Group Project
I had two ironclad rules I kept while living school life.
One was to stay quiet and guarantee my sleep as much as possible — that one vanished naturally the moment I became Lua's seatmate.
I'd chosen studying over sleep, so maybe that was only natural.
So what was the other one?
Never become a burden when doing group projects.
There are two things you can never avoid in school: written exams, and performance assessments.
And among those performance assessments, group projects sometimes pop up — and those group projects are a real problem.
What's the problem? Simple. If I mess up a group project, it's not just me who suffers — everyone else does too.
The issue is that someone who hasn't studied a thing, like me, has an extremely low chance of actually being helpful.
Thanks to that, whenever we did group projects, I'd take on the annoying but brainless tasks as much as possible. Things like researching materials or making something.
Because of that, my reputation as a group project teammate wasn't all that bad. Not good either, though.
Since I knew so little, the things I researched or made usually came out low quality. So from the perspective of the kids who were good at studying, it meant twice or three times the work. I really felt bad about that.
Maybe it was because everyone knew that about me to some degree?
"…Nice to work with you."
The moment my group project teammates saw me this time, none of them looked happy.
This group project was for four people total, and three of them were top-ranked students — one of them even the number one in the whole school, Lua.
I never thought I'd feel the meaning of "sitting on pins and needles" with my whole body, but I really felt bad just being here.
They should've stuck someone decent in here instead of me. The teacher was pretty heartless.
…Well, to be honest, even if I were the teacher, I'd want to stick a troll like me into a group like this. Because sticking a troll like me in there means no one can complain afterward.
"Yeah."
"Let's do our best."
"Yeah, nice to work with you, Jinwoo."
Everyone except Lua gave half-hearted replies, and only Lua welcomed me with a smile.
Lua really was an angel. If this wasn't an angel, then what was?
Lua looked over each of us once, then took the lead and spoke first.
"Guys, what we have to do is make one piece of history-related content. We pick one of the things we've learned so far and make something about it. Anyone have any ideas?"
That's right. This group project was for Korean history — pick one topic from the Korean history range we'd learned and make related history content about it.
So what would be good? What should we make?
The first thing that came to mind was, of course, a video. But…
…If we made a video, I'd inevitably have to work hard. Me working hard was fine, actually. Making something other than Ruru's clips was pretty fun in its own way.
But other kids' scores would swing wildly depending on my video. I didn't really want that.
So I stayed quiet, but…
"A video would be the safest, right?"
Jihye Kim, who'd been the second to respond to my greeting, brought up videos.
"A video is a really solid form of content. But the question is whether any of us knows how to make one…"
Lua casually glanced my way. She was telling me to step up.
I was about to resign myself and step forward when an unexpected person raised their hand first.
Jihye Kim, who'd brought up videos, raised her hand a little.
"I know how to make videos."
"Jihye, have you made videos before?"
"A few times. Back in middle school I even made the graduation video."
"Come to think of it, Jihye was in the broadcast club."
Goeun Lee next to her chimed in, and it naturally felt like the direction was settling on Jihye making the video.
Then I didn't need to step up. I wouldn't cause any major trouble.
So I kept my mouth shut and just nodded along, but…
…Lua's sudden moves were not something within my control.
"Um, Jihye. Jinwoo's pretty good at making videos too — how about we leave it to him…?"
"What? Seo Jinwoo is good at making videos?"
Jihye looked at me like she hadn't expected that, and I glared at Lua.
Lua had never even seen my videos. How could she be so sure I was good at them?
Lua caught my question with one line.
"Jinwoo even takes video commissions, you know?"
……Ah. I'd mentioned that I made money with videos.
This damn loose mouth of mine. But wait, that wasn't me who said it — I think it was my brother.
Either way it didn't matter. What mattered was that Lua knew I made money from it, and from that she'd inferred that I was good at making videos.
Honestly, if you looked only at VTuber clips, I could confidently say I was one of the best in Korea.
But for any other kind of video, I was third-rate or worse. Not the level where I could make a living off commissions.
I could get good if I learned, but I hadn't even learned. Everything was self-taught, and VTuber clips were just something I studied more because I was interested.
Jihye looked at me, then made a completely unreasonable demand.
"Hey, can you show me a video you've made?"
"A video I made?"
"Yeah. It's better if the person who makes them better does the editing, right?"
If I showed a video I'd made, I'd be forced to out myself as an otaku who watches VTubers.
I absolutely did not want that. I wanted to avoid that at all costs.
So what should I do? Simple.
I could just send one of the game videos I'd edited for practice back… exactly last year, when I was practicing video editing.
The problem was that my skill back then and my skill now were, with a little exaggeration, the difference between heaven and earth.
Video editing is something that steadily improves the more you do it. Conversely, if you stop, the basics stay but the feel drops off hard.
Knowing that, I couldn't carelessly say anything.
"……I'll send it to you within this week."
"Got it. Send it within the week."
With that, we decided for now to make a video, and figure out the rest gradually.
And on the way home.
"……Sorry."
It had been a really long time since I'd heard an apology from Lua.
"No, it's fine."
"I just… wanted you to do something, anything…"
"I know. So it's really fine."
I knew. I understood a hundred, a thousand times over Lua's desire for me to do something meaningful.
Because I understood, even though I'd been flustered, I hadn't gotten mad at her.
"If you need anything, just tell me. I'll help as much as I can."
"Okay."
I nodded to Lua and went home, then started doing things a little different from usual.
Normally I would've managed my YouTube channel while waiting for Ruru's stream, but today I started looking up history-related YouTube videos instead.
I watched them one by one, thinking about how best to edit a history video.
Once I roughly had the hang of it, I decided to take the content of a video I'd just watched and remake it my own way once.
The day I'd make the video was tomorrow, Ruru's day off. For that tomorrow, I decided to prepare various materials today first.
……For reference, I thought later that if I was going to make it like this, I should've just made our group project video from the start.
I ended up making two history-related videos for no reason.
Three days later, after watching my video at school, Jihye Kim blinked and looked at me.
"……You make them well."
"Thanks."
"Then can we leave the video to you?"
"You can leave it to me. I'll do my best."
"Thanks."
"I'm the one who should thank you. And, um… later, can I ask you a little about videos and stuff?"
"A little is fine… yeah, ask away."
"Thanks."
Jihye nodded and left my seat, and Lua, sitting next to me, looked at me with a very confident smile.
"How well did you make it?"
"Uh… like this."
It wasn't made that well. I'd used AI to dub the voice, and all the video content was from source videos that already existed.
Literally a mashup of source videos with voiceover and subtitles layered on top.
Even so, that level of video seemed more than enough for Lua.
"It looks really clean and well-made."
"That's way too much praise."
"No, really. The subtitle bars are stylish, the subtitle font is easy to read, and all the reference footage matches the situation."
"Thanks."
After thanking Lua for recognizing my intent, I lowered my head and planted my face on the desk.
Lua poked me with her finger a little disruptively.
"…What."
"I was wondering why you suddenly ducked your head like that."
"I'm tired."
I wasn't tired. To be precise, I was doing this because I was embarrassed.
Somehow, it felt like Lua had acknowledged my ability. That made me so embarrassed and yet so happy that…
I didn't think I could manage my expression.