WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Irevi
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Stream as a Hobby ◈
Chapter 12: Friend
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There were a few questions I sometimes got while streaming.
-Do you even have friends??
Since all I did after work was stream, viewers asked me that pretty often.
As viewers, they probably wanted their VTuber to have no friends and do nothing but stream.
Unfortunately, I’d spent seventeen years navigating society since being reincarnated. There was no way I wouldn’t know anyone.
Besides, back when I’d just started working as a child model...
Did you know what happened when you put someone with the soul of a construction worker who’d bounced between job sites in their mid-to-late twenties (pending) among a bunch of elementary school kids?
“Where’s Ahyeon?”
“Ahyeon! Come with me!”
They naturally became the center of the group.
Kids admired maturity, and they tended to follow it.
Of course, I was wrapped up in my hobby now, and everyone had grown older, so it wasn’t quite like it used to be.
Still, I had a close-knit network of model friends.
This time, though, I was meeting a slightly different kind of friend.
“Producer Jeong Unhyeon did that?”
“Yeah. Really tore into the kid.”
Lee Taejin, who I was meeting now, wasn’t another model. He was an elementary school classmate.
You could call him a childhood friend.
“They have a good track record, so I didn’t expect that. Sorry.”
After my call, I’d come to the wine bar Taejin ran as a hobby.
It was a very private place, without a single other customer around.
“Here, have a glass.”
With his black hair neatly slicked back and dressed in a designer suit, he held out a glass. I shrugged and took it.
Taejin always had expensive booze, so getting free drinks from him was always a win.
“You were right to leave the set.”
“Well, it’s not that I don’t want to do the shoot. Just get things under control and set another date.”
“With that producer?”
“You said they have a good track record.”
As long as they could do the job, that was enough.
I wouldn’t even have said much about scolding the staff, as long as it hadn’t happened in front of me.
“Hmm.”
Taejin thought for a moment, then shook his head.
“No, I’ll use someone else.”
“Isn’t that an executive’s younger sibling?”
“And I’m the chair’s grandson.”
With that, Taejin sipped his wine.
Right. Taejin was the youngest grandson of a family that owned a huge conglomerate.
Specifically, Igang Group, whose subsidiaries included the company that had commissioned the commercial I’d just walked out on.
He was also the president of that subsidiary.
That was why I’d been on set to shoot an ad for their product.
The thumbprint on my contract with Andel wasn’t even dry yet. Why else would I have been there?
I’d gone because this friend of mine had asked me to shoot a commercial for him.
Apparently, releasing it around the time my contract with Andel was officially announced would have quite an effect, or something.
He rarely asked for favors, so I’d happily agreed.
Only to find an executive’s younger sibling throwing a fit on set with the title of executive producer.
No wonder I’d walked out in disbelief.
“Anyway, enough about the shoot. Can you really be here on a weekday afternoon?”
“I used it as an excuse to get out and have a drink.”
Taejin answered calmly and kept sipping his wine.
Oh, right. He was crazy about booze.
As I watched him in disbelief, he put down his glass and looked at me.
“Anyway, you’re coming this time, right?”
“Where?”
When I tilted my head, Taejin frowned.
A scowl from a carefully groomed third-generation conglomerate heir might have been pretty intimidating, but I’d known him since he was a snot-nosed kid. It didn’t do much for me.
“The Ahyeon and Friends Club.”
“Oh.”
Now that he’d mentioned the club, I understood.
Come to think of it, the group chat had been pretty noisy lately.
“You made the club. Show up once in a while. You’re our leader.”
“Come on, how long ago was that?”
We’d made it in elementary school. What did being the leader even mean?
Honestly, it was amazing the club still existed.
“Besides, you guys do everything yourselves anyway. What do you need a leader for?”
“We do everything ourselves because our leader’s abandoned their duties.”
For the record, the club’s official name was Ahyeon and Friends.
They’d come up with a fancy-sounding abbreviation for it among themselves.
It had started because I couldn’t stand those little kids getting all full of themselves just because they were models. So I’d brought this third-generation heir along and formed a club.
“Anyway, I’m busy. I’ll come when I have time.”
“You didn’t show up even before you signed with Andel.”
“You think I wasn’t busy then?”
“Doing what?”
“Hmm.”
I had no answer to that.
For the record, my family and Roselia were about the only people who knew I streamed. I hadn’t told anyone else.
...I had a reputation to think about, didn’t I?
My streams were a little... embarrassing to show the outside world.
“The others have been talking about it too. Wondering what our leader’s been doing lately that’s keeping them away.”
“Hey~ You’re adults now. Handle things yourselves. You’re all gross now.”
They’d still been kind of cute in elementary and middle school.
But working had made them mature early, so that cute phase hadn’t lasted long.
I could lead elementary school kids around and take them places to have fun.
Did they know how unrewarding it was to be the leader of a whole crowd of grown men and women?
