Chapter 132: Could You Really Handle That?

It took quite some time for me to grow indifferent to the harsh comments and chats.

Looking back, during my early days of streaming, I suffered a lot emotionally, in a lot of ways.

Even when I tried to ignore them, since there weren’t many people in the stream itself, I couldn’t help but notice them. The standards for what counted as brain-dead comments versus what I should tolerate were also pretty much a blur back then.

Of course, it was different now.

A large organization, a well-known company, was protecting me. Numerous internal filters were doing their purifying work to weed out the toxic people.

Though sad, I became accustomed to those brain-dead comments and thought I wouldn’t get hurt by most words anymore, but…

[hngg~ i wanna fuck han taemin.]

Rage boiled up from deep in my chest.

It was a different, alien sensation from when they cursed at Luka.

The moment I read that comment, I couldn’t stop the curse words from bursting out of my mouth.

“This fucking bitch?”

Who was going to do what to whom?

If this was my chat, I’d perma-ban whoever wrote this.

I’d make it so they could never open my stream again.

“…What’s wrong?”

Oppa asked, staring at me anxiously, but I just shook my head.

“It’s nothing. Some randos just wrote ridiculous nonsense.”

Obviously, I couldn’t do anything about this, but I didn’t want to show this to Oppa.

Report. Report. Report. Report. Report. Report. Report. Report.

Only after spam-clicking the report button with comments about inappropriate sexual harassment, did I finally feel a bit relieved.

“Did you see the school violence thing…?”

But then my boyfriend asked that cautiously, surprising me.

“…School violence?”

“Yeah.”

“Did you do school violence, Oppa?”

“No, that’s not it.”

Then, he told me about what happened at the company today.

He told me not to, but through sheer will, I found the comment that he mentioned.

[Proof that Han Taemin gave me a cigarette burn on my jacket.]

“Wow… This is just dumb…”

To paint Oppa, who hated cigarettes, into that kind of person…

This person wasn’t even dramatizing what happened in the past, he just made up stories.

“What did the company say? They said they’re going to handle this, right?”

“Umm… They said it’s hard to handle it immediately, so they’ll post a clarification after waiting a bit more.”

“What are they waiting for? They should just do it right away.”

I wanted to help, but I’ve never been involved in this kind of controversy, I didn’t know anything about the matter.

Hopefully, they’d take this down as soon as possible.

“But Doah, what was that thing you just saw?”

Oppa tilted his head curiously.

“Just a brain-dead comment.”

Seriously, fuck who? Nobody’s fucking anybody.

Oppa was my boyfriend.

I was the only one who could do that kind of thing with him!

Well, that linking arms thing last time was for work, so it was unavoidable, but that aside, I was the only one who could be intimate with Oppa.

“Hmm… I’m curious though…”

Thinking that continuing this topic wouldn’t lead to anything good, I brought up a different topic.

“You know, I want to go somewhere this weekend.”

“Where?”

Oppa asked while chewing the pork feet on his wrap.

“Um… Gyeongbokgung Palace…!”

“The palace?”

“Yeah. I want to try wearing a hanbok with you, Oppa.”

That might sound terribly random, but I really wanted to go on a hanbok date with him.

I wanted to go there and take pictures in front of those gates, and maybe even do some short role-playing…

“But wouldn’t it be too cold to walk around in hanbok?”

He was right. It was still February, the air was too cold to go out without thick outerwear.

“Still, wouldn’t it be nice to go while Oppa is still a little less famous?”

Feeling anxious that we might not be able to do things together as Oppa got more famous, I subtly revealed my feelings.

“…I guess so.”

He didn’t particularly deny it. After stroking his chin once, he just nodded.

“Alright. Let’s go then.”

“…Really?”

I was just saying that, I didn’t expect him to actually agree.

“But there’s a condition.”

“Tell me.”

He was willing to go on a hanbok date in this cold weather.

So, as long as it was something minor, I was willing to agree with anything.

“You know, the hanbok that Luka wore… Well, you it doesn’t need to be completely the same, just something similar would be fine… Anyway, could you wear that…?”

He trailed off, probably feeling embarrassed.

