Minor Streamer
It had been quite a while since I’d ended the stream, but my head was noisier than ever.
There was no sound at all, and yet my thoughts were buzzing. Nothing felt real. The money I’d gotten for clearing the mission was about 7 million won.
In a whole month of streaming, I’d never even made half of that, let alone 7 million.
But even more memorable than the money was the way Luccia’s last laugh kept replaying in my ears.
"You’re so ridiculous it’s even funnier."
Watch’s main screen was still open on my monitor.
My hand moved to the clip tab without me even thinking about it.
Highlights, sorted by view count.
There it was at the very top.
The thumbnail showed my character holding up a potato and shoving it toward the camera.
Everyone said it was funny, but it had gone way too legendary.
"...Wow, this is officially impossible to take back now."
I opened the clip. On the screen was a lunatic who’d been talking strategy with his teammates one second and then, out of nowhere, got handed a grenade and charged forward like his brain had short-circuited.
Killer play.
"Wow, now that I look at it, I really was in full-blown chuunibyo mode."
Fortunately, the viewers had loved it. The comments were full of people explaining the context, along with others who were just having a great time watching the clip.
"Yeah. If it’s funny, that’s enough."
Just as I was about to shut the computer down, a notification popped up in Discord.
My fingers froze.
What? Why was Luccia messaging me?
Did I make some mistake during the stream? That didn’t seem likely, since the atmosphere had been good.
Unless I’d messed something up and she’d let it slide so as not to ruin the mood, and now she was bringing it up?
I shoved the absurd possibilities out of my head and clicked the notification to check the message.
Fortunately, the smiley face at the end made it seem like I hadn’t actually done anything wrong.
Even so, when I opened Discord after seeing her message, my hand felt oddly careful. Like I could somehow ignore it and not go in. Which, realistically, wasn’t an option.
I just took a deep breath and entered the voice channel.
"Oh, you’re here?"
"Yes. Hello."
"If I interrupted you while you were resting, then... sorry."
"No. I was just laughing at today’s clip."
That wasn’t exactly a lie.
"Today’s clip? The potato clip?"
"Yes. Even I thought it was insane."
"Really? I watched that thing more than five times today. I kept thinking about it on the way home and almost laughed so hard I couldn’t drive."
"That much?"
"I’m serious. I’d never seen someone charge at the enemy with a potato in hand yelling, 'Die!' before. That was pure instinctive play. It was ridiculously funny."
Usually, when someone says a play was instinctive, it means either a brutal insult or a huge compliment. In this case, I guess it had to be the second one.
"I just did whatever came to mind, that’s all."
"That’s exactly why it was so funny."
I could hear Luccia laughing. Not her stream voice, but just the sound of a person genuinely laughing.
It felt like she was letting her emotions out in one clean breath. Maybe that was part of why she was so popular in the first place: she didn’t really put up walls. And yet, hearing her like this now, I started to wonder if even that openness was partly a mask.
Then, after a brief hesitation, she said something even more unexpected.
"And, Hazy..."
"Yes?"
"This is a little awkward to ask, but... would you want to do another collab sometime? Next time, no mission. Just something relaxed."
"A collab?"
"Yes. I’m asking you to do a joint stream with me."
What was this? Was I dreaming?
It felt like the whole day had been a dream.
Getting a mission on a game that was ridiculous to begin with. Playing with people I’d only ever admired from afar. Accidentally catching a hacker in that game.
It felt like the world was putting on The Truman Show just for me.
"Seriously?"
"Yes, seriously. Playing with you made me think of old times."
"Old times?"
"Mm. I used to play and shoot around however I wanted too."
"Really?"
"Yes. If you go to my YouTube, there’s probably a video of my first squad match."
I just started shooting my own teammates back then.
I heard a snort. She seemed to find it funny herself, because through the speaker came the sound of her trying to hold back laughter.
"You were a beginner. That happens."
"Right? So today felt really nice. It didn’t feel like a broadcast."
"It didn’t feel like a broadcast?"
"It just felt like I’d gone back to when I was younger, before I knew anything at all. That’s why it was fun."
Si-a saying she had fun. Good, then.
I murmured it to myself inwardly and took a second to think about what to say.
Was she busy? It was her day off, and the schedule was over, but maybe she had plans tomorrow.
Maybe I should just end it here? My head was full of those thoughts, all tangled together.
"How long were you planning to keep calling me that?"
Silence.
A brief silence settled into my speaker.
Did I just say that out loud?
