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Early morning.

I opened my eyes in bed.

“Yawn…”

Half-asleep, I sat up and yawned.

What time is it now?

I know it’s morning, but…

Wait, I woke up early even though it’s a holiday.

Because of filming, it seems I’ve gotten into the pattern of being a good kid, and I felt proud as I got out of bed.

Then…

“Ah.”

I made eye contact with the female camerawoman in the corner.

Oh right. Today is the day we start filming.

“…You must be working hard from the morning.”

“Ah, you’re not supposed to talk to me.”

“Ah, ahh.”

Right, I shouldn’t have talked to her.

I was still groggy from just waking up.

But wait, she was here since dawn. Did Mrs. Jang let her in earlier?

After awkwardly glancing at the cameras mounted on the ceiling, I stepped into the living room, where there were cameras everywhere too.

Come to think of it, they set all this up last night.

I remember my parents pretending they weren’t excited about it.

Mrs. Jang and Manager Kim were thrilled that it was going to be on TV.

I quickly washed my face and laid on the sofa, breathing in the delicious smells from the kitchen.

“Come out and eat.”

Mrs. Jang gently called me.

Seeing her, I sat up from the sofa and said, “Isn’t it too nice just because the camera is here? You should treat me like this all the time.”

“Don’t you want to eat?”

“No, I do…”

Nibbled.

While eating breakfast, I thought about it.

So…

We’re filming for two days starting today.

Today is a holiday, and tomorrow is the day I go to the filming location.

Hmm…

I subtly gestured towards the camera in the kitchen.

Is my daily life really going to be recorded by that camera for two days?

I had thought about it, but it felt a bit burdensome.

“What are you going to do today?”

Seeing me like this, Mrs. Jang asked, seemingly concerned about the cameras.

“Today? Well…”

To be honest, I had thought about it before the variety show.

Can I really act like I normally do? Should I meet Hyejeong?

Or I could move my lesson schedule up.

But…

“I’m not doing anything.”

Really? I thought.

Didn’t the writer grandly assure us to just act naturally?

Today is coincidentally one of those days where I actually have no schedule.

Usually, on such days, we film a bit longer, but…

“I’m just going to laze around at home.”

We are filming a variety show, right?

I can’t help it.

Sorry to the viewers, but it’s a break day.

After finishing my meal, I sprawled out in the living room.

Today, I genuinely have no plans to go out.

I’m thinking of staying home all day.

Woof!

Amid my daze, I heard a cute sound and turned my head to see Bok-sil, who was in the yard earlier, enter the living room.

Probably Mrs. Jang let him in…

“Bok-sil, come here.”

Perfect timing.

I waved my hand to play with Bok-sil since it’s my first day off in a while.

But…

Woof!

He didn’t come.

Instead, he glanced at me and trotted over to the female camerawoman, rubbing his face against her leg.

“…”

A bit hurt, I thought.

Have I not played with him enough lately?

Come to think of it, these days, Mrs. Jang has been the one taking him for walks, and I haven’t…

“Fine. I’ll just play alone.”

Hmph… so ungrateful.

I haven’t done anything for you, but still.

This is why a hierarchy needs to be established.

Look at him now, completely ignoring me.

Grumbling internally, I watched TV in the living room and then retreated to my room.

Just like that, I lay down on my bed and picked up my phone.

As I started reading the web novel and catching up on the webtoon that I picked up again, I didn’t realize how much time had flown by, and soon it was midday.

…Time flew by.

Afterward, I thought while having lunch.

Can I really be like this?

I subtly glanced at the female camerawoman, who had changed shifts from earlier, but her expression showed no change.

Yeah, just let me do what I want.

After finishing lunch.

I headed back to my room and opened the door to the soundproof booth.

Honestly, I was a bit worried when they said it would be a variety show, especially about this soundproof booth.

What can I say about the soundproof booth?

But well, I’ll just say it was set up for my gaming at home.

I mean, that’s not a lie, right?

There is also a camera mounted in the corner of the soundproof booth.

As I briefly looked up at it, I sat down in front of my computer.

Naturally, I had no intention of broadcasting.

Am I insane enough to broadcast?

Wouldn’t that violate my contract with The Six?

So, I thought I’d play a game alone without turning on the stream for the first time in a while.

I have dual monitors, so to set one monitor to run a YouTube video, I entered the site.

And there it was, my wrecked algorithm in full force.

There were more 2D images than 3D ones.

Seeing more from Japanese culture than Korean, I quickly closed the window.

