64. What It Means to Be Recognized by Someone
64. What It Means to Be Recognized by Someone
***
With the end of the eleventh video, all the prepared videos had come to an end.
Serin paused for a moment and scanned the chat.
[!vote 11]
[!vote 1]
[!vote 5]
[!vote 11]
Watching the chat scroll rapidly, she wondered which video the viewers would pick. Honestly, once a video ended, the viewers who had just watched it would vote for it, so public opinion shifted quickly. She couldn't say with any certainty which video was in first place.
"I'll give you about five minutes to vote, then announce the results."
Roughly 17,000 viewers. Wondering what the turnout would be, she turned on a timer program and set the time.
—4:59.
As time passed, the chat continued to scroll rapidly.
Personally, she didn't have any particular video she was leaning toward. Any of the eleven would be fine with her.
If there was one that felt distinctive, it was the eleventh video? Rather than the editing skill being outstanding, the video itself had charm. That was the feeling. It seemed to hit the editing beats really well, so it had its own character.
[!vote 1]
[!vote 11]
[!vote 10]
[wow how are the votes this split lololol]
[!vote 7]
[!vote 11]
[I honestly have no idea what's gonna take first]
[fr I have no clue]
—0:01.
Click.
She turned off the timer before it hit zero, closing the vote, and spoke while the results were still hidden.
"That's it. I'm really grateful to all the viewers who voted and to everyone who applied to be a RinTube editor. I'm disappointed too, but I can't pick everyone... so even if you don't make it, I hope you won't be too heartbroken."
She offered her thanks and spoke up in advance so the applicants who had participated wouldn't be too disappointed by the results.
Being eliminated.
Thinking about the applicants who had sent in videos, it was a heartbreaking thing.
So she hoped those people wouldn't be too hurt. Seeing each and every video again, she could feel the effort put into all of them, and having to pick just one made her feel sorry for no real reason.
And so, she finally clicked to reveal the vote results.
The results immediately streamed out in a list.
*
————
No. 1: 651 votes.
No. 2: 580 votes.
No. 3: 521 votes
......
No. 10: 577 votes.
No. 11: 631 votes.
————
*
I'd never used the system before either, so I'd expected it to show the vote share as a percentage, but instead it displayed the raw vote counts outright.
"About 6,000 viewers participated in the vote. Out of everyone watching, a turnout close to 40% is pretty high, right? And the video chosen by the most people is video number one!"
[wow lololol it's insanely close for real]
[legendary vote split lolol]
[what do you mean vote split lolol but wow the votes really spread out evenly]
[to me they were all pretty similar and good to watch]
[fr same so I just picked a number I liked]
[they were all so well made it was hard to pick one]
[idk about the rest but 11 is really unfortunate]
[a 20-vote difference is insane lolololol]
[real elections sometimes split by small margins too, it's always wild to see]
[honestly isn't 11 fun?]
[it was fun but to me it was a little lacking]
[no. 1 really was just made so well]
Watching the chat's opinion, she thought that it was truly ironic how small the vote gap between videos 1 and 11 was, and that the No. 11 applicant would be really disappointed.
Looking at the votes overall, they were all fairly similar, so there wasn't that big a difference.
She opened the folder where she'd collected the videos and brought video No. 1 back up on screen, and a thought suddenly struck her.
'I should at least send pizza gift cards to the people who didn't make it as a thank-you.'
Watching the videos again on stream brought back fresh feelings, and she noticed more and more of the effort that had gone into them. Not being able to choose all those people made her feel sorry for no real reason.
But results were results.
"Then I'll show you No. 1's video once more, and with that, I'll wrap up the editor-related content."
Compared to the time she'd spent checking emails and preparing before the editor selection, the broadcast time wasn't very long.
Showing eleven videos and leaving the choice to the viewers through a vote. That was all there was to it.
The viewer response wasn't bad, so the preparation felt worthwhile, and since it was about choosing an editor to run the RinTube channel, the preparation process didn't feel meaningless.
But a strange sense of regret lingered.
'It feels like a shame to end it here.'
That feeling was strong.
[no. 1 really was well made even on a rewatch]
[they say the end of tuning is stock, and fr the video is really clean]
[should I say the effects and captions aren't overdone while watching?]
[it's exactly the kind of thing that sticks to the basics, so even if I voted again I'd pick no. 1]
[I'm really sad about 11]
[lolol 11 is funnier for sure]
[I liked no. 6.]
Looking at the chat, most viewers seemed to feel the same way she did.
"It'd be a shame to end it here. You're all pretty disappointed too, right?"
So without realizing it, she let those words slip out.
There was no rule saying a NewTube channel editor had to start with just one person.
