Free Guitar
"VR gear?"
I might have heard of them in passing while watching VTuber streams.
"Hmm…"
I wasn't thrilled about it. More like, what a pain. Do I really have to?
"Do it without me."
"Ah."
Why me, of all people. I wasn't even a VTuber.
Wasn't Nari usually the type to find commercial work a hassle? Exactly how much money was this, for that much open disappointment to be dripping off her words?
"How much?"
"What??"
"Hic."
……Whoa.
Two hundred million. The number drifted aimlessly through the air.
Was this fate?
Not long ago, on the day my settlement money hit the account, I'd boldly dropped a certain guitar into my cart—and now it swam back into my mind.
The Martin Q-54.
Back when I used to lurk in composition communities, some rich named uncle had been bragging about it. I'd been curious enough to watch the review videos more than once, but the absurd price tag had kept me at a pure stare-from-afar stage.
It was almost twenty million won, after all.
Exactly one-tenth of the ad fee.
I could have bought it with the settlement money, but after days of chewing over the buy-or-not question, it was still sitting there in my cart. My account balance had room. Still—ordering something that expensive online without even trying it made my hands shake. What if I actually got it and hated the sound? Total catastrophe.
People always said you were supposed to touch an instrument before you bought it. Cheap ones you could just adapt to and muddle through with, but a twenty-million-won guitar was too much for the phrase "just adapt."
Only a few months ago, I'd been thrilled to sell a song to Yu Nari for four hundred thousand won.
Maybe this time I should just close my eyes and be greedy for once?
Think of the ad fee as a hundred and eighty million. Do a commercial, get a free guitar! That kind of feeling.
And Nari seemed to want the commercial anyway.
……Yeah!
"Let's do it. The commercial. You said it's simple."
She'd said they couldn't do it without me, after all.
She was offering to buy me my Martin 54?
"It's twenty million won. You sure?"
After boldly announcing she'd buy it, Nari got embarrassed and switched to offering me a guitar pick instead. Same as with my current smartphone—she really loved giving gifts. The kind of person who was generous to everyone around her. A completely different species from a social-skills-deficient human like me.
"……"
This again.
I would find her. Just wait.
Once we decided to take the commercial, things moved at lightning speed—though the concept Nari had first described to me shifted a little.
"Shin Se-young's side requested that we add a short duet scene."
"A duet?"
"Yes. There's a part mid-commercial where Shin Se-young's character appears, and they'd like a short section there where she harmonizes briefly with A-il. They said it'd be good if the singers coordinated their parts ahead of time."
"……"
They'd told me I only had to record my own part! Fraud. Pure fraud!
Still, they said the part was short enough that a quick phone consultation and some online practice would wrap it up. Han So-yeong had offered to turn it down if I was uncomfortable.
Phone calls I can handle by now.
Even if it had been with a little kid, I'd recently set a personal record for talking to a girl face-to-face. On top of that, Shin Se-young had helped with Lunari's concert before, so I already had a decent amount of internal goodwill toward her.
"……I'll do it. Send me the schedule."
"Really? Oh… understood. I'll pass that along to Shin Se-young's side."
The call ended, and I stared blankly at the empty guitar stand propped in the corner of my room.
Soon I'd have a new family member.
The day I decided to take the commercial, I hit Order Complete. The water was already spilled.
Come on home, my guitar.
Muse Family, first floor.
Yu Nari leaned against one wall of the conference room with her phone pressed to her ear.
"Yes, yes. Got it. So the basic character lineup can go that way. Right, right—the teddy bear, you know? The cozy plush one."
On the other end of the line, the voice of Nova Space's commercial production lead kept flowing. This was already the third call since yesterday.
The ad company had been actively taking feedback from VTubers familiar with VR environments, which gave Nari a legitimate reason to keep stepping in like this.
A-il, who had no avatar of his own, had become a teddy bear on the strength of Yu Nari's enthusiastic recommendation.
"Oh, and since we're from the same company, we really! want to appear in the same shot. Preferably with a couple-like vibe."
Just picturing the little sketch she'd drawn herself made a bright smile spread across her lips again.
A big teddy bear sitting a little awkwardly in a chair inside the VR world, singing. Her own character, Lunari, sidling up beside it—and then, squeeze, wrapping her arms around it from behind, sinking into that soft fluffiness.
"Eheheh."
Even in the middle of a call, she couldn't rein in the corners of her mouth. The coordinator had been accepting every single one of her suggestions so far, so she assumed this would sail through too.
"Hmm, I like the idea, but a pure two-shot is tricky. With Shin Se-young's avatar appearing mid-way, I think we need to go with a composition of all three of you together."
"Huh? Why? Wasn't Se-young-nim just supposed to be enjoying the virtual scenery and passing through?"
