It's Better to Say "Win-Win" Than "We Both Used Each Other"
It was just another ordinary day.
I had slept until I felt completely refreshed, then stretched my arms wide as I sat up, splashed water on my face, and finally took a long sip of the fragrant coffee I had brewed.
That was how Jae-min’s day always began.
Gaming was his hobby, and he earned money from it — enough to live on comfortably. Life like this felt almost too good to be true, and Jae-min himself considered himself one of the luckiest people alive.
First, he had the environment that made it possible.
His parents were decent, successful people who had worried when their daughter showed no interest in studying and suggested she get her own one-room apartment. Instead of locking him away, they had given him the freedom to do exactly what he loved.
He had tried part-time jobs for the first few months, but once he bought a computer and started playing games with the coworkers at the shop, he discovered he had real talent for the game.
Then he started streaming. Viewers appreciated his calm, gentle style as a long-range dealer — the positioning, item choices, and champion matchups were all things they could learn from. The donations and small settlements from views added up, and before he knew it, he didn’t need to work at a shop anymore.
He wasn’t living off his parents’ wealth and freeloaded, but this was already pretty sweet, right?
Of course Jae-min knew it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. You could only make money from games because he was good at them. And he knew it was really the viewers who kept him going.
So he stayed extra careful with his words, worried about starting any trouble.
Even if it was hard, dealing with rude customers at a part-time job had been harder, so it was worth it to keep streaming and playing games.
No matter what, that was why he had easily accepted Noel’s request when she said explaining a hack would be a pain.
The viewers, though, were not so forgiving.
Jae-min knew Noel was at a level where she could probably keep playing even if she was cheating. Why would she complain about a hack in that way? Who even played like that? No, he played that level too, calculating everything carefully.
“Well, I don’t know. The game company itself can judge. If it’s a hack, they’ll ban it, and if not, they’ll just let you play. Isn’t it better to call out good players for cheats and get praised for it?”
If he slipped up, though, his fun life would end, so Jae-min kept completely neutral and treated the meeting with Noel as nothing important.
He still hadn’t forgotten about her, of course. Noel was still listed as a friend.
“Wow, this person hasn’t been sanctioned yet? Really not a hack? Maybe the company just hasn’t detected it. They’ll figure it out.”
“Eh, why isn’t this person playing in the mornings? Why is he still here? Hehe, I shouldn’t say anything, but…”
“Does this person only play games…? Ah, I’m turning it off. Better go to sleep.”
After seeing her often, he had quietly built up a kind of inner closeness. A week had passed like that.
People had started coming to him with small donations, asking him to demand an explanation from Noel or to call her a hack. But he always turned them down.
“I asked, but she said she was too lazy. I don’t even know where she lives, and I can’t just go there and yell. Come on, me? I don’t know. She promised to prove she’s not cheating, right? Hehe.”
Even that he handled naturally.
This was how Jae-min, who had always stayed on the safe side and watched from across the river, found himself in a crisis one day.
- Noel : Sir - Noel : Are you really going to explain a hack? - Noel : Could you please help?
“Eh?”
Noel had sent him a whisper first. Noel usually had one of two statuses in the game: searching for a match or playing. If she was just online and not playing, it meant she must have been waiting for him.
“Hack suspicions had been going on for days. Why is she suddenly willing to explain? I thought she didn’t care about being hated.”
- Tti-hwak-jjit : lol, big news - SilverPantea : No matter how thick your skin is, every single day of pad rip would make anyone feel bad lol - JeokTop-eunTop-eSa-neun : Or did you find a way to prove the hack suspicion? lol - BoksilBoksilDrameo : The whole thing is too obvious. How are you going to prove it lol? Mouse and keyboard cheats get caught every time lol - JeokTop-eunTop-eSa-neun : Maybe they brought in a high-level player to explain lol - StageDiver : Suddenly like this is pretty out of nowhere though - Jwk2201 : They’re just trying to stop people from playing so they can explain lol - BoksilBoksilDrameo : In Celestial Realm, people bet their lives on score. There probably aren’t many like that… they complain but still keep playing - SilverPantea : Nope, you haven’t heard of Death Note? Those people memorize IDs then hit them with a ban next time lol - SilverPantea : In Celestial Realm, because they meet all the time, it’s even worse
While Jae-min tilted his head in surprise at Noel’s whisper, the viewers each had their own theories about why Noel had changed her mind. No matter what the reason, it was a hot potato for Jae-min, and he found it hard to answer right away.
It was delicious, but if you ate it without thinking, your tongue would burn.
Someone was bound to bring viewers to this topic. One wrong word and his streaming life could end.
He hated the pressure, but what could he do? They were already tangled up.
Ignoring it would only disappoint the viewers even more.
So after a moment of hesitation, Jae-min replied to Noel.
- Celesty : Yeah - Celesty : I asked around. There’s someone who offered to help with the explanation, so I’ll ask if they can help
He also contacted another streamer who had contacted Noel before — Kancho. A streamer who stayed neutral and never got pulled into scandals.
People even called him “a living angle grinder.”
Personally he didn’t like the kind of content Kancho made, but the person himself was fine.
If he was going to do a hack explanation stream, he would inevitably meet Noel in real life.
He had no desire to bring a man into his own private sanctuary.
It wasn’t that he hated men or was scared of them.
After all, Jae-min was just a long-range dealer streamer named Celesty.
Ideally, he wanted to send Noel to Kancho to play the game.
Going to his own home or the PC bang didn’t make sense — the explanation had to be objective.
A neutral test using equipment provided by someone else was the basic standard.
He wanted that place to not be his own home.
- Celesty : Kancho-ssi, I know Noel - Celesty : She asked for help explaining a hack. Could you help?
- Kancho : Sure, just a moment
Kancho was awake, luckily. Everyone knew he streamed in the afternoon when people were out.
Jae-min guessed his wake-up time was similar to his own.
Maybe even earlier.
- Kancho : Where should we do it? - Kancho : We can do the stream from our office. The company might be able to sponsor - Kancho : If it’s more convenient for you, you can do it from your own house
- Celesty : Oh, then let’s do it at Kancho-ssi’s office
Kancho suggested his own office, and even offered the sponsorship bribe.
In this case, Jae-min could step completely out of it, and Noel and Kancho could stream together.
But he still didn’t want to throw away the hot potato. After all, he wanted to live long and slowly.
He had no desire to just let someone else do the good work.
- Celesty : Then I’ll make an Open CocoaTalk group chat - Celesty : The three of us can talk, and viewers can watch transparently
- Kancho : Great idea
The two streamers were basically trying to use the user with hack suspicions to create some drama, but Jae-min felt no guilt.
Noel wasn’t using him as a streamer to prove her innocence.
At times like this, it wasn’t about “we’re using each other” — it was about “win-win.”
All he was doing was becoming a temporary partner.
Jae-min thought this matter wasn’t very important.
If he stayed completely neutral, whether the other side used an unofficial program or not, nothing bad would happen to him.
People kept talking about being neutral, after all.
He finished the last sip of his fragrant coffee and sent Noel the link to the CocoaTalk group chat.