It’s winter.
Snow is piling up in a flurry, the sun’s shining less, and the streets are suddenly bustling with a year-end atmosphere as trees are adorned with colorful decorations fitting for the season.
Colorful decorations. Multicolored lights are wrapped around the trees, each emitting a different hue. Twinkling, passersby take a moment to marvel at the sight as they walk by.
Yes, it was a Christmas tree. The once-a-year Christmas had arrived.
People enjoyed the holiday in various ways. Some spent joyful moments with family, others went on dates with their lovers, and some worked non-stop to earn extra pay…
The same went for the internet streaming site Twishi. Twishi was also celebrating this year’s Christmas in its own unique way.
[SHRIEK]
(Ming-chan’s Christmas break announcement jpg.)
Ming-chan, how could you do this to me? I’ve been subscribed for over two years, and I even donated 1 million won not long ago! I watch your streams daily and even stay till the end, and you can’t be with me on Christmas?
– Of course, Ming always comes through, haha! Expectations are never betrayed.
– Breathe, breathe!
– Good luck, LOL!
– Streamer Ming-chan… unmarried… noted….
– It’s even more chilling that there are still kids who are Ming-chan fans.
– There’s nothing more pathetic than pouring money and time into a female streamer, right?
– They’re quite pitiful, haha!
– Look at that lame excuse, haha! Quality time with family? Aren’t Ming-chan’s family abroad?
– You said you’d fly over, right?
– Oh haha, a boyfriend is still family (to-be).
– With the future husband, going steady…
This was the Christmas culture that existed on Twishi and other internet streaming platforms.
Streamers (mostly female) who didn’t turn on their streams on Christmas or Christmas Eve were assumed to have a boyfriend, and they were often memorialized in memes throughout the community.
Unless there was a significant reason, they were never cut any slack. Even significant reasons required streamers to provide proof attached to announcements to validate it to their viewers. For example, they might report an unexpected injury leading them to the emergency room or that their parents had collapsed.
If it wasn’t that serious, they’d be branded as having a boyfriend, leading to disruption in their broadcasts from that point on.
Some suspicious folks wouldn’t believe them even if there was a significant reason, thinking it was all a lie, thus highlighting the plight of female streamers who had to stream on Christmas come what may.
[Gotcha, Yu-Ah! LOL!]
It’s Christmas Eve and there’s a break, but is the schedule overlapping with Han Kang’s? And they both mentioned they’re going live on Christmas?
I can hear the viewers turning into dark-hearted folks from here!
– Viewer (Original Poster)
– The announcement times might be similar, lol. You’re suspicious of every little thing!
– This is definitive evidence.
– Han Kang is naive with the ladies again…
– Lady Bomber I.Han.Kang.
– Just taking notes on streamers like Yua… not a virgin…
[But these guys are hilarious, lol]
So if someone has a boyfriend, they take a break on Christmas or Christmas Eve; but if they take a break on another day, it means they don’t have a boyfriend? Lol
Come on, even on regular days, they meet with their boyfriends after broadcasting or are making out until the night before Christmas. If they broadcast for 48 hours straight starting Christmas Eve, how would you even verify whether they have a boyfriend or not? The verification method is really weird, lol.
– It is primitive, lol.
– It’s just that everyone goes out on Christmas to meet their lovers while they sit in their rooms feeling petty, for sure.
– Seriously, these days, broadcasting on Christmas Eve and Christmas is the norm, while people hang out at the end of the year.
– If someone is determined to hide it, you won’t catch them, haha. But trying to monitor ladies’ boyfriends is just gross.
– But… it’s sad seeing the viewers’ pure hearts getting trampled on.
– It’s a problem when they do that even to ladies who aren’t in the boyfriend business.
Recently emerging as the holy king, Twishi. The lady with the highest viewership, Kayak, also couldn’t escape their radar.
[Kayak will definitely stream, right?]
She’s been streaming diligently lately, so she must go live on Christmas and Christmas Eve!
– I’m not a viewer, but Kayak should stream on both days for sure, huh?
– Let her take a break, geez.
– If there’s nothing special planned, she’ll probably stream??
– Kayak is our “comrade,” haha.
– Isn’t it tougher not to have a boyfriend with that looks…?
No, Kayak is supposedly dating Camilla!
No, isn’t that just narcissism?
Most viewers hoped Kayak would stream on both Christmas and Christmas Eve, and they expected she would based on her previous actions.
Despite her dazzling looks reminiscent of Camilla and all that, Kayak had shown an oddly dry attitude toward romance.
Once, when someone asked about boyfriends in a donation, she looked absolutely horrified.
Because of that, rumors spread for a while that Kayak liked ladies or was a narcissist. But later, nothing substantial came from her, and it ended up just being empty gossip.
