By the Head Moderator's Authority, Choe Haeun Is Fair Game

I had been played for a fool. Utterly.

"Hah... hah..."

It was the first shotgun of my life, and a numb sting was still buzzing through my hands. The numbness wasn't the problem. How violently must my feelings have been thrashing, for me to forget it would hurt and brainlessly slam that shotgun down? Rage had maxed out so completely that the words wouldn't even come.

That was when it happened. Seoa unni called my name.

"......Haeun?"

"......Ah."

Only then did I understand. The other streamers—every last one of them—were looking at me. I opened my mouth at last, scrambling to put the wreckage back together.

"......Yes, Unni. I'm okay."

"Y-you really are okay, right?"

Am I really okay. At that, I hauled the corners of my mouth upward with everything I had, and barely managed to answer.

But.

"Yes. I really am...... okay."

So this was what it sounded like when a voice curdled with spite. I had said the words myself, and still they came out so cold, so razor-edged, that I could hardly believe they were mine. At that chill, even the imposing streamers signed to the major agencies went quiet and did nothing but read the room.

Of course.

"Haeun."

There was one person who would not retreat an inch, not even from a little sister in this state. My own older brother, Choe Seohyeon.

"......Oppa."

I aimed it at him, sharp as I could make it. But he spoke first, and stole the moment I had meant to explode.

"Haeun, this is absolutely not me learning something on purpose just to mess with you. Nothing like that."

"What?"

"Think about it. Am I the kind of person who toys with someone this openly?"

"......No. You're not."

Hearing that, I turned it over again, and something felt off. Oppa was definitely the type who beat people without meaning to—unintentionally—not someone who went out of his way to land the hit. Which meant that, before I knew it, I was already starting to be talked around. Some instinct knew I wasn't supposed to give in. I started giving in anyway.

But Choe Seohyeon must have decided this was his opening, because he immediately named someone else to take the blame in his place.

"All I did was try it because some viewer told me to."

"......"

"Think about it. Who would have taught me something like this? Me."

"......No way."

I shook my head. No. Absolutely not. This is ridiculous. This is a collab. There isn't a single thing that guy can get his hands on.

And yet...... he was reaching me even here? In a collab like this? Through Oppa?

"......"

A chill prickled up my spine. I denied it.

But the truth, as they say, does not stay buried just because you try to bury it. Choe Seohyeon—my brother—wore a sad look...... no, an apologetic one, and confessed the truth to me.

"Yeah. All of this, TSGoDie taught me—"

"D-don't lie to me!!"

The shout tore out of me before I could stop it. No—seriously. Did that even make sense? Now he was tormenting me through Oppa? I shook my head, unable to believe it.

"Th-that person is messing with me all the way into a collab? That doesn't make any sense——!!"

"Haeun......"

"Just be honest!! You did it because you thought toying with your little sister would be fun——!!"

Maybe it was my sanity, trying to save itself. Before I realized it, I had thrown up a defense. But.

"......I'm sorry."

All Oppa did was apologize.

"......"

After that, my mouth would not open. The mic, of course, was still on. The problem—if you could call it that—was that my mental state had...... detonated.

About a minute passed like that.

"......Everyone...... I'm really sorry, but...... I'm going to rest for a bit, so would you go on ahead?"

"......Yeah."

Seoa unni looked at me as if I were something pitiful, and let me go. I drifted toward the bathroom in a daze, with no idea what it was about to lead to.

And then—

"......AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH——————————————————————!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Choe Haeun's full-throated shouting, booming in through Choe Seohyeon's microphone.

The chat was plastered wall to wall with laughter. And it wasn't only the viewers laughing.

"Kkp— mmph— pfft......"

"S-Seohyeon, hk—! S-Seohyeon. Maybe mute for a second, pfftk—"

It was impossible to gauge just how loud she was screaming. She had definitely said she was going to the bathroom...... She had. So how loud did a person have to yell to punch through a bathroom door, through the soundproofing of a room that was live on stream, and then, on top of all that, through Choe Seohyeon's microphone?

Every one of Choe Seohyeon's viewers was treating him like a demon. Choe Seohyeon, for his part, only grew more brazen.

"......You can see the mic peaking right now, yes?"

"Haeun walked out without turning her mic off. It would have come through even if I had muted mine."

Insisting he couldn't have stopped it anyway, he didn't so much as try to mute. Five minutes passed like that.

"......I'm sorry."

Choe Haeun came back on stream with her voice a little hoarse. Hopang turned toward her, ready to soothe her, to tell her it was all right......

"Ah, no, no. It couldn't be helped...... kkp—!!"

......He did not succeed.

"......"

Every streamer looked as if they were holding something ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in. A laugh? Whatever it was. Perhaps because of that, Choe Haeun—Ppulppulpiri—seemed to sense that something was wrong.

"W-what is it? Did something happen while I was gone?"

