She treated me to tteokbokki, we chatted for a bit, then I headed home.
Si-yeon mentioned she was learning sewing? Or making clothes of some kind?
…I was too busy inhaling tteokbokki to actually catch what she said.
If you're going to call me out for my terrible listening habits, I genuinely feel wronged.
It's not my fault—she only talked during the exact moments I was distracted by shoving food into my mouth, okay?
And then at the very end, she smiled and said, "You got it, right? So when I finish the outfit, you'll wear it for me?" and quietly held out her pinky finger.
That serene little smile of hers was deeply, profoundly unsettling.
But hey, I was the one eating her food. The least I could do was wear one outfit my friend made.
*'She used to seem so pure when we were little. Why does she get more scheming every year?'*
It's the expression. That sly little grin.
In the end, I promised I would, and she even threw in some sundae for good measure.
Anyway, total win!
Sure, I'm the one getting treated now.
But when I grow up, sell cards, sell stocks, and become filthy rich—I'll make sure you can eat tteokbokki three meals a day.
Kim Si-yeon, your life is set!
"I'm hoooome~"
I called out to an empty house and tossed my socks into the laundry basket.
I walked into my room, flung my bag onto the bed, and sat down at my computer.
Current time: 6 PM.
"Mmmmmgh."
I pressed both index fingers against my temples.
*'Less than an hour until Mom and Dad get off work.'*
I had to hang out with Momoji tonight, so ranked was off the table.
Which meant I wanted to squeeze in at least a few points during the time I had left, but…
*'Should I stream? Or not?'*
That was the question.
Was it even worth going live for less than an hour?
"Hmmmmmmm."
Forget it, decision made.
Go live!
With Master promotion right around the corner, my viewers would want to see it too, right? Just a small act of consideration on my part.
God, I'm such a good person.
After that, I launched Dead Zone.
Fired up the streaming software.
And played while waiting for viewers to trickle in.
Time was money, so I skipped the warm-up and jumped straight into ranked.
[Victory!]
MVP
[Woniwoni>.< : 18 Kills 7 Deaths]
Diamond 1, 75 points.
*'Just one more win and I hit the promotion series?'*
Each tier had its own badge that appeared when you entered, and Master's badge sparkled a little more than the rest—I'd been eyeing it for a while.
It just looked so cool.
Like, *hey, look at me, I'm kind of a big deal.*
*'Not as cool as my Weapon Master title, obviously!'*
I decided to enjoy the afterglow of victory with my viewers.
The moment the game ended, I pulled up the chat.
— why so late today ugh
— master promo happening today?
— if you're coming say so if you're not say so, write a notice for once chaechae
— holy moly promotion series let's GOOO
— wasn't the usual stream time 4pm?
— please just write a notice. please.
"Huh?"
What's with the vibe in here.
Where's the praise for my absolutely devastating carry? Why is everyone talking about something else.
"I was hanging out with a friend today for the first time in a while, so I'm a little late."
— you have friends??
— didn't you say you had no friends before?
— chaechae, ranked is more important than friends
— our chaechae is a loner ㅠㅠ at least make up a believable excuse
— is it a boyfriend…?
"What are you on about, I have friends. I just don't have a *lot* of them."
Technically one friend—well, two now if you count Momoji—but it wasn't like I was unpopular.
People just didn't become close friends with me. I still got along fine with everyone in class.
*'……'*
Huh, that came out kind of sad. What I just said.
Felt like I scored on my own goal.
I shook my head and addressed the chat.
"I was popular, okay. I won the class president vote basically every single time like it was nothing. When I moved up to middle school, there were kids who cried because they didn't want to say goodbye. I got a whole group birthday celebration once. And, and—oh! Whenever I played Duel King at school, everyone would crowd around to watch!"
— suuure ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
— chaechae's got a princess complex….
— just write a novel at this point
— you're in high school aren't you, all you talk about is school stuff
— duel king lmaooo ㅋㅋㅋㅋ so that's why you're DuelKingChaechae
"Ughhh…!"
Why, why are you laughing. It's true.
[ChaechaeFootMat — ₩1,000: So you're saying you do have friends?]
"I do! I literally just went and ate tteokbokki with one today."
[HyeokjuGari — ₩1,000: ㅋㅋㅋㅋ wow, sounds like you were quite the hot commodity? Someone that popular must've gotten a confession or two, right?]
"Ugh, that's actually not a great memory."
Back in elementary school, some butterball of a kid came up and asked me out.
— oh?
— wait why is it a bad memory
— you actually got confessed to for real?
— okay let's not make things up ㅋㅋㅋ
— you were actually popular?
— cap ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
"No, it's true…. It was someone I didn't even know, they just came up out of nowhere and confessed. Six—! I mean, they were a year above me."
Just thinking about it made me want to throw up, so I really didn't want to elaborate.
[ChaeShinShin — ₩1,000: Whoa, a sunbae you didn't even know? Came to find you in person? ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]
"Huh? Yeah."
[ChaechaeFootMat — ₩1,000: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ were you maybe famous school-wide for being pretty and smart?]
