A Decent Partner (3)
The heart in my chest hammered so violently it actually hurt. It was Arine. The real Arine.
Naty’s idol. The very person every female streamer looked up to. And that same person had just personally reached out to me first, asking to collab.
…Was this actually a dream? Or reality? Had I wanted to blow up so badly that I’d finally lost my mind and started hallucinating? Was I trapped in some delusional fantasy?
The viewers’ reactions were even stronger than mine. They probably thought I was full of shit again, just doing my usual crazy bit. But honestly, I completely agreed with them. If I were watching my own stream, I wouldn’t believe this either.
A top-tier streamer like Arine sending a DM first to a hako like me whose average viewer count didn’t even break triple digits? The only way that would happen is if she found out I was some insanely handsome rich kid doing this as a hobby. Unfortunately, I was a dirt-poor part-timer barely scraping by, so the odds of Arine contacting me privately were exactly zero percent.
And yet that zero percent had just happened.
In that instant, I seriously considered abandoning the stream. Those few minutes of chat weren’t important right now.
“Guys. I know this sounds insane, but it’s real. I’m really sorry, but can you give me just ten minutes? I’ll mute my mic for a bit. This might be the opportunity of a lifetime in my three years of streaming.”
I begged them with genuine desperation in my voice.
For three whole years I had tried everything to find a way forward. Night streams, dopamine bait, 24-hour broadcasts, variety games, explanation videos—whatever was trending, I did it. But my viewer count stayed stubbornly stuck right before the 100 mark, like it was glued there.
This was the first real chance that had ever come to me. The chance to collab with a top-tier streamer.
I had no intention of letting this possibly once-in-a-lifetime opportunity slip away.
This was on a completely different level from sponsored streams. Those had fixed formats, low attention, and were just ads in the end. But if I could successfully collab with her, there was a real possibility I’d get invited to more of her content in the future.
Was there anyone who didn’t know how crucial “plugging in the straw” was in this industry? If not, why did so many hakos desperately try to join big servers?
Most streamers who experienced explosive growth did it through collabs. Of course, you still needed actual skill as a streamer. But there was almost no other way to let people know about that raw potential except through collabs—especially with famous people. One collab could turn someone into a top-tier streamer, while someone else stayed a hako for life.
These guys who usually just cursed at me and gave me a hard time were actually viewers who genuinely wanted me to succeed. If they didn’t care, they wouldn’t waste hours in my chat just to roast me. I felt truly grateful to them. As expected, I only had these guys.
And for their sake too, my stream had to do better.
“Ah, thank you so much everyone. I’ll reply really quickly and come right back. Sorry. Oh shit, my hands are shaking.”
With a trembling voice, I greeted the viewers and poured every ounce of my concentration into typing on my phone.
…But wait, what the hell should I even say?
Yes. Understood. I’d be honored? No, that was way too stiff.
When should we prepare for the collab? No, no. That was getting way ahead of myself. It sounded too eager.
It was just one text message, so why was this so hard? I used to send dozens of texts a day to Seoyeon without thinking, but the moment I realized the other person was Arine, the difficulty level skyrocketed.
I hesitated. The more I hesitated, the later it got, and no good message came to mind.
What kind of image was she expecting from me?
I couldn’t drag this out any longer, so I racked my brain. Thinking about the image I wanted to show during the collab, I finally wrote a reply that fit.
As soon as I sent the message, she must have been waiting because the reply came back almost instantly.
I smiled. For some reason, my jokes seemed to land perfectly with Arine. Maybe our senses of humor matched?
After seeing her favorable reply, I felt relieved that I had given a decent response.
Mina was a female streamer who was close with Arine and often collabed with her. Hearing that name made it finally feel real that I was actually talking to Arine.
That made more sense. If last broadcast had left that strong of an impression on her, then most of the people around her would be top-tier streamers. It wouldn’t be easy to find someone available for a collab the very next day. Everyone had their own schedules and plans.
In that sense, I was the perfect fit.
Come to think of it, I accepted without even asking what the collab was. Well, it didn’t matter what kind of stream it was to me. Even if it really was a stripping stream, I’d have gone and taken my clothes off.
I… I was going to collab with those people?
