Chapter 35: Hug me and comfort me

“Ah, Seowoo-nim, you’re here too.”

“Ah, ah, hello…!”

“It’s been a while.”

Haruka smiled beautifully at me and naturally sat down next to me.

A sweet fruity fragrance wafted over.

‘Is it grape scent?’

‘Or green grape?’

‘Sniffing carefully, it seems like raspberry scent too.’

It was similar to that Yves Saint Laurent Mon Paris Eau de Toilette, or something, that Sumire Mamang took me to a perfume store to try last time.

‘…I don’t quite remember the name, but anyway, she said it was a perfume from a high-end French brand.’

‘As expected, Haruka doesn’t just wear any perfume.’

The moderately sophisticated yet sweet scent was incredibly addictive.

Unconsciously, I found myself leaning towards her, secretly sniffing her scent.

Speaking of grapes, it made my imagination run wild.

‘After we get married, it would be quite romantic to watch the sunset on the terrace with her favorite cheese and champagne as an accompaniment.’

‘As she gets tipsy from the champagne, I’d support her, naturally using our height difference to slip into her gown.’

‘And the two sweet grapes there…’

‘Come to think of it, Haruka is a sacred virgin bestowed by heaven, so they’d be more like cherries than grapes, so maybe not that.’

“Did you two say hello?”

As I was subtly tilting my body, secretly inhaling Haruka’s scent bit by bit, Kim Kanghyun and his wife came from the kitchen with coffee and fruit.

Haruka shot up from her seat, took the coffee, and placed it on our respective spots.

Then, Kim Kanghyun put down the fruit and sat opposite us, and his wife also smiled at Haruka, thanking her, before sitting next to Kim Kanghyun.

“Let’s eat and talk.”

“Yes, thank you for the food.”

“Thank you for the fooood…”

Kim Kanghyun picked up his coffee and offered it to us.

Haruka, as if accustomed, enjoyed the aroma and took a sip.

I, who had only ever drunk canned coffee from a military vending machine or iced Americano, awkwardly copied her actions.

“Pfft…! Kegh!”

‘Why is it so bitter!’

“Oh my!”

“Are you okay?”

“I’m, I’m okay.”

Fortunately, following Haruka, I had only taken a small sip, so it just trickled a little from the corner of my mouth.

However, seeing me spit out the coffee, Haruka was startled, pulled out a few tissues, and wiped my mouth, while Kim Kanghyun’s wife hurried to the kitchen, poured milk into a mug, and offered it to me.

‘…Is it breast milk?’

“Have some milk with it. Shall I warm it up for you?”

“Ah, no. It’s just right.”

‘Isn’t coffee with milk a latte?’

‘I can’t drink hot coffee well anyway, so this seemed about right.’

‘…Hmm. I wish it were a bit sweeter, but the nutty taste makes me feel like I’ve gone back to being a baby, so it’s not bad.’

Seeing me gulping down the breast milk—no, milk-mixed coffee, she smiled fondly and then started to chide Kim Kanghyun.

“Honey, how could you just give it to her without any sugar?”

“Ah, no… Seoyoon drinks it fine.”

“Is she the same as Seoyoon?”

“Sorry…”

Kim Kanghyun apologized to me with his eyes.

I gave him a bitter smile.

‘He’s completely whipped.’

After nagging Kim Kanghyun for a good while, she looked at us smiling, then covered her mouth with an “Oops!” expression.

“Come to think of it, I haven’t even introduced myself.”

“That’s because you…”

“Be quiet for a moment.”

She gave Kim Kanghyun a sharp glare, poked him in the side, and then, in an instant, wore a demure smile and bowed her head.

“Nice to meet you. My name is Futaba Mitsuha. I moved to Korea when I married him.”

“Eh? You’re Japanese?”

“Fufu… That’s right.”

‘…From tonight, I will curse Kim Kanghyun every night.’

