Today's Chicken Mukbang W 10 - Hyacinth in Bloom

#10

“Can I call you back after I finish eating?”

“Of course. Take your time.”

As soon as I ended the call with Imun, my grandmother gave me a meaningful look. “Your friend has such a nice personality, let me talk to him sometimes.” “Don’t say such nonsense!” I recoiled without realizing it, then let out a short sigh.

In my heart, I felt infinitely close to Imun, but there were times like today when I sensed a distance between us. There was still so much I didn’t know about him.

No need to rush. Reminding myself that it hadn’t even been a week since we exchanged phone numbers, I calmed my stirring heart. No one was chasing us, so I could take time to get to know him slowly.

I wonder if we could meet someday. Japan and Korea weren’t that far apart distance-wise. Given how many Koreans visit Japan, I might be able to see Imun soon.

While giggling at the thought of meeting Imun, I suddenly wondered what he thought of me.

He didn’t know everything about me either. My occupation, for example, was one such thing.

Thinking about how he still misunderstood me terribly made my chest feel heavy, as if a weight had been attached to it. First, let’s make a plan to reveal that I’m a streamer. I firmly resolved this to myself while chewing and swallowing my rice.

After finishing a quick meal, I returned to my room and called Imun. It was already surprising to be talking on the phone since morning, but what came next was even more surprising. Holding the phone in his hand, Hajun checked the time with an incredulous expression.

“At this time… you want to play games?”

“My lecture that was scheduled for this morning got canceled. From now, I think I can manage about an hour.”

“Alright, just give me a moment.”

Just one hour! Hearing his low laughter rumbling through his throat, I rushed to my small room. If only he had told me in advance, I could have easily skipped breakfast. The timing was awkwardly short.

My alt account ‘Ganghaa’ had been neglected for weeks, right on the verge of promotion. His account, with which I always played ranked games, would be in the same situation.

Since I didn’t know when we could play together again, I wanted to cleanly finish the promotion at least. Though I had always played support to help Imun improve, today was different.

I switched the call to PC KaTok and immediately logged into Legend of Legend. To think I’d see THATMOON’s status as online! After briefly making a fuss in sentimental excitement, I pressed the matching button first.

“I’ll go mid this time.”

“What? You’re not playing support?”

“Yeah. Actually, my main position is mid.”

Three games in an hour, winning with quick surrenders! It wouldn’t be difficult if we gave it our all. Burning with fighting spirit, I started our duo game after a long time.

[First Blood!]

[THATMOON is on a rampage.]

Not even a minute in, announcements of Imun’s consecutive kills flowed through. Faster than usual? A subtle sense of competitiveness ignited, and I engaged in a kill competition with him for quite a while.

After breaking through the mid lane to some extent, I headed to bottom lane constantly. As expected, question mark pings mixed with fresh curses flew in from teammates asking why I wasn’t guarding my lane.

What are they talking about? The game is already over. Imun and I had already collected more than 10 kills. “I’m going bottom?!” “If you’re going to do this, you should have played support.” Every time I sent playful movement signals, Imun giggled. Though it wasn’t even my own laughter, just hearing it made endorphins seem to spring from my entire body.

For two more consecutive games, we happily roamed between mid and bottom, crushing enemies so thoroughly that we received clean surrender declarations. Hajun headed to the game lobby with an excited heart, not even checking the damage.

As expected, a different screen from usual unfolded on the monitor. The existing diamond emblem was changing to a master emblem with fancy effects.

[You have been promoted to Master Rank.]

Finally! After staring at the impressive result for a while, I spoke to Imun.

“Did you get promoted?”

“Yes, all thanks to you, hyung.”

Starting from the low, deep abyss and with just two steps ahead, the summit of Challenger finally seemed to be within sight. After briefly reminiscing about the days of playing duo games with him, I lowered my voice more than ever.

“Our goal is Challenger.”

“Haha.” Hearing his joyful laughter, Hajun gently raised the corners of his lips. Indeed, more than any other game, Legend of Legend with Imun was the most fun.

***

The long-awaited day dawned. As soon as I turned on the broadcast, I set up a stopwatch and killed time playing other games.

