Apology and Punishment

What I had to do was comfort Lee Yebin, apologize to her, and earn her forgiveness.

Whatever the process looked like, I'd comforted her, apologized, and been forgiven — so my job was done.

Which meant it was now Yebin's turn to…

"Resign."

"What?"

"No, wait — apologize."

A public apology to the entire nation.

Well, not quite the entire nation — just her viewers. But was there really that much of a difference?

I mean, come on. Once Yebin's audience piles in, she's a major streamer pulling three to four thousand concurrent viewers. If they really swarm her, I've seen her hit seven or eight thousand.

We're roughly the same tier, so that estimate felt about right. The important point was that her last stream — the one where we'd played Ghost Phobia together — had drawn that kind of crowd.

And if she'd bawled her eyes out in front of all those people going hwaaang, I'm ending the stream, then she damn well owed them an accounting.

"You rage-quit the stream because you were scared."

"You told me to turn it off!"

"Calming you down came first. You think if I'd said we should keep going, you actually would have?"

"…No. I couldn't have."

Yebin grumbled, but she admitted what needed admitting. Yeah — that was our girl Lee Yebin.

"So let's do a nice, clean public apology."

"What public apology?! I'll do an apology stream, fine, but…"

"Hey, you're still better off than me."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean all of a sudden."

"You just have to apologize and you're done. Me? I've been sentenced to a 24-hour non-stop ranked Bae-O-Re marathon."

That's right. For the crime of going over to soothe Lee Yebin, I'd been condemned to twenty-four hours of non-stop ranked games.

For the record, the viewers had spun a roulette among themselves to decide the punishment. And since spinning that roulette cost real money, I couldn't even intervene.

Seriously — who was the streamer here and who were the viewers? If they were so good at cooking content, they should just start streaming themselves.

Meanwhile, upon hearing my pitiful, tragic tale, Lee Yebin…

"Oh dear… how unfortunate…"

"Take your hand off your mouth, you little shit."

"Ebebebebe~"

…was just mocking me.

I'd even offered up the strawberry milk I'd bought for myself just to comfort her? Really?

Unbelievable. Just watch me ever buy strawberry milk to comfort her again. Never happening.

"Anyway, so — apologize."

"Yeah, I have to… mm…"

"Then start the apology stream right now. I want to watch."

"Are you a complete pervert?"

"Sure, sure. If enjoying this makes me a pervert, I'll be the greatest pervert in the world."

"You absolute lunatic."

She was just dumping a whole bucket of insults on me.

The more I looked at her, the less I understood why I'd worked so hard to comfort her in the first place.

No charm. No warmth. Why had I even bothered?

Past me was a real idiot.

"I'm sorry…"

Lee Yebin's apology stream.

I was watching it with a bowl of popcorn.

Naturally, the viewers split into two camps in response.

The side that understood Yebin.

And why was my name coming up in the middle of that? Stay in your lane.

Anyway — if there was a side that understood her…

…there was also a side determined to dish out a proper penalty.

Not that the punishment camp didn't understand her — it just felt like a fair demand from a viewer's perspective.

Yebin must have braced herself for that much, because she answered in a slightly gloomy voice.

"If that's what you all want… yeah. I should. Mm…"

The moment she agreed to take a punishment, the chat exploded with ideas.

Every idea under the sun was flying out, and Yebin started filtering for the more reasonable ones.

"Late-night streams and face cam… pass. I don't want to do that stuff yet. You guys only need to look at this panel."

For the record, that "panel" wasn't even a VTuber model — just a drawing. One Yebin had commissioned.

And honestly, that Vini avatar looked nothing like Lee Yebin.

Not an ounce of extra weight on her, flashy hair color, an incredibly gentle face, and pretty on top of it. Completely the opposite of Yebin, you know?

"An IRL collab with Dodo is even more of a no. I'd rather do an adult game stream. Just slap a censor sticker on it and scream once and I'm done."

She was actually giving the adult game stream idea serious consideration. Had she lost her mind.

Anyway, while the suggestions were flying, someone made a truly insane move.

"…Excuse me?"

A massive hundred-thousand-Candy donation, followed by a demand for a sailor uniform.

The chat immediately lost it.

Watching the chat react, I was just baffled.

Why on earth would anyone want to see Lee Yebin in a sailor uniform cosplay? That sounded actively nauseating. Like, peak cursed content.

I knew what Yebin looked like in a school uniform. Of course I did. I'd seen it for six solid years ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠until I was sick of it.

And what I'd learned from that was simple: Lee Yebin just ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠looked like a straight-up delinquent.

Not that she hiked up her skirt or modified the uniform or anything — the girl just radiated thug energy.

And they wanted to make her wear that on purpose? Really? Were they insane?

But our roughly five thousand viewers of highly specific tastes latched onto the sailor-uniform villain's idea and immediately started pouring fuel on it.

A sudden flood of big donations — and when Yebin saw them…

"I am absolutely not doing a sailor uniform half-cammmmm!!!"

…she screamed at the top of her lungs that she would not be doing a sailor uniform half-cam.

You could tell how desperate she was just from that.

"I'd rather do an all-nighter stream with Dodo than a sailor uniform half-cam! And I'm not doing the sailor uniform, so everyone who just donated — send me your nickname and proof of donation separately! I'll refund all of you!!"

An all-nighter stream with me, plus refunds?

But you — you just made a terrible choice.

Because our viewers? When they hear something like that, they only burn hotter.

See that? The chairman himself just dropped half a million won right out of the gate.

For the record, this person had dropped big donations on my stream a few times too.

Meaning they were a whale on Yebin's channel and a whale on mine.

"I said no. I said nooooooo!! Even if the chairman says so, I can't! Absolutely not!!!"

She said that, but Yebin was probably going to do it.

She knew it too. Once this much money piled up, you had to follow through. And knowing this was her own apology stream made it even more unavoidable.

In the end…

"…Hey. Dodo."

"Pffft… sailor uniform… sailor uniform… pff… hahahahahaha… ah shit, wait, sorry. Hahahahahaha…!"

"You son of a bitch."

That was all Yebin said before I heard the sound of her headset coming off.

Ah. She's coming again?

Yeah, fine. Come kill me if you can.

I shut my door and dug in for a siege. Thanks to a certain someone I lived with these days, I'd put on a bit of weight and a bit of muscle, so I was stronger than before.

But ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠one threat from Yebin was all it took to make me open the door.

"Open the door before I put on a sailor uniform and start acting cute at you."

"You crazy bitch, that's biological warfare."

There was no way in hell I was enduring that, so I had no choice but to open the door.

— SMACK!!

"AAAAAARGH!!!"

"You bastard! Stop faking it!"

"That fucking hurt! Pffft—!"

"Oh? Take your hand off your mouth. Hand. Off."

I finally did as she said and dropped my hand, and Yebin got a full view of it.

My smile, overflowing with mockery — the pure catharsis of getting to enjoy her absolutely horrific future.

"AAAAARGH! This is so annoying! I hate you! I hate you!!!"

Yebin got even angrier, and I became certain of one thing.

Teasing Lee Yebin really was the happiness of my life.

Let's stay ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠close for a long, long time. Yeah?