A False Promise
Sweet Mare debuted on the last day of January last year.
And at the time of that debut, they didn't quite get the response anyone might have hoped for.
The general impression was something like, Oh, a new VTuber group with really well-done modeling just dropped.
But once Ruru's clips started getting famous one by one and word of mouth began spreading among VTuber fans, Ruru's stature steadily grew.
As Ruru's stature grew, the other members' grew right along with it, and when those members started collabing with each other, the synergy pushed their stature even higher.
So now? They had one of the most formidable fandoms among Korean VTubers.
In just a single year.
And that Ruru — that Sweet Mare —
had reached their one-year anniversary.
Other VTuber fans simply celebrated a one-year anniversary and looked forward to a concert in a casual sort of way. Sweet Mare's fans, though, expected something far bigger.
Why?
Because Sweet Mare's fans knew exactly how serious their CEO was about the VTuber business.
The prime example of that was the second-generation members' debut concert.
A company that, in a mere year, could produce modeling of that caliber and songs of that quality — that was Fantasy Live.
They boldly booked the second generation's debut concert for Christmas Eve and steered it to success. That was Fantasy Live.
Would that same Fantasy Live half-ass a concert for Sweet Mare, the founding contributors of the whole operation?
No. Absolutely not. Even if it didn't quite reach second-gen debut concert levels, something approaching that quality would be prepared — that was the settled consensus in VTuber academia.
Was there a VTuber academia? No. But I was going to make one. Me and Sweet Mare's fans were going to make one.
…In short, it was our hopium circuit.
"Hyung, you're watching the Sweet Mare one-year concert, right?"
"Gotta watch it live."
"Should we order chicken?"
"What about pizza instead?"
"I'm considering both."
"Works for me. But one of them's on me."
"Nah, I'm making more money than you right now, so I should pay."
I said that while sprawling across my brother's bed, and he immediately smacked me on the forehead.
Smack!
"Ow."
"Hey, I'm still your older brother."
"…Then you buy the more expensive one."
"…Can't I just buy the cheaper one?"
"Obviously not. You're the older brother."
We were tussling like that, half-playful brotherly bickering, when—
Ding-dong~ Ding-dong~
The doorbell rang.
"Yo, your girlfriend's here."
"She's not my girlfriend."
"Then what is she?"
"…Childhood friend?"
"Is there a childhood friend in the world who stares at someone sleeping for a whole hour?"
…There could be. My sleeping face was kind of entertaining, after all.
"Get lost already. I'm gonna play games."
"At least go say hi."
"To my little brother's girlfriend?"
"She's not my girlfriend."
My brother snickered, then nodded.
"If Rua comes by to say hello, I'll give her a half-assed greeting."
Something about that handsome face of his irritated me. Suddenly I didn't want to introduce her at all.
I got up from my brother's bed and headed straight for the front door.
Click~ Beep~
The door lock opened with a soft sound, and the moment the door swung wide, Rua popped right out.
"Hey. Hope I didn't catch you in the middle of something?"
"Nah, come in."
"Okay, excuse me~"
Rua stepped inside with her usual greeting — and even slipped into her dedicated house slippers while she was at it.
They'd originally been the guest slippers, but at some point they'd become Rua's personal pair.
I still wasn't sure whether I was supposed to be happy about that or not.
"Oppa, hello~"
"Yeah~ Have fun~"
In the meantime Rua had already said hello to my brother; she closed his door, then turned to me with a question.
"Where's your mom?"
"She went to work out this morning."
"She's so diligent…"
"Yeah, pretty much."
"Then can I go to your room again today?"
"If it's not my room, there's nowhere else for you to be."
"That's fair."
Rua smiled softly and headed straight into my room.
I followed her in.
And the moment we were inside, Rua sat down on my bed.
"I keep wondering what kind of mattress this is. Every time I come over I sit on it, and it's exactly what I like."
"I don't know either. Mom says she forgot."
"Shame~"
Rua started bouncing lightly on my bed, testing the spring of the mattress.
Watching her do that was starting to feel weird, so I headed for the chair in my room instead.
Sitting there looking at Rua, I was reminded all over again that her looks were pure cheat codes.
That carefully maintained ponytail, those bright, lively eyes, and a face that was equal parts elegant and adorable.
