Chapter 47

Ｒeаd ́on ́K̀at​Reａdi&n;gＣàf‌e

The Day Before the First Stream

“Should I move to a different room?”
“Absolutely not!”

How did it come to this again?
Oh, right. It was because my computer and Toya’s computer were in the same room, wasn’t it?
I scratched my cheek while looking at my computer placed side by side with Toya’s.
If our stream times overlap, it’s definitely going to be a headache.

“How about we split up the streaming times?”
“Mm… I guess that’s the only way for now.”

Toya adamantly opposed the idea of me moving out, saying she was too worried about me to allow it.
She looked just like a parent yelling, “You’re too young to live on your own!” at their fully grown child.
Anyway, for now, we decided to stagger our streaming schedules as a temporary measure.
As long as nothing unexpected comes up, that should be good enough.
…Though who knows what’ll happen down the line.

“I’ll help you set everything up!”
“Hey, I’m a veteran, remember?”
“Oh, right.”

Her eagerness to help was really sweet, but there was no need to help with things I could do myself.
It just made me feel really guilty.
I’ve already received so much from Toya, and I didn’t want to be indebted to her any more than I already was.
If anything, I wanted to be the one doing more for her.

“Still, if we do it together, it’ll go a lot faster, right? And besides, you’re really short.”
“…”
“Come on, just sit in the chair and tell me if it looks okay. I’ll move everything like you say.”

Honestly, Toya wasn’t wrong.
With this tiny body of mine, I couldn’t properly move things around on the desk.
If I tried to shift stuff while standing on a chair and fell, it’d be a disaster.
It was a sad truth, but my body was so fragile it couldn’t even handle falling from a chair.

“How’s this? Is it okay?”
“…Yeah.”

Toya moved things around while I gave small nods of approval.
But really, this wasn’t “doing it together.”
I just sat quietly in the chair while Toya did all the work.
To an outsider, it would’ve looked like Toya was being forced into labor.
If the labor board saw this, it’d probably get reported as an exploitative workplace.

“Toya, uh—”
“Oh! The chair might be too low. Should we add another cushion? Or maybe get one of those booster seats for kids!”
“…It’s fine like this.”

I tried to stop her before she got carried away, but once Toya got going, there was no stopping her.
I mean, I liked that she was enjoying herself, but still…
Even after all that running around, she wasn’t sweating at all. Pretty impressive.
Though, just because she wasn’t sweating didn’t mean it wasn’t tiring.

“Ta-da— All done! Now the only things we really need are a cushion and a footrest. Hmm… Maybe we should just get a shorter desk. That way you won’t need a super high chair.”
“…”

She was way too excited.
In the end, the only thing I did was sit in the chair.
Can I even say I “did” anything? Realistically, I just stayed still.
Maybe this was the perfect example of “Sometimes doing nothing is the best help.”

“Toya, aren’t you thirsty?”
“Oh, should we order drinks? It’s so nice how you can even get coffee delivered these days~”
“I’ll pay.”

If I didn’t do at least this much, I’d feel too guilty to sleep tonight.
Toya offered to pay herself, but I quickly ignored her and placed the order.
If I waited too long, she’d probably beat me to it.
She really tries to do everything for me. And while that’s nice… it’s still a problem!

“Eh, I could’ve bought it though…”
“Think of it as a little debut celebration. It’s not much, but still…”

I smiled gently at Toya, who looked slightly disappointed that she didn’t get to treat me.
Anyway, it’s finally tomorrow.
I glanced at the stream schedule displayed on the corner of my monitor and took a deep breath.
Yeah. Tomorrow’s the day.

—

[Ichinose Natsu’s Stream Schedule]

[(Ichinose Natsu’s schedule.jpg)
Didn’t think she’d start streaming right after her debut.]

