242. Goddess-Level Beauty Overflowing
242. Goddess-Level Beauty Overflowing
***
After sending a short whisper saying she'd enjoyed the stream, Serin closed Sua's broadcast.
The editors had been making more of a fuss than usual over RinTube, so she'd wondered what could have caused it.
Click-clack.
When she opened a major site, the real-time search terms in the upper right corner caught her eye.
"...RinTube is actually in the search terms?"
She muttered blankly, but she still couldn't quite believe it.
RinTube sitting at seventh place in the search rankings felt surreal, yet undeniably real.
She'd thought she'd built up a fair amount of recognition, but seeing it on a major site's real-time search terms—something the general public used—felt completely different.
Click.
When she clicked on "RinTube" in the real-time search terms, even a few internet articles appeared, and Serin's eyes went wide.
[Big-name streamer Rin, skyrocketing to fame overnight!]
[Do you know about "world-class" streamer Rin, who even scrimmed against pro team G1?]
[Top star Seo Eunwoo falls for "Rin," whose skills even impressed G1!]
[Who is "Rin," the streamer Seo Eunwoo has shown direct interest in?]
[The unknown details about the veiled female streamer "Rin"!]
[RinTube surpasses 400,000 NewTube subscribers in under a month—Rin's own "goddess-level looks overflowing"]
"...What is with every single one of these article titles?"
Serin, who felt like something cruder was about to slip out, frowned and scanned the articles.
As she skimmed through them to figure out why RinTube had hit the real-time search terms, the reason was tied to one person alone.
The three letters "Seo Eunwoo" mentioned in so many of the articles stood out.
"Seo Eunwoo?"
Serin muttered the name flatly, then searched for Seo Eunwoo in the search bar to find out who he was.
And there it was—a man's profile, displayed huge.
*
————
Seo Eunwoo.
【Singer, film actor】
Age: 25
Agency: SJ Entertainment
Sites: Viewstagram, NewTube
—Awards
2030 KCS Drama Awards, General Programming Drama Category, Male Excellence Award
2029 STS Asia Artist Awards, Drama Category, Best Entertainer Award
......
————
*
The man's image in the profile was definitely a face she'd never seen before, yet for some reason it felt familiar.
'Did I see his face in an ad or a shopping mall or something?'
Thinking that was probably why he felt familiar, she saw a flashy list of awards below the profile—he seemed to be a fairly famous celebrity.
BaTalk! BaTalk!
Serin, who hadn't reacted to the endlessly ringing BaTalk notifications while reading the articles, felt like she now understood the reason.
"It's because of this guy, isn't it?"
She muttered blankly, and the feeling was strange.
The articles about RinTube hitting the real-time search terms were surprising enough, but the articles about this Seo Eunwoo person were on a whole other level—there was no end to them.
When she tapped the news tab, the articles there were updating practically by the minute, the level of interest was that different.
[Expressing endless interest in Another World!! Mentioning streamer Rin after pro player Jeanne d'Arc!]
[Streamer Rin receives an affection pick from a hot star—what does she look like?]
[Is Seo Eunwoo's interest in Another World real? Bold shows of interest toward a streamer and a pro player even during his break]
Even the titles of the visible articles were all so direct that she couldn't help but realize RinTube had hit the search terms because of this Seo Eunwoo person.
Click. Click.
I clicked on a few of the articles related to Seo Eunwoo and me and read the details.
"Ha."
A hollow laugh slipped out before she knew it.
Images that looked like my Another World appearance were placed side by side with images of the man who appeared to be Seo Eunwoo, and even after reading the article contents, I couldn't understand what kind of articles these were.
So she skimmed through several articles, piecing together the key points like a rough patchwork, and only then got a summary of the situation.
But the core content was so absurd that she wondered if she was reading it right.
"...This Seo Eunwoo person left a comment on a RinTube video, and that alone was enough to become such a hot topic that it hit the real-time search terms?"
Serin muttered blankly, combining the key points from several articles, and she just couldn't believe it.
'Just from that?'
Could leaving a single comment really put you on the real-time search terms and make you this much of a hot topic?
She didn't know any famous celebrities, so she had no sense of how much influence one could have, but even so, was this Seo Eunwoo person really that big of a deal?
Honestly, from my perspective, even if a celebrity left a comment, I'd just think, "Oh, okay."
"Hmm..."
As Serin absently stared at the image of the man called Seo Eunwoo in the articles, she felt an inexplicable sense of dissonance.
A person with outstanding looks, as befitting a celebrity. That should have been all there was to it.
'Why does it feel like I've seen him in person?'
I'd rarely gone outside in this world, and if I'd actually run into someone this famous, even if I hadn't recognized him, the people around me would've made a scene—there was no way I wouldn't remember.
"Uh..."
As she kept frowning at the image over that subtle dissonance, a thought suddenly flashed through her mind.
The glamping site she'd gone to with Eunha last week.
And the man she'd run into there.
