One Week Is Seven Days, Boss!
The next day, I opened my eyes to find my phone's lock screen completely filled with messages and missed calls from the CEO.
“Ugh……”
I quickly brought my face close to the smartphone.
Face recognition failed.
“Argh……! This damn Apple phone!”
……I really need to change the face recognition on this stupid thing first. How am I supposed to use it when it's this inconvenient?
Face recognition setup complete.
After testing to make sure the new face recognition worked properly, I tapped on the CEO's personal messages.
Because I'd always shown a good attitude at work, even though a new employee who'd only been there for half a year suddenly submitted a resignation, the CEO didn't accept it—
Wait, actually……
“Huh?”
……That's right. Our company is a small-to-medium enterprise, and I'm a young job seeker, so we'd talked about cooperating to snatch up that blind government money. I mistakenly thought she wasn't letting me go because I was more capable than I realized.
“The last message is……”
I swiped the phone screen to scroll through the messages.
“Wow! Life ruin card!”
It looks like I really screwed up this time. Knowing the CEO's personality, she'd definitely try to break in even if it meant picking the lock……
“And the body that would have to face her is……”
I could already guess just from her tone, but still, just in case, I glanced over!
I looked in the mirror.
Today as well, an inhumanly beautiful girl with an awkward smile that didn't quite suit her was looking back at me.
“Sigh……”
It would've been nice if that was my girlfriend instead of me……
Faced with this unbearably sad reality, I immediately started tapping on the keyboard.
“With this, I've at least bought a week……”
If I hadn't sent even this, she would've stormed over immediately. She's more than capable of it. Even if I don't have any particular answer when the week is up, buying even a week's delay is what matters. There's that saying, right? The later you get beaten, the better.
……It's the opposite? Bullshit! What do you know about the formula!
“……Now what?”
I'd somehow managed to buy a week, but the future still looked completely bleak.
“How am I supposed to live from now on? Me?”
My perfectly normal identity had vanished overnight. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say I was already socially dead. Fortunately, internet banking and stock apps still worked fine, but I had no idea when the police might receive a missing persons report for Ha Yeon-woo. My parents hadn't shown much interest since I became independent, but……
“The neighbors around the house are the problem, aren't they?”
My current appearance was far too eye-catching. It forced its way into people's vision even if they tried not to look. No matter how indifferent people are to their neighbors these days, there's a limit. If a woman with this insane level of beauty kept coming and going from a single man's house, there was no way people wouldn't talk. If it were me, I probably would've reported it too. Out of jealousy, telling them to go to hell?
“……I should avoid going outside for the time being.”
In the end, it seemed I'd have to stay cooped up in the house until a proper plan came up. I'd just order everything I needed online until then. Buying clothes online was a bit annoying, but it was much better than going outside and taking unnecessary risks.
“How much money do I have left right now……”
70,000 won in my wallet. 150,000 won set aside for emergencies. Roughly 3 million won in my account. Of that, 2.5 million was tied up in overseas stocks. Even though they were down, it was only about -5%, so I could cut losses anytime……
“Should I leave this alone for a bit longer?”
Even in this situation, my gut feeling was pretty good. It felt like if I just left it alone, I could take profit soon. What’s the basis? If I knew that, would it be a gut feeling?! I invested with full confidence by pulling out a loan to the max!
“Let's start by looking up urgent food and women's clothes……”
I sat down in front of the computer and turned on the internet. The moment I tried to add the immediately necessary items to my cart──
A followed channel has gone live.
【Another fucking morning. ￡￥￡】
“Huh? The CEO started her morning stream.”
The company I'd been working at for the past six months. The largest corporate VTuber agency in the country, Star Live. Its CEO, and a streamer with fifteen years of experience this year. An alarm popped up in the corner of my browser announcing that Kang Ha-neul's broadcast had started.
“I can't miss this.”
Without thinking, I clicked on it. I left the CEO's stream open in the corner of my monitor and continued shopping.
Long, flowing ash-gray hair and matching eyes. Perhaps reflecting her age, now approaching the mid-thirties, her face carried a slight maturity. A comfortably pretty character with most of her early chuunibyou vibes removed.
[Fuck…… Life is shit…… Seriously……]
Unlike her usual self, the CEO had put her virtual character on screen from the very beginning and was already hurling curses at the viewers with an annoyed expression.
Yet the chat window was enjoying it even more. The CEO's fans, known as the Cloud Legion, were clearly typing at more than double their usual speed.