"Th-that's......"

Yoo Seoa got halfway through the sentence, clapped a hand over her mouth, and ducked her head. Right about then, a single donation alert popped up on Choe Haeun's stream.

"......Mic?"

At the word mic, Ppulppulpiri turned her eyes toward the microphone. And so—

"......The mic was on?"

—she awakened to forbidden knowledge. Only then did Choe Haeun understand. Face flushed a furious red, she worked her mouth open and shut.

"......N-no, right? You didn't hear that, right? None of you heard it, right?"

She grabbed at her last remaining hope and asked them. But.

"......"

"......"

Every streamer kept their mouth shut. One of them, apparently afraid a laugh was about to escape, went so far as to kill both camera and mic, and vanished.

Checked from the sub PC, Ppulppulpiri's chat was nothing but laughter from top to bottom. Unless she was a fool, there was no way not to understand by now.

"......"

Choe Haeun's ears—and the nape of her neck along with them—had gone scarlet. At last she broke.

"......C-can I, um, j-just end the stream here for today?"

"......Yeah. Do that."

Perhaps she had decided she couldn't bear to show any more of her close younger friend's humiliation. Yoo Seoa said so, and Ppulppulpiri cut the broadcast on the spot.

The community reaction had real bite. The streaming community was farming bait off the legendary scene Choe Haeun—Ppulppulpiri—had delivered today, and they were farming it like maniacs.

Ah, and for the record, I made no particular effort to stop them.

The Head Moderator is me, after all. That's right. The Head Moderator is me. Even the sub-mods were busy farming bait at this very moment. Here—let's take a look at a fresh post from a sub-mod.

"Nice. Oh, this is nice."

Every one of them was having a grand old time on the community, and all of it over a single Ppulppulpiri. Anyway, after glancing through the community a few more times, I realized the hour had come.

"Alright, then."

Time to give today everything I had, too. I headed for the Neighborhood Convenience Store.

Di-ri-ri-ri~!

I opened the door to the familiar electronic chime and greeted the coworker whose shift I was taking over.

"Hello."

"Hello......"

I changed straight into the convenience-store uniform and took over the shift. And so the night job began.

"Mmm~."

Was it because today, of all days, had been so full of fun? I caught myself humming without meaning to. For the record, there were no customers, so there was no risk of embarrassment. About thirty minutes into the night shift, it happened.

Di-ri-ri-ri-ri————.

The door opened on the electronic chime.

"Welco—"

I was midway through the greeting when I flinched. Because......

"Ah, I got it. I said I got it. I'm sorry."

"You think you can just slide past this with an apology, don't you? That's why you're so relaxed."

"No......"

"Do you have any idea how they're tearing me apart on the community right now???"

Choe Seohyeon and Choe Haeun. Choe Seohyeon was being scolded by Choe Haeun, utterly one-sided. Well, it was a natural reaction. What he had done to her today had been too much, no matter how you looked at it.

"Hah. And he calls himself an older brother......"

Choe Haeun let out a hard sigh, and then picked up a convenience-store basket. Immediately, fury pouring off her, she started raking things in—snacks, ramyeon, whatever her hands found.

"......Aren't you putting way too much in there? You'll get fat."

"I keep myself in check way harder than you do, you know? All of this is going to take me a good three months to get through, so don't worry."

"......You swear?"

"Oppa. Did you forget that when you ate chicken right in front of me, I didn't so much as blink?"

"Mm...... then fine."

With nothing to refute in what Choe Haeun had said, Choe Seohyeon shut his mouth. Fair enough. That she kept herself under brutal management was already common knowledge. How brutal? Brutal enough that, back when she'd done collab content with a model, she had been praised for a body-fat percentage on the level of a top-tier idol.

"Anyway. You're buying all of this."

"......If I buy all of this, it's going to be over forty dollars. Over forty dollars on convenience-store food is a little......"

"If you wanted to say that, you shouldn't have done that to me on stream today."

With nothing left to say, Choe Seohyeon sighed at last and drew a card from his wallet.

"......Checkout, please."

"Yes."

I rang them up, doing my best to act as if nothing at all were unusual. Fortunately, Choe Seohyeon and Choe Haeun were too busy talking to each other to pay me any mind.

"......This is a first for me. Snacks and cup noodles coming out to over fifty dollars."

"So? You got a complaint?"

"Not that......"

"Anyway, we're paid up, right? Thank you."

And so the two of them left.

Di-ri-ri-ri———.

The door ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠shut on the chime. I watched the Choe siblings disappear, then carefully opened my mouth.

"......This is kind of nice, too."

Really. Getting to see the Choe siblings this way—the side of them nobody else knew—didn't seem half bad.

"Kkeu......!! Today is just packed with fun things."

The stream had been like that, and real life was like that too. Anyway, I had a feeling tonight's night shift was going to be a pleasant one.