Free Tickets to Japan and Sino's Korean Bombshell
Suihwa, the Korean streamer that right-wingers love. We didn't get close because we went to the same university—it went back to high school days at cram school. She was always crashing there, so I'd wondered what she'd end up doing with her life. Turns out, she was thriving as an internet broadcaster. Last time I checked, she had around 6,000 viewers. I was a total noob when it came to streaming, so I had no clue if that was impressive. And honestly, I had no urge to dig deeper. I rarely showed my drawings to people around me, so how exposed must she feel doing live streams with her face?
Whoa. I'd thought it was some emergency. Relieved, I fired back.
...Did I come off as a total pushover? Why did everyone around me feel like teasing me the second they saw me? I was pondering a serious reevaluation of my image when...
"Who's that?"
Yujia, walking beside me, glanced at my phone.
"Just a little sis I know."
I quickly hit the power button to lock the screen. No big deal if she found out I was talking to Suihwa, but they weren't that close, so I didn't feel like advertising it.
"Hmmm..."
Yujia gave me a weird look for a second, then turned away.
"Let's grab food. I'm hungry."
We scarfed down a simple meal and I was lounging in my apartment, killing time, when my phone buzzed.
[Suihwa]
A call from Suihwa.
"Hello?"
Oh, oppa, you busy right now?
"Nah, not really."
Then can we chat for a sec?
"Sure."
She must have something important to say. Calling instead of texting meant it wasn't casual chit-chat. I fiddled with my phone, random thoughts swirling.
Wanna come to Japan with me?
The bombshell hit out of nowhere.
"...Japan?"
Yeah! You love anime, right?
"Yeah, but... suddenly?"
It felt off. She was going for a stream—why drag me along?
"No reason to bring me, is there?"
I pressed, and she laughed, spilling the truth.
The organizers gave me two plane tickets! I don't have many close friends anyway... Thought it'd be fun to go with you since we're heading there.
"Oh."
Free plane tickets. Round-trip to Japan was like 400,000 won these days. I'd been itching to go anyway, so I hesitated just a bit.
"How many days?"
Fly out Thursday, back Sunday.
I answered instantly.
"I'm in. Sounds fun."
Cool, I'll book the hotel. It's the week after next, so handle any errands ahead of time, oppa.
"Got it."
Alright, gotta get back to streaming~
She hung up. I stared at the phone.
"...Did I just decide that super impulsively?"
Now that it was real, second thoughts crept in. It was pretty spur-of-the-moment. But I shook it off quick.
Free tickets? Hell yeah.
...Plus, that anime event sounded dope. Amid those scattered thoughts, I added the sudden trip to my calendar.
"...Ngh."
I wiped up the last traces of moisture on the floor with a towel.
If you picked a random art major who loved drawing, odds were high they'd be an anime fan. Or maybe from a rich family taking it for culture points. Yujia checked both boxes. She adored anime itself, and her family was loaded—hell, they had a dedicated art studio at home.
But she had one hobby she couldn't tell a soul about.
[Saved]
Hanging out in certain communities. Sure, everyone did it these days—but Yujia's was next-level. Not just any sites: ones packed with lewd art and doujins. Straight-up hentai galleries.
"Hoo..."
A guilty pleasure she hid from everyone. And not mildly spicy—the stuff was extremely high-heat.
Anyway.
"Does this guy not do doujins...?"
This artist with the handle Sino. 370,000 followers, and zero doujins. Most X-Net bigshots funneled fans to paid doujins on other sites.
What a shame.
She had no idea if he was content with this level of spice, but he just drew characters from her fave anime and posted. No extra info. Hell, last time, manga legend Komai Rito even dropped a praise comment.
Click.
She'd saved every single image from his account. Not that extreme, so no ban risk—but artists were fickle.
"Hnnng..."
She indulged, scrolling X-Net's lewds and doujins to vent her urges.
Shiver.
"Hah... hah..."
That was enough for today. She barely reined in her desires and went to shut down when—
> From now on, all user accounts will display the country they're accessing from.
Ah, today was the day.
They'd announced it yesterday, so no shock. Just surprised they rolled it out immediately.
Curious, she was about to close X-Net when—
"Hm...?"
She stared at the unbelievable info.
Korean? For real? His style screamed Japanese.
Confused, she hit up her usual community.
Everyone seemed thrown off. Fair enough—they'd announced it, but no one expected rollout in one day.
As posts poured in—
Title: Holy shit, Sino that bastard was Korean??????
(photo)(photo) What the hell is this?
"...Whoa."
It felt like a hammer to the back of the head. Sino, Korean? She'd assumed Japanese, no question.
Absurd. Then—
Posts exploding with hype. Click. Click. Skimming them all revealed something insane.
Title: So like, half the hentai pixiv crowd is Korean?? Fml lmao so fucked
[Never underestimate Koreans again..]
Everyone was reeling. They'd figured a few Koreans, maybe—but this many?
Still dazed, she checked her followed accounts' nationalities when a thought struck.
...Komai Rito's a hardcore right-winger, right?
The one guy he praised was Korean work. Her head spun.