[TS] Formula One Streamer - Chapter 22

“It doesn’t rise at all.”

Literally, F2 did not rise at all.

I thought I would be promoted soon since I met Sre, but I wondered how many matches I had played in the ranking matches.

Jin was about to drop out.

Grrr! Vroom…

After finishing a rainy race and getting out of the cockpit, I lay my drenched body on the chair and closed my eyes for a moment.

The fatigue I felt in For One was just a fake fatigue experienced in virtual reality, and rest had no meaning in the same context, but when a person wants to rest, they automatically lie down.

“Ah….”

I embodied Yooihyun and lived busily every day without missing a beat.

Going through boring and exhausting academy schedules.

Acting as someone I didn’t even know, being a friend to some, a junior to others, and a bullied classmate for others, each day was a continuous state of tension.

Even though the place I was supposed to feel tension was the circuit, ironically, the most comfortable place in the past was the circuit.

Well, I did take a day off in between to go on a not-a-date, but even that wasn’t a simple and comfortable break…….

In the officetel where Kang Ho-yun looked for freedom, the schedule was more packed than before, not free at all.

Planning was free, but executing plans was by no means easy.

Thanks to that, I spent much more time in the cockpit, on the grid, and in the pit than in this nice officetel.

When thoughts started to intertwine and delve deeper into the abyss, a familiar voice grasped my nape and pulled me back to reality.

Kang Ho-yun: Hyun-a, how did the qualification round go?

Kang Ho-yun was the most trustworthy person after Jihyun Lee, even though the closeness began from shared interests.

Someone I could call an ally.

KING: Of course, it went well. How about you, senior?

Kang Ho-yun: I managed somehow. By the way, are you eating? It looks like you’ve been going for eight hours straight based on your record.

KING: No. I ran into the F3 ghost Sre recently and thought I would be promoted soon, so I wanted to take a break after being promoted, but it’s not working out so well.

Kang Ho-yun: Want to meet up for a bit and talk?

KING: Sure.

“Ugh… I want to rest.”

I answered that I would do so, expecting a long conversation, and stretched while waiting for his invitation.

But no invitation came, no matter how long I waited.

One minute passed, then five, then ten, and still no reply, so I sent a voice message to Kang Ho-yun.

[‘Kang Ho-yun’ is offline. Would you like to convert the message?]

“No, forget it.”

I closed the notification window and opened the friends window.

Kang Ho-yun’s nickname had turned a translucent gray, indicating he was offline.

“Could it be that he wanted to meet….”

Was the meeting place not a private room but reality?

That’s a big deal.

I had fallen asleep in the living room after stuffing myself with chicken and drowning in cola.

In the morning, I hurriedly connected, thinking I would be late for the qualification round, and didn’t even tidy up or shower, so my appearance was a mess….

“Lo, logout!!”

[Exiting For One.]

As soon as I burst out of the capsule, I started cleaning.

It took 15 minutes from the academy to here.

If I hurry, I can clean up and shower all before he arrives!

I began to move faster than a race car.

***

Kang Ho-yun hurriedly finished exiting For One and got into the car, wondering if Yooihyun’s mind might change after agreeing to meet to talk.

By the time he left the underground parking lot, it had already become a dark night in the sky.

“Should I buy some food or something?”

Seeing Yooihyun’s record for today, it was clear he hadn’t eaten anything after finishing the qualification round and went straight into the ranking matches.

Even when he was in the academy, meals were served regularly for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but Yooihyun often skipped meal times.

“I don’t want to interrupt my flow, mealtime feels like a waste, it’s too tedious to go back and forth,” and various other reasons.

Since Yooihyun went into an empty officetel, there was no way he would have prepared a meal.

“Just in time for dinner.”

Kang Ho-yun stopped by the department store’s food court and bought a sushi set, then headed to the bakery section.

“Is there a cake that girls would like?”

“If it’s for a lady, I recommend this strawberry cake and tiramisu cake. They taste good and look pretty, so they’re good for taking pictures. Sounds like you’re getting it for a girlfriend; how nice.”

“No, it’s not like that… ahem. I’ll take one of these tiramisu.”

“I’ll wrap it nicely for you!”

He returned to his car after adding cookies to the gift box of the sweet tiramisu cake.

“Is this too much…? Well, I’ll just tell him to save some for later.”

Excited at the thought of having dinner with Yooihyun, he hummed a tune as he entered the underground parking of the officetel.

After parking in his designated spot, Kang Ho-yun took the elevator and pressed the 30th floor.

Although he was heading home, something felt strange, and he kept looking in the mirror.

Just before opening the door, he took a deep breath and entered nonchalantly, but his body froze at the situation he faced.

Yooihyun, hurriedly covering herself with a white gown.

From under the towel wrapped around her hair, a straight neck line appeared, and if one looked down along that neck line, they could see her white thighs peeking out between the loosely tied gown.

It wasn’t just Kang Ho-yun who was flustered; Yooihyun blushed bright red as she hastily pulled the gown closer and stammered.

“Um, uh… you’re here? I’m sorry, but could you come back in a bit?”

“K-K, okay. I should have texted you when I arrived….”

“It’s fine. I’ll finish up quickly and come out.”

Clunk! Ding-dong!

It was an oddly awkward moment when the door seemed to close clumsily.

***

I moved at a speed truly faster than light.

I wiped the spill on the floor, collected chicken boxes, PET bottles, and other trash, and took them to the kitchen.

