Chapter 83 : Pension Travel

In fact, there had been suspicions raised a few times about whether Nayeon Queen and Barcode might be the same person.

It made sense—there was no concrete evidence, but there were countless circumstantial clues.

Most, non-overlapping activity times, and the fact that both of them maliciously harassed Curry.

Beyond that, there were just too many similarities between Nayeon Queen and Barcode.

The reason this suspicion was never made public was simple.

During their first real-life collaboration, Barcode and Nayeon Queen had played the same game with Curry.

That one alibi had nullified all suspicions, which is why the theory that Barcode and Nayeon Queen were the same person was never publicized.

“Tsk…”

So, I thought all I had to do was carefully manage Curry’s mental state, since he was the only one who knew the secret.

But the existence of Lee Seon-ah, who was highly likely to know my secret, was nothing short of an eyesore.

I wanted to use my resources to get rid of her immediately, but since Lee Seon-ah was the head of an MCN, even that wouldn’t be easy.

How could I get this nuisance, Lee Seon-ah, out of my sight?

No, before that—why did Lee Seon-ah reject me in the first place?

No matter how much I thought about it, if I were Lee Seon-ah, I would have signed the contract and used my secret as leverage.

That would’ve made it easier to control me.

But since she hadn’t done that, didn’t that mean she wasn’t aware of my secret after all?

I assumed that Lee Seon-ah didn’t know my secret and tried to figure out why she had sent the rejection email.

Like me, Lee Seon-ah had been watching Curry’s streams since the beginning.

She hadn’t missed a single day of his broadcasts, which made it highly likely that she had personal feelings for Curry.

Could it be that Curry joining Crystal was all part of Lee Seon-ah’s plan?

It was still uncertain whether Viewer Lee Seon-ah and Crystal’s CEO Lee Seon-ah were the same person.

There were only suspicions, with no concrete evidence. Making a hasty judgment in such an uncertain situation wouldn’t be wise.

But if all these suspicions turned out to be true, Curry might be far more closely connected to Lee Seon-ah than I had initially thought.

‘They’re not dating… right?’

The look on Curry’s face in the waiting room of the LoL Academy studio was definitely not an act.

As someone who had watched Curry for years, I could tell—that genuine happiness was impossible to fake.

If the two of them were in a romantic relationship, there was no way he would have shown such an unguarded reaction.

The important thing now was whether Lee Seon-ah knew my identity.

Was Curry’s relationship with Lee Seon-ah closer than I had imagined?

And most importantly, was Viewer Lee Seon-ah the same person as Crystal’s CEO Lee Seon-ah?

But right now, I had no way of confirming the truth.

In this frustrating situation where nothing was certain, there was nothing I could do.

“Haa…”

I let out a sigh, trying to clear my cluttered mind.

There was no point in stressing over a situation where I couldn’t take action yet.

For now, all I had to do was have fun tormenting Curry during the remaining period of our fake couple cohabitation.

Pushing all thoughts about Crystal and Lee Seon-ah out of my mind, I began planning the collaboration I had promised with Rine.

After his conversation with Barcode, Curry spent some time investigating what was going on.

He called the person in charge and brought up what Barcode had said, but all he got in return was the same repeated denial.

Sensing that something was off, Curry used his connections within Crystal to uncover the truth behind the situation.

It turned out that Crystal’s CEO, Lee Seon-ah, had completely banned Barcode’s recruitment.

On top of that, the recruitment team leader, who had always been dissatisfied, had moved to a competing MCN.

Learning this seemingly useless information, Curry realized that something was definitely wrong.

Of course, he had planned to distance himself from Barcode once this fake couple cohabitation was over.

But business and personal matters should always be kept separate, and this situation was something that had to be taken seriously, without letting personal feelings cloud his judgment.

It was absolutely wrong for a CEO’s influence to exclude a particular streamer from recruitment.

Most importantly, Curry couldn’t understand why Crystal’s CEO, Lee Seon-ah, had excluded Barcode.

For Curry, who had been planning to distance himself from her, this was a fortunate turn of events.

But on an MCN level, Barcode was essentially a golden goose.

If they succeeded in recruiting her, the MCN itself could skyrocket in prominence—Barcode had already built an incredible reputation as a streamer.

So why would they exclude such a high-value streamer from recruitment?

From Crystal’s perspective, Barcode, who had approached them voluntarily, was a talent they should have seized at all costs.

But instead of securing her, they had driven her away—an unwise decision, bordering on self-sabotage.

It wasn’t a rational move. It felt impulsive, as if it had been heavily influenced by…

…Wait. Personal feelings?

Curry suddenly recalled the suspicion he had brushed aside long ago.

When Crystal had presented those absurd contract terms…

And when it was none other than Crystal’s CEO, Lee Seon-ah, who had handed him that contract…

Curry had once wondered if Lee Seon-ah, the CEO of Crystal, was actually the viewer with the username “Lee Seon-ah,” who had been loyally following his streams all along.

At that time, Curry hadn’t cut ties with Yellow City yet.

Since he was operating in the shadows, his recognition wasn’t that high.

And yet, despite that, Crystal had offered him an absurd contract.

Naturally, Curry had suspected that CEO Lee Seon-ah might actually be one of his viewers.

But of course, that suspicion hadn’t lasted long.

A CEO of an MCN being one of his die-hard fans?

That was something straight out of a comic book—pure delusion.

Thinking it was too far-fetched, he had brushed it off without giving it much thought.

But looking back now, there were too many things that didn’t add up.

If CEO Lee Seon-ah really was his loyal viewer,

The personal messages she had exchanged with him.

