Our First Real-Life Collab Stream (1)

“Ugh… I’m gonna die…”

It was already four in the afternoon, with lunch long over, by the time Arine finally dragged herself out of bed. She had stayed up late talking with Doyun on the phone, which caused all the post-stream work she was supposed to handle to pile up. As a result, she’d gone to bed far too late and ended up sleeping in well past her usual two o’clock wake-up time.

“Ughhh… ugh…”

Letting out a groan that sounded almost pained, she flailed one hand around until she found her phone. She quickly scanned the time and the flood of work-related messages, then fired off a few replies. Messages from the MCN, from her own team—there were always so many people trying to reach her that she usually spent her mornings like this, rolling around in bed like a CEO on her day off. After spending about thirty minutes that way, she finally forced herself upright and shuffled toward the bathroom.

The small bathroom attached to her bedroom had clean marble finishes and warm lighting. Moving on autopilot, Arine slipped on her ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠bathroom slippers, grabbed the headband hanging on the wall, and pulled her hair back. She washed her face carefully, mindful of her sensitive skin, then reached for a towel—only to freeze when she caught her own reflection in the mirror.

“…Why does this suddenly bother me?”

Normally on her off days, she wouldn’t even glance at the mirror. She wasn’t a narcissist, so she usually just gave it a quick once-over like anyone else. But today, for some reason, her own pretty face kept catching her eye. Maybe it was because of everything she’d heard yesterday—the stories about her trauma regarding people who only cared about her looks instead of her skills.

She stared blankly at her face.

“……Am I pretty?”

Arine had grown so used to her own appearance that she didn’t see it the way others did—as breathtakingly beautiful. But even right after waking up, her hair still had that silky bounce. Her large, bright eyes, the perfectly straight nose, lips that looked translucent with a hint of rose, skin as white as white jade, and a sharp, elegant jawline. Objectively, by any standard of beauty, it was an undeniably lovely face.

It’s exactly what you said.

The voice from yesterday echoed in her ears. Doyun’s warm voice—the one that had affirmed her, that had recognized her skills instead of just her looks—floated through her mind.

Looking at herself, she let out a helpless laugh.

“What am I even doing? First thing in the morning. If anyone saw this, they’d think we were actually dating, huh?”

Staring at her smiling reflection, Arine couldn’t help but snort in disbelief. Thinking about Doyun the second she woke up? That was something only real couples did, not a virtual marriage pair. For someone who used to wake up thinking only about work or streaming, this was a completely new experience.

This was the first time she’d ever woken up and immediately thought of a man.

……But it would probably pass soon. His words had just been so ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠nice, so memorable, that she was only reacting like this for a moment. That was all.

She wiped her face with the towel and stepped out of the bathroom. Just because it was a day off didn’t mean she had no work. Viewers often mistakenly thought streamers spent their off days completely relaxing, but for a top-tier streamer like Arine, off days were basically just catch-up days for all the tasks that had piled up.

Any work she couldn’t finish during the week because of live streams got pushed to her off days. So in reality, her “days off” weren’t all that restful. Of course, since there was no broadcast, she did have more breathing room than on regular days.

“At least I don’t have to go to the studio. That’s something to be thankful for.”

For Arine, who normally streamed from the studio, the commute was always a hassle. On broadcast days she also had to do her makeup, hair, and pick an outfit, which meant she had to start preparing at least two hours before going live. In that sense, off days were comfortable. She could just throw on pajamas, sit in front of her computer, and handle her tasks.

“Haaam.”

Covering her mouth as she yawned, she opened her delivery app and ordered a sandwich and an Americano. That would be today’s brunch. Once the order was placed, she sipped a glass of water and started checking the work emails that had come in.

“This one needs confirmation… An ad from Intra Games… I think it’d be better to accept it if possible…”

She went through various messengers and emails, prepared the documents she needed to send, and drafted the confirmation replies she had to give. On top of that, she had to work on the proposal for the new content she was planning, which made her suddenly lose all motivation to work.

“Haaam… I’m so sleepy… I just want to go back to bed…”

The tedious task made her whole body rebel against it. She twisted in her chair, and her gaze naturally drifted away from the screen. That’s when she spotted the pink sticky note stuck to the side of her monitor.

“Heh.”

Just seeing it made her smile without thinking. It was the one that had been inside the birthday gift package Doyun had sent her. The letter was written in surprisingly round, boyish handwriting, every word filled with sincerity. She had left the actual equipment at the studio, but she’d brought this sticky note home because she wanted to keep it. That’s why she’d stuck it on the side of her monitor—so she could look at it whenever she had a spare moment.

His handwriting is kind of cute.

While she was staring at it absentmindedly, Doyun’s face suddenly popped into her mind.

I wonder what he’s doing right now.

