Virtual Marriage Announcement (1) - I'm Getting Married, Everyone
I turn on the stream with a pretty clickbaity title: I'm Getting Married, Everyone. Our virtual marriage start date has finally been confirmed. Thanks to a series of events, public opinion has already completely settled in favor of our virtual marriage. At this point, even if we said we weren't doing it, people would probably storm the broadcast and raise hell until we went through with it. Arine's plan had worked perfectly, and there was no reason to drag things out and miss this momentum. This was the peak of the hype. We had to ride this wave straight into the virtual marriage before the heat died down.
=Then tomorrow, let's talk about it simultaneously on our own streams. And don't forget to promote the date for the virtual marriage announcement ceremony.
I recall the last conversation I shared with her yesterday. That's why I'd started the broadcast with this title.
Even after the joint stream with Arine, my channel—which had been hovering between two and three hundred average viewers—overheated once again. People drawn in by the clickbait title poured in, pushing the count close to a thousand, just like last time.
I check that enough people have gathered and stop talking.
“Looks like everyone who needs to hear this is here now. Shall we get started?”
Arine had already said a few things since she started her stream a little earlier than me. But honestly, this announcement wasn't really for her audience. She could have just made the announcement herself and I could have followed up later. Most people watching our virtual marriage content were there for Arine anyway. A lot of them didn't even know I existed in the first place. Well, now that I've shown my face in her room a few times, maybe they've at least seen what I look like.
In any case, this felt more like a notice for my regular viewers—the ones who only watch my stream—rather than the floating audience or Arine's fans. There weren't many of them, but they were precious to me. They'd want to hear it from my own mouth.
“I thought about whether I should say this in my own room, but some of my viewers might not watch Arine's stream, so I wanted to tell you all here too.”
I see a few familiar names slowly popping up in chat and remind myself that I'm doing this for them.
“Anyway, Arine has probably already explained everything in detail, so I'll just summarize. Arine and I are going to do a virtual marriage. You all know the reason, right? I guess I should say it's all thanks to your support.”
Chats saying “kya” and praising me keep pouring in. Viewers congratulating me and cheering me on. Even though I had intentionally created this situation, it still felt good to give people what they wanted. After all, satisfying them was the real reward of being a streamer.
[Here's the marriage fund]
“Ah, thank you, Anonymous. Ten thousand won. Seriously, thank you. I'll put it to good use for the wedding expenses.”
[Me too]
“What the—why are you all so nice today? Did everyone want me to get married that badly? Anyway, thank you so much for another ten thousand.”
[Wedding gift money]
Donations congratulating me on the virtual marriage keep coming one after another. Just doing the virtual marriage was already beneficial for me, but receiving money from viewers on top of that felt strangely surreal. It probably helped that the audience had grown past two hundred—more people with money to spend had shown up. And of course, where there are fans, there are also antis.
A few chats that grate on my nerves start to appear.
Chats dripping with blatant malice hide between the regular messages. I temporarily ban them one by one while speaking.
“Alright, any chats attacking the room owner will be banned. This is Doyun's kingdom, got it? If you don't like it, feel free to leave. And saying I'm ugly compared to Arine is just a fact, so it stings like hell—can you please not say that?”
I deliver the line in a completely calm voice, like it was just a joke. The chat explodes again.
I've been properly banning chats that ruin the water since my hako days. Even if removing one person means one less chatter, one mudfish is enough to cloud the entire pond. That belief hasn't changed even now. The only difference is that banning them doesn't feel bad anymore. Because their blatant sarcasm was all mixed with envy and jealousy.
Arine is a perfect alpha female—beautiful, great figure, talented, and even kind. Of course people would feel sick seeing someone ordinary like me doing a virtual marriage with her. Honestly, even I would have felt a pang of jealousy if I were a viewer, even if I didn't type anything. Of course this is just content, just an act, but to the viewers it would look like a pseudo-romance.
