WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Irevi
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Stream as a Hobby ◈
Chapter 1: Small-Time Streamer
──────
The life of a small-time streamer was a sad one.
“Can you all shut up for a second? I can’t concentrate.”
-No, bitch lmao
-She really plays however the fuck she wants
Unlike the big streamers and other channels, this was what chat looked like on the so-called dark side of streaming.
Still, maybe I had it pretty good. Truly tiny streamers didn’t even get any chat messages.
I remembered those days.
Now I had a whole 200 people watching, but there had been a time when not a single message came in.
“Of course I’ll play however the fuck I want. Why play games if I can’t?”
-BECAUSE YOU CAN’T BEAT IT!!
-The problem is you’re shit at it, yeah
-Great mechanics, shame about the brain
“Wayo doesn’t know anything, not a thing. Don’t be mean, everyone.”
-???
-Look at her switching roles lmaooo
-Weren’t you just saying “however the fuck I want”??
“Other streamers get defended even when they’re a little bad. Why don’t we have a squad of sweaty white knights here?”
-You killed them all
-What an asshole lmao
-“Sweaty white knights” she says
-All right, Waforties, that’s your cue
“No, no, you don’t have to come in...”
-Who’s picking on our baby??
-Are you okay, Wayo? Want a hug?
-You okay, Wayo? Hehe, your big bro’s here, don’t worry
“Seriously, I’m just going to ban you all.”
-LMAOOOOO
-Ugh, that’s fucking disgusting
-Please ban every last one
Despite saying that, I didn’t ban them.
Just a few temporary timeouts for laughs...
Without these gentlemen doing the heavy lifting, ready to switch roles at a moment’s notice, the stream wouldn’t run.
“Haah. What a sad life.”
I couldn’t help sighing again.
How had my stream ended up like this?
It hadn’t been this bad at first.
My channel was small, so I’d chased whatever got a laugh, and this was the result.
-??Where’d that come from?
-What’ve you got to be sad about, fuck, I have work tomorrow
“I have work too. That’s why I’m sad.”
Being a small-time streamer with another job really was miserable.
After putting all this effort into streaming, I still had to go to work tomorrow morning.
-Then go full-time if you hate it lmao
-Don’t you make 30 million won a month streaming??
-Listen to this big shot whining lmao
“You think I make thirty million a month? What big shot...?”
I let out a small laugh as I read the chat.
Not even close. Not remotely.
I averaged two hundred viewers and barely made minimum wage.
“I wanna go full-time too. Full-time...”
-Then do it
-Go on, do it. Not my life
-Don’t you have savings?
-Bet your life on it
“...I’ll go full-time when this does better than my main job.”
-What’s your main job?
-Apparently she works for a major corporation
-What, an overseas company? Tomorrow’s Monday and she’s still here in the middle of the night lmao
“I’m a freelancer. A freelancer.”
Wayo, a streamer in her first year.
Always dreaming of going full-time.
* * *
‘I’m going to live in style!’
That was my very first thought when I opened my eyes as a baby in my second life.
I’d spent my previous life buried in work until I died from overwork.
This time, I swore I’d live a cool, stylish life.
“You have a beautiful little princess!”
‘What?’
But the moment I heard the nurse, that dream shattered.
A princess?
Then the little brother who’d been with me in my previous life...
‘Huh.’
My little brother was... gone?
Yes, gone.
‘Aaaaaah!’
I immediately screamed inside my head.
Me, a princess?
A testosterone-fueled man’s man, a former rising star on the construction site, was now a princess!
It was shocking and devastating, but my feelings gradually changed.
“Oh, our little princess is so pretty!”
Because every time I looked in the mirror, what I saw amazed me.
Even with my chubby little cheeks, my features already stood out.
Objectively speaking, I was simply that good-looking.
I was the most popular kid in kindergarten.
Older people often gave me presents just for walking down the street.
“Honey, isn’t our little girl beautiful?”
“I know. The people at work are always telling me how jealous they are.”
“Speaking of which... At the department store the other day...”
Beautiful children were very popular in Korea.
Naturally, I got scouted at a department store.
“Look over here, princess! You’re doing so well, Ahyeon!”
It was only natural that I became a children’s fashion model at a young age.
On top of that, this was my second life.
“How is she so well-behaved?”
“Ahaha, I know, right? She’s been quiet since she was little.”
Unlike the other child models, who were actual children, I was well-behaved and had an adult-level understanding of photo shoots. Literally.
That earned me plenty of praise.
“If you’d work with us this time...”
“Does Ahyeon have anything scheduled for next year? We have a new children’s bag coming out...”
Work poured in from all sides, setting me on a smooth path as a fashion model.
A dozen or so years passed.
[Model of the Month]
[Catching the eye of world-famous designer Andel...]
Somehow, I became a fairly well-known model at a young age.
“Huh? I got it wrong?”
-That’s what we’ve been saying, fuck
-Don’t try to think with that brain of yours
-Are you playing this game alone right now??
“Wayo doesn’t know anyth... Huh? I was right, though?”
-lol sorry
-Oh yeah you were lmao
-My bad, my bad
“Lol. I’m banning everyone who talked shit.”
