Chapter 14: Backstage

“…That’ll be it for today’s stream.”

-Bye~

-OBBYE

-Alright, I subscribed, so stream more often

-Are you taking name suggestions for the fandom too?

“The fandom name will be decided via a naming contest, so please refer to the announcement… Haah.”

-Stop sighing, you’ll scare away the luck

-Even secret agents are just government workers in the end…

-Are we the bad customers?

-I’m clipping every sigh for a compilation, stay tuned

K’s debut stream, which had gone smoother than expected, finally came to an end.

[₩100,000 donation: Show us a cute pose before you go.]

“Ugh…”

And so, with a forced squeal from K prompted by a last-minute donation, the stream ended with a bang.

“…Moekkyuu~”

A face that said “I’m gonna kill you” from the eyes up, a painfully fake smile from the mouth down, and trembling fingers forming a heart — K’s stream came to a close.

“……”

Then came the silence.

“Wow, you’re basically a full-fledged VTuber now.”

“……”

“It’s embarrassing now, but one day it’ll feel easier than eating cake—”

“…Aaaaaaah!”

I was jokingly talking to her, trying to hold back my laughter, when she suddenly let out a scream. I instinctively stepped back.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!”

Though of course, the soundproof booth kept her screams contained before they hit the walls.

Thud, thud, thud…

K, screaming with a dazed look in her eyes, suddenly began slamming her forehead on the desk.

‘…Should I stop her?’

At this rate, we were about to have a murder case inside the soundproof booth, so I hurried toward her.

“…Could I please be alone for a moment?”

“Ah, sorry, but that’s not gonna happen.”

“…Why not.”

K had buried her face in the desk. I shook my head and pointed outside the booth.

“If you leave now, you’ll have to deal with Shia.”

“……”

“She’s been restless for a while. Who knows when she’ll wrap me in her tentacles again.”

Of course, that was a lie.

Thankfully, after the stream, Shia had started treating me less like ‘stock’ and more like a ‘snack.’

So even if I was tentacle’d, it wouldn’t be as draining as before. 

I could handle it now.

But the reason I insisted on staying in the booth was for a more professional reason: mental care as her MCN rep.

If you don’t understand how important mental health is for VTubers, you have no business being in this industry.

Especially in special cases like K.

Slam!

“Uh-oh.”

While I was lost in thought, K suddenly shot up and burst out of the booth.

What? Is this her way of saying she doesn’t want to be around me? Or is her mental state worse than I thought…?

Creeaak…

Just as I began to worry, the booth door creaked open again and K returned.

Now with dark circles under her eyes, she carried in her hand a fancy bottle of whiskey — one that Yoo Haneul had left behind after barging into my place last time.

Click.

She grabbed the most expensive bottle, slumped into the chair, and with trembling hands popped the cap.

Gulp, gulp…

Then, like some homeless person raving nonsense in the street, she started chugging straight from the bottle.

“Haha…”

Watching her down half the bottle in one go, I looked on with a mix of pity and concern, then quietly slid my phone toward her on the desk.

“But… the reaction’s actually really good.”

I wasn’t just saying that to comfort her. 

The community response was strong (though too raw to show her right now), and several clips were already going viral.

Among them, the most notable was a video uploaded by “Otherworld Clipper”, one of the most influential clippers in Korea.

[VTuber sighs constantly on her debut stream (K)]

The video mashed together all her sighs from the stream, cut between ridiculous donation and chat messages for comedic effect:

-Do you have a boyfriend?

-OPANMU?

-What kind of guys do you like…?

-What do you think of guys who watch VTubers?

“Hah… fuck…”

-Uh-oh, she’s gonna drop the mask.

It zoomed in on chat messages flying by, lingered on the exact moment her eyes dulled from reading them, and closed on a perfectly timed sigh.

Thanks to the clipper’s editing skills and dramatic BGM, the clip was actually funnier and more engaging than the original stream.

[₩300,000 donation! : OPANMU?]

“……Black.”

Of course, the highlight of the stream made it into the video too. 

The part where she gave up — spiritually and morally — to answer that question.

[₩100,000 Donation: Please do a cute act before you go.]

“Ugh…”

However, that hilarious highlight video didn’t get to finish playing inside the soundproof booth.

“…Could you not play that, please.”

Because K, who had already drained about two-thirds of the liquor bottle, was now glaring at me like she could kill.

Personally, I found the overly formal tone she used for her “cutesy act” the funniest and wanted to hear it again, but I guess I’ll just save it for later.

