“Konnichiwa, Miyawaki Sakura desu.”

Eunbi stared at the girl in the video, transfixed at the girl’s charm. She didn’t understand anything the girl said, only that the girl’s name was Miyawaki Sakura, and that her channel seems to be a gaming channel. Eunbi couldn’t understand what was going on… Sakura seemed to be playing a shooting game that requires building stairs and walls of some sort. Seeing Sakura’s varied reactions, from apprehensive to surprised to serious to happy... somewhat made Eunbi want to watch her more.

It was a vague feeling for Eunbi, being so enamored by this gamer whose video she watched by chance. In her preoccupied state she failed to notice the fluttering that was beginning to form in her stomach and tug of her lips whenever she sees Sakura’s smile light up the screen on her phone.

Eunbi continued to watch Sakura’s videos until her phone notified her that there was only less than 10% remaining on her battery. She was shocked to see that the time was almost 3 am, Chaeyeon had texted her almost 3 hours ago that her day starts at 8 am. Oh my god, she needs to get a bit of shuteye before Wonyoung starts berating her for having eyebags.

How could she have spent so much time watching someone whose language she barely understood?

The following day - Saturday morning

In an apartment near SME University, Seoul, 9 AM KST

“KANG HYEWON!!!”

Jo Yuri stormed out of her room to face her roommate who was fiddling with her phone on the living room couch.

“Yuri-ah~?”

“Don’t ‘Yuri-ah’ me!!! How many times have I told you to always ask permission whenever you vlog me singing???”

Hyewon stared at her roommate and made a finger heart sign.

“Jo Yuri-ah, I’m sorry okay? My viewers really love your voice, and I was in a slump in what to vlog. Come sit next to me, look at all the compliments your voice is getting!”

“Oh no, Hyewon unnie, I am not falling for that. This a serious violation of MY PRIVACY, and you’re just seriously vlogging my voice in secret for clout -”

“[Your roommate’s voice is really amazing, has she auditioned for any company yet? I’ll keep her in my pocket if she hasn’t!]

[Yuri’s voice really soothes me. Even though she might get mad at you for recording this in secret, I’m very grateful that you showed us this blessing!!!]

[Hearing Yuri’s voice… I feel like my soul has been cleansed…]

[Ahhhhhhhh!!! Yuri is so cute but she has such a powerful voice. Will we ever get to see you guys do a live Q and A together?]”

Hearing comments about her singing has calmed Yuri down, walking nearer towards Hyewon to see if the comments she was reading out loud were real. Hyewon showed her her phone, filled with comments over how talented Yuri was.

Yuri was flattered, of course, but she was determined to at least have say with her appearing in Hyewon’s vlogs voluntarily.

“Okay, Hyewon unnie! I get it, your viewers like my voice, but please please PLEASE ask permission from me the next time you vlog, okay?”

“Mhm, it’s a deal Yuri-ah.”

“Thank you Hyewon unnie!” Yuri finally showed a bright smile as she sat next to Hyewon.

“So what’s the idea for your next video going to be?”

“Mhmmmmmm, my salary from Youtube hasn’t arrived yet, so I can’t go to any new restaurants to try out their food. All the anime that my viewers have been recommending are still ongoing series, and you know that I don’t vlog about them unless they’re complete - except for One Piece.”

Hyewon pouted, looking sad for a moment. Suddenly, she had an idea which caused her to look at Yuri.

“Yuri-ah~”

Hyewon placed her phone in her lap and clasped her hands around Yuri’s. Yuri gulped, expecting the worst.

“Do a live question and answer video with me.”

“HYEWON UNNIE, YOU KNOW I’M SHY IN FRONT OF THE CAMERA -”

“Your rent for this month will be paid in full by me.”

“- BUT I’M WILLING TO DO IT WHEN IT’S WITH YOU UNNIE! LET’S GET IT!”

Hyewon smiled brightly and hugged Yuri.

“Yuri-ah! Thank you so much! Would it be okay if I tweeted this now? Should I tag you on Twitter or would you rather not have the notifications?”

“Mhmmm, just tag me in them. I’ll go through the mentions to see if I have to prepare for some weird questions they might ask. Unnie, you really mean the rent?”

“Yes, Yuri-ah~ You’re helping me get out of a vlogging slump here so I am 1000% sincere about the rent.”

“Thank you so much unnie! I can finally buy the album I’ve been saving up for!” Yuri stood up and clapped her hands in excitement.

“I’ll leave you to it, unnie. I’ll just go and practice playing my piano for our practicals this Monday.”

Hyewon watched Yuri go to her practice room, while she just stayed on the couch to check out the comments on her latest vlog. She then went on twitter and tweeted out her announcement for next week’s vlog.