I need to focus. Even though I tried not to look, my eyes unconsciously turned to the stopwatch. Whether they knew my feelings or not, viewers were making it worse by setting donation reminders at ten-minute intervals.

The chat was filled with talk about Legend of Legend, suggesting they were also excited. Rather than playing a game that neither the player nor the viewers were interested in, it seemed better to comfortably wait for the suspension to be lifted.

After watching the chat for a while, Hajun boldly closed the game.

“If you all don’t mind… I was thinking of doing a talk broadcast for the remaining time, since it’s been a while.”

[30,000 won donation! If ‘a while’ means a year, then it’s certainly been a while!ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]

[10,000 won donation! Chat time?!ㅋㅋㅋㅋ All kinds of things happen when your account gets unbanned ㅋㅋㅋㅋ]

Because I had stubbornly stuck to game broadcasts come rain or shine, viewers often requested face cams as well as talk broadcasts. While smiling as I observed their predictably positive reactions:

– Will you play duo with that person on your main account now? ㅋㅋㅋ

– What happens to the alt account now? ㅠ?

Perhaps because I had blatantly laid the groundwork, questions poured in randomly. Of course, questions related to Imun were also among them.

Yes, it’s all my fault. Belatedly lamenting the taboo I had broken myself, I held my head.

The day Imun’s nickname was exposed on the broadcast. Despite my pleading requests, some still mentioned his account.

‘Please. Don’t mention “that person.”‘

‘This is the last warning. “That person” is forbidden to mention.’

I couldn’t cause any more harm to Imun. I mercilessly banned them and threatened that I would no longer even give warnings.

Only then did they seem to realize I wasn’t joking, and after that day, Imun’s nickname disappeared completely from the chat.

Just a few days later. The agreement reached with viewers after various twists and turns was broken disappointingly easily, through none other than my own mouth. It was the day Imun and I hit Master tier.

Despite my confidence that THATMOON couldn’t possibly be an alt account, Imun was a newbie user who had just started Legend of Legend. His outstanding skills, which seemed unbelievable for a low tier, appeared to be due to natural gaming talent.

About a month of playing duo with him with the mindset of a master raising a disciple. Despite my proud friend achieving remarkable results, there was no one to appreciate it except the viewers.

The desire to boast about him was much stronger than the embarrassment of going back on words forbidden in the broadcast. In the end, like a doting parent bragging about their child, I blabbed about Imun’s growth story, which I now regretted, just a tiny bit.

It felt like I was possessed at the time. Hajun let out a hollow laugh, pretending not to notice the increasing questions about Imun.

Fortunately, viewers didn’t reveal his account name. Tactfully referring to Imun as “that person” was the second rule that naturally formed between viewers and myself for the sake of peaceful broadcasting. As long as they didn’t deviate from this, I also implicitly allowed mentions of him.

But the excessive attention focused on Imun was still uncomfortable. While searching for a way to avoid the situation, a donation sounded through the speaker.

[30,000 won donation! How about a celebratory duo broadcast with that person on your main account?]

“I want to play games with that person too, but they’ve been really busy lately. And most importantly, they still don’t know about my occupation… so a duo broadcast will probably be difficult for the time being.”

They should understand with this much explanation. I answered glumly with disappointment and needlessly stared at the secondary monitor. The message I sent him a few hours ago was still unread.

Since the day of our promotion, I hadn’t been able to play duo with Imun even once. He was truly, bizarrely busy.

Recently, we couldn’t even talk on the phone, let alone play games, and were just exchanging messages. As I smiled bitterly and checked the chat, viewers were unexpectedly reacting to a different point.

– You still haven’t told him your job??ㅋㅋㅋㅋ;;;;;

– Didn’t you say you hadn’t revealed being a streamer several weeks ago?;;

Messages of shock asking if I was still lying came one after another. Advice like ‘It’s better to reveal lies as quickly as possible,’ ‘Better to get the punishment over with quickly,’ and even reproach about why I lied in the first place appeared.

Since every comment hit the mark, my head naturally lowered. Feeling like a criminal, I found myself receiving what amounted to counseling from viewers as I made excuses in response to their questions.

“Actually… at first, I just thought lightly of it and lied.”

– Why did you think lightly of it

– What does that mean

– Gangha is a bad guy