“Umm….”
As I woke up, the familiar ceiling came into view.
I pressed the power button on my phone to check the time, and it was showing 9:20 PM.
…Why was I sleeping at this hour?
While lost in thought, staring at my phone’s wallpaper, I recalled the memories from before I dozed off.
Suzuha Koga, Aki, Senior Namikawa, and Senior Ichika Minazuki had come to my house.
We were chatting at home, and then suddenly, exhaustion hit me, and I fell asleep.
But they had definitely been beside me at that time; did they go home since it got late?
“Huh….”
Stretching my arms, I got out of bed and made my way to the living room.
In the living room, Mom was sitting on the sofa, with her laptop open, watching TV.
“Did you come back?”
“Yeah. Did you sleep well?”
“Yes. Um, Mom… my colleagues from work came to visit earlier…”
“Oh, they all went home. It got pretty late.”
I figured as much.
Since they came by, it would’ve been nice if we could all have dinner together.
Slightly disappointed, I quietly sat beside Mom.
“They’re all cute and nice kids.”
“…Right?”
They were such nice people that I felt foolish for thinking bad of them before.
“Are you going to eat dinner? I had mine earlier.”
“Um… I’ll have some by myself later.”
I didn’t really feel hungry, so I figured I’d just have cereal or something when I genuinely got hungry.
But still, something felt off.
“…Hey, Mom. What time did they leave earlier?”
“I came back at 3:30 PM, and they probably left around 4:30 PM.”
“Did they say anything when they left?”
“…Nothing much. Ah, I asked Komachi if Mina was awake, and she said you’d probably wake up soon.”
She said I’d wake up soon?
It’s now 9:30 PM, and they left around 4:30 PM.
Five hours is not exactly “soon,” is it…?
“…Ah.”
It hit me. I had a broadcast scheduled at 5 PM today.
“Time to wake up, Izumi.”
“We’ll be going now…”
Suzuha and Aki had definitely said something like that before they left.
I nodded in agreement back then.
What the heck, it’s not a big deal… No, wait, it is!
“Um, um, Mom! I have a broadcast!”
“A broadcast?”
“I had a broadcast scheduled for 5 PM!”
“…Are you okay? It’s fine to take a day off—”
Mom looked concerned as she said that.
She probably had a rough idea of what was going on.
“…I’m fine!”
It would be a lie if I said I wasn’t worried at all.
Honestly, there’s plenty to worry about, and I felt a bit scared.
But still, it’s okay now.
Even if more people started to deny me, I was sure that there were even more people out there who supported me.
★
“…”
Hmm. Should I cancel what I thought earlier?
Honestly, I think it’d be better to take a break from today’s broadcast….
[Suzuha Koga: Didn’t you say you’d wake up soon!]
[Hina Amatsuka: Over 4 hours late. Isn’t that a new record?]
The Star’s Flow members were buzzing in the group Miscode server, all thanks to me.
[Manager: Izumi, are you still asleep?]
Naturally, my manager also sent me a message.
[Neighter Real-Time Trend]
[19th #IsMeiChannSleepingWell?]
My name even made it onto the Neighter real-time trends.
Although I’m currently in 19th place, I apparently had reached 3rd at one point.
I never wanted to be trending for something like this.
Should I take comfort in not being first?
But whether during the 150,000 endurance stream or when I accidentally leaked third-gen info…
Am I destined to only make it onto the real-time trends due to Yeo-sang?
If that’s the case, it’s a little sad….
“Sigh…”
After a light sigh, I quietly began typing on the keyboard.
[Kaino Izumi☆Star’s Flow @KainoIzumi · 1 minute ago]
Sorry, everyone, I just woke up…
★
[【Apology Broadcast】I Just Woke Up #Star’sFlow #KainoIzumi]
-─(≧▽≦)>ZumiZumi!
-It’s okay! Everyone has days like this!
-─(≧▽≦)>ZumiZumi!
-Mei-chan! Mei-chan! Mei-chan! Did you sleep well and wake up, Mei-chan?!
-Suzuha apparently contacted you a lot…
-Everyone’s so energetic!
-Is this the vibe of the ultimate socialite, Mei-chan!
-Is this the official 5-hour Mei-chan now…?
As soon as I switched on the broadcast, viewers flooded in at lightning speed.
Well, considering the community was buzzing due to me and that the broadcast, originally planned for 5 PM, was starting past 10 PM, it was to be expected.
-The screen is completely black and I can’t see anything~
Just like Izutomo said, the broadcast screen was black since I hadn’t shown anything.
I hope they understand that I’m expressing my apology for being late.
“Ahem, ahem…”
Gathering my breath one last time, I quietly unmuted the microphone.
“Good, uh, morning. Everyone…”
-Hi Izumi!
-?
-Waiting for Mei-chan made the chicken go cold…
-It’s already dark outside…
-Your voice sounds really groggy haha
-Are you okay?
-Saying “Good morning” at 10 PM is something else…
-Waking up from a nap sounds cute!
-Did you sleep well?
-Isn’t Japan’s morning super dark like this…?
Fortunately, hardly anyone was angry at my greeting.
I guess with such a ridiculous delay, they didn’t even feel like getting mad…?
Of course, that doesn’t excuse my mistake, so I showed my avatar on screen and took a bow.
“First of all, I’m really sorry…”
-If you wake up well, it’s okay
-Is this a press conference…?
-Mei-chan has created a new legend
“I just took a long nap because I was so tired, and when I opened my eyes, it was 9:30…”
I even forgot I had a broadcast scheduled when I initially woke up, but I don’t need to say that right now.