‘Although I have Haruka, people naturally can’t just watch others succeed.’

‘Moreover, that beauty who is demure, has a great figure, and exudes the aura of a good wife and wise mother is even a wife from Japan.’

‘Isn’t she the perfect wife that otakus only dream of in their fantasies?’

“Hello. I’m Woo Seowoo.”

Although I had introduced myself earlier, I bowed my head slightly and replied.

She then smiled brightly and nodded.

Soon, Kim Kanghyun, who had been watching the scene fondly while drinking his coffee, put down his cup.

“……It’s about the cover song, right?”

He nodded.

‘By the way, we’re about to discuss company matters, but is it okay for Breast Milk Mom… no, Futaba-ssi to be here?’

As I tilted my head in confusion, Kim Kanghyun noticed and smiled, saying it was fine.

“Mitsuha has experience in this industry. She even influenced me to start the VTuber business, and she sometimes consults with the 1st generation members.”

“Ah…”

‘Now the secret of why Kim Kanghyun suddenly started the VTuber business after getting married is revealed.’

‘But if she has experience in this industry, was she a manager?’

‘If not that, was she a VTuber?’

I was curious, but she just wore a mysterious smile and didn’t seem inclined to talk about it right now, so I tactfully didn’t ask.

“Anyway, moving on to the cover song, the song you chose, Seowoo, wasn’t bad. No, it could actually be considered really good… Did you check your cover song’s view count?”

“No…?”

“Check it now.”

At his words, I nodded, turned on my smartphone, and went to my Mtube account.

And.

The view count for the cover video, which I hadn’t even checked myself to see how it turned out, was a whopping—

“250,000?!”

“It racked up a lot, right?”

“Yes…”

I nodded blankly.

It hadn’t even been 24 hours since the cover song was released, yet it had 250,000 views.

It was a view count that could potentially reach 300,000 by the end of the day if things went well.

I’m not a numbers whiz, but when the views turn out like this, I can’t help but instinctively think.

‘Among domestic VTubers so far, isn’t Haruka the only one who has surpassed 300,000 daily views for a solo cover song…?’

Moreover, when I checked the best comments, Haruka’s comment was at the very top.

– I really like it.

“Heok.”

‘It’s that Haruka’s comment.’

Until now, she had never left a single comment on her own cover songs, let alone those of other VTubers.

It could be said that it showed her confidence, not particularly caring about every single reaction.

‘But she left a comment on my first cover song…?’

“I enjoyed your cover song.”

Looking to my side, Haruka was looking at me with a beautiful smile.

As soon as I met her large eyes, I hung my head low.

“I could feel what you were trying to say…”

“……!”

‘She noticed, after all…’

‘Well, since I, who knew Haruka’s condition, overturned my plans as soon as her cover song came out and uploaded a song sung in a completely opposite style, the smart her must have noticed what I was thinking.’

My cheeks grew hot.

I felt like my clothes had been stripped off, exposing my bare body.

At that time, I had re-recorded impulsively out of anger, but as a Canary, I couldn’t hold my head high for essentially challenging my oshi when I should have been giving her nothing but full affirmation.

‘It would be no different from directly confronting the song she had built up.’

‘Will she hate me for it…?’

“Seowoo-ya.”

“Yes…?”

As I was fiddling with the innocent mug, feeling like I wanted to hide in a mouse hole, Kim Kanghyun’s voice reached me.

Lifting my head at his words, I saw him with a bitter smile.

“First, I think it’s right to apologize to Seoyoon. We were too hasty.”

“I told you I was fine. Besides, I also uploaded it without saying anything, just like usual.”

Haruka waved her hands dismissively, but I also agreed with Kim Kanghyun’s words, so I quickly turned my body and bowed deeply to her.

‘Whatever her response was, this whole thing was started by me and Kim Kanghyun in the first place.’

‘As long as we’re working as a group, and as long as I like her, apologizing is the right thing to do.’

