V-Tubing.

Sarah, Alice and I cleaned up as best we could and got dressed. In the meantime, Mila and Grace also arrived. With about 20 minutes left until class, we sat around the table and listened to Noelle.

“So?” Alice asked her. “What happened? Something with your parents?”

The redhead shook her head. “N-No, it has nothing to do with them. Or with all the stuff about uni for that matter. Or… maybe it is? Ugh.”

“Okay, girl, from the beginning,” Grace told her. “Facts first. What happened.”

Noelle took a deep breath and started. “So… Um… You all know I livestream, right? I play games and broadcast them live to an audience of about 100 to 400 people depending on the game.”

“Yeah, and you use a virtual avatar instead of a web-cam,” Mila said, smiling. “Yuria, right?”

“R-Right. Well… Um… S-Some months ago, someone uploaded a clip from one of my streams. A part of it where, um… Where someone donated a lot of money to me asking me to… uh… m-marry them.”

Poor Noelle’s face was red, and I could 100% sympathize with the embarrassment. You may be proud and happy with what you do, but that doesn’t mean you don’t understand that others could see it as weird.

“Wait, they paid you to marry them? Huh?” Sarah asked, her face contorted in confusion and disbelief.

“It was dumb!” Noelle said. “I was talking about the time we found Cake and took her to Oliver’s house. I happened to mention Isabelle’s brother and this guy in the chat freaked out because he thought I was seeing someone and got jealous. I had to stop him right there and then, telling everyone I didn’t want people simping for me. Well, the thing is… That clip has been going viral for the last four days.”

I blinked. “It is? Isn't that from like four months ago?”

“Yeah! But the clip isn’t in my channel, so I didn’t notice. I think a bigger streamer watched it on their channel and now that clip is at like 500K views.”

“Oh, holy crap!” Mila gasped.

Holy crap indeed. I think that clip was barely at 2K views when I saw it.

“And now people suddenly found me. I… suddenly have more subscribers, a lot more people watched my Sunday stream and… and…” She grimaced. “Weirdest thing of all, I got contacted by an official V-Tuber group last night. An agency, basically. They’re… offering me a contract.”

“A-Ah? A contract? For a job?” Alice asked. “How does that work?”

“From what I understand, it’s like a talent agency,” I told her. “They manage merchandising, licensing and all that. Basically, they want Yuria, the V-Tuber, to become part of their brand so they can sell stuff with her face on it.”

Noelle nodded. “That’s the gist of it. There’s nothing official yet, but they want to begin talks.”

“And… you’re not entirely happy about this, are you?” Grace asked her.

“I don’t know…” Noelle sighed. “I make some money out of it, but I never intended this streaming thing to become a job. I thought I could do it while it was fun and quit whenever I wanted. B-But… If I accept the offer… I could make more money doing what I already do and, well, help with all the uni stuff and the house and…”

Oh. Of course. Of course I wasn’t the only one worrying about that stuff.

“And then there’s my parents,” Noelle continued. “I don’t hide what I do from them, but they still don’t really get it. They’re very serious people, so I don’t know how they’ll react to the offer.”

“And… this all happened last night?” Mila asked.

“Not exactly. It’s been happening for a few days, only I just now noticed and understood what had happened. But yes, it does feel too out of nowhere.” Yeah, that’s the internet for you. “S-So… What do you all think I should do?”

“For starters, thank you for asking our opinion as soon as it happened. Unlike a certain other person who shall not be named,” Grace said.

I threw my hand up. “I needed to understand as much as I could before I told you, okay?”

That at least got a giggle out of Noelle.

“I admit, I still don’t fully understand how this would work,” Alice told Noelle. “But I’d be more than happy to go through the entire contract with you when they send it to you. I should be able to get a good grasp of the details.”

The redhead smiled, relieved. “Thank you. That would help a lot. That’s the part that worries me the most.”

“This company is reputable, though, right?” Sarah asked. “Are we sure it’s not a scam?”

“Yeah, I checked. They’re a big agency and the email address they used to contact me is on their official website.”

“And you said you’d be doing what you already do, right?” Mila asked. “If so, what’s the issue?”

“That I’d have an obligation to stream a certain amount of hours a week. Before, I could skip doing it whenever I felt like it, but now it would be a job.” Noelle smiled wryly. “I know it sounds like an easy choice, but…”

“No, I get it,” I told her. “Making a job out of what you like… It can change your outlook on it. With a bad enough experience you could come to hate it.”

Noelle nodded, then kept her eyes on me. “And… What do you think, Oliver? Sh-Should I do it?”

“...” I had to think about it for a bit. “The bottom line is that it’s up to you. All of us here will support whatever decision you come to. That said, I do understand what you said. For the things we have planned, we’ll all need to contribute in some way or another and make compromises. Just know that, if you feel like this isn’t the right thing for you, you don’t need to **** yourself to do it.”

The redhead chuckled. “Shouldn’t you take your own advice, then?”

I smiled sheepishly. “Maybe. I suppose it’s all about how severe the compromises we’re willing to make are.”

Noelle didn’t have to give an answer too soon, so she’d take her time to think about it and learn more about the offer. That day, we thought a sudden job offer from a big agency was as weird as things would get for Noelle.

Boy were we wrong.

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