The Contract
I brought my older brother along when we drafted the freelance contract.
It wasn't as though he had any particular talent or experience in this sort of thing, but one thing was certain: a simple freelance contract was well within his ability to review. We weren't drawing up a detailed employment agreement or anything like that.
My brother carefully looked over the contract, then bowed his head.
"...Please take good care of my little brother."
"Of course. Once your brother becomes an adult, we absolutely want to bring him on board. We'll treat him with the utmost care."
"Thank you."
It felt strangely like they were holding some kind of marriage interview over me. Was I getting married off here or something?
It was absurd, but I figured it was better to leave well enough alone.
After we left the company, my brother immediately started talking while looking at the contract.
"Minimum 30,000 won per clip—pretty high rate they've set."
"But it's one clip a day. So 30,000 won a day is the limit."
"That's a shame. With your work speed, you could make at least three a day, right?"
"That's true."
It really was a shame. What do you mean basic three a day—I could do five. If I got paid for all of those, that would be a full 150,000 won a day. That meant I could earn about 4.5 million won a month. If I could make that much, I'd seriously be beating my brother easily and have to start comparing my earnings with Dad.
But unfortunately, the freelance contract I signed was for clips of the second generation... Happy Heaven's Elia. And only one clip uploaded a day at that.
"Still, making one a day for 30,000 won is pretty good, right?"
"Not just pretty good—it's an amazing rate. You're looking at nearly a million a month."
"How much does the Mangjjonku account make?"
"Around two hundred or so."
"Damn, that's insane."
Two hundred was actually a conservative estimate. When things were really going well, I'd hit close to three or four hundred a month before. The long-form videos I uploaded once or twice a week almost always got picked up by the algorithm, so the revenue was pretty solid. Adding it all up...
"Still, I'll probably make close to three hundred overall."
"Nice, nice."
My brother patted my head lightly, then looked at me.
"But what about you?"
"What?"
"If you have to make one clip a day now, doesn't that mean you'll have to watch Elia's streams? Not Lulu's?"
That was true. What I'd contracted for were Elia's clips, specifically Shorts videos. To make a Shorts clip under a minute, I'd have to watch Elia's streams pretty thoroughly. Which naturally meant Lulu's clips would decrease.
"Yeah... that's a bit of a problem."
What I realized from the last stream was that Elia still lagged behind Lulu in streaming presence. She knew where the fun points were, but it didn't quite translate into the broadcast itself. If she hadn't fixed that, my contract would probably turn into a very dry, office-like job. A completely uninteresting one, at that.
"...I'll just have to pray that Elia makes her streams entertaining."
"Ah, so are you going to reduce the number of Lulu clips?"
"I'll probably have to."
Once I started producing Elia's clips, I'd only be making about three Lulu clips a day now. If I tried to maintain the previous number while adding Elia's clips on top, I'd definitely get ground to dust. I was already grinding myself down pretty hard as it was—and now add Elia's clips on top of that? I'd really die. I could collapse from overwork.
Honestly, even now it was a bit precarious. It was only because I liked Lulu so much that the editing points jumped out at me and impressions kept popping into my head, letting me make them quickly. The schedule itself was murderous. So I had no choice but to make a realistic compromise.
"Still, if you manage it well, your earnings could double."
"That's true too."
From a revenue standpoint, cutting about two of Lulu's clips was actually a win for me. Even if I cut two clips, the compilation clips I uploaded once or twice a week and the occasional regular long-form clips wouldn't decrease, and the revenue from those two clips wasn't that much more than expected. It was about 20% of my overall channel revenue, but that 20% would be more than covered by the Elia clip contract. Elia would boost my channel revenue by about 40-50%.
"...You're going to be really busy."
"If it gets too hard, cut more of Lulu's."
"Absolutely not."
"Why?"
Why else?
"Lulu's streams are my main base. I can't cut my main base any further."
Lulu's streams—the VTuber known as Kuroa Lulu—were what opened the path for me as a clipper. So for Lulu's sake, and for my own resume, I absolutely couldn't abandon them. For the record, the fact that Lulu was Rua had nothing to do with it here. Probably. ……That's what I thought.
