They say that when you win the lottery, you get bombarded with messages from all kinds of people.
Like the friend of your great-uncle’s cousin who you’ve never met, distant relatives, or even military training buddies.
I heard that when you go to collect your winnings, information leaks out at the bank. Since you have to visit the bank to claim your prize, it’s only natural for details to slip through the cracks.
No matter how much you try to keep your lips sealed, at least the bank staff will know who the winner is and how much they took home.
You end up getting contacted from all over, and sometimes it gets so bad it leads to stalking, making your everyday life nearly impossible.
Because of this, winners often choose to hide their victory or stay holed up at home for months after collecting their winnings.
How do I know all of this so well? Well, I’ve had a similar experience.
I may not have hit the lottery, but at some point, I began to gain quite a bit of notoriety. Just like flowers attract bugs, becoming famous invited all sorts of people wanting a piece of me.
Maybe I could’ve managed just fine until the personal broadcasts. Generally speaking, nobody was keen on sniffing out the money trail from a mere VTuber or streamer.
The real issue came with mainstream broadcasting. No matter how advanced online entertainment platforms like VTubing or TikTok became, the influence of traditional media is still hard to ignore.
It all started after I appeared on the public broadcast show “Midnight Talk.” From that moment onward, I was getting a taste of what winners of the lottery go through.
Suddenly, I was flooded with calls—people claiming to know me from college asking for money, and how they even got my phone number is still a mystery! I ended up changing my number a couple of times thanks to the barrage of calls.
That’s when it finally hit me. Fame can bring financial benefits and all sorts of perks, but it also comes with its fair share of risks.
Just look at Haryeong’s case as a prime example. Didn’t she have a nasty experience with a stalker? For someone like me who hoped to live an easy life off fame, those side effects became a real concern.
So, I couldn’t help but have my suspicions about Yeon Soo’s sudden mention of broadcasting.
“Done.”
In plain terms, mosquitoes, bloodsuckers, and drip feeders. Just like me, there were quite a few people doing personal broadcasts who clung to me pretending to be fans, trying to boost their own streams.
I felt a pang of pain in my heart for doubting my first love, but it was a reasonably justified suspicion. Suddenly receiving a contact during a stream, an unexpected appearance at a fan meeting, and when I asked her about her recent activities, she was doing a broadcast.
Now, if Yeon Soo proposed a collaboration to me, everything would perfectly fit together. In that case, I wouldn’t show it on the outside, but I wouldn’t be able to see her again.
I could be friends again with my ex-girlfriend, but it would be quite difficult to genuinely approach someone who came close for such trivial reasons.
“Yeah, I’m streaming. The platform is the same as yours, Twitch, and I just happened to see you doing it and wanted to give it a try too.”
However, Yeon Soo didn’t seem to have any intention of saying such things. Obviously, from my perspective of having dealt with many people, she just wanted to chat about recent updates without much thought.
“How did you come across my stream?”
“Uh, it popped up on the VTube algorithm. You know the dance you did on your stream? After seeing that, I ended up watching the live broadcast right away.”
It was definitely a problem with the public broadcast. Since my main content is games, there wouldn’t be a chance for Yeon Soo, who has nothing to do with games, to know about my stream.
“You dance really well. Back when you were with me, you wouldn’t even bother moving, let alone dancing.”
“That’s…”
“Can you show me that? Wasn’t there a reaction you did on stream called… the Bris Challenge?”
“Let’s go!”
After that, it was just an unbalanced exchange of deals. I had accumulated many sins on the broadcast.
I had no idea when Yeon Soo started watching my streams, but it was definitely not a recent thing. She kept bringing up embarrassing moments I had forgotten myself, constantly tormenting me.
“Mun Ah, you didn’t even tell me this when we were dating… Were you really missing everyone? You’re going to be quite the heartthrob for many guys.”
“Stop… please stop…”
The imbalance of information is indeed unfair. Just like a weak person has to bow down to a strong person with asymmetrical power, I couldn’t move an inch against Yeon Soo.
In the end, the clue for retaliation was in the broadcast.
