Ranker’s Return

-Wow, look at the meat.

-Saliva is coming out of my mouth just from looking at it.

-How much does this cost?

-The marbling is just an art. At first glance, it is 1++ Korean beef.

The viewers who entered Hyeonu’s stream were caught by the red and white colors of the raw beef that filled their view. They didn’t even see the people.

‘Look at this?’ Hyeonu’s mood fell sharply once he realized where the viewers had their focus.

The chat window was shown on the huge television, so the messages could be seen more clearly than usual. Of course, this type of chat message was very conspicuous.

“Since you only want to look at the beef, I’ll just shut my mouth and cook the meat. Why don't you watch your favorite meat instead?” Hyeonu said while looking at the camera.

The staff member holding the camera noticed from Hyeonu’s eyes exactly what he wanted. So, the camera that was showing all of the Crescent Moon players shifted its focus over to the heated grill.

“Angry… He’s angry.”

Hyeonu tried to control his facial expression, but anyone could tell he was angry. The Crescent Moon players watched Hyeonu carefully.

“Hyung, is he angry?”

“Perhaps...? Let’s just eat meat quietly.”

Lee Hoon and Mason glanced at Hyeonu and soon started to cook the meat silently. Heated by the hot charcoal, the grill cooked the beef in no time. The delicious cooking sound was a bonus. Even so, no one in the chat window mentioned the beef. 

The players of Crescent Moon closed their mouths and admired it inwardly—the horror brought about by Hyeonu’s words. The bizarre silence that lasted for more than 10 minutes was broken by Mason, who got tired of eating meat without talking. With his personality, Mason simply couldn’t stand this awkward atmosphere.

‘The meat I ate will pop out again,’ he thought.

“Viewers, do you have any questions for us? We talked quite a bit before coming here, but you must still be curious about some stuff...” 

Mason melted the frozen chat window.

-What do you usually do after a match?

-Do you eat like you do today?

-Or do you drink?

At Mason’s words, the viewers poured out questions. The chat was now bursting with messages again after those 10 minutes.

“Normally, we just play lightly in the practice room,” Mason answered.

Usually, Crescent Moon returned to the practice room and enjoyed a party lightly together.

-By the way, you’re really good at Korean.

-It’s so natural that there is no sense of discomfort.

-You are more like a Korean than a foreigner...

-We often only see him in Arena, so I didn’t think about it at all.

After exchanging several questions and answers with Mason, the viewers finally noticed that Mason was speaking Korean instead of English. Mason’s Korean was now perfect. Of course, he didn’t know many words or the more difficult words, but his speaking capability was good. There was no foreign accent at all.

“I worked hard. It was pretty difficult. I use it often, so it has reached this level.” Mason scratched his head like he was shy.

The viewers’ questions weren’t just directed to Mason but to the others as well. In particular, there were many questions for Dwayne and Yuri. However, no one asked Hyeonu a question. It was because Hyeonu was focusing on the meal with a slightly stiff face.

-Yuri, what do you usually do at the parties? I keep asking, but you aren’t answering me.

“Ah, did you? I didn’t see it because the chat is moving too fast. Well, usually... It’s a meal and some drinks in the practice room? It is like a buffet with light music playing. There is nothing special...” Yuri’s answer wasn’t too different from Mason’s.

This meant that Yuri had changed a lot. It wasn’t just Yuri. Lee Hoon and Sunny were the same. At first, their team dinners after the matches were very awkward. Then after it happened once, twice, three times, there was no longer any awkwardness. They’d adapted to it.

-This is nothing special?

-Originally, don’t you just order food?

-Usually, you eat things like chicken or jokbal [1]. Or go eat lots of meat.

Naturally, the viewers had doubts about it. They didn’t understand how it was nothing. Just then, Lee Hoon interjected, “Ah, I have a video on my smartphone. Do you want me to show it to you?”

-Show us.

-Yes yes yes yes.

-Show it!!

The excited viewers filled the chat, making the messages scroll up a few times faster than before.

“Wait a minute...” Lee Hoon pulled out his phone and started to touch the screen. Moments later, he got up from his seat, approached the camera, and placed the screen of his smartphone in front of it. The surrounding landscape was blurred, and the camera focused on Lee Hoon's smartphone.

Bam bam bam bam!

Upbeat music flowed from the smartphone. The lights in the space were off, and the area was only illuminated by lasers that moved in a dizzying manner. On the screen, a person that seemed to be a man was dancing.

-It can’t be...

-Perhaps...?

“It’s me, me. Don’t I dance well?” The man on the screen was Lee Hoon himself. The video was taken by Yuri.

-Aish, it is him.

-I thought it was Alley Leader.

-I thought it was Dwayne.

-I thought it was Yuri.

-I thought it was Sunny.

-I thought it was our Mason.

The viewers mentioned the names of all the other players except Lee Hoon. Lee Hoon’s name was nowhere to be found.

“Wow... I have another video, but I won’t show you. Now I know why Hyung is acting like this.” Lee Hoon returned to his seat with his phone like he was angry.

