What Exactly Can You Do?
"So? What exactly can you do?"
"I was about to say that, actually~"
The viewers were being jerked around so hard it was basically legendary.
Honestly, it would’ve been fine to just start the WGM content right away. But then it wouldn’t have had any flavor, would it?
Speaking not as a streamer, but as a viewer myself, I thought the reason WGM content usually worked was because it made the fantasy of streamer romance feel real, while also feeding off that prickly, fluttery, almost-relationship stage before the actual marriage content began. Even Si-a—no, not Si-a, Si-a herself—had agreed with that point earlier.
Just look at the hot clip from a little while ago. It wasn’t even during the last five minutes of a long broadcast. In that short stretch of time, the conversation alone set viewers’ imaginations on fire and blasted dopamine straight through the roof. People don’t get invested in other people’s love lives for nothing. It was a pleasure with no responsibility attached.
"Besides, if I really were doing WGM, do you think I’d just announce it like that?"
"I’m not saying I’m not doing it. I’m saying we haven’t even talked about that at all."
At my words, the disappointed mood in chat changed into a flood of new emotes. Seriously, why were the emotes Si-a had made the ones popping up?
Anyway, the people who had done WGM content up to now were often the ones who put more weight on the part after the marriage than on the part before it. You could almost say that was true for everyone. It was easier to use as content, after all, and the pre-relationship phase was always crawling with rumors and controversy. Of course, that didn’t mean the post-WGM stage was free of those kinds of posts, either.
So before I even turned on the stream, we’d already had a quick talk about it. How did we want to do this?
Let’s make the flirting period long.
That had been the opinion we both shared. Each of us had our own reasons.
I said it because my broadcast scale was still small. Sure, there were already more than 700 people in the room right this second, but they still weren’t fully settled in as my core viewers. My YouTube subscribers and viewer counts, too, were still a long way from Si-a’s.
It’s not like you could really compare me to someone who was in the top two on the platform anyway, but we were still going to need to combine the power of both fandoms and make it work together. So I didn’t want a setup where only I came out ahead.
Si-a’s reason was more personal.
It’s just been a while since I met someone whose reactions were this fun.
That sounds to me like you just want to bully me.
Yeah, it does, doesn’t it?
Did that make you mad? So what could you do about it?
The smile she’d worn when she said that still hadn’t left my head. She really did feel like a little devil, or maybe a mischievous kid devil who’d just found a new toy right when she was bored.
After being put through the wringer a few times over yesterday and today, I’d already learned that the best answer wasn’t to keep reacting but to just let her do what she wanted. Thinking about it that way, it wasn’t bad at all. Everything she did would just be seen as part of the flirting stage in WGM anyway.
"We haven’t even talked about any content like that yet. My manager still doesn’t know, either."
"And you think that’s something I can just decide to do because I want to?"
"Hey, there are things effort can do, and things it can’t."
Why were my viewers like this? I let out a sigh and kept going.
"Anyway, let me introduce myself properly. I’m Hazy, a new streamer who’s joined Element Network."
"Hey, enough with the WGM talk. That doesn’t exist."
"Hey, there’s that saying, ‘the streamer is just like the chat,’ so could you please resemble me by even half?"
The streamer and the chat matched one another. That was what people meant. If the viewers were trolls, it meant the streamer had a high troll rating too... Ah. So I really did resemble them.
"Just so you know, if anyone goes over to Si-a’s chat and stirs things up, I’m taking their nickname and banning them."
It’s weird for me too, you idiots.
*
"Oh, right. I ran into Hazy at the company today."
"Why do you think? Because I was the one in charge of the contract."
"Got shoved into it by the boss."
"A honey trap? Seriously?"
In the middle of a normal chatting stream, while we were just talking, a video donation suddenly came through.
The donation video was the hot clip she had shown Hazy before.
"Thanks for the thousand won donation. Ah, I’ve seen this."
To anyone who didn’t know better, it would just look like a bold girl making a straight move on a guy who had no immunity to that kind of thing. Which, in fact, was exactly the image they were trying to create.
"Oh, right. Come to think of it, you guys don’t know what Hazy looks like in real life, do you?"
Reading that chat made me think back to what had happened at the company. A guy who got more fun to tease the better he reacted, until it made you want to keep bullying him.
He had been a completely different kind of reaction from the friends I’d worked with before. That was what made it fun.
"He was the same in person, too. Teasing him is just fun."
"Is he handsome?"
"Do you want an objective opinion, or a subjective one?"
Before I talked about my first impression, I remembered what we’d been discussing about content a little while earlier.
The reason WGM content succeeds is that it makes the fantasy of “streamer romance” real, while also feeding on that fluttery, teasing mood before the relationship actually starts.
Exactly. I agree.
So let’s stretch out that first part for as long as we can.
To stand out from everyone else, you’ve got to create the image you want at the same time.
That was supposed to be my line, so who was proposing things to whom here? Her sense for broadcasting was excellent. It couldn’t be explained any other way but that she’d been born with it.
Since we’d both already agreed, now it was time to start making the viewers squirm little by little.
"Objectively? He’s got a very clean face, right?"
"Well... you know. He’s like the male version of someone who’d pass the family-introduction test with flying colors. He really does look exactly like that."
"Then what about the subjective evaluation?"
"Subjective evaluation?"
Once you say something, you can’t take it back. I had no idea how many baseless theories and clipped moments would be born from this one line, but the scene that flashed through my head hardened my resolve.
N... n-no!
Even though only one day had passed, her reaction had been so amusing that I wanted to make her do it again.
I must have smiled without realizing it. Just imagining her flustered reaction was enough to make this fun. I wondered what kind of response she’d give this time. How would she entertain me?
"Subjectively... he’s my type?"
If you like teasing, you’d better be good at being teased too.
I had no intention of giving up control in any relationship.
*
After barely finishing my explanation, I spent a little time just chatting normally with the viewers.
When I said we might have more co-streams and tournament schedules coming up, the viewers actually welcomed it like they were happy to hear the news.
"You, Mid-Lane Troll, warning issued. I’ve memorized your ID."
"All right, we’ve been live a while, so I guess it’s time to wrap up..."
Just as I was about to start my closing remarks, a video donation arrived out of nowhere.
"Thanks for the thousand won donation, WhatIsThis?. What’s this about? What is it?"
I had no idea what kind of clip would have a title like What Is This?, so I played it first because I needed to know the contents before I could say anything about it.
[Objectively? He’s got a very clean face, right?]
[Well... you know. He’s like the male version of someone who’d pass the family-introduction test with flying colors. He really does look exactly like that.]
The one in the video was Si-a. Judging by the date on the computer screen, it looked like she’d turned on the stream from home.
"If he were really handsome, wouldn’t I just turn on the cam and stream?"
He was handsome as hell? No way. If he were handsome, would I still be a single man?
I swallowed the words I couldn’t possibly say out loud. Someone my age was still unable to date...
[Subjectively... he’s my type?]
...and still not...
...doing it...
...
While I stood there in silence for a moment and watched the chat race upward like it was being coded by some insane AI,
I quietly hit the end-stream button.
Why am I always the one getting played...
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