Rules

Ms. Haeun said with a smile.

“The address was near my place, so I came by for a meal like you suggested. Is that okay?”

“Yes, of course. Oh, where are my manners? Have a seat. What can I make you?”

“Um….”

While waiting for her answer, I stared blankly at her face, still unable to get used to the difference.

In my head was our head chef, who told us to get out and die whenever anything happened, but reality was the exact opposite. Was she two-faced?

As I wondered to myself, I noticed Ms. Haeun had gone silent for quite a while, her eyes fixed on something.

I subtly followed her gaze and turned my head, only to find that it had landed on the soup I had been about to eat.

Anything but that. That was my lunch, and it had taken a full hour and a half to make.

“I kept hesitating outside because I wasn't sure this was the right place. But it smelled so good that I just came in. Is that okay?”

“But I hadn't touched that yet—it was what I was going to eat. Are you sure?”

“It's fine. It hasn't actually gone into your mouth or anything, and I skipped breakfast, so I'm really hungry.”

I'm not fine, lady.

But she looked genuinely hungry, so I had no choice but to nod.

It would be ridiculous for the owner of a restaurant to leave a hungry customer waiting with, “Hold on, I need to eat first.”

It would also be strange for a customer to say, “Then hand over what you're eating,” and simply take it.

Then again, my restaurant was weird to begin with, so maybe it was fine.

And so my precious onion soup met its end at Ms. Haeun's hands, getting absolutely demolished.

It was already close to one. If I made another batch, my stomach was practically screaming, “Kill me already.”

“Sigh. I'll just eat the sliced bread in the freezer.”

“I haven't had lunch either. Would it be okay if I ate with you?”

“Yes.”

“Thank you.”

I put butter in the pan I'd used to toast the bread earlier and toasted the sliced bread. There were only a few slices left, so I toasted them all and put them on a plate.

As I carried the toast to the table, I said to Ms. Haeun,

“Also, you can speak casually with me. I may not look it, but I'm twenty.”

I'm not trying to imply that you're old. You're at least not a student, right?

“Really? I feel a little more comfortable now. You can speak casually with me too; I don't mind. Oh, and just so you know, I'm twenty-four.”

I was surprised; she was older than I'd expected.

“Okay. Then I'll call you unni.”

“Whatever you're comfortable with.”

That aside, her personality just did a complete 180.

The vibe I'd seen in her videos came right out.

“Hahaha. This is my real personality. Just like on my stream, right?”

She explained that she was a person too, so she acted formally around people she was meeting for the first time.

Fair enough, but it was still amazing to watch her switch in a single second right before my eyes.

It was like changing masks in Chinese opera.

Once I'd made sense of it, I was just about to take a bite of toast when—

Unni? Why are your eyes fixed on my toast?

I moved it slightly to the side, and her gaze followed it.

I repeated the motion several times, like playing with a cat using a laser pointer, until the soup bowl I'd given her earlier was—

‘I guess I won't need to wash that.’

I could probably guess without asking, but hearing it directly was another matter, so I asked bluntly.

“How did it taste?”

“It was really, really fucking delicious. The cheese was nutty and salty, and it was perfectly seasoned when eaten with the bread. The part of the bread touching the cheese was crisp, while the part soaking in the soup was soft, so the texture was great too.”

I listened as unni rambled on while eating the bread.

The conclusion: my food fucking rocked. Thank you.

When I bit into it, it went crunch, and the outside crunched just like it sounded while the inside was moist. That's what well-toasted bread is supposed to be.

“Ah. There's one disappointing thing, though.”

“Something disappointing?”

What had been wrong? Had I made a mistake?

“Yeah. The portion is fucking tiny.”

Ah. Right. She'd said she hadn't eaten since morning.

The soup I'd just served had been in a small bowl about the size of a woman's palm.

I'd made it for myself to eat before going to sleep, so it hadn't been a particularly large serving.

So that's why she couldn't take her eyes off my bread.

She sneakily pulled the bowl toward herself and started scarfing it down.

Thus, through the tyranny of a big streamer, the little mom-and-pop shop starved to death. The end.

Just kidding. Seeing her eat with such relish made me happy.

“Are you feeling a little fuller?”

“I feel like I can finally live again.”

“That's a relief. I didn't have many ingredients on hand, so I was a little worried.”

I said that while clearing away the empty bowls.

“Next time you come, just send me a text the day before. I didn't prepare anything in particular because I thought you weren't coming yesterday.”

I wrote down my number and handed it to unni.

You shouldn't judge someone by first impressions, but I had a feeling this person was probably okay.

Maybe because I'd been burned so many times, I could recognize a bad guy for sure, even if I couldn't always spot a good one.

“Sorry about that. I hadn't planned on coming today.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I had plans nearby, but they got canceled.”

Unni muttered a quiet curse at someone.

“So since I was already out, I figured I'd grab a meal before heading home, and then I thought of you.”

Ah. So that's how it happened.

I nodded repeatedly.