"Shin Se-young's side requested we add a short duet scene. A-il-nim already agreed."
"What??? When?"
"Ah, it was decided about an hour ago. Anyway, if the two of you hold the center of gravity and Se-young-nim joins in, it should feel natural."
"……Ah. Yes. Understood."
She'd heard from Han So-yeong that Shin Se-young's side had made that proposal—but she never thought Do-yoon would accept. It had looked easy enough to refuse that she'd assumed he would turn it down. Collaborating with a complete stranger was hard, after all.
Nari lowered her phone.
"Tch."
Even with MAMA stage prep keeping her schedule packed, the reason she'd taken the commercial at all was because she'd wanted—forcefully if she had to—to do something together with Do-yoon.
Who said I was going to actually hug him for real?
She'd just wanted to leave it behind in virtual reality, as footage. That was all. And now her goodwill toward Shin Se-young, the one who'd snatched that chance away, had dropped a notch. From "good unnie" down to plain "unnie."
Shin Se-young was the main model. Lunari was just one of the featured characters. One request, and boom—a duet.
I need to get more famous.
Then maybe someday she'd be able to shoot a commercial with Do-yoon as a proper couple, without anyone blinking.
Before heading to dance practice, Nari turned her steps toward the company basement. Destination: the recording studio. Do-yoon would come down to record eventually, and she wanted to get it ready before then.
Inspection time~
Not the kind of inspection that involved touching audio gear or machinery.
The moment she stepped into the studio, Nari made a beeline for the sofa. She settled lightly into the corner and picked up the blanket that had been folded in a clumsy heap beside it—a design covered in cute cat characters. It was the one she'd used at home for years, quietly brought over about a month ago.
"Hmm~"
Look closely and the edges were folded all crooked. He'd tried to fold it neatly, but he was bad at it. As far as Nari knew, Do-yoon was the only one who used this studio.
"So he is using it."
Do-yoon probably has no idea whose it is.
She took a corner of the blanket and unfolded it with a soft rustle.
How did he use my blanket?
Pulled it all the way over his head? Just draped it over his stomach? Or maybe balled it up as a pillow?
Nari eased her body down against the leather of the sofa and pulled the blanket snugly over herself.
"Sniff sniff."
After more than a year of use at home, it should have been saturated with her scent—but the texture and smell were oddly different from how it was at her place. She rolled around like that for a long while, and only just managed to drag herself free as her consciousness started to blur.
"Dangerous, dangerous—I almost fell asleep."
She folded the blanket neatly again, set it back on the sofa, and moved on to Do-yoon's workspace.
Thump—!
She dropped into the chair. She'd noticed this before, but she was starting to suspect Do-yoon might be on the short side. The chair height wasn't particularly high. Even she, a woman, could plant her feet on the ground with room to spare. Of course, with Do-yoon's easygoing personality, there was also a real chance he just never bothered adjusting it and used it as-is.
It does suit him, though.
A small, shy boy. It matched the image of Do-yoon living in Nari's imagination.
"Hm~ hm-hm."
Humming to herself, she tidied the desk a little too—pencils rolling around went neatly into the pen holder, and a memo sheet sticking out slightly got nudged back into place.
And at last, the final inspection target: the snack box. This was the single most important stage of Yu Nari's "studio inspection." Checking how much of the snacks she'd stocked had dwindled. Watching her beloved snacks slowly disappear, bit by bit, gave her a little thrill.
Let's see—peach mint candy again this time?
She opened the snack box with a flutter of anticipation—and froze.
"……Huh?"
Inside was a jumble of unfamiliar snacks. Worse, these new ones had been arranged so they were even easier to grab than Nari's own. She scanned the packaging.
"Japanese."
Nari immediately pulled out her phone and found Han So-yeong's number.
"So-yeong-nim, did you happen to add any Japanese snacks to the basement studio recently?"
"…Snacks? No? I did put a few in the office, but I haven't touched the basement. Do you need something? Want me to restock?"
"Ah, I see. No, it's fine—there just seemed to be more of them, so I wanted to check! Take care!"
"You too, Nari-nim~"
She hung up, and her fingers closed around one of the snack bags.
Then… who?
Had Do-yoon stocked them himself? That was the most plausible answer. She'd already confirmed with Manager Han So-yeong that he was the only person who used this space.
But still. Why did this feel so off?
Riiip—
She popped a chocolate from the bag into her mouth. Sweet. Extremely sweet. Her brows knitted. She checked the packaging on the other snacks too. Sweetness so intense it made her head go fuzzy.
Weird.
She simply could not picture Do-yoon eating any of this. There had never been the slightest sign that he lived off snacks or loved intensely sweet food. Least of all that he'd line up and buy a whole row of obscure Japanese treats like these.
"Hmm—"
Yu Nari's eyes slowly narrowed.