Fox, This Stream Belongs to Naru Now
“Keuk—just kill me already.”
A traitor who fails an ambush always meets a miserable end. Still, I chose death so that I could remain an honorable fox to the very last. It was absolutely not because my whole body was shaking with fear.
But Yerin only stroked the top of my head gently after my surprise attack, then carefully set me back down.
“Naru, even as a joke, you shouldn’t say things like that so carelessly.”
“You’re not going to kill me?”
“Never. Not in a million years.”
“…”
“Anyway, you’re already on stream, so there’s no helping it. Naru, Unnie’s a little busy right now, so just wait a bit, okay?”
“…What are you doing?”
“Streaming… well, I’m talking with a lot of people you can’t see.”
“O-other people?”
I sneaked a look at the thin rectangular box, but no matter how I thought about it, not even one person could fit inside that tiny thing.
“Liar! A person can’t fit in that box!”
Besides, I couldn’t hear any other voices, so I had no idea what she was talking about. I climbed back onto the desk and stared hard at the box, inspecting it carefully, but aside from weird letters scrolling upward like crazy, there was no one to be seen at all.
Just in case, I poked the rectangular thing a few times and asked.
“Is anybody in there?”
Of course, the only thing that happened was the letters started scrolling even faster. No human voice came out.
“Naru, can you wait with Manager Unnie for a little while?”
“No!! A strange human attacked me!!”
“What?! Unnie hit Naru?!”
“Nooo!!”
Right then the door flew open and Kang Subin shouted desperately.
“I was just trying to play with Naru and the toy ball only bumped her a tiny bit!!”
“Unnie, the stream is—”
“Who cares about the stream right now?! I’m about to become a child abuser!”
“Grrrr!”
“Hey, Naru, if you keep being that wary Unnie’s going to get her feelings hurt…”
“That’s why I told you not to mess around… haaah…”
Yerin scooped me up into her arms and spoke softly, the way you soothe a child.
“It’s okay, Naru. Unnie says she’s really sorry.”
“Did it hurt a lot, Naru?”
“What are you talking about? It didn’t hurt at all…”
“Will our good little Naru forgive her just this once?”
As Yerin gently stroked me while she talked, my heart gradually softened, and I decided to grant a special pardon this time only.
“I am the great fox who even forgave the ten thousand won Yerin stole! I’ll forgive her specially just this once!”
“Ten thousand won… stole?”
“No, Naru, that was a misunderstanding…”
“Hold on, Yerin, you make plenty of money and you’re taking a snot-nosed kid’s money—wait, should I say fur-covered money? Something that precious…”
“I’m telling you it was a misunderstanding!! And what about you, Unnie? Hitting a kid who doesn’t even have anywhere to hit?”
“I said I didn’t!!”
While Kang Subin and Yerin kept arguing, the letters on the rectangular thing were moving even faster than before. Curiosity got the better of me, so I hopped up onto the desk again and took another close look at the box.
“…?”
I tried to read the letters once, but they were moving so fast I couldn’t make anything out properly.
Poke poke—
This time I pressed the rectangular thing as hard as I could, but nothing changed.
“What is this…”
Behind me Kang Subin and Yerin were still talking, so I quickly lost interest in the box. I was about to climb back down off the desk when something got stepped on under my foot.
“…?”
It was a small square with letters written on it. I carefully pressed it with my paw and it went click.
“Ooooh.”
“Naru, what are you doing climbing up there—it’s dangerous!”
Yerin finally noticed me on the desk and scooped me up into her arms. The letters on the rectangular thing started flying even faster.
“What on earth is everyone talking about all of a sudden! It’s all a misunderstanding!”
“…?”
“Ah, I wasn’t talking to you, Naru. Unnie, take Naru outside for a bit, please.”
Yerin handed me straight over to the human called Kang Subin. Even though I had forgiven her for attacking me, being held by someone I still couldn’t trust was completely unacceptable.
“Let go of me!!”
“There, there, Naru. Don’t be like that—come take a nap with Unnie.”
Despite all my struggling I was carried out without any strength left to resist. To think I had been caught by a human who wasn’t even Awakened… The shock was so great that the strength drained right out of my tail.
“Hoo…”
Once Manager Unnie took Naru out, it felt like a typhoon had finally passed. I let out a deep breath. Then I glanced at the stream screen and, just as expected, it was already completely filled with talk about Naru.
“Alright, everyone, please calm down. There was a little chaos just now, but if we continue with the explanation…”
From the chat reactions I could already tell the original explanation had gone through, but I forced myself to keep talking so I could finish properly.
“I believe the matter of the video that targeted me has been cleared up. But there’s still something I don’t understand—the Association. The child… that is, Naru. Even after I reported her, they showed no response at all. Not even after she got caught in a landslide in this rain. So I rescued Naru myself. Of course this could become a legal issue, but I couldn’t just leave a child who had been swept away by a landslide.”
I straightened my slightly rumpled clothes and the desk that had been messed up by Naru’s attack, then continued.
“If possible I would love to keep living with Naru, but what Naru needs is professional help. The reason I revealed all this is because I wanted her to be able to live even a little more normally. Of course strange misunderstandings piled up along the way and we ended up here, but… my goal is only one.”
I recalled the shock of the moment I first found Naru and looked straight into the camera with complete seriousness.
“Please help Naru.”
“Her so-called parents abandoned her.”
“She never properly received the affection she should have, and I don’t know everything that happened to her, but she has a strong wariness toward people.”
“But even so, she’s a child who feels awkward receiving affection and yet still longs for it and likes it.”
“As a person, I want to help Naru. So I need all of your strength.”
I couldn’t possibly fight the Association’s incompetence head-on by myself, but if enough people learned about Naru’s situation, even the Association wouldn’t be able to sit still. Thanks to that wrecker who tried to take me down, even more attention had poured in, so I hoped I could turn this into an opportunity that would actually help Naru more.
With that, I bowed my head in front of the camera and brought the stream to a close. Seeing people agree with me, sympathize, and offer their support made a smile form on my face without me realizing it.
“Huh?”
Apparently wrapping the stream up cleanly had been too much to hope for.
“No, it’s true! Naru probably dug a hole to hide it and then forgot where, and right then I happened to show up so she misunderstood that I stole it!”
“You guys just want to mess with me and see more of Naru, don’t you!”