Yerin, Who Enjoys Skinship to a Suspicious Degree
Once lunch was finished, I opened Discord and messaged ACupScanner, then asked whether the offer from last time was still on the table.
The reply came back almost at once. Watching this latest Blame Game had only made them more certain. I had unmistakable star power, they said. I had no idea what they'd seen to judge me so generously, but it worked in my favor, so I decided to let it pass.
"So you are interested, then? I was just about to start a YouTube channel myself."
We talked through a great many things. Fortunately, ACupScanner was something of an expert where YouTube was concerned—hardly surprising, given that they'd once managed a famous channel. Leaning on that experience, I got advice on all sorts of points, and real help deciding how a channel I had yet to open ought to be run.
"Setting that aside... then there's the most important part. Pay."
I was honest about it. I wanted us to work together. My finances, however, were nowhere near comfortable.
ACupScanner laughed lightly and said it was a simple matter of adjusting the contract terms. A salary wasn't necessary. Splitting the channel's YouTube revenue by percentage would be more than enough.
"Huh? Wouldn't that be a terrible deal for you?"
Who made an offer like that without the faintest idea when my channel might actually grow? If I flopped, it would be unpaid volunteer work for life.
"I trust my eye. And my skills."
"Oh! I like that confidence."
They claimed this arrangement was more likely to make them rich than a salary ever would. Honestly, that suited me just fine. I had no particular interest in YouTube payouts anyway. The whole point of starting a channel wasn't money. It was securing a new supply of points.
In any case, the conversation with ACupScanner ended on a thoroughly positive note. We would still have to meet in person to sign, but that could wait. I told them there was one more person I needed to speak with first.
"Ah, WellHaniOrNot. Of course. I'll be waiting."
"Wha—?! How do you even know them, Scanner?! Don't tell me..."
I hadn't thought they were that kind of person. A stalker? Or, say, a stalker? Possibly a stalker?
"Hey, don't look at me like I'm some criminal! You mentioned them on stream last time. You said the two of you talk separately, too. And they're fairly well known in this industry."
So I'd misunderstood, if only for a moment. After calming ACupScanner down, I sent Yerin a message on Discord.
The reply was instant. She said yes. Unconditionally. She hadn't even heard the terms. I wasn't sure that was allowed. When I asked, she said she trusted her unnie.
I truly could not figure Yerin out. When we'd talked before, she'd seemed razor-sharp, and yet from this angle she looked endlessly careless.
"On the day we sign, I actually get to meet you, right, Unnie?"
"Huh? Y-yeah. Th-that's right."
Just as I had with ACupScanner, I offered a cut of the YouTube revenue instead of a salary. Yerin's interest, however, lay in an entirely different direction.
"When I see you, can I hold your hand?"
"Huh? S-sure. If it's just a handshake."
"Then what about a hug? I want to squeeze you as hard as I can."
"..."
F-fan love, right? It had to be. I'd heard kids these days were pretty forward.
"I want to see you soon."
I also told ACupScanner and Yerin about each other. Neither had the slightest objection to working together. ACupScanner was perfectly satisfied that Yerin, young as she was, had both the experience and the skill. And Yerin...
"Unnie, hehe!"
Was it really safe to meet this kid? Mom, I'm scared!
Once again, I had Mia to thank. She'd offered before to introduce a good lawyer she knew well, and when I contacted her, she connected us without a moment's hesitation.
"I'm Park Chan-sung. Please, just call me Attorney Park."
Attorney Park was a man in his mid-thirties, with a distinctly sharp, polished air. Both ACupScanner and Yerin lived in Seoul, so we met the next morning and signed at once under his supervision.
The revenue split on the YouTube channel would run, in order, three parts to me, three to ACupScanner, and two to Yerin. The remaining two shares would go into a joint account we opened to cover expenses related to the channel.
"Are you really sure about this? I feel awful."
"I trust my eye. Just don't come asking to rewrite the terms once the channel completely takes off."
"I won't. I absolutely won't. I'm counting on you for lots of fun videos."
