This Is Your Room From Now On
"Alright! From now on, this is your room, Yeon-woo."
"..."
The CEO had set my luggage down in a small room on the third floor.
Ah, of course, "small" was only relative to this enormous mansion.
Even a random small room here was far more spacious and comfortable than the villa I used to live in.
It even had its own bathroom and shower.
"Your room password is 040404. Easy to remember, right?"
"Is this a coincidence, by any chance?"
The password for the room she had dragged me into was my birthday.
What kind of ridiculous coincidence—
"You think it's a coincidence?"
"Then..."
"Want me to tell you the real reason?"
"Um... No?"
It felt like asking would genuinely hurt, so I decided not to press any further.
Instead.
"For my personal safety, can I change the password?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"I set it so only the homeowner—me—can change it."
"...Seriously?"
"Would I lie?"
"..."
In other words, while no one else could, the CEO could always enter freely.
"You don't have to worry. It's not like I'd pin you down at night or anything."
"Hmm... Yeah, I guess that's true."
Well, it's not like the old me as a guy would pin the CEO down—
"I'll just come in sometimes when I feel like it, hug you, and sleep."
"Excuse me?"
"Your cheek felt way too nice when I touched it earlier. I might get addicted."
I'm not some kind of human drug...
I tried to change the subject.
After glancing around the room, I asked the CEO.
"Anyway, how am I supposed to work from here?"
"Work?"
"Didn't you bring me here to handle the third generation?"
"We haven't even gathered half of them yet, so what does it matter?"
"Um..."
I had assumed that if she said the third generation was delayed, it meant they had already been fully assembled.
"Oh, is this because I said on stream that the third gen would be delayed without you?"
"Yes. I was shocked when I saw that."
Originally we had planned for five members in the third generation.
The temporary group name was Fantastic.
Since the first and second generations had debuted with typical Japanese-style VTuber names, we designed the third gen with a slightly different feel—characters with names that sounded Japanese but would fit right into a fantasy world.
We had carefully selected five trainees for the third generation debut, but when I opened my eyes, three of them were gone.
The funny part was that all three had been expelled for completely different reasons.
"It's just an excuse. If the female CEO is bleeding for two straight days on stream to catch a male employee, there needs to be some reason or the fans would start talking."
"Ah, right... Your room was basically a bloodbath, huh?"
"What do you mean 'basically'! 'Basically' my ass!"
Grab!
"Ow ow ow..."
She immediately pinched my cheek.
Maybe because my skin was softer now, it hurt far more than it had when I was a man.
Thud!
After letting go of my cheek, the CEO looked around the empty room that contained little more than a bed.
"You probably won't have much to do for a while, so just help with the kids' stream planning and support. Need anything?"
"Well... I'll need a computer and a smartphone, right?"
Truthfully a computer would be enough for work, but I sneakily asked for a smartphone too.
"I'll get one ready right away."
"Wouldn't it be better to bring the ones from my house?"
"I'll bring those separately when I have time."
"The phone..."
"..."
The CEO looked at me like she had no choice and pulled my phone from her pocket.
"I'll give this back after a few adjustments. Password."
"..."
It seemed pointless to resist, so I unlocked it.
For some reason it felt like my smartphone was no longer truly mine. Was that just my imagination?
"Anything else you're curious about or need?"
At the CEO's words that I could ask for anything I wanted,
Grumble...
My stomach immediately raised its hand.
"...I haven't eaten properly since yesterday. Could you order some food?"
"P-please...!"
She wouldn't even dream of something like becoming an older girlfriend with an age gap anymore!
Please, at least let her keep the relationship between streamer and staff—
"...It's me, you idiot."
"The broadcast time in the notice was two minutes ago, fuck."
"Turn your stream on right now!"
"Unless you want a one-on-one meeting."
"Hiiik?!"
The 1-on-1 meeting.
PTSD crawling up her spine made her unconsciously hammer the keyboard.
She sent her reply to the CEO and was about to press the start broadcast button when—
'...Why does the CEO have Yeon-woo's phone?'
The thought weighed heavily on a corner of her heart.
