Chapter 56
Yerin seemed convinced that they were the culprits who had tampered with the trap.
“Rils. No matter how I look at it, they’re suspicious.”
“What is?”
“Why would they check a trap someone else made? They obviously wanted to steal anything that got caught in it.”
“Ms. Yerin. You shouldn’t go around suspecting people without proof.”
“R-Rils! Whose side are you on?!”
I had more or less the same opinion as Yerin. After all, there was nothing normal about checking a trap when you already knew where it was.
But without any physical evidence, we had no choice but to let it go for now, and continuing to suspect them would only put me in a bad mood.
More importantly, why was Yerin being so sharp?
If there was one thing I had realized from living with Yerin until now, it was that she was basically the type of person who belonged among the good people.
She was sociable and meddlesome, and rather than having the arrogance peculiar to female streamers, she was a spirited young woman with a lot of pride.
But the moment she met Baek Seol-ah, her reaction became strangely sharp.
Unable to contain my curiosity, I asked.
“Ms. Yerin.”
“Why?”
“Do you dislike Ms. Baek Seol-ah?”
“Yeah.”
Her answer came back extremely decisively.
What on earth had happened between the two of them?
“Why? Did you two have a fight?”
“Rils. The streamer industry is…”
“Yes?”
“It’s incredibly small. If you go through even one intermediary, everyone knows one another. There’s that much interaction between them, too.”
Yerin lightly nudged a pebble on the ground with her finger.
“The competition over viewers is especially fierce.”
Competition over viewers?
Now that I thought about it, it made sense.
The number of people watching broadcasts was limited rather than infinite, so there were only that many spots available for streamers to become famous.
Just as actors competed over a limited number of roles, streamers were ultimately competing over the same pie.
“I used to be close with her, too.”
“With Ms. Baek Seol-ah?”
“Yeah.”
Yerin nodded.
“We even met up and did collaboration streams sometimes.”
Then she whispered into my ear.
Far enough away that the drone couldn’t hear us.
“But… Baek Seol-ah, that girl has absolutely no conscience.”
“Yes?”
“She flirts shamelessly with other people’s viewers, too! It’s completely ridiculous.”
“Is that bad? Isn’t it good to be friendly with your fans?”
“She takes it too far.”
Yerin crossed her arms as if she were displeased.
“During collaboration streams, she hits on my viewers and tells them to come visit her stream. Once or twice would be one thing, but she keeps doing it, you know?”
“Yes.”
“The streamer is right beside her, and she still tries to seduce my oppas. That’s a violation of professional ethics. And when I called her out, she actually started playing politics. It’s seriously ridiculous.”
I fell into thought for a moment as I listened to Yerin.
Somehow, as I listened to her, wasn’t this… hatred of her own kind?
The two of them seemed pretty similar.
After all, there was a saying that people felt uncomfortable when they saw someone similar to themselves.
“Ms. Yerin.”
“Hm?”
“People generally dislike those who are similar to themselves.”
Yerin flared up.
“I’m completely different from her, okay?!”
“You also stream while saying things like ‘Oppas~.’”
“That’s just a line for the show.”
“Isn’t it a line for her show, too?”
“She’s like a gumiho, eyeing other people’s viewers!”
“Is that so?”
I tilted my head.
At my reaction, Yerin spoke in a quite serious tone.
“Rils.”
“Yes?”
“You’re supposed to take my side here.”
“Why?”
“You’re closer to me, Rils.”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“Of course you side with someone you’re close to. That’s normal, isn’t it?”
“No.”
Yerin looked at me with an aggrieved expression. She looked like a cat displeased with its owner’s behavior.
“But I really don’t see how we’re different.”
“Aaaagh!”
In the end, Yerin complained to me about how unfair it was for quite a while, but I couldn’t understand her at all.
@
Putty wiped away his cold sweat.
“I made up an excuse because I was flustered, but would it have been better to just tell the truth? I don’t know if I made the right choice.”
Jay smiled and spoke.
“We didn’t knowingly steal it, so don’t worry about it too much, Mr. Putty. You might get cursed at a little in the chat or community, but it’ll be fine.”
Baek Seol-ah moved her lips as if she felt wronged.
“See? I told you we should just let it go.”
After reassuring Putty and Baek Seol-ah, Jay thought to himself.
‘Yesterday’s snow is just yesterday’s snow.’
In the streaming world, an incident like this didn’t even qualify as an incident.
It would soon be buried under the scandals that erupted every day and forgotten.
Besides, they probably had far more fans than the owner of the trap did.
He wasn’t worried at all.
Jay didn’t know.
He didn’t know that Rils’s popularity out there was soaring through the roof….
@
“Ms. Yerin. Please finish washing the shellfish.”
“Hmph!”
“I’ll clean the abalone.”
“Suit yourself!”
Even so, Yerin took the bamboo tube containing the shellfish with an extremely sulky expression.
Apparently, she hadn’t liked my comment about hatred of one’s own kind.
Were all women like this?
