Preparing to Move

"Fair warning. Run, and I'll blacklist you on the spot. Stick around, and I might at least give you a chance to explain yourselves."

Public opinion had turned, and I climbed aboard the mood.

"These posts aren't everything. I pulled the worst of what went up over the last ten days, and once the stream ends, the rest of you will be getting private messages. If you're one of them, plan on handwriting a reflection—at least three full pages—and emailing it to me."

I declared it flatly and clicked the first post.

"...... Whoever drew this and posted it, get out here and explain. Now."

The person who'd drawn it and posted it to the board never answered.

On the off chance, I decided to check that user's chat history.

"This is...... I don't even have anything left to say."

No need to hear an excuse. It wasn't ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠just me this could touch—it was the kind of thing that could spill onto Mia—so I put the nickname on the blacklist without hesitation.

"Next."

This one was outright adult content. Someone had edited my bunny-girl cosplay video so I had a carrot in my mouth and one hand angled downward, a composition that suggested masturbation to anyone who looked at it. Viewers spammed guh in the chat, and I demanded an explanation in a voice gone hard.

"Hey! Your eyes are half-glazed and what's with the blush on your cheeks? You think I'm an idiot?"

The petty excuses kept coming, so I autopsied the chat log too. Sure enough, it was a viewer who'd already eaten several chat bans for adult jokes that danced right along the line. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Straight onto the blacklist.

"Next!"

There were still plenty of toxics left to put down.

"Well...... this should do."

"Not bad. Offering the Penalty Broadcast as a carrot first really did the trick. That's what split the room."

This was the divide-and-conquer play politicians use so effectively. Thanks to it, yesterday's purge stream had ended without incident. Of course, I had to accept that the viewer count would drop some. As of yesterday I'd drawn a stricter line and told the audience to keep it, and people unhappy with that atmosphere were likely to leave.

Still, it couldn't be helped. If I didn't strain the loaches out now and then, the whole pond would turn to mud.

For the time being, I'll hold this atmosphere......

In truth, trying to change something big or launch a new attempt right now would have been too much. The looming event called the move was simply too powerful. Only after I dealt with that, it seemed, could I take the next step.

Still...... nothing urgent for a while, at least.

Aside from the Penalty Broadcast I'd promised the viewers this time, nothing else was on the schedule. That, too, could wait until the move was settled, so I had roughly two weeks of breathing room.

Chuseok's already come and gone, too.

The harvest holiday had slipped past during the hell of training camp. In the meantime my parents, who ran a business overseas, had gotten in touch—asking if I was doing all right. They said they'd send plane tickets so we could see each other around the end of the year, but I'd put off answering.

"......"

Going through the reunions with my friends had eased a lot of the anxiety, but this was my parents. Bonds with friends mattered, of course, but they could never be weighed the same as family.

"No. It'll be fine. It has to be fine."

It absolutely had to be. My father, a man of few words who had always watched over me, steady as a rock. And my mother, who clung to me with a love that could wear a person out. What if the goddess's power had rewritten everyone's memories of my gender, and things were very different from before? Would I really be able to stand that gap?

"...... It had better be."

I was tucking the anxiety away when a call came from Yerin. She'd picked out about three decent places, she said, and wanted to know if we might look around together today. It was two in the afternoon.

Yerin went to a specialized high school, so the attendance rules sat a little looser on her, but skipping out at this hour would still be a nuisance. According to her, so long as she produced results almost anything was allowed—she'd even missed five days of this training camp on the pretext of entering a tournament—but no matter how I turned it over, I suspected the power of Yerin's family had done far more work than any excuse like that. Not that I actually knew what that "family" was yet. I still felt too awkward to ask straight out.

"Then you finish at four, so want to meet then?"

"Yeah. Let's do that. I'll come to the front of your school."

"Um...... you could just wait, and I could come to you."

"No. I'm the one asking you for help with the move. I can't make you go that far."

"Okay! See you in a bit, then."

"Ang."

I ended the call with Yerin and put up a notice. I couldn't take the stream off. Public sentiment was still unsettled from the ten-day hiatus; I couldn't play a bad move like that. Pushing the start time back a little, though, ought to be fine. I posted that, because of the move, today's broadcast would start at seven and run a bit later than usual, then decided to head for Myung-hoon's Gym.

Between the training camp I'd rested far too long from exercise as well as streaming. An hour or so of working out, then getting ready and leaving for Yerin's school, and the timing ought to land about right.

"Unni!"

"Yeah, over here."

After the workout I went home, changed into something comfortable, and caught a taxi. Then the ride. I didn't know the area, but once the driver heard the destination he launched into all kinds of chatter. The school Yerin attended, he said, was extremely famous—one semester's tuition more than double that of an ordinary high school.

I'd roughly expected as much. I got out in front of a gate on a frankly imposing scale and waited under everyone's stares for a little over ten minutes before I spotted Yerin waving from far off. Tired or not, she came sprinting at a full run.

"You could've taken your time."

"Huff—huff! You never know. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠There might be wolves out here eyeing you, Unni."

She forced the words out and raked the area with a sharp glare. At that, the boys who'd gathered near the gate with nothing to do and no intention of going home all turned their heads at once.

"I knew it!"

"Come on, you're imagining things. More importantly, let's go. You said three places, right?"

"Yes, one second."

Yerin pulled out her phone and made a call, and a moment later a car appeared in front of the gate.

"A pleasure to meet you. You're Hani, I presume? I've heard a great deal about you."

"Ah, um...... that's—"

"Unni, this is the lawyer who's going to help with all this. He's close with my father, so he helps us out with all sorts of things."

I traded a light greeting with the lawyer, then climbed into the back seat with Yerin and we headed for the first stop.

"The first building isn't new—it's about five years old. Two rooms and a bathroom, interior around five hundred seventy square feet, a security deposit of forty million won, and monthly rent of......"

I had about forty-two million won put together: the twenty million from my current studio's deposit, the tournament prize money, and what I'd made liquidating my stocks. The soundproofing, it seemed, would have to be paid for by cashing out Water Balloons. I'd already applied, but the date I could convert them hadn't arrived, so I was waiting. Starting the work right away wasn't a problem, though. I could put down a reasonable contract deposit in advance and pay the balance once the construction was finished.

"Which one do you like?"

"Mm, I think the second one's pretty good."

"You too, Unni? I thought the same."

In a little over an hour and a half we'd looked at all three places she'd recommended. True to whoever Yerin had brought in, only decent properties had been shown, and of them the second appealed to me most. It was a villa unit of about six hundred square feet, and the fact that it sat only about two stops from where I lived now was the first thing that scored high. It had been remodeled last year, so the interior was in good shape too. The third-floor location nagged at me a little, but Yerin insisted that as long as the soundproofing went in properly there'd be no problem, and in the end I made the call.

"Are you sure it's all right to decide in a single day?"

The terms settled at a forty-million-won deposit and five hundred thousand won a month. Raising the deposit would have lowered the rent, but I was short on cash as it was. I answered while stroking the head of a puzzled, tilting Yerin.

"It's a place recommended by someone you introduced. Of course it'll be fine."

"Hehe."

A lawyer tied to a household as enormous as Yerin's had recommended it. What problem could there possibly be? We agreed to sign tomorrow, and I called the soundproofing contractor Mia had introduced. I set that appointment for around the same time as the contract. Better to knock several errands out at once.

"Unni, I was a big help today, right?"

"Huh? Ahh...... yeah. You were."

I'd finished with the contractor and we were moving by car again. Yerin quietly linked her arm through mine. Her slightly lowered gaze was fixed, very still, on a single point.

"No excessive physical contact!"

"Tch!"

As expected, Yerin was someone you couldn't let your guard down around for even a second.