Chapter 59

School life and club activities can serve as quite a good excuse.

Why, if a student belonging to the student council is late by five minutes to class due to an emergency council task, no one says a thing, right?

Hong Seohyun currently perceived the game publishing department that was offering her a position as a chance to break free.

‘This, if I play it just right, might allow me to slack off with assignments and still get by, wouldn’t it…?’

Hong Seohyun realized a bit too late that she might not fit into the video production field.

The first-year curriculum was mainly focused on basic video editing techniques she wanted to learn, so she decided there was no need to return to a humanities-based school.

She resolved to stay here and continue honing her basics.

However, the second year was different.

Assignments were tossed around with the assumption that “you get it by now,” focusing on high-complexity editing skills.

By the time she frantically completed the assignments, there was no chance to focus on her original plan of becoming a VTuber.

Her brainstorming phase was always blocked.

Video edits often went on until dawn, and after laboriously finishing an assignment, the next few days were spent in a daze, feeling burnt out.

When she let her guard down, the next assignment would already be upon her.

‘If I were to drop some assignments, using club activities as an excuse, maybe I’d feel less guilty…?’

Hong Seohyun didn’t want to waste her time endlessly on overly specialized major assignments.

Thus, she decided to perhaps use the game publishing opportunity as a way to drop her major assignments.

“By any chance, can I use club activities as an excuse to drop some major assignments?”

“What? Does it matter?”

“Really?”

“Yeah, really.”

Hayoon replied quite calmly.

“We’re continuing the business even after graduation. Since employment isn’t the goal, we drop tasks when we don’t have time.”

“Business?”

“Yeah, we don’t just plan to release one game and quit. Didn’t we already talk about this?”

When Hayoon spoke, she glanced at Arin and Jin Ho, wondering if she had revealed too much.

“I thought you’d take full responsibility?”

“I initially just planned to gain experience and assess the situation. But why leave when we’re making 30 million won just from funding? If we keep going, we might hit a big jackpot, so I plan to stick with it.”

“Well, that sounds reasonable enough?”

The agreement was reached in less than a breath.

Whether it was Arin or Jin Ho, the funding results of Cosplayholic were so successful that they couldn’t have left even if they wanted to. At this point, it was more foolish not to have future projects planned.

The funding for the first game was 36 million won, more than enough to justify further collaboration.

“Is the welfare good? Or the pay?”

By now, Hong Seohyun was hooked.

There must be a reason why both of them exuded such positive vibes.

“So, to summarize: Are you my boss?”

“I won’t be paying a monthly salary, but I will provide a proper rate for outsourcing. Think of me as a client.”

“Then, can we negotiate rates with you? Of course, I plan to join.”

Hong Seohyun was now engaging directly in the deal-making phase with an enthusiastic attitude.

Hayoon then responded,

“Hmm, then let’s talk about money for the remaining time. This is something only between you and me.”

She doesn’t discriminate against people coming in.

Especially if they are talents useful for her projects.

#

Arin and Jin Ho stepped outside briefly.

Hayoon and Hong Seohyun sat opposite each other with a desk between them, drooling slightly.

The first thing they discussed was the progress of the game “Cocktail Holics.”

Given it was mid-project, Hayoon was sharing as much current information as possible.

“Did you draw this?”

“Yes, Arin-sunbae helped with the backgrounds and objects, but I did all the characters.”

“Wow, isn’t this… incredible?”

Hong Seohyun was astonished.

Much to her surprise, Hayoon’s illustration quality was astonishingly high.

“Isn’t it…? I thought, sure, a game publishing person would probably be a bit different…”

This was game-company level or beyond quality.

The beauty of the illustrations triggered an automatic impression in Hong Seohyun’s mind, and it was at this point that an idea crystallized.

“As I said, I want to drop some major assignments using game publishing as an excuse. Would this be okay?”

“Sure, something like that is no problem at all. Our supervisor teacher is rather stubborn, so she’ll block any interference from the major teachers.”

“Great, then there’s nothing more I could wish for. Making a PV and singing game songs is something I can do if I just have the time.”

“Hmm… wasn’t there going to be a talk about pay? You seem ready to do it even without pay…”

Just as quickly,

Hong Seohyun switched to a humble stance.