"Anyway, congrats on the contract."
"Thanks."
"I'll buy you a meal."
"Why would you buy? If anyone's buying, it should be me."
"Even if I'm a job-seeking youth, I'm still your older brother who's been doing internships here and there."
My brother pulled out his card and made a very tempting offer.
"Beef?"
"...All-you-can-eat."
"That's a given."
"Then let's go."
And so my brother and I headed toward home and went to the all-you-can-eat beef place nearby. The beef was insanely delicious. I want to eat it again.
Several days passed after that, and it became Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve—in other words, Happy Heaven's debut day. Happy Heaven's debut stream started at 9 PM, and Lulu would start streaming from 8.
But then...
"Let's have dinner together."
Rua was saying something weird to me. On the way home after school, I tilted my head at her words and looked at Rua.
"...Aren't you preparing for the stream?"
"Nope, no need."
"Why? Don't you have some kind of meeting or something?"
At that, Rua smiled brightly.
"Jinwoo, what kind of VTuber is Kuroa Lulu?"
"...My oshi?"
"That's nice to hear, but I mean from the company's perspective."
From the company's perspective—Fantasy Live's perspective—Lulu was...
"...Basically the face of the company."
"Yeah, I'm the face. A star face. Do you think they can boss the face around?"
Ordinarily, I'd want to say no. But through the interview, I'd already figured out how serious that handsome Alphameiru Representative was about VTubers.
"...Yeah, I think they could."
"Puhuhu, right. Actually, they can. But they have enormous trust in me?"
"What does that mean?"
"It means they trust me enough that a few simple rehearsals are all that's needed. And those rehearsals finished yesterday."
Yesterday was a day off, and she hadn't studied with me. So that was why.
"You'll be shocked when you hear the juniors' song. It's reeeally good."
As soon as I heard that, I recalled the unfamiliar but addictive song I'd heard at the company. Yeah, it would definitely be good. Still...
"I liked your first album better."
My oshi was the first generation, Sweet Mare.
"...Well, that's only natural."
Instead of her usual confident smile, Rua wore a somewhat clumsy one. That look was pretty enough on its own. And since it was a side of Rua I didn't usually see, a bit of sadistic pleasure even rose in me.
"Yeah, yeah. Of course our Kuroa Lulu would say her own song is the best."
"But it is objectively the best, though?"
I didn't think so. Even from a brief listen, I could tell. Happy Heaven was aiming more for the 'major' scene. The song had a strong driving feel, and it was full of catchiness. Most people would probably like that song more. At least I was one of them. But my fan love for Kuroa Lulu and Sweet Mare was greater than that.
"Anyway, you can really look forward to it. Our juniors worked reeeally hard."
"Hard enough to even get compared to you guys?"
"...I do feel a little sorry about that."
Ah, so that was real. Not just banter acting. Hearing that made Rua seem even more amazing. Just how talented was Rua to completely satisfy that picky Representative? With a good voice, great singing, and solid streaming presence, this VTuber was bound to be a treasure from the company's perspective. So of course she'd make good money and be popular.
"......You've been working hard."
"Out of nowhere?"
"Yeah, out of nowhere."
But I knew. That popularity, that attention—it was so sweet, but at the same time, it was something that bound you. It must be incredibly hard. Far harder than me just mass-producing clips. Why did I feel that way? Because Rua's personality and Kuroa Lulu's character clashed strongly. Thorough, elegant, and full of composure—Rua. Mischievous, with a bit of a bratty edge, but clumsy and cute—Lulu. Rua had to switch between these completely opposite sides on a dime. So she was bound to be more exhausted than me.
Hearing that, Rua suddenly hugged my arm.
"Rua!?"
I tried to pull my arm free in panic. But Rua held on tightly and rested her head on my shoulder.
"...Yeah, I am pretty tired."
The moment I heard that voice, I couldn't pull my arm away. It was one of those rare times Rua showed her vulnerable side. So I offered my arm and shoulder to Rua. That was all I needed to do right now.