ACupScanner—no, their real name was Seo Yunjae—joked that going home today to watch every minute of the two months of broadcasts I was sending would be no small undertaking.
"Unnie! Me too! You have to send them to me too!"
"Huh? D-do you need the videos as well?"
"Yes. I need them, I really, really need them!"
"Okay. A-all right."
Meeting Yerin face to face for the first time, I found a girl who was short and startlingly slight. She said she was a high school sophomore, but if you didn't know, you could easily have mistaken her for a middle schooler. She looked that young. Slightly downturned eyes, and cheeks still soft with baby fat that hadn't come off yet—an utterly adorable face. Like a squirrel with its cheeks stuffed full of food.
But the eyes fixed on me were blazing.
"Unnie!"
"Gk—!"
Whump!
A full-body check. The cute girl launched herself into my arms. With me in a mask, it ought to have been the heartwarming meeting of a beautiful woman and a sweet young girl, the sort of thing that would have drawn fond smiles from everyone around. Reality was a little different.
Nuzzle. Nuzzle.
Was that really a sound effect allowed to exist between a beauty and a girl? Yerin's plump, springy cheeks wedged themselves mercilessly into the space between my breasts.
"H-hey—!"
"Unnie, I love you so much!"
"O-okay, I get it, so calm down! Let's use our words!"
I barely managed to peel Yerin off—she clung like a leech—but one look at those blazing eyes told me that the instant I left an opening, she would come charging again.
Y-Yerin, right? This was still Yerin? No way. I respected people's preferences as much as anyone, but this was a bit...
"Unnie, I just made a wish."
"Y-you did? All right, then. Treasure that wish."
I didn't need her to say it. Her gaze had settled, blatantly, on one particular part of my body. Flustered, I shot Yunjae and Attorney Park a look that begged them to stop her.
"No, this is excellent. Please, continue. To think we'd get material this good already. Miss Hani is a born YouTuber."
"What are you even filming?!"
"My work appears to be finished, so I'll be going on ahead."
"Attorney Park!"
Heartless, the both of them. And all the while, the danger was closing in live.
Hands fidgeting as if working at something, Yerin took one step forward. It was nothing less than a threat to my chastity.
"C-come any closer and I'll scream."
"Unnie, what's wrong? What did I even do?"
"You've got drool at the corner of your mouth."
"Tch!"
"Yes, this framing is perfect. Let me shift the angle a little and get a bit more."
"..."
What sins had I committed in a past life? I had ended up working with some truly peculiar people.
Yerin liked skinship with me to a suspicious degree. A person of interest. From the moment she claimed the triple crown of golden hands, a golden spoon, and high school girl, I'd known she wouldn't be ordinary. This was genuinely beyond imagination.
At any rate, I sent the two of them off and headed home. Even on the way back, just in case, I kept glancing over my shoulder. Common sense said it was impossible, and yet the memory of Yerin's eyes burning as they stared at my chest made me imagine her trailing after me all the same.
"Haa... I'm exhausted."
Home really was the best. The moment I got in, I peeled my clothes off and dove straight into bed.
I meant to open the YouTube channel about an hour before my stream today. Yunjae and I would manage the account together, which meant today's broadcast mattered enormously.
I have to promote it properly. That's the only way we come out swinging from the start.
To that end, we'd filmed a quick short at the cafe where we'd signed the contract. According to Yunjae, it would be the channel introduction—the very first video uploaded today—and they'd send it over the moment the edit was finished. I was already looking forward to it.
"A hundred thousand subscribers..."
Mia had poured herself into her channel for two whole years, and only now had it broken past a hundred and fifty thousand subscribers. And at the very moment I needed a massive haul of points before Mia's birthday, what the special mission demanded was a hundred thousand.
A countdown mission I had to clear in a little over a month. Highest difficulty, no less.
"Here. Eat this."
I packed all that boiling rage into one rigidly raised middle finger.
Even so, I couldn't give up.
One hundred thousand YouTube subscribers, and the Silver Play Button.
I was going to take them. No matter what.