013. Accidental Collab
013. Accidental Collab
I reclined the driver's seat as far back as it would go and settled in.
Then I started watching a livestream on my smartphone.
It was a live broadcast by a major Neotuber called Cheerful Namsu.
Streaming alias: Cheerful Namsu.
Real name: Nam Hyeon-su.
He was my brother.
‘Look at how fast people were flooding in.’
Even while the screen was still on standby, the viewer count had started to skyrocket.
Watching it, I felt the same question I always did.
‘Honestly... why the hell did people watch this crap? It was not like they were blind.’
I couldn't for the life of me understand why he was so popular.
...No, it's not like I actually didn't know.
I just couldn't comprehend it, that's all.
The fact that this face was supposedly revered as good-looking.
‘No matter how hard I scrub my eyes and look, I couldn't figure out where or how it was handsome...’
Honestly, it made me laugh.
Handsome my ass...
It was a face that instinctively made you want to throw a punch.
Of course, I knew I was the only one who saw it that way.
My brother had always been wildly popular.
Even my friends used to beg me to just introduce them once. Some crazy bitch even tried to bribe me.
‘Maybe because I had been looking at him since I was a kid?’
Well, the looks aside.
His personality was an even bigger problem than his face.
The viewers probably didn't know.
The true, filthy, hideous reality of Nam Hyeon-su.
My brother was no different from a living bioweapon with chemical warfare capabilities.
He was the kind of lunatic who would suddenly shove his feet at me and unleash the stench while I was lying down, or fart into his own hand and then waft it over my face.
And the smell was disgustingly revolting.
I suspected his internal organs might be rotting.
‘And this thing was a million-subscriber Neotuber. The world's going to hell, for real.’
Still, it was nice having family that earned good money.
I'd been completely at a loss about what to do with my life after getting discharged from the military, and because my brother was famous, I got to work as his manager.
Cushy jobs like being a family manager were rare.
High salary and barely any hard work.
Especially me—I didn't even bother with chat management or schedule coordination.
That was thanks to there being several managers.
‘Basically, I was just a chauffeur.’
Even though my brother was old as hell, he still hadn't gotten his driver's license.
So whenever he did an Outdoor Stream, I absolutely had to tag along.
It was honestly a pain in the ass.
But what could I do? I had to.
If I didn't even do this, I wouldn't be a manager—I'd just be a freeloader, right?
However, I never ever did any other work.
My role was strictly driving and nothing more.
Just moments ago, my brother had asked me to help with filming a mart promotion, but I flatly refused.
Overtime was not in my job description.
'Do you know how physically exhausting long-distance driving is? People who don't drive just don't get it.'
I had to drive on the way back, too.
So the right call was to get plenty of rest right now.
‘I'd just watch the stream start and then pass out.’
A manager's a manager, so I'd left the broadcast on, but I was planning to leave it on and then just go straight to sleep.
And just then, the standby screen transitioned and the live broadcast began.
The viewer count was climbing even faster than before.
‘Jeez. His popularity was disgustingly high as usual... Huh?’
I glanced at the screen, and something was off.
A dark silhouette was wavering on the screen.
‘What was this? Someone was beside him?’
I sat up and squinted at the broadcast again.
‘A guy? There was no mention of a guest...’
The man's face, which had been blurry and out of focus, started to become clear.
‘...’
In an instant, my mind went blank.
A bewitchingly gorgeous male god had descended into the frame.
His features were so elegant that the squid standing next to him wasn't even fit to be compared.
The male god stared blankly into the camera, then muttered under his breath.
"Wow, fuck... the chat firepower is insane."
Even his voice was sexy.
A sweet and mellow voice that perfectly matched his looks.
‘This was insane. Could a person really be that handsome? Yeah, this was what handsome looked like. Not a face like my brother’s.’
As if I'd been charmed by an incubus.
I sat there, utterly mesmerized, drinking in the male god's appearance, and it took me dozens of seconds to finally snap out of it.
‘No, wait! But why the hell didn't he tell me about the guest!?’
A surge of irritation hit me.
My brother, keeping this crucial fact to himself, was insufferable.
And then a wave of regret washed over me.
I should have just followed along earlier when he asked for filming help...
‘...Hold on. It was not too late yet, was it?’
After thinking it over, it really wasn't too late.
All I had to do was go now.
Without any further thought, I flung the car door open with force.
And then ran toward the mart at a dead sprint.
***
The mysterious woman who came running while screaming.
Her identity turned out to be Nam Hyeon-su's younger sister.
Her name was Nam Hyeon-ji.
She said she was Cheerful Namsu's manager and chauffeur.
The moment she arrived, she ignored her brother and introduced herself to me, which was how I found out.
Cheerful Namsu asked Nam Hyeon-ji with a displeased look.
"What the hell? Nam Hyeon-ji, why'd you come here?"
"Why do you think? You said to help with filming, didn't you?"
"You said no earlier because it was a hassle? What's with the sudden change?"