Phew… Seriously, what was I gonna do with this particular Pink Army…

“Sure. In turn, you’ll have to wear the school uniform you wore during web drama filming and go on a date with me.”

Time to make him feel what it was like to be in my shoes!

His furrowed brow told me my strategy had worked.

“Look at me straight in the eyes.”

T-This was too much…

Sure, this was part of practicing acting, but too much was too much.

“Taemin-ssi, where do you keep looking? You need to make eye contact to see and learn.”

Unable to say that it was too burdensome for me to make eye contact, I swallowed and stared at the teacher’s face again.

“Nine billion! A whole nine billion! The amount you lost with one wrong click is nine billion!”

When the teacher slammed the desk with his palm, I jumped and trembled.

“Answer me.”

The teacher chewed his lips and stared straight into my eyes.

“How are you going to pay this back?”

And that was the end of the demonstration.

After that, the teacher’s expression returned to normal.

“Do you understand the key point I mentioned?”

“A little…”

I’d always thought that knowing and doing were different things, but acting seemed to embrace that concept deeper than anything else.

Understanding the teacher’s explanation in theory was completely different from embodying it in practice.

Gripping the script, I took a short breath.

“Why don’t you try the part I just did once?”

Basically, he was telling me to act out five lines—too few to blame it on my memory if I screwed up.

After muttering the lines several times, I stared straight ahead.

“Look me straight in the eyes…! Look…”

Fuck, why can’t I do this?!

I needed to speak clearly like what the teacher told me while also expressing my anger.

But, the sentence that started powerfully couldn’t even finish before deflating like a punctured balloon.

“That’s fine. Let’s try once more.”

“Yes.”

I repeated the same part again.

However, despite my efforts, the teacher didn’t seem satisfied and it was clear that his expression wasn’t very good.

“Hmm… it’s a bit disappointing, but I think that’s enough for today. Let’s continue next week.”

“Yes.”

I knew that these things take time, but I could feel my spirits dampening.

Maybe acting really wasn’t for me…

Acting 101 had a much more difficult curriculum than I had imagined.

As I buried my head on the desk, I heard a knock from outside the door.

“Taemin-ssi.”

“Ah, Manager-nim.”

Just as I was about to get up, thinking I could finally go home, she gestured for me to sit back down.

“I have something to give you before I take you home.”

“To me?”

“Yes.”

What she took out of the envelope was a bundle of only a few A4 pages.

“What’s this?”

I took the papers and when I saw the title written at the top, I blinked.

[100 Questions Questionnaire]

I turned the page and what was written in there were actually 100 trivial questions I remembered seeing when I was little.

“This is your next schedule, Taemin-ssi.”

“This?”

Not a drama or a broadcast?

“There’s a famous YouTube channel that just selects a few short questions like this, talks about them, and ends it there.”

Manager-nim showed me videos on the phone.

Sure enough, on the screen, celebrities whose faces even I recognized were earnestly answering these trivial questions.

“This will probably be your first official individual activity, Taemin-ssi. What do you think? Are you okay with it?”

“Ah, yes.”

At least this would be much, much better than suddenly being told to appear on variety shows or to dance and sing.

“But how did this come about…”

“Well, this channel reached out and asked for an interview with you, Taemin-ssi.”

“Me…? I thought they’d only invite famous people…”

“Ah, well, what you saw was sorted by view count, so it isn’t a wonder if you feel that way, but if you scroll down, there are many newcomers too.”

Huh, she was right…

When I scrolled down, I did see some rather pathetic view counts in the videos intermittently.

“When is this…”

“It’s scheduled to be filmed next Monday.”

“I see. Then, are there company-prepared answers for this?”

Certain broadcasts would have scripts and such for such an occasion, I knew that much, at least.

“No. As long as it won’t be anything controversial, it’d be better to just let you be yourself, Taemin-ssi.”

Q. What are you most interested in these days?

A. Luka-tan

Q. What do you mainly do during your free time?

A. Rewatch Luka-tan’s streams.

Q. What would you like to do if you make a lot of money?

A. Donate to Luka-tan in 1 million won increments.

Q. What is your dream?

A. Marry Luka-tan.

…Could you really handle that?