Hobbyist VTuber-Chapter 235

After what felt like a long trip, the moment Ha-eun returned from Japan, the first thing she did was post a special event notice on the Illusionary Realm café.

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Title > Picked This Up☆ (Special Event)

Diah | 19:05

Write an acrostic poem using Noeuli in the comments!

I’ll personally judge them based on my own totally subjective standards, and the five best ones will get...

(Photo of the plushies bought from the souvenir shop)

(Photo of Diah’s acrylic stand sitting with the plushies)

Some cute plushies I picked up in Japan as gifts!

The winners will be announced during my return stream, so make sure to join in~

(A meme of a certain famous pirate uncle saying, "If you want the treasure, I’ll give it to you.")

(A meme parodying the golden age of piracy, except it declares the golden age of acrostic poems.)

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The reason for this surprise event was Ha-eun’s packed schedule.

Unlike the other members, who would be resuming their streams as early as tomorrow or the day after, Ha-eun wouldn’t be able to stream due to her separate commitments.

‘At least this will keep them entertained for a bit.’

Tomorrow was the press conference for God and the Goblin.

After that, she had to head to Leni’s studio to discuss their upcoming joint concert.

The day after that, she had filming for God and the Goblin and a meeting with Kang Sun-woo regarding the preview screening.

She had a mission to convince Kang Sun-woo to attend the screening, so their conversation wasn’t going to be a short one.

The following day was a TeraStudy commercial shoot.

And another concert meeting with Leni’s agency.

‘I also need to schedule a meeting for Hyun-min’s new song... I should check his availability first.’

All in all, she was incredibly busy.

Unlike other seniors in high school who enjoyed their "freedom" after the college entrance exam, Ha-eun’s reality was completely different.

Well, what could she do?

Every single thing on her schedule was something she had chosen and decided for herself.

‘I should keep the jokes to a minimum during my return stream.’

Diah’s hiatus—or what people called her "ice age"—had lasted longer than the other members’ because Ha-eun herself had made that choice.

Of course, that didn’t mean Ha-eun had done anything wrong.

But it did mean ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) that she needed to be extra mindful of Noeulis’ expectations when she returned.

Regardless.

Whether it was her busy celebrity schedule or her streams as Diah, she had given them both her all.

‘Will the end of the year be a little more relaxed?’

For now, the smartest thing to do was to focus on doing her best in the present.

No matter what anyone else thought, Ha-eun herself believed that was the right choice.

—Tap tap tap tap.

—Scritch scritch scritch.

“Ah, Seol-ah. Are you hungry? Or do you want a cuddle?”

—Blink blink.

—Blink blink.

—Lick lick.

“Hmm, you want a cuddle? Alright.”

Lifting up the fluffy Baekseol in her arms, Ha-eun sat down on the edge of her bed.

Her hands gently stroked Baekseol’s soft fur.

As she absentmindedly ran her fingers through the plush fur, she fell into quiet thought.

After all, her break was over.

She had rested plenty in Japan, so now it was time to get back to work.

She sorted through her thoughts in silence—

—Lick lick.

—Lick lick.

“...Seol-ah, that tickles.”

Or rather, she sorted through her thoughts with Baekseol.

She remained quiet for a long time.

Thinking about her future as actress Lee Ha-eun, who was about to take another leap forward with God and the Goblin.

And vaguely imagining what it would be like when she finally reached her goal of becoming a major star.

But then.

—Beep, beep, beep, beep.

—Ding-dong.

“I’m home~~. ...Oh? Ha-eun, you’re here?”

Her once quiet home was quiet no longer.

For that one reason alone, she was pulled back to reality.

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

—Click!

“Oh wow, our princess is back~~. And Seol is here too~~.”

“...Did you drink?”

“Our project went really well this time. Had a drink with my team.”

Ha-eun’s thoughts about the future completely dissolved as she turned to face Seong-yoon, who looked especially cheerful today.

“Lately, everyone at my company won’t stop talking about my daughter. They’re so excited for the drama with Kang Sun-woo. Hahaha....”

‘Yeah, he’s drunk.’

Every single thing he said sounded like a typical dad brag.

How Manager Kim from Team 2 asked for Ha-eun’s autograph,

or how the new intern, Song, turned out to be a huge fan of hers.

“I never actually told them Lee Ha-eun is my daughter, you know? But somehow, everyone knows! I have no idea how.”

‘What are you going to do when Mom gets home?’

Slumping onto the seat next to Ha-eun, Seong-yoon kept repeating himself.

Everything boiled down to one thing: his pride as Ha-eun’s father.

To be fair, it wasn’t particularly uncomfortable to hear.

At the end of the day, it was clear that Seong-yoon was proud of her.

But then—he sneakily stole Baekseol from her arms

and suddenly took an interest in the plushies Ha-eun had brought back from Japan.

“These... you bought them for your dad, right?”

“...No.”

“Huh? You have five of them. Can’t you give me just one?”

“No. They’re gifts.”

“Ugh, they say raising a daughter is pointless~! Can’t even get one plushie after all I’ve done for you~.”

“...Since when did you even care about plushies?”

Somehow, Ha-eun now had to defend Noeulis’ plushies from her own father.

