Season 4: Chapter 71. LIL Squad Assemble (2)
“Ah...”
Meanwhile, Orange emerged from his capsule.
Chiiik.
“Ah, crap. This is bad.”
He was so drained that he couldn't even crawl out of the capsule and just slumped inside because of the news he heard from Sausage. It really was a ham-fisted situation.
“Why did he go with Cheese?”
Most insiders expected Almond to join Paprika. Suddenly, he veered off to Cheese.
Orange couldn’t understand. He had desperately wanted Almond as a core member on his team.
“Ah...”
For a while, he just stared blankly at the ceiling and emptily sighed before finally sitting up.
“Gotta start over.”
He had to rebuild the team.
Orange sighed and got back up to his feet. Lately, nothing had gone his way. He had finally established himself as a reputable streamer for LIL RPG. Then, the game came to a full stop, only to be replaced by a completely new title.
The new title, Legend’s Tale, was reportedly progressing well. However, it hadn’t even reached open beta and still remained stuck in alpha testing. Only participants chosen by the game company could play.
Orange hadn’t been one of them. It really was an insiders-only alpha if even someone with Orange’s standing didn’t make the cut.
“Ughhh...” He let out another strange groan and opened his notepad. “Who do I pick? Who?”
***
“But Sang-Hyeon, why are you so obsessed with Orange?” Ju-Hyeok finally asked after they had sorted out all the contract details.
Sure, Orange had a dubious reason for putting out such a challenging mission. However, it all worked out in the end. They even raked in huge donations from it.
Ju-Hyeok just felt curious as to why Sang-Hyeon went so far as to choose an entirely different platform just to beat Orange.
“Ah.” Sang-Hyeon took a moment before replying. “You wrote it in the notepad.”
Ju-Hyeok silently waited for him to elaborate.
“You called Orange an enemy.”
“So...?”
“What do you mean, so?”
Ju-Hyeok’s face twisted in disbelief.
‘Wait. He did it just because I wrote that?’
Ju-Hyeok had simply jotted down that line out of frustration while researching. In fact, it was a hasty note to get the point across.
“If you wrote that, he must’ve been a real bastard.”
So he took it that seriously, huh.
Then again, if someone had written “enemy” in Sang-Hyeon’s notepad, Ju-Hyeok would’ve been on high alert too.
“And then he had the nerve to challenge me. There’s no reason to back down. The terms were the same anyway.”
It seemed Sang-Hyeon really didn’t like Orange’s approach. More than the situation itself, it was a matter of personal taste.
Ju-Hyeok had no idea how to deal with the snowball that had rolled this far.
“Hey, I weighed all the conditions. You think I’m a kid?”
Sang-Hyeon waved it off like he knew exactly what Ju-Hyeok was thinking.
“You didn’t even listen to the explanation before choosing, man.”
“Pffft,” Ji-Ah burst out laughing from beside them.
It reminded her of the “Almond is a baby” meme.
“Not those kinds of conditions.”
“Then what?”
“I liked that it was a new platform.”
“What?”
To the conservative Ju-Hyeok, that made no sense.
“Paprika has streamers who pull over a million viewers. There are big names from Treevy too.”
“Yeah.”
“But to become top-tier, I felt like I had to be part of a fresh scene.” Sang-Hyeon smiled as he scooped up some kimchi stew.
He clearly felt proud of his decision.
‘So basically, it’s a blue ocean play.’
To Ju-Hyeok, a blue ocean existed for a reason. It didn’t sound convincing.
Just then, Sang-Hyeon muttered, “But I still have to beat Orange.”
‘You punk. So it really was because of Orange!’
He almost got fooled. All that reasoning had just been fluff to dodge the nagging.
***
“Man, I’m stuffed.”
Ju-Hyeok devoured two bowls of rice and even stole some of Ji-Ah’s.
“You’re just stating the obvious,” Ji-Ah muttered in disbelief as she got up from her seat.
She was going to pay first.
“We can use the company card now, right?”
“Oh. Yeah, it’s an employee lunch after all.”
MixedNuts was now an incorporated company. Aside from Ji-Ah and Macaron, they planned to hire more staff and open an office.
“But... is there actually money on this thing?” Ji-Ah waved the card suspiciously.
Sure, Almond kept all the donation revenue. MixedNuts only profited from ads and planned content. They also had other streamers under them like BornToB, Kimchi Warrior, and Pang. Ever since the Fake National Team, their revenue streams had been slim.
“That’s a credit card. What are you talking about?”
“Do you even have the money to maintain that credit?”
“Come on, of course I do!” Still, Ju-Hyeok insisted. “I got some ad money in advance.”
Ji-Ah cocked her head at him.
“You know, from Ghostwo Busters.”
As soon as Ghostwo Busters did well, Ju-Hyeok had asked for a small advance. Ji-Ah scratched her head and quietly pulled out her own card to pay.
‘There really must not be much in there...’
Ju-Hyeok’s corporate life was just beginning. Even Ji-Ah, who was worse than him at budgeting, could tell that the company wasn’t exactly flush with cash. Being a celebrity and running a successful agency were two very different things.
Beep.
The payment went through, and Ji-Ah motioned with her hand. “Let’s go.”
“Man, we’re a real corporation now. Corporate!” Ju-Hyeok, completely unaware that Ji-Ah had paid, laughed excitedly.
Running a company had always been his dream, so it felt special.
Clatter!
“Uh, uh! Wait, we need to pay too!”