I’ll leave that for a casual chat broadcast later.
-Your name climbed to 3rd place on Neighter real-time trend
“Thank you for the 3rd place on the real-time trend…”
Of course, it’s not like I wanted to be trending for this, but…
-Did you get scolded?
“F-Fortunately, I didn’t get scolded too much…”
[Manager: Please make sure to set alarms for your broadcasts from now on.]
I only got lightly reprimanded to set alarms from now on…. Uh….
★
After about an hour of the apology broadcast, I switched the screen for the hyper chat reading broadcast as originally planned.
But speaking of that…
-Is this the high school beauty broadcast with half Korean blood that you’re proud of?
-Hurry up and bring the model sister!
-I don’t understand anything, just do the broadcast in Korean
-The drawing is pretty haha
As expected, the number of comments in Korean significantly increased.
While it wasn’t overwhelming, it was definitely noticeable.
Of course, due to my connection with Aunt Shia, there were quite a few Korean Izutomo in my broadcasts normally, but it was never to this extent.
No, even if they were Korean Izutomo, they usually used Japanese in chats unless they were using hyper chats.
But it seemed like this incident had spread a lot more than I thought.
In fact, when I casually did some ego surfing before the broadcast started, I found this incident popping up in various communities.
-There are a lot of strange comments compared to usual.
This is bad….
Of course, if there were people who discovered my broadcasts because of this incident, I wouldn’t mind them being here to enjoy it.
But…
-Why is the gorgeous model sister not streaming? Why is her little sister streaming instead?
-If you really think you’re cute, turn on the cam.
Having so many comments like these is definitely a major problem.
There were even hints of complaints popping up in the chat.
I absolutely want to avoid any fights, and I don’t want the regular Korean Izutomo who enjoy my broadcast to develop any strange prejudices…
For now, I’ll have to put it on subscriber-only mode.
I hope this incident fades away quickly…
Thinking that, I switched to subscriber-only chat, but I overlooked one thing.
=Aaaaah JP¥ 50,000: Is it true that Mei-chan has Korean blood? Then did you perhaps know about Toka Mama way back since the 『 』 days?
It’s important to note that this incident didn’t just spread in Korea, as there are definitely people in Japan who are sensitive about these things.
This person seemed quite invested in this incident to send a 50,000 yen hyper chat.
Of course, I could ignore this hyper chat and move on but…
Wait a minute; isn’t the unfair situation on my end?
I was just trying my best on my broadcast, and now my personal info got exposed.
And not just mine, but my sister’s info, which has nothing to do with this.
If it was me being singled out, I might “get” it.
“Um, yes. It’s true that MamaZumi has Korean heritage.”
So the approach I chose was to face it head-on.
Mixed-race VTubers weren’t completely unheard of in the VTuber industry, and the company had approved it to an extent.
“I heard that when MamaZumi was studying in Japan, PapaZumi saw MamaZumi, fell in love, and eventually got married…”
Of course, that’s as far as I could go. I couldn’t share any more about my sister.
I didn’t even want to talk about it, and even if a 50,000 yen hyper chat came, I planned to ignore it.
“But I truly met Toka Mama for the first time…”
Although it was said we were close when we were little, I have no memory of it, so it wasn’t a lie.
Even if I remembered, I hadn’t known Aunt Shia back in the 『 』 days.
-I’ve heard that Mei-chan seems awkward when reading Korean hyper chats sometimes.
“Um… it’s just that I, I’m not quite used to Korean…”
It’s almost as if memories of being Korean in my previous life have faded away.
Why is that? I really don’t know…
-But your cursing is fluent!
“…”
Lucky for me, there weren’t any problematic hyper chats until the end of the broadcast.
After all, even if there were a lot of troublesome Izutomo, they all had their good sides…
And after having taken a long nap and streaming until 5 AM, I found myself in a bit of trouble.
“Kayanoh, are you not feeling well?”
“Um, I-I’m sorry….”
I ended up getting scolded by the teachers at school for dozing off continuously.
Fortunately, since I had a good reputation usually, I wasn’t scolded too harshly.
★
[Virtual On-Tuber Minor Gallery]
[Title: How Could They Handle Yeo-sang So Poorly? Haha]
[Posted by: ㅇㅇ]
Thanks to the 5-hour delay, all the punks trying to pull aggro from this Yeo-sang just got tired and dropped out haha.
[Thumbs Up: 8 / Thumbs Down: 52]
Mei-chan Love: Don’t slander our Mei-chan, you jerk!
Oya-bung🔸: Idiot.
ㅇㅇ: Foolish.
ㅇㅅ: Do you think the Queen of Yeo-sang’s reputation is a joke?
[Title: But Seriously, the Points I Liked About Yeo-sang Today]
[Posted by: ㅇㅇ]
I liked that she boldly declared MamaZumi is Korean ㅇㅇ.
I liked that she finds it awkward, even though she practices Korean ㅇㅇ.
But seriously, her cursing is super smooth ㅇㅇ.
…Maybe I like her a little, I might become an Izutomo?
(Membership Joining Screen.jpg)
[Thumbs Up: 68 / Thumbs Down: 11]
ㅇㅇ: Why’s this idiot suddenly losing it haha.
Oya-bung🔸: (You too are an Izutomo! Cone)
Doodok-ri Online🔹: (Did you think it was Yeo-sang? Haha “Mei-chan”!)
…
Maker: (Mei-chan… the charmer… Cone)
ㅇㅇ: (??? Cone)
Nah-chuk-sal: At this point, is she really a charmer…?
└ㅇㅇ: Did you just realize that?
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