Thank You
Smoke rose in flickering wisps from the white charcoal. I stared blankly at the meat cooking in Yuna's hands. Maybe this was what they called fire gazing. The red glow leaking out from the flames brought a sense of peace to my heart.
"...Hey, oppa."
"Yeah?"
Yuna began in a soft, gentle voice. She lightly cleared her throat, then flipped the meat over with a quick swipe.
Sizzle.
In the flowing silence, the sound of the meat grilling over the fire rang out even louder.
"Everything from here on isn't something I'm saying to you as oppa, but to the person known as Uni_clip, so listen carefully."
Uni_clip? She'd dragged me all the way to a beef restaurant just to bring up Uni_clip out of nowhere. I could only tilt my head in confusion at Yuna's puzzling words.
"I'm truly grateful. For liking me."
If it had been any other time, I would have cracked a joke to ease the awkwardness. But Yuna's mood felt unusually heavy. Her eyes stayed fixed on the grill where the flames rose, yet her expression was dead serious. And those words were clearly meant for me.
"I've wanted to say this for a long time... but because a certain someone refused to meet me, I can only say it now."
Yuna's slightly resentful tone made me flinch inside. I had my own reasons for feeling wronged, after all. Asking to meet up over something so small felt a bit much. In truth, I hadn't done anything special. I'd simply clipped cute moments I noticed and uploaded them.
"If it wasn't for you, oppa, I might have quit streaming altogether."
"..."
I couldn't find any words to answer that weighty statement. It felt like all the anguish Yuna had carried this whole time was pouring into me with that single sentence.
"People who don't know any better might say I'm overthinking it. That I'm reading too much meaning into something trivial."
Honestly, I'd thought the same thing. When Yuna first sent me that long email, I'd wondered why she was going this far over something so minor. That was exactly the conclusion I'd reached back then.
"There are so many people who challenge personal streaming only to give up, right?"
I nodded at her words. That was true. The ones who survived were an extreme minority. Ninety percent? No, even more than that would give up before they ever reached triple-digit viewers.
"I've seen plenty of them. People who got burned out and quit. Both those who started around the same time as me and those who started even earlier."
"I see."
Yuna's expression as she said this looked strangely downcast. How many streamers had come and gone? She must have witnessed that sight every single day.
"I was about to do the same. I started out full of dreams and passion. I ran for a whole year without stopping, but when I finally came to my senses, I saw reality staring back at me."
The reality Yuna faced couldn't have been pretty. She probably hadn't been able to show it to anyone on the surface.
"I was giving my all every single day, yet it felt like I couldn't move forward even one step. It was like playing that jar game and dropping back to the starting village every time."
"That must have been so hard. Really hard."
My heart ached at the self-mocking smile on Yuna's face. It reminded me of a civil service examinee who studied desperately every day only to keep failing, or a college student who worked incredibly hard yet still got an F. I couldn't even begin to imagine how crushing that must have felt.
"When I was completely shattered and ready to give up, you were the one who lifted me back up, oppa."
Yuna finally lifted her eyes from the meat to look at me. The corners of her eyes seemed a little moist. Her gaze toward me held warm, genuine gratitude.
"Thanks to you, I've made it this far. I've even grown enough to treat you to beef like this. Before I knew it."
"Yeah. I'm glad. Really."
I finally understood why Yuna had brought me here. She must have truly wanted to convey her sincere feelings to the person known as Uni_clip.
"I was grateful that you helped my stream grow. But that's not all. I've watched every single video you uploaded."
She'd watched all of them? There had to be well over a hundred videos by now.
"...And that's how I realized. Just how much you like me."
"Saying it like that makes me embarrassed."
Still, I was relieved she understood. I'd poured so much effort into making those clips. At first I didn't even know how to edit. I ended up spending my own money on editing software and studying techniques by scouring VTube tutorials. The very first video probably took me three hours to finish. No one had asked me to do it. It wasn't the kind of thing anyone could ask for. I'd done it simply because I liked her that much. It had come from pure, unfiltered fan heart.