Just minutes ago, he was bragging about her, and now he was acting all sulky.

“What are you even going to do with it?”

“I was going to put it on my office desk.”

“Then I’ll get you a different one. I have smaller plushies too.”

“Huh? You have more? Did you only buy plushies in Japan?”

“...They were cute.”

In the end, she managed to pacify him by giving him a different plushie.

But then, he shifted his attention to the people she had actually intended to give them to.

“Kang Sun-woo and Ha Yun-seong don’t seem like the type to like plushies. Da-yeon... well, she went on the trip with you. That leaves... your school friends.”

“Are you... are you playing a deduction game right now?”

“Normally, you’d buy snacks for school friends, not plushies. That means they’re not just friends. In other words—”

“W-wait a second.”

Not long after, a voice full of curiosity chimed in, asking if the plushies were for her boyfriend.

It was immediately followed by a statement brimming with certainty—as if there was no other possibility.

“They’re not for the actors you’re working with, they’re not for Da-yeon, and they’re not for your friends... That means there’s a hidden boyfriend. This is my conclusion.”

‘...How the hell am I supposed to explain this?’

Even to Ha-eun, there wasn’t a good excuse to spin.

To make things worse, most of what Seong-yoon had said was technically true.

As Ha-eun struggled to come up with a way to counter his relentless deduction,

Seong-yoon suddenly seemed to notice something strange and froze for a moment.

“...Wait, why do you have five plushies? There’s no way you have five boyfriends... ...Wait.”

With a loud slap, Seong-yoon carefully placed both hands on Ha-eun’s shoulders.

Then, his expression turned unusually serious as he suddenly launched into a fatherly lecture.

“No matter how popular you are, playing multiple guys at once—wait, is it still called that if there are five of them? Listen, I totally get that my daughter is in high demand, but...!”

‘...Actually, it’s more than five.’

Within seconds, he went from rambling about cheating to pleading sincerely for her to at least date only one person.

He even worried about what would happen if the truth about her many lovers were ever revealed.

“If this gets out, the entertainment industry—no, the whole country will be flipped upside down, Ha-eun! You need to clean this up... now!”

“Th-that’s not something I can just ‘clean up’ myself....”

“What? So you want to break up, but they won’t let you go? Who the hell do these bastards think they are, clinging to someone’s precious daughter—”

‘I’m seriously going insane.’

To put it plainly, she was losing her mind.

She had no idea where to even begin unraveling this tangled mess of misunderstandings.

Would he understand if she told him the truth?

No—if anything, he’d be even more confused.

To someone like Seong-yoon, the world of VTubing was an entirely foreign concept.

“Uh, Dad... I think you’re really misunderstanding something here....”

She broke into a nervous sweat as she desperately tried to calm him down.

But in his fully drunk state, every word she said only sounded like an excuse—as if she were protecting these men who refused to let her go.

And so, in the end, nothing improved.

The chaotic misunderstanding only spiraled further out of control.

—Beep, beep, beep, beep.

—Ding-dong.

“I’m home~. Oh? You’re both here?”

“!”

It wasn’t until the only person who could bring order to this madness arrived that Ha-eun finally escaped the room with Baekseol in her arms.

She immediately rushed to Na-yeon, complaining that Seong-yoon was drunkenly tormenting her.

“He said he was just having a drink with his coworkers, but he’s literally writing a whole novel right now....” freēnovelkiss.com

“Oh... so he did end up drinking. And on top of that, he’s bothering you the moment you got off the plane....”

Within seconds, Na-yeon’s entire aura darkened with a menacing energy.

After casually tossing her coat aside, she marched straight into Ha-eun’s room.

And then—

—CRACK!

Seong-yoon’s joints twisted into impossible angles.

“GAHHHHH!!”

“I told you to watch your liver levels!”

High-level pro wrestling techniques rained down on Seong-yoon without mercy.

It was a brutally violent scene—one that no weak-hearted person should ever witness.

“...S-Seol-ah, let’s go wait in the master bedroom....”

Ha-eun, genuinely terrified, immediately grabbed Baekseol and fled to the master bedroom before the carnage could spread to her.

Once again, she was absolutely sure that silencing Da-yeon with an all-you-can-eat meal had been the right move.

***

“My dad literally couldn’t even walk properly the next day.”

“Haha... Your mom must really love him.”

Time had passed.

The press conference for God and the Goblin had come and gone.

Now, the very next day—

To be more precise, after wrapping up that day’s shoot, Ha-eun was currently heading to Kang Sun-woo’s apartment.

Since she had been assigned the mission of bringing Kang Sun-woo to the movie’s preview screening, she figured she might as well start by telling him about the chaos of the past few days.

It wasn’t until they actually entered his apartment that the conversation became more direct.

“The teaser got a really positive response, so they decided to hold a preview screening.”

“Yeah. I heard about it.”

“...Did you hear the part about you?”

“I’m still thinking about it. Whether I should go or not.”

But no matter how much they talked,

he still wouldn’t give a clear answer about whether he would attend.

“...If you keep this up, you might end up like my dad.”

“...What?”

Before she even realized it, she had accidentally let out a threat.

Apparently, resorting to force when words didn’t work was something she had inherited.