Became the Mother of Virtual YouTubers - Chapter 105
Fortunately, Jin Ha and Hyo In’s preparation for their paper presentation didn’t stretch beyond the scheduled date.
Thanks to Ye Rin, who helped out with her small hands, and Seo Ah, who attentively took care of the two, they were able to catch a few winks before the zombie apocalypse.
With a day of leisure, the four of them headed to the Vancouver Convention Center, where the conference schedule was in full swing.
“Wow… I thought it would be the stiff atmosphere of a classroom since it’s a paper presentation, but there’s so much to see.”
Seo Ah said, her eyes sparkling as she held her smartphone camera.
SIGGRAPH is a conference that places great importance on the reproducibility of results compared to other computer science conferences.
Thus, most presenters had set up their booths to allow participants to directly experience the technology.
For Seo Ah, all of it was content, even if it wasn’t specifically a broadcast.
She felt that the technologies she saw here would be a great help when she eventually established a ‘VTuber specialized MCN’.
“Ye Rin, if you’re okay with it, could you help me sh**t a vlog?”
“Of course, Seo Ah unni!”
Seo Ah and Ye Rin quickly teamed up and headed inside.
The two had become close enough in a single day that Seo Ah felt comfortable being addressed as ‘unni’ instead of ‘ssi’.
As Seo Ah eagerly bombarded conference participants with questions in her fluent English, Jin Ha and Hyo In wandered off to explore the poster sessions.
“…”
In contrast to Seo Ah’s high energy, Hyo In didn’t seem too well. She walked a bit slower than usual and spoke less.
“Hyo In, are you okay? Are you really tired?”
At Jin Ha’s concerned words, Hyo In was startled and shook her head.
“Oh, no! I think I just tossed and turned a bit last night.”
“…Ah. Well, staying up all night and chugging coffee isn’t ideal for a good rest.”
However, the real reason Hyo In couldn’t sleep well was different.
Last night, due to Seo Ah and Ye Rin giving up their spots, she had ended up lying on the same bed as Jin Ha.
Feeling self-conscious… she couldn’t sleep a wink.
Of course, it wasn’t the first time they’d shared a blanket, but they had always been drunk during those times.
This time, being fully sober made it feel like the first time.
…Actually, she hadn’t been in her right mind when she collapsed from exhaustion while preparing for the presentation, but still.
‘Get a grip… What are you doing?’
Hyo In’s face reddened in embarrassment.
“This paper, isn’t it on a topic the professor was interested in last year?”
Fortunately or unfortunately, Jin Ha seemed completely unaware of Hyo In’s inner thoughts, diligently examining each poster.
“What do you think? I feel like it could be good to pass it along to the lab members.”
“Recently, it seems like they’re not particularly interested in this anymore.”
“Really? I guess the project we were preparing while I was around eventually got rejected. I had worked hard on the proposal.”
“Yeah, you passed the document review, but flopped on the presentation evaluation. There’s no one in the lab who knows that topic as well as Jin Ha unni.”
“…Well, it’s a shame.”
Jin Ha naturally moved on to the next poster.
“Hey, doesn’t this theme seem somewhat similar to what Byeong Jae is researching?”
Hyo In chuckled, looking directly at Jin Ha.
“Why don’t you just tell Byeong Jae oppa directly? He’s probably waiting for your call.”
“…You know my situation.”
“Still, it seems like he’s aware he used to be male?”
She had seemed completely indifferent last night.
Hyo In pouted and lightly nudged Jin Ha’s shoulder.
“This is a matter of whether it’s bothersome or not… but having lived like this for over a year, honestly, the thought doesn’t bother me much.”
“Wow, has it already been that long? Time flies.”
Hyo In chuckled softly.
As she talked with Jin Ha, her fatigue seemed to dissipate.
Moreover, it felt comfortable and nice to casually talk about papers while exploring the conference venue after such a long time.
As they walked slowly, Jin Ha stopped in front of a poster.
“Real-time 3D model generation technology…”
Next to the poster stood a young Western author, who was glancing nervously at Jin Ha.
“Here, it seems like the texture isn’t properly synthesized.”
At Jin Ha’s nonchalant question, the other person swallowed hard, looking tense.
“Have you appropriately removed the light source from the dataset?”
“Yes, indeed. During the learning phase, we extracted the 2D texture map separately and applied an image decomposition model to it.”
“Why go through the process of separating the texture map? If you apply a lighting inference algorithm based on spherical harmonic functions for 3D objects, it would be easier to separate the shaders.”
“…”
Seeing how the poor fledgling shrank under Jin Ha’s questioning, Hyo In couldn’t help but smile awkwardly.
It reminded her of herself during her initial days in graduate school when writing her first paper.
