Who Is That Guy?

"Uh. Huh?"

She got up from her seat, her face crumpling as if she were about to cry.

I looked up at her as she stood there, still not even understanding what had happened.

"What was that all of a sudden? I'm disappointed in you, Ms. Jia. It was my mistake to suggest an in-person collab. I thought you were good at streaming, so I suggested we do a collab that would help us both. What was that?"

She sniffled and walked toward the bedroom door.

"I-I'm sorry."

I grabbed one of her arms as she tried to leave and pleaded with her.

"Sorry? You came over, smoked, and pressured me, then acted just like you do on your own stream, even though you knew what kind of vibe my stream has. Were you trying to milk my stream for content or something? Everyone left, you know?"

She grabbed my shoulders and pressed me harder.

"Even if we're both women, we're not that close, are we? We just met in person for the first time, and we've talked one-on-one fewer than five times. And you suddenly touch my stomach? That's unequivocally sexual harassment."

Sexual harassment. The moment I heard those words, I slid off my chair and knelt before her.

"I-I'm sorry. I didn't know you'd feel that way."

She glared at me, then said,

"Is that all?"

A chill ran down my spine.

"I-I'm sorry."

I prostrated myself before her. I had to apologize. If she showed that she was uncomfortable with me, my stream would be fucked. And on top of that, what would I do if some drama channel spread this around?

What else could I do? Go on Twitter and sell my body with sex tweets? Debut as a female streamer on Popcorn TV or somewhere like that and act like a whore?

No. No, I couldn't do that. Maybe this was all a hidden-camera prank? Just to mess with me...?

"Pfft."

I cautiously looked up at the laughter that came from above me.

The chat was full of "lol" and other, in a word, weird messages, and she couldn't hold back her laughter as she looked at me.

On top of that, OBS—in other words, the program streaming the broadcast—had the microphone on.

"Wh-why is the mic..."

"Sur~prise~!"

She laughed, dropped to her knees, and hugged me.

"Ah~ I'm really sorry, Ms. Jia. It was a hidden-camera prank... kh, heuk... Pfft, hah!"

I stared at her, dumbfounded.

No, this wasn't a hidden-camera prank. She'd just chewed me out to my face, but since she wouldn't be able to keep leeching off me if she did, she was pretending it was all a prank to smooth things over.

Now, let's think. How could I counter her?

The answer was simple.

#

"Hic. H-haa. Heuk, keh."

I pretended to hold back my tears as much as I could, but I didn't hold back my sobs.

"Huh? Huh?"

There was an unspoken rule to hidden-camera pranks.

Namely, the person being pranked shouldn't feel bad.

Overseas, even if you got hit with a harsh hidden-camera prank, once they showed you the camera, you were apparently supposed to make a face like, "Ehh~ So it was a prank~ Haha!"

Now, let's think. If I sincerely apologized without realizing it was a hidden-camera prank, and then I started crying, where should the blame fall?

Right on Sahyang.

"Uh...?"

A million thoughts were probably racing through her mind.

Of course, she had scolded me pretty harshly, but she probably hadn't expected me to cry over it.

She'd probably imagined me looking at her with teary eyes, going "Huh? Huh?" as I figured out what was going on, then getting mad and smacking her a few times.

But what about me? I was crying now.

I glanced up at her.

She was sweating buckets.

'I'm fucked.'

That thought must have clearly crossed her mind.

"Uh..."

She stared at me without saying a word.

Had her brain stopped working? That said, I didn't actually mean to screw her over.

"F-first, please sit down."

When she spoke, I sighed in relief inwardly and sat down.

"Um..."

"I-I... I didn't know it was a hi-hidden camera..."

She trembled, her jaw quivering, and seemed to have no idea what to do.

"And, and you even got down on the floor and begged me, but then I said it was a prank..."

"I'm sorry..."

"Just words...?"

I asked her through my tears.

Honestly, if you thought about it a little longer, it was a pretty strange thing to say. A girl who'd been crying just moments ago was now asking "Just words...?" right after the other person apologized, as if demanding something from her.

But her mind didn't seem to be working properly.

"I-I'll do anything."

"Really?"

I abruptly stopped crying and looked at her.

"Huh...?"

"Hehe, I played a hidden-camera prank on you too."

I smiled faintly and scratched my head. She let out an "Ah!" and shook her whole body in frustration at having been fooled.

"Ah~ What was that~? I got fooled again?"

