Unexpected Apology
Thank you so much…
“Ah, she ran away.”
Harum chuckled at Lene’s final reply and stretched her arms.
“She gave permission, right?”
“Yeah. I cut down the scenes that needed editing as much as possible.”
“That’s a relief.”
“Everyone, let’s give it one last push~”
“Yep!”
Harum stood up, said that, then left the meeting room and headed for the water dispenser.
“Did we really need to go that far?”
The one who spoke to her was Hyunho, another trainer at Health Project.
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“This OnTube video. It’s a guaranteed loss.”
At Hyunho’s words, Harum quietly shrugged.
“Last stream was twenty percent. This video is fifty percent. We’re not a charity, are we?”
“…Well, you’re not wrong.”
Hyunho’s words were reasonable. Health Project wasn’t just Harum’s personal OnTube channel. It was run together with four other trainers besides Harum and the staff who supported them. That meant the investment cost for producing a single video was quite high, and the collaboration with Lene had required even more than usual. Splitting the revenue in half on top of that… even if the video broke viewership records, it would be hard to break even.
“But this time I pushed Lene pretty hard too. Think of it as an apology.”
“So why did you have to push that hard in the first place?”
“That depends on how you look at it, doesn’t it? You agreed when I brought it up last time, too.”
When Harum had suggested viewing this video as seeing the forest beyond the trees, everyone at Health Project had agreed. But Harum noticed that wasn’t what Hyunho was talking about now, so she slowly sipped her water and continued.
“…It’s a shame, isn’t it?”
“What is?”
“She must have put in an incredible amount of effort, yet no one knows about it. That’s a shame.”
Right after the collab stream with Lene, Harum had checked what the public opinion was like. And aside from Lene’s fan community, most people were shockingly tearing her apart.
Of course, once word spread that Harum had given her approval, the criticism died down, but only for a short while. A few days later, a different narrative began to spread.
That really didn’t sit well with Harum. Exercise was the result of effort. Nothing else, but exercise never betrayed hard work. To Harum, who held that belief, Lene was someone truly worthy of respect, and she didn’t like seeing someone badmouth her. That was why she had been genuinely happy when Lene allowed the OnTube video. It meant they could shut down the malicious rumors all at once.
“I hate seeing people tear down someone else’s effort.”
So Harum’s personal goal was to create a video that showcased Lene’s charm to the fullest. Thanks to that, she had learned a few secrets as well.
“Satisfied with that answer?”
“…Yeah.”
When Harum voiced her honest thoughts, Hyunho slowly nodded.
“But I still don’t think that last part was okay. Harum, what you’re doing right now isn’t an apology. It’s self-satisfaction.”
However, that didn’t mean the conversation was over.
“No matter what you think, Lene never asked you to do that, right? In that situation, what you did earlier… honestly, it’s a nuisance. Forcing our own views on her and getting reluctant permission is no different from those people who think only their own opinions are correct. And even if you say later, ‘This was my intention!’… do you really think Lene would be happy about it? I don’t think so.”
At Hyunho’s words, Harum pressed her lips together. That point was something she had already been thinking about to some extent.
“Of course, I understand that you wanted to include as much as possible. But that’s something Lene has to say herself. You can’t half-force an answer out of her like that. And then saying it’s fine because you gave her fifty percent of the revenue afterward… that’s really cowardly, Harum.”
Faced with Hyunho speaking not as a Health Project trainer but as the oldest member laying out the facts, Harum had no rebuttal. Just as he said, she had unconsciously thought things like, “We’re taking a loss too, so…”
That was why Harum…
“…You’re right. I already apologized to Lene for something similar last time…”
“Harum, I know how serious you are about exercise, but this time your heart got ahead of you. So from now on, think it over one more time so this doesn’t happen again. …For now, contact Lene and apologize. And accept everything she asked for earlier. It’s not like she asked for anything difficult.”
“Got it…”
She quietly accepted Hyunho’s words.
“As for the length… well, we were planning to make this one long from the start anyway, so let’s leave it at that this time.”
“Yeah…”
“Then I’ll talk to the others, so take a short break and come back in.”
“Yeah…”
With those final words, Hyunho patted Harum’s head and returned to the meeting room.
“Ah, I’m such an idiot…”
Left alone, Harum quietly sighed as she looked up at the ceiling.
★
“Phew…”
In a good mood, I rolled around on my bed.
Getting praised like that by a professional trainer, of all people. I’m pretty amazing, aren’t I?
Of course, even if she said that, I had no intention of giving permission, but still, compliments felt good. It was like a professional had proven that I didn’t need to go outside and exercise like people sometimes said in chat or on the forums. Once the break ended, I’d definitely brag about it on stream.
While I was kicking my feet on the bed with that thought, the notification sound for a Misscord message rang out.
The sender was… Harum.
“Huh?”
Didn’t the conversation just end? Why was she messaging again all of a sudden?
Maybe she was going to say that additional editing would be difficult, so they should just go with what they had. She had seemed a bit pushy since last time. Though the problem was also that I couldn’t refuse…
Ah, Lene…
While thinking that, I answered the call, and Harum’s voice came through, completely different from earlier. It sounded almost like she was blaming herself. …Don’t tell me something went wrong with the video and we had to reshoot?
[Um… I wanted to apologize…]
“…Yes?”
What came back from Harum was something completely unexpected.
[After talking with someone else and thinking it over… I think I was pushing my own position too much on you, Lene…. I already apologized for this last time, and now again…. I’m really sorry….]
“Ah…”
At Harum’s words, I couldn’t immediately say that wasn’t the case and comfort her. After all, I had just been thinking the same thing and imagining the situation.
[It’s not an excuse, but I really believed I was doing it for your sake…. But I think I was just trying to satisfy myself. I’m truly sorry….]
But seeing her so readily admit her mistake was honestly nice to witness.
[So I talked it over, and first of all, I’m going to edit out everything you mentioned earlier. Ah, of course, that doesn’t change the revenue split or anything. …I’m really, really sorry. If there’s anything else you want to say or any other uncomfortable parts in the video, please tell me anytime, whenever you want….]
“…It’s okay, Harum. Just hearing you tell me all this is enough for me.”
[Ah…. Thank you.]
Admitting one’s own mistakes was never an easy thing to do. I had realized that fact quickly through my encounters with heretics. Even setting that aside, when we were young, that guy Bell would always torment me and get scolded by the nuns, yet he insisted he had done nothing wrong. Maybe because of those experiences, situations like this felt quite refreshing.
[Then, I’ll be going….]
“…Harum.”
[…Yes?]
“The thing you said about me being able to visit again next time… that’s still valid, right…?”
[…Ah, yes! If you come next time, I’ll do my absolute best to help you!]
“Yeah. Good work today…”
[Thank you so much…!]