ChuuVsTheWorld wasn’t serious, at first.

Jiwoo had been bored in the middle of summer, so she had watched a documentary about the fast fashion industry, and then another about global warming. Ten documentaries later, she was still incredibly bored, but she was also angry about the amount of damage people were doing to the world. That had lead to her and her best friend since like, forever, Jungeun, going around town gathering litter and other assorted garbage.

It was a fun endeavour, but she kept getting frustrated after seeing the same types of garbage – soju bottles and cigarette butts, primarily – in the same public playground. And after she and Jungeun had done some sleuthing (“Sitting in a bush for five hours is not sleuthing, Jiwoo,” Jungeun had said, but Jungeun didn’t even watch Meitantei Conan, so Jungeun didn’t get an opinion on what counted as sleuthing or not) and found out that it was a group of kids from their school that had been the ones to leave the soju bottles and cigarettes there, Jiwoo had gotten angry.

Angry enough to post a passive aggressive video on her Instagram account and link it in her school’s group chat. It didn’t really solve the littering, but at least the kids started collecting their garbage before they left and Jiwoo and Jungeun hadn’t needed to clean up that particular spot ever again.

That was when Jiwoo had gotten the beyond brilliant idea to make yet another video, this time encouraging others to clean up their own neighbourhoods. The reception had been quite good for a video she had made in her bedroom with paper props, so she made another one. And another one. Eventually, she moved to YouTube, where her usual 1-minute videos turned into 4-minute videos, and then 10-minute videos, and four years later, even 30-minute interviews with public figures who were interested in appearing on her channel, courtesy of her having 1.3 million subscribers.

Which was where Jiwoo was now, waiting for fashion model ViVi, real name Wong Kahei, who was interested in saving the environment, and also interested in what she, as a well-known face in the fashion industry, could do to encourage waste reduction on fashion sets, among other things.

The thing was, Miss Very Important Fashion Model was late. By fifteen minutes, but still. Jiwoo valued her time, and she also had somewhere to be in three hours, so she couldn’t really afford to wait for ViVi, no matter how important the other woman was. And, truth be told, Jiwoo was a little annoyed, too. The model should have had some respect for Jiwoo’s time, even if Jiwoo was just a YouTuber with 1.3 million subscribers, and the other woman had been on the cover of Allure the month before, and W Magazine the month before that.

“Hey, hi, sorry we’re late!”

Finally.

ViVi was.. objectively, really beautiful, actually.

The model was wearing glasses, casually perched on her nose, her hair was carefully made to look soft and bouncy, and her blouse was a soft pink that matched her manager’s hair. The model wasn’t really Jiwoo’s type, because she looked like a high powered executive type and Jiwoo was more into the ‘relaxing at home in her pajamas while watching Netflix for 5 hours straight’ type of person, but- her manager though.

Jiwoo was having a hard time not blinking, which was embarrassing, and she had asked her subscribers if it bothered them in one video and the vast majority of them had replied that they found it ‘cute,’ but there had been a few who had replied ‘it’s very distracting,’ so she had been trying to do it less of late, even though her contacts made it hard for her to not, but- wow.

The manager was dressed in a low cut dress shirt and a pair of distressed jeans, and.. yeah, now she was Jiwoo’s type. The woman had a shy smile, and Jiwoo could see the blush on her cheeks despite the minimal makeup that had been applied – probably at ViVi’s behest, because models always wanted their managers to look presentable, even if they weren’t the ones about to get filmed. Jiwoo thought that the woman would look perfect even if she had just woken up five minutes prior, and stepped on set without a single makeup artist touching her face.

“I’m Chuu! Nice to meet you!” said Chuu, bowing at a 90-degree angle.

“Hi, I’m ViVi. It’s a pleasure to meet you,” said ViVi’s manager, bowing as well. Jiwoo looked from the manager to her model. Well, no, wait – she looked from the model to her manager. “Thank you very much for accepting my request to be on the show.”

