Chapter 65: Utaite Scarlett Debuts, Part 4

While it’s a student’s natural instinct to hate going to school, there are times when being at school is preferable.

Namely, midsummer and midwinter.

At home, the air conditioner is rarely turned on due to electricity bills, while at school, there are tons of kids who crank the AC to 18 degrees with the windows open, thinking, “It’s my parents’ tax money, so what?”

In winter, there are those who open the windows and let the cold wind blow because they’re hot, and then there are the dimwitted ones who turn the heater up to 30 degrees because they’re cold.

Hayoon was the same.

Of course, she didn’t act as thoughtlessly as those extreme examples, but…

It was also true that there was no place where she could comfortably use the AC and heater as much as at school.

“Haa, so cool…”

If the windows were closed and the indoor temperature was set to around 25 degrees, it felt like heaven.

The Game Release Club’s club room had few people, so the indoor temperature wouldn’t rise due to the body heat of dozens of people.

It didn’t take long for the room to reach Hayoon’s desired temperature.

“This is heaven…”

Hayoon stood directly under the air conditioner, flapping her summer blouse back and forth, drying the sweat that had accumulated inside her clothes while riding the bus.

Women tend to sweat more in their upper bodies.

Hayoon, who was in her growth spurt, was no exception.

After drying her sweat for a few minutes, she came to her senses and grabbed her bag.

“I’ll just drop off my bag and come back.”

This was Hayoon’s recent routine.

She would quickly shower as soon as she woke up and arrive at school before the refreshing feeling of the shower wore off.

Once at school, she would go straight to the club room, dry her sweat under the air conditioner, then go to the classroom to drop off her bag and return.

The optimal route that Hayoon had meticulously calculated to spend as much time as possible in a cool space…!

“Hehehe….”

It was a bit of a shame to go back out into the sweltering hallway, but the refreshing feeling after a short time outside was also one of the joys of summer.

As she was about to leave the club room with a grin, right before her eyes.

-slide

Along with the sound of the sliding door opening, a familiar face appeared.

It was Choi Arin.

“Ummak….”

“Gasp.”

Perhaps one was overwhelmed by the summer heat.

And the other was distracted by the bliss of the air conditioner.

They hadn’t noticed each other’s presence and were startled only after the thin sliding door between them suddenly disappeared, quickly moving away from each other.

“Y-you surprised me….”

“Th-that’s what I should be saying!”

Then, they exchanged meaningless complaints, though without any real resentment.

“I’ll go to the classroom for a bit. I think they’ll scold me if I don’t have my bag and am late for class.”

“Okay, go ahead. Want some snacks if you haven’t had breakfast?”

“Sure. I’ll be back soon.”

They exchanged casual conversation as usual.

Hayoon exchanged a few short words and returned to the classroom as originally planned, but…….

“That’s strange….”

Choi Arin, who was left in the club room, felt an inexplicable sense of unease.

It was, how should she put it…

A kind of instinctive sense of crisis.

Yes, that sense of crisis that an older person naturally feels.

“Weren’t our eyes at the same level…?”

Hayoon was growing taller.

To the point where her eyes were completely level with Choi Arin’s.

Moreover, Hayoon was a year younger than Choi Arin and full of youthful energy, so.

“Will I be surpassed…?”

It felt like the time when her dignity as an older sister would crumble was not far off.

“Haaa….”

She had anticipated that this moment would come someday.

But, to be caught up so soon after they met didn’t uphold her pride as an older sister.

At least until this year.

She wouldn’t be surpassed until this year.

With that thought in mind, Choi Arin chose snacks to share with Hayoon.

 

***

 

The same school life repeated itself today.

Basic subjects like Korean and math were neatly dropped.

Hayoon, who was a high school graduate and would remain a high school graduate, couldn’t suddenly become smart enough to solve equations or English composition problems just by attending those classes.

As for major classes.

Thanks to the efforts of their advisor, Park Geun-soo, she could manage to coast through without any major problems.

If there was a group project, Hayoon would take some responsibility and approach it seriously, but today wasn’t such a day.

Just leisurely.

She confidently turned on her tablet in a corner of the classroom during class and worked on the illustrations for Hong Seo-hyun’s next song, “One Small,” for the music video.

And around the time a concrete colored rough draft was completed.

“Good work today, everyone. And Kwak Seok-min.”

