The Protagonist's Party is Too Diligent

“Oh, are you done?”

As I stretched my arms up over my head and interlocked my fingers, Claire walked into the room and spoke.

“Yes. I ended up working on it the entire day.”

Since I’d never done video editing before, every single step was horribly inefficient.

Whenever I questioned whether I really needed to go this far and looked it up, there were tons of simpler examples and templates... but then I’d forget how I used them a few minutes later, have to look them up again... and just like that, hours had passed.

And all I ended up with was about five minutes of footage.

They say short videos are more popular these days, sure—but still, after hours of work, to end up with something barely the length of a royalty-free song? It was kind of a shock.

I knew it wouldn’t be easy, but I didn’t expect to struggle this much.

“Eat something.”

Claire said, placing a plate full of fruit on the table.

It was mostly apples, with a few slices of pear mixed in.

The quality of the slicing was... all over the place. Most of them had been cut too aggressively. Honestly, some of them looked more like they’d been carved than peeled.

Though, I wasn’t exactly confident I could’ve done even that much myself.

“Can I watch the video?”

“Of course.”

I got up from my seat and moved over to the chair by the monitor, then picked up a piece of fruit with a fork and ate it.

Tasty.

When I was living on my own, I almost never ate fruit. It was just too expensive.

Even when I did buy some, I’d get the cheapest in-season stuff I could find. The shape would always be irregular, and it’d come in a clear plastic bag or a black one, nothing fancy.

Maybe because of those memories, when the girls who’d gone out shopping came back with boxes full of neatly packaged fruit, I was a little startled. I mean, I’d bought a car and camping gear without blinking, and yet fruit caught me off guard. Even I had to laugh at myself for that.

But it’s not just the appearance—the fruit really tasted good. I could see why people bought the expensive kind.

“Oh.”

Claire let out a soft sound of admiration as the video started and the music played. I’d spent quite a bit of time listening to different tracks before settling on that one, trying to find something that matched the vibe. I also had to double-check the license rights. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

We hadn’t planned out any dialogue while filming, so there weren’t any spoken lines. Just some laughter, and a few clips of people shouting as they ran around.

“Maybe we should’ve said a few things while filming.”

“Yeah. The video’s nice, but it might’ve felt more complete with some kind of story.”

“Though I don’t really want to script anything.”

“Right. We don’t want the place we go to relax turning into a filming set.”

Claire nodded in agreement.

“Should we at least add subtitles?”

“Hmm... It’s our first video anyway, and we’re mainly uploading it to see how people react. The real goal is to save the memories, right?”

True.

I speared a slice of pear and popped it into my mouth.

“Mm...”

As the short five-minute video ended, Claire folded her arms and fell into thought. I didn’t say anything and just kept eating steadily.

“To be honest, I don’t think I can manage this much editing.”

When I turned to look, Claire had a very serious expression.

“You can’t be doing all this by yourself. We already owe you.”

“I really don’t mind.”

“You sat there for hours today, didn’t you?”

If I didn’t want to do it, I wouldn’t have. Simple as that.

I casually grabbed another piece of fruit.

“They’re memories we all share.”

Claire had a habit of saying cheesy things like that sometimes.

And with how serious her face looked, she actually gave off a bit of a protagonist vibe.

Honestly, it made me forget what Claire was like in the game. It’s hard to imagine that low-poly character existing in real life now.

But I’ve always liked those kinds of cheesy lines. I guess my middle school syndrome isn’t totally cured yet.

“Then why don’t we all watch the video together and talk about it? I won’t force anyone, though. I want everyone to feel comfortable while they’re here.”

“...Thanks.”

Claire looked a little apologetic as she said that, so I used my fork to feed her a piece of fruit.

*

“Wow...”

And the person who reacted most strongly to the video was none other than Mia.

“Do you like it?”

Alice and Charlotte both looked impressed too, but Mia was the only one who actually let out a voice of amazement, so I directed my question at her.

“It feels like magic.”

Does it?

Maybe it is like that. You could say a photo is just an extremely detailed drawing, but a video is on a whole other level.

Sure, we’d appeared on camera during livestreams before, but we were always in a tiny window down in the corner. The angle didn’t really change much either.

And game footage is obviously not real people. Even beautifully produced videos, like movies, don’t actually show us.

But the video we were watching now wasn’t shot with a smartphone. It was taken with a mirrorless camera that had a big sensor.

I didn’t know much about cameras when I used it, so I just hit record and hoped for the best—but the colors came out so beautifully, and the quality {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} was so good, that the final product was incredible. I also did a bit of color grading, so that made it look even flashier.

That must’ve been what Mia was reacting to.

“Would you like to learn?”

“...Huh?”

“How to make videos like that.”

Mia hesitated a little at my question.

“Would that be okay?”

“Of course. Though I’ve only just started learning myself, so I can’t teach you in detail.”

“I want to try!”

...Hmm.

When she said that with eyes sparkling like that, it felt a bit overwhelming.

I mean, I’m a beginner too.

When I looked up in mild panic, Claire was watching me with a look that clearly said good job.

Well, it’s fine.

We were going to have to reveal our faces eventually, and that meant we’d need to upload a lot more videos anyway.

*

Even after uploading the video, there was still quite a bit of time before the next stream started. We didn’t have a homepage or any online forum, so we weren’t doing any kind of promotion.

But somehow, the video had already started getting comments.

It wasn’t anything particularly special—just a video I’d put effort into making. But even so...

“Someone’s asking if we’re foreigners.”

Alice read a comment and laughed.

“We are foreigners, but they’re saying our Korean is ridiculously good... I guess that’s understandable. We do stand out every time we go out.”

“There’s a comment down here asking if this is cosplay.”

Charlotte had streamed with us long enough that she knew what that word meant now.

“Maybe for the next video, we should title it something like ‘Yes, we’re Korean.’ A weird name like that might attract more viewers.”

I seriously considered Charlotte’s suggestion.

“If we go too obvious, it might turn some people off. Maybe it’s better not to make it too blatant. If someone starts accusing us of making some weird nationalist video, that’s when we drop the reveal.”

“Sounds like something you’d say.”

Alice replied, and I was momentarily at a loss for words.

“...That was a compliment.”

She added quickly when she saw my reaction.

Well, if it’s a compliment...

“You don’t think we’ll actually get offers to appear on TV or something, right?”

Hmm.

Claire did stir up a lot of attention last time, but no one had contacted us. Then again, maybe that’s because we haven’t put any contact info out there. Now that the video’s on a streaming site, they might reach out via email.

“What do you all think? If a TV station did reach out, would you be interested?”

It might be jumping the gun, but better to ask in advance than be caught off guard later.

To be honest, the five of us... we are all pretty damn attractive. And each of us has a very clear role or character.

...Maybe not quite idol level, but five girls like this living together? Honestly, it’s weird we haven’t become a hot topic already.

“I am curious.”

Claire answered first.

“We’d have to turn down anything recurring, though, since we eventually need to go back.”

Alice added that condition.

“An interview or something would be fine...”

“Yeah. I think just an interview would be okay.”

Charlotte and Mia both responded cautiously.

Seeing everyone’s reactions, I nodded.

“Alright. If we do get contacted in the future, we’ll agree to light interview offers only.”

Everyone nodded at that.

Well, we’ve only uploaded one video so far.

It’s not like we’ll go viral in a single day... right?