It's a Gender-Reversed World, But I Don't Go Out Anyway - Chapter 42

Chapter 42: Small Changes

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[When is this bastard going to stream?]

This bastard slacks off now that he’s made it

No wonder people have a bad image of him lolololol

[Comments]

– It hasn’t even been an hour since his last stream, what’s with this guy?
└ That just shows how much she like Daeju
└ That’s just how Daeju-dans express that they enjoyed his casual streaming style

– But seriously, aren’t there any other good streams to watch besides Daeju?? Somewhere we can troll a bit
└ There are lots of fun streams if you give up the trolling
└ Can’t give that up though
└ What exactly makes you so…
└ Daeju?

– Fact: The bad image isn’t because of Daeju, but because of his fans.
└ Sigh… That’s a fact-ban.

***

“So… why is that my fault?”

I made a timid rebuttal that no one would hear anyway.

Reading posts on my Tgether board after streams had become part of my daily routine. The number of users here had grown tremendously. It made my stomach hurt to see that the number of people writing posts and comments on this neglected board was growing much faster than the viewership of my streams and YouTube videos that I put so much effort into.

I could easily find posts that showed just how much the userbase had grown.

***

[But who is Daeju anyway?]

I don’t watch the streams, but I came here through a humor post link and stayed because it was fun. I heard this is Daeju’s Tgether board – is he a trending streamer?

From the posts and comments, he seems like a streamer, but I don’t watch the streams. From what I can tell from posts and comments, he gets constantly criticized but it’s both pitiful and entertaining lol

[Comments]

– Now we’ve got people who don’t even know Daeju writing posts ffs
└ I told you there are more people here than live stream viewers lololol
└ No wonder the board is active even during Daeju’s live streams lol
└ What if normies outnumber Daeju fans on the board? That would be NT*R

– How can you not know when half the posts are about Daeju??
└ OP: I just know he’s a streamer who’s always getting criticized
└ Damn…. the world’s gone mad

– Please don’t take over our board TT_TT dear normies TT_TT
└ But wouldn’t it be kind of exciting if we got taken over?
└ What exactly made you like this
└ Daeju
└ Daeju! It’s you again?

***

“It’s my board but… you don’t know me?”

People had started actively using the board even without knowing who I was. I wonder if these were the people occasionally posting humor posts, news about incidents, and gaming news that had nothing to do with me – sometimes even hot deals and sale information. Just this showed how many new people were flowing in.

Since I didn’t particularly want rules restricting posts to just being about me, I left everything alone and it kept growing bigger.

Well, it wasn’t necessarily bad for this place to become more lively.

I sometimes spent stream time reading posts and such too, and this itself was content. If anything, it was better to have posts from people with normal perspectives rather than just my fans.

“Ughh~”

My spine made cracking sounds as I stretched after sitting for so long. Just hearing the sound reminded me of neck-breaking scenes in action movies.

Actually, when I was younger, I tried turning my head quickly to see if I would faint like in those scenes, and it felt like getting motion sickness. If I had done it faster and harder, I probably would have at least passed out. Thinking about that, I was slowly turning my head and stretching my neck when the terrible state of my studio apartment caught my eye.

“Wow… the trash situation is brutal.”

Trash had gradually piled up since I never left this tiny studio apartment. The amount of disposable item waste was especially concerning. These days, any food you order comes in plastic or paper containers, so it piles up quickly.

Though I sometimes cook at home, I order delivery more often, so trash accumulates rapidly.

Even when I do cook, it’s just fried eggs, spam, or ramen anyway.

“Since it’s night… should I go out?”

Even if it was just right outside, there was a big difference between day and night.

At least for me there was.

Not just in the number of people on the street, but also in people’s reactions. In the morning, people would stare for no reason. But at night, maybe because they were tired after work, or maybe because they wanted to get home quickly, many people walked like zombies with lifeless eyes, not even sparing a glance at others.

And even for someone as emotionally dry as me, there was something mood-lifting about feeling the night air in the darkened streets.

It was probably that thing they call dawn sentiment.

Of course, it wasn’t easy to feel such sentiment in my current situation with trash in both hands. Every time I tried to get lost in the mood, the greasy pizza smell wafting up from this box snapped me out of it.

“Man… this is really too much.”

I was amazed looking at the large amount of recyclable waste from my tiny studio apartment that I had put down at the designated spot.