"That was what picked me back up then. So there really was someone who liked me this much."
Yuna's voice had begun to tremble slightly. Recalling that time must have stirred up her emotions. For some reason, I felt a sting at the tip of my nose too. It felt like all my hard work had finally been acknowledged by someone. And I was overjoyed that Uni had recognized it.
"I'm the one who should be thanking you. For not giving up until then."
I looked straight at Yuna as I spoke. I wasn't good at flattery or empty words. This was my true sincerity. If she'd given up before it blew up, the current me never would have known the streamer called Uni, right?
"And like I said, I didn't do anything special. It all worked out because you were genuinely entertaining."
Like the saying that the capable will succeed. It was because Yuna had endured for over a year with only double-digit viewers. Because she'd built up real skill and put in consistent effort over time. It had simply exploded when the moment was right. All I'd done was toss a small spark into the kindling.
"...There you go again, oppa."
"But it's the truth, so what can I do? It took off because you're cute."
"Wow. That last line was straight out of a Unimono handbook. I'm finally starting to understand what Uniz really means."
Yuna now looked at me with a slightly disillusioned expression. Unimono was the term for those obsessive mono fans who were completely devoted to Uni. Since they usually disrupted streams, it was hard for them to survive in her chat. But hidden Unimonos like me were probably watching while pretending to be normal viewers.
"Now that I think about it, you watch my Twitch streams too, right? What's your username?"
"Why are you asking...?"
The serious atmosphere from before had vanished in an instant. Yuna was grinning like a little devil.
...No matter what, I couldn't carelessly tell her my ID. There were some chats that were embarrassing even to me. They weren't ban-worthy, but I did enjoy toeing the line for the thrill of it.
"I'm curious. Can I perform an autopsy on what you wrote?"
"No. That's a bit much."
"Why? Oppa, are you actually a toxic troll?"
Toxic troll was a bit harsh. It wasn't that bad. Maybe just a regular troll?
"It's not to that extent... but showing you is still a little..."
...I didn't want to get banned. I didn't want to get timed out either. Even a five-minute timeout would leave me unable to breathe, screaming inside.
When I couldn't bring myself to answer easily, Yuna wrapped her arms around her own shoulders.
"What exactly did you say that makes you react like this? I'm starting to get a little scared."
The mood from Yuna was gradually shifting toward disdain. At her narrowed gaze, I almost blurted out that in our circles, that look was practically a reward. Where had all the gratitude and emotion from earlier gone?
I quickly changed the subject to divert Yuna's attention.
"Hey, hey. The meat's going to burn. It's burning, it's burning."
"It's not burning. Don't worry."
Yuna neatly arranged the perfectly cooked meat on the plate in front of us. Being expensive cuts, they looked absolutely mouthwatering once grilled. The sight alone made my mouth water.
"You eat first, oppa. I'll grill the rest."
"No. Let's eat together."
"Huh? But isn't it important not to interrupt the flow when eating good meat?"
Yuna prepared to place the next piece on the grill with the tongs. Had she picked that up from a stream too? She was talking like a certified meat expert.
You don't even like meat that much. Uni had always been more of a carb person than a protein one.
"Just eat with me. I want to enjoy it together."
"...Alright. If you insist."
I stated my intention firmly. Yeah. When it came to eating, we should do it together. Besides, it already felt uncomfortable getting expensive food for free. If I sat there eating what Yuna bought while she kept grilling, I'd probably get indigestion.
I picked up a piece of meat and popped it lightly into my mouth.
"Whoa. This is incredible. It just melts away."
"Really? Then coming to an expensive place was worth it."
A smile naturally spread across my face at the blissful taste. Yuna watched my expression and smiled contentedly in return. For some reason, seeing that smile made heat rise to my cheeks.
...It was simply because Yuna's smiling face was too beautiful.
Uni had never done a full cam stream before, only half-cam at most. If she ever switched to full cam, wouldn't she captivate every single viewer?
"Yuna. Even after you graduate university, you can't keep doing no-cam streams?"
"...Huh?"
Yuna tilted her head at my sudden question.