Even if Rua hadn't been a VTuber — even if she'd just been a regular broadcaster — she probably would've done fine on camera.
Maybe even better. Her figure was good too, after all.
"You. You just thought something weird, didn't you?"
"What are you talking about now."
"You definitely did. Your eyes looked pervy."
"Excuse me?"
At my protest, Rua started giggling.
"I'm kidding. I just wanted to force a frame-up for once."
…It wasn't a frame-up so much as an accurate hit, but I was too embarrassed to admit it, so I argued back.
Not arguing would have made me look even more unhinged, honestly.
Rua glanced around my room once, then looked at me with a bright, sunny smile.
That smile made my mood go weird again, and I looked away once more.
"Jinwoo."
"Yeah."
"…You really did like me, huh?"
I knew exactly what that "me" meant.
"…It's really fun. Streaming."
"That's a relief. You're not, like, taking the red pill and finding it boring or anything, right?"
"Rua is Rua and Ruru is Ruru, so it's fine."
"They're both me, though?"
"I think of them as separate now."
It sounded a little unhinged when I said it out loud, but from my perspective they really were separate.
Rua was, for lack of a better word, incredibly impressive.
Good at studying, good at sports, great voice, pretty, refined, elegant.
And Ruru was impressive too, just in a different direction.
Terrible at games but incredibly entertaining, cute, great voice, beautiful model, excellent at shifting expressions to match the moment, and she had real streaming instincts.
The only things they had in common were a good voice and being pretty.
On top of that, when Rua performed as Ruru her voice sat higher than usual, which made it even easier to keep them separate in my head.
Even my brother, when he heard them without knowing, had no idea they were the same person. Same for me, once upon a time.
Anyway — the point was that I'd worked hard to treat Rua and Ruru as separate so I could properly be part of Ruru's fandom. And that effort had paid off.
"…So, Jinwoo."
"What."
"Are you really not going to join the Rudongbu?"
The Rudongbu — short for the Ruru Video Editing Department. In plain terms, she kept asking whether I had any intention of becoming her editor.
Should I just say, I've already been slotted in as Ruru's editor starting next year?
No. There was no need to say that. Rua would find out someday anyway.
Besides…
…How was I supposed to look Ruru in the face and say, Actually, I'm Mangjjonku?
Especially when that same Mangjjonku had gone from being Ruru's clipper to currently editing for a second-generation member — specifically, Elia.
At first I'd been set to edit videos for all three second-gen members.
But Elia's side had been busy locking down her early concept, and the other two had each found their own editors, so I only needed to handle Elia.
Thanks to that, Elia's video quality had gone up even further, and a ton of short clips had come out of it too.
Just like when I'd made Ruru's clips.
So I'd just gone with a "if it ain't broke" attitude and let it ride… but the important point was that I was currently Elia's freelance video editor, and telling Rua that felt kind of weird.
"…Jinwoo."
"Yeah."
"Once the one-year anniversary hits, I'm going to get even more popular."
"Probably."
"And the company's going to assign me an even better editor."
"Yeah… probably?"
Rua said that much, then opened her mouth again.
"So this might be your last chance, Jinwoo."
……The moment I told her that the "even better editor" the company was going to assign her was me, would my neck get wrung?
Yeah. It definitely would. A hundred percent. No — two hundred percent.
And if, when that day came, I went, Ta-da, turns out I was the editor the company was assigning you all along~?
Past neck-wringing and straight into full neck-extraction. I was sure of it.
Die now, or die later. If I had to pick one, the latter was obviously the better choice. Better for me, at least.
So…
"……."
"………."
…I couldn't do it.
Something told me that if I rejected her outright, Rua would genuinely be disappointed.
"I'll try."
"Huh…?"
"Your company. They put out an editor job posting recently, right? I'll apply."
"…For real?"
"For real. So later, I'll at least tell you how it went."
"That's a promise?"
Why did Rua's "that's a promise?" land so heavily?
"Yeah. I will."
Somehow it felt like I was lying to Rua more and more, and that sat wrong with me.
But still…
"Work hard for the one-year. That way when I become your editor later, I can charge more."
"I will. Absolutely."
Even so — I liked watching Rua smile more than anything else.
I'd thought it a dozen times already, but sure enough: Rua was prettiest when she smiled.