“I’ll pass that along exactly as you said it.”
“Sure, do whatever you want.”
And once those little shits grew up, they started constantly sizing each other up.
Who’d shot which commercial, who’d become the model for which brand.
Then, behind the scenes, who’d confessed to whom, who’d been turned down for a date.
Someone I’d looked after since his snot-nosed days had even started hitting on me, acting like he was a man now.
After that, I’d kept all the guys at a distance.
Oh, except for Taejin here. He was about the only male friend I didn’t keep at arm’s length.
There weren’t a whole lot of reasons for that.
“Anyway, what do you think of this guy? I’ve had my eye on him lately.”
“I don’t want to see that. Put it away.”
Our silver-spoon alpha male Taejin...
“Why do you hate men? Look at him. How can you not like what you see?”
...liked men, not women.
“I said put it away.”
Gay bastard.
* * *
After a short drinking session at the wine bar, I went home in the late afternoon and started streaming.
-???
-Weren’t you taking today off??
“Surprise.”
-Niiice lol
-Wait what
-I was watching a young VTuber;
“You’ve got one right here.”
I’d had a little wine, but I wasn’t much different from usual.
I could hold my liquor, after all.
More importantly, I’d barely wet my lips.
-??? Who??
-Director, you can’t act like this here
-Streamer Wayo, let’s not cross the line
-So what are we doing today??
“What do you expect from a surprise stream?”
With that, I launched Lel.
Nothing beat the Rift after a drink.
-Oh
-Wow, she really is a Lel addict lol
-Do you know how many games you’ve played this season?
“Did you know? I’ve played two hundred ranked games now.”
I pulled up my match history on a stats site.
A neat 102 wins and 114 losses.
It might have looked like I played a lot, but my game count was surprisingly low.
-??
-Seriously??
-That’s all??
“I only play on stream.”
In other words, I’d spent over 100 hours of this season’s streams playing ranked, but let’s not worry about little details like that.
“All right, let’s gain a clean 100 points and call it a day.”
-Is this a 24-hour stream??
-I’ll book paid leave through the day after tomorrow
-A clean 100 points, she says lmao
-You know you gain 18 points for a win and lose 24 for a loss, right?
“...I just need a win streak to fix my MMR.”
I’d never climb if I worried about every little thing.
All I needed was a clean five-win streak.
Even five matches would take over two hours, so I wondered if I’d set my sights a little high as I queued up.
“Huh? Huh?”
And, surprisingly, I really did start winning.
“Wow, have I finally figured it out?”
What was this? Had I reached enlightenment?
After ten years of Leore, the heavens had finally answered me.
-Your team luck is fucking insane
-How’s bot lane winning every game?
-Wow, so that’s how you made Emerald
But apparently my viewers couldn’t accept how much I’d grown.
They filled the chat with a wave of complaints.
Probably because my winning streak had cost them a pile of points.
For the record, I’d been running point bets on every match.
A win had been the long-shot bet every time, and now it had paid out four times in a row.
-Mmm, these points taste sweet~~
-Mom, I’m rich now lol
-You favorite-betting suckers awake yet??
-No faith? Then lose all your points~ lol
“Oh, I really might hit my goal.”
One more win would make it a five-win streak.
For the record, I’d already been promoted to Emerald 3, putting Diamond within sight.
-This fucking team luck...
-Please lose
-How does this even make sense??
“Any complaints about a Diamond player (pending)?”
-???
-Diamond, she says lmao
-You’re just hardstuck Emerald
-You know Emerald’s the hardest tier to climb out of, right??
Wow, so vicious.
Were they all that salty?
Before going for my fifth straight win, I made a custom lobby.
“If you’re salty, you know what to do, right?”
I hadn’t been keeping them in line, so they were getting awfully mouthy.
These punks thought Emerald was a joke just because they were watching it on a stream.
“Before I play the last match and end the stream, I’ll remind you who’s boss...”
Most Lel players were in Bronze, Silver, Gold, or Platinum. In other words...
“Come on in for a duel.”
Most of my viewers were lower-ranked players I could rack up ten kills against in lane if I felt like it.
-I’m shakinggggggg
-Wa Zilong lmao
-I’m actually coming in, you fucker
“Sure~ Come on in.”
Someone was confident. Diamond, maybe?
Still, it didn’t matter.
This soon-to-be Diamond player was going to give them a proper beating...
[Wayofan #kr1(Grand Master)]
“....”
[Do you want to kick Wayofan #kr1?]
Click.
-??
-??
-????
“Next!”
Read the room, you fuckers, and only join if you’re Master or below.
Footnotes:
The “(pending)” tag imitates a Korean military label used after a rank for someone awaiting promotion.
The club’s Korean nickname, Achinhoe, shortens “Ahyeon and Friends” into something that sounds like a formal association.
“Wa Zilong” blends Wayo’s name with Zhao Zilong, better known as Zhao Yun, the celebrated warrior from Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
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