I rinsed off the frying powder stuck to the boxes and cleaned the PET bottles, removing their labels for recycling.

I wiped down the messy living room with a cloth and pushed the vacuum cleaner to finish everything neatly!

I completed this complicated series of tasks in less than three minutes.

“Phew, I think I can shower relaxed now?”

Although showering as a woman takes two times longer than it does for a man, I figured I could finish before Kang Ho-yun arrived if it took me 15 minutes to get here and assumed the return would take a bit longer due to the time of day.

I wouldn’t even be putting on makeup, just splashing some water on my body and using shampoo and body wash would be enough.

For ordinary women, showering takes a long time, but the post-shower routine is also a problem.

Skincare products whose names and effects I might not even know would take ages to apply, along with the basic ones like skin and lotion.

Yooihyun’s skin was so good that she probably didn’t even need such things whether because of good care or natural gifts.

Even if that wasn’t the case, I had no intention of going through that process anyway…

Anyway, despite being in a woman’s body, my male mindset made the tedious processes impossible, so Yooihyun’s shower would be no different from that of men.

Except for having long hair.

With that logic, I had just completed a shower that should have been impossible and put on the gown, stepping out into the living room feeling refreshed….

Ding-dong! Clunk!

Almost the moment I opened the bathroom door, the front door opened, and there stood the familiar silhouette of Kang Ho-yun.

I froze for a moment as I figured out the overlooked variable for why he might have arrived at that moment.

It was such a simple reason.

I had missed the time waiting for the invitation, thinking he was just going to invite me into the private room.

What the hell… Why is something that seems like it should only happen to the main characters in movies or dramas happening to me.

Especially in a woman’s body!

Tightening the gown around my body, I closed the door, almost pushing him out.

“d*mn….”

I couldn’t face him again.

“Come in. Did you wait long?”

“Yeah. Ah, no. Not really?”

I changed into pajamas, pretending to be calm as I opened the door and took the things he brought.

What could I do? We would be seeing each other continually from now on, so feeling awkward about such things was not an option.

Besides, I hadn’t shown him my bare body; I was wearing a gown after all.

I placed the things he brought on the kitchen table.

One was a sushi set, the one beautifully wrapped with a ribbon was a cake, and the one in the gift box was cookies.

He had brought a lot for just one dinner.

“Why did you buy so much? We can’t eat it all.”

“I figured you hadn’t eaten. We can finish the sushi today, and if the cake and cookies are left, we can have them later.”

“Yeah, sit down. Let’s eat quickly. I’m hungry.”

“Uh? Uh.”

As we ate sushi as if nothing had happened, I could feel Kang Ho-yun cautiously glancing at me.

I tried to ignore him, but since he didn’t touch his sushi, I couldn’t help but feel nervous.

Frustrated, I was the first to speak.

“Ah, come on. Just eat, will you? It’s not like I’m n*ked; I’m fully covered in a gown. A guy shouldn’t be making it obvious like this.”

“…Sorry. I’ll eat, I’ll eat.”

Only then did Kang Ho-yun start eating.

Now that I think about it, he hadn’t come all the way here just to eat.

“But you said you wanted to talk. You didn’t come here just to eat, right? What is it?”

“I’ll tell you after we finish eating.”

“Okay, then.”

I silently stuffed my mouth with sushi. I hadn’t eaten anything other than chicken the day before, so I was already hungry.

I didn’t know where the sushi Kang Ho-yun bought was from, but it was delicious, and the tiramisu cake he offered for dessert was just sweet enough and thick, perfectly matching my taste.

I usually didn’t like things like this too much, but…

It seems that my tastes or preferences have changed since switching to a female body.

“This is good too. Thanks for bringing it.”

“Wasn’t anything special.”

“So what do you have to say? Is it important?”

“It’s not really important, but I turned on the broadcast today. I wanted to tell you first.”

“Really? You turned it back on.”

He had said that turning on the broadcast would disrupt his concentration during the competition and that he’d turn it on after the competition ended.

“I had planned to turn it on after it ended, but then I realized I needed to compete with the One Man Show account, so I just did it while I was logging in. I hadn’t done it for too long.”

“Good job. If you’re going to turn it on, I’d like you to meet me in a 1v1.”

“So, can I commentate your match on my stream if I get eliminated?”

Personal broadcast commentary.

The meaning behind the phrase of commentating a match that is aired on the official KiwiChi channel on a personal stream is one thing.

It’s a request to appear as a guest.

I would come out as a guest on his One Man Show broadcast, do a simple talk, and share my determination for the match, offering a special broadcast just for KING before the KiwiChi championship.

In this case, an unknown like me could gain recognition by appearing on a famous stream, while the streamer would attract more viewers thanks to having a noteworthy character.

It’s a win-win situation.

In reality, there were already streamers conducting broadcasts, recruiting skilled players for commentary, even though the qualification rounds had just begun.

“Is there any reason it shouldn’t work out? I was the one who asked to be invited as a guest from the start.”

Since it was none other than Kang Ho-yun and I had specified in the contract to invite me as a guest, what could possibly be a reason for it not to happen?

Moreover, I can’t imagine a better guest than me for KING.

For both Kang Ho-yun’s success and my own, it was a choice that had to be made.

“Then, senior, you just drop out. Forfeit tomorrow.”

“Wait, what? Are you serious?”

“What’s so serious about it! You idiot?”

He truly is a pure person at times like this.