He had a lot in common with the appearance of the man who'd been staying alone in the house right next to theirs.
"...No way, that person is this person?"
As she stared blankly at the image again, she felt the dissonance slowly fade.
The man in the image was styled up glamorously and radiated an intense presence, but the man at the glamping site had given off a strong impression of being reserved and cautious despite his striking looks.
But when she finally overlaid the image she was seeing with her memory, the resemblance was hard to deny.
"Does styling yourself up change you this much?"
Wondering if makeup could really change a person's image that much, Serin was now almost certain.
The man she'd run into back then was this Seo Eunwoo person.
From what she remembered, he'd definitely been a fan of Eunha's—and he was also the person who'd lent her fire for the campfire at the end.
Since it had only happened last week, the more she thought about it, the more vividly it came back to her.
The comment he'd supposedly left on RinTube, written in one of the articles, belatedly caught her eye too.
*
————
—[Seo Eunwoo: How could anyone watch this skill and not become a fan? Don't you all agree?]
12K likes 2.2K dislikes
▽ View 412 replies.
————
*
The comment left by the celebrity Seo Eunwoo looked favorable toward me at a glance.
Honestly, it just looked like a meaningless comment, but the reaction to it had been explosive.
"No, how does a comment have over ten thousand likes?"
Serin muttered, dumbfounded.
It wasn't even the like count on a NewTube video—the likes on a single comment left on a video were reaching five figures.
BaTalk! BaTalk!
"...What on earth are they talking about?"
With the BaTalk notifications ringing nonstop, Serin finally checked BaTalk.
Kim Hayoon.
[Isn't Rin really born lucky? Just when things are going well, some top star celebrity leaves a comment like that. Even now, honestly... I can't believe Seo Eunwoo left a comment on a video I worked on and uploaded. A top star leaving a comment like this on my video...]
Park Soyul.
[I was shocked too! And Seo Eunwoo—he's been famous for calling himself a Jeanne d'Arc fan for ages. You know, Jeanne d'Arc's public recognition is partly thanks to that top-tier celebrity Seo Eunwoo's influence.]
Kim Hayoon.
[In a way, isn't this a perfect chance to draw in female fans? Seo Eunwoo's fandom is huge and their loyalty is high too.]
Park Soyul.
[Right. I was thinking the same thing. Rin's male fan ratio is really high right now, isn't it? This seems perfect for picking up the female fans we're lacking. We're already on an upward trend thanks to the NewTube algorithm, and now we've even got a comment from a top-tier celebrity backing us. And seriously! I can't take it. I'm going to stay up all night if I have to and get the next video up tomorrow morning.]
Watching the messages exchanged in the RinTube chat room, Serin couldn't help but be surprised by the editors' perspective.
'Professional editors really do see things differently.'
To the point where I wondered if I was the ignorant one—the editors were looking at this situation from a completely different angle.
—A great opportunity to gain female fans.
Even that perspective surprised her.
Click-clack.
Afterward, I opened the RinTube channel and clicked on the video that had become a hot topic.
It was one of the scrim videos against G1, uploaded a few days ago.
Click.
Maybe the editors had pinned it, because as soon as she opened the video, Seo Eunwoo's comment was the very first one she saw.
"Did he recognize me and leave a comment?"
The words slipped out of Serin before she knew it.
She remembered making at least a small effort to style herself when going out, since she was going for a bit of an image change, but her distinctive silver hair had definitely stood out.
Even if Seo Eunwoo had seen me and thought of Rin from Another World, it wouldn't have been an unreasonable leap.
But he was definitely a fan of Eunha's, as far as I remembered—so why would he suddenly leave a comment on my channel?
When she'd first seen the comment, she hadn't thought anything of it.
But now that she'd realized they'd actually met in person, she couldn't help wondering if there was some meaning behind that comment, and on top of that, all sorts of other thoughts swirled until her head felt tangled.
"Ugh, seriously... why is there so much to worry about?"
Serin let out a shrill sound with a blank face, then simply closed her eyes and sank back into her chair.
In that state, she swept her hair back out of habit and tried to empty her mind.
There was too much to worry about—her head felt dizzy, like it was overloaded.
The way the pain pressed in on her made it feel genuinely agonizing.
"...Do I really have to worry about this too?"
And since the other party was who he was, she couldn't even make contact, couldn't know his intentions for sure, and had no way to find out—no matter how much she thought about it, there was no answer.
In the end, after turning over thought after thought, Serin shook her head.
"Ugh, whatever... I'm just going to sleep."
Click.
Serin turned off her PC, got up, and even switched her smartphone to silent.
She just wanted to sleep deeply without thinking about anything.
Flop!
Serin threw herself onto the bed and pulled the covers over herself.
'Tomorrow... tomorrow me will figure it out somehow.'
She deliberately set her mind at ease, as if trying to erase the tangled thoughts on purpose.
"..."
Within a few minutes, only soft, even breathing filled the space.
Only the screen of the smartphone nearby kept flickering on and off.