Just hearing the lineup, they were all apex predators on Naty. In the food chain they’d be cheetahs, leopards, lions. And me? I was probably the rabbit. I knew it would be like this from the start, but hearing it directly from Arine’s own words made it feel completely different.
With that, the messages ended abruptly. I stared endlessly at the chat window where I had spoken with her.
Only then did my trembling hands finally calm down. As the reality started to sink in, I forgot that my mic was still on and started screaming.
“Aaaaaaaaah! Yes! Let’s go! Nice! Aaaaaaaaagh!”
The fact that I had been offered a collab by her. It felt like the top of the industry had acknowledged my streaming skills, and the excitement just wouldn’t settle.
The fact that I screamed so loudly the upstairs neighbor came down to tell me to be quiet is a secret.
“Pfft. Oh my god, this is hilarious. This guy?”
After finishing her conversation with Do Doyun, Arine lay on her bed and scrolled through the entire DM history they had exchanged. Every single reply was funny without a single miss. They were all perfectly aimed at her taste.
They had only talked through DM, yet she felt like she had just finished a collab with a really entertaining streamer.
…Was this what they called broadcast sense?
She became certain after reading that email. Do Doyun—this streamer was the real deal. In stock market terms, an undervalued blue-chip stock. Just knowing she was the only one who had discovered him made her feel good.
Appropriate self-awareness, but not so much that his self-esteem was low. Every single one of his slick comments and the way he spoke like he knew exactly how to make people laugh. The more she learned about the person called Do Doyun, the more she felt her favor toward him rising.
And the passion for broadcasting she felt from his comment about studying up on the collab members. When was the last time she had seen someone prepare for a stream that diligently?
“Ah, this is bringing back old memories. Heh.”
She used to work that hard on streaming in the past too. She still worked hard now, but it was different in nature. As a businesswoman, as a content provider, she simply did her best to meet people’s needs. It was on a completely different level from the pure passion of wanting to do broadcasting well for its own sake.
She didn’t know how long he had been streaming, but she was envious that he still had that kind of drive. Maybe it was something she herself no longer had.
And most importantly.
That person—streamer Do Doyun—had no interest in her. More precisely, he was only interested in streamer Arine and had zero interest in the woman Yoo Harin.
The reason was clear.
First, among all the DMs they had exchanged, there was nothing but work talk. He had never once asked her anything personal.
It was extremely rare for Arine to contact a male streamer privately. He probably knew that, yet when a personal DM arrived he made no attempt to get close to her at all. In other words, he showed zero effort to learn anything about her, even using broadcasting or anything else as an excuse.
There were countless men who, whether she contacted them first or not, would slyly use work as an excuse to try to get close to her with shady intentions. Arine had seen so many of those people that she knew them very well.
And the messages like this that she had sent to Do Doyun. These were the kind of lines women usually used when they were flirting. The kind of tone that could be interpreted differently depending on the person.
In other words, Arine had tried to subtly test him, within a range that wouldn’t be unpleasant. To see if this person was really not a womanizer. To see if he wouldn’t fall for her appearance or body if they became virtual marriage partners.
After all, the reason she had suggested this collab in the first place was as a sort of test before doing a virtual marriage with him.
It was impossible to fully understand someone from just one collab. Just because the first impression was good and the chemistry felt right didn’t guarantee it would stay that way later.
And if they were going to do a virtual marriage, she did need to expose the streamer Do Doyun to her viewers anyway.
There had been many such calculations in Arine’s head, but Do Doyun had turned out to be exactly as she thought. Rather, it made her feel relieved. He didn’t seem like someone whose inside and outside were different at all.
It felt like watching a warrior who, while others fought using underhanded tactics, stubbornly pushed forward alone.
In truth, with this collab offer she had planned to observe the streamer called Do Doyun. If he didn’t seem like the talent she thought he was, she was going to look for a different virtual marriage partner. Yeonju’s advice about doing a virtual marriage with a hako streamer was tempting, but it was a high-risk gamble.
But Do Doyun. Maybe doing a virtual marriage with that streamer would actually be okay?
“No. Let’s not jump to conclusions. There’s still tomorrow’s collab, right? I can watch more and then decide.”
Even as she thought that, inside she was…
…I’m really looking forward to it. Tomorrow’s collab? She was looking forward to how fun collabing with him would be.