Additionally, due to her recent consistent streaming, they firmly believed Kayak would go live on Christmas, different from other ladies.
They believed without a doubt that Kayak would continue to stream even on Christmas, unlike other female streamers.
But as the saying goes, “the axe that is believed in can strike your foot.”
Soon, the majority of the people began to wail due to a post someone made in the gallery.
[What is this??]
(On the 24th and 25th, there will be no broadcasts. I promised to hang out with my boyfriend that day hehe.)
It was someone’s announcement of their break. Utterly audacious.
Usually, they would have brushed it off cheerfully. Comments like “These female streamers won’t quit LOL” would have been rampant, and they probably would have added that streamer’s name to their blacklist while teasing her fans mercilessly.
But now, aside from a few, nobody dared to do that.
The overwhelming majority plunged into despair as if they couldn’t believe it.
*Kayak’s posting.
This was because the name at the end of the announcement and the site where the announcement was posted were both very familiar to them.
It was Kayak’s announcement.
The Kayak they had faith in suddenly declared a break on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The reason? To hang out with her boyfriend.
[Is this… reality? Is this… reality? Is this… reality? Is this… reality?]
[I believed it, I believed it, I believed it, I believed it, I believed it, I believed it, I believed it]
[How could the host do this to me?]
[We were doing great, right?]
[Is this person quitting streaming?]
[My… horns hurt….]
[When are you coming back, sister? ㅠㅠ]
[Is it fun to suck the money from fans and hang out with your boyfriend?]
[Crazy bitch, bring a lightbulb.]
[Ah, LOL, it must be a prank, LOL, Kayak has no reason to post something like that, LOL]
[So Kayak went to hang out with her boyfriend after all….]
[Now that this has happened, I’ll make a big decision.]
[Let’s not talk about magic engineering attacks.]
It was an ordinary chat room. The only difference was that it wasn’t a chat room during a live broadcast.
Even in the chat room of a broadcast that had lost its owner, Kayak’s viewers remained like ghosts, continuously typing away.
[Come back come back come back come back come back come back come back]
[One day, a video was delivered to the viewers. Inside that video were the blonde-tanned man and Kayak….]
[(Camilla crying in ASCII art)]
[I will never love a female streamer again… never…]
[Why am I a PongPong… damn, why am I CyberPong?]
It was a meaningless cry, a soundless outcry.
Many gathered in the same predicament, but it was all for naught. After all, there was no streamer broadcasting. They hadn’t gathered with any special intention either. They were just habitually logging into Kayak’s stream while denying reality and typing away.
Denying reality, I was just habitually logging into Kayak’s stream and typing in the chat.
The community was too busy mocking their behavior. Some suggested that Kayak was just messing around, and if she had a boyfriend, there would be no reason to leave a message, but those opinions were brushed aside.
The few who still hoped that at least someone less crazy would turn on the stream were slowly losing their patience as the wait dragged on.
About two hours passed after that. Those who had hoped were starting to tire, and the malicious spam was also dying down.
Then, a miracle happened.
“What’s up, guys? I said it’s a break today, why are you all here?”
Kayak’s stream was on.
Unlike her recent habit of constantly showing her cam, this time it was no-cam, with only her voice being broadcast.
Still, people couldn’t hide their excitement. Some started to cheer, saying, “See? I told you she’d turn on the stream. Kayak was just messing around with that announcement!”
Maybe she had seen that reaction because Kayak spoke with a hint of a smile in her voice.
“Oh, it’s not a lie. I’m hanging out with my boyfriend today.”
The chat quickly turned into a fiery chaos again. Most of the viewers were expressing their various thoughts at once.
In the midst of that, a donation of ten thousand won flew in, asking why she even turned on the stream if she was going out with her boyfriend.
Then came the sound of her swallowing hard. Struggling to respond, Kayak hesitated, nervously mumbling.
The wrath of the angry crowd showed no signs of subsiding. After all, the streamer wasn’t interested in managing the chat at all.
What on earth did she want? Kayak had turned on the stream abruptly and hadn’t taken any action. She wasn’t running any content, nor was she engaging in conversation, nor was she providing an explanation about the announcement that viewers kept mentioning.
As the viewer count kept rising and the frustrations of those waiting for answers were about to boil over, the broadcast screen, which had been blank, suddenly switched.
Kayak had turned on her cam. Her sudden appearance was quite unfamiliar to the viewers.
Especially her outfit. She was wearing a red and soft base garment with specific parts dyed white, commonly known as a Santa outfit.
Wearing an adorably little Santa hat, Kayak couldn’t even look directly at the cam. With her cheeks slightly flushed, she avoided eye contact and mumbled for a moment before finally speaking up.
“You all are my boyfriends…”
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