Stream Setup (1)

Chirp, chirp.

Birdsong twittering from first light eased my eyes open all on their own.

Nothing made being unemployed feel more painfully real than a morning like this. While everyone else was scrambling into their day, the only people still rolling around in bed were the jobless.

How long had it even been since I'd gotten out of the military...? I really needed to do some soul-searching.

"From now on, I'm waking up early..."

I made the vow in a sleep-rough voice, though I didn't particularly believe I'd keep it.

Rubbing my eyes, I checked my phone. For once, there was a KakaoTalk message waiting. The list of people who would actually contact a loner like me was extremely short.

Curious, I checked the sender. It was Sea.

Ah. Right—I'd been the one who'd called her yesterday. The whole fried-chicken fiasco afterward had wiped it clean out of my head.

I hesitated over how to answer, then typed something out and sent it.

Ugh.

Sea's message shoved me straight into the problem I'd been so carefully putting off. She was right, of course. Sooner or later I'd have to sit down with them and actually deal with it. But I still wasn't ready...

It might sound a little strange, but I wanted to accomplish something in this new body first—and only then face my parents with my head held high. Maybe I just wanted them to see that I was different from who I used to be.

"Not that it's going to be easy..."

Judging by the quests I'd gotten so far, the most realistic shot I had was making it as a streamer.

That was Sea for you. Thanks to her, I felt like I had energy first thing in the morning.

The truth was, I'd made a decision after yesterday. I wasn't going to run the way I used to. Even now, I was only curling up and waiting for the right moment—not fleeing.

I'd thought I could never clear it. I'd run, so I'd believed there was no way to set things right. I'd even been ready to give the quest up.

And the result? That quest was sitting proudly among my completed ones.

The man next door, and the little girl who shared my name, really were kind, wonderful neighbors. I hadn't needed to be afraid of them at all. It would be the same from here on out. Reality was a better place than I'd given it credit for. I'd just been too scared.

What had I sworn when I changed into this body? To live a new life. To become someone different from who I used to be.

"All right. I can do this!"

Willpower recharged, I decided to put it into practice immediately. No more loafing around! I was going to live a productive life!

"...So what am I supposed to do, exactly?"

The second I actually tried, a blank wall of now what slammed into me. Life really wasn't easy.

First things first: I pulled up the Status Window and checked my quests.

"Hmm... streaming and cooking."

Yesterday I'd received a new Main Quest—one about cooking, of all things. Pure personal speculation, but maybe the Status Window had been so blown away by my ramen that it sniffed out a hidden talent I didn't even know I had, and handed me the quest accordingly? It was a perfectly reasonable inference, so I nodded, rather pleased with myself for thinking of it.

Anyway, I'd followed the quest on the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠spot and asked him to take me as a disciple, and luckily he'd agreed without a fuss. From that moment on, Bae Hyunsoo was my Master!

He'd asked me to just use his name, but I kept calling him Master until he gave up and begged me to at least go with Teacher.

"Master is a bit... you know."

Honestly, I still didn't understand what was supposed to be "a bit" about it, but that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was a minor issue. What mattered was that from now on I'd be learning everything there was to know about cooking from him.

Streaming still took up a huge chunk of the quests, too. If a Sub Quest looked too hard, I could just drop it. Main Quests, though, handed out special rewards you couldn't get any other way.

So far I'd cleared exactly one Main Quest. The reward had been Yukino Hana's identity, complete and entire. The odds that the other Main Quests came with rewards just as special were extremely high. Which meant that unless I had a truly exceptional reason not to, Main Quests were meant to be cleared.

In other words, what I needed to do was work toward finishing them!

What could I actually start on right now? First up, Informing Family—as I'd already told myself, I needed time to get my heart ready, so that one was out. The cooking quest I'd just received required lessons from Master, and Master was at the office, so that was out too.

Which left one thing.

Streaming. Becoming a streamer!

That was the goal I could chase this very minute.

"Come to think of it, I still haven't finished Lucia's homework."

I'd bought the mic and the camera, so those would probably arrive sometime today. But the other two items were still blank: a nickname, and a character. I'd never done anything like this, so it was genuinely hard. Sure, I was enough of an otaku that I'd spun up plenty of original characters in my head—but if I dragged one of those into the real world and used it as a streaming persona, I'd just get called disgusting.

Thankfully, Lucia had given me advice on that, too. Play up the Japanese-girl angle! She'd even said it would be great if that came through clearly in the nickname. And she'd told me the one I was using now—Snowflake—didn't really suit me. Fair enough. Snowflake had a somewhat calm, quiet feel, and my stream didn't feel like that at all.

"Hmm..."

What kind of nickname would fit me and still sell the Japanese-girl vibe? Having to sweat ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠even details like this made me realize all over again that streaming wasn't easy either. There really was no such thing as a free ride in this world.

Japan... cherry blossoms, right? So, Sakura...? That one didn't feel like me either. What else was there? Um... ramen? Takoyaki? Sushi?

And then a line Sea had said not long ago flickered through my head.

"Let's go eat sushi to celebrate you becoming a sushi girl!"

The sushi had been good. No—wait. Sushi girl?

Hmm. Sushi girl...

I waffled. As a nickname, "sushi girl" was the most blunt, on-the-nose way to lean into being a Japanese girl. But that came with problems of its own. The biggest was that it had almost no unique identity, because the term was already everywhere in the communities. Put simply: google "sushi girl" and you'd get forum posts, not anything about me. Fine as a nickname people called you. Not so fine as an official handle.

So what would work, then. Uh...

"......"

Then, suddenly, the whole dilemma itself felt strange. Because the truth was, I was Japanese in name only. I had never even set foot in Japan. No matter how Japanese I made the nickname, could I actually live up to what it meant? Practically speaking, the only Japanese thing I could do was speak the language.

Lucia had said I had a shot because I was a Japanese girl who spoke Korean well. I agreed, up to a point. People with that particular combination were rare. But I didn't actually understand Japanese culture. All I had was the otaku stuff I'd picked up from anime. I was on a completely different track from the ordinary Japanese girl Lucia had in mind. We were different at the root.

"Lucia was wrong."

I wasn't going to succeed by showing off the charm of a Japanese girl. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠No matter how hard I tried, that would only ever be an act. To succeed, I had to show my charm.

Yukino Hana's.

The moment I approached it that way, the nickname came easily.

Lucia was a top-tier editor in the industry, and a streamer manager with the skills to match. She had played a massive role in growing Mirua—a huge, practically corporate streamer on the cusp of a million YouTube subscribers—so the confidence wasn't empty arrogance.

To eyes like hers, the rookie little streamer called Snowflake had potential. Problems? She had more than plenty. But even setting every last one of those aside, the girl sparkled. People usually called a presence like that an uncut gem: something that, with just a little cutting and polish, would shine brighter and cost more than anything else.

That was why Lucia was sure of it. If she pointed the way even a little, the girl would succeed. No question. Lately, the moments she looked forward to most were when that stream went live. Today, too, she was waiting with her neck craned for the broadcast to start.

"Hm?"

A KakaoTalk message arrived. A reply, after only a day. Lucia opened it at once.