Methodology for Becoming a Vtuber (3)
The class president of Class 1-3 at Seoyeon High School had one major worry weighing on her lately.
It had been exactly one week since high school began. This was the period when the various cliques and character roles within a class usually started to settle into place, yet in her class there were still kids who had failed to blend in at all and remained completely on the outside.
Seo Da-young and Kim Chae-eun.
It wasn't as if there was any secret bullying going on or any real trouble with friendships. The cause was... rather the complete opposite.
How am I even supposed to talk to them...?
Shouldn't they have gone to an entertainment specialized high school? Did they enroll in the wrong school by mistake?
As the whispers drifting from the kids in the corner of the classroom proved, the aura the two of them gave off when they stood together was simply too overwhelming.
Ordinary students couldn't even work up the nerve to approach them first and strike up a conversation.
And it wasn't as if the two of them were making any effort to come over first and make friends either.
"Class president. If there are any kids in the class who aren't making friends well or who are left out, make sure you look after them carefully."
The homeroom teacher's words from the first day of school still lingered in her ears.
It was partly for the extra credit toward her grades, but with her naturally diligent personality that simply could not stand by and watch injustice or isolation, this was a problem she could never just ignore.
She would definitely help those two who were left out blend properly into the class.
Having steeled that firm resolve, So-yeon had mustered great courage a few days earlier and approached the two of them.
"Hi! You're Da-young and Chae-eun, right? What kind of music do you usually listen to? What do you normally do for fun on weekends?"
That attempt to strike up a conversation, squeezing every last drop of courage she had, was met only with a mysterious "Not really" or a vaguely evasive smile, leaving her thoroughly frustrated.
Of course, there was a reason the two of them had answered that way.
"Me? Um... mostly Vocaloid songs covered by Vtubers, or the other way around—J-pop covered by Vocaloids?"
"On weekends I hole up in my room watching streamers torture themselves playing dead games?"
...They couldn't exactly answer honestly like that.
And they didn't even have any ordinary high-school-girl hobbies floating around in their heads that they could use as a convenient cover story.
Naturally, the class president who had no way of knowing any of that was left deeply shocked. But—
Ding-a-ling-ding-ding ~ ♬
Even so, the class president refused to give up.
The bell signaling lunchtime rang out.
And at the exact same moment, as if they had planned it in advance, Seo Da-young and Kim Chae-eun rose naturally from their seats and slipped out of the classroom.
Watching their retreating figures, moisture welled up once more in the eyes of class president Kim So-yeon.
Sometimes an excessively outstanding appearance could become a curse instead.
The class president let out a deep sigh inwardly.
That wall-like defensive attitude of theirs had to be a tragic defense mechanism formed after receiving countless jealousy and wounds from those around them during middle school because of their overwhelming looks. There was no other explanation.
I... I'll definitely open the doors to your hearts, girls!
The class president of Seoyeon High School's Class 1-3 was right in the middle of a highly sensitive period.
A corner of the third-floor hallway, an empty multi-purpose room that almost no one ever visited.
The moment lunchtime arrived, the two of them opened the multi-purpose room door with the easy familiarity of people walking into their own home.
A little dust had settled, but it was their perfect private practice room—somewhere they could hide from other people's eyes and freely raise their voices to recite lines.
Seo Da-young settled into a seat by the window, popped the straw into the yogurt she had bought at the convenience store, and stuck it in her mouth. Kim Chae-eun pulled a few crumpled script pages she had hidden deep in her bag and spread them out on the desk.
Completely contrary to the class president's guess that they were lonely and avoiding the classroom out of isolation, the two of them looked thoroughly lighthearted.
The reason they vanished every lunch period was not because they had failed to adapt to the class. It was to prepare for the upcoming audition.
Just as Chae-eun was about to twirl a ballpoint pen between her fingers and start murmuring lines, the smartphone she had left on the desk lit up and an advertisement jingle began to play.
— Today's clear skies, just as they are. For my skin, Anua.
On the screen, a high-school-girl model smiled brightly under glamorous lighting.
It was Yoon Ha-eun, the former child-actor colleague who had filmed the drama with them back in the Blood Garden days.
...And who had also been a friend.
Ten years later, that former child-actor colleague had become one of Korea's absolute top stars, landing the female lead in a terrestrial mini-series.
Seo Da-young, still sucking on her yogurt straw, casually shifted her gaze to Chae-eun's screen.
"...Yoon Ha-eun."
"Yeah. Lately whenever you turn on the TV or Metube, it's nothing but this commercial."
Chae-eun watched the face of Yoon Ha-eun in the ad with calm eyes, then lightly tapped the skip button.
Da-young tapped the yogurt bottle with her finger and spoke quietly.
