Hobbyist VTuber

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Chapter

Haeun was sipping her strawberry smoothie awkwardly at a café table, while Jeong Maria leaned against her, staring blankly.

And in front of the two, Ji Hae-min was for some reason snapping her fingers insistently.

‘…What’s going on?’

From Iena’s perspective, who had just entered the café, this scene was utterly bewildering.

After all, the reality talk she had with Haeun a few days ago had completely slipped her mind.

Of course, Ji Hae-min, who had been relentlessly pestered by the fans of Daramji until two days ago, had never forgotten the real talk between Haeun and Iena.

That is, the sensational exposé of Dia and Yuna.

– *Snap!*

“Iena! Come here!”

Spotting Iena hesitating in the middle of the café, Ji Hae-min commanded her to sit right next to herself without delay.

Thus, Iena had no choice but to sit quietly beside Ji Hae-min.

Moments after Ji Hae-min showed her final mercy to Iena, she added,

“If you confess now, I might let it slide.”

However, the response that came back from Iena was:

“Confess? About what?”

Unfortunately, this kind of answer made Ji Hae-min’s forehead vein pop.

– *Gwaaaah!!*

“If you had just patted me on the back, huh? If you hadn’t said all that ridiculous stuff about my heart being extraordinary!!”

“…!…!!”

Consequently, Iena had to experience the same iron grip that Haeun and Jeong Maria had endured.

Finally remembering the past Daramji talk, she quickly sought forgiveness, but by then, it was already too late.

And just then, the last travel members Mile and Lia, who had just arrived at the café, witnessed this horrifying sight.

“…Let’s go in a bit later.”

“…Okay.”

This scene was more than enough to turn the two’s feet in the opposite direction.

Mile and Lia had also mentioned Daramji’s physical meet before, so they could understand.

About ten minutes later, the whole group of Fantasia members finally gathered in one place.

Following that, Ji Hae-min started explaining the overall itinerary, all eyes were on her.

“First, we’ll go to the hotel to check in, and then we’ll eat afterwards.”

After a lengthy discussion that followed.

However, unlike Haeun’s last school trip, this time’s Fantasia group trip was planned to shoot vlogs for each of their YouTube uploads.

“So, please refer to yourself by your nickname instead of your real name. The editors will check and double-check, but just in case.”

Guided by Ji Hae-min’s instructions, all members of Fantasia, including Haeun, received this warning not to show Haeun’s face in their vlogs.

“Haeun can’t even have her hair showing. You know what I mean, right?”

“What about the other members?”

“They don’t need to be as careful as Haeun, but don’t film too much. It makes it hard for the editors.”

All scenes that could identify the Fantasia members would be edited or mosaicked.

In other words, it meant that during the filming of the vlogs, no acts that could identify them should occur.

“So, does that mean Haeun will be in Dia mode all trip?”

“Oh no, Haeun will lose her voice.”

In the case of Haeun, whose real voice was worlds apart from her broadcast voice, she was practically sealing her real voice throughout the trip.

Still, there was never an option where Haeun could choose not to partake in this Japan trip.

Even if Haeun’s voice were to completely go out, she wanted to travel with the Fantasia members.

This trip held more than enough value to justify it.

Anyway, before long, it was time to board the plane.

Walking side by side with Ji Hae-min, they headed to the departure terminal.

– *Plod.*

“Um, excuse me.”

“?”

“Is that Lee Haeun? Oh, it is! I’m so sorry, but could I ask Haeun for just one picture?”

A woman, seeming to recognize Haeun, approached to request a photo.

The problem was, she mistook Ji Hae-min for Haeun’s manager.

So she sought Ji Hae-min’s permission for Haeun’s photo.

Of course, the other members managed to stifle their laughter, pretending not to be with Haeun and company.

Ji Hae-min quickly replied, “Y-you’ve mistaken me for someone else.” and vanished quickly.

Ultimately, only Haeun remained, took the photo with the woman, and wrapped it up with:

“Have a great trip.”

Then she returned to her original group.

Arriving at the boarding gate, they heard:

“Ah, soori should have seen that earlier.”

“If the manager had seen it, she would have doubled over laughing, I swear.”

The members were grinning as they imagined how Soori, the manager of Fantasia, would have reacted to the earlier scene.

Of course, all this was to poke fun at Ji Hae-min.

