TS Vtuber Streaming Life - Chapter 86
“W-what? The gas valve…?”
“Yes…”
Ah, d*mn… I wish I hadn’t thought of it…
I felt uneasy about the sudden realization.
“B-but is that really something to be so sad about…? You seemed the most flustered among the Yeon-woo I’ve seen…?”
“Our apartment gas bill is really expensive…”
Even if I have some financial leeway, having high electricity, water, and gas bills is a matter of mood…!
“Huh? Um… Not locking the gas valve wouldn’t increase the gas bill…?”
“Huh? Really?”
“Um… Yes… But I might be mistaken…”
Hastily, I took out my phone and searched.
Oh… it’s true?
After looking through a few articles, it seems like typically, there’s no real issue, and it’s just advisable to lock the valve to prevent any potential gas leaks or dangers, but not locking it doesn’t result in a skyrocketing gas bill.
…Why did I think my gas bill was so high?
I pondered the source of the misinformation.
Hmm… If I’m always cooking ramen in the kitchen, my mom would complain about how it’s a waste of gas because I’m not locking the valve—
Ah! So that’s why…!
Fortunately, I quickly found the cause.
“Ah… My mom used to say that too…”
“Hmm… But why did I still believe my mom without any doubt even now? I have a higher education than her, even if I didn’t as a kid.”
“…Huh?”
My mom is a high school graduate who failed her university entrance exam.
Of course, back then, the education system was different from now, and my mom was the eldest, so she had to earn money. But in conclusion, I, officially, hold a university dropout status, which is technically higher.
If you get into the details, it’s only officially a dropout, but unofficially, I have graduated once and dropped out once, so even considering my mom’s situation, it’s still correct that my education level is higher.
“Uh, uh… uh… That’s true…!”
“Yes.”
Despite my mom being in the humanities, why didn’t I think of questioning it…?
“See? This is why you shouldn’t gaslight children!”
“…Uh, um, childhood education is important indeed…!”
Ding ding ding!
“Ah, just a moment.”
Is someone calling me now?
With some curiosity, I checked my phone screen.
Oh.
“…It’s my mom.”
…They say when you mention a tiger, it comes.
“What?! Am I out?!”
“No, it’s okay. You don’t have to go through the trouble.”
It’s probably nothing important, so it wouldn’t matter if Ms. Se-young overheard. And it’s not like my mom would know what I just dissed, so it doesn’t matter.
“Hello? Mom?”
[Uh, you’re performing on stage today, right?]
Hmm, she didn’t ask how I was doing and went straight to the point, just like usual.
Still, my anxiety that was somewhat lingering got eased.
“Yeah. I told you yesterday. You said you’d watch it on TV with Dad and Nayeon. Why did you call?”
[…Because… I know that…]
Hmm?
“What? I couldn’t hear you well because you spoke too softly in between?”
[…I know you’ll do well, so don’t unnecessarily get nervous.]
“…Mom, did you eat something weird?”
My mom isn’t the type to say such embarrassing things.
“Is Dad chattering beside you, telling you to call me or something?”
[…I’m hanging up.]
“Ah, did Nayeon say the same thing too?”
Click.
“…She hung up.”
As I was doing my dutiful child bit… or rather, daughter bit, a concerned call like this was quite startling.
“…Mom, I’m sorry.”
And once the surprise subsided, guilt crept in gently.
“Y-Yeon-woo! T-then! Isn’t it more important now to focus and enhance the stage for my mom?!”
“…That’s right.”
…Afterward, I should swing by home for the first time in a while.
Since I’ve already announced a break from broadcasting today, I don’t need to worry about the show and should just casually eat with my family.
While I was waiting like that, the awards ceremony began.
“Ms. Se-young, aren’t you receiving an award?”
“Um… I think I might, but… I’m not sure… I haven’t received any contact…”
“Really?”
I thought for sure they would contact the winners prior to an awards ceremony, but I guess not?
“If you win an award, you’ll treat me to dinner, right?”
