My Favorite Has Started A Live Broadcast!

It had been a few days since I started kicking my blanket every morning in embarrassment.

March was already just around the corner, and the rumor had spread far and wide.

Not only the café, but even my younger sister and Eunah unnie had heard about it.

At the café, customers occasionally chuckled when they looked at me, and the manager treated me more awkwardly than before.

Si-ha just gave me awkward smiles, and my younger sister called me, saying she understood, which only made me feel more miserable.

The worst, however, was Eunah unnie.

Knowing the situation, she came to my house and laughed hysterically for several minutes.

She then asked for a free cup of coffee in exchange for not mentioning it anymore, and she actually came to the café during my shift to drink the coffee for free.

My money…

Anyway, since I had to leave this old house in a few days, I began my day.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

“That damn alcohol! I’ll never drink it again!!”

“Haaa…”

After finishing my now-familiar morning routine, I washed up and headed to the café.

“…Whoa…”

The sky, which had been dark all week, was now filled with dark clouds, as if it might rain at any moment.

The weather forecast said it would rain mainly over the weekend, but I couldn’t help but take an umbrella after seeing the gloomy sky.

“Ugh… It’s cold…”

A cold wind began to blow, so I hurried into the alley, which was the shortcut.

“Hello!”

“Oh, welcome…!”

“Welco—oof…”

As soon as I entered the café, the still-awkward manager greeted me, and Si-ha, who had bent over to grab something, hit his head and greeted me with a groan.

I quickly changed into my work clothes and began my shift.

“Three hot Americanos, please!”

“Maybe because it’s cold today, people are ordering a lot of hot drinks.”

“It really is cold…”

“Excuse me…”

While enjoying the surprisingly peaceful café, probably because people didn’t want to go out in the cold, a female customer who looked like a high school student shyly approached me.

“Yes? Would you like to order?”

“Um… could you… take a photo…?”

The customer bent over deeply and handed me her phone.

Since I’d had an unusually high number of photo requests recently, I was now almost resigned to it and took the photo without much fuss.

“Th-thank you…!”

“It’s no problem~”

Considering all the troublemakers I’ve dealt with before…

“Uh… Could I also… take a photo with Si-ha-nim…?”

The customer then asked Si-ha, who had been standing around, to take a picture with her.

Some female customers had asked for his number before, but this was the first time anyone had asked him for a photo.

Feeling a bit nosy, I offered to help.

“Shall I take the photo for you?”

“Oh… that would be great!”

“Well, go on, take the photo.”

Si-ha, looking a bit bewildered, came down from the counter and stood next to the customer.

Wow… high schoolers these days are so tall…

I thought to myself as I took the picture.

“…”

“Th-thank you…! Both of you, good luck with your streams…!”

The customer, after checking the picture, left the café with a knowing look that was hard to ignore.

“Sorry… I’m not really used to taking photos…”

The picture I took was shaky enough to make me wonder if I had a tremor, and both of them had their eyes closed at the moment the picture was taken. The composition was so bad that even a normally good photo was ruined to the extreme.

“…It happens sometimes.”

“By the way, what was she talking about, streaming? Do you stream?”

“What?! No way!!”

At my question, Si-ha reacted in a way I hadn’t seen before, startled and stepping back.

“……”

I looked at him suspiciously, and it didn’t take long for him to confess.

“Uh… I haven’t been doing it for long, but… sometimes I stream on Twitch…”

“Oh… I also just started recently!”

To think the coworker I had been working with was also a fellow streamer…

“What kind of stuff do you stream?”

“Uh… just… talking? Conversations? Mostly work stories…”

“Like stories from the café?”

“Oh… I have another job, so…”

Just as I was about to ask what kind of job he had, someone slammed the counter.

Startled, I turned my head slowly to see who or what had caused the noise.

Could it be a drunken troublemaker? Or maybe just someone here to berate a poor service worker?

As my head turned, I recalled all the troublemakers I’d dealt with before.

“……”

“…….Minyoung…?”

It was my younger sibling, wearing a fierce expression, who had slammed the counter.

***
Lee Minyoung POV

Beep! Beep! Beep!

“……”

Waking up in my soft, cozy bed, I saw a long body pillow.

I hugged it tightly with all my strength and fumbled around for my phone with one hand.

“Hmm… Ah.”

Picking up the hard, cold phone amidst the soft sheets, I checked the time.