ㄴ[I’m really looking forward to it lol]
ㄴ[Her voice and character match so well.]
ㄴ[Her eyes look so soft. She’s cute.]
ㄴ[She’s even smaller than I thought. So cute.]
ㄴ[Can she even get on her chair? Can she reach the desk?]
ㄴ[The first stream seems like a typical debut, huh.]
ㄴ[Everything after that is a mystery…]
ㄴ[Is Natsu the type to go with the flow? Nothing seems planned.]
ㄴ[ㄴShe’s in “Gamers,” so she’ll probably just play games lol]
ㄴ[ㄴIs this finally a real gamer in V-Spe? lol]
ㄴ[ㄴDepends on your definition of “real gamer.”]

[Ichinose Natsu <— Like this if you’re hyped!]
[She probably won’t do any more off-collabs with Inari for now.]
ㄴ[Fun fact: she already did.]
ㄴ[When?]
ㄴ[She was in that collab with Toya a while ago.]
ㄴ[That was “Totomo-chan,” wasn’t it~]
ㄴ[People in the know already get it: Totomo-chan = Natsu lol]
ㄴ[Should we just call her our Totomo-chan?]
ㄴ[Technically she did an off-collab with Toya before debut, so fair enough.]
ㄴ[Still, I doubt they’ll do one-on-one collabs. Too dangerous.]
ㄴ[Inari said she doesn’t even like real kids! Repeatedly!!]
ㄴ[But Natsu’s an adult and Toya’s friend…]
ㄴ[(Inari: Child Lover icon)]
ㄴ[(Inari: Child Lover icon)]
ㄴ[How did Inari end up with that image lol]
ㄴ[Fun fact: she had that image from the start.]

[Ichinose Natsu’s mom revealed.]
[(Ragu-sensei’s WIP screenshot.jpg)
It’s Ragu-sensei. She’s already going wild over Natsu in WIPs lol]
ㄴ[Is it really Ragu? Didn’t she get wrist issues?]
ㄴ[Wrist issues lol]
ㄴ[Reverse cursed technique…!]
ㄴ[Today the world is truly joyous.]
ㄴ[“I’m not going wild for Natsu—I’m going wild because of her.”]
ㄴ[lmao]
ㄴ[lol Aka]
ㄴ[lol Murasaki]
ㄴ[Their return lines up perfectly with Natsu’s debut.]
ㄴ[No way she made that model with a bad wrist unless she used cursed techniques.]
ㄴ[It honestly doesn’t make sense otherwise.]
ㄴ[“Mom revealed” sounds a little weird though lol]

—

“Desk, check. Computer, check. Everything’s good!”
“Calm down, Toya. If you get too excited, you’ll end up making mistakes.”

Even though it was my stream, Toya was clearly way more excited than I was.
Just in case, we had already tested the audio and internet connection.
I thought the connection didn’t really matter, but Toya insisted—so we did it.
It’s not like being extra prepared is a bad thing, though.

“Did you see people’s reactions?”
“…Not really. If I look now, I might choke on my food or something.”

Even when I was active as Han Yeoreum, I didn’t check community reactions all that often.
They made me nervous and scared.
And that hasn’t changed now that I’m Ichinose Natsu.
If I started looking, I’d never stop.
And let’s be honest—humans always fixate on that one piece of criticism more than the hundred compliments.

“Oh, right. Did your meeting with the CEO go okay?”
“Yeah, I guess?”

It was mostly a routine post-debut check-in.
They just asked how I was doing lately.
Though… for something routine, they asked some oddly specific questions.
Things like “Does Toya treat you well?” or “Is Toya bothering you?” or “Has Toya made any moves on you?”
What on earth did Toya do to get the CEO so worried?

‘But she’s such a good person…’

She could be a bit of a prankster, but she never went overboard.
Most of her jokes were to make me laugh, so there was no way I’d get upset.
In the end, most of the meeting was me defending Toya and explaining how great she was.
The CEO still sighed a lot though… I wonder why?

“What’s wrong, Yeoreum?”
Smile.

When our eyes met and Toya smiled at me like that, my heart fluttered in my chest.
See? Someone who always smiles at you like that…
There’s no way they could ever be a bad person.

Fables