Mukbang Kang tweeted:

‘Next Friday, @JoYuri_22 and I will be answering questions live from my channel! Comment below for some questions you want us to answer, or use the hashtag #HyeYuriQandA! Live will start at around 7PM KST!’

Satisfied with her tweet, she goes to her room and turns on her laptop to watch some anime. She predicts that Naver and other news sites will get a whiff of her live soon since it’s the first time she’s doing this, and for once Hyewon is grateful that her vlogging channel is known by the general public.

The following week, Friday night

6:50 PM KST

Eunbi was going through a photoshoot for the promotion of her drama, and since it was the last shoot for the day, Wonyoung’s job to retouch and restyle Eunbi was done. Wonyoung and Chaeyeon excused themselves to be able to rest in Eunbi’s dressing room, while Yujin stayed behind to continue observing how the shooting and editing process of a photoshoot was done.

Once Chaeyeon and Wonyoung were in Eunbi’s dressing room, a loud notification came from both of their phones, stating that Mukbang Kang’s live is about to start.

Chaeyeon decided to watch the live Q and A with Wonyoung since they had nothing better to do at the moment. She might as well watch her new favorite vlogger while waiting for Eunbi’s shoot to wrap up.

She has spent the past week binging on Mukbang Kang’s vlogs, sometimes watching it with Wonyoung and Yujin. The girl was just that weird and funny that Chaeyeon wanted to watch her vlogs all the time.

The live started, and Hyewon and Yuri can be seen through the screen.

“Annyeonghaseyo, Mukbang Kang Hyewon imnida. For the first time on my channel, today I am doing a live question and answer portion with my roommate. Yuri, would you like to introduce yourself?”

“Annyeonghaseyo, J-Jo Yuri im-imnida. 18 years old, classical music major in college. Th-thank you for having me here Hyewon unnie.”

Yuri was visibly nervous, but Hyewon was trying her best to comfort her roommate by wrapping her arm around her waist. The vlog started with comments that were asked on Youtube, Twitter and Instagram. There were a lot of questions according to Hyewon, so they printed out the questions that they found interesting and placed it inside a box. Each of them took turns picking out a question from the box and read it out loud. Yuri answered questions that were asking about her and her voice. Yuri visibly relaxed as the live went on because of Hyewon’s strange but funny answers to questions, which was mostly about food recommendations.

“We will now be moving on to our next segment in the live, where we’ll be reading your comments below this live video and answer some burning questions that you guys may have other than the questions we mentioned before. You may now ask some questions in 3...2...1! Yuri-ah, read the comments for me and ask a question you find interesting!”

Yuri scrolled through the tablet that Hyewon handed her and looked for any questions that Hyewon might want to answer.

“Ahhhh… you guys should really stop asking if I had auditioned for any company yet… if I did, you would know since Hyewon vlogs about me most of the time.” Yuri laughed awkwardly at the camera.

“Ooooh! Here’s one unnie. From Hyewonnie92: I love Mukbang Kang so much, but I miss the Gamer Won days of your channel. Do you have any plans of making a gaming vid again?”

Hyewon tilted her head to think about the answer for a moment, then replied, “Mhmmmm, I do miss making gaming streams, and I am updated with the latest online PC, PS4, and Switch games that came out… but I’ll have to think about it for a moment.”

“Jamkamman, jamkamman, all the comments are suddenly about you and your gaming unnie!” Yuri laughed, a bit overwhelmed by how fast the comments were refreshing and how a lot of them mentioned Gamer Won.

“Ahhhhh wait, someone named sakesaranghae commented that you should try doing a collab with kurasake aka Miyawaki Sakura-nim. Hey unnie, wasn’t she the reason for why you started vlogging in the first place?”

It was now Hyewon’s turn to laugh awkwardly, scratching the back of her neck at her roommate’s sudden question.

“You better answer this quick unnie, now all the comments are all about the collab between you and kurasake!”

“Ahm~ I know I said in my earlier vlogs that she was the reason behind me making a channel, and I even recommended her channel in one of my videos… but it’s been a long time since I’ve interacted with Miyawaki-san. I’ll think about your suggestion and I’ll see what I can do, okay?”

The live question and answer portion was still ongoing when Eunbi and Yujin entered the dressing room. Chaeyeon and Wonyoung were so focused on watching the live that they didn’t even hear the other two enter the room.

“Hey, Wonyoung and Chaeyeon, what are you doing?” Eunbi asked, while Yujin was furiously taking down notes on her notepad, presumably about the things she learned at the photoshoot today.

“Huh? Kurasake? Do you know who she is, Chaeyeon unnie?”

“She’s a Japanese gaming vlogger, and Mukbang Kang was very inspired by her channel that she even learned Japanese on her own.”

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