“Yes… Seoyoon-nim, I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. I wasn’t very adult-like either…”

Apart from feeling sorry for her as a Canary, I honestly had a question.

‘The Haruka I know isn’t someone who would do something self-destructive like this, so why on earth did she respond that way?’

Haruka was the primary contributor who had dragged Bellus to success by the scruff of its neck, so her influence within the company would be correspondingly strong.

In the first place, Kim Kanghyun also tended to guarantee autonomy to his affiliated VTubers without much interference.

If she put her mind to it, she could express her hurt feelings in many other ways.

But for me, there was something more important than that question.

“Your throat… Are you okay?”

I asked her cautiously, fiddling with the mug.

Even as I spoke, my heart felt like it was tearing apart.

‘…She strained her throat again, there’s no way it’s okay.’

But the answer came from the other side.

“Throat?”

“Seoyoon-ah… Didn’t you tell her on the phone?”

Kim Kanghyun and Futaba-ssi were looking at Haruka with puzzled expressions.

Haruka then awkwardly scratched her cheek and replied.

“Seowoo-nim wasn’t answering her phone, I think she was sleeping…”

“…What are you talking about?”

‘Why am I the only one out of the loop?’

‘Is Haruka’s throat not a problem?’

‘She definitely said she was recovering from vocal cord nodules, so if she sang a song like that in that condition, there’s no way she’d be okay.’

As I was anxiously sipping the cooled breast milk coffee, Haruka spoke to me.

“That was a draft.”

“Eh?”

Coffee trickled from the corner of my mouth.

Haruka, startled once again, wiped my chin with a tissue and gave an apologetic smile.

“Seowoo-nim, you know this too, but… I used to be an Utaite, right?”

“Ah…”

‘Ah. So that’s it.’

‘So that’s what happened…’

The pillar of Bellus and the protagonist of its success story.

The best vocalist among VTubers.

Haruka, a 1st generation member adorned with numerous other titles, was formerly an Utaite.

Utaite is a term referring to people who, since the late 2000s, have been posting videos titled “Utattemita” (I tried singing) on submission sites like Niconico Douga.

Broadly, it is also used for people who cover Japanese subculture music.

It can also refer to amateur singers; for example, Ado, who sang the song Haruka recently covered, is also from an Utaite background.

True to their name, they record and upload numerous songs, and it’s only natural that the more works they produce, the more drafts (practice pieces) they accumulate.

Haruka was the same.

She was called the greatest output of the Korean Utaite scene and had been so successful that she was popular even in Japan.

However, after she went on hiatus and then debuted as a VTuber, she brought along a large number of embittered Utaite fans, causing a bit of a commotion initially, but it’s famous that even they, wanting to hear Haruka’s songs, secretly listen whenever a cover song is released, much like an ex-boyfriend secretly checking Instagram stories.

Anyway, for someone like her, who had engaged in numerous music activities in a short period even while working as a VTuber, how many drafts must she have had from her Utaite days?

The gist of it was this.

“I uploaded one of the drafts I recorded during my Utaite days.”
“Ah…”

The reason, as expected, was that seeing Kim Kanghyun driven to the point of setting up a replacement, she felt that ‘this time too’ she had to carry Bellus’s burden.

Of course, she hadn’t anticipated Woo Seowoo’s overreaction like this.

In the first place, whenever Bellus faced any problem, she had always overcome it in this manner, so she was merely doing what she always did, as if it were ingrained in her.

Besides, Bellus doesn’t particularly restrict the cover song activities of its affiliated VTubers.

This means there’s no need to report them separately.

Therefore, she uploaded the cover song without hesitation.

However, knowing the CEO’s plan, she reported it after uploading the cover song, as she ‘always’ did, and stated that although she had an embarrassing number of drafts, she would upload these until her throat fully recovered.

But Woo Seowoo was busy with debut preparations and was so preoccupied with redoing her cover song that she couldn’t receive Kim Kanghyun’s calls.