"Oh—! Yeah, how did you know?"
Wait. Did I just get doxxed from that tiny hint?
— yikes, full delusion mode….
— ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
— lmaooo
— dial it back chaechae, is novelist your dream job?
— so you're the school-famous pretty girl? ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
— but then why do you have no friends? genuinely don't get it
The chat made it pretty clear my personal info hadn't actually been uncovered.
"You little…."
They were messing with me.
And it's all true, you jerks.
I was cute enough to film commercials when I was little. The neighborhood aunties told me constantly!
"I'm not lying."
[ChaePinocchio — ₩1,000: AAAAAAH MY NOSE MY NOOOOOSE!! Geppetto!! Something's wrong with my nose!!]
— ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
— ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋlmao
— ChaePinocchio omg ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
— ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
— this guy is unhinged ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
"Ugh!"
It's not like I can go into more detail here!
Well, even if I did, these people wouldn't listen to a word of it anyway.
I decided to ignore them and get back to gaming, so I checked the time.
[6:45 PM]
*'Damn, I wasted my window defending myself.'*
Each match takes almost twenty minutes, so if I queued now I might have to bail mid-game.
I'd wanted to at least hit the promotion series before dinner and coming back.
Looks like that's not happening.
"Okay, I have to go eat. Can't fit in another match. I'll be back later."
— was just getting fun, dang
— why is the stream so short
— already leaving? how many minutes was that
— write a notice next time you go live
— gg enjoy dinner
— isn't this a bit too half-assed?
— you're not actually sulking, are you?
— no notice~ stream whenever~ leave whenever~
"……"
If I hadn't gone live, I could've been in the Master promotion series by now.
*'You ungrateful little—I went live as a courtesy to you people, and this is how you act?'*
I thought they'd be happy to catch even a short stream.
Instead, all they did was complain.
"Fine, you want notices? I'll write them. Every single time. I'm out."
You had fun teasing me, didn't you?
I'll write you all the notices you want. Hmph.
***
Momoji—Kim Na-eun—had made a rare trip to her university.
She was there to submit a leave of absence form to the department office.
*'Ugh, at this rate I'm actually going to get expelled.'*
It was a little sad to drift further from the school she'd barely managed to get into.
But what could she do? She had no passion for studying, and throwing away a streaming career that was going better than ever would be the stranger choice.
*'Just gotta focus on streaming….'*
She wasn't exactly a stellar student to begin with.
So the decision wasn't that hard.
Tonight's stream: Dead Zone.
It had been about two months since she'd started pouring her time into Dead Zone.
It was fun, her viewers loved it.
There wasn't really a reason to do anything else.
Momoji went live and greeted her chat with energy.
"Hello everyone~"
She'd been stuck banging her head against the Diamond wall for a while.
But these past few days of casual Quick Match had been bringing back the joy she'd felt when she first picked up Dead Zone.
*'Wait, am I actually good at this?'*
Fifteen kills, twenty kills every match. It was hard not to think that.
From the perspective of someone who'd been grinding ranked, Quick Match players were basically zombies.
Not because they couldn't aim.
More of a brain issue.
They never once lifted their finger off W.
Die? Oh well, I'll just respawn~
Lose the match? There's always the next one~
That exact mindset showed up in every single play.
These people were pure beasts—no brain, all mechanical instinct, like contestants in some grand tournament of raw physicality.
But in the middle of all that primal chaos, a little bit of thinking went a very long way.
She was getting a firsthand taste of what it truly meant to carry a team.
Ding—!
[MojiRiMoji — ₩1,000: Is sensei coming in today?]
"Probably after dinner, I'd think."
Lee Chae-won had taken to checking in on Momoji's title-grinding progress like a teacher reviewing homework.
They hadn't made any formal plans, but come evening, Chae-won would quietly show up to spectate or jump into Quick Match together.
She'd probably turn up again today once the game was going.
Whether this counted as tutoring or surveillance, Momoji wasn't sure—but the game was fun enough that she'd decided to keep at the title grind for now.
She played one warm-up match, and by the second game:
[(Whisper) Woniwoni>.< : play with me]
"Oh, Chaechae's here."
She naturally sent a voice chat invite.
"Hello? Can you hear me? Chaechae?"
"Yep, hiya."
"Did you eat dinner?"
"Mhm."
They queued into Team Deathmatch together.
"Moji, how many kills have you racked up for assault and sniper separately today?"
"Huh? Oh, I just got here. I've only done rifle so far—fourteen kills."
"Ah, gotcha. Long road ahead."
"Ahem."
Was that a dig?
"Did you equip the death effect I told you about?"
"I… did, yeah."
"Hmm."
*Was it really okay to use that thing?*
When you killed someone with your signature weapon, you could trigger a special effect visible to the person you killed—and you could customize which one.
Most of the default options weren't particularly provocative.
They were fairly gentlemanly, so most people left them alone.
But—
*'This one. Use this one.'*
*'Huh?'*
What Chaechae had set for her was an effect where a male character flashed a gleaming smile and said: [That was a fine match!]
That part was fine enough.
