Benefactor [UniClip, I Love You!]
As soon as I posted the comment UniClip. I love you!, it received a heart and was pinned instantly. Then a flood of heart emojis poured in, spamming the chat. “Oh! They jumped right on it today.” It looked like UniClip had been logged into VTube too. Just seeing the comment made me smile. If I was being honest, part of me had gone looking for it on purpose. To me, UniClip was like a benefactor. They probably had no idea.
“What kind of person are they, anyway?” The question never left my mind. Why did this person like me so much? I followed a few streamers for fun myself, but never to this extent. No matter how you looked at it, it was just a clip channel… yet the number of videos on UniClip had long passed a hundred. Considering when the channel was created, they were uploading nearly four times a week. I knew clip channels didn’t get monetized. That only made me more grateful that this person kept posting videos all this time.
“Honestly, everything I’ve achieved is thanks to UniClip.”
I had spent over a year as a nobody streamer. I’d braced myself when I started, but the longer the obscurity dragged on, the harder it became. Juggling school, part-time jobs, and streaming left my body exhausted. I barely held onto double-digit viewers without knowing what I was doing wrong. I’d tried every kind of content imaginable, but nothing changed. I had zero connections in the industry; it was like slamming my head against a wall. I learned the hard way that the deepest despair comes when you feel like you’re not growing at all.
One day, while I was drowning in that frustration and seriously considering quitting, the chat exploded.
The viewer count that had been stuck in the double digits for a whole year of grinding suddenly shot into the triple digits. It felt almost hollow. At first I was confused. After all, I had never run a VTube channel. Between streaming, school, and part-time work, editing was physically impossible.
That was the day I learned the channel’s name.
UniClip
That evening I lay in bed and watched every video on the channel. They were short clips, but I could feel it clearly—this person genuinely liked me. The editing wasn’t professional. The early videos especially felt a little rough and clumsy. Even so, the affection came through so strongly it almost hurt.
How can I make her look cuter? How can I make her seem more fun? Those thoughts were woven into every frame. That sincerity touched me far more than any flashy editing technique. At least my year of streaming hadn’t been meaningless. At least one person had loved my broadcasts enough to work this hard. The realization made me watch every single UniClip video again and again. I lost count of how many times I replayed them.
“Ah… I’m going to cry.”
Just remembering that time made my eyes sting. The exhaustion. The fear that I’d have to abandon my dream again. Dreams had always meant a little more to me than to most people. The overwhelming emotion from back then came rushing back.
I set my phone down and took slow breaths, trying not to cry.
“I really wanted to meet them just once…”
I had wanted to tell them how I felt. I’d even written them an email because I wanted to meet. I told them how grateful I was and that I wanted to repay them somehow.
Of course, that was the reply I received. How could someone be that humble? Reading the line that said it wasn’t because of them but because I had worked hard made me tear up all over again. For a moment I even wondered if UniClip wasn’t a person but an actual angel. I’d had ridiculous thoughts like that.
The reply moved me so much that I became a fan of UniClip. It sounds strange to say a fan became a fan of another fan, but that’s exactly what happened.
“I hope we can meet someday…”
Time to sleep. If I let myself fall into these thoughts, I’d never stop. Maybe it was because my MBTI was F, but once my emotions overflowed, they refused to slow down. I drifted off while whispering those impossible, foolish daydreams.
*
Assignments. Just why do they exist in the first place? My head felt ready to explode. Did professors honestly believe students only took their one class? How was it possible that five out of the six courses I’d signed up for all had assignments due?
“One iced Americano, please.”
“Sure, just a moment. I’ll bring it right out.”
The café inside the university campus. I usually stopped by when there was a long break between classes. I tapped my foot impatiently while waiting for my drink. I’d ordered in a polite, refined voice, but inside I was frantic. If I wanted to stream tonight, I had to finish the assignment during this window. The deadline was today, after all.
It wasn’t like I’d deliberately put it off. When you’re balancing school and streaming, missing deadlines happens all the time. Just one of those little everyday problems.
Sigh… Should I give up? Honestly, quitting now would be a relief. My streaming income meant I didn’t need a regular job right away. But life is unpredictable. I’d seen more than a few streamers ruined by scandals or slowly fading into irrelevance. Streamers were basically small business owners. Sure, things were good now, but I never knew when it could all disappear. Still, I needed to keep my grades up so I could graduate. I wasn’t that reckless. If everything fell apart, I wanted a safety net. That was why I kept dragging myself to university even while streaming.
“Here’s your Americano.”
“Thank you.”
The chilled glass sent a cold shiver through my palm. My skin has always been sensitive, so my hand went numb instantly. I hurried over to the window seat where I’d left my laptop and set the drink down. Then I logged into the school portal to check the assignment.
Financial Management Principles — Week 8 Assignment
Why did it have to be financial management again? It was a weekly torture session. Math had always been my worst subject in high school. My mathematical intuition was basically nonexistent. Especially anything involving statistics or mathematical concepts—I just couldn’t wrap my head around it. And these assignment problems had to be solved alone.
…How on earth was I supposed to solve this by myself?
I tried to wake up my tired brain with caffeine and stared at the problem until my eyes burned. Naturally, no answer appeared. The urge to ask ChatGPT flooded my mind.
“Hey. Stop watching VTube for a second and help me. You said you mastered financial management, didn’t you?”
“Hold on.”
The problem was already impossible, and now the people next to me were chatting loudly. It sounded like they were also drowning in the same financial management swamp.
Sigh… Why was I so unlucky? I wanted to ask them to be quiet, but talking in a café wasn’t a crime. Honestly they weren’t even that loud—it was just that I was stressed and sensitive because of the deadline.
“Now that I think about it, are you still doing that VTube thing?”
“Huh?”
I couldn’t focus on the assignment, so my ears drifted to their conversation without meaning to. But wait. That voice sounded familiar. I turned my head toward the familiar tone.
To my surprise, it was Woohyuk oppa. And the guy I’d seen once at the group meeting. Ah… that was why the voice felt familiar.
The two kept talking, completely unaware I was watching.
“What is that? Yui Clip or whatever. You’re still running it, right?”
“Dude, shut up. Don’t say it so loud, it’s embarrassing. And it’s not Yui, it’s Uni. How many times do I have to tell you?”
“Same thing.”
“It’s completely different. Ugh, why am I even telling you this? Whatever.”
“If you don’t want to talk about it, then at least help me with this financial management assignment.”
I think his name was Jae-min? The guy was waving his laptop in front of Woohyuk oppa and throwing a tantrum. But… hadn’t he just said “Uni”? Even though they were at the next table, there was still some distance. And Woohyuk oppa had spoken in a tiny whisper, so I couldn’t catch everything clearly.
…No way. It couldn’t be. This kind of thing happened sometimes. If I told my viewers, they’d accuse me of having main-character syndrome. But what could I do? Sometimes any word that started with “Yu” sounded like “Uni” to my ears. Every time I heard something similar, my whole body would flinch.
Woohyuk oppa took a sip of his drink and looked away from Jae-min. Then his eyes naturally met mine. Ah… had I been staring too long?
“Um… hello? Oppa?”
Feeling awkward, I greeted him while our eyes were still locked.
“Huh…?”
In that instant, oppa’s eyes widened in shock.