thirty minutes after Ara started the stream and revealed her identity, the effect of Kang Ha-seong's initial buster call was staggering.

The chat was scrolling too fast to read.

"Uh……"

And the most flustered person of all was Ara.

Fifteen thousand???

It had started at exactly one. Then the viewers exploded. A thousand, then past ten thousand in an instant. It was currently fifteen thousand, but even that number was rocketing upward in the brief span it took her to process it.

She waited for things to settle, but there was no sign of that happening.

In the rapidly climbing wall of chat, Ara managed to catch one message.

Right. I can't wait forever. Let's just start again.

"Let me greet you again. I'm Gil Ara."

The moment the quiet Ara opened her mouth, the chat went completely unhinged.

"The reason I went live today is that I felt like I haven't been connecting with you all enough."

"And I figured I'd throw a little promo in there too."

So many people were spamming chat that the server lagged for a second. In the frozen chat window, Ara managed to catch two messages.

"Going forward, lives will be… whenever I'm bored, I guess. It's my account, so whatever."

She started answering them one by one.

"A fan meeting? We could try to push for that as soon as possible, right? But I can't give you an exact date yet."

In other words: TBD. The viewers loved it anyway.

"First, let me do the promo."

Ara delivered the promotional lines she'd prepared in advance.

"The articles already went out, but I appeared in a short film. It's Director Bong Jun-seo's work. Senior Ryu Mi-so and Senior Kim Jae-jun also filmed with me, so please give it lots of love."

"It's also my first lead role, so I hope even more of you will watch it."

A pure, simple question.

"Yes. This is just my personal opinion, but it's definitely good."

"The genre? Am I allowed to say that?"

Ara hesitated for a moment.

Genre should be fine, right?

She had no intention of spoiling the plot anyway.

"The genre is romance."

Romance was accurate enough, at least.

Having roughly finished the promo, Ara moved into actual conversation.

"Future plans, huh…."

Let's see. What plans do I even have?

Not really any, right?

Ara started muttering quietly to herself.

"Once the short film festival is over…. Hmm, baseball…"

Hup—

The word slipped out unconsciously. Her casting on Invincible Baseball was still confidential.

She clamped a hand over her mouth a beat too late.

The sound had already ridden the phone mic straight into tens of thousands ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of viewers' ears.

One person floated the question, and everyone else treated it like a confirmed fact.

I'm fucked!

"E-everyone. I-Invincible Baseball? What are you talking about."

Ara scrambled to change the subject.

"Oh! Do you all know I like games?"

"I mostly play a game called the Rift when I'm free."

A sacrifice made to pivot the topic. Of course, she had no intention of revealing her username.

"Ah, my position?"

"Yes. Thank you."

"My position is Top! Cool, right?"

Ara proudly announced to tens of thousands of viewers that she was a Top laner.

"?"

A long while after the live stream ended, Ara was looking at an article.

"What controversy?"

The fuck?