Harin's reaction was so surprised that I wondered why she was freaking out so much, but then it made sense.
I decided to answer simply.
"I came to Busan for a direct transaction, and Mangming happened to be nearby, so she gave me a ride. It would be strange to refuse when she offers, right?"
[Harin: Mangming’s family is near there, though.]
[Harin: So she’s taking you there while she’s at her place.]
[Harin: Got it.]
[Harin: But where are you now? Isn’t it hard to get back to Seoul from Busan?]
[Harin: It must be tough to get to Seoul.]
[Mangming, you’re not showing any signs of struggle even though you’ve got a guy in your car, that’s pretty funny, haha.]
[Guess Mangming is the ultimate man magnet.]
[If it were me, I wouldn’t show signs of trouble with a guy in the car either...]
I had the same thought.
At the pace we were going, it seemed like we might be late getting to Seoul.
So, I started to feel a bit worried.
"There's no curfew to get into Seoul, so we can take our time. Rushing and getting into an accident would be a bigger problem."
"That’s true."
It was a valid point.
Speeding was important, but getting there safely was much more important.
What’s the point of arriving quickly if there’s an accident?
[Harin: By the way.]
[Harin: Mangming, buy something good from there.]
[Harin: I wanna try some Busan food too.]
[Harin: That guy’s a complete jerk, haha.]
[But, it’s true.]
[There’s no reason to go to Busan just for food.]
[Please ban all the people who are degrading the region.]
[Why go into a dung heap and ask someone to clean up? Just enjoy it.]
"I’ve already left Busan, so I probably won’t be able to bring you any famous local goods."
Mangming was right.
Since I’d already left Busan, it was impossible to get anything typical from there.
At most, I could grab some fish cakes from nearby.
As we were talking, this popped up.
[전지좆능한크툴루: What are you doing here? What are you doing here? What are you doing here? What are you doing here?]
Kicked out for spamming!
[What’s this guy?]
[I feel like I’ve seen that nickname before.]
[Probably remember him because he’s always trolling.]
[Good job kicking him out.]
I saw an unfamiliar nickname in the chat get kicked out.
Could it be?
I carefully checked the nickname, and sure enough, it was my stream’s manager.
He was spamming on someone else’s stream and got banned instantly.
‘...I gave him my contact info.’
Now that I thought about it, I had left my contact info with Cthulhu.
So, there was no reason for him to contact me like this.
I checked my phone to see if I missed his message.
‘No contact?’
I hadn’t received any messages from him at all.
It was as if the person who had spammed on the stream wasn’t even my manager.
"Ugh."
Of course.
That didn’t make sense.
How could someone who called himself my stream manager get banned from another stream for spamming?
I tried to ignore it, but then—
Ding!
I heard the familiar sound of a message coming through.
Feeling a little uneasy, I checked the text.
[Jeong Gyeo-ul: Why did you ban me?]
[Jeong Gyeo-ul: I went to another stream since yours wasn’t on, and I greeted you there.]
[Jeong Gyeo-ul: Unban me, please. ──]
I had received a bunch of texts from Jeong Gyeo-ul.
‘...Does he have no conscience?’
Asking me to unban him.
It wasn’t like he was wrongfully banned; he had been banned from another stream.
There was no way I could unban him.
[Me: Unban you for what?]
[You: Be quiet.]
[Me: I’ll get to Seoul myself.]
I sent the message and took a moment to breathe in the cool air from the rest stop.
We still had a long way to go.
Clunk, clunk!
[Wow, this is how you stream, haha.]
[Dam-a, I really wanna see your face.]
[Fact: Dam-a’s face will never be revealed, ever.]
[Totally impossible.]
[If Dam-a was handsome, he would’ve shown his face already.]
[If he were handsome, he’d be making money off his looks, haha.]
[Harin: Manager, you need to handle the chat better.]
[This is the best we’ve got, haha.]
Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m freewebnσvel.cøm.
I knew we would be streaming for a bit, but I didn’t expect to still be doing it in the car.