In fact, it was something she'd kept mulling over last night while checking emails, because the applicants' level was so high. Since she wanted to promote the NewTube channel's rapid growth anyway, starting with a two-editor system from the beginning didn't seem bad.
'It's not like I don't have money.'
I'd heard that even after creating a NewTube channel, revenue wouldn't be generated immediately and there were a few conditions, but not even the slightest thought crossed my mind that hiring two editors would put me at a loss.
Simply put, with two editors, more videos would go up, and that would soon lead to revenue.
[???]
[oh what????]
[no way, picking more?]
[lolololololol what's this all of a sudden]
[second vote time?]
[so it's not over?]
[go go go go go]
[are they really picking one more?]
"You viewers feel this way, and I also think it'd be a shame to end it here. So, excluding No. 1, who took first place in the vote just now, I'm thinking of holding a second vote to pick one more person."
And so, with a spur-of-the-moment thought, Serin's lips moved.
A light change of heart combined with a bit of regret, and in the end, she decided to pick one more editor.
Serin's words, grounded in her comfortable circumstances, might have sounded light at first.
But to someone, they came across as an enormous hope.
***
The moment she confirmed she'd made the eleven chosen by the streamer called Rin, and her video appeared on the broadcast.
In the overwhelming joy, no words came out.
Hayoon, her mouth opening and closing, just stared blankly at the screen.
Out of nearly 200 emails, her video had been chosen.
Even though it wasn't confirmation that she'd become the editor, that fact alone made Hayoon happier than anything.
Her heart pounded without rest, and even while watching the broadcast, her hands trembled without her realizing.
[!vote 11]
[!vote 11]
[what's with the intro you recorded yourself lolol]
[fr it's cute]
[!vote 11 you can see the effort lolol]
In the chat, words close to admiration were appearing about her video.
And so, five minutes passed, and my video ended.
"..."
Showing my video to this many viewers was embarrassing, but the floating sensation made it feel like I was dreaming the whole time.
Being recognized by someone.
She was so happy that she wondered if this was what it felt like to have the whole world, just from that one fact alone.
Then, without realizing it, her vision blurred and her throat tightened.
Blankly, she raised a hand to touch her eyes and opened her mouth, but the words wouldn't come out properly.
"...Ah."
This feeling was new to her, so she didn't know how to handle it or how to accept it.
But still, she wanted to see the chat, so with trembling hands she kept frantically wiping her eyes.
The first reaction she'd ever received from someone—she didn't want to miss it by being swept up in her own emotions. She wanted to keep taking it all in.
And so, as if engraving each and every chat reaction into her eyes, Hayoon gazed endlessly at the screen.
......
*
————
No. 1: 651 votes.
No. 2: 580 votes.
No. 3: 521 votes
......
No. 10: 577 votes.
No. 11: 631 votes.
————
*
The moment the vote results appeared on screen.
Hayoon, who had checked the screen faster than ever, at the end of it... just smiled faintly.
In the end, she hadn't taken first place.
The moment she'd made the eleven.
It would be a lie to say she hadn't expected anything from then on, that she hadn't wanted it.
"...Still, it's not bad."
A voice that was now somewhat light flowed from Hayoon's lips.
A bright voice, not the gloomy voice usually blocked by deeply sunken or dull emotions.
Even Hayoon herself was aware of it—she was in a good mood right now.
Still, the fact that 631 people had chosen her.
The more she looked at those vote results, the more a small joy welled up from deep inside her heart, little by little.
And at the same time, she felt a deep regret she couldn't hide.
If only twenty more people had chosen her. Then surely... she could have become the editor too.
Results were results, and they couldn't be overturned.
Forcing the regret down inside, she opened her mouth.
"I'll start again as an editor."
The joy she'd never felt as a NewTuber or streamer when she'd challenged those paths before. And the fact that someone else had recognized her like this.
The moment she felt that, Hayoon finally felt that the path she should take was that of an editor.
Then a thought suddenly crossed her mind.
'Should I donate?'
This was the first time she'd felt this kind of joy.
Being recognized by someone.
She was truly grateful to the streamer called Rin, who had chosen her video.
Hayoon wanted to express at least a small token of her sincerity.
But she immediately hit a wall.
"50,000 won is..."
Remembering that the minimum donation amount in Rin's room was 50,000 won, Hayoon couldn't help but hesitate.
Because of a recent large expense, even 50,000 won was far too much money for her right now.
—It'd be a shame to end it here. You're all pretty disappointed too, right?
Then suddenly, a voice came through.
—You viewers feel this way, and I also think it'd be a shame to end it here. So, excluding No. 1, who took first place in the vote just now, I'm thinking of holding a second vote to pick one more person.