Today's Random Shit Game Roulette Time!
But she hated the idea of a 1-on-1 meeting with the CEO, so she decided to focus on the broadcast for now.
After all, she was—
"...Sorry for being late! Hera's here!"
A 0th generation member of Star Live,
Acacia Hera.
"Ah, Yeon-woo."
I was munching away on the delivered sushi spread across the table when the CEO suddenly called my name.
"Yesh? Why~?"
"Sorry to say this after giving you a week off, but could you watch Eos's stream later?"
"...Suddenly?"
Honey Eos.
Her nickname was Eos. Along with Acacia Hera, she was one of only two 0th generation members of Star Live.
She was a founding member who had built the early days of Star Live together with the CEO. Unlike Hera, who joined relatively later and worked purely as a streamer, Eos held actual shares in the company and served as a director, participating in management.
...She was also the one who always slapped my shoulder and bragged about giving me free pass access.
"Why? Too much for you?"
"No, it's not that..."
Since I had nothing else to do anyway, helping with someone's stream was no big deal.
But—
"Eos isn't the type to need help from anyone, is she?"
I couldn't understand why someone whose pure streaming career put her in the top three of Star Live would need help with a broadcast.
For reference, second place was Hera. First was the CEO.
The fact that Eos needed help meant—
"Someone skipped the content meeting yesterday, so today she's planning to play Minecraft alone."
"..."
Was it just my imagination that those words felt aimed at me?
'Hmph! I'm mad at Yeon-woo!'
...Hearing Eos's voice, it seemed like it wasn't just my imagination.
"You know, right? Our Minecraft server..."
"I know it way too well... There's no way I wouldn't!"
Minecraft.
The sandbox game everyone simply calls Mark.
It was popular with all ages and genders, and a safe, commonly used content in internet broadcasts.
However, because the game itself had been used so much for so long, the vanilla mode everyone called basic was generally considered too plain and lacking in dopamine.
So proper Minecraft streamers usually loaded dozens of mods to create content.
Naturally Star Live was on that level too, so we ran a separate heavily modded server called the Star Server, but...
"...You want me to watch in real time as usual and cut her connection if a fatal bug appears?"
"Correct!"
The formula 'many mods = many bugs' was unavoidable.
The Star Server frequently exploded with all kinds of bugs that disrupted the members' streams.
Minor ones could be ignored, but if a critical bug appeared, staff had to step in and fix it quickly.
"Watch from god mode in the air like usual, and if it looks like a fatal bug is coming, just disconnect her."
"What a refreshing solution!"
But there was no more effective or better method.
However, there was one problem...
"You're not forgetting something, are you?"
"What?"
"I still don't have a computer yet."
My computer was still back at my villa.
In other words, the environment for me to work hadn't been established at all.
"Don't worry about that."
The CEO's finger pointed at the room across from mine.
"That's my home office when I'm here. Use it today."
"Is that the computer you use for streaming?"
If it was, I'd feel bad touching the settings...
"No, it's the one I use for company paperwork while watching the kids' streams."
"Nice! Then I can change the settings however I want!"
"You little—?!"
Grab!
She pinched my cheek again.
"Kieeeng..."
...It felt a bit much to grab someone's cheek immediately just for joking around.
"Hmm... Was there even a reason to watch this?"
Contrary to my worries, Honey Eos's broadcast proceeded smoothly without a single bug.
Her character was a soft golden figure themed as the goddess of dawn and honey.
At first glance she looked incredibly cute—almost like a baby or loli—but she focused more on chatting with viewers than the game itself while playing Minecraft.
She named her only mount after her colleague and charged straight into a dragon with it.
"...Should I have turned it off?"
Instead of mod bugs, she caused language bugs that made real sweat run down my heart.
Honey Eos has fallen to their death.
She pulled out various small clips like that and slowly began preparing to end the stream.
"It ended smoothly after all."
Was it because my body had changed?
My body felt more tired than expected. I flopped down onto the desk and
"Agh... so tired."
The moment I muttered that without thinking—
"Agh... so tired."
...The exact same voice as mine flowed from the monitor speaker.
