#34 - Snack Collab Hype
Today's Lulu stream was as fun and exciting as ever, the usual snack collab time rolling around.
I was munching away on a snack while watching her broadcast when some totally unexpected news dropped.
"Everyone, I've got a huge important announcement today!"
Important announcement—those words had me sitting up straight, eyes glued to Lulu on the screen.
What could it possibly be? My heart was pounding as I stared at her…
And the news that came out of Lulu's mouth was a true bombshell.
"Sweet Mare is finally doing our first collab! Wooaaaaaah! Clap clap clap clap clap!!"
Lulu clapped with her mouth, grinning ear to ear as she pulled up her prepared PPT.
"The collab we're doing this time is with a snack you all know well!"
The snack Lulu showed was one I knew all too well myself.
A sandwich-style snack filled with chocolate—one I'd devoured a ton of as a kid.
Lately, I'd been into saltier stuff over these kinds, so I hadn't bought any in ages. But a collab? That's a whole different story.
"Cola-bra, collab~"
I'll clip that and advertise it too—might as well grab one of those collab snacks myself.
Even as I thought that, a question popped into my head.
This might sound weird, but out of Sweet Mare's three members, Lulu had hit big-corp level, while the other two were more mid-tier. Definitely not big-corp status.
Lulu was now consistently pulling over 1,000 viewers, while the others hovered at 600-700, tops 1,000 on a good day.
And on the official Newtube channel subs, Lulu dominated at over 150,000, while the rest were chilling around 100,000.
Sweet Mare gets a collab like this? Which company would even…?
Lulu herself cleared up the mystery right away.
"I never expected a snack collab either…! But our CEO is amazing at this stuff and made it happen! Applause for our CEO watching the stream!"
So it was the CEO's connections.
From what I knew, Next Dreams—the agency behind Sweet Mare—had a CEO who was a die-hard VTuber fan.
A guy who'd been highly rated at a big corp suddenly quit to start a VTuber agency. No wonder they nailed all the fan-favorite points.
"That's impressive."
Until now, I'd only known it intellectually, but now I felt it in my gut.
It was the kind of achievement that made "impressive" slip out naturally.
A VTuber group just over half a year old landing a snack collab? Yeah, that's huge.
"Sales start on the 18th this month! They'll hit specific marts first!"
Got it, the 18th.
That'd be right after vacation starts—the perfect day for an open run. The mart listed on the PPT was the one in my neighborhood too.
Timing's spot on. I'll head there to snag some.
Of course, that means managing my condition the night before.
…Worst case, I'll pull an all-nighter.
Honestly, right? For my oshi's collab, I'd stay up all night if I had to.
I started mentally scheduling my vacation around it.
Not that my vacation plans were anything fancy—just all-night editing and sleeping till around 11.
Vacation day rolled around before I knew it, and that morning—from what would've been our usual commute time—a familiar face was walking beside me.
"Jinwoo-ya, hey."
"Im Lua, hi."
"…Im Lua?"
"…Lua, hi."
"Yeah, hey."
Does she really have to drop the family name and go straight to first-name basis with a guy?
It was ridiculous, but my chest felt all tickly—such a weird vibe.
To shake off that odd feeling, I tossed her a normal question.
"Hey, Lua."
"Yeah? What?"
"What's your vacation schedule like?"
"Vacation schedule? Hmm~"
Lua pondered for a sec, then smiled faintly.
"Nothing much. Just study, hang out, exercise… rinse and repeat."
"Gotcha. What about tomorrow?"
"Uh… tomorrow?"
She thought about tomorrow, then told me.
"Probably grocery shopping for Mom…"
"Grocery shopping?"
"Yeah, vacation or not, gotta do my part."
Classic Lua—super diligent.
Right then, a flash of inspiration hit me.
"Hey, Lua."
"What."
Her tone sounded a bit pouty… nah, probably imagining it.
Anyway, I got to the point.
"You heading to any particular mart?"
"Me? K-Mart."
I jumped on that immediately.
"Wanna go together?"
"Together?"
"Yeah. Gotta grab some snacks tomorrow."
"Snacks…"
Lua murmured the word, nodding.
"…Sure, let's go together."
"Okay, what time tomorrow?"
"How about 9 AM? Takes about that long to walk there, right?"
"……It's a 20-minute walk?"
"Still better to meet early."
"Opens at 10?"
…K-Mart opens at 10. News to me.
But no backing down. Gotta do the open run.
Still, if we're going together, I'd suck it up.
"……9:30 it is."
"Deal."
Lua beamed and nodded.
Great that we'd be going together, but then it hit me—I might've messed up.
Wait, if I go with Lua to buy snacks, she'll see me grabbing VTuber-branded ones, right?
……Should I cancel now?
I glanced at her, but Lua just had that calm face on.
Tell that girl I'm bailing on our plans? She'd turn into the king of hell and snap my neck if I was lucky.
No choice—sticking to the plan.
Well, since we're going together anyway, fingers crossed the open run crowd's light.
The day after vacation started, I was up bright and early.
Lulu had unusually ended her stream on time the night before, and with few clips to make, I actually got solid sleep.
"Alright then~"
Quick shower, then in front of the closet, I slipped into the outfit I'd picked out yesterday.
A cool summer V-neck tee with matching shorts—basic combo, but it suits me pretty well, I think.
Not like I've got model proportions or anything, but solid enough for hanging with a girl.
You might ask why I'm fussing over clothes just to meet Lua, but childhood friend or grocery run, it's still with a girl.
Showing up sloppy would be straight-up rude. No way I'm pulling that.
So I went with what I figured was a decent look and headed out on time.
Sure enough, someone who'd beaten me out the door by a bit was waiting.
"Jinwoo-ya, morning."
"Yeah, morning."
It was Lua—in casual clothes.
And thanks to her killer proportions and figure, even basic outing wear looked stylish and cute on her.
Like textbook "effortless chic."
"Straight to the mart?"
"Yeah, let's go."
I walked with Lua to K-Mart, silently praying for thin crowds.
Honestly, it should be fine. How many Sweet Mare fans in this neighborhood?
But life never goes according to plan.
"Whoa… why are there so many people…?"
"Rea…lly…?"
The entrance was packed. About 70% dudes—all fellow fans here for the collab snacks, no doubt.
What my short-sighted self overlooked: K-Mart getting first stock meant not just locals, but fans from the whole area swarming for open run.
I'd arrived too late for the rush…
……And the Sweet Mare collab snacks? Long gone.
Should've come solo instead of getting suckered by Lua's grocery talk.
Fine, whatever—just pretend I'm grocery shopping with my childhood friend.
"Hey, Jinwoo-ya. The snacks?"
"Uh… the ones I wanted sold out, so grabbing others."
"Were they Choco Sandy and Cream Sandy by any chance?"
"……Yeah. How'd you know?"
"There."
Lua's finger pointed to the price tag on the shelf.
Ah, figured it out from that.
Makes sense—the one snack out of that massive display gone in under three minutes? Obvious.
I nodded, and Lua looked at me.
"……Gonna get other snacks anyway?"
"Yeah… guess so."
I picked up my usual ones after that.
Aigoo, my life.
Hey, you mart jerks—put a per-person limit or stagger releases or something. Total crapshoot.