Should I say they suddenly bared their claws like cats whenever you didn’t take their side?
Anyway, let’s not worry about it.
Time healed all wounds, so she would get over it after a while.
I washed the abalone under running water and rubbed it several times with my hands. The black slime clinging to the flesh came off.
Normally, it would have been best to use a brush to remove the foreign matter, but no such luxury existed here.
After washing the shellfish that had finished purging, Yerin stayed sulky, standing far away and merely watching me.
Normally.
-Rils. What are you doing?
-Wow, that’s fascinating. Did you see this in a documentary too?
-I want to try it too.
She would have been pestering me from beside me.
Human relationships were really exhausting.
Still, Yerin was simple-minded, so praising her appropriately would probably cheer her up quickly.
It would be a huge nuisance if she stayed sulky all day.
I suppose I should cheer her up a little.
“Ms. Yerin.”
“Hmph.”
“This is what I think. No matter how much Ms. Baek Seol-ah flirts with her viewers, you’re more charming, so it won’t do her any good. Her attacks won’t work at all.”
Yerin’s ears perked up like a rabbit’s.
“…That’s true.”
“If I were a viewer, I’d watch your stream. You’re fun.”
Yerin’s expression brightened noticeably.
Stride, stride.
She walked over to me while I was cleaning the abalone, then suddenly wrapped her arms around me from behind.
“As expected, there’s no one but our Rils.”
“Ugh. Let go, please.”
“Rils is the best! Cute, kind, and capable!”
“I haven’t finished cleaning it yet. Please step back.”
Yerin really was simple-minded.
@
Making steamed shellfish without a steamer wasn’t difficult.
The key was trapping the steam.
As long as you had intense heat and an appropriate amount of moisture, you could make steamed shellfish.
I laid hot stones heated in the campfire across the ground. On top of them, I placed palm leaves soaked in water, then put the abalone and shellfish on top of those.
Finally, I weighed down the edges with stones so that the steam couldn’t escape.
“Do you think this will really work?”
“Yep. If it doesn’t, we can just grill them.”
“That’s awfully half-assed.”
After a little while.
Faint wisps of steam began to escape between the palm leaves.
The hot stones emitted heat, turning the moisture held by the palm leaves into steam and gradually raising the temperature inside.
We had effectively made a small steamer.
We stared blankly at the steam curling upward.
‘It really works?’
Even though I knew the theory, this was my first time trying it in practice, so I wasn’t sure whether it would actually work.
I had planned to grill everything if it didn’t.
Either way, turban shells, clams, and abalone all tasted good grilled.
After quite some time had passed, I removed the small stones resting on top of the palm leaves.
Then I carefully lifted the leaves covering the top.
Psssh!
Scalding steam burst out all at once.
The palm leaves seemed to have done a perfect job as a steamer. The shellfish had opened their mouths wide, while the abalone revealed glossy, cream-colored flesh that looked incredibly appetizing.
“Oh!”
It looked exactly like something sold at a specialty steamed-shellfish restaurant.
No, wait.
If anything, steaming it in leaves gave it an even more luxurious feel.
I carefully took out the steaming abalone with a branch.
No matter what else we ate, I had to eat the abalone first.
Everyone was different, but I usually ate the most delicious things first.
Yerin and Kim Woong also couldn’t take their eyes off the abalone.
Wild abalone this size would cost market price if you wanted to eat it outside.
I took out my machete and cut the hot abalone into appropriately sized pieces. Then I handed the first piece to Yerin, who served as our party’s royal taster.
“Ms. Yerin.”
“Hm?”
“Try it.”
As if she had been waiting for me to say that, Yerin eagerly brought the abalone to her mouth.
Munch, munch.
After chewing a few times, her eyes immediately widened.
It had gotten to the point where I felt disappointed if I didn’t get this reaction.
I had never understood why people watched mukbang videos, but when someone with a good reaction ate food, it really did seem to whet everyone else’s appetites, too.
“This is insane. It’s fucking delicious.”
This time, it was Kim Woong’s turn.
Kim Woong politely accepted the abalone I handed him with both hands.
“Thank you, Benefactor.”
Munch, munch.
Kim Woong was silent for a moment.
“Benefactor.”
“Yep.”
“It’s cheating.”
“What is?”
“It’s unbelievably delicious. It’s comparable to chicken breast.”
For Kim Woong, this was the highest praise of the highest order.
Chicken breast, the staple food of bodybuilders, was no different from rice to them.
I picked up a piece of abalone and put it in my mouth as well.
Munch, munch.
The firm, springy flesh had a satisfying elasticity with every chew.
The aroma of the sea spread throughout my mouth. Since I hadn’t added any seasoning at all, I could taste the abalone’s natural flavor instead.
There really was a reason it was called the ginseng of the sea.
Soooo tasty.
Somehow, I felt as if I were enjoying more luxury than usual after coming to the deserted island.
We had eaten crayfish, turban shells and clams, and abalone.
As expected, coming to the deserted island had been the right choice!