Dodging Blame and Viral Glory
“Oh, Uncle, what if you threw it that hard?”
“I had no idea you were that bad at baseball, bro!”
“What’d you say?”
I stared blankly at the window that had shattered so spectacularly.
“Hey, Hura, what’re you doing?”
“Huh?”
“Clean it up quick before Eunhui and Eunbi get hurt.”
“Oh, right.”
Right now, we’d evacuated Eunhui and Eunbi far away, and my sister and I were sweeping up the broken glass shards with a broom and dustpan. I was on dustpan duty; sis had the broom.
As I caught the shards she carefully gathered, I muttered, “Man, it shattered so cleanly.”
“Yeah. Sounded pretty crisp, too.”
We chuckled as we cleared away every sharp piece.
“Aigoo… Your mom’s gonna eat us alive.”
Uncle scratched his head furiously, mumbling to himself. At that, Dad’s eyes flashed sharply.
“What’s that ‘us’? What do you mean us?”
“Huh?”
“Oh Uncle, you’re the one who broke it. Why act like you had no idea?”
“No, if you’d hit it, nothing would’ve happened!”
“Hey now. Who’s the one who whiffed? The thrower’s at fault. You’re grabbing innocent bystanders here.”
“So you’re saying you bear zero responsibility, bro?”
“Pfft. You’re the one who suggested baseball. What’d I do?”
“You said let’s do it over here! I’m telling Mom exactly what happened.”
“Wh-what? Hey, Oh Uncle!”
…And so the two family heads devolved into a petty blame game. What heartwarming family love.
Representatives of their households, bickering like this in front of the kids. Over there, Eunhui and Eunbi stared silently at their dads. Was it my imagination, or was Eunbi’s gaze growing icier by the second?
“C’mon, let’s put our heads together and think this through properly.”
“How?”
“We’ll figure it out step by step. Use your brain a bit.”
“Got it. Hmm…”
I watched the two dads huddle up, desperately trying to dodge responsibility with grave expressions.
“…Our dad’s so proud.”
“Right? Makes me wanna brag to Grandma about it all.”
Dad, who’d been furrowing his brows in deep thought, suddenly snapped his head up.
“Aha!”
“Got a good idea?”
Dad’s gaze turned to us.
“……?”
“What? Why’re you looking at us?”
Dad said, eyeing us, “Grandma loves grandkids more than her own kids, right? She won’t stay mad if the kids broke it.”
“True.”
“She’ll let it slide no problem!”
“Aha!”
Aha? Aha my ass. Freeze to death.
…These guys for real? Their big brainstorm was shoving the blame on the kids?
I let out a disbelieving chuckle. “Why not just say Eunhui and Eunbi did it?”
At that, their eyes locked onto the Heebi Sisters, crouched side by side in the corner of the yard.
“Oh, that’s genius!”
“What’s genius about it?!”
Sis yelled furiously.
“Oh… it’s not?”
“Just tell her the truth. Be role models as adults—what kinda talk is this in front of the kids?”
Dad replied in a trembling voice. “You kids wouldn’t get it.”
“Yeah. You have no idea how scary she gets when she’s mad.”
Even bear-like Uncle looked pale, like he’d seen a ghost.
“Kids. Just one favor.”
Dad fixed us with eyes dripping desperate sincerity.
“Say you did it, and Grandma won’t say much. C’mon? Just once. Please, just once.”
Then Uncle straightened up and called out. “Bro!”
“Yeah?”
“What’re you doing right now?”
Yeah, even Uncle thinks this is too much.
“You gotta grovel like me.”
“Oh, right.”
“We’re begging. Just this once.”
“……”
We stared coldly at the two dads rubbing their hands pleadingly. This… is an adult?
Dahyun seemed more grown-up by comparison.
“Didn’t you always tell us to be responsible adults?”
“Responsibility comes in degrees!”
Dad declared shamelessly, without a hint of guilt. “You gotta survive first to take responsibility. Right, Oh Uncle?”
“Exactly. This is a special case.”
They synced up perfectly.
“…Wonder how bad Grandma chewed them out to make ’em like this.”
Sis muttered in exasperation. I tapped her shoulder, exchanging a knowing glance. Then we sidled over to Eunhui and Eunbi.
“Huh? Wh-where you going?”
Tryna pin it on us? Fine. Two can play that game.
Lessons learned gotta be applied fresh.
“Dunno.”
“Not our problem—handle it yourselves.”
“We didn’t do it anyway.”
“We’ll sit this one out.”
Sis and I grabbed Eunhui and Eunbi and backed away from the scene. Like it was none of our business. Like we were total strangers. We drew a hard line.