"Huh? Oh, right. I got to thinking, and it seemed like you'd struggle a bit on your own. This mart isn't exactly small, right? You'd get tired just walking, and it's gotta be hard lugging the camera around too."
"Since when did you start worrying about me like that..."
Cheerful Namsu's voice trailed off as he glanced at me, a look of dawning realization crossing his face.
"...Pfft. Hey, Nam Hyeon-ji. You saw the guest's face on the stream and came sprinting over, didn't you?"
"What? N-No, I didn't? What do you take me for! I go out of my way to come help and you throw weird accusations at me?"
Nam Hyeon-ji's voice trembled as she answered.
Judging by her reaction, he'd hit the nail on the head.
Her face was pretty, but with acting skills like that, she'd never make it as an actress.
"Our Hyeon-ji, ever since she got back from the army, she's been chasing guys."
"I told you it's not like that?"
"What do you mean it's not? Anyway, when your brother asks for help, you ignore him... but the second you see a handsome guy, you come dashing over all hot and bothered... Jeez. I raised my sister wrong."
"Oh, for crying out loud! Stop talking nonsense and give me the camera!"
Nam Hyeon-ji snatched the camera from Cheerful Namsu's hands.
"Huh? You're being rude to me!"
"Aack! Don't hit me!"
Having lost his camera, Nam Hyeon-su mercilessly pummeled Nam Hyeon-ji's arm with his fist.
The siblings looked so very affectionate.
Nam Hyeon-ji ran to avoid the violence.
In the end, unable to find another refuge, she ducked behind my back.
"Hey! Don't hide behind Se-hun! Have you no shame as a woman?"
Whether they did that or not, I didn't care.
I was busy leaving Cheerful Namsu's stream running on my smartphone and checking the chat.
─Hyeon-ji appearance lololol Getting the shit beat out of her right on schedule again
─lololol Why'd LoserHyeon-ji suddenly show up?
─Looks like she sprinted over like a dog the moment a handsome guy popped up.
─Stop hitting on our Se-hun -_-
─"Our Se-hun" my ass.
─She's getting smacked so damn satisfyingly. Listen to that sound lol
─That bitch needs to get wrecked more lololol
─Don't hide behind a man, you crazy bitch!
─Stop showing off your loser vibes, Hyeon-ji.
─Oh, for fuck's sake. Stop putting women on the broadcast.
└'Kkyubbulkkyubul' has been permanently blacklist banned.
Most viewers knew about Nam Hyeon-ji.
It seemed like this wasn't her first time on the broadcast.
Nam Hyeon-ji poked her head out from behind me.
Then she whispered quietly.
"Sorry about that. My brother has some kind of mental problem."
"I can hear you, you crazy bitch! And stop bothering Se-hun and get away from him!"
Cheerful Namsu, who'd already closed in, grabbed Nam Hyeon-ji by the hair and dragged her out.
After that, Nam Hyeon-ji got beaten like a dog.
Wasn't this a broadcast accident?
It was serious enough to make me think that.
‘...The viewers were in a festive mood instead.’
The chat was relishing the situation.
Apparently, this was a common occurrence.
Well, of course—it was a world where a man hitting a woman was treated leniently.
If it were serious, it'd be a problem, of course.
But Nam Hyeon-su wasn't actually beating her; he was just horsing around with his sister, so there wasn't any real issue.
If the genders were reversed, even horseplay would be a no-go,
but anyway.
Regardless, I decided not to step in and stop Cheerful Namsu.
I didn't want to be a buzzkill for no reason.
All I had to do was enjoy watching, same as the viewers.
Men in this world were physically weak anyway, right?
Nam Hyeon-ji, being a woman, was clearly taking no damage from getting hit.
"Aaaaagh! Nam Hyeon-su, you crazy son of a bitch! It really hurts!!! Ah, my ribs! That hit my ribs!"
Or maybe not.
***
The situation was quickly settled.
And to resume the promotional broadcast, we began moving toward the Korean beef sampling corner.
“By the way, you two are siblings, but you do not look alike at all.”
It was just an offhand comment,
something I said without much thought.
Maybe because they were siblings, their reactions were almost identical.
"Haha. If I looked like my sister, I'd have gotten plastic surgery to fix it ages ago."
"Ugh. If I looked like him, I'd have killed myself the second I was born."
Nam Hyeon-ji got hauled off and beaten again.
After that, she became noticeably subdued.
She just quietly held the camera and followed us around.
As we kept walking, at some point,
Nam Hyeon-ji, who was filming Cheerful Namsu with the camera, sidled up next to me.
She muttered a quiet aside to herself and tugged at her top.
"Ah. It's hot. Maybe because my brother was hitting me earlier?"
Nam Hyeon-ji flapped her shirt.
And then, a perfectly defined row of abs was clearly revealed.
A flawless body without a single ounce of fat.
"Hoo. I'm sweating a lot."
What the hell was this girl suddenly doing?
It gave off a very strong vibe that she was deliberately showing off.
I studied Nam Hyeon-ji's face.
She was staring straight ahead.
Wearing a tough expression and a slight frown.
Was this some kind of sex appeal for women in this world, or something?