It wasn’t his off day, so he was probably streaming. She glanced at the time—it was already past six. The perfect time for him to be on air. Out of nowhere, she grew curious about what kind of stream he was doing, and before she knew it, she was following the flow of her thoughts and opening Naty.

Among the many people in her follow list, the username Do Doyun was lit up. She clicked on it, and there he was—doing a chat stream.

She remembered how his viewer count had shot up dramatically recently. He already had ten thousand followers. Arine genuinely thought it was wonderful.

…Ten thousand followers is still nothing for him, though.

In her eyes, Doyun was someone who could do so much better than he was right now.

Ah, that. She had enjoyed watching it too.

And Arine, a huge fan of Shepherd’s Blade, felt personally attacked by Doyun’s ignorant comment.

Wow. This guy is really asking for it. How can he dismiss a masterpiece like Shepherd’s Blade?

Without realizing it, her hands moved to the keyboard.

She typed furiously into Doyun’s chat, but her hands suddenly stopped. She hammered the backspace key repeatedly and felt a wave of secondhand embarrassment wash over her.

……What am I doing right now?

She still had so much work left. Before she knew it, she had gotten distracted by Doyun again. Had she ever lost focus like this while working? It felt strange even to her.

“Get a grip. Seriously. Yoo Harin. What are you doing all day?”

She’d been thinking about Doyun nonstop since morning. At this rate, it really seemed like she was conscious ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of him. But no, that couldn’t be it. They were just partners doing a virtual marriage show together. This was nothing more than her using him as an excuse because she didn’t want to work.

Yeah. That was all it was. It wasn’t like she was thinking about Doyun oppa all day or anything.

Nope.

Arine slapped her own cheeks lightly, forcing her scattered thoughts back to the task at hand.

Visiting the headquarters of Next Stage, the MCN she belonged to, felt like it had been a long time for her. She usually finished most of her work using the studio the company provided or through Zoom, so she rarely had to come to the main office in person. There was only one reason she was here today.

After uploading the virtual marriage video with Doyun last time, her Naty YouTube channel had ridden the algorithm hard and grown explosively. Now that the channel was doing well, they needed to decide which direction to take the content.

Of course, she and her YouTube team could have decided on their own, but there was no reason to turn down help when the company had actual YouTube experts. So the company’s YouTube team and Arine’s own team had gathered to discuss the future direction of her channel.

In the spacious conference room, several people sat around the long table.

“So up until now, you’ve mainly uploaded clips focused on chat streams and collabs with big streamers?”

“Ah, yes. That’s right.”

Arine answered in place of her editing team. The MCN’s YouTube specialist continued the consultation.

“And after you uploaded the virtual marriage video, it suddenly blew up in the algorithm. Correct?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“As you know, it would probably be best to keep uploading virtual marriage content until the hype dies down…”

“Yes.”

“It hasn’t been that long since you two started the virtual marriage, right?”

“That’s true. It’s only been about a month since we started in earnest.”

“Then this is perfect timing. How about trying this for your next video?”

“What…?”

The Next Stage YouTube consultant pulled up several videos on the large screen at the front of the room. Videos with views in the hundreds of thousands or even millions. Some featured famous streamers, but others were from people who weren’t well-known at all.

“These days, couple vlogs and ‘day swap’ documentary-style content are getting really good numbers. I know you two are strong at live streaming, but paying attention to YouTube as well can help you expand your fandom.”

As expected from a YouTube consultant, they seemed well-versed in current trends for internet broadcasters on the platform. Come to think of it, videos like these had appeared in Arine’s own recommendations a few times.

“Didn’t Yeonju unnie do something like this? I remember the response was really good.”

“Yes, that’s correct. We recommended it to Lemia as well. The views were excellent.”

If this was the current demand, there was a high chance it would do well if Arine filmed it. After all, when a top-tier streamer hopped on a trending format, the chances of failure were extremely low. And a day-swap concept would give them an even bigger advantage than other streamers, because the environments of a hako and a large streamer were polar opposites.

Even though Doyun had grown rapidly recently, the gap between them was still stark.

“You’d swap days with each other. Doyun would experience your studio setup, and you would experience his hako environment. Film for about two days and edit it into a vlog style. Your subscribers will love it.”

Like black and white. This kind of dramatic contrast was naturally a huge source of entertainment. From Arine’s perspective it sounded great, but for Doyun—who didn’t run a YouTube channel and focused solely on live streams—it might be a format he would hesitate to do. After all, this was more suited for YouTube content than live streaming.

“……The idea really does sound good. I’ll have to ask oppa about it first.”

“Oppa?”

“Ah, I mean Do Doyun. It’s become such a habit to call him that.”

“I see.”

What? Why is everyone looking at me like that?

Not just the YouTube consultant, but even her editing team was now gazing at her with warm, fond eyes. Feeling embarrassed by their looks, Arine subtly avoided their gazes and thought to herself.

…This content would definitely be fun to do with Doyun.