And what Hong Seohyun desired? Just one thing.

Money?

She has no interest in it.

She already receives enough pocket money.

What she truly craves is…

“Rather than no-pay, um… could I possibly get some illustrations?”

“Illustrations?”

“Just something even close to your quality. Maybe one per week?”

Illustrations.

For anyone who’s ever prepared cover songs, they know.

Even if you’re just tasked with making one YouTube video, each quality piece can easily cost 200,000 won. When you focus on high-quality videos, adding two or three illustrations per episode is common.

If you aim to release videos weekly, it can easily cost a million or more monthly.

“If need be, I could pay, so how about it?”

Hong Seohyun had analyzed the situation pragmatically.

Instead of accepting freelance work at a regular employee’s salary level, it’s more beneficial to steadily receive illustrations.

Of course, this was profitable based on Hong Seohyun’s calculation.

From Hayoon’s perspective, this would bind her into a rather disadvantageous contract, exchanging her vocals and PVs, which she could hire out for 1-1.5 million won per video, for her own illustrations.

‘Someone who runs their head around with calculations, huh? And why does she need illustrations?’

Given Hayoon considered Hong Seohyun as somewhat naive, this sharp bargain caught her off guard, warranting a question.

“What do you plan to do with these illustrations?”

“Ahh, I want to experiment with running an Utaite YouTube channel…”

“Trying to pocket the illustration outsourcing money?”

“Ahahaha…”

When Hayoon hit the nail on the head, Hong Seohyun laughed awkwardly. After a brief silence, Hayoon asked again:

“Why do you want to run an Utaite channel?”

“Um… because I’m confident in my singing! Honestly, I believe I can perform as well as VTubers.”

“Why come to Meister high school if you want to be a Utaite?”

“Because Utaites need video editing skills, right? And knowing how to create effects like spinning illustrations and shiny beams?”

“Ooh?”

So, in short,

The conclusion was, this person is also quite radical.

She’s learning video editing for her Utaite YouTube channel, even attending Meister high school for it.

It seemed to Hayoon that people like her kept showing up in her life.

Was this a good thing? Or bad?

“Basically, it sounds like this was a spontaneous decision?”

“It’s not me who’s planning spontaneously, it’s the school drowning me in assignments! I’ve saved up money to outsource illustrations, but due to school work, I haven’t had the time to study mixing properly. It’s because of school assignments.”

“Well, schools assign homework…”

“No, shouldn’t they give some breathing room? If I were given time, I could practice the songs, record, and study mixing and editing through tutorial videos!”

Hong Seohyun passionately condemned the overwhelming assignment culture at Yongsan IT High School.

Even to Hayoon, who’s dropping most assignments for game publishing, it seemed a tad too bold and shameless.

Park Geon-su would likely collapse at the sight of this.

Dropping assignments is a form of equal trade-off by giving up grades, but isn’t this just skipping without proper reason?

However,

“Do you really dislike school that much?”

“Of course, I do. Buried in a pile of assignments.”

“Will you focus on VTubing?”

“If given time, obviously. I believe I have the potential to become a successful singer. With the right YouTube algorithm, I can be successful even in Japan. There are quite a few domestic Utaites who’ve made it big.”

A person like this.

Similar to Hayoon, someone who doesn’t settle for merely achieving good grades in the limited framework of school.

‘Maybe I should nurture her to become a successful Utaite YouTuber? Popular Utaites can easily hit a million views. If we monetize on that for music sales, it could get interesting, right?’

And at that moment it dawned on Hayoon.

‘Utaite… VTuber…?’

What about trying to grow Hong Seohyun as a cash cow?

Creating a VTuber who could play the games Hayoon develops and sing theme songs for them.

Considering she’s surrounded by art and rigging expertise and has broadcasting experience,

Creating a virtual VTuber character and setting up the broadcast shouldn’t be an issue.

‘This could be worth cultivating…’

Done steadily, the probability of a good return was high.

Especially with the in-demand stream during the ongoing pandemic.

‘Since the last broadcast hiatus wasn’t long, the user flow in the café could still be high…’

All indicators point towards this being a worthy experiment.

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