And on the side, I was a small-time streamer.
* * *
Why had I become a streamer?
The first reason was that I felt stifled.
Becoming a top model was great. But...
It naturally came with a life of restraint, leaving me short on dopamine.
I had to keep my figure in shape for the runway, post only preapproved content on social media, and travel for work.
I’d been living like that since I was a student.
I was happy with my successful new life, but an urge had been building up inside me.
‘I wanna play games.’
So I started gaming, but playing alone wasn’t much fun.
“It’s fun, but... I have something scheduled tomorrow, so I need to sleep early.”
“Oh, that game? It was too hard for me...”
I talked a few friends into trying it, but those friends were all people I’d met through modeling.
They were about as far from natural gamers as you could get, so I ended up playing alone again.
Well, damn.
It wasn’t as if I could just go out and find new gaming buddies now.
And playing alone wasn’t much fun.
So I started streaming.
Since I couldn’t show my real face, I decided to become a VTuber and stream with an avatar instead.
To stand out from everyone else, I thought about it day and night until I came up with a distinctive character.
The result was the VTuber Wayo.
A character who looked like a question mark turned into a person.
Wavy blond hair.
Bangs shaped like an upside-down question mark, accessories full of question-mark details... And so on.
-That avatar is so Ruliweb lmao
-What was that? The goddess of question marks?
-Bitch looks like a missing-enemy ping lmao
“Shut it, shut it.”
People called it Ruliweb material now, but I was still pretty happy with it.
“Ah, I wanna go full-time.”
-Then fucking do it
-Do it do it do it
-Just quit your job
Anyway, even though I was always crying about wanting to go full-time...
“What did everyone do today?”
-I SPENT THE WHOLE DAY WAITING FOR YOU
-Are you fucking American? You said eight o’clock
-Streamer Wayo.
“Sorry...”
Even when I dozed off from exhaustion after work, showed up late, and got cursed out...
“Daaamn. That was sick.”
-Fr lmaooo
-Agreed
-That was actually good lmao
-Those mechanics 👍👍
The stream itself was going smoothly.
I had a solid core of regulars, loyal viewers who’d watched for ages, meaning one year, and a steady trickle of newcomers from my few highlight clips.
“See you tomorrow, then?”
-No, it’s the weekend, don’t go
-You should at least stay till morning;;
-That stream length is a joke;;
“I’ve been streaming for eight hours?”
-lmao;
-Gotta make it ten
-You’ve forgotten your roots~
My stream was growing, even if the upward curve was very gentle.
I thought I could keep this little channel going and happily carry on streaming.
“Ahyeon, you’re free on Christmas, right?”
“...What?”
Until something landed on my Christmas schedule.
* * *
Christmas.
For female facecam streamers, VTubers, and the like...
For female streamers who catered to their viewers’ fantasies and needs to some degree, it was the one season when they absolutely couldn’t take a day off.
After all, the viewers would be waiting to see me even on Christmas.
Wouldn’t a sudden day off leave a bitter taste in their mouths?
Besides, it was one of the biggest occasions for couples.
A viewer left staring at an offline screen alone would think, “That bitch finally went off with some guy...!” And there was all the fuel needed for a huge fire.
With that in mind, I’d naturally planned to spend the coming Christmas season doing a full week of grueling streams...
‘Christmas?’
‘Yes. You know that brand we’ve been having promising talks with? Andel. They’re holding an event, and they invited you.’
I’d been invited to an event I couldn’t refuse.
Recently, there had been talk about me becoming an exclusive model for Andel, so I needed to make a good impression. And now they’d invited me personally.
Not attending would be downright rude. Besides, I couldn’t tell anyone I was skipping such an important event to do an internet livestream.
And so...
“Ah, seriously.”
After a brief sigh, I checked the stream title.
[Explaining My Christmas Day Off]
This was a bit much.
There was still some time until Christmas, but an explanation stream about taking a day off?
I could already picture the chat, but I couldn’t think of a better title.
“Whew... Hoo.”
Then I’d face it head-on.
I squeezed my eyes shut and started the stream.
“A-ahem. Hello, everyone.”
Still, I’d called it an explanation stream. Surely they’d at least hear me out?
All the friendship, trust, and comradeship we’d built up.
I firmly believed they would settle in with those warm feelings in their hearts...
-?
-??
-Streamer Wayo.
-Do you want to quit streaming?
-Just fucking try it
-Thanks for everything...
“Everyone, calm down and take a seat...”
-Calm down?? So the title’s for real?
-All right, let’s goooo lmao
-Saw this on the forums and came over lol
-So your boyfriend matters more than us??
-I knew it, bitch
-Does she not care about this channel anymore??
“...”
I sighed at the chat, which was already in total chaos.
‘This isn’t going to work...’
No choice. I’d have to use my secret weapon.
A new gleam appeared in the eyes of Ahyeon, a first-year streamer as Wayo and a seventeen-year veteran fashion model, including her childhood work.
Footnotes:
“Waforties” combines Wayo’s name with “forties,” mocking middle-aged men who act like overly familiar, protective fans.
Ruliweb is a Korean gaming community often mocked by other communities as cringey or overly earnest.
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried