Chapter 103: The Manager’s Role

The sun was setting outside the window.

The sunset had already disappeared, and the dim evening darkness gently enveloped the hotel room.

Seo-ah, after taking a moment to compose herself, looked at the webcam in her hand and waved.

“Hello~ Everyone, did you have a delicious dinner? Oh, I guess it’s lunchtime in Korea now?”

Considering the long 16-hour time difference between Vancouver, Canada, and Korea, it was a rather random broadcast time.

Nevertheless, loyal Snowflakes (fans) who saw the notification soon began to fall into the broadcast one by one, starting to cover it like fine snow.

[-Best choice before lunchtime]

[-All the Lupin sh*ts (people slacking off at work) gathered here LOL]

[-Turned it on at work as soon as I saw the alarm]

[-Did you think we wouldn’t be able to watch if you broadcast at this time, Kim Winter!!]

[-But today’s studio background is strangely realistic…?]

Watching the buzzing chat window, Seo-ah—no, Winter—smiled pleasantly.

“Everyone, were you surprised? I’m in Canada right now. Since I’m in a special place, I’ve prepared a very special broadcast.”

With those words, Winter slowly lifted the webcam and began to show every corner of the hotel room.

Not a virtual studio.

A space brimming with realism was captured live on the broadcast.

In the center of the screen stood Seo-ah wearing Winter’s guise.

When Seo-ah walked, Winter also walked and moved.

When Seo-ah waved her arm, Winter also waved her arm.

It looked exactly as if the avatar had popped out into reality and was living and breathing.

[-So Winter was actually a female streamer, not a VTuber??]

[-The technology is really LOL]

[-No;; Seriously, how did they even do it???]

After wandering around like that for a while, Winter finally stood in front of the window and drew the curtains.

Outside the hotel, the calm sea, draped in darkness, revealed itself.

Against the backdrop of the endlessly beautiful blue night sea, harmonizing with the city lights.

Winter’s dark blue eyes sparkled as she smiled brightly.

“Sometimes, outdoor content or indoor content like this isn’t bad, right?”

[-I can’t believe it even while watching…]

[-VTuber (Main Content: Travel Live Stream)]

[-Didn’t she really just dimension-hop from some fantasy world?]

[-Shouldn’t this be reported to the British Ministry of Magic or something!!]

Just then, a short donation notification window popped up on the screen.

[Anonymous donor has donated 10,000 won.]

[But Winter, what brings you to Canada? Did you get a vacation??]

She couldn’t properly check the chat window while moving around holding the camera, but she could hear voice messages very well.

“Actually, Mama is presenting a very important paper in Canada this time. I came along to help Mama, in a manager role.”

But there wasn’t a single Songi here who believed those words at face value.

In this chat window were only the malicious trolls who would doggedly find the broadcast even on a weekday afternoon.

[-Mana?ger]

[-Ma?nager]

[WhiteSnowflake has donated 1,000 won]

[Just be honest and say you came on a trip, Kim Winter!!]

[StarDustMember0 has donated 1,000 won]

[Upvote if you think she’s honestly just being a hindrance LOL]

“Wait! A hindrance? This broadcast right now, if you think about it, is a demonstration of the new technology Mama developed…!”

While Winter bickered back and forth with the numerous 1,000-won-punch squad.

Jina, who was watching the broadcast and chat window on her laptop behind the screen, burst out laughing, “Puhat—”.

“Hey, really…! Mama! Just ban all those people!”

“From Youngjun’s standards, it doesn’t seem like enough to warrant a ban… Shouldn’t we just endure it?”

“Too mean!!”

[-?? What was that voice just now?]

[-What, are you in the same room as Mama??]

[-MAMA]

[-The two of them at night… Eheheh!]

[Seasons_Summer has donated 1,000 won]

[What!! Winter-ssi said she was going on a business trip, what are you doing with Mama!!]

---

Knock knock—

A knock on the door in the middle of the night.

Jina, who was in the middle of talking with Seo-ah about the live broadcast they just had, got up from her seat and opened the door.

“Unnie, you’re not sleeping yet, right?”

Standing in front of the door were none other than Hyo-in and Ye-rin.

“It’s about preparing for the presentation… Could you look over the materials with us?”

“Of course. Come in. Let’s look together.”

Hyo-in entered the room with Ye-rin.

In their hands were laptops and paper printouts densely covered with annotations.

“Seo-ah, you might be a little bored… Will that be okay?”

Jina turned towards Seo-ah and asked with a worried expression.

“It’s okay. Actually, I was also curious about the content of Jina’s paper. Please feel free.”

“Then we’ll intrude just for a bit. If you get tired, please go ahead and sleep first.”

Hyo-in and Ye-rin approached the table placed in the center of the hotel room and opened their laptops.

Even in the brief moment the laptops were booting up, they quickly scanned the printed materials.

“How did you interpret this part of the formula?”

“To maintain the linearity of the formula, I applied logarithms to separate the terms…”

“No. Here, you need to group them and see them as a single term. The logarithm was applied simply to adjust the penalty value according to distance…”

As talk about the paper began, the atmosphere in the room quickly grew heavy.

“In the end, if you summarize it, it can be expressed simply like this, and this way it’s a bit cleaner…”

“Don’t just analyze the formula itself. Look at the general shape of the graph. Ultimately, these two variables need to be anatomically linked…”

Hyo-in meticulously examined the formulas and graphs on the screen, calmly stating her thoughts.

