Crybaby

I burst into tears and started blurting out my real name. The viewers scrambled to cover for me, but there was no stopping the news from spreading now.

“Hic…!!”

“Stop it, just stop. I’m sorry, Snakey…”

I felt nothing but guilt toward Yeon-a as she stroked my hair and tried to comfort me.

I’d heard that RP was everything to a VTuber. I’d also heard that once your personal information leaked, the Red ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Pill would spread like wildfire across the internet.

It didn’t matter for me, but for Yeon-a, who was active on social media, the risk was enormous. Yet here she was, shielding me anyway.

This… this wasn’t right.

I deserved to be cursed out just for breathing, and yet I’d gone and revealed my real name. And she was still protecting me.

Useless piece of shit. Didn’t your father’s words mean anything? He told you not to do anything… Was that so hard?

“Hic…!!”

It felt like my father’s voice was ringing in my ears.

The memories came flooding back—times when I’d become a punching bag for his gambling losses even when I stayed perfectly still. A helpless elementary schooler, soaked in fear, unable to do anything. Even with memories from my past life, that was all I had been.

The same child who had begged not to be hit because it hurt so much.

“Please… don’t hit me… It hurts, it’s too hard…”

“…!!”

I sobbed.

I felt guilty for treating Yeon-a like a father figure. So many people were looking after me, yet instead of showing them a bright side, I was exposing the darkest parts of my heart. The guilt was overwhelming.

“…I’m sorry, Yeon-a.”

“It’s okay, Suhyun. It’s okay, so let me hug you.”

“Haa… haa……”

Still sniffling, I buried myself in Yeon-a’s arms.

I had blurted out my real name again, but this time no one in chat panicked. They simply pretended they hadn’t heard it.

It meant the world to me.

The fact that they were protecting me by acting like they hadn’t noticed while I was losing my mind filled me with gratitude.

“Everyone, I’m sorry. I’m going to end the stream.”

Yeon-a spoke as she pulled her chair back and reached for the mouse.

The witch apologized like that. Yeon-a told her it was fine and kept insisting it was entirely her own fault.

“It’s okay. It’s my fault for making Su… I mean, Snakey cry.”

“……”

“Thank you, everyone.”

“……”

So many people were sending me encouragement. When I checked the viewer count, nearly two thousand people were watching both my stream and Yeon-a’s.

I had made this many people sad.

They must have come here expecting something fun.

“…Ah, um……”

“Then I’ll end the broadcast here.”

Yeon-a’s hand, which had paused while reading chat, began to move again.

The stream was about to end.

Was this really the right thing to do?

I had become happier, and I had wanted the people who helped me become happy to leave with smiles. Instead, I had dragged all these people down into gloom with me.

“…Gyuul!”

“…!!”

Yeon-a flinched and froze with the mouse.

The cursor was already hovering over the end-stream button.

I grabbed her arm and pleaded.

“I… I want to keep streaming.”

“…Really? Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I-I-I’ve calmed down now.”

When I said that, Yeon-a tore off a bunch of tissues and gently wiped my eyes.

“Are you really okay?”

“…Yeah.”

Even after wiping them, the tears kept coming.

People telling me it was okay to stop if it was too difficult.

But I wasn’t forcing myself to continue the stream.

Not at all… It didn’t feel hard.

Streaming actually made me happy.

“I-I’m not forcing it… I’m going to keep streaming.”

“Suhyun……”

Yeon-a looked at me, calling my name.

I looked up at her with a determined expression and continued.

“I want to… keep streaming… I don’t want to send the jireongis away like this… If someone has to be sad, it should just be me……”

“……”

Yeon-a looked down at me without saying a word.

The chat was scrolling rapidly.

But I couldn’t see it clearly.

Maybe because my tears were blurring everything.

Yeon-a silently reached out to wipe my tears again.

I no longer flinched in terror at someone reaching toward me.

As I realized that, I felt the damp tissue gently touch my cheek.

“You’re wrong, Suhyun.”

“…About what?”

Yeon-a told me I was wrong. When I asked what was wrong, she pulled me into a tight hug.

“…You’re not allowed to be sad either.”

“…!!”

Only after Yeon-a said that did the chat become visible again.

Countless messages of concern flooded in, all contradicting what I had said.

I was loved.

By all these people.

“Ah……”

“Do you understand now? Suhyun… you’re not alone.”

“…Ugh.”

“From now on, I won’t leave either… I got scared and ran away before… but I won’t leave anymore… I’ll protect you.”

“Yeon-a……”

When I called her name, Yeon-a smiled with a trembling voice.

“Y-yeah! I’m right here…!”

Tears began falling from Yeon-a’s smiling eyes.

“Are you… crying?”

“I’m not crying……”

Yeon-a denied it even as she cried.

The chat was completely flooded with waves of emotion for a long time.

The chat was full of messages like that.

We wiped each other’s tears and stared blankly at the chat for a long time.

About five minutes passed.

“Huuu……”

“Have you calmed down?”

Yeon-a asked with a bright smile, her eyes still red.

When I nodded, she asked if I wanted to continue the stream, saying that would be great.

“Yeah… I want to keep going.”

She said okay, then told me to look at the camera and greet everyone like it was the most exciting thing in the world.

Then Yeon-a waved her hands wildly like she was trying to shake the whole world.

“W-what are you doing?”

“Mood reset! If you do it really big, won’t it cheer you up a bit?”

“I-I’m not a dummy, okay!?”

Yeon-a’s face turned bright red as she argued with the chat.

Then she suddenly looked at me and smiled brightly.

“Then we’ll just do a different mood reset!”

“W-what is it?”

“When you want to change your mood, you have to change your hairstyle, obviously.”

With that, Yeon-a pulled a hair tie out of her bag.

I had also thought she was going to cut it and got scared, but Yeon-a said she’d demonstrate first and tied up her own hair.

“Tada! Twin tails!”

“…!!”

“Cute, right?”

Maybe because they couldn’t see Yeon-a’s face, the jireongis and the orange-tangerine crowd were all freaking out. But I thought it actually looked pretty good on her.

Since she was older, she hadn’t tied them completely to the sides but a bit lower—low twin tails.

“It’s low twin tails!”

“L-low, low, low?”

“Pfft…! I’ll do it for you too, Snakey.”

Yeon-a came over with the hair tie.

I was scared she was going to undo my dumpling bun, but she said it was fine, left my dumpling alone, and turned my hair into twin tails too.

The chat exploded.

“Eep… I’m embarrassed. How old do you think I am?”

The chat kept calling me cute.

For a moment I lost my mind and unconsciously raised a V sign that wasn’t even fully spread.

The chat looked like it was about to explode.

I stared at it with wide eyes, completely dazed.

Low Twin-Tail Suhyeon and Yeona