Over there: vicious window-smashing criminals. Over here: innocent, blameless citizens.
“……”
The two dads gawked at us, lost and forlorn.
“Eunhui, Eunbi—don’t look over there.”
“Don’t look, don’t look.”
We turned our backs completely. Behind us came a barrage of earth-shattering sighs for a while.
Soon after, snippets of their cornered desperation drifted over.
“Oh Uncle, what now? Think!”
“I’ve been racking my brain nonstop—nada. You’re the sly one for this stuff. Anything?”
“Ugh… No clue. None.”
“How long’s she been out walking?”
“Pretty long, I think?”
“…We’re out of time.”
“Ugh…! Don’t rush me, Oh Uncle. Nothing’s coming!”
Curious how it’d play out, I glanced back.
“Bro, stay calm! Breathe with me. Whoosh—in—whoosh—in—”
“Whoosh—in—whoosh—in—”
“Better?”
“…Nope.”
“Okay, now think hard. They say there’s always a way out, even if the sky falls.”
“…Yeah, too early to call it quits. Oh Uncle.”
“Huh?”
“Open your eyes wide. Answers are closer than you think.”
“Closer?”
“Yeah. Could be right under your nose.”
Dad’s fidgety gaze wandered like a lost moth, finally fixing on the dustpan full of shards we’d swept up.
“…! That’s it!”
Before anyone could stop him, Dad dumped the shards back onto the floor.
“Bro! What the hell?!”
Uncle yelped, but Dad just grinned slyly.
“Oh Uncle.”
“Yeah?”
“Grab a rock. Something heavy.”
A wicked smirk curled Dad’s lips.
“Heh heh heh…”
Egg money. What the heck? Pure villain laugh.
“Kids, don’t look.”
I fixed the Heebi Sisters’ heads forward as they tried peeking back out of curiosity. You kids can’t see this. Some evil villain just popped up back there.
* * *
In some office. The sun hung high at midday, but inside it was still pitch-black night.
Clack—
The blinds blocking the window rolled up, sunlight flooding in.
“Ugh…!”
From the darkness where nothing was visible, a creature stirred. A woman sprawled face-down on her desk, dead to the world, squinted and grumbled.
“Damn it… Put it back down?”
But the guy who’d raised the blinds ignored her, shaking her shoulder wildly.
“Noona! Noona! Wake up and see!”
“Whyyy…”
The woman flopped like a reed in the wind from his shaking, mumbling in a hoarse, sleep-clogged voice. Even flailing, she clung stubbornly to her face-down pose.
“Our video! It hit #1!”
“What?”
She snapped her head up, staring at him through bleary eyes. His were bloodshot all over.
“…You didn’t sleep?”
“How could I?”
She yawned hugely, stretching. Her stiff body cracked—pop-crack—here and there.
“#1 was expected. Source material that good.”
She smirked. “Why the fuss now?”
“Not just category—overall #1 video!”
“What?”
“Look!”
Mid-hair fix, she peered at his screen. A thumbnail of Hura grinning villainously sat proudly at #1 in real-time popular videos.
“Th-this…”
Like a cold splash, she woke right up. Views were skyrocketing.
She’d figured it’d do well, but this well? She’d once hit #1 in gaming with their Nimal Desert vid—but overall? No chance. The world’s vast, fun stuff everywhere; gaming had clear limits.
Overall charts were idols, sports highlights, dramas, movies, variety shows, animals—gaming always lurked in the shadows.
But this Hura vid, What Happened in Harten, shattered that. Exhausted from all-night editing, she’d crashed right after upload—now, dream or reality? Unbelievable.
She rubbed her eyes repeatedly. Still there. Views ticking up with every glance.
“What… what the hell is this?”
She finally croaked. He grinned ear to ear. Bloodshot eyes made him creepy, but who cared now.
“Check the comments.”
Thousands below the video.
Reading comments one by one, the woman looked up blankly. Across from her, the bloodshot-eyed guy smiled.
“Hura made us go viral.”
“Pfft!”
She shot up, barking. He flinched, shoulders hunching.
“Wh-why, Noona?”
“How dare you! Who gave you permission to call him ‘Hura’ like that?!”
“Uh, s-sorry?”
“It’s Hura-nim!”
“Oh! R-right!”
“Let’s cheer three ‘hurrahs’ for Hura-nim!”
“Yes!”
The two raised their hands like maniacs, yelling. All-nighter burnout had fried their sanity anyway.
“Hura-nim hurrah! Hura-nim hurrah! Hura-nim hurrah!”
“Hura is a god!”
“Hahaha!!”
“Ehehehe!!”
And just like that, two more extreme Hura worshippers were born.