What Can You Even Do
-I mean, it doesn’t really matter.
-Did we ever say it mattered?
-So you’re admitting it?
-So when is the real relationship announcement?
“...Anyway, does anyone else have anything more to say?”
-It was supposed to start as an explanation stream, you know.
-If these two just do a joint stream, it’s basically a dopamine party.
-So the conclusion is WGM?
-The conclusion is the real relationship.
“Broadcast conclusion. Luccia and I never fought, and the rumors are completely false.”
That was that. If you had more to say, go ahead and say it. I kept watching the chat with that thought in mind, but no one really jumped in to pick a fight.
Instead, people were more interested in something else than the rumor itself.
-So you’re not doing WGM for now?
-Why do WGM when it already looks like a real relationship?
-Lol, seriously. This is obviously the real deal.
-So when are you announcing the real relationship? Today?
“Oh, right. Whoever clipped that, I don’t know who you are, but delete it right now.”
-Nope.
-No chance.
-I’m keeping it forever.
-Why would we delete a legendary black history clip for the internet? lol
-The first guy who clipped that can use it as a drinking snack lol.
“Why? I think that clip is cute.”
Luccia, who had been sitting quietly beside me without saying a word, suddenly spoke up.
I turned to look at her, frowned, and thought, What, are you trying to make me suffer for fun? This isn’t even about you.
“Hey, you seem to be misunderstanding something. That clip isn’t just my black history.”
“...Huh?”
“What did you say again? That you didn’t have even one percent of selfish motives?”
At my words, Luccia seemed to remember what she’d said in the back half of the clip, and her face and ears flushed red like tomatoes. She froze for a second, then suddenly whipped toward the camera and shouted,
“Whoever has it, delete it right now!”
-Nope.
-Too bad.
-I love you~
-Like hell we’re deleting that lol
-Boss, you should probably start dating already, honestly.
-If Luccia’s happy, that’s all that matters.
“I said no! I’m not!”
For me, it was just the kind of embarrassing clip that would make me cringe for a long time, but from Luccia’s point of view, if you used an evil edit on it, it was basically a confession scene.
It was kind of pitiable that she was only realizing that now, but the truth was, the two of us knew better than anyone else that we needed a scene like that to complete the story of whatever content we were going to do next.
“I swear, I’ll hunt it down to the ends of the earth and make them delete it!”
Okay, but that was pretty serious, huh?
After that little uproar died down, Luccia was still struggling to catch her breath from all the shouting, leaning her head back against the wall, while I delivered my closing remarks.
“Three-line summary for you. The rumors and gossip are false. Nothing is going on between Luccia and me. WGM content is on hold.”
-The way you keep emphasizing that WGM’s on hold makes it feel even more real.
-But seriously, how is this not WGM?
-Honestly, unless this is WGM or a real relationship, this atmosphere doesn’t make sense.
-If you don’t tell the truth about this, you’re just baiting us.
“What do you mean baiting? Nothing’s actually going on.”
The viewers went wild, complaining that after all that commotion, it made no sense for us not to do WGM, but once I randomly clicked on a nickname and dragged them into the room of truth, things quieted down a little.
Of course, this would pass for now, but viewers who were good at editing videos would probably keep twisting and splicing our conversations into new shapes, leaving the hope of WGM alive.
If we kept showing our chemistry little by little, and those kinds of videos piled up until viewers couldn’t hold back and started getting impatient, then maybe it’d be a pretty good time to announce WGM.
“Anyway, that’s how it is.”
“But are you ending the stream here?”
“Didn’t you say you were clearing things up?”
“I was, but I wrapped up the rumor explanation so cleanly, didn’t I?”
“Huh?”
“So now I’m going to keep streaming.”
-? lolololol
-Why are you two on completely different pages lol
-One of you is focused on clearing up the rumors, and the other is focused on the broadcast. This is hilarious lol
-But honestly, if the community rumor got exposed as fake, there’s no real reason to end the stream right now.
I thought that since we were doing an explanation stream, we’d explain things and then shut it down, but Luccia’s sudden announcement that we were keeping the stream going left me a little dumbfounded.
I’d only planned to stay masked for a little while, assuming we’d explain things and end the stream, but at this rate, it looked like I’d be stuck in a full-on joint stream after all.
It wasn’t that I disliked joint streams. I was just worried that if things went wrong, my face and identity could get exposed.
“Then can’t I leave?”
“Nope, you can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because if you go, I’m going too.”
“That’s cheating! Since when can you bribe me into staying with money?”
“Are you really going to leave when the viewers are donating like this?”
It wasn’t even money I’d received, either! At my words, Luccia answered without the slightest hesitation.
“I’ll give you all of it.”
“...Wasn’t that a little too fast? Think about it again.”
“Nope. I’ll give you all of it. So don’t go.”
“The fact that you answered that fast makes this sound like a bad deal for me.”
“A bad deal? I said I’d give you all the donations from today. How is that a bad deal?”
No matter how I looked at it, it seemed like I was the one taking the loss. As I stared at Luccia, she started making that expression again — the same one she’d used when she’d stopped me earlier.
“I told you to stop doing that.”
“Doing what?”
“That face! Don’t look at me with those round eyes and that teary expression!”
“Why? Why not?”
“I said I’m not leaving! I won’t leave, so stop making that face!”
-Whoa, so Luccia can make that kind of expression too?