"How dare you! How dare some girl in her early twenties try to fool this big sister who's already twenty-four! Hey! When I started college, you were graduating middle school, you little brat!"

Of course, to be precise, there wasn't just a four-year age gap between us—it was nine years, but whatever...

'Isn't my mental age close enough to a twenty-four-year-old's?'

I shrugged inwardly and teased her.

"Hup."

After some time passed, she ordered delivery to apologize.

I waved my hands, telling her it was fine, but she said she'd definitely done something wrong, so she wanted to make it up to me with this instead.

She was clever.

Even little incidents like this could come back later when some controversy blew up, with people saying, "lol, she's been like this from the start."

And yet, she didn't hesitate to spend her own money to apologize for even a small incident like this and buy me a meal?

"Is it an ad?"

"Huh?"

Wasn't something fishy about this?

"No, no, it's not an ad. Are you crazy...? These days, if you get caught doing a stealth ad, you're done for."

"Oh, is that so?"

I scratched my head and glanced at her.

Anyway, I really liked her.

For someone in broadcasting, getting popular was important, but being able to stay afloat was just as important.

Her streaming career looked like it would last a long time.

I thought her motto might be to stream for a long time and make a big impact.

Ding-dong.

When the delivery arrived, she smiled brightly, left me in charge of the stream, and ran to the front door.

Her house was fairly spacious, and since she'd chosen to pay on delivery instead of paying in advance, it seemed to be taking quite a while.

"You're asking what year I enlisted?"

The chat couldn't forget my transfer report from earlier, and people were donating to ask about my personal details.

"Was it the 16th enlistment class...?"

[I enlisted in 2016 and I'm 24?]

Oops, wait. Did that mean I went into the army at sixteen?

"Ah... I went into the army and became a woman, and I also got younger, so I'm twenty-four now. I was originally twenty-nine."

I answered them with a straight face.

Who would believe that I was originally a tired office worker, twenty-nine years old with an ugly, below-average face, who suddenly drank some potion, became a woman to fulfill my desires, got younger, and started streaming online?

As expected, the chat filled with laughter, and I chuckled as if I'd been joking too.

"Uhtchachacha—"

It was definitely supposed to be two chickens, but I saw an enormous bag big enough to cover about half her upper body.

"Wait. Wait, is this really two?"

"Yes, it is. Why?"

I looked at her struggling to hold the chicken bag with both hands, then at the bag, going back and forth between the two.

"Wait, is the bag huge, or are you tiny?"

"Be quiet."

She snapped at me, then hummed "Hmm-hmm~" as she unpacked the chicken.

"You're cute..."

"Me? I know."

I watched her from behind.

Sway, sway. Her butt, clad in short shorts, looked very soft.

"Can I touch it?"

"Touch what?"

"I asked if I could touch it."

As she tilted her head and started to turn around, I immediately grabbed her butt.

"Mmm~ Sahyang's booty is so soft~"

"Eek!"

She immediately smacked my hand away and rubbed her own butt.

"I'm self-conscious about it."

"Oh, sorry."

While she was getting the chicken ready, I needed to use the bathroom, so I went out.

I took a quick piss, then washed my hands thoroughly with soap.

'Even the soap is fancy... She's got so many products in the bathroom.'

Disposable needles and a comedone extractor for popping pimples, pure cotton handkerchiefs, cotton pads, toner, a wash-off cream mask, aloe gel, all kinds of at-home skincare devices and tonic lotion...

"Why does she have so much stuff?"

Her skincare routine was so excessive that it made me wonder if she was a model who turned on a camera.

Rustle.

I flinched at the sudden sound.

'What was that? Did I hear it wrong?'

But the sound came again.

I quietly stepped out of the bathroom to find the source, and the rustling grew louder.

Since I was wearing socks, my footsteps didn't make a scuffing sound, and fortunately I was able to approach without being noticed.

The rustling was coming from one of the rooms, whose door was slightly open.

I peeked through the gap and saw a man rummaging through a closet, looking for clothes.

I immediately grabbed the mop handle beside me and approached the room.

"You bastard!!!"

I flung the door open and charged at him, swinging the handle.

"Ah! Ah! Ugh, ah, wait, ah!"

Hearing the commotion outside, Sahyang muted her mic and ran over to me.

"Wait, this bastard was going through your closet. You perverted piece of shit!"

"K-Kang Shinwoo? Why are you here...?"

I froze when I heard that name.

"...Huh?"