All of it was from really greasy delivery food. Chinese food, hamburgers, pizza. While these were unavoidable foods when living alone, even roughly thinking about it, it was a bit extreme. Trying to recall, the healthiest food I’d eaten recently was…

“No way… was it that time…”

What came to mind was a blackened omurice and something that mixed kimchi with rice. As much as I didn’t want to believe it, were those really the healthiest things I’d eaten? Even setting aside the burnt food which couldn’t be considered healthy no matter how generously you looked at it, I couldn’t remember eating anything healthier than that something that claimed to be kimchi risotto.

Really couldn’t remember.

I should try cooking something healthy for myself soon. These days there are many YouTubers who post cooking recipes with videos. If I follow those, I should be able to eat at least healthier than now. Better than that kimchi dish.

Or maybe I should buy a camera and do cooking streams – I was contemplating this when I heard footsteps behind me. Thinking it might be someone else coming to throw out trash, I turned around to see a woman holding only a phone.

“Um…”

“Yes?”

The woman’s face wasn’t particularly familiar.

Actually, the only women whose faces I was familiar with were Yeonhee who watched my streams and that viewer who worked part-time at the convenience store.

Anyway, the person in front of me definitely wasn’t someone I knew.

Then she must be either my viewer, a resident of the same building, or maybe she was going to warn me that I put the trash in the wrong place? I couldn’t guess why she was addressing me.

Maybe one of those pseudo-religious groups or multi-level marketing people.

Don’t they ever sleep?

“Can I have your number!”

“Huh? Me?”

“Yes!”

“My number?… I’m not interested in joining any religion?”

“What?”

Then the woman in front of me covered her mouth and started laughing.

“No, it’s not that. This is my number! Please make sure to contact me.”

She pulled out a piece of paper about the size of my finger joint and a pen from somewhere in her clothes, wrote something earnestly, and pressed it into my hand before leaving.

She had written not just her number but also her age and reason for giving this to me on that small piece of paper.

[010-abcd-1234]

[I’m an 18-year-old high school student! We’ve crossed paths a few times but you probably don’t remember, but I developed feelings for you so I’m giving you my contact info like this! Please contact me if you’re okay with it.]

“What is this….”

Did she carry the paper and pen because she was a student?

The note was written in neat handwriting with a sweet feeling I’d never experienced before.

To think the day would come when someone would confess to me in my lifetime.

Well, viewers would sometimes flirt with me out of fan enthusiasm or as a kind of joke, but those were just words thrown at someone whose face they didn’t even know. But did this girl just confess after seeing me in my shabby clothes just taking out the trash?

And she’s not even my fan?

Not even from a suspicious religion?

Not even an extremely thorough MLM?

This is-

“This could make a good story?”

Contact her? Of course not

Even though I’m not that old, 18 is still a minor so that’s out.

And I have this weird personality where I seek natural encounters even though I stay inside all day.

***

[Guys I just got confessed to while taking out trash lololol]

No lie for real, after throwing out trash I turned around and suddenly an 18-year-old high school girl talked to me

At first I thought I threw the trash in the wrong place but she asked for my contact info lololol

I was so surprised she ended up giving me her prepared contact info and ran away

I didn’t know but…

Maybe I’m pretty decent?

[Comments]

– Your tone ffs you’re so high on confidence lol honestly is there anyone in Daeju’s fanbase who hasn’t gotten numbers?
└ For real lolololololol
└ …lolololol…l…ol..
└ …l…ol
└ Sorry

– Are you sure it was a high school girl? It’s night, maybe you mistook 47-year-old Mrs. Kim Bok-ja for a high school student?

– From what I can tell she must be from an all-girls school so she doesn’t know how to judge guys
└ Is this it?

– Master stop lying and just go to sleep
└ Today’s stream must have tired you out TT_TT

***

“Why don’t they believe me.”

Well, I guess so?

Even I didn’t think I had the image of someone who would get confessed to.

But this experience slightly changed my image of the outside world.

From absolutely not wanting to go out to maybe it’s okay to go out sometimes. Who knows? Maybe someone else might show interest in me. I wasn’t sure now but I felt my expression must have been quite unpleasant. Though I’d received lots of attention since starting streaming, attention from a normal person hit different.

These fans of mine have twisted my perspective.

Actually, receiving attention feels really good.

I picked up a mirror and examined my appearance after a long time.

Though I didn’t think I looked good enough to receive confessions-

“Maybe I should pay more attention to my appearance?”

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(End of Chapter)