-Yeah, okay, we get it, this isn’t WGM or a real relationship, so just keep doing joint streams.
-Sweet. Just ridiculously sweet.
-Why do I suddenly feel lonely?
-At this point, Hazy’s just enjoying it too.
“Who says I’m enjoying this?”
Yes, ma’am.
*
Why did I do that? There are plenty of things in life more important than money, so why did I let myself be blinded by 100,000 won and sit down?
Of course, 100,000 won wasn’t exactly a small amount, but the situation I was in now was more than enough to make me regret that choice from the past.
“You want me to put my hand in?”
“Yeah.”
“Here?”
“Hurry up!”
“No, why do I have to do this?”
What was placed in front of me was a lie detector. Not a real lie detector, of course, but one of those toy lie detectors that send a current through you when you lie.
So why was I doing this? I had no idea. After I sat down, Luccia called someone somewhere, and then someone outside brought this over.
-Wow, as expected, she really is a veteran streamer.
-Checkmate, huh?
-That old streaming experience doesn’t go anywhere, does it?
-If you don’t do this here, Hazy, then you’re dead weight.
-A man’s word is worth a thousand gold pieces.
“A man’s word is worth a thousand gold pieces? Then I want to be a woman.”
“Hazy, if you’re a woman, you still have to do the lie detector.”
“Ha....”
-Lolololol
-You’d give up being a man over this? lol
-Hazy noona, hehehe
-These lunatics lololol
-Yep, but you still have to do it~
“Thank you for 50,000 won! If you’re going to run a paid joint stream, of course you have to do it!”
-I think this guy’s actually insane lol
-Lololololol
-Why has he only been playing games for a year?
-He’s bouncing between heaven and hell emotionally lol
Money was the best. Money was everything. After receiving such a huge donation, I took a breath and put my hand into the lie detector.
When Luccia pressed the button, tense music straight out of a shark movie sounded for a moment, then stopped with a cheerful ding!
“All right, questions accepted via donation. Match the price yourself.”
“Wait, what does that mean?”
“It means this.”
“So, yes or no?”
“Why do I have to answer that?”
It’d be embarrassing to say no! I was resisting desperately when another donation rang out.
“No.”
-Look at that, the second they matched the price, he answered.
-Lolololol
-No? Seriously?
-Is that really true?
“Huh? Really?”
Luccia said that and pressed the button. The tense music from before started up again.
“If I weren’t a virgin, at least I wouldn’t feel cheated. Back then, when you saw my face, you said I was handsome, so—ah, that hurts!”
As I was talking, the lie detector suddenly sent an electric shock through me. It stung so badly that I cut myself off mid-sentence, yanked my hand away from the machine, and rubbed my palm. Thankfully, nothing seemed wrong with my hand.
Then I met Luccia’s eyes. Me, standing there with one hand clutched in the air; Luccia, watching from the side; and the lie detector, toppled over on the desk.
In that suffocating atmosphere, I reacted first.
“Th-that thing’s broken! I’m really a virgin!”
“Well, with a face like that, it’d be weird if you had no dating experience.”
“I’m telling you, it’s broken!”
-Lololololololol
-What the hell are you two doing? lol
-Caught red-handed while trying to lie, huh?
-But I am curious about the face.
-Seriously, no face reveal? No promise event or anything?
“I think it’s broken.”
“Then this time, I’ll ask a question the viewers also know the answer to.”
“Good.”
With that, I put my hand back into the machine. Once I covered it exactly the way it was marked, Luccia asked me a question.
“Honestly, when you caught core, you thought it was only a matter of time before the stream blew up.”
“Absolutely.”
“That was way too honest.”
As she said that, Luccia pressed the button. After a brief pause, a sharp pain shot through my hand again.
“Argh! I told you it’s actually broken!”
“Looks like it really is. There’s no way this could be wrong.”
-Looks like it really is broken.
-Ugh, unusable.
-What a shame, I had so many questions.
-Can’t we just try once more?
“But it’s already obvious that it’s broken, though?”
“It’s not your hand; it’s mine.”
“Price.”
“Yes! Let’s go one more time!”
-Lmao, what a goon.
-Gaming was the restraining device, huh.
-Lololololol
-If it’s wrong even after this, then what happens?
-What happens? We just suffer through it.
I set my hand on the lie detector again and took a fresh heart-rate reading. After waiting a moment while listening to the music that still didn’t sound familiar no matter how many times I heard it, the song stopped with that same sound as before.
“How should I ask this one?”
“Take it from donations.”
“You really became a slave to capital the second I said I’d give you all the donations.”
“You were already a slave to capital.”
-Price.
-Match the price, you idiot. Match the price.
-Trying to get away with a tenner, huh.
-Hey, you’ll choke on that.
-Do we need to fund this?
“Match the price before you come back.”
“Of course. Why would I even need to say that?”
At my words, Luccia pressed the button. Since the machine was broken, the truth would be judged as a lie, and pain would shoot through my hand.
I braced myself and waited, holding my breath to endure the pain that would come.
-Ding!
“Huh?”
-Huh?
-What happens now?
-Whoa, we’re screwed.
-Is this heading for a couple fight?
When the lie detector suddenly rang out with truth, I reflexively turned to the side.
Luccia was smiling.
“Explain yourself.”
Her smile was absolutely terrifying.
---