But she'd taken [match] and slapped a little [rice bowl] emoji right on top of it, turning it into:
[That was a fine 🍚meal!]
"When they see that effect, they get so tilted they'll laser-focus on hunting you down. If you take them out, your kill count goes up way faster."
"I… see."
……Okay, that was actually a solid tip.
Momoji decided not to push back on it.
For the sake of her own mental health, she'd realized some things were better left alone.
The match began.
True to form—Quick Match.
A horde of players with absolutely no fear of death came charging in.
Momoji had adapted well enough by now.
Rat-tat-tat-tat—!
[MojiMoji♡ ︻╦╤─ ur bf is trash]
She calmly stacked her kills.
Woniwoni was right there beside her—throwing flashbangs at exactly the right moments to blind enemies, lobbing smoke grenades to cut off dangerous sightlines.
With those wings, Momoji soared.
Before she knew it, she was sitting at 18 kills, first on the team.
"Kyaaaa. This is so fun!"
"Three o'clock, they're wide open."
"Got it, got it!"
*'Am I actually getting better?'*
Maybe this teacher of hers was more skilled than she'd given credit for.
Once she graduated from this training arc! She was going straight back to ranked!
……But she didn't actually mean it when she said Momoji had to hit Weapon Master before she'd let her go, right?
Surely not.
After a satisfying round of Quick Match—
Momoji turned to the chat to check in on her viewers.
She'd been too focused on the game to look until now.
— TURN ON YOUR STREAM YOU LITTLE GREMLIN TURN ON YOUR STREAM YOU LITTLE GREMLIN TURN ON YOUR STREAM YOU LITTLE GREMLIN TURN ON YOUR STREAM YOU LITTLE GREMLIN TURN ON YOUR STREAM YOU LITTLE GREMLIN TURN ON YOUR STREAM YOU LITTLE GREMLIN
— chat is absolutely feral rn
— chaechae what did you do before coming here...
— is ChaePinocchio here? someone said they spotted them
— i never even complained about stream times so why am i suffering for this, you little gremlin chaechae
— I WANT TO SEE YOUR SCREEN I WANT TO SEE YOUR SCREEN I WANT TO SEE YOUR SCREEN I WANT TO SEE YOUR SCREEN
"…Huh?"
Momoji rubbed her eyes and looked again.
Still completely feral.
Even a quick glance made it obvious she wasn't the cause.
"Um, Chaechae."
"Yeah?"
"You didn't go live?"
"Nope."
"Why…?"
"I decided I'm not doing short streams anymore."
"Short streams…?"
What does that even mean, all your streams are short.
By Momoji's standards, every single one of Chaechae's streams was short.
"The thing is… your viewers are flooding in here…?"
"Huh? Hold on, let me check."
While she waited for Chaechae to pull up the channel, the chat spam and wailing didn't let up for a second.
*'…Did she attract these kinds of people, or did she turn them into these kinds of people.*
Or maybe they were just a perfect match.
"Ugh, what. Why are you all here. Get out, shoo, go on, scram."
The moment the chat realized Chaechae had seen them, the spam surged toward its peak.
"Maybe it'd be better if you just went live…."
"Nope. Should I just ban them all? Or put it on followers-only chat?"
"I mean, they're still your viewers."
Ding—
[AxeCrazyChae — ₩1,000: ㅠㅠ Moji, this little gremlin used a notice to mess with us]
"A notice?"
"……"
"What did you write?"
"I didn't say anything weird…."
It didn't seem like she'd get the story from Chaechae directly, so Momoji went straight to the DuelKingChaechae channel.
Amid the still-chaotic board, one post was lit up—
Specifically, one post with a whopping 398 replies.
She found the notice.
[Title: A Notice, Roughly]
Sorry the streams are so short.
So I thought about it over dinner.
I split my time to go live even when it's brief, and I still get grief for it.
You come to watch and have fun, but a short stream leaves you frustrated.
Turns out this is hurting both of us.
Going forward, I'll make sure we're no longer a source of harm to each other.
Thank you.
└okay okay glad you came to your senses
└i'm sorry too. for complaining about the length.
└thanks for writing a notice
└but like, what does this mean exactly? when's the stream tonight?
.
.
.
└?? why isn't she coming on?
└when are you coming?
└*(DuelKingChaechae): There will be no stream today as it would be a short stream^^ It would only hurt us both.
└what the hell does that mean?
└doesn't short stream mean you're still streaming?
└my hands are literally shaking what do you mean
└oh so you're saying if it's gonna be short you just won't go live at all?
└TURN ON YOUR STREAM YOU LITTLE GREMLIN
└this is not a notice i will end you
└please come back chaechae ㅠ
└*(DuelKingChaechae): 凸凸 (means convex iron)
└(ಠ益ಠ)
└ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ oh my god
└"convex iron" lmaooo this absolute gremlin ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└go live RIGHT NOW kim chaechae if you stream now i will forgive you
"…Chaechae."
"Yeah?"
"Go live."
"Today's a short—"
"Go."
"Yes ma'am."
Thanks to Momoji's sheer force of presence, the situation was resolved.