Just Kidding

"Chaewon, are you busy?"

"Uuuh. A, a little? Maybe busy? Why?"

"Nothing, I'm cleaning the house so open your door and window for some ventilation."

"Can't I do it a bit later…?"

"What's this — you won't even clean and you're going to make Mom and Dad work around you?"

"Yes ma'am. I'll leave them open."

Shouldn't have turned on the stream on a weekend…

On the surface she was acting perfectly normal, but her heart was hammering away like crazy.

This feels exactly like sneaking junk food past Mom.

After lunch she had casually fired up Dead Zone and decided to stream while she was at it. Whispering soft little comments between crisp, tidy gunfights, she had somehow closed in on Diamond 2 before she knew it.

"Hehe, one more win and I'm Diamond 2!"

Excited, she had spammed the queue button. Team Deathmatch — her favorite mode — had come up. So far, so good.

And then.

Knock knock knock—!!

"Hyeet!"

Her mother had walked in mid-stream, calling her name. The second the knock sounded, her left hand flew across the keyboard, alt-tabbing straight to the desktop, while her right hand clamped hard over the mic.

It had been pure reflex — and she was already regretting closing the game window.

I should've left the game screen up like it was no big deal.

If she sheepishly admitted now, Hehe, I was actually playing a game, scratch-scratch, it would make gaming look like something you had to hide from your parents. So she decided to keep it hidden until Mom left.

Hngh, my score… sorry, teammates. Sorry, viewers.

"Pull the curtains open too. There, much better with the light. You decorated this room so prettily and then just keep it dark — what a waste."

"I didn't decorate it. It's Dad's taste."

"Oh my? Listen to this girl. That was when you were little, and you still like it just fine, so of course we keep maintaining it. All that pink — it's so pretty. You say you don't, but look, even your headset is pink again."

"Urgh… don't say stuff like that…"

She tightened her right hand over the mic even harder.

I do NOT like pink — I just use whatever!

Mom was actively assassinating her right now.

On a live stream!

She wanted nothing more than to just mash the power button. The conversation probably wasn't making it through the mic, but the situation was mortifying all the same.

"Good grief, the older you get the more bashful you become? What's gotten into this child."

"It's not like that… j-just go clean, okay?"

"As you wish, Miss Prim-and-Proper. Ugh, this room is going to turn into a landfill."

The moment her mother left to fetch the vacuum, Chaewon scrambled back to the game screen.

"Hueh?"

Why do I have three deaths.

I'm at our team's base — how have I already died three times?

That pure, innocent thought vanished almost immediately.

Oh right. I'm streaming.

One hundred percent the enemy team had gotten the word. Free kill if you push into the enemy base — she'd do the exact same thing, charge in without a second thought and pocket the free frag.

She was dead anyway, staring at a gray screen, so she decided to handle the urgent business before Mom came back.

I need to mute the mic!

But she had cobbled the broadcast software together by pure guesswork, and now she had no idea which button did what. The more panicked she got, the less anything made sense on the screen.

"Ugh, guys, guys. How do I how do I turn off the mic."

"I don't even do YouTube, what are you talking about! Ugh… almost yelled just now… hurry up and tell me, you mutts."

They never listened. How were they any different from the strays at her school? No — at least those ones were cute.

Then, through her headset, came the sound of someone drawing a weapon.

"Oh, guess I respawned."

She needed to sprint out and pad her kill count right now. Mic or no mic — back to the game first.

She equipped the MF5, the fastest-moving SMG in the game, and bolted out of base. And right there, some guy was charging straight into their spawn.

Tatatatatang—

Cut down the freeloader trying to farm a free kill!

That got her a quick one. She kept W held down and never stopped charging. She needed at least a few more frags before Mom came back with the vacuum — otherwise she wouldn't be able to face her teammates.

Sprint, sprint.

She ran and ran until she hit the zone where the gunfire was thickest.

Narrow terrain.

Better a tight space she could focus in than a wide open field. She headed for one of the side alleys — a main battleground for rifle fights. Aim locked on head height, she charged forward, spraying every likely angle without sparing a single bullet.

Tatang— tatang— tatadang—!

"Nice…!"

