Group Project Villains
I spun my gaming chair back and forth, focusing on the voice coming through my earbuds.
I was on the phone with Seo-yeon unnie, who had called right before I was about to start streaming. She streamed under the name Nia and was a senior-level face-cam streamer with a much bigger audience than me. After we happened to collab once, we’d gotten close in private too, often chatting about random nonsense like this.
Lately though, she mostly called to complain about her boyfriend. Still, it was worth listening to. After all, I had zero dating experience. It was kind of fascinating to hear what real relationships were like.
No, MBTI really is science. Why doesn’t anyone get that? I still clearly remember the moment I read the INFP description. It gave me full-body chills. It was literally me.
“You got any fun stories lately? Like a super hot guy you fell for at first sight in college? You lock eyes during class and—kyaa~! I’m getting excited just thinking about it, girl.”
Since she knew I was a university student, Seo-yeon unnie would occasionally tease me like this. It made me realize she was the ultimate extrovert type. No wonder her streams were so successful. I was the timid type, so starting out had been genuinely difficult for me.
“There’s nothing like that. I’m a total loner, so I end up sitting alone in class most of the time.”
Eating alone and attending lectures solo were my specialties. It wasn’t that I deliberately avoided making friends. I just never joined any club activities, and somehow it ended up like this.
“That’s the best time of your life, though. What are we gonna do with you, Yuna? Seriously, stop holing up in your room streaming all day and go outside.”
“You stream from your room all day too, unnie.”
“No I don’t? I do night streams too, you know?”
It was basically the same thing. What was the difference? But once she put it that way, I had nothing to say. Geez. She was way older than me—couldn’t she let her little sister win one for once?
“Ah… hey, unnie.”
Talking about guys made Woohyuk oppa’s face pop into my head without warning. Before I knew it, I was telling her about him. She might seem frivolous, but she was actually pretty serious and knew how to keep a secret. If she weren’t, I wouldn’t have stayed close with her.
If she put it like that, what did that make me? Sure, I’d messed up, but it wasn’t that bad… right? At least he forgave me. So it was fine. Probably.
“So what do you think?”
It wasn’t like I was trying to make something happen with Woohyuk oppa. I just wanted a second opinion now that the topic had come up.
“Does he smile every time he sees you?”
“Yeah. When I leave he waves and tells me to get home safe. And… last time I told him I had a cold, he gave me lemon honey tea?”
Well, an entire box of it. Who even gives someone a whole box of lemon honey tea? I still hadn’t finished it; the rest was sitting on the table next to me.
“…Yuna.”
“Yeah?”
“Listen to unnie carefully. We’ve decided to call that a green light.”
“This is a green light?”
“Absolutely. One hundred percent. How are you supposed to date if you can’t even read signals this obvious?”
Her firm tone made me waver a little. …Woohyuk oppa liked me? But where on earth was there anything likable about me? When I thought back on everything I’d done, I couldn’t think of a single good thing.
Even I could admit it was a little weird.
“Aaaah~ So that’s why you’re still single. He’s sending you every signal in the book and you’re straight-up ignoring them.”
“Unnie! No hitting me with facts!”
But the more I listened to her, the more it seemed like she might be right. Otherwise, why would he be so nice to me? Was it my looks? My head was still spinning with questions.
In the end, our call lasted right up until I had to start streaming.
“Hey everyone, hiii~”
Uni’s live stream had arrived right on schedule again today. Of course I wasn’t going to miss it. I stared at my phone in solemn reverence. That solemn posture, naturally, meant lying in bed. There was no other acceptable position.
The chat exploded the moment the stream started. The moment Uni’s refreshing voice rang out, a smile spread across my face. Pavlov’s dog, huh. These days, just hearing her voice was enough to make me grin.
“So, are there any Uniz here who actually read today’s schedule properly?”
Uni spoke in the tone of a teacher scolding her students.
I usually just skimmed the schedule too. I mostly showed up thinking, “What’s she doing today?” There were probably a lot of people who didn’t read it.
“Who doesn’t read it? I put so much effort into making that schedule, everyone. I’m genuinely~ disappointed.”
She was already using that annoying tone from the start. Her energy seemed especially high today. When Uni was in a good mood, she had a tendency to rile people up on purpose.
Uni giggled at the chat reactions and continued.
“Aww, it’s not ant-tickling. I was genuinely just asking.”
The sound of her gulping water came through the mic, followed by a satisfied “Pwahhh~” and then:
“Before we get into the actual game today, I thought we’d do an ideal type World Cup.”
The viewers immediately started getting hyped.
People who hated World Cups really hated them. It was pretty divisive. Since she mostly streamed games, a lot of viewers just wanted to watch her play. I didn’t care what she did, though. I’d happily listen even if she talked about herself all day.
“Remember that content we did last time where we surveyed you guys to learn more about our audience?”
Yeah, that one. The one where she made viewers fill out a survey to see what kind of people watched her.
All kinds of professions had shown up. Of course, the majority were basement-dwelling NEETs.
Watching this made me wonder what the actual average viewer was like.
“Anyway, that’s not the important part. Turns out most of my audience is college students in their twenties?”
“So today’s World Cup is the Group Project Villain World Cup—something every college student absolutely loves!”
“Whoa there. Don’t call it ‘group project,’ everyone. I can feel all your built-up resentment.”
A World Cup bracket appeared on screen. Where did she even find these things? I’d seen tons of World Cups, but this was a first.
“This one’s short so it’ll be over quick. We’ll knock it out and then move on to the real game.”
“Alright, shall we see what villains we’ve got?”
It was a quick sixteen-team bracket. The first matchup popped up.
“Copy-paste villain and no-input villain? No-input is the type that never contributes ideas but shoots down everyone else’s, right?”
Both were rough from the start. The copy-paste villain was probably the kind who just dumped a bunch of copied material and claimed they’d done all the research.
“Ah~ This is tough. But I think I’d go with the no-input villain? Copy-paste is straight-up hopeless. At least with no-input, if you force the mood you can still get the project done.”
Uni picked option two and moved on.
“Huuu… Both are the absolute worst. But I guess all-talk is better? At least they show up and talk. Ghosting is just…”
Ghosting really hurt. It reminded me of a group project I did in first year. The guy who ghosted was supposed to present, so I ended up doing all the research and the presentation… Ugh.
Looking at the chat, it seemed like there were plenty of fellow sufferers.
“Wow, every single one is a masterpiece. Still, I think disaster PPT is better, right? If they start fighting and the whole vibe collapses, there’s no group project left to do.”
One comment must have caught her eye, because Uni started answering it.
“You’re asking what I’m like during group projects? Hey, villain? No way. I’m a total hero. If you’re in a group with me, I’ll carry you on the bus, guaranteed.”
I was laughing at her jokes without thinking much of it… until I suddenly realized.
…I was actually going to end up in a group project with Uni.