“But it was even more delicious than I imagined. Honestly, I wasn't expecting much. You know how it is, right?”

Unni said, scratching her head.

Can't be helped. Right now, I'm just a twenty-year-old woman with no experience.

“I'm glad you enjoyed it.”

“Yeah. I'll come by from time to time from now on. Oh, I'll contact you, so don't worry.”

“Okay. Thank you.”

Unni stood up after hearing my answer.

“I should get going now.”

“Already?”

“I have to. You should look in a mirror. Did you pull an all-nighter?”

Apparently, it showed on my face too.

Damn it. I want an invincible TS body too.

“Take care on your way home.”

“Sure. See you next time.”

Unni left with a meaningful smile.

It had been a brief but intense encounter.

After unni left, all that remained was my starving stomach.

I was insanely hungry, but I was even sleepier.

‘What am I going to do about today's stream?’

I was far too exhausted to stream.

I decided. I'd take the day off. I'd been too diligent up until now anyway.

There was a café that came to mind. If I left an announcement there, someone would see it.

Honestly, it wouldn't matter even if they didn't. If someone complained about me taking a day off, I could just hit them with, “I wrote it, so why didn't you read it?”

On my way home, I roughly typed up an announcement on my phone. Then I collapsed the moment I arrived.

***

[Title: Damn It!]

[Author: Jian]

I shouldn't have played Humankind all night yesterday!

(Thud. Jian, who had been sitting in front of her computer, finally collapsed without ever managing to press the Start Stream button.)

Comments

Anonymous3: So you're taking the day off? What a fucking shitshow.

Pig Jian: Open parenthesis: looks like a fucking bitch. Close parenthesis.

Anonymous12: Damn it! I shouldn't have watched Jian's stream! (I'm unsubscribing. Take care.)

Anonymous2: Collapse there foreveeeeeer~~~~

***

One day off felt too short, so I took two full days off. When I turned on my stream the next day, viewers were typing affectionate messages as usual.

Seeing the number had climbed back into the thirties put me in a good mood.

I looked fondly at the chat window, only to see—

-Okaeri Okaeri Okaeri Okaeri

-Who are you? Who are you? Who are you?

-OP, was that really the announcement you posted?

-ㅠㅠ I cried because I wanted to kill you, OP.

-22

-333333

“It's nice to feel so warmly welcomed by all of you.”

-Wel?come?

-What chat did she read?

-I really want to pull her hair.

Pull my hair? That's a bit harsh.

“Anyway, thanks to all your concern and support, I had a good rest.”

-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

-The announcement was nothing but curses.

“Really? I didn't read the comments. Shall we take a look now?”

-Go go, read them!

I entered the café and clicked on the announcement I'd written yesterday in a half-asleep state.

“For anyone who may not have seen it, I'll read the announcement first.”

I cleared my throat and read the announcement from the beginning.

After reading it all, my thought was—

I wrote that pretty well, if I do say so. Mm-hmm.

-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

-Couldn't you just say, “I'm taking the day off”?

-Seriously, did you really have to write it in such a fucking irritating way?

That would make it feel so impersonal. Isn't this much better than just typing two bland words—“day off”—and calling it a day? If not, whatever~

“Shall we read the comments too?”

Looking at the list, there were more than ten comments.

“Let's see. The first comment says, ‘Open parenthesis, looks like a fucking bitch, close parenthesis.’ Hah, isn't that a little much? You can't just curse me out like this.”

Reading through them, I found that most were nothing but curses. Fine, if you guys were having fun, that was all that mattered.

After some casual back-and-forth, I returned to the main subject.

“Everyone, there's something else I need to do today.”

-Sure, sure, let's make food.

-I should go for a walk.

-Food again, cooking again.

No, I wanted to say, “I'm a cooking streamer, can't you cut me some slack?” but what I'd prepared for today was something else.

“Ahem! Hold your horses, walking dogs. I'm not cooking. I've already eaten, and today we're going to set some chat rules.”

-??

-Why bother?

-You said not to cross the line.

-What the hell's a chat rule?

A lot of them were asking why we needed to make rules at all.

To be honest, at first I'd wondered whether we could get by without any particular rules. That's why I'd simply told them not to cross the line.

But looking at the chat, it was hard to tell whether this was my channel or some anonymous online community.

The guys in my room would probably love that, given where they came from, but most people probably wouldn't.

I don't need to actively recruit new customers, but that doesn't mean I should chase away the ones who come in.

Another thing I realized when I accidentally became a one-day superstar last time was that having lots of people made the chat more varied and fun.

And if I want to keep streaming for a long time, wouldn't it be better to have a steady stream of newcomers?

“So, shall we all work together to improve the environment so we can welcome new customers?”

-Fuck off, bitch.

-You do it.

-Bullshit.

-You get your own act together.

-You fucking bitch,,, already,, getting a taste,, of other,, guys!!!

It was a little depressing that not a single person agreed. Since I'm the owner, is this my fault…?

No. I get it now. You're the problem. Just leave, all of you.