“…11 o’clock…”

Just like an ordinary high school student with only three days left of vacation before the new semester, I woke up at a perfectly reasonable time, smoothing down my messy hair as I got up.

“Huuuaaaaah…”

After a quick grooming, I walked out to make some ramen…

Thursday.

“Ah.”

Suddenly, I remembered what the doctor had said last week.

I immediately went to the bathroom.

Bzzzzz

“Hmm~”

After drying my long hair, I put on the few makeup items I had in front of the small vanity and checked the time again. It was already past noon.

I pulled on a hoodie and thick pants and walked to the nearby convenience store.

“…Thank you.”

A few minutes later, I came out of the convenience store with a black plastic bag filled with pads, instant porridge, and various supplements.

“For lunch… I’ll just grab something at unnie’s café and drop this off.”

It wasn’t hard to find out where my unnie worked by doing a quick search online.

Her unusual hair color and eyes that made her look like a foreigner, a face that was pretty to begin with but had become even more beautiful, her small stature that didn’t match her conspicuous figure, and her distinct, gentle personality—no wonder she was so popular on her streams.

I was the one who recommended streaming to her, but I somewhat regretted it.

But still, I had no reason to tell my busy unnie how to live her life.

“…Unn…nie?”

When I arrived at the café, braving the cold wind, I saw my unnie approaching some guy with sparkling eyes.

***
Lee Su-yeon POV

“Minyoung…? Why…”

Ignoring the stares of others, my younger sister kept her hand on the counter, glaring alternately at me and Si-ha.

“What’s going on!”

Hearing the loud noise, the manager, who had been resting in the break room, ran out in surprise.

“…Ah, sorry.”

Upon seeing the manager, my sister seemed to realize her situation, quickly removed her hand from the counter, and apologized politely, though her expression remained tense.

“Are you the manager?”

“Uh… yes, I am… What’s going on?”

“Could I borrow my unnie for a bit? And, if possible, that guy too.”

My younger sibling said, glaring at Si-ha as she spoke.

Si-ha flinched under her icy gaze and couldn’t say anything.

“Uh… Su-yeon?”

“Sorry, that’s my sibling. Is it okay if we talk for a bit?”

“Oh… sure… there aren’t many customers today anyway.”

The manager said this as she adjusted her hat and shooed both Si-ha and me away from the counter.

“…”

An awkward silence filled the table as the manager brought us three cups of hot chocolate.

“Enjoy your time~”

“…Unnie.”

Even after the manager left, my sister didn’t speak for a long time, merely fiddling with the hot cup.

“Y-yes?!”

For some reason, it felt like I was being punished, and I instinctively straightened my back and looked at my sister.

“Unnie… sigh… here, take this.”

After sighing once, my younger sibling handed me a black bag.

I heard the sound of glass bottles clinking and the faint rustling of light objects inside.

“What is this?”

“Open it when you get home.”

“Okay…”

“…How old are you?”

“18…”

“I’m 18 too, so I’ll speak casually.”

“O-okay…”

My younger sister crossed her legs and folded her arms as she spoke.

“…What were you talking about with my unnie?”

“It… it wasn’t anything! I swear!”

“Hmm…”

Her eyebrows rose slightly, and I nervously took a sip of hot chocolate to ease my parched throat.

“…”

The warmth and sweetness of the drink melted away the tension in my stiff body. As I drank the hot chocolate, I glanced around and saw the manager watching us from the counter with an expression like a mother engrossed in a melodramatic morning drama.

“We were just talking… about streaming…”

“Streaming?”

“Y-yeah… Compared to your unnie, it’s really small…”

“You didn’t say anything weird, did you?”

“No… really…”

When my younger sister looked at me, I quickly nodded my head.

“…Alright… sorry for taking your time.”

With that, my younger sibling allowed us our freedom.

“Unnie~ Unnie~ Unnie!”

But until I finished my shift, my sibling kept calling out to me whenever I got close to Si-ha.

“Haa…”

“Sorry about today… I might have gone a bit too far. Apologize to him for me too…”

“Got it…”

“And make sure to check what’s inside that bag when you get home!”

With one final reminder to check the contents of the bag, my sibling went home. I watched her back until she disappeared before heading home myself.

“Ssssssnniff… Phoooo…”

The air I breathed in carried a faint scent of rain.