“Haa…”

“……”

“There goes my chance of getting married…”

As I quickly stuffed my phone into my pocket, K let out another sigh and slowly thudded her forehead against the desk, muttering in a lifeless voice.

“How did my life end up like this…? I didn’t walk the elite path just to end up like this…”

“Ahem. Ahem.”

“I came to my senses and realized I’m in my late twenties, and all my peers have boyfriends by now… and me… what am I even doing…”

Ah, so she gets all self-pitying when she drinks.

But in situations like this, there’s always one tried-and-true remedy.

“Could you take a look at this real quick?”

“…What?”

I swiftly tapped at the keyboard and pulled something up on the monitor, gesturing for her to see.

“…Ah.”

Her head slowly lifted, her expression dazed, and then her mouth parted slightly in shock.

“This is how much money you earned during today’s two-hour stream.”

“……”

“What do you think? Still feel like it’s not worth it?”

Her eyes, which had been half-lidded from despair, suddenly widened.

Maybe it was just my imagination, but I swear I saw her pupils tremble ever so slightly.

“…Well, a contract’s a contract.”

Eventually, she straightened her back and composed herself, her voice shifting into a stiff, professional tone.

“A proper elite always fulfills her obligations. That’s just the basics.”

“…Haha.”

“What’s so funny now?”

“Oh, nothing. They say laughter’s good for your health.”

I definitely wasn’t going to say it was because everything was playing out exactly as I’d predicted.

Still, for someone like K, who seemed just as broke as I was, this was a golden opportunity.

Truthfully, it’s a miracle that a just-debuted VTuber who’s not backed by a big agency could make this kind of money at all.

But that’s only possible because most of the audience for this Project Abyss stream were fans from my old “One Drawing a Day” channel.

After “that incident,” I’d rejected all the donations and offers pouring in from everywhere. So I guess this is my way of finally distributing the funds—via the affiliated VTubers.

As far as I’m concerned, if my VTubers thrive, that’s all that matters.

“By the way… are you over your fear of women?”

“…Excuse me?”

“If you’re going to keep managing and supervising like this, I figured I should ask.”

While I was still lost in thought, K suddenly threw that question at me.

“So the guy with gynophobia tried to kidnap me, huh.”

Once upon a time, I couldn’t even breathe around women, but these days, as long as there’s no direct physical contact, I can manage.

So that incident with K a few days ago—where we were all up in each other’s space—was an exception.

“…If I’m being honest, yeah. I used that against you. I’m sorry.”

“Well, that is very secret-agent of you.”

Thankfully, she didn’t seem to be holding a grudge anymore.

There was no need to smooth things over further. She was clearly on board now as a part of our agency, so I figured I should start supporting her properly.

“…Also, your liquor taste is kinda unusual, huh.”

“Oh, that wasn’t mine. It was left behind by Haneul.”

“Haneul? You mean Yoo Haneul?”

I was still smiling idly when K suddenly frowned upon hearing the liquor’s true owner.

“You should be careful with her.”

“Why? She’s a good kid.”

“A good kid? Ha. If you saw half the crap she posts in the community, you’d eat your words…”

Her expression twisted into one of serious disgust as she went on.

“…Ah.”

Then suddenly, she froze.

“Ahh. Ahhhh. AAAAAHHH.”

“…What now?”

Her face went pale as a sheet, and she scrambled to snatch the keyboard from me.

With hands that shook with dread, she typed in a URL I’d never seen before.

[Korean Virtual Streamer Private Community]

A moment later, the contents of the monitor had both of us stunned.

***

[LINK: VTuber sighs nonstop on debut stream lol (K)]

[57 comments]

-Skynet: Is this AI-generated or what?

-SurvivalKing: Am I hallucinating ’cause a zombie bit me or…?

-LeeAri: LOOOOOOOOOOL

-Lucia von Grave: cringe-core unlocked

-HeavenlyDemonicMoon: The coffin’s more corrupt than the martial world

★MagicalGirlYooHaneul★: FUCK this fucking bitch what the hell did you do to Haru???

(…more…)

***

Every Korean VTuber I knew seemed to be hanging out in the thread, going wild over K’s debut clip.

“…Haaah.”

“Um, about the interdimensional treaty… can we maybe talk about that now…”

As K quietly stared daggers at the screen, her hand once again reached for the liquor bottle. 

I quickly tried to steer the conversation back to the original topic.

“If you don’t mind, could you please shut up for ten minutes.”

“…Yes.”

It was clear now that she’d reached the limit of her emotional bandwidth.

“…Wait, since you used to be the Korean branch director… were you, by chance, the mod of that place—”

“Please. Just shut up.”

“Okay.”