As a seasoned streamer, I was well aware that broadcasting often leads to unintentionally exposing weaknesses. If only I could figure out what Yeon Soo was streaming, I’d have her vulnerabilities right in my hands.
“That was fun, remember last August? Viewers were all gushing over you while you were—”
“Okay, okay, stop! You’re talking about me too much. I’m curious about you, Yeon Soo!”
Interrupting someone while they’re speaking might be rude, but I managed to shift the flow of the conversation.
If you’ve gotten the tempo right, you shouldn’t give them a chance to recover. That’s the proper way to run a show.
“So, Yeon Soo, what are you streaming?”
“Uh… Me?”
“Yeah, I’m curious! Can’t you tell me?”
Yeon Soo, who had been chattering away, suddenly stopped talking as if a machine had hit pause.
Even though she’d revealed she was streaming, it seemed she was reluctant to specify what exactly she was doing.
Being hesitant to reveal something suggests it’s a weakness.
Having identified that weakness, I began to relentlessly pursue it.
“Huh? No? You watch my streams too, don’t you? I’m just curious.”
“Um… Well, compared to the big company Kayak, my stream is just too small…”
“That doesn’t matter. Streaming is all about ups and downs. If you have any concerns about streaming, I could listen to you too!”
With an innocent sparkle in my eye, I looked at her, as if I had no ulterior motives. Seeing me like that, Yeon Soo’s voice turned slightly troubled.
“I’m just a bit shy. You’re the only one I told about my streaming, Mun Ah. Since you’re in the same field, I guess I got carried away…”
“I’m shy too! Am I the only one who’s shy here? You were just teasing me for being shy a moment ago.”
“Th-that’s…”
The tips of Yeon Soo’s ears turned red. It was a sign she showed when she felt uncomfortable or awkward.
Seeing her curl up like that made me feel a bit sympathetic, yet at the same time, I realized I was close to my goal.
“How shy could you be? Even if you caused a social uproar, it’s okay. I can’t imagine, but if that’s the case, you must have had your reasons. I totally get it.”
“…! That’s not it…! My stream is totally wholesome…!”
“Then just tell me! It’s that simple.”
“Haney.”
“Ugh…”
It didn’t take long for Yeon Soo, cornered and exhausted, to declare her surrender.
A small voice that seemed like it could fit in a mouse hole escaped from her lips.
“Do you know what a VTuber is?”
*
[Hello, Lion~~]
[Thanks for streaming again today, Lion]
[Nice to meet you, roar]
[Lion greeting]
[Hello, Lion! Hehe]
[Roar, please greet us, roar]
– Roar, nice to meet you. I am Lion Meow from the Savanna, roar. Nice to meet you, humans.
A pile of polygons, graphics, avatars.
That was the kind of thing you could call it. The character in the shape of a lion that appeared on the screen.
Although it looked much closer to a cat than a lion. It was too cute to be called a lion.
With whiskers poking out like a cat’s and a brown mane to prove its lion-ness, simply put, it was a cute girl lion beast character. It seemed designed for specific tastes.
Currently, I was rewatching a broadcast by the streamer called ‘Lion Meow.’ With Yeon Soo sitting next to me.
For some reason, while I was quite intrigued by the video, she appeared to have some difficulty watching it.
“Ahhhhhh…!”
At the same time a voice strikingly similar to Yeon Soo’s echoed through the video, she buried her face in the table, letting out a pitiful groan.
Hmm, yeah. It was definitely wholesome. Uncomfortably wholesome. It wouldn’t be strange for it to be classified as a kids’ channel.
Of course, I didn’t say that out loud. Yeon Soo’s HP seemed close to zero. I had no interest in teabagging a corpse that was already dead.
But this was just simple curiosity. A question I desperately wanted to ask, even if Yeon Soo was responding pretty intensely.
“Lion Meow? That’s the broadcast nickname, right? And the greeting at the start is roar.”
“Can’t we talk about something else…?”
“But why is the greeting roar? Lions don’t roar like that, do they? Isn’t roar usually the sound tigers make…?”
“Ugh…”
My first love, reencountered, had become a VTuber broadcasting with a cute girl lion beast avatar.
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