I Have a Million Won
"Hmm..."
"Uh..."
"..."
The day after the meat party,
Dojin and his staff gathered in the office for an emergency meeting.
As the word "emergency" suggested, all three of them looked grim.
"This is... completely unexpected,"
Dojin said, looking troubled as he stared at his tablet.
The screen was playing yesterday's live stream.
However, Dojin's eyes were fixed on the chat window, not the video.
"Sigh, look at the chat, you idiot,"
Dojin muttered to his on-screen self with a sigh.
While the chat was in absolute chaos, his on-screen self was completely oblivious, focused entirely on inhaling ramen.
Watching himself eat with his head practically buried in the bowl,
he felt like reaching into the screen and smacking himself on the back of the head.
"I'm sorry, Oppa. We should have caught on to the situation sooner..."
"I'm sorry."
As Dojin's sighs grew heavier, the two of them, who had been nervously reading his expression, quickly apologized.
Sigh, I'm such an idiot. What was so great about that ramen anyway?
I should have kept my head in the game. I've gotten too comfortable lately; I'm losing my edge.
If the host failed to read the room, the camera crew was supposed to step in and manage things. But yesterday, just like Dojin, they had been so mesmerized by the ramen that none of them had paid attention to the chat.
Seung-wan, in particular, was wallowing in self-reproach, horrified that she had made a mistake she never would have committed in the past.
Maybe we should have enabled donations?
If they had enabled Super Chats, the text-to-speech alerts would have clued Dojin in on what was happening in the chat.
But Seung-wan quickly shook her head.
No. Dojin isn't used to live streaming yet. It might have just thrown him off even more.
It was highly likely he would have lost his pace and ruined the live broadcast entirely.
What kind of place was the internet broadcasting world?
It was a brutal arena where even top-tier influencers who had seen it all could have their mental state shattered in an instant.
They couldn't throw Dojin, who only had a handful of live streaming experiences under his belt,
into that wild wilderness unprotected.
Scratching his head, Dojin asked,
"You said it's already spread to online communities, right?"
"Yes. At first, it only spread within animal-related communities, but earlier I saw it pop up on foreign worker community boards too."
"Why there? Ah, I guess that makes sense."
He kept forgetting because he was so used to them, but Sun-jam and Chanarshanhu's family were visibly foreigners.
On top of that, they had been wearing traditional Mongolian clothing yesterday, leaving no room for doubt.
"Whew, it's going to be hard to clean this up. I should start by apologizing to Chanarshanhu."
The security team was fine.
They had appeared in previous videos and had already given their consent to be filmed.
In fact, hadn't they stepped right in front of the camera themselves yesterday?
But Chanarshanhu and his family are a different story.
They hadn't been asked for permission to be filmed,
let alone have the footage uploaded online.
Yet, their faces were now plastered all over the internet, so it was only right to apologize first.
Especially since the one who went viral this time was Sun-jam.
Dojin knew just how much Chanarshanhu's family doted on Sun-jam.
Naturally, he felt a heavy burden of responsibility.
"I'll be back."
"Okay... Go ahead."
"I'm sorry..."
Understanding how Dojin felt,
the two of them saw him off with heavy hearts.
"We are fine. But did our Sun-jam appear on the broadcast?"
"Where did she show up? Can we watch a replay?"
"..."
Contrary to the gravity of the emergency meeting, the couple's reaction was incredibly casual.
In fact, they were so bright and cheerful that Dojin felt silly for worrying and agonizing over it all morning.
This is weird. I'm the one who messed up, so why do I feel like the victim here?
Just moments ago, the atmosphere had been completely different.
When Dojin said he had something to tell them, they had turned pale and walked on eggshells.
The sudden shift in their attitude actually made Dojin worry about them instead.
Did they think I was going to fire them?
Even if not that, they had clearly been worried about some kind of disciplinary action.
Seeing how they instantly relaxed the moment Dojin revealed the actual reason for his visit proved it.
"Uh... Well, we plan to upload it to our channel in a bit, but you can already find it if you search the internet."
Despite his dazed state, Dojin answered Altani's question.
But at Dojin's words, Altani's expression momentarily stiffened.
Dojin saw this but deliberately looked away, pretending not to notice.
I can't help it. I just can't bring myself to speak casually to Altani.
To be honest, he wanted to use mutual polite speech with Chanarshanhu as well.
It felt awkward to speak casually to the head of a household in front of his entire family.
