The First Wife Showdown

The kids in chat greeted her with, “It’s Anna sunbae? Nice to meet you~.” Sora beamed at them, all bright smiles and easy charm. Watching her, Anna felt herself shrink back a little. …She’s pretty, too. Sora looked exactly like the college girls you saw everywhere these days. From what Anna had heard, she was a year older than Leon, which meant she had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠graduated university ages ago. And since Anna was younger than Leon, that made Sora her senior. Having an older junior was just one of those things that happened all the time in the VTuber world.

One of the best parts of the job was how it ignored age. Plenty of streamers ran 17-year-old personas while pushing forty in real life. So an older junior showing up wasn’t exactly headline news. Still, Anna had been the baby of EYEAI until now. This was her first time having a junior, and the realization made her oddly nervous. The thought I’m going to get swallowed whole rose unbidden.

“What brings you here?” Sora asked, guiding Anna inside as naturally as if she owned the place. Anna knew Sora had stayed over during Chuseok, but the familiarity still felt a little much.

“I was worried about Lora… Her stream went over a hundred hours.”

“I just put her to bed, actually. She’ll probably be up again in an hour or two, though.”

“When did you get here… Sora?” Anna fumbled over the name. What was she even supposed to call her? Sora? Sora-ssi? Sora-nim? If she went with Sora-chan, would this girl roast her for being a total weeb?

“I got here a little earlier. Same reason as you, Anna sunbae. Oh, you can drop the formal stuff. Just be comfortable.”

Sora’s quick perception made Anna blink. This junior was sharp.

“This is actually the first time we’ve talked, isn’t it? We faced each other in the tournament, but I was too busy to really chat then.”

“Right… This is my first time meeting someone I’ve never streamed with in real life, so… it’s a little awkward.”

“You really can relax. Oh, but I’m still live right now. What do you want to do, sunbae?”

While Lora slept, Sora and Chel had kept the stream running. They could have ended it, but after a hundred straight hours it felt wrong to just cut the feed. So Sora had decided to continue.

“Then… should I hop on for a collab?” Anna suggested. She had come all this way; leaving without seeing Lora felt wrong. Waiting in the living room until she woke up felt just as strange. Even though things were still a bit awkward with Sora, sharing the stream might loosen the atmosphere. Besides, Anna genuinely wanted to get closer to the sixth-generation girls. They were her first juniors, after all. She wanted to dote on them. And they were Lora’s peers, too.

“Hey everyone, Anna sunbae just arrived. Give me a second to set up.”

“Who are you calling an idiot? I saved that nickname. We’ll settle this later.” Anna let out a small laugh before she could stop herself. She was the type who actually relaxed once the stream started.

After some fiddling she managed to set up her tracking phone. There wasn’t enough space for a proper stand mic, so they each put on headsets, tested the audio levels, and jumped in.

“What were you guys doing before I got here?”

“We were thinking about playing something, but it felt weird to just boot up games on someone else’s PC. So we’ve been reading donations and stories instead.”

“Stories? Like advice requests?”

“Not exactly…”

“We’ve been answering stuff like this.”

“Amazing right from the first donation… I keep telling you people to stop with the weird slander.”

“This is insane…” The moment she joined, the viewers pounced on Anna. She couldn’t push back ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠too hard—she really had stalked Lora in Labyrinthos, and she still hadn’t done the horror game penalty. Still, playing horror games alone was terrifying. The collab restriction had only lifted right around Chuseok.

“I was busy signing up for the tournament… grinding to Platinum was no joke.”

After the tournament ended, Anna had been completely absorbed in ranked games. Her subscriber count had finally hit fifty thousand, but compared to the big corporate VTubers it was still tiny. Drafts favored channels with higher numbers. Anna’s count was awkward, so raising her rank had been the smarter move. That was why she had asked Lora for guidance. She had only reached Platinum yesterday.

“Wait, Platinum is pretty high, right?”

“After Dominator, Grandmaster, Master, and Diamond comes Platinum. So not the absolute top, but… yeah, it’s up there.”

“Hmm…” Sora fell quiet. She had heard that Unranked through Gold made up ninety percent of the player base. So Platinum really was top ten percent? To Sora it sounded like an incredibly high realm.

People always envied what they didn’t have. In that sense, Sora was envious of Anna.

“Dating? We’re just friends,” Sora answered immediately.

A new donation had flown in with yet another amazing question.

“But Sora, your yuri fanservice is pretty blatant. It looked pretty serious.”

“Isn’t ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that a bit rich coming from you, Anna sunbae? I heard people call it ‘Kiss and Die.’ What was the line again… ‘I respect you so please die’?”

“Wow… juniors these days don’t hold back. Isn’t it against the rules to dig that up?”

“Anyway, Lora and I are just friends. There’s none of what you’re imagining.” Sora cut the topic off cleanly, but she knew it wouldn’t make any difference. The term “yuri fanservice” existed for a reason—female streamers and VTubers acting lovey-dovey for the camera. It wasn’t that strange. Even male idols used skinship as part of their sales. The indie scene especially was full of unicorns; touch the wrong ship and you’d get burned. Compared to that, yuri fanservice got great reactions and strengthened character concepts.

Sora had gained a lot of subscribers that way. She hadn’t planned it, but once fans saw how close she and Lora were, they started calling it yuri fanservice. As a result, many of Lora’s viewers had flowed over to Sora’s channel.

They’re all misunderstanding. Sora shrugged. The very word “fanservice” made it obvious. It was purely a business tactic. There was no way real feelings were involved. Still, if the viewers enjoyed it, that was enough.

“Oh, that would obviously be me, right?” Anna answered without hesitation.

…Excuse me?

Lora woke up to the question, “Who are you closest to among us?”

She had only stepped away for a short break, yet the atmosphere in the room had completely changed. Somehow another person had appeared, and the air between the three of them felt strangely charged.

“You’re not kids anymore. Were you seriously fighting over something this childish?” Lora sighed, utterly dumbfounded. They were all adults, for crying out loud. “Stop acting like children and decide what you want for dinner later.”