…And so, Woo Seowoo ended up ignoring the CEO’s calls.

Later, Haruka, who had visited Kim Kanghyun’s house to discuss this matter with him and his wife and also to see their cute twins, learned of this news.

And Woo Seowoo, who had likewise fallen asleep and missed Haruka’s calls as well, was only now hearing this fact.

“But what I felt when I heard that song…”

“Ah, that’s a bit embarrassing.”

Haruka had suffered from vocal cord nodules a few times before.

For someone whose profession was singing, vocal cord nodules were a disgusting and terrifying thing, no different from Satan’s phlegm.

And since the song was sung right after her second bout of vocal cord nodules had healed, too much emotion had been poured into it.

– This f*cked up world!

– Vocal cord nodules can’t stop me!

It was a song into which she had poured out emotions she couldn’t tell others because she too was young at the time, and it was too embarrassing to upload, so she had kept it as a draft.

This time, because Kim Kanghyun, unlike his usual self, didn’t trust her and Bellus was cornered enough for him to look for a replacement, she uploaded a song fitting the current situation where suspicious gazes were coming from all directions.

Of course, since she had also advertised the 2nd generation’s debut on Twitper, the staff members who didn’t know Kim Kanghyun and Woo Seowoo’s plan were initially worried, but upon hearing it was a draft, they were actually overjoyed.

“Th-then, was I… mistaken?”

“……”

Woo Seowoo’s face turned white.

From her perspective, this whole affair was purely her overinterpreting and making a fool of herself.

Of course, Haruka, who didn’t speak up beforehand due to inertia, was also thoroughly scolded by Kim Kanghyun and his wife, so it could be said that about half the fault was hers.

Moreover, the one who created this incident in the first place was Kim Kanghyun.

If we only consider the cause, his fault was also significant.

‘I’m so embarrassed…’

But the embarrassment was unavoidable.

Woo Seowoo covered her face with her small palms.

The sight of her face being completely hidden by those tiny hands was quite cute, but seeing her shoulders tremble slightly, Han Seoyoon was greatly flustered.

“Um… I’m sorry. I didn’t know you liked me that much, Seowoo-nim.”

A VTuber, to put it crudely, is someone who reacts from behind an avatar.

No matter how much they can check direct reactions immediately through live broadcasts, more so than singers, conversely, the goodwill coming from beyond the screen is harder to perceive deeply than one might think.

Han Seoyoon was well aware that the Canaries cherished Haruka.

However, she was perhaps still an immature VTuber who couldn’t predict how those Canaries would react when they learned of her situation.

“Ah, no. I, I just recklessly went wild…”

Woo Seowoo’s voice became wet with tears.

Han Seoyoon, at a loss, looked at Kim Kanghyun and his wife.

They then chuckled and mouthed words to her.

‘Hug her and comfort her.’

Han Seoyoon confirmed their lip movements and carefully embraced Woo Seowoo.

‘She’s… small.’

Haruka had only ever hugged her parents and her colleagues, shedding tears of joy after their debut.

Wrapping her arms around Seowoo’s shoulders, which were even smaller than she expected, she saw Woo Seowoo in a new light.

‘How could she sing such a song with such a small body?’

Although Haruka herself was undoubtedly the best in terms of singing, when she heard that song, she had no choice but to acknowledge it.

She found herself thinking, ‘Maybe I don’t have to carry the burden alone like before anymore…’

And so, connecting with Woo Seowoo for the first time, she gently stroked her head as if cherishing something precious.

“Heuk… Uwaaaaaaaaaaah.”

Woo Seowoo, whether out of embarrassment, an explosion of sorrow… or perhaps simply because she liked Haruka’s chest, burrowed deeper into her embrace.

Seeing Han Seoyoon smile awkwardly but not push her away, Kim Kanghyun and his wife watched them with fond amusement.