"What? Are you jealous of Yoon Ha-eun?"
"Yeah."
"...Huh? For real?"
"Just the contract fee for that one commercial would be more than enough to fully set up a broadcast-grade 4K cam, full-tracking gear, and a two-PC setup with every option."
"Ah. That side of things?"
Apparently Kim Chae-eun wasn't envious of her success as an actress at all—only of her commercial appearance fee.
Seo Da-young lightly poked Chae-eun in the side with her finger.
"Stop getting distracted and focus."
"Ow. That hurts. Da-young, don't poke me."
"Chae-eun. The whole reason we sneak into the multi-purpose room every lunch period is for that streaming gear. We should forget about those kindergarten friends who live in a completely different world from us now, right? Sadly, the two of us will never meet those two again."
"...Got it."
"Alright. Read the lines. I'll help you lock in the tone."
"Okay. And check my eye-line too."
At Da-young's words, Chae-eun let out a deep breath.
In that instant, the loose atmosphere from moments earlier—when they had been watching Yoon Ha-eun's commercial and going on about streaming equipment—vanished as if it had never existed.
Thok—
Seo Da-young's fingers, which had been playfully tapping the script, went still. The texture of emotion in Chae-eun's eyes shifted in a heartbeat.
The instinctive sense from their child-actor days—the one that had once drawn gasps of admiration from the staff in front of countless cameras—began to shine clearly once more.
"...Alright. Let's give it a try."
With Chae-eun's quiet cue, the audition script reading began inside the empty multi-purpose room on the third floor.
And so the audition date drew steadily closer.
"...I understand that COOKI headquarters made that decision, but PD-nim, what does that have to do with me? You clearly said it wouldn't affect my schedule at all."
The voice that came out of my mouth was thick with irritation and fatigue I couldn't hide.
From the seat of honor in the large audition hall, I sat with my arms crossed, scanning the documents, and looked up at the PD standing opposite me with a cool gaze as cold sweat ran down his face.
"Ah, you know how it is, Si-woo-ssi! Your uncle, the Taesung Group director, personally ordered us to make it happen no matter what... What power does a mere PD like me have?"
The PD put on the awkward expression of a pitiful middle manager stuck in the middle.
But I knew better. Deep down, that guy was secretly enjoying this situation—thrilled that he could use my name value to make his production career a success.
Haa. Uncle, why are you doing this to me for real.
Bitter water rose in my throat and I swallowed it down.
This project was something my uncle—the Taesung Group director—had forcibly shoved onto me.
The problem was that while I could brush off other relatives without much trouble, refusing my uncle's requests was hard.
Gang Si-woo's family had nearly gone completely under when his father co-signed a bad loan in his younger days, and it was the uncle who had stepped in as joint guarantor and saved them.
With a history like that, Gang Si-woo found it nearly impossible to turn down his uncle's requests under most circumstances.
Besides, his uncle wasn't the type to bring him proposals that would actually harm him.
"Of course, if it's my precious uncle's wish, I want to accommodate it as much as possible. But I clearly told you the schedule made it difficult."
"Ah, don't worry about that! I checked with the representative of your agency, and they said that after you finish filming the movie, you have almost no official schedule for about a month?"
That traitor of a president...!
I ground my teeth inwardly as the president's face floated up in my mind.
I had only just finished filming the movie recently.
So until the full-scale theatrical promotion season kicked off, I did have roughly a month of free time.
It was a precious, honey-sweet rest period that had finally come my way.
I had planned to spend that free time lounging around in my room, enjoying my hobbies at a leisurely pace.
My main job had been insanely busy until not long ago, leaving me no room to breathe, so this was supposed to be the time to make up for it.
And now that rare healing time was about to be blown away sitting in a judge's seat at some audition hall. How was my blood pressure supposed to stay normal?
"Haa..."
I pressed my temple firmly and let out a long sigh.
Still, I couldn't just flip the whole table. Even if I didn't feel like it and irritation was climbing all the way to the top of my head, once the board was set I always gave it my professional best. That was just my personality.
"Understood. Now that the work has come in, I won't half-ass it."
"Thank you, Si-woo-ssi! Ah, and as you already know... this audition isn't just simple judging. We're filming the entire production process as a making-of film and broadcasting it on Metube and TV. The cameras are rolling, so please loosen up your expression a little!"
"...What? Haa. Do whatever you want."
I forced down the irritation and muttered inwardly.
The old folks used to say that co-signing a bad loan would ruin a family. That saying really didn't have a single wrong part to it.
And so the plan of the two high-school girls—who had only intended to make a modest amount of money and call it a day—began, in places they knew nothing about, to flow little by little in a completely different direction.