Luckily two of them had tumbled in like fish into a trap. Three kills, three deaths — she'd pulled her weight. Just one more for peace of mind—

"Chaewon~"

Scramble scramble—!

Mic covered, alt-tabbed. From the doorway of her room the vacuum arrived with a roar.

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing—!!!

Ugh, insanely loud.

Is that even a sound you can block with your hand?

The viewers must be dying. Hmm, what to do— and then a brilliant idea struck her.

Ah! I can just unplug the cable.

Am I a genius?

"Chaewon, lift your feet."

"Yes."

She hopped up onto the chair and stretched out her hand, ready to pull the headset jack — and then paused.

"……"

A thought occurred to her.

Not a single one of them had told her how to mute the mic. They just sat there snickering and making fun of her. Why should she be considerate of people like that?

"Hmm. Right. Yeah."

She stared blankly at her right hand, still clamped over the mic. Then she glanced once more at the vacuum in her mother's grip.

"Heh."

A wicked little smile, and she slowly let her right hand fall away.

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing—!!!

Hmph. Revenge.

She stifled a giggle and waited for the cleaning to finish.

I want to see chat.

Desktop wallpaper mode. Nothing to look at.

As a five-year veteran game streamer, Momoji had a fair amount of gaming pride. And for good reason — whatever title she picked up, she had always proven herself at least upper-mid if not outright top-tier.

So when she first started Dead Zone, she had set her sights on Master…

"Aaaaah, why can't I get ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to Diamond. Is it really my hands."

She had rocketed up to Platinum without stopping, but now that she was parked there indefinitely, even her viewers had started to lose hope. And that atmosphere scraped raw against Momoji's gamer pride.

"This can't be right. The coach…. This is the coaches' fault."

Half joke, half deadly serious.

If she had stuck with one dedicated coach and learned consistently, maybe. But bouncing between a bunch of different people for bits of advice left her more confused than before — sometimes the concepts even contradicted each other.

Anyone could say Then just learn from one person in the first place! but it wasn't that simple.

They're all guy streamers…

Back in her clueless early streaming days, Momoji had regularly collabed with a male streamer and gotten a bitter lesson out of it. It started with "it's not fun" and escalated all the way to backseat coaching in her chat and threatening emails.

Of course, she had been a nobody then, so the shock hit harder. These days she could just ban those kinds of toxic viewers one by one and keep streaming — but why put herself through that?

People watched internet streams to have fun. If there were fans who hated something, there was no need to force it.

Momoji gave her desk a light thwack.

"I need a new coach."

Everything so far had been the buildup. Today she was going to say it out loud no matter what.

She snorted at the teasing chat. After long deliberation, Momoji had made up her mind.

She was going to learn properly this time. Stick with it.

So who would be best?

"I'll go ask her myself."

Outstanding skill, genuine buzz, and a strangely magnetic charm. The one person who had dropped ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠effective coaching tips in a single line of chat.

And above all else — a girl!!

"Dual King Chaechae. I should ask her to come back. Come back, backseat coach!"

She had planned to reach out privately. But when she checked the personal channel, it was barren — no email listed, no mutual connections to lean on. In the end, the only way to contact her was to ask during a live stream.

Showing up while already streaming might put the other person on the spot a little, but whatever. Even if she went off-stream to make the offer, word would get out anyway.

And… she didn't really seem like the type to care about that sort of thing…. Yeah.

A quick glance at chat confirmed a flood of positive reactions. Once the decision was made, execution had to be fast!

Momoji headed for Dual King Chaechae's stream.

Maybe drop a light 30,000-won donation as a greeting?

She was still weighing how much to throw for a hello when Chaechae's stream finished loading.

An earsplitting roar slammed into her skull.

"Hwaaack, that scared me!!"

She slammed the volume way down.

Stream accident?

The screen was just a default desktop wallpaper, and something that sounded like a fighter jet was screaming through the speakers. Momoji was thoroughly confused — until she realized this was no accident.

In the gaps between that nightmarish noise, a faint little laugh kept leaking through.

And the chat was an absolute inferno.

"Mmm…"

She was doing this on purpose.

What kind of stream even is this……

Momoji found herself genuinely worried about whether she should really be asking this person to teach her Dead Zone.