Is It My Fault This Time Too?
Scrub. Scrub. Scrub.
The word snowball comes from a game, sure, but in real life it’s a perfectly usable term.
After all, it’s literally just the English word for a snowball—yeo gong, or a ball of snow.
Roll a snowball down a snowy hill and it only gets bigger the more you push, right? Same thing happens anywhere on Earth.
Who knows how it works in other worlds, but here in our universe it hardens into a black hole just like in Champions of the Storm.
If I say that out loud, I’m doomed no matter what.
Still, this is my world. So that’s why I’m muttering it this morning.
It’s five in the morning when I finally wake up, and the room is pitch dark like always.
“Ah…”
Sometimes that happens.
I’d normally wake up an hour or two earlier than my usual time, eyes all sticky with sleep, and just lie there half-dozing again.
Back when I was in school I used to treasure those stolen minutes as extra sleep time and roll around in bed.
I’d close my eyes, fiddle with my phone, and then drift off again.
But now my mind and body are fully awake, and the bed feels too cold to stay in.
It’s all because I got up too early yesterday.
Should I have forced myself to sleep a little more?
No, but then I’d have crashed early last night too.
Ah, maybe I should just stay up later tonight to make up for it.
Becoming a morning person by force has been the most confusing thing ever.
I don’t even have anything I have to do in the mornings.
I could stream or game, sure.
But after climbing ranks from Silver, I realized gaming in the morning is poison.
I’d rather queue up after nine whenever possible.
Playing against people who stayed up all night would turn the match into pure chaos.
Normally I’d just wait and head downstairs to eat with my neighbors, but not today.
The chance to eat a full meal once a day is for friends today.
And the second I pictured Gabi and Jae-min, my body shot up.
If they’re coming, I need to clean at least a little, right?
Thankfully the laundry is already done from yesterday.
Still, seeing my underwear hanging on the drying rack feels weird.
After all, Gabi and I bought them together when we went shopping, so she probably wouldn’t mind.
Showing them to Jae-min, though… that’s another story.
Even though I’m a woman now and Gabi and Jae-min are women, my brain still insists I’m a man.
It’s mortifying.
So I’ll dry the laundry in the room instead.
Time for a proper house clean.
After a month of living alone the living room was dusty but not filthy.
Still, when friends are coming, I should at least run the vacuum and mop a bit.
Before, I wouldn’t have thought twice about it.
But showing my friends a good side… maybe that’s just a basic human desire.
Of course it wasn’t easy for me.
Only one leg and one eye.
Walking normally already messed with my depth perception, and if I wobbled even a little I’d fall.
Pulling the heavy vacuum made my body sway constantly.
“Ugh. I was just crawling around and now this is why I’m tired.”
Balance was off, and with almost no muscle I was weak.
But then my little trick kicked in.
I didn’t have to stand to clean.
I wasn’t moving around the room, so there were no loose things to worry about.
My goal was just to pick up the dust, so I could crawl and mop.
That’s exactly what I did.
After I’d covered a slightly larger area my arms were burning.
I dropped flat on the floor for a second, rested, then mopped again.
I repeated the cycle of rest and cleaning several times.
The gray dust stuck to the mop rag made me feel proud.
Now that the cleaning was done, I felt ready to welcome my friends with my head held high.
Since I’d started, I might as well do my bedroom too.
The desk where I spend most of my day, and the floor.
I even changed the pillowcases and put them in the washing machine.
Those will have to wait until they’re dry—towels for now.
The comforter… well, it doesn’t smell and I’ll just cover it later if I start sweating.
After a solid deep clean, the doorbell rang.
I checked the intercom first.
It was the downstairs neighbor aunt.
She’d knocked yesterday when she thought I might still be asleep.
Maybe she figured I’d wake up early again today.
“Student, good morning. I heard some bustling sounds so I thought you’d be up. Want to come have breakfast?”
Was she really coming all this way in the early morning? I wondered.
When I heard her words I realized the fault was entirely mine.
“The bustling… oh no, was my cleaning too loud? I’m sorry.”
I’d never cleaned before, so I had no idea how much noise I’d make.
Even the crawling sounds had carried up to the next floor?
Well, my knee hurt anyway, so I moved carefully.
But the floor thumped with every step.
The ceiling must have echoed.
Thank goodness I hadn’t run the vacuum.
If I had, the noise would have been unbearable.
“No, it wasn’t that loud. I just wondered if you were already awake. Turns out it was your cleaning. Cleaning first thing in the morning—what a diligent student.”
“Um… I’ll be more careful from now on. I didn’t realize the noise was that loud. I’ll do it a bit later.”
“Hehe, that’s great. Have you eaten breakfast yet?”
The aunt said it was fine, but I could tell from her tone that the noise had traveled downstairs.
They say murders happen over floor noise.
Because of her kindness I felt my chest tighten.
Now I felt even worse for having to turn down her offer today.
“I’m sorry, I have plans for lunch today.”
“Huh? Lunch plans? You should still eat something for breakfast, right?”
“Ah, I only eat one meal a day because my appetite is small…”
“One meal a day…? So you’ve been surviving on that since yesterday?”
“I’m not really surviving—it’s thanks to you. Normally my stomach feels empty by evening, but it was still full from yesterday.”
“Oh my… the auntie is so thoughtless, eating nothing but plain side dishes…”
I tried to explain gently and turn her down, but her eyes were already misty.
Where did this auntie find the sad points in life?
It was strange, but I didn’t want to make the person who was always kind to me cry, so I gave her the best comfort I could.
“No, no. The breakfast you made was a feast. It was the first warm meal I’ve had in months.”
“Months…? The auntie feels so sorry…”
“No, I was just thanking you…”
Eventually the auntie burst into tears.
If I were her real daughter I could just hug her and comfort her.
Since I wasn’t, I didn’t know what to do and just fidgeted with my hands.
Thankfully she quickly calmed down and gave me a smile.
Her eyes were still wet with tears, but when you cry and then laugh it’s…
That line made me feel a bit guilty.
“Well, anyway, you have lunch plans. With a friend?”
“Yes. I’m meeting them at home.”
“That’s good. I hope they’re kind friends. Eat well.”
“Thank you. I hope you have a good day too, auntie.”
The auntie understood my situation and left, but I felt a little uneasy.
She wasn’t planning to prepare lunch for me starting tomorrow, was she?
Anyway.
I was ready to welcome Gabi and Jae-min.
Now all I had to do was wait for them.
It was six in the morning already. What was I supposed to do until noon?
Eventually it circled back to the same problem.
So the only thing I could do until then was stream instead of gaming.
I could start streaming before nine, and chatting with viewers would pass the time.
New content could come out of it too.
That settled it.
I turned on the computer and started streaming.
Even at this early hour viewers poured in and filled the chat.
“Haha, maybe you stayed up all night?”
When I saw the familiar usernames the corners of my mouth lifted automatically.
Other news came through and I felt a little bitter.
But whatever—karma comes around.
I had nothing to feel sorry about.
Anyway, viewers were sending me news too.
This streaming was really useful content for me.
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