“What,” said Jiwoo, eyebrows furrowed. “Oh- oh, you’re ViVi sunbae-nim! Oh, wow, you’re really pretty! I thought- Wow, your manager is really pretty too,” and here she looked back at the woman who was was now stood alongside the model, standing up from her own bow with a flush on her cheeks. “I’m sorry, it’s just- you’re dressed so casually, I just-”

Jiwoo bowed even lower, and tried to make herself stop talking, but as always, it didn’t really work.

“Not the first time it’s happened, don’t worry, Jiwoo-ssi,” said ViVi’s actual manager, smiling kindly. Now that Jiwoo actually looked at her, she could tell that the woman was holding the things a manager would typically hold onto – phones, a laptop, bag full of emergency items like food and makeup. “My name is Jo Haseul. I’m ViVi’s manager.”

“Jo Haseul-ssi,” said Jiwoo, as the other woman lowered her head once more. “Right, well, um. Have you eaten? There’s food in the green room. Our makeup artist is available should you need touch-ups, although you clearly don’t, but, I- um, sorry, wow- ViVi sunbae-nim, Haseul-ssi. Right. That was so confusing for a second there. You’re both so very pretty.”

Jiwoo realised that she probably should have spent more time actually looking at pictures of ViVi and less time reading about her on her wiki page, but her wiki page had been so.. interesting. Long, as they usually were, and full of details about her environmental activism – which wasn’t as extensive as it could have been, but Jiwoo saw that the model was genuine in her interest in her channel and what she was trying to do with her platform.

“I’ll go get us some water,” said Haseul, leaving Jiwoo standing awkwardly in front of ViVi.

“I really liked that episode you did on upcycling clothes,” said ViVi, making conversation. Jiwoo was having a hard time looking her directly in the eyes. ViVi really was very beautiful in person.

“I really enjoyed filming it!” said Jiwoo, eager to talk about something that wasn’t how unprepared she was. “My producer wanted something that could have appeal beyond the usual crowd, so- I really liked sewing my parents’ old clothes into like, pillowcases and things when I was younger, so I suggested it and, well, she liked the idea. I’m really glad it worked out as well as it did. Was that the first Chuu Versus episode you watched?”

“Ah, no, I- I’ve been watching for a couple of years now,” said ViVi, turning away from her to look back at where her manager had disappeared off to. “I’m kind of a fan, actually, Chuu-ssi.”

“Oh,” said Jiwoo, trying not to get her hopes up because so many people said that just to say it. “Really? I’ve had people tell me that before, only to not get the references to earlier episodes that I do sometimes. It’s not bad, but my editor keeps telling me she has to edit stuff out because guests don’t like it when they look like they don’t know what they’re talking about. It’s okay if you’re not a fan, I promise I won’t be upset. I’ll just make less references and like, no one will even notice, you don’t have to worry.”

“I’m not joking,” said ViVi, giggle bubbling nervously in . Jiwoo really liked her smile. She hoped to see more of it, at least during the filming. “I’ve watched every video you’ve posted on your channel. I don’t know if it’s customary to say this, but I’ve even watched the vlogs. Your editor won’t know what hit her. Quiz me, I’ll answer anything you ask.”

“Hm.. You want me to quiz you, really?” said Jiwoo, biting her lip. ViVi nodded, catching her bottom lip between her teeth. Jiwoo tried to focus on anything other than how cute the model looked. “Okay, then, let’s start with something simple.. What was my first Chuu Versus video?” Jiwoo wriggled her eyebrows. ViVi laughed.

“Trick question,” said ViVi, tilting her head. Jiwoo had the sudden fear that she didn’t know the answer herself, and so asking ViVi this was a recipe for disaster. “First video posted to YouTube was a copy of a video you first posted on Instagram – the rant about littering, and your first YouTube-exclusive video was the one where you pretended you were from the future, but that was more of a channel preview