Real Recognize Real
"What do you mean, you’re calling me yeobo… Luccia."
"Why? You didn’t tell the viewers we were doing a fake marriage stream?"
"I did. I just didn’t expect you to go full throttle like that."
"Mm… sorry?"
"What do you mean, officially? I just teased you while answering the phone."
The viewers really, really seemed to want to see a fake marriage stream between Si-a and me. Their fiery reaction spilled all over the chat.
From Si-a’s point of view, it had probably just been a joke while she was taking a call, but the viewers were throwing a full-on festival over that joke. If the reaction was this good, it was embarrassing for me too.
"So why did you call?"
"Oh, the viewers were asking if we’d picked our nicknames yet."
"Nicknames? We haven’t decided on them yet."
"Exactly. Since we didn’t have anything else to do today, I figured I’d call so we could just settle the nicknames."
"What do you mean, we don’t have anything to do? We need to practice for the tournament today."
Ah, right. I’d forgotten. Maybe it was because Si-a had said we should do a fake marriage stream and my brain had been wiped clean, but I’d completely spaced on the tournament practice.
"I forgot about that."
"I’ve got a great idea!"
"What is it?"
"We pick our nicknames and practice while duoing!"
"…What?"
The viewers were ecstatic, but I didn’t exactly want to do it.
Pick nicknames and practice by duoing? Sure, it was good for content, but no matter how I looked at it, it seemed like we’d just end up getting embarrassed and stammering over each other’s names.
"Yes! It’s yeobo!"
Correction: this wasn’t content. It was outright harassment.
If it were Si-a, even if she got saddled with a shy nickname like jagiya, she’d probably say it with a perfectly straight face and no shame at all.
How did I know? I wasn’t the only one who’d heard her call me yeobo just now, was I?
Then the purpose of her suggestion was obvious: she wanted to tease me for getting flustered and tripping over the words.
Of course, I’d said I wanted to build that kind of image through the fake marriage stream, but this was too much for my shame threshold to handle.
"Denied."
"Why! If I want to do it, don’t I need a reason?"
"If I don’t want to do it, don’t I need a reason?"
"You punk!"
"Maybe we should just not decide on a nickname."
"That gets denied!"
"Haaah…."
Si-a just tossed my own words right back at me. But seriously, I had no idea what nickname to pick either. What was I supposed to do?
What did other people do when they played fake marriage? I tried to fish through my memory, but nothing came to mind. Did everyone just pick nicknames and go along with it?
Come to think of it, that was probably right. Nobody ever won against the other person. I was screwed.
"Do you already have one in mind?"
"Nope. Do you?"
"I only called you before I even had time to think, so I don’t either."
"Our viewers are losing their minds right now."
"Why?"
"Because of that yeobo thing you just said."
"Ah! Then I’ll just call you yeobo!"
"…."
After a long and exhausting back-and-forth, the nickname for addressing me was finally decided: yeobo. I didn’t have a hobby of deliberately self-destructing, either, but maybe this was just the way conversations flowed.
Something about it felt strange. Every time I talked to Si-a, it seemed like I either blew myself up or got dragged around by her in circles. Was it all in my head?
"What should I call you, then?"
"…Can’t I just call you Si-a?"
"That’s not bad, but it’s a little plain."
Dang, no dice. I’d tried to smooth things over by taking advantage of the fact that Si-a didn’t just let anyone call her by her name, but that didn’t work.
But seriously, what should I call her? If I used some weird nickname, my skin might crawl right off my body.
"Should I just call you yeobo too?"
"Denied."
"Then jagiya."
"That’s denied too."
"Ah, then I’ll have to use jagiya myself!"
"…Pardon?"
"Sometimes yeobo, sometimes jagi. Isn’t that how we do it?"
I hadn’t done a single thing, but suddenly the number of nicknames used to address me had gone from one to two.
Technically, I hadn’t done nothing. I had expressed refusal, after all…
How exactly did my rejected nickname end up becoming a nickname for me?
"Jagiya, are you pouting?"
…That works disturbingly well.
I’ll admit it. A second ago my head had been spinning, but the moment Si-a called me jagiya, I was instantly fine. Was this some kind of mom’s hand is a medicinal hand thing?
It only felt a little embarrassing the first time I heard it; after that, it seemed okay.
"…I’m not pouting."
"Then let’s hurry up and settle on our nicknames. The viewers are waiting, you know."
The last chat message stuck in my head. Because of people like you, I was never, ever turning on a cam.
"Our viewers say they like this just fine, too."
"I don’t like it. Go look it up on the internet already."
…You guys aren’t viewers from Si-a’s channel, are you?
You’re viewers from my channel, right? Right?
*
Looking it up online, I found a bunch of nicknames I’d never known existed.
Well, more accurately, I should call them terms of endearment.
"Whoa, no way. Not this one either. Delete that and this one."
"That one is a bit much."
"…So in the end, all that’s left is yeobo and jagiya?"
"That’s what I’m saying."
Haaah… in the end, was there really no choice but to use the last resort?
"Si-a."
"Hm?"
"I’m seriously too embarrassed to call you yeobo or jagiya."
"I can’t do it either."
"You’re pretty good at it, though?"
"I can’t."
"Then let’s play a round of Truth or Dare. If I win, you’ll just call me Si-a."
"Huh, really?"
"But I get the first question."
I’d generously let her have the first move, so one question seemed fair enough. That should be fine, right?
Then the first question came.
"Do you want to call Si-a yeobo or jagiya?"
"…."
"You really want to do this?"
"What did I do? We’re just playing Truth or Dare, aren’t we?"
"Hoo…."
Right. All I had to say was one word. Fine. I’d shut my eyes and just get it over with.
"T…"
"T?"
"Tr…."
"Tr… truth…."
"Really? Then let’s lock that in as the nickname!"
Hah.
Haha.
Today, my world collapsed.
"Then it’s decided!"
"Wait. I refuse to accept that."
"How can a man say one thing and then take it back?"
How on earth did I end up in this situation? Even the viewers from my own channel weren’t on my side, and the teammate who suggested the fake marriage was obsessed with teasing me.
Fine. If this was the fate I had to endure anyway, I might as well shut my eyes and do it once so I’d get used to it.
"Y-yeobo."
"…."
I mustered the courage to say it, but there was no answer. What now? Was she laughing with her mic muted?
"Si-a?"
"…."
I called her again, but still no answer. What was going on? Had she stepped out of the streaming booth to get some water for a second?
Just then, a donation suddenly came in.
"Si-a’s stream? Why?"
At the donation’s frantic urging, I brought up a browser window on the main monitor.
I rushed into Watch and clicked the icon at the very top of my followed streamers list. Anyone could tell it was Si-a’s profile icon.
And the live broadcast screen that opened up did, in fact, have Si-a on it.
"Aauu…."
She was covering her bright-red face with both hands, making some strange, incoherent sound.
…So she was fine when she was the one saying it.
But when she heard it, she broke.