The stream continued happily like this. That was... except for Hyeonu. Hyeonu didn’t say much until he finished eating, and they were ready to leave the restaurant.

“Hyung.”

“Oppa.”

“Hyung.”

Three people called out to Hyeonu as he arranged his spot and was about to get up. They were Mason, Yuri, and Lee Hoon. The three of them looked at Hyeonu with very sad eyes.

“What is it? Why are you looking at me like this?” Hyeonu was bewildered by the three people who were watching him with strange eyes.

Mason acted as the representative and asked Hyeonu in a really sad tone, “Can we go to karaoke?” 

‘Karaoke?’

Going to karaoke was no problem. In any case, it was after the match now, and they could rest without practicing. They didn’t have to go back to the dormitory, so there was no need for them to tell Hyeonu about it like this.

“You can go. What’s the problem? You don’t have any money? Or you’re not sure where the karaoke place is?” Hyeonu answered with a shrug. He didn’t know why they were asking him something like this.

“Of course, it’s because we have to go together,” Lee Hoon said.

“Together? I want to rest...” Hyeonu was troubled by Lee Hoon’s words. He wanted to turn off the stream and go home to sleep. His streaming went on for longer than he expected, so he was quite tired.

‘The streaming in real life has gone on for a lot longer than I expected.’

It seemed that there was no need for him to do an Arena stream separately. He had spent more than two hours streaming today, which was different from his original plan of 30 or 40 minutes.

‘Thinking about it, I haven’t been to karaoke lately.’

He had never been to karaoke with the team. Of course, he sang a song while on Kim Seokjung’s island, but it was definitely different from karaoke. The configuration at the time wasn’t like this either; there were other people around.

‘Isn’t it okay just once?’

“Yes, let’s go karaoke. We haven’t been together yet.” Hyeonu happily agreed. However, there was something that Hyeonu had overlooked. The stream had yet to be turned off. The viewers rushed to talk to Hyeonu like hyenas upon finding prey. It was as if there had never been a silence between them.

-Karaoke is good.

-Let’s listen to our Alley Leader’s singing skills.

-It’ll be a complete stream today.

-I want the goddess to sing too. 

-It is even better if there is choreography.

-Sunny and Yuri duet, go go go.

Hyeonu saw the messages on the television and showed an expression like he’d made a mistake.

‘Ah, I haven’t turned it off yet.’

“Ah... I’m thinking of ending the streaming here...” He launched a total revenge on the viewers. It was a perfect push and pull.

-No, does it make sense to stop here?

-Teacher, this isn’t it. Our teacher isn’t such a person, right?

-Show mercy just once...

The viewers begged. This was really cruel. Shutting down the streaming at such a critical moment was the worst. If it weren’t streamed, they would wonder what was going on at the karaoke and wouldn’t be able to sleep properly.

“Hmm... I’ll think about it. We will move locations first. I will either turn on the stream at the karaoke or I won’t do it. Do you understand?” 

Hyeonu knew better than anyone what would happen next and decided to end the stream here.

‘It will take around 20-30 minutes to move. They will make a lot of noise in the meantime and the publicity effect will be obvious.’

The number of viewers would probably increase by tens of thousands.

“Then I’ll turn it off. Everyone, thank you for watching my stream today. I will see you next time.”

In his mind, he had already concluded that he would do the stream, but he didn’t show it to make the viewers even more enthusiastic. Yuri approached Hyeonu and wondered, “Oppa, are you really not going to turn it on?”

“No, of course I should. It’s just a method to increase the number of viewers. This way, won’t they talk about it in the communities or on social media? Then aggro will be attracted,” Hyeonu responded with a grin.

His mood had improved. The other team members looked at Hyeonu with strange eyes. It was a gaze filled with complex emotions.

***

It wasn’t too hard to find a karaoke room for seven people. To be precise, it wasn’t a karaoke room. They went into a bar that sold alcohol and looked for a karaoke machine.

“Please install the camera here. I don’t want my face to be seen when I’m singing,” Hyeonu stated as he carefully positioned the camera.

This was entirely purely for himself.

‘I can’t let a humiliating scene be shot.’

“Also, no drinking. You can’t make any mistakes. If you want to drink something, drink non-alcoholic beverages,” Hyeonu said to not only the staff but his teammates. Making a mistake while streaming was fatal. It might be different if people saw it as cute, but it would be impossible to fix if a big mistake were made. This was because there were too many viewers watching Hyeonu’s stream.

“As I said while coming here, we will only play for two hours. We have to practice tomorrow.”

Everyone nodded at Hyeonu’s words. Then Dwayne picked up the microphone and stood up. He didn’t care about the stream anymore and just started to enjoy karaoke itself.

‘I knew this would happen...’ Hyeonu started to seriously wonder if he should turn on the stream. Still, he soon made a gesture to the staff to turn it on.

‘I can’t let down their expectations.’

He inwardly prayed that nothing bad would happen today.

[1] pig’s trotters cooked with soy sauce and other spices