“Yes, yes, yes! Absolutely! Ah! Even if I don’t win an award, I’ll treat you! Should we set a date now?!”
“…Calm down.”
“Ah! Yes!”
After a short while, as the opening stage started and the awards ceremony unfolded, it was soon our turn, and we moved to the backstage.
“Wow… There are a lot of people….”
While waiting backstage and looking outside, I saw the lights of the cheering sticks, all filled in the seats without a single empty one.
It was comforting to see that the colors all changed simultaneously as if being controlled from the center.
“Oh, it’s orange.”
“Oh! Yeon-woo, you like orange?! I didn’t know since you always wear black clothes and your avatar is black too!”
“No? I just saw all the orange and wanted to eat sushi rolls with salmon eggs and flying fish eggs.”
“Ah….”
“You’re going on now!”
“Yeah, you should.”
“Ah! Got it!”
After a little while, as I made my entrance, I waved to Ms. Se-young, who went in first.
Hmm, looks like Ms. Se-young is relaxing now.
It seems that my efforts to keep making silly jokes worked.
But I really do want to eat…
Should I buy some sushi when I go back home later?
Ba~se~yeon~!!! Wow!!!!
Oh… for sure, the cheers heard from the stage are much louder.
It’s natural that the sound waves directed toward the stage would be significant as people yell at the performance, but the overlapping waves are larger than I anticipated, which is fascinating.
Boom! Boom!
“Oh, it’s starting.”
As I drifted in such random thoughts, the booming sounds of the accompaniment began to flow from the speakers.
Wow!!!
[From somewhere~]
As the song officially started, I could feel Ms. Se-young’s excited voice, which had been there throughout our practice.
…Was the warning to be cautious about dopamine also a self-suggestion for her?
Is she really the one giving me advice to be cautious?
“Going in now!”
“Yes.”
Then, as I saw Ms. Se-young energetically running around on stage more than usual, it was my cue to step onto the stage.
Pop!
As the lights focused on me, I could hear the murmuring of the crowd.
Murmur, murmur
‘What? Who is that?’
‘Right? Who is it?’
‘Masked…?’
Sure enough, the performance of the heavily edited TS body is impressive.
To catch the muted whispers in such a murmur is quite something…
“This moment~”
[This moment~]
As I sang, my voice went from the microphone back out through the speakers, flowing into one ear that wasn’t wearing an in-ear monitor.
Hmm, it’s not bad.
It felt gratifying to hear the sound polished down from practice.
After my voice came out, a silence of about 3 seconds descended on the audience before suddenly it erupted into noise.
‘Crazy! That person has never performed on a music show before!’
‘No way! Wasn’t it featuring an AI?!’
Fortunately, it seems people recognized who I was from my voice.
Had they not, it might have been quite embarrassing.
Wow!!!!
As I heard the cheers, I followed through on the choreography we practiced and continued on stage—
[Ah~!]
Ah, Ms. Se-young…
It seems she got excited and threw in an unexpected ad-lib that wasn’t present during our practice.
“Ah~!”
[Ah~!]
Aoo… that’s ridiculously high….
I set the harmony to match Ms. Se-young’s ad-lib, but I’m not sure if I did well.
Wow!!!!!!!!!!
Oh… it seems I did well…
With the immediate reaction lifting my spirits, I continued with the performance until we reached the last part of the song, which only had the instrumental left.
It’s over…
It’s a relief that things seem to move faster in reality than during practice.
I should go home, eat, and take a nap…
Wowwwwwww!!
The cheers were incomparable to anything before, and thoughts about anything else vanished leaving only feelings about the stage.
Well… the stage was fun…
…But that doesn’t mean I want to do it again.
Since the schedule was pretty intense, I’m satisfied with just this one stage experience.
…It might be pretty good if it’s not the real thing?
It’d probably be alright to perform with the Roje-ro members.
If that’s the case, I could take a break whenever I wanted without worrying about the viewers and have a much easier schedule.
[Everyone~! Enjoy the awards ceremony until the end~!]