However, Chanarshanhu had been stubborn.
He had even insisted that Dojin speak casually to his younger siblings as well.
Fortunately, the siblings looked much younger than Dojin, so speaking casually to them wasn't a burden.
Compared to them, Chanarshanhu is... cough!
Even now, Dojin occasionally flinched.
He sometimes wondered if he was truly older than Chanarshanhu...
Anyway, Chanarshanhu is one thing, but Altani is out of the question.
She was the same age as Chanarshanhu, but was it because she was a mother?
Altani exuded the distinct aura of a reliable older sister.
Add to that Sun-jam, who spent most of her time with Altani, and it became even harder to speak casually.
He couldn't bring himself to treat a mother so informally in front of her wide-eyed child.
Just then, Chanarshanhu pulled out his phone and asked Dojin,
"What should I search for?"
"Ah, just search 'rising star of mukbang' or 'child mukbanger'."
"Mukbang?"
Chanarshanhu tilted his head in confusion for a moment, then quickly focused on his phone.
And then...
"Oh! Here it is!"
"It's Sun-jam!"
Chanarshanhu and Altani cheered as the video popped up immediately after the search.
Pride and emotion flooded their faces, impossible to hide.
"So pretty."
"Yes. Our daughter is beautiful."
Once, twice,
and then again.
Dojin watched warmly as the couple replayed the video over and over.
He didn't have one now, but he figured he would look exactly like that if he had a child of his own in the future.
After about ten minutes,
once the two had calmed down a bit, Dojin asked cautiously,
"So, would it be okay if we upload yesterday's broadcast with Sun-jam in it? Ah, of course, it won't be for free. We'll pay her an appearance fee."
Appearance fees were something he paid to the security team as well.
If the security team appeared in an uploaded video, they were paid anywhere from 10,000 to 30,000 won.
It seems like a small amount, but Seung-wan said even this is a lot, so it must be fine.
In the world of internet broadcasting, the concept of an appearance fee was quite weak.
Unless it was a special project, most creators just asked for permission and left it at that.
In that sense, Dojin was the unusual one for paying them.
After a brief consultation with Altani, Chanarshanhu nodded and spoke.
But what he said was rather strange.
"Please do. How much should we pay you?"
"...Huh?"
"For Sun-jam's appearance fee, how much should we pay? We can afford about a million won."
"..."
"If you need more than that... could you deduct it from my salary? I really want to show Sun-jam's face to my father and mother back home."
Hearing Chanarshanhu's words, Dojin realized the couple had completely misunderstood.
Don't tell me they think they have to pay to get her on the broadcast?
It was a cute misunderstanding, but Dojin couldn't bring himself to laugh.
The look in their eyes was far too earnest for that.
Memories of the past flashed through Dojin's mind.
He did say his parents were still in Mongolia.
Though Dojin had suggested it several times, Chanarshanhu had ultimately decided against bringing his parents to Korea.
He felt it would place too much of a burden on Dojin.
Instead, Chanarshanhu had brought his siblings.
"My siblings will move out eventually. I plan to look after them until I can find them a place and they get other jobs."
This was what Chanarshanhu had told him back when they were in the quarantine facility.
When Dojin asked why he went to such lengths, Chanarshanhu had replied:
"I am the eldest son, so I must take care of my siblings. Once they grow up and earn money, we will all send money to our parents in Mongolia together."
He meant they would work in Korea to support their parents,
much like how Koreans in the past had moved to the capital to earn money for their parents in the countryside.
"Obei is still young, but Begter can find a job quickly. He is a hard worker. I only need to look after them until then."
"Then you can all stay together in the place I've prepared until then. The lodging is spacious anyway, so it won't be uncomfortable to live together."
Dojin had said this without much thought in response to Chanarshanhu's words.
After all, the place he had prepared for Chanarshanhu's family was a classroom in the annex.
It was a remodeled classroom that was 1.5 times larger than the ones in the main building, making it excessively spacious for a family of three.
Besides, Mongolians are used to living together in a single ger.
Although some moved into their own small gers upon reaching adulthood, the lodging itself was so large that they would have no trouble living there for the time being.
In fact, even after the two siblings were hired by Dojin, they continued to live in the same classroom with Chanarshanhu's family.
"Ahem!"
Reminiscing about the past, Dojin quickly cleared his throat at the sight of the couple staring at him with desperate eyes.
He needed to clear up the misunderstanding before it went any further.