…That’s a bit embarrassing.

I hope I wasn’t caught on camera.

I gave up on watching YouTube and fired up the game.

The game was, of course, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the one I was a promotional model for.

Well, I’m not streaming, so playing this game should be fine, right?

Besides, there aren’t many games I could play alone.

I set my broadcast save file aside and started a new game, diving into it.

While the streams typically focus on exciting battle scenes and usually feature a warlord, I chose to play as a strategist this time since I was in a relaxed mood.

This character is more about supporting the ruler with intelligence rather than fighting.

He can command on the battlefield, and there’s plenty of fun to be had with various schemes.

Perhaps because I was playing differently from usual, I completely lost track of time while playing.

Ding-ding—

My phone, resting on the desk, rang.

Curious about who it was, I saw it was Tenshi.

(Tenshi): Soo-hyun! What are you doing?!

She often seems to contact me out of the blue when I’m gaming alone, and this was one of those times.

How did she know?

Ah, come to think of it, I did add her on the gaming platform last time; did she check that?

I paused Romance of the Three Kingdoms and shot her a reply.

I told her I was gaming alone but also filming the variety show, and she seemed really interested.

Seems like she’s curious about Korean variety shows.

Should we play together, then?

Since I’m wearing earphones, my voice won’t be picked up anyway.

As long as I’m careful not to say her name, it should be fine.

It might actually look better for the broadcast if I’m playing a game with a friend than just gaming alone.

…Though the issue is that she’s an internet friend.

But still, we’ve seen each other quite a bit, right? It’s not unreasonable to consider her a close friend at this point.

I cautiously opened Discord to avoid being caught on camera and connected the call with Tenshi.

[Soo-hyun! Is it really a variety show you’re filming?]

Her voice came through the earphones.

“Ah, yes.”

As I replied, I secretly checked the microphone.

It wasn’t my computer mic but the variety show mic that I had attached with the staff’s help last night.

I lowered the volume a bit, not wanting Tenshi’s voice to be recorded here.

…I felt a bit guilty for not talking since breakfast until now.

But, isn’t this a little refreshing too?

Huh? How much fun do participants usually have?

People should see there are those like me too.

With this happy train of thought, I started playing the game while on call with Tenshi.

Recently, viewers have been requesting more FPS games, so we started playing together…

Knock knock.

After some time passed.

While I was deep into the game, I heard a knock on the soundproof booth door.

What’s going on? I thought, turning my head back to open the door, revealing Mrs. Jang and a cameraman who couldn’t fit inside.

“Ah? Why?”

“How long are you going to play games?”

“Games?”

How long have I been playing, anyway?

Maybe three hours since lunch?

But glancing at the time… it felt like the afternoon was almost gone.

“Eh, wait, what?”

“It’s already dinner time.”

“Eh.”

…Did I get too carried away with my first holiday in a while?

Without the pressure, I kept ranking high, which made me excited and led to playing for too long.

How long has it been since I lost track of time like this…

“Mom!”

In the meanwhile, Tenshi exclaimed upon hearing Mrs. Jang’s voice, but unfortunately, since I had my earphones on, my mom’s voice didn’t reach her.

“I should get going. I need to eat.”

“Ah! Got it!”

After that, I turned off the game and left the soundproof booth.

…I noticed the filming crew glancing at me awkwardly, but I tried to avoid their eyes.

Yeah, yeah… I can play a bit longer.

Dinner was with Manager Kim, who got off work early.

Fortunately, unlike Mrs. Jang, he didn’t seem to care much about the cameras…

“Cough, cough.”

…or so I thought.

He seemed like he wanted to say something and cleared his throat while furtively checking the camera.

However, perhaps due to his experience working at a big corporation, when he caught my eye, he seemed hesitant to say anything.

Honest eating was a bit nervous, but it went well.

Before bed, I made sure to read through the script.

I already memorized it long ago, but I keep reviewing it periodically.

It’s better to remember too much than forget anything on set.

While practicing my expressions in front of a mirror, I gradually felt sleep washing over me and finally lay down on my bed.

Since it was late, the cameramen had already gone home.

Lying in the dark bed, I looked in the direction of the camera and thought.

…Honestly, I feel a bit sorry to the variety show for having booked me.

What did I even do today?

I just lazed around and played games all day; is that okay?

I don’t know.

I still have one more day left, so I can do well tomorrow.

I thought I was relieved to have a schedule for tomorrow and closed my eyes.

Thus, a day of my life to be captured in a variety show came to an end.

 

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