“Yes? Me?”

“Come to the faculty room later. The rest of you can go home. Don’t neglect the assignments your teachers gave you. They’ll all help you in the future. Got it?”

“Yes!”

“Okay!”

Park Geun-soo disappeared with Kwak Seok-min, who seemed to have caused some trouble again, and Hayoon went to the club room.

There seemed to be someone already there, as a cool air greeted her as soon as she opened the door.

Hayoon smiled and looked inside.

“You’re here?”

“Yes, I’m here.”

Choi Arin, who was sitting and working, waved with a smile.

Hayoon had a lot of illustrations to work on today as well.

She naturally sat next to Choi Arin, took out her tablet, and started to get into position.

“If you’re hungry, want to eat this?”

“Isn’t this expensive?”

“Someone paid me for doing a bit of animating at school, so I have money. Ah, here. Ah.”

“Ah, ah…?”

Choi Arin peeled the package of a sausage with red stripes and put it directly into Hayoon’s mouth.

This was Choi Arin’s mindset as an older sister.

‘There aren’t many things I can do better than Hayoon anyway.’

Not to mention her skills in illustration, now even their heights were similar, so the feeling of being an older sister had faded.

An older sister should either lead or protect her younger sister, shouldn’t she?

Choi Arin couldn’t do either, so she chose to be affectionate and take care of her with snacks.

‘Hayoon is too obsessed with work. Sometimes she doesn’t even eat lunch and just works in the club room.’

She could understand skipping breakfast, but Hayoon often skipped the lunch provided by the school.

Yongsan IT High School’s lunch was quite good.

So, if she didn’t take care of her like this, Hayoon, who often skipped meals without a second thought, would soon collapse.

‘I have to take care of her.’

Then, making sure that Hayoon, the center of the project, didn’t collapse from overwork was Choi Arin’s role as an older sister.

Do Jin-ho wasn’t meticulous enough to take care of these things, and it was difficult to expect such a role from Hong Seo-hyun, who had just recently connected with Hayoon.

Choi Arin was solidifying her presence as an older sister by doing what only she could do…!

‘That’s unusual, it’s like she’s an idol or something…’

Hayoon obediently ate the sausage Choi Arin fed her and thought.

Receiving such intensive care made her feel like an idol.

Of course, it wasn’t Hayoon who would become a real idol, but Hong Seo-hyun.

Hong Seo-hyun rarely came to the club room, as she had to constantly listen to the sound while editing and add various visual effects to match the sound.

Even if they respected each other’s work, Hong Seo-hyun, who was particularly sensitive to sound, would probably be bothered by the presence of others in the same space.

They didn’t criticize her for that.

The Game Release Club was a gathering of people who aimed to release games with the best possible quality.

They couldn’t possibly not understand Hong Seo-hyun, who was focusing on her personal time for her work.

‘Should I give Hong Seo-hyun some snacks and tease her later? She’s a Vtuber from an Utaite background, so she might even hold a concert. It would be fun to do some idol role-playing.’

As she was thinking about how it was a shame that Hong Seo-hyun wasn’t there.

“E-emergency!”

-slide, slam!

The sliding door of the club room opened roughly, and Hong Seo-hyun burst in.

“Wh-what is it…?”

“Oh my, you scared me….”

Both Hayoon, who was being fed a sausage, and Choi Arin, who was feeding her, were startled.

“L-look at this. This……!”

Hong Seo-hyun shoved her phone forward, urging them to look.

And there…….

“Huh….”

“Oh…?”

The Utaite Scarlet channel, which had surpassed 1,000 subscribers.

“Fi-fifty thousand. Fifty thousand…!”

And the music video for “Love,” which had achieved a whopping 50,000 views.

“That’s insane….”

Honestly, it was surprising.

She had uploaded three songs every five days for the past 15 days, trying to get as much exposure to the algorithm as possible in the very early stages of channel creation.

Half of her thought it would work out somehow if she just uploaded the videos.

The other half thought that even if it didn’t work now, if she accumulated videos, it would eventually get picked up by the algorithm.

So she uploaded the videos as quickly as possible every five days.

“It worked?”

The strategy of “it can’t hurt to try” had not only broken even but was showing signs of a jackpot.

This was working.

The blessing of the algorithm was upon Hong Seo-hyun.

Upon Scarlet.