Take a Break
Ever since I found out Lua was Ruru, our relationship hadn’t changed as much as I might have expected.
We still studied side by side at school, walked home together, and traded the same endless stream of pointless chatter we always had.
In those moments there was only Seo Jinwoo and Im Lua—no Kuroa Ruru the VTuber anywhere in sight.
The topics of conversation, though, had shifted a little.
“Games these days feel way too hard…”
“What are you talking about?”
“Like, aiming and stuff. It just feels insanely difficult…?”
“Isn’t that just because you suck?”
“What did you just say.”
Before, gaming barely ever came up. Out of a hundred conversations, maybe three or four at most.
That was it. Lately, though, the subject popped up whenever she got bored.
Watching her like this made me realize all over again just how good Lua had been at playing the ordinary civilian.
“So what game are you playing today that you’re bringing this up?”
At my question, Lua immediately started glaring at me.
Our relationship itself hadn’t changed—but one unspoken rule had formed between us.
Never talk about Ruru.
We both tiptoed carefully around that rule, and I had just brushed right up against breaking it.
I realized it a second too late, clapped a hand over my mouth, and ducked my head in pure apology.
Lua stared me down, then leaned in close to my ear.
“That’s a secret… just for the Ruru-dan.”
…She whispered it in that signature Ruru voice—cute and just a little infuriating.
I’d imagined it a few times before.
What it would be like to hear that adorable, slightly annoying voice in real life.
I can say this with certainty now.
Annoying or not, it felt like my ears were melting into goo.
“Whoa…”
“…What?”
“Nothing. It’s nothing…”
Obviously I couldn’t say any of that out loud in front of Lua.
We didn’t need to make things awkward for each other.
So I’d just keep this nice little feeling to myself.
Better for both of us that way.
After school, Lua and I started the walk home together like always.
“Haaaaaah…”
“Why are you yawning?”
Why was I yawning? Because I’d stayed up editing Ruru’s stream and uploading it to my NewTube channel again last night.
By the time I finished it was three in the morning; five hours of sleep was a good night. Of course I was exhausted.
“I go straight to bed after my stream ends. What the heck are you even doing that keeps you up so late?”
“Well…”
“Videos?”
I couldn’t come up with an answer. I just nodded.
Lua glared at me, then suddenly grabbed both of my cheeks.
“Huh?”
“…You. Stop watching my streams.”
Out of nowhere she blew right past the unspoken rule, and I flinched, trying to check our surroundings.
With her hands on my face I couldn’t see much, but thankfully nobody was close enough to overhear. Small mercies.
Whether anyone was listening or not, Lua kept hammering away at me with words.
“If you’ve got video work to do, don’t watch my stream—finish your own stuff first. Then watch my stream.”
That was impossible. The work itself was editing Lua’s—Ruru’s—streams and uploading them.
To edit Ruru’s streams I inevitably had to watch every second of them, and watching and editing meant staying up all night. That was just how it worked.
It might sound a little full of myself, but my channel had grown surprisingly fast for my skill level.
Behind that growth were consistency, diligence, and sheer volume of uploads.
Within about five hours of Ruru’s stream ending, videos went up—not one or two, but three or four at a time.
Once the reviewed ones dropped on top of that, at least five Ruru Shorts hit the channel every single day.
Sure, her streams were packed with clip-worthy moments, but more than that, I was simply grinding out the edits with relentless consistency. That was why the numbers looked the way they did.
With that many decent-quality videos rolling out, VTuber fans found their way to Ruru through my channel, and Ruru’s fans found their way to me through her. Traffic flowed both directions.
That was how I’d grown so fast.
Bluntly put, my NewTube channel had just broken a hundred thousand subscribers—still short of Ruru’s official numbers, but not by that much.
A clipper’s channel sitting at roughly half a VTuber’s subscriber count? I figured my work ethic deserved a lot of the credit.
Honestly, that consistency was my real weapon. And to keep using it, I had to keep living exactly like this.
