My Favorite Has Started A Live Broadcast!

“See you later!”

“Alright, Merry Christmas!”

“You too, boss~”

My name is Lee Su-yeon.

I’ve often been teased by friends for having a name that sounds feminine, but in the small, rural schools with so few students, such jokes were tolerable since we saw each other every day.

It was 4 PM on a winter day, with the sun still up. After finishing my part-time job, I popped in my earphones and walked home with a light step, listening to the song playing in my ears.

“Really, I’ve been revel losing sleep~”

I grew up in the countryside—a real rural place, where not many houses even had electricity.

But that same year, my grandfather and grandmother passed away, and our family decided to move. My parents quickly adapted to a small town, running a little restaurant. We hadn’t moved to a big city, just a place where “city” was tagged onto the name, so life didn’t change much. We lived there for several years. My parents’ shop was still small, but regular customers kept it going quietly.

My younger sibling, the pride of our family, was an exceptional student—so much so that they were aiming for a high school in Seoul. Meanwhile, I was looking at nearby universities and thinking about doing part-time work when something unexpected happened.

We had a surprise baby in the family.

The news of a new baby from my parents, who were almost 50, shook the household, but not in a bad way. As a senior in high school at the time, I had only one thought.

We need money.

As I said, my younger sibling was aiming for a high school in Seoul, which was already putting a strain on our family. Then, with a new baby on the way, I knew I had to act.

So, after I graduated from high school, I moved up to Seoul, found a small place, and started doing various part-time jobs to help cover my sibling’s tuition.

It was my way of telling my parents to focus on our newborn sibling.

My parents apologized and thanked me repeatedly as I left for Seoul.

A year passed like that.

Humming a tune, I walked briskly for about 20 minutes until I reached my tiny home. I pulled out the key from my pocket and unlocked the door.

Click—

The old door opened, and I stepped into the dark interior of my home. My warm and cozy first-ever home was a semi-basement room.

I had lost contact with most of my friends after moving to Seoul, so I had picked this place after brainstorming with the few remaining friends I had.

Aside from not having a washing machine, it had everything I needed: a kitchen, bathroom, and boiler. What more do I need than the essentials for living?

Feeling for the familiar switch, the dark room lit up with a click, revealing a faint layer of dust that had settled while I was out.

I had a lot to do today. I planned to visit my sibling’s place later, have dinner together, catch up, and, most importantly, watch my favorite idol’s broadcast tonight.

It was as cold inside as it was outside since I hadn’t turned the boiler on, so I pulled my coat tighter around me and thought about what I needed to do in the remaining time.

“Hmm… Did the dishes… need to clean… and… not much else.”

I grabbed the small duster shoved in the corner and lightly dusted off the areas with the most dust. I threw the small amount of remaining trash into the half-full garbage bag.

Since my place was small, cleaning took less than five minutes, and with nothing else to do, I decided to kill time with a game.

I had about an hour before heading to my sibling’s place, and the broadcast would start at 6 PM, so I could watch it while having dinner there.

I bent down to press the power button on my old computer. It whirred to life with a soft hum.

“Ugh…”

As I sat down, my body made unpleasant cracking noises. Twisting my back made the sounds even worse before they subsided.

As the bright screen of my monitor blinked on, I placed my hands on the keyboard and mouse. Though my thick coat made it a bit uncomfortable, it wasn’t enough to hinder my gameplay, so I ignored it and launched the game.

While waiting for the somewhat long loading time, I pulled out my phone to check the few remaining group chats I had.

We Are Seoulites (3 members)

– Are we drinking tonight?

– Yeah, probably? But where?

– Dunno. Can we drink at Su-yeon’s sibling’s place?

A fresh message popped up in the chat, and my fingers moved quickly.

– No way, my sibling’s place is off-limits to anyone!

– Gah! Su-yeon! Please, let me meet your sibling…!

– Hahaha, you lunatics. 😂

Despite not having seen these friends in over five years, they played along with the sudden role-playing perfectly.

– I’ll go to my sibling’s place at 5 and probably drink around 7 or 8. 6 PM is no good.

– Ah, right. You’ve gotta catch your fave’s broadcast. Fine, I’ll be out by then. Decide on the place by then!

With no more responses, I put my phone away and tossed it carelessly onto the small bed before returning my hands to the keyboard and mouse.

Since it had been a while, my mouse movements felt a bit awkward as I started the game.

A few seconds later, a heavy theme tune signaled that a match had been found, and I checked the map we’d be playing on.

“Hmm… Bank…”

We were playing on the Bank map, one of the largest maps in the game.

As the match began, I checked both my team and the enemy’s list by pressing the tab key. One name caught my eye.

RO_ was a meta player, using various characters depending on the situation. So, I banned the strongest characters I could think of to limit RO_’s options.

Soon, all eight bans were locked in, and it turned out we had banned the exact same characters. Fortunately, my favorite character hadn’t been banned, so I selected my attacker character and prepared for the match.