The unwanted merch business she had pushed forward.

The opportunities she had given him to quickly build recognition by participating in various competitions.

On top of that, there were countless other benefits he had received—things he had never thought to question.

But no matter how he looked at it now, there had been plenty of more successful streamers at the time.

Yet, none of them had received such privileges. In fact, some had even been forced to quit streaming due to scandals or incidents.

Essentially, any competition within the MCN had conveniently vanished.

Thinking that all of this might have been orchestrated by CEO Lee Seon-ah made Curry curse under his breath.

Deciding to dig deeper into this later, Curry went ahead and started his personal broadcast as usual.

The Pocky game with Curry was over.

We had thoroughly enjoyed our happy fake couple cohabitation.

But doing anything repeatedly would eventually get boring.

And I was just about at that point—on the verge of getting bored.

I didn’t need a dramatic change, but I did want to spice things up a bit.

So, I spent the whole day watching fake couple-related videos on Mutube.

After analyzing countless fake couple videos, I found one common theme.

Outdoor dates.

Unless they were faceless streamers, commonly known as “Drahans,” most streamers who did fake couple content had gone on at least one outdoor date.

Spending a day visiting different places with their fake partner.

Intrigued, I started thinking about how I could make an outdoor date interesting.

Since 99% of the fun I’d get from going out would come from tormenting Curry,

There was no need to meticulously plan a perfect date course.

I just had to find a place where I could mess with Curry as much as possible.

After analyzing a ton of fake couple videos, I concluded that a private villa with an indoor pool and spa would be the best option.

With that decision made, I headed downstairs to Curry’s room before putting my plan into action.

“Barcode-nim? What is it this time…?”

“Geez, anyone would think I only show up to cause trouble.”

“…Isn’t that true?”

“What did you just say?”

“Nothing. So, why are you here this time?”

“Our fake couple cohabitation is almost over. I was thinking… how about we go on a trip?”

The moment I suggested an outdoor date, Curry’s expression darkened.

Since the stream wasn’t on, he didn’t even bother to hide his displeasure.

To me, it only looked like the cute rebellion of a stubborn child.

“Where are we going?”

“I’m thinking of booking a villa for about three nights and four days.”

“Three nights and four days… Just the two of us?”

“I’ll be bringing my manager, but you can bring yours if you’d like.”

Curry rested his chin on his fingers, deep in thought.

Seizing the moment, I smiled and spoke softly.

“If you want, should we invite Rine too?”

“Why are you suddenly bringing up Rine-nim?”

“So, should I invite her or not?”

“…I’ll go with whatever Barcode-nim wants.”

“Then I guess we won’t invite her—”

“Please invite her.”

“Pfft, you should’ve just said that from the start.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle at Curry’s reluctant but honest response.

What had started as a simple outdoor date had somehow turned into a group collaboration with Rine, but that was even better.

It just meant I had more opportunities to torment Curry in different ways.

“Hm… Looks like you’ll be the only guy on this trip, Curry-nim.”

“Now that I think about it… maybe I should call my manager too…”

“Sorry, too late for that.”

“Haaah…”

I leaned closer to Curry, lowering my voice with a teasing tone.

“Am I not enough for you? You perv.”

“What did I even do to deserve this…”

Satisfied with tormenting Curry enough for the day, I left the room with a smile.

I headed to the kitchen and began peeling an apple—something to soothe Curry’s nerves later.

Thanks to the cooking lessons I had been taking from Ji-hye, my knife skills had naturally improved, and I could now easily carve the apple into a perfect checkered pattern.

“Curry-nim, have an apple.”

“Thank you.”

After handing the fruit to Curry, I went upstairs and dialed the number Rine had given me earlier.

After a few rings, the call connected, and I heard her familiar, sweet voice on the other end.

—“Hello?”

“It’s Barcode. Is this Rine-nim?”

—“Oh! Yes, it’s me! Why did it take you so long to call? I’ve been waiting forever!”

“Haha… I’ve been a terrible person, haven’t I?”

—“But it’s okay! You’re calling now, and that’s what matters! So… does this mean you’ve set a date for our collab?”

“We’re planning an outdoor date-style trip to a villa. I wanted to ask if you’d like to come along.”

After I asked if she wanted to join the villa trip, Rine went completely silent.

It was so quiet that I almost wondered if the call had been disconnected.

Just as I was about to pull the phone away from my ear, her voice finally came through.

—“Uhm… if it’s a date, wouldn’t I just be intruding…”

“Our managers will be joining us. And for the record, mine is a woman.”

—“Then I’m definitely coming!”

Her initial hesitation sounded like she was trying to be considerate,

But the moment I mentioned that the managers would be there, Rine’s true feelings came out.

She was so much like Ji-hye in that regard that I couldn’t help but chuckle.

With Rine successfully roped into the plan, I started looking for a villa.

I only considered villas that had actual review videos.

After narrowing it down, I found the perfect villa for the four of us and booked it immediately.

The reservation was confirmed in no time, and with everything ready, I started my personal stream.

[What’s this?]

[Who woke the sleeping ghost…]

[LOL]

[What brings you to stream at this hour?]

[Show us Curry! Show us Curry! Show us Curry!]

[Guys, do you not sleep or what?]

I played some background music and waited for more viewers to gather.

Once I was satisfied with the number, I turned off the music and turned on my mic.

“Ah, ah.”

After confirming that the mic was working properly, I spoke softly, with a mischievous smile.

“We’re going on a villa trip together.”

The calm chat instantly exploded, turning into a frenzy after I dropped that bombshell.