......And yet they're reacting this strongly even though we're not actually dating. The more they get jealous and try to bite at me, the more I realize just how incredible the opportunity I have in my hands really is. After all, how often would a guy like me get to experience something even resembling a relationship with a woman like Arine, even if it's fake? Thinking about it filled me with a strange sense of superiority.
It also made me think that starting the broadcast was the right choice. Maybe this was a sight they would never get to see in their entire lives. It must feel like watching your neighborhood friend date a celebrity.
Even though I knew it was an ugly kind of satisfaction, I still felt incredibly good. With a soft click, I could smile and delete the hate comments as they came up.
# Virtual Marriage Announcement Ceremony. The so-called wedding. Since virtual marriage was such a huge trend on Naty, every couple did it differently. Some streamers held wedding ceremonies, others didn't. A wedding was a major promotional event, so it was usually beneficial, but some people who were already well-known would just start with a joint stream instead.
If you asked which category Arine and I fell into, the answer was obviously the former.
=The announcement ceremony itself can be content and build the story. Especially good for YouTube clips.
Though it seemed like the last part was her real intention from her perspective. Anyway. Planning was my weakness, and I couldn't keep up with a large streamer's planning ability, so I left most of it to her. At most I offered occasional advice. Not that I had any reason to oppose the announcement ceremony in the first place.
A week after we announced the virtual marriage, we had just finished our final rehearsal and were waiting for the promised announcement time.
Five minutes before the start time of seven o'clock. A sigh flows out from the Discord we had already connected for confirmation.
“Huu...... Five minutes left... haa...”
“What is this? The world's top-tier streamer Arine sighing right before a broadcast?”
She had never once shown any sign of nervousness even during massive joint broadcasts. I ask teasingly, genuinely curious.
“I'm nervous. Aren't you, oppa?”
“Nervous? You?”
“...Ha. Oppa. So you think I'm someone who never gets nervous at all?”
“Weren't you? I thought you were someone whose tension-sensing function was broken?”
“Where is there a person like that, seriously.”
Arine sounds exasperated for a moment before letting out a small giggle. Maybe my joke had eased her tension at least a little. I had thought she was always just meticulous, but like with the birthday gift last time, the more I got to know her up close, the more I realized she had a lot of very human sides.
I felt a strange pleasure in knowing aspects of her that other people didn't. It was like discovering a celebrity's secret all by myself. Like seeing a side of her that she could only show to people she was personally close with.
“It's new content. No matter who I am, I can't help getting nervous for new content. I have no idea if the reaction will be good or bad.”
“True.”
No company, no matter how large, releases a new product without feeling nervous. People's desires are difficult to predict no matter how much money you pour into research. Just because you made something doesn't guarantee people will like it. And it seemed Arine was no exception. Of course, with her level of popularity she had the power to recover even if it flopped, but nobody wants to fail.
“You'll do great. It's you. Not anyone else—the Arine. Just do what you always do. Right?”
I return the comfort she had given me during our first joint broadcast. The words were also for myself, even if I wasn't showing any signs of nervousness.
At my comfort, Arine lets out a small laugh and speaks as if relieved.
“Yeah. That's right. It's me. I'll do well this time too.”
Her voice is filled with regained confidence. At the same time, the clock strikes exactly seven, and just as promised, she starts the broadcast.
This broadcast was only streaming on Arine's channel to focus all the attention in one place. My own viewer count was less than a tenth of hers anyway, so it wouldn't have meant much. She temporarily leaves the Discord for the proceedings and begins her opening statement. I watch her stream on my sub monitor, looking for the right moment to join.
[Hello everyone. This is Arine. As I mentioned in the previous notice, today is the day of our virtual marriage announcement ceremony—or in other words, our wedding day. I sincerely thank all the viewers who have joined us as guests. Then, without further ado, let's begin!]
And I couldn't help but be shocked. Of course I was.
“...Wow, does this even make sense?”