Misunderstandings and Madness
After the territorial dispute between the two cats had somewhat subsided, she smiled and spoke again. "Alright, alright… cats, shall we calm down now and pick some people for viewer participation?"
The chat exploded with laughter the moment I called the two of them cats. I instinctively covered my mouth.
"Hup… I'm sorry. That slipped out."
"Y-yes?"
The mother cat made that bewildering request. I couldn't understand why she was volunteering for such humiliation and was about to ask, when a thought crossed my mind.
'Wait… does she not realize I think of her as someone who wants to be humiliated?'
Looking at the chat, it seemed no one understood that "cat = not human." A sigh of relief escaped me.
"Phew……"
"N-no…! It's fine."
"Eh…?"
While my confusion was mounting, Yeon-a spoke to me.
Smiling gently, Yeon-a offered to be my shield. Moved to tears, I bowed my overloaded head and begged her ten times over.
"…P-please, I'm begging you, please, thank you so much……"
Yeon-a cried out my name in surprise. I just kept wiping away tears of gratitude behind her.
Sunlight poured into the wide-open room. Inside, nineteen-year-old Lee Yuna had been watching VTuber streams since morning.
"Heh, heheheh, so cute."
She had become an ardent fan of the new VTuber Vam, whom she discovered through Akari. There were three big reasons.
"Cute, cute, and cuuute… heheh, heheheheh."
…Right. At that age, she liked anything cute. Suhyun had perfectly caught the eye of a high school girl that age.
The stream continued, with Suhyun fanning the flames of the girl's heart.
"What?"
She could meet Suhyun in person. That single line made Yuna's eyes spin.
"V-viewer participation?"
Completely ignoring her reaction, the Snake Emperor smiled and said she'd just sing after EoW ended.
"…Viewer participation!"
Even as she listened to the Snake Emperor's voice, only one word echoed in Yuna's mind. Viewer participation! The privilege exclusive to live viewers, where they could join the streamer's content.
Unable to hide her excitement, Yuna kept watching Suhyun's stream with a silly grin for a long time.
"Sorry, Akari. I think I like your daughter more than you."
Muttering that, Yuna kept Suhyun's stream on until the collab started at 6 PM.
Six hours had passed since Yuna started watching. As she began eating dinner, her heart started pounding again.
"Finally, viewer participation…!"
The thrill of being able to participate. Her favorite, the Snake Emperor. Her second favorite, Mizuame Akari, and Tachibana Kits. Today, Yuna was given the chance to meet all three at once.
Her heart was already racing like crazy. The Snake Emperor, who had been booting up for the collab, joined the Discord and started talking with Kits.
"Two cuties…!"
It was wonderful. There were already two cute people.
"Honestly, I was worried, but I'm glad. I thought Snake unnie was gonna pass out."
Twenty-five minutes later, Akari—who was always late to every collab—joined, and the stream officially began.
Then something important happened again in this event.
The Snake Emperor had just referred to Kits and Akari as cats.
"Huuep…!!"
The chat instantly went wild. Noticing this, Haram tried to get Suhyun to say something the viewers wanted, but Suhyun never did.
"Aah……"
Yuna had even donated under the name Gaemanyeo, yet instead of being scorned, she got shielded. She slumped in disappointment.
Soon after, Kits took the mic and said she'd give everyone one minute. Anyone who wanted to try for viewer participation should switch to her stream and chat there.
Yuna, who had been moping just moments ago, immediately opened another window and switched to Kits' stream.
"Hand…!! Me! Me me me!!"
Even though the chat had switched to membership-only, it was blazing brilliantly. Kits giggled at the sight and started the countdown.
"Neheh… I'll try hard! I'll grind!"
While saying that, Yuna drooled with an "ehehe." Akari gave a sly smile, as if empathizing, and spoke.
The Snake Emperor's immediate counter. It was a cute warning, but Akari seemed quite hurt.
"…Say something harsher."
Leaving Yuna smacking her lips behind her, Kits set a ten-second timer and urged people on.
The back-and-forth banter. Yuna giggled at it all. Kits shouted "Time's up~!" and slammed the desk.
"Ah, she's so damn cute……"
Hearing the Snake Emperor's voice, Yuna wiped her drool and looked at her avatar. The avatar always looked somewhat tense, which was its charm. It was even more fascinating because it didn't seem intentional.
"Even being nervous is cute… I'm getting nervous too."
Just as Kits was about to spin the roulette, Akari shouted.
Akari declared she'd add a rule.
Kits was impressed, and the Snake Emperor stammered that it sounded good. The moment Yuna heard that, she plunged into a fantasy.
She imagined the Snake Emperor looking down at her with shadowed eyes, speaking in a low, contemptuous voice.
'…You pathetic little shit. Get lost.'
"Huuuep…!"
She swallowed. With that single thought, Yuna gained a new goal.
"This collab… will be dominated by Yuna."
It was time for Gaemanyeo, her EoW username, to shine. Meanwhile, completely unaware, Suhyun simply smiled faintly while watching the rapidly scrolling chat.
'They're not scary at all anymore… Everyone's just kind, pure Jireongi.'
…The chat in Suhyun's stream was far dirtier than she thought. Whether male or female Jireongi, quite a few of them—not all, but many—were imagining the menhera Suhyun verbally abusing them.
The roulette spun rapidly in Yeon-a's stream.
"I wooonder…! Who will be picked… Personally, I'd be happy if one of the Jireongi came……"
People kept saying they'd raised their hands in my stream too. I couldn't be more grateful. They applied just to meet me.
"Th-thank you! Thank you so much… seriously… heheh."
While waiting for the roulette result, the first lucky winner appeared.
Yeon-a revealed the name.
It was quite the chaotic username.