Jina naturally resolved Hyo-in’s doubts, carefully reviewing even the minor details.

“S-so… um… hmmm… uwaaa…!”

At first, Ye-rin barely managed to follow the two seniors’ conversation. After all, both knew Ye-rin and Seo-ah were listening, so they tried to use simpler terms as much as possible.

But as the discussion intensified and they began to cover more in-depth content, steam started to escape from her head.

It was too much for a fledgling who had just finished her first semester of graduate school to follow the detailed parts of the paper.

Still, the reason she could somehow muddle through was solely thanks to Jina.

“This part is explained a bit difficultly, but simply put…”

Whenever Ye-rin groaned inwardly, kkeueung-, Jina would explain it simply.

At the casually kind explanation, Ye-rin’s expression quickly brightened.

She felt like she suddenly clearly understood the content of the paper that had seemed so difficult.

“Ah… So that’s what it meant. Thank you, Jina unnie!”

Sincere respect filled Ye-rin’s eyes as she looked up at Jina.

She felt like she finally understood why Jina’s name was listed as a co-first author on this paper.

Jina scratched her head, smiled lightly, and then turned her head back towards Hyo-in.

“This formula looks like one I haven’t seen…”

“Yes, it’s a formula I newly added during the experiment process. When I ran the deep learning with this formula included, the score results showed a better tendency.”

“Yes, Jina unnie!”

Hyo-in, as if waiting for Jina’s words, naturally picked up and began adding explanations.

A natural tiki-taka that showed they had been together for years.

Occasionally, whenever Hyo-in looked at Jina and smiled, Jina also smiled lightly and nodded.

“…”

Seo-ah quietly watched the scene.

At first, it was just fascinating.

She was also completely engrossed in seeing Jina’s professional mode for the first time in a while.

But as the subtle current flowing between Jina and Hyo-in grew stronger.

Seo-ah felt her heart grow heavy.

‘Is it okay for me to be here…’

Watching the two’s serious demeanor.

Seo-ah suddenly worried if she had barged into an important place too thoughtlessly.

There was no time to feel jealous.

She was ashamed at the thought of being a hindrance.

And she envied Hyo-in, who was discussing the paper with Jina beside her.

“I’ll just take a short walk. Please work comfortably.”

Eventually, Seo-ah quietly got up from her seat.

She thought it was better to leave rather than be an oblivious disturbance.

Seo-ah’s footsteps walking down the corridor, leaving the sound of the closing door behind, carried a heart more complex than ever before.

---

“…Wow.”

At the scene before her eyes, Seo-ah let out an unconscious gasp.

Last night, when leaving the hotel room.

And after returning from filming a vlog while taking a walk outside.

And even now, after dozing off and waking up.

Jina and Hyo-in were sitting in the exact same posture.

Hyo-in was scribbling something on paper, speaking quickly in a low voice.

Jina was still staring intently at the laptop screen with a serious expression.

‘Really… Were they like that all night?’

Seo-ah, as if disbelieving, checked her smartphone.

8 AM. It was definitely time for the day to brighten.

It felt as if Seo-ah alone had skipped a large chunk of time and arrived at the next morning.

‘…Crazy. Crazy crazy, both of them are really crazy.’

Seo-ah wiped her face with both hands and sighed.

It was surprising, and on the other hand, somewhat absurd.

She felt like she finally understood, at least a little, why Jina was usually hard to contact.

“Hmm… Seo-ah-ssi, are you awake?”

While Seo-ah stood blankly beside the bed.

Ye-rin, walking out from the bathroom, rubbed her eyes and entered the room.

Whether she was still not fully awake, or if she had been properly bitten by the two research zombies.

Ye-rin’s face looked extremely worn out.

“Ye-rin-ssi… Those two, have they really been like that since yesterday?”

Just in case she disturbed the two, Seo-ah asked quietly in a whisper.

However, the surprise richly evident in her voice couldn’t be helped.

Ye-rin, with dazed eyes, stared blankly at the two, then slowly nodded.

“Yes, well… I also dozed off and woke up intermittently… but those two stayed like that the whole time.”

‘I’ve worked with Hyo-in unnie in the lab until dawn a few times.’

‘But working all night and continuing into the morning is a first for me too.’

Ye-rin said in a fed-up voice.

At those words, Seo-ah covered her forehead with both hands and sighed.

Surprise was one thing.

On the other hand, it was absurd.

‘Why did I even follow them here…’

Now she understood clearly.

Her gloomy thoughts from last night, feeling like she had tagged along childishly for no reason, completely changed.

‘No matter how much there is to prepare, isn’t that too much?!’

This is a matter of common sense and humanitarianism.

Those two workaholic zombies, they must be made human again somehow.

“Well… actually, it’s a common sight for graduate students.”

Ye-rin, seeing Seo-ah’s serious expression, added with a slightly awkward look.

“That’s… a common thing?”

“Everyone, when facing a deadline, usually works this much… I think?”

At those words, Seo-ah glanced back at the two again.

They looked exhausted enough to have dark circles under their eyes.

But their gazes, at least, were sharp.

Watching the two endlessly exchange opinions with serious and sharp expressions, she even felt a strange sense of respect.

But at the same time, Seo-ah’s resolve also became firm.

‘If I leave them like this, those people will collapse while presenting.’

‘I must take responsibility for managing their condition somehow.’

‘That’s the least I can do as a manager who rashly followed them all the way to Canada without thinking,’ she thought.