Part 1 - I Wonder If She'll Hold Up

I wasn't sure if she'd be okay... No, there was no way she would be. Even I, borrowing the power of a pill that cost a whopping 200,000 won per dose, had lost my composure for a moment and flinched. So how must Sena be feeling? Her insides must be a total mess right now.

I muttered that to myself while shooting her a worried glance, but it didn't last long before I realized something. All my concerns were just groundless worries.

"Hello, everyone! Thanks for tuning in today. Alright! Let's get this stream started."

It was right up until the stream screen flicked on. The moment it did, Sena's expression flipped back to her usual playful, energetic self, as if that dark cloud had never been there.

"What do you mean late? I started right at 8 on the dot."

"Okay, okay, calm down a bit. That's why I didn't bring him out right away—I knew you'd do this."

"Look at it now. I told you to calm down, but you're still cursing and spamming dirty chat, jeez..."

"Man, I just can't understand it no matter how I think about it. Why do you all want to see him so bad?"

She tilted her head sideways with such shameless flair.

"Anyway, yeah, you wanna see him so I'll show you... but you all know, right? Keep those protractors safe."

"SenaWhoStealsGrandpaLinguica, what’s malicious? Go look in the bathroom mirror."

"Yeah, I don't really trust you guys... but I'll trust you. I'll trust you."

"You just wanted to backseat-game!"

"Got it, got it... Hey! Come out!"

Was it time for me to go out now? Seemed like it, so I lifted my butt off the chair where I'd been stuck...

...but apparently not yet.

"Before that!"

"So you want ads, right?"

"Anyway, calm down first. I gotta say what I need to say."

She was probably going to start by announcing that the horror collab was delayed a bit. Had to be—why else would she keep glancing at the viewer count?

She skimmed the chat for a moment, then the viewer count must've hit the threshold she'd set in her mind. Scratching her cheek like she wasn't sure how to put it, Sena finally spoke up.

"Uh... we got that collab today, right?"

"No no, not canceled, but... there's a bit of a problem."

"No, you know Soria's cats, right? Chiki and Chaka."

"You guessed it. Yeah, that's right. Those little shits caused trouble again."

Sena chuckled like even she couldn't believe it, fiddling with her phone to pull up the photo she'd gotten from that streamer Soria earlier. She held it up to the cam.

"See? This is the crime scene."

"So because of this, the horror game start time's gonna be pushed back a little. Honestly, you all agree this is unavoidable, right? It's a natural disaster. Natural disaster."

"Alright, I've passed on the message..."

Sena trailed off and beckoned me with her finger. No way to miss what that meant.

The chat exploded in response to her gesture.

"Hey, you can come out now."

I stood up quietly and headed toward Sena. She stood too, dragging the chair I'd been on right next to her.

"Say hi first if you're out."

"Uh... hello?"

I did as told, but... no response. The chat that had been blazing moments ago had gone dead silent.

"Huh? What, lag? Guys? Guys...?"

Dead silence blanketed the chat.

"What's up... any tournaments today? Nah, didn't hear about any—"

About two seconds? Everyone spaced out staring at their monitors, then snapped back at Sena's voice. The chat erupted like crazy.

And then the real lag hit.

"Chat's lagging so I'll put slow mode on for 30 seconds."

Sena couldn't take it anymore and slapped on the 30-second limit, but the praise for me kept pouring in nonstop. Knowing they were all women made it feel good, but more than that... it was kinda embarrassing. My face heated up, and spotting that, the viewers went even wilder.

"I said keep those protractors safe before we start, right? Mods?"

"Record the IDs of anyone eating rice today separately and email them to me after stream."

"Ban the black-haired foreigner bitch too."

A couple more heads rolled, and the chaotic chat finally started settling down.

"Ah, finally looks clean and nice."

Sena nodded in satisfaction for a moment, then stared straight at the cam and spoke.

"So, guys, what should we do now."