‘I was really scared of Jin Ha unni’s questions back then…’
On the other hand, she wondered if she would have been able to grow as much without Jin Ha.
Hyo In stood with her arms crossed, quietly observing Jin Ha engaging in verbal sparring with the fledgling in fluent English.
Then, as the other person became increasingly flustered, she pulled at Jin Ha’s arm.
“Stop bothering him and let’s go see something else. There’s still a lot to see.”
“W-What are you saying? I’ve never bothered him. I’m just asking questions I’m curious about…”
“Just be quiet and come on. If you keep at it, I think he’ll cry.”
Today, Hyo In had protected a budding researcher from the hurricane named Jin Ha.
*
“How many people came to Canada? Four of us. Me, Mama, and Mama’s two juniors.”
Seo Ah, or rather Winter, carefully adjusted the microphone while sitting in front of her laptop.
Worried about possibly causing a disturbance outside, she lowered her voice.
“What’s everyone doing? Mama and one of her juniors are finalizing their presentation for tomorrow, and the other is organizing the papers they saw at the conference today.”
Soon, comments teasing Winter flooded the chat.
– So what’s Winter doing alone?
– Everyone else’s working while she’s just playing around…
– It looks like she’s just there to cause trouble??
“Oh, that’s not true?! I’m not here to cause trouble; as a manager, I’m here to support Mama! Even if it seems like this, you don’t know how much I care.”
While she was trying to explain herself, she realized that the viewers weren’t wrong at all.
Winter let out a small sigh.
“Well… to be honest, it does feel like I’m causing trouble. I’ve been thinking that maybe… no, a lot, I’m being a little troublesome…”
She had originally come to feel like she was on vacation, but when she got here, the atmosphere was completely different.
“Seeing Mama and the others staying up late to prepare… I think I had been too naive about this. I’m really reflecting on it a lot.”
The guilt she had felt over the past two days pricked at her heart, making her face heat up.
“Still… I think it was a good decision to follow along to the conference. I’ve seen so many amazing things here. I’m realizing just how trapped I was in a narrow world.”
Winter’s voice began to gain some vitality.
“There are so many astonishing technologies. As I walked around the booths, I found myself going, ‘Wow, is this really possible?’ more than just a couple of times.”
She smiled brightly as she thought about how things she had only seen in movies or animations seemed about to become reality.
– So you’re saying you went to an alien technology demonstration?
– Is Sword Master Online really coming out?!
– Show us pictures, show us pictures, show us pictures please!
“I’ll share detailed stories when I return to Korea in a follow-up broadcast. I’ll edit and upload the vlog too, so please wait just a bit.”
After raising the viewers’ expectations, Winter ended her short chat broadcast.
Tomorrow was the day Jin Ha and Hyo In would present their papers.
…If those two planned to stay up again tonight, she was determined to force them to sleep for their well-being.
*
On the day of the presentation, Jin Ha looked the same as usual.
With her lazy gaze, calm expression, and relaxed gait, she appeared completely composed, as if she was already used to presenting in such circumstances.
In contrast, Hyo In appeared somewhat anxious.
However, she wasn’t out of breath or feeling uneasy.
Thanks to repeatedly practicing the presentation late into the night with Jin Ha, she felt a sense of confidence.
Her condition wasn’t bad either, thanks to the attentive Seo Ah.
The one who seemed most unnerved was Ye Rin, who wouldn’t be presenting at all.
She anxiously paced around Hyo In with her hands tightly clasped.
“Unni… are you really going to be okay?”
“Yeah. We prepared a lot. Everything will be fine.”
At Hyo In’s words, Ye Rin seemed to relax a little, smiling as she caught her breath.
“But Jin Ha, why are you bringing that bag?”
Seo Ah asked, pointing at the suitcase Jin Ha had brought along.
She hadn’t paid much attention to it, but now that they were at the entrance of the conference, it felt like an excessive load.
“Is that big equipment really necessary for the presentation?”
“Oh, this? These are the devices I’ll set up on stage for the demonstration.”
“…You’re doing a demonstration too?”
Seo Ah looked astonished as she glanced at the suitcase again.
Hyo In followed suit, throwing a curious gaze at Seo Ah.
Hyo In suddenly felt worried.
Looking back, she realized she had never seen Jin Ha preparing for a presentation.
“Jin Ha unni, you didn’t miss your own preparation while helping me, did you? I feel like I took too much of your time…”
“Hmm? Not at all. Your paper has my name on it, after all. Of course, I have to help.”
Jin Ha smiled as she lightly tapped Hyo In’s shoulder.
“And as for my paper, I finished the presentation preparation ages ago.”
“Haha… I worried about someone I didn’t even need to be concerned about.”
Hyo In suddenly realized once again, contrasting her own paper, which was merely fortunate to be accepted, with Jin Ha’s, which was competing for the best paper award.