"It seems you've misunderstood. I'm not saying I'll take your money; I'm saying I will pay you."
"Pardon?"
"Huh?"
This time, it was the couple's turn to be bewildered.
But Dojin's explanation was just beginning.
"We pay a small appearance fee to anyone who appears in our videos. Since we broadcasted this time without your prior permission, we'll pay you an appropriate amount to make up for it."
"H-How much?"
"Well, we'll have to hold a meeting to decide the exact amount, but it will probably be around 100,000 won. Is that too little?"
"T-That's way too mu—"
"Thank you! We love it!"
Altani cut off Chanarshanhu as he was about to speak and shouted her agreement.
Dojin smiled at the sight.
Moments like this showed that the mother was indeed the more practical one in the household.
Oh, come to think of it, doesn't this mean we can upload the soccer match video too?
Dojin recalled the match from a few days ago between the security team and the interspecies alliance.
Since Sekki House was filmed for most of the day,
footage of that match—which was remembered as a day of shock and horror—naturally remained.
However, Dojin had no intention of releasing the video
because he hadn't asked Chanarshanhu's family for their consent beforehand.
"Why don't we just ask Chanarshanhu for his consent now? We can pay them a proper appearance fee just like the security team,"
Seung-wan had suggested after reviewing the footage of the match.
But Dojin had shaken his head without hesitation.
"I don't think that's a good idea. Even if Chanarshanhu doesn't want to, he'll say yes anyway."
"Ah..."
Everyone at Sekki House knew how much Chanarshanhu respected and followed Dojin.
Even if Dojin didn't suggest it himself, the moment anyone brought it up, Chanarshanhu would have immediately agreed.
"As you saw in the match, the key players were Ttorang-i and Sun-jam. You all know how much Chanarshanhu's family treasures Sun-jam, right?"
"...You're right. Let's just discard this one."
The match was so unbelievable that even they had doubted their own eyes while watching it.
The moment such a video was uploaded, all kinds of internet trolls would target Sun-jam. They couldn't push her into the spotlight when they should be protecting her.
Thus, they had decided to scrap the soccer video.
But in this current atmosphere, there was no need to throw it away.
Sun-jam was already known to the public anyway, and her parents, Chanarshanhu and Altani, were highly receptive to her appearing on screen.
"Um, about that soccer match we played a few days ago. Would it be okay if we uploaded that too?"
"Ah, that? Yes, that's fine."
"Is it okay with you too, Altani? Not just Chanarshanhu, but the whole family will be in it."
"Yes, it's fine. We don't have any family photos. Having many videos is good."
Dojin smiled with satisfaction at Altani's words.
He had asked just in case, but as expected, the two didn't mind the video being released at all.
In fact, they seemed to welcome it.
If that's how they feel, we can upload it.
Of course, it went without saying that he would also need to get permission from Begter, Altani,
and Sun-jam.
"What should we do if you get caught on camera in the future? Should we edit you out? Or upload it and pay you an appearance fee like this time?"
"Please upload it. So our parents can see us and Sun-jam."
Once again, it was Altani who answered Dojin's question.
Chanarshanhu nodded vigorously, clearly sharing his wife's sentiment this time.
"Understood. Ah, the video you saw earlier will be uploaded to our channel later, so you can just share our channel link with your parents."
"We will."
"Thank you."
Satisfied with their answers, Dojin was about to head back to the office when...
"Boss."
"Yes?"
Dojin turned around at the sound of Altani calling him, and she spoke to him with a serious expression.
"If you get the chance, please film Sun-jam a lot. Our parents miss Sun-jam very much."
"Ah..."
As she bowed her head slightly while speaking, Dojin bowed back.
And he said to her,
"Yes. Leave it to me. I'll film her whenever I get the chance."
Confidence resonated in Dojin's voice.
In truth, though he hadn't said it, there had been many precious videos of Sun-jam that had gone to waste.
Sun-jam was already adorable and tiny.
A video of a child like her walking Ttorang-i, who was bigger than she was, possessed a magical charm that would make anyone smile like a proud father.
We discarded all of them before, but we don't have to do that anymore.
Perhaps Sun-jam would end up earning the highest appearance fees at Sekki House.
After all, Dojin and the animals didn't receive appearance fees.
And Dojin's prediction quickly became reality.
The day after they uploaded the video with Chanarshanhu and Altani's permission,
a collaboration request came in from a famous YouTuber.
Of course, the request was for Sun-jam, not Dojin.