You Flirted First, 500K VTuber Noa
500K VTuber Noa. Real name Noa Hyun. She was in a state of utter confusion right now.
A ridiculously luxurious interior that screamed money at first glance. An even pricier, fully soundproof private room. French wine with some absurd name that outdid it all.
Hanwoo Short Ribs 100g ─ $650
"......"
...And the meat with an insane price tag that made everything else look cheap by comparison.
How the hell had things ended up like this?
She'd just gotten roped into this dinner by a newbie TRPG fan's coaxing—nothing more.
"? Aren't you gonna eat?"
"Ah, no...! I was just spacing out for a sec..."
Snapping back to reality, she found Eunha Seong right in front of her. Not the version from TV, but the real, living, breathing Eunha Seong.
Of course, it was an honor. A total honor, but...
"Hey!! Ali!! I told you not to eat the beef raw!!"
"Aah, don't hit me! Don't hit me!"
The problem was who'd come along with her.
The TRPG pod, aka the Hero Party. Her main content, the root of it all—a regular group that played TRPGs. But in reality, it was just a gathering of friends with a few screws loose.
"Beef's supposed to be eaten like this. Ttukda-tteok, ttukda-tteok."
"Ttukda-tteok my ass—one side isn't even cooked!!"
Ali shoving uncooked beef into his mouth with his clumsy pronunciation. Baechu smacking his back while yelling loud enough to shake the room.
She kept grilling more meat on the hot plate as she continued.
"You get food poisoning, don't come crying to me, got it???"
"It's fine. Allah protects me. All is well, all is well."
"Oh yeah! But don't Muslims avoid beef if they believe in Allah...?"
"Baechu's dumb. That's Hinduism."
"Hah?? You little...!!"
"......"
Noa clutched her aching head and turned her gaze to Jjusam. Unlike those two, he at least had some shame—he looked relatively well-behaved. And with sweat beading on his bald head, he seemed tense given the occasion.
"Um... Seong Eunha-ssi..."
"Yes?"
"C-could I get a s-signature...?"
"Ah, sure. Of course."
...Nope. He was just an otaku.
Not tension sweat—just his passive-mode drool glistening.
Eunha handed him a signed album with meticulous care.
"Here you go."
The cover featured an octopus in horn-rimmed glasses that looked just like Jjusam. He grinned in bliss.
"Ehehe... eheheh..."
"......"
Watching him, Noa started feeling dizzy.
'Th-this won't do...!'
She had to pull herself together. Out of the Hero Party's four members, she was the only sane one. If this kept up, who knew what rudeness these lunatics might inflict on her precious newbie... no, on Eunha-ssi.
Gripping her trembling voice, Noa cautiously asked Eunha.
"Um, excuse me... Yume-ssi...?"
"Yes, Noa-ssi?"
"Thank you for inviting us... b-but is it really okay for us to be in such an extravagant place...?"
Honestly, it was overwhelming. No, way overwhelming.
Those bottom-feeders had already devoured at least 2kg of beef. Even roughly calculated, that was already over $13,000. No matter how well she was doing lately, it was an absurd amount for a single meal.
And to her question, Eunha replied nonchalantly.
"This much is fine. It's not even that expensive."
"But still..."
"And we'll be seeing each other often from now on, so getting close can't hurt, right?"
"......!"
Her face flushed beet red at "seeing each other often."
Eunha continued casually.
"Since we're planning regular TRPG sessions once in a while."
"......!"
"Of course, I don't know much about TRPG yet, so I'll have to learn a lot..."
"......!!"
"But I'll do my absolute best not to be a burden to everyone."
"......!!!"
Dopamine exploded in her brain like fireworks. A sensation like pleasure chemicals flooding every nerve in her body.
Noa zoned out in ecstasy, letting out an unintended moan like she was high.
"Haaah..."
"N-Noa-ssi...?"