“This company is seriously driving me crazy……”
When I was just a viewer, I didn't think much of it, but now that I was an employee, my feelings were complicated. It was even worse because my job at the company involved stream planning and miscellaneous tasks.
When I eventually returned to the company, the CEO would probably say something like, 'Yeon-woo, come up with a plan for the next stream.' I couldn't exactly reply with, 'Everyone seemed to like it when you swore at them with that look of contempt before. How about we just do a proper verbal abuse world cup?'
……Or could I? Should I just go for it? Aim for employee of the month?
“Uh……”
It couldn't be that the employee she chased was about me, right?
[……That bastard just contacted me.]
……Looks like it is. I did just reply to the CEO a moment ago.
[He says he'll take a week off and think about it.]
“I agree too. Just let me rest for life this time.”
The truth was, I was already terrified of what would happen in a week. The thought of the CEO breaking into my house in a week was scary, and the fact that I had nowhere to run was even scarier. Just cut it clean right now. Please free me from this terror!!
[No.]
Ah! Why not!!
[This bastard is pretty deeply involved in the production of the 3rd generation. If he leaves, you can assume the 3rd gen debut will be delayed.]
“……Is it that bad?”
Even hearing it directly, I couldn't understand. All I handled was planning at most. Group name. Group concept. Character names. Character concepts. Things like that.
A few people were demanding she chase me down after hearing the CEO, but—
Most of the chat seemed completely uninterested.
[Oh, and by the way, that bastard also planned a lot of the girls' collab streams?]
The CEO dropped a bomb on the chat window as if it were nothing. Just like that—casually!
[Even without that bastard, the girls won't stop streaming entirely, but the frequency might drop a little, or the ratio of internal collabs could decrease. Just so you know.]
One thing you need to know here. Our fans really love the internal collab streams where the girls play together. And their specialty is murdering polar bears.
[If that bastard doesn't come back, there will be no internal collabs for the time being. No, they're banned.]
“What?!”
If the CEO says that, what does that make me?!
[I'm the CEO, you little shits! It's better than burning through time and viewers with half-assed collabs. So I'm banning them.]
Now I've become a piece of shit too. Thank you, CEO. Thanks to you, I got two new nicknames! As a mere employee at a VTuber company!
[If you're so upset, you guys become the CEO. Or join as an employee and prove you're better than that bastard.]
[Ah, I'm in a bad mood. Anyone wanna get punched?]
After warming up by trash-talking me, the CEO started up her favorite game. For some reason, it felt like the virtual character's eyes were looking straight at me, so I unconsciously avoided her gaze.
The CEO's morning stream ended around lunchtime. Along with one very pitiful sacrifice.
[Die! Die! You fucking bastard!]
A punch that was clearly aimed at me landed squarely on the face of a cute animal character.
[CEOoooooo!! Why meeeeeee!!]
[Ah! I feel so much better now.]
[CEOoooooo!!]
Acacia Hera, one of only two 0th generation members in Star Live. She had woken up early in the morning to open her SNS communication channel for fan management, but she caught the CEO's eye and was dragged onto the stream, where she ended up getting unilaterally beaten for over two hours.
“Haha…… ha……”
Thanks to that, my phone's notifications hadn't stopped ringing since earlier.
“S-sorry……”
But since my reinstatement wasn't confirmed yet, replying felt awkward, so I bowed my head in apology through long-distance Wi-Fi.
3……2……1……!
“……Okay! Apology complete!”
I'm sure my feelings were properly conveyed to Hera. If not? That's just sad. Well, what can you do.
Ding-dong!
Right on time, the familiar doorbell rang from the front door. It was the sound of my own doorbell.
“Oh? Did the stuff I ordered already arrive? As expected, Q-Pang delivery is really fast.”
The only things I ordered while watching the CEO's stream at this hour were frozen fried rice for enduring and some women's clothes to wear temporarily……
……No, wait.
“……No, even if it's missile delivery, doesn't it make no sense for it to arrive this fast?”
It's not like they're actually loading the items into missiles and shooting them. Something's weird about an order placed this morning arriving already, right?
“……Masaka?”
With an anxious heart, I went to the front door and checked the situation outside through the old intercom installed beside it.
Tap tap tap tap tap tap!
A woman with ash-gray hair that looked exactly like her character was standing in front of my door, tapping on her smartphone. Then, slowly──! As if she knew I was watching, she held up her phone toward the intercom, smiled brightly, and pressed the send button.
“Uh……”
……You said you'd give me a week. One week is seven days, Boss.