What followed were jokes about how even Daramji, who ruled the internet broadcasting realm as a “cute president” years ago, couldn’t compare to the real star Haeun.

These fun jests continued until Ji Hae-min’s fingers started to snap insistently once again.

Haeun, who had just caught up to Ji Hae-min, swallowed back her own manager-related joke.

From then on, nothing out of the ordinary happened until the plane took off and they finally arrived in Japan.

The first event that could really be called a “job” occurred while they were gathering their bags from the baggage claim.

“Alright, we’ve finally arrived in Japan─!”

The selfie stick of Lia, one of the members who had planned to shoot vlogs, turned towards the scenery outside the airport.

Meaning, from now on, Haeun’s voice tone would shift to Dia’s tone.

The other members around Lia were already chatting excitedly about their expectations for this trip to Japan.

Clearing her throat slightly, Haeun took a few steps forward and asked,

“I’ve been really curious, are you girls more about skiing or snowboarding?”

She raised the topic of the ski resort, one of the trip’s activities, right next to Lia.

Considering she had memories from her previous life, she already knew what the Fantasia members preferred.

However, she thought it’d be quite fun to turn those memories into some sort of content.

“Well, I’m going with skiing. Mile unnie is─”

“Hm, I think Mile unnie is more into snowboarding?”

“What? How did you know?”

Feigning the act of reading minds for a moment, she amazed the Fantasia members.

As expected, no member got it wrong regarding Haeun.

As the light-hearted conversation passed, they soon arrived at the taxi heading to the hotel.

The group split into two taxis and off they went to the hotel they had booked in advance to unpack their bags.

At the time they finally came back out from the hotel, Lia restarted her vlog.

Perhaps it was because Mile had only just begun filming her vlog as well.

“Okay, here’s Mile filming Lia filming Mile~.”

“Hey! That was the line I was going to say!”

Once they reached a nearby restaurant, they began filming in a playful tag-like manner.

Competing while shooting vlogs, Lia and Mile made for an interesting spectacle for the other members, including Haeun.

At last, their late lunch and early dinner consisting of beef tongue was set on the table.

Ji Hae-min reminded them not to forget to savor the expensive meat.

Just as Haeun was about to grab a piece of the beautifully seared meat in front of her—

“Dia.”

“Hm?”

“Do you know what beef tongue is?”

Lia, filming the tip of Dia’s chopsticks—not that Haeun’s fingers showed—asked about what beef tongue was.

Haeun simply replied with, “Isn’t it just beef?”

“Beef tongue is the cow’s tongue.”

“W-what? Really?”

“Yep! So eating beef tongue means you’re kissing the cow!”

With that little bit of mischief in Lia’s tone, Haeun’s chopsticks stiffened for a moment.

Perhaps because of the noisy discussions surrounding the kiss scene from [Moonlight Between Clouds], she seemed extra sensitive to the word ‘kiss.’

As Haeun pondered earnestly whether she should eat this or not, Mile couldn’t hold back her laughter any longer and burst out, giving Haeun a light pat on the shoulder.

“Just because you’re eating pork belly doesn’t mean you’re going to kiss a pig. It’s fine, eat it.”

“Ah.”

At that moment, Haeun finally tasted the profound flavor of beef tongue.

Seeing Haeun let out a breath of relief, Lia and Mile instinctively predicted another highlight for the Japan trip vlog.

It was only natural to be excited that their vlogs would get uploaded to YouTube later on.

The fact that Dia’s RP as a pure spirit at just one year old would shine through even in this Japan trip would undeniably have a positive impact.

Perhaps that’s why.

After concluding all their meals, they finally arrived at their first tourist destination of the day, ‘Asakusa Sensoji.’

To be more precise,

“Uh, how do I look?”

“You look amazing!”

“If a stranger saw you, they’d think you’re a kimono model!”

After spotting a kimono rental shop on the street, Haeun dashed in and quickly changed.

Compliments flowed generously, affirming how wonderfully she matched the attire.

However, when Ji Hae-min personally offered to take some photos, asking her to strike a pose, Haeun’s previous enthusiasm vanished.

She began to exude the same aura she had back during a photoshoot a few weeks ago.

– *Click!*

“…Wow.”

“The vibe is insane, Dia!”

All Fantasia members, upon seeing Haeun’s photos, admired her talent as an actress.

The aura she gave off was in stark contrast to the high-pitched tone they had just heard from Dia earlier.