Eunha looked flustered. The three watching from the side muttered in turn.
"Guild master... went into heat again..."
"Aww, she broke again."
"Guess she lasted a while."
Casual reactions, like this was everyday routine.
Then Noa squirmed and whined.
"Th-this is... 'cause Yume-ssi flirted first..."
Her lust-glazed eyes gleamed stickily.
They say beware the one who buys you beef. Pork might come from pure intentions, but beef-buyers are scammers expecting payback.
In that sense, I fell into the latter category.
I'd treated Noa-ssi’s TRPG pod to beef specifically for the "connections" payoff.
But damn, the beef worked too well.
"Fuck Allah. Now beef is my Allah."
"Woo! Woo woo woo! Meat! Meat! Meat!"
For starters, the Pakistani guy and dog-person... er, Baechu started worshipping me. Not just praise—straight-up fanaticism.
I'd only bought beef once, and this was their reaction? I'd meant to get friendly, but not this friendly.
"Hehe... signed album..."
Thankfully, Jjusam was just your standard fanboy. Scary-looking, but after chatting, he seemed sweet and thoughtful. His burly build even reminded me of early idol fanmeets.
Back then... uh... god, no need to dwell.
"......"
Not a memory I cared to revisit.
Our Jjusam was top-tier among fanboys. Anyway, these three were no issue.
The problem was...
"Ahh... ahhh..."
"......"
This crazy lesbian.
Weird... She'd been normal just a bit ago... And the booze bottles were untouched, so she wasn't drunk...?
So why was she suddenly like this with me? I was starting to get scared...
Pushing down my fear, I mustered courage and spoke to her.
"Um... Noa-ssi?"
"Ahh..."
"...Noa-ssi."
"Ah, y-yes! What is it?"
Good, she wasn't totally gone—snapping back at her name.
I blurted my question before the intelligence drained from her eyes.
"C-could you tell me a bit about the TRPG we'll be doing...?"
She countered with a question.
"Have you ever played TRPG before?"
"Uh... no?"
"Seen it done?"
"Maybe twice?"
I only vaguely knew the term—never played or watched closely. Thought it was some tabletop card game.
"You know there are two roles in TRPG: players and master?"
"......"
"...Okay, starting from square one."
Flustered by my shallow knowledge, Noa cleared her throat and began explaining.
"TRPG stands for Tabletop Role-Playing Game. Basically, a game done through RP."
As a VTuber myself, I knew RP: role-playing. Acting out your character while trading blows like WWE.
"And as I mentioned, there are two roles..."
Game Master (GM). And Players.
Everyone knows players, so skipping that. The master? Simply put, the "storyteller."
They run the session, follow rules determined by cards or whatever, interact with players to build the story.
Basically a game, but people yapping instead of computers.
'Got it. Perfectly understood.'
With that, I fired a question at Noa-ssi.
"Aha. So it's basically the Mayfair board game version?"
"W-well... you could see it that way...?"
She looked confused. Fair—my analogy was nonsense. No rice-munching in verbal games.
I pressed on.
"So then... swords and magic to find the ring?"
"K-kinda, but not all TRPGs are fantasy settings."
"Aha. Cthulhu then?"
"...What even is your idea of TRPG, Yume-ssi?"
She laughed in disbelief at my extremes.
"D&D and CoC are super famous, but there are way more genres than you'd think."
"Really?"
"Yeah. Cyberpunk, wuxia, mecha, mystery—even modern horror lately."
"Whoa..."
Wake the Dead samurai in TRPG? Wild. But mecha TRPG? Giant mecha-tirannos biting swords. Pure romance...
I eyed her expectantly.
"So what's this session's genre?"
Spotting my vibe, Noa grinned confidently.
"Hehe... The collab TRPG we're doing is..."
She trailed off, building suspense.
After a brief silence, she dropped it.
"An idol story."
"What."
An idol story...? Ugh... My head suddenly throbbed...