Yeeeee!!!
[Thank you for listening to our song~!]
Wow!!!!
As Ms. Se-young finished speaking, I felt the focus automatically shift to me.
Once again, she’s doing something spontaneous…
Hmm… It feels a bit weird not to do anything, right?
“Thank you.”
But there was nothing special to say, so I simply expressed my gratitude and took the microphone away from my mouth.
Wowwwwwww!!
…What’s this?
The response was much more intense than expected, which startled me.
‘Featuring unnie!!!!! I’m dying!!!!!’
Dying, then.
The words hovered in my mouth, but expressing them out loud would lead to unexpected ramifications, so I kept it to myself and stepped off the stage with Ms. Se-young.
“Phew…! That was so much fun…!”
Yeah… it was fun…
“Ms. Se-young, don’t you have anything to say to me?”
“Huh? Ah! Yeon-woo, you were really~~~~ amazing?! As expected of Yeon-woo!”
“No, not that.”
“Huh?”
“Why did you do such an ad-lib without telling me? I was flustered.”
“Ah…!”
Seeing Ms. Se-young looking remorseful and not knowing what to do, I decided to let it slide.
“Well… it turned out well in the end, so I’ll let it go.”
“Gasp! Yeon-woo is definitely an angel! I love you! Please accept my love!”
“…Get away from me.”
As I ruffled with Ms. Se-young who was clinging to me, my phone began to ring.
“Go over there. You got a call.”
“Ah! Yes!”
This time, who—
“…It’s Mom?”
Calling me twice in a day?!
My mom?
I answered the call.
“Hello? Mom?”
[Uh… you did well….]
“Uh? Yeah…”
What’s going on? My mom’s voice sounds different from before?
[Cough! …I could see you practiced hard.]
“Um… I did practice hard…”
No way? Really?
“Mom, did you cry?”
Instead of pondering, I just asked.
[…I’m hanging up.]
Click.
…She really must have cried.
“Uh… Ms. Se-young, I’m going to head out first.”
“Ah! Yes!”
“Sorry I couldn’t see you win the award.”
“It’s okay! Family is more important!”
I quickly changed and organized myself before taking a taxi back home.
Ding ding ding!
Once I entered the house, I found my mom sitting in front of the TV on the sofa.
“Hey, what’s up? Why are you here?”
“Just… Where’s Dad?”
“He just went out for a walk, so I guess you missed him. But what’s that in your hand?”
“Ah… Sushi. I bought it on the way.”
“Oh really? Should we eat it, just the two of us? Nayeon went to study at the library after watching your performance.”
“Sure.”
So we set up and had dinner together.
“…As I said earlier, you did well.”
“Ah, thank you…”
“The sushi is delicious.”
“Right?”
“…How’s work these days? I heard your broadcast time has decreased.”
“Um… Well, I couldn’t focus lately because I was preparing for the show, but now that it’s over, I’m relieved.”
“Is that so?”
“…But didn’t you say you don’t watch my broadcasts?”
“This shrimp sushi is delicious.”
“Really?”
…Looks like she’s been watching my broadcasts.
As we exchanged such conversation, though we didn’t say anything embarrassing, the warmth of our underlying meanings was felt during our dinner time—
“But why aren’t you eating this? Mom can have it?”
“Ah—”
Before I could finish, my mom quickly took the flying fish roe sushi from my plate and popped it into her mouth.
…But there’s still salmon roe sushi left, so it’s okay—
“I’m eating this too.”
Oh.
“No! I deliberately left those two for last…!”
“You’ve always been like that, right? Why save the best for last? Just eat it quickly; it’s the best way.”
“…What a glutton who’s only good at crying.”
“…Want to get the stick for the first time in a while?”
“Resolving it with violence? Tsk… This is why high school graduates…”
“Ha! This brat? You, a high school grad, are criticizing someone?”
Ah, that’s true?
“Mmm, the shrimp sushi is good.”
“Isn’t it?”
Anyway, we had a warm dinner time.