“Hmm…”

Looking at our team composition, it seemed we had a bunch of players who loved to rush.

Rush: a strategy where the team pushes into the enemy site quickly, either eliminating the defenders or planting the defuser to win.

If our team lacked information, rushing could easily get us wiped out. Before any rush, the only option attackers had was droning.

Each player gets a drone, a small, jump-capable device that can scout the map, locate enemy positions, and reveal their operators.

I rolled my drone through the main lobby entrance, its wheels spinning rapidly.

While I scouted the first floor, one of my teammates pinged the basement intensely, having found the bomb sites at A and B.

The short droning phase ended, and I lowered my character’s in-game phone to draw my gun. My teammates, all ready to rush, had respawned in the same location.

Although we hadn’t confirmed which operators the enemy had chosen, we knew the site, which was enough for now. Pressing the W and Shift keys, I sprinted forward.

As I led the charge, my teammates followed closely, shooting down barricades at the main entrance and pushing inside. Though the defenders could have been waiting on the first or second floor, rushes weren’t meant for hesitation.

Hearing no other footsteps besides our own, I kept running, descending the stairs.

Now, all five of us stopped just before a flimsy barricade, carefully aiming our guns. Our team’s only shield operator, Blitz, advanced slowly, while our Sledge, with his shining hammer, moved toward the barricade. The rest of us prepared to shoot the moment an enemy appeared.

They had to know we were coming. We hadn’t bothered destroying the CCTV on the map, so our rush was already spotted.

Sledge swung his massive hammer, smashing the barricade to pieces.

Bang!

As soon as the barricade broke, bullets flew at us from the other side, but our sturdy Blitz absorbed all the shots with his shield, advancing steadily.

The rest of us spread out, either hugging the walls or flanking to create new angles.

But we weren’t here to get stuck in a standoff. We were rushing to end the game quickly.

I activated my operator’s special ability, blasting down a wall that concealed the enemies, and rushed forward.

Though I made the first move, my teammates responded in sync, charging with me. Blitz slammed forward, and Sledge’s hammer took out two dazed enemies behind the destroyed wall. I rushed in behind them, landing two clean headshots.

As the kill feed lit up with my character’s name, I felt a rush of satisfaction.

Just as I was about to push further into the site, a deafening shotgun blast rang out from my right.

Bang!

Blood sprayed from Blitz’s side as he fell. I quickly readjusted my aim toward the doorway where the sound came from, and there I saw it—an enemy shotgun, aimed directly at me.

My reaction was just fast enough to take down the shotgunner, though my health dropped to a sliver. We had lost Blitz, but I had managed to kill three enemies in exchange.

“I won’t forget your sacrifice, Blitz…”

Checking the kill feed, I noticed an all-too-familiar name:

VWVWVWWVW-RO_.

Thank goodness. RO_ was probably the strongest player on the enemy team.

With only two enemies left, the rest of our team made short work of them, planting the defuser and winning the round.

“Ahhh… we won.”

The next few rounds played out in a similar fashion. We rushed again in round two and easily won. After switching sides, the enemy tried the same rush strategy, but thanks to a teammate’s foresight—

“They’ll try to rush,”

—our site was covered in traps, giving us an easy victory.

Stretching my arms, I savored the victory screen and checked the time.

“5:30…”

The distance to my sibling’s place was walkable—about 30 minutes on foot, maybe 10 minutes if I ran. I’d never timed it exactly, but it felt like about that much.

Since I still had enough time to walk briskly, I started putting on the clothes I’d tossed aside earlier, preparing to head out.

Just as I was about to leave, my phone rang with a familiar ringtone. I pulled it out to see my sibling calling.

“Hello?”

– Oppa, are you on your way?

“I’m just about to head out.”

For most people, that might be code for “Sorry, I was napping”, but my sibling knew my diligent nature, so they didn’t question it.

– We need to head down in a few days, right?

“Yeah… I’m really excited about the hours of bus rides ahead. I won’t be able to go down for Christmas, but I should make it for New Year’s.”

– Yeah, that’s true… Should I order something for dinner?

“Hmm… Yeah, go ahead. Is there anything you want?”

As we debated over dinner plans, I reached for the door handle, only to freeze completely.

– Huh? Oppa?

Sensing the abrupt silence, my sibling noticed something was wrong.

What is this? Why does it hurt? Why now? I hadn’t been pushing myself lately. I hadn’t been doing any intense physical labor recently—no back-breaking day and night shifts. Why now?

These questions filled my mind, and before I knew it, a crushing pain seized my body, and I collapsed to the floor.

“Ahhhhhhh!!!”

It felt like my entire body was on fire. The pain was so intense that all I could do was scream. My body was numb, and even though I wanted to call out for help, only groans of agony escaped my mouth.

I barely managed to turn my head and saw my phone. It was within arm’s reach, but I couldn’t move. My vision was clouded by a red liquid from nowhere, making it impossible to see.

All I could hear was the faint sound of my sibling screaming as I slipped into unconsciousness.