Chapter 14
Chapter 14
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 14
Chapter Title: Sudden Bolt from the Blue
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Why did it have to get found out, and now things had spiraled this far?
Even as I watched the beef grilling to a perfect golden brown right in front of me, all I could do was maintain my troubled expression.
"Wooju, so what exactly happened? That girl's your fan? When did you two meet? Is she pretty? How old is she?"
"Noona, please stop being so nosy and just eat first..."
I pressed my forehead in lament, inwardly complaining that even the tornado that had torn through America recently couldn't have hit as relentlessly as my sister's barrage of questions.
But if it stopped here, she wouldn't be the great Kang Yeonju.
True to her my-way-or-the-highway nature that she got straight from Mom, she stubbornly fired off more questions despite my protests.
"We can talk while we eat. So, what does she look like? Got any pictures? Can't you show your noona just once?"
And even now, trying to snatch the tongs away saying she'd grill the meat herself—so very much like her.
That's why it was hopeless. Once this woman latched onto prey, she never let go.
"Like I'd have pictures...! We've only met twice, barely."
"Oh, really? But how'd you get so close already? Going out alone like that isn't just casual friends."
"I told you, it wasn't a date how many times...!"
From the looks of it, she had no intention of listening to me at all.
Even back at the house when she'd clung to me with questions, I'd repeated endlessly: "It wasn't a date," "She's not my girlfriend," "Please don't misunderstand." But apparently, she'd wiped all that clean from her mind.
Or maybe she'd registered it but just refused to process it. That was even more devious. Damn it.
"Haa... Seoha noona and I just happened to run into each other at the Tweet party. She was there briefly as staff and recognized me, saying she was a fan."
"Huh? Don't you keep your face hidden on streams?"
"I'd announced on stream the day before what I'd be wearing. So she recognized me from that, apparently."
"Really? She's a true fan, then."
That she was.
It wasn't wrong, so I nodded along moderately.
"Anyway, yesterday I just popped over to Atex to check out that sponsored game, and we bumped into each other there by chance. Things just led to hanging out together."
"They say coincidences piling up like that mean fate. Wow...!"
"......"
This sister of mine had said lately that with nothing to do at home while managing things, she binged webnovels and webtoons—and sure enough, she must've stuck to romance genres.
She totally overlapped with those stream viewers who, at the slightest hint of guy-girl drama, spam "OTP! OTP!" and desperately ship them.
At this point, in her head, Seoha noona and I were probably already established not as streamer and fan, but as lovers. Oy vey.
"Nom nom... So, what kind of person is she?"
I placed a few perfectly grilled pieces of beef on her side plate, and she inhaled two at a time with gusto while persistently digging for more info on Seoha noona.
No point running from this, so I figured I'd give minimal answers where I could.
Answering here or facing an interrogation at home—it was all the same.
"What kind... I don't really know much. I only heard her name when we parted."
"Psh, that's not what I meant. What's her face like? Her figure? She your type, Wooju?"
"Well..."
Her question was so blatantly direct that normally I'd brush it off with "What're you on about?" But Seoha noona's image involuntarily floated into my mind, leaving me at a loss for words.
Her face was pretty, no doubt. At least among everyone I'd seen in real life—or even on TV celebs—the prettiest by far.
Her figure...
Slap!
"W-Wooju!? Why'd you suddenly slap your own cheek...!"
"...Just, realizing what a beast I am, slavishly following my instincts."
I forcefully erased the outline that had nearly formed and strained with all my might to keep it from resurfacing.
Damn it, Kang Wooju, you pathetic idiot. Next time you see Seoha noona, gouge your own eyes out first. A fan approaching with pure intentions, and you eye her like that?
"Anyway, yeah, she's pretty. Pretty enough to make me wonder why someone like that is my fan."
I didn't like casually appraising women behind their backs, but since my sister was so insistent, I gave a brief rundown of her vibe.
"That pretty? Then how does she stack up against your loving noona?"
She stared at me with sparkling eyes before abruptly pointing at herself with the question.
Well, she wasn't someone who ever went anywhere without hearing how pretty she was.
"Noona, come on, there are other questions to ask. How am I supposed to compare her to you?"
"Hehe, right? No matter what, noona's the best..."
I let out a sigh to convey it was impossible to compare, and she shrugged her shoulders all puffed up with delight.
She was under some massive delusion here.
"Obviously Seoha noona's way prettier."
"......"
Wisdom dictates you hear people out to the end.
Without a shred of hesitation, I declared Seoha noona's total victory. My sister, who had been giggling as she brought a piece of beef to her mouth, now glared at me with thoroughly sulky eyes.
"...I'm telling Dad."
I gave a wry smile at her declaration, straight out of an elementary schoolgirl's playbook.
We weren't kids anymore, and thinking I'd back down over some "I'm telling Dad" threat was a huge miscalculation...
"I'm kidding. How could there possibly exist someone more stunning than our noona, the working model?"
"Right?"
...Or not.
Because our dad was the textbook doting father and total pushover for her. The moment this story reached his ears, it was obvious I wouldn't return from the next family visit in one piece.
Sometimes, you had to swallow your pride.
For knuckling under to violence and spitting out a white lie, I'd apologize to Seoha noona inwardly later.
"Anyway, like I said earlier, it's not like that with Seoha noona, so drop it. I don't even want weird thoughts about a fan."
"Got it. If you put it that seriously, I won't meddle anymore."
I made the request again in a properly earnest tone, and this time she smiled like she'd actually heard me.
She was my-pace through and through, but she wasn't impossible to reason with. Explain it gently and patiently, and she'd respect boundaries well enough.
Phew, now maybe I could eat in peace.
"Still, Wooju, keep this in mind."
"What?"
I was dipping a freshly grilled sirloin into the sauce and chomping away when she raised her index finger and spoke.
For some reason, the vibe made her look huge and grown-up, like back when she gave me all sorts of advice as a kid. I found myself focusing on her words.
"Boys are the same, but girls don't waste time on guys they're not interested in or act that way. You get what I mean, right?"
"...Sigh, figures."
I figured she was starting up again with her words, but this time I just resumed eating without much pushback.
Watching me, she chuckled like she couldn't do anything with me, then slyly took the tongs and started grilling meat to pile on my plate.
Say what you will, she was undeniably a great sister.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ After hanging out a bit outside and heading back home together, the sun was already dipping low. We hadn't spent that long, but winter days were short like that.
The moment we got home, she complained about the meat smell clinging to her and started stripping for a shower.
"Wooju, sorry, but mind if I go first?"
"Yeah, you bring a change of clothes?"
"Yup, all in the carrier."
"Cool."
It wasn't her first time at my place, so she'd handle her stuff. I booted up the computer.
I had to spill the AGP story on today's stream, so time to sort the photos for it. Not a ton, but better prep early.
Click. Click.
As white noise while working, I checked Tweet's main banner for anything worth watching. As always, the top streams by viewer count were featured.
Huh, what's this?
"...A foreign stream?"
One with over 300,000 viewers caught my eye.
Some older-looking foreign guy just talking to himself—nothing special, so why 300k?
300k live viewers—even streamers from massive overseas corps struggled to hit that.
I knew enough English to follow a bit, so I thought I'd peek and moved my mouse to click. That's when the hidden title popped up.
Foreign stream, but oddly, the title was in Korean. As I read it aloud slowly, my eyes grew wider and wider.
"Tweet... Korea service... termination announcement...?"
Tweet was shutting down its Korean service?
What kind of dogshit nonsense was this?