"Wh... what are you talking about?"
"Calling me Si-a."
She usually didn’t let people use pet names so easily.
Her slightly sulky voice gave me the unmistakable feeling that I’d stepped wrong somewhere.
"Well, I was watching your videos, and your chemistry with Mammi was so good that the name just stuck in my mouth without me noticing. Sorry."
"Huh? You watch my videos too?"
"Yes."
Of course I did. I watched them a lot, mostly to study the editing.
I swallowed the rest of that thought. There was no need to say something unnecessary in this situation.
"Mm... I see. Then what was the funniest one?"
"Pardon?"
"Among my videos. Which one was the funniest?"
As far as I knew, Luccia’s channel had well over a thousand videos if you excluded the full streams. And she wanted me to pick just one?
"There are so many... give me a second to think..."
"The one that comes to mind right away is the funniest one. What is it?"
Even after she said that, the first thing that popped into my head...
It wasn’t one I’d watched recently, but it was probably one of the videos that had made me want to start streaming in the first place.
"It was probably something you uploaded about a year and a half ago."
"Which one?"
It was a simple video about interacting with viewers.
But the reason I’d gotten so absorbed in what looked like such an ordinary video was simple.
The bond with the viewers. Streamers who had been broadcasting for a long time had layer upon layer of memories stacked up with their audience.
It was one of those videos where, after some donation sparked the conversation, they’d pull out memory after memory with the viewers and laugh, saying, Remember that? That was wild back then, wasn’t it?
It even included behind-the-scenes stories from broadcasts that had blown up in the past, little by little, as if they were being drawn out one by one.
"Watching that video, I thought, man, I want to make memories like that too. Memories I can laugh about and enjoy together with viewers."
"So you actually wanted to start streaming because you saw me?"
"Well... yes?"
"Ehehe~ I see."
She suddenly let out a little nasal sound, and somehow her energy seemed to rise. I started streaming because I’d watched her. From a streamer’s point of view, that was honestly a pretty flattering thing to hear.
A streamer who started because they saw me. Basically a fan, then. No wonder it would feel good.
"Then, back to the point. Are you going to keep calling me Si-a?"
"Ah, if that bothers you, I can switch to Luccia..."
"Mm... then let’s decide after our next collab?"
"Huh? How am I supposed to know when that’ll be?"
When she seemed to catch my confusion, she continued from the other side of the speaker.
"Do you have any plans tomorrow?"
"No, I don’t really have anything tomorrow, but..."
"Then let’s do a collab tomorrow, the two of us."
"What? All of a sudden?"
"We’re doing a collab, aren’t we? Just treat it like that!"
With that, she left the voice channel. I felt like I’d been completely swept along.
No, not like. I had been swept along. The moment I lost the pace halfway through, she’d dragged me straight onto hers.
I couldn’t say I felt bad about it. If anything, it was more like a strange, ticklish feeling I couldn’t quite name.
Since she’d gone out of her way to greet me, I figured I should answer properly by message.
After sending it, I leaned my head back against the chair.
It had felt like a storm had passed through the day. One unbelievable thing after another, and at the end, even a short voice chat with Luccia.
Ding-dong! At the notification that another message had arrived, I lifted the face I’d tilted back and looked at the monitor.
The source of the storm might actually have been this streamer. I had no idea what pace I was supposed to follow her at.
I sent her a nodding emoticon, then lay down on the bed behind my chair. Staring up at the ceiling, I suddenly pushed myself back up.
"Oh. So I’ve got a collab scheduled for tomorrow."
And with a major streamer, too.
*
"Unnie, I’ve got a collab tomorrow."
"I’m telling you right after it got booked. It literally just did."
"It’s just a gaming stream. You didn’t have anything tomorrow anyway, right?"
"You worked hard too, helping me today. Get some good rest."
With that, the call ended.
After showering, Luccia lay straight down on her bed and opened the platform app.
Highlights, sorted by view count.
There it was at the top.
The thumbnail showed the man’s character holding up a potato and thrusting it at the screen.
Killer play.
"Killer play."
She repeated the last line the man in the video had said.
Feeling some undefined, tingling flutter in her chest, Luccia opened the comments.
Just as her sense for streaming had suggested, the reaction in the comments was hot.
Among them were a few comments that stood out.
"What spring? What are you even talking about. Always jumping the gun."
That said, she found herself watching the video again without even realizing it.
"Si-a, do you have a potato?"
"Killer play."
"Well, still."
He is kind of cute.
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