“Oppa! Let’s grab coffee too since we ran into each other!”
The Balloon Stars members rushed out and nearly knocked over their chairs. They were worried that Sang-Hyeon would escape again.
‘I was going to wait outside anyway...’
Sang-Hyeon, still seated, felt startled by their desperation. He planned on telling them that he’d wait outside after paying.
***
“Come again!”
They all stood in front of the kimchi stew restaurant.
“Wahaha. Wh-What are the odds? I’m Bubblegum~ The bug artist~” Bubblegum, who was normally incapable of lying, seemed especially awkward as he kept mumbling nonsense.
“But this place is good! I heard it was famous.” At least Miho did a decent job of steering the conversation.
“Ah, yeah. I come here often, but how did you end up here?” Sang-Hyeon instantly realized he had messed up.
He already knew why they came, but blurted out the question anyway.
“Ah... w-we, um... we have a shoot. Hehe.”
“Ah, right. That’s what it was.”
They had never even mentioned anything about a shoot to Sang-Hyeon. The way he pretended to know what was going on left the group speechless.
‘What do we do? I can’t handle this.’
‘Are we being a huge bother?’
‘We’re the worst.’
‘Almond oppa...’
They walked to the cafe while mulling over their own thoughts.
“Uh...” Ji-Ah glanced behind her.
She felt like someone was following them and had always been quite sensitive to that kind of sensation.
“What’s wrong?”
“Uh... well... I feel like someone is following us.”
“Huh?”
Ju-Hyeok turned around, but didn’t see anyone. By the time he had turned, those individuals had already hidden.
‘What the?’
Ju-Hyeok couldn’t help but worry. If anyone knew how legit Ji-Ah’s instincts were, it was him.
‘What kind of psycho does this in broad daylight?’
***
Shff!
Black Tea ducked out of sight with the reflexes of a Challenger ranked player.
As always, she scolded Lemon before anyone else. “Hey! I told you not to follow them so closely! Dammit!”
“Ugh... Why are we sneaking around anyway? Can’t we just say hi?”
“I don’t even know anymore. It just ended up like this, dammit...”
Thunk.
Suddenly, a shadow loomed over the two girls crouched behind a car.
“KYAAAAAAAHHHHHH!” Lemon shrieked and nearly passed out.
Black Tea stumbled back and smacked her head on a parked delivery scooter. “Guh!”
A choked gasp escaped her lips as her eyes rolled back.
The most startled one was Ju-Hyeok, the owner of the shadow.
“What the hell!?”
He had expected some creepy male stalker, but the sight of two girls completely surprised him. One red-haired girl and a blonde had collapsed in fright.
“What’s going on!?”
“Manager! Are you okay!?”
The commotion reached the main group, and they all rushed over. When they arrived, they found Lemon and Black Tea tangled up on the ground.
“You... what are you two doing here?” Miho, who was familiar with them, asked in disbelief.
Black Tea, still upside down, furiously yelled back, “W-What about you!? What are you doing here!? Don’t tell me you’re here for some on-location filming!? You call a RuneStar selfie shoot a legit shoot!?”
Only then did Miho realize why these two had shown up.
‘So now we all have to go together.’
Balloon Stars would no longer have Almond to themselves.
***
They headed to a cafe called Blue Boat, nestled by the riverside walking path. It had a great view of the river, and one could even rent a boat for an extra fee.
“Wow. This place is amazing.”
“Wah~ Almond oppa lives somewhere really nice, huh? Right by the river,” Lemon commented cheerfully, clueless as usual.
She clearly hadn’t watched the Fake National Team series. Sang-Hyeon lived at the top of a rundown hillside neighborhood. While this newer and wealthier district was nearby, his part of town was anything but luxurious. In fact, it had gotten worse lately.
Thwack!
Black Tea smacked Lemon.
“Ow! Why did you hit me!?”
“Just shut up.”
“Owww...”
They all gathered around a long table as Ju-Hyeok brought over the coffee.
“Alright, everyone. The coffee is on Almond. Haha.”
Everyone replied all together like kindergarteners, “Thank you~!”
They slurped their drinks.
“Mmm. Tasty.”
“Nice.”
“With a view like this, the coffee tastes even better.”
After a round of comments, silence settled over the group.
Black Tea broke the ice first. “Honestly, we need to keep things fair.”
That statement caught Sang-Hyeon off guard. He had expected her to ask which team he wanted to join. Instead, she said something even more direct.
“Mr. Almond is the only hard-carry player for our Treev... uh, Cheese team. How can you just recruit someone like that based on personal connections?”
“We haven’t recruited him yet,” Bubblegum muttered defensively.
“You brought a duffel bag to kidnap him!” Black Tea pointed accusingly at StrawberryShooter.
‘How did she know?’
Tako tried to counter. “You’re here too, Black Tea!”
“M-Me!? I came because of this! I knew this would happen!”
“Huh? Then what exactly do you want to happen?”
Black Tea looked away for a second. Then, she shouted the line she had prepared, “I just... I want our platform to win!”
“Yeah!” Lemon jumped in to back her up.
They had come armed with a cause.
“We’ve gotta build the best team! We have to beat Paprika!”
“That’s right~!”
Tako was dumbfounded.
“Sure, the best team sounds great. But...” Tako gestured to Lemon. “She’s part of that ‘best team’ too?”
“Uh, no. She’s just here as a cheer member.”
Lemon was hearing this for the first time. “Whaaat? Unnie, that’s what I am?”