Which meant I had no choice but to lie to Lua.
“…Okay. I’ll do that.”
“Yeah. Promise me. You can always rewatch my streams later—VODs, Shorts, wherever. But your health is something only you can take care of. That includes your sleep.”
…Lua. I’m the one running that Shorts channel.
For the record, I had absolutely zero intention of ever telling her that.
If I did, I’d never be able to make videos the way I wanted.
I couldn’t even begin to guess how much roasting and physical abuse I’d take for it.
I’d already gotten a half-joking official warning once through the company channel that they’d “chew me up nice and chewy.” Knowing Lua’s personality, if she ever found out I was Mangjjonku she might actually try to chew me up in real life.
She hit surprisingly hard for someone her size, and I had no desire to experience that up close.
“Anyway. Today you finish all your own work first, and only watch my stream with whatever time you’ve got left. Got it?”
She repeated the request a few more times, sounding for all the world like she was purely worried about my health.
I nodded. Lua seemed pleased with that, smiling brightly as she completely changed the subject.
“So, Jinwoo. Do you happen to run a NewTube channel or anything?”
“Uh… huh?”
“A NewTube channel. Do you run one.”
I spat out a lie on the spot.
“Uh… I’ve got an old practice channel where I uploaded a few practice edits.”
It wasn’t a total lie. More like a “technically told the truth” kind of lie.
Before I started operating as Mangjjonku, I really had uploaded a handful of editing practice videos to a personal channel.
I never intended for anyone else to see them—they were pure study material—and the channel didn’t make any money. Paradoxically, that also meant the videos were harmless enough to show people if I had to.
Just little practice pieces: chroma-key compositing tests, custom subtitle bars I’d animated myself, that sort of minor stuff.
Lua listened, then started eyeing me with a prim little squint.
Like she was suspicious.
To dodge that suspicion I went for a slightly violent distraction.
Smack!
“Ow!”
I flicked her on the forehead.
The way she yelped “Ow!” just then overlapped perfectly with Ruru getting unfairly roasted on stream.
Ever since I’d learned they were the same person, moments like this kept happening.
To anyone who knew the truth, Lua didn’t seem even slightly interested in hiding that she was Kuroa Ruru.
Of course, when she streamed as Kuroa Ruru she pitched her voice higher and cranked the energy into full high-tension mode, so maybe that alone counted as a kind of disguise…
But still. The little natural mannerisms?
Those were pure Ruru.
They were just how Lua lived—her whole shape as a person—so I doubted she could change them even if she tried.
“You little—why’d you hit me!”
“Because you were saying weird stuff.”
“You bastard. You pervert…!”
Thwack!
“Agh!”
Lua fired off a kick in retaliation, and I nearly dropped to my knees from the single hit.
“Ow, damn… that actually hurts…”
“It hurt me too, okay? You pervert. Trash who hits girls…!”
“Girl? You’re just my friend.”
“I am biologically female, you know?”
Bickering, trading completely ridiculous reasons to fight—that was me and Lua.
In the middle of it I quietly relaxed. At least I’d managed to dodge her suspicion.
Side note: the price was getting thoroughly beaten like her personal stress-relief plushie. Dust flying everywhere.
Truth was, Lua wasn’t particularly strong. If anything she leaned toward the delicate side.
But she somehow knew exactly how to hit so it hurt. Like she had technique for it.
There was skill to striking, and I had no idea how she’d picked it up so well. Maybe pure instinct.
Anyway, after getting thoroughly worked over by Lua, I trudged the rest of the way home…
and once again started watching Lua’s—no, Ruru’s—stream.
“Hellooo~ my little sacrifices~♡ I’m Ruru, the succubus who’s gonna steal your whole night away~♡”
Knowing that behind that voice Lua was sitting there smiling and streaming made it feel a little funny and a little impressive all at once.
Lua, performing as Kuroa Ruru, broadcasting live.