Of course, my face still wasn’t visible.
That was obvious.
I never intended to reveal my face anyway.
It was more important to capture what Mangming was saying.
Then, Mangming suddenly threw out a topic.
"Ballads really have a great vibe."
I assumed it was because a ballad was playing at the moment.
"They’re good for listening, but they’re kind of dull."
That was true.
Ballads didn’t really have the kind of energy I liked, so I didn’t listen to them much.
But for casual listening, they weren’t bad.
"Still, don’t you think they’re a bit sleepy at night?"
That was actually why I was hesitant to play ballads.
I worried that if I played them, Mangming would fall asleep and crash the car—
‘Ugh, that would be awful.’
I didn’t want to even think about it.
If something like that happened, I’d feel partially responsible for the accident.
Just the thought of it was terrifying, and I enjoyed the breeze, trying to shake the worry off.
We had a long way to go anyway.
Whoosh—
As we drove, I thought about how much further we had to go.
[Cthulhu just donated 10,000 KRW!]
Dam-a, I’m such a fan, just show your face once!
"Shut up."
If it had been anyone else, I might have let it slide, but Cthulhu...
I was harsher with him, probably because we were close.
I explained the situation to Mangming’s viewers.
"I know some of you might be confused by the sudden harsh words, but this guy’s my manager. Sometimes I have to reign him in when he acts like that, so don’t misunderstand."
There had to be someone to take on the ‘villain’ role.
I had always liked that kind of role, so I didn’t mind it.
"Well, couldn’t you just tell him not to do it? No need for harsh words."
"My manager’s always like this. If you’ve been on my streams, you’d know."
"That’s true. He can be a bit embarrassing."
"At least he does his job well."
Just as we were talking about the stream...
Boom—!!!!
A huge, loud sound echoed as someone blared their horn loudly behind us.
The shockwave made Mangming’s car shake violently.
"Wow, that guy’s crazy. I’m totally freaked out."
Luckily, the camera didn’t shake, so my face wasn’t exposed, but we almost had a major accident.
[What the hell was that?]
[Are you alright?]
[That scared the hell out of me, lol.]
[If I were watching a stream while dozing off and got scared like that, I’d give a thumbs up, haha.]
[Thumbs up!]
I had never seen anyone honk that aggressively on the highway.
It felt like someone we shouldn’t get involved with.
"Let’s wait until they pass. We shouldn’t risk getting into an accident with them."
"Yeah, let’s wait. If we try to get revenge and something happens, we’ll be the ones in trouble."
The other car was a truck, so trying to mess with it would have been pointless.
We moved to the right lane and waited. Then—
Boom—!!!
The truck sped past us quickly.
"...What the hell, why are they going so fast at night?"
It didn’t seem like they were in that much of a rush.
It made me wonder if it was worth living life a little more leisurely.
We kept moving, staying more alert than before.
How much further had we gone?
"What’s that, there’s an accident up ahead?"
A truck and a sedan had collided and were stopped in the middle of the road.
"Wait, hold on."
It looked like a familiar truck. Upon closer inspection—
"It’s the truck from earlier. Damn, we almost died."
That was the truck that had honked at us and tried to intimidate us earlier.
[Harin: Wow.]
[Harin: That’s such a close call, haha.]
[Harin: How do we almost crash right after our first collab?]
[If we’d tried to mess with them, we’d have been flattened for sure.]
[That’s scary...]
I breathed a sigh of relief and kept moving.
How much longer had we driven?
"Ugh... Finally, we’re here."
We had finally arrived at Yeram’s place.
It was a little late, but at least we made it on time.
If it weren’t for Mangming, this journey would’ve been much more difficult.
I was grateful as I spoke.
"Thanks for the ride. Let’s hang out next time. I’ll treat you to a meal."
"Uh? Uh..."
Hearing Mangming’s unnatural response, I walked into the studio, struggling with the tower and monitor.
Then—
"...Yeram, what’s going on?"
The place was a complete mess.
Yeram was walking around with a mop, cleaning the house.