A Sunday That Ran Off the Clock
It was a languid Sunday afternoon in San Francisco.
Sunday afternoons were the hour when people everywhere, no matter their nationality, age, or gender, became at their most listless.
It was the first symptom of Monday syndrome—that creeping pressure that tomorrow meant school, or work, and there was no escaping it.
Most people would glue themselves to the couch, flip through TV channels, and sigh, “Ah, so this weekend’s over already.”
Clarence, an ordinary high school student, was no different.
“Haa…”
He was sunk deep into the living room sofa.
Not sitting, not lying down, but in a posture that was probably terrible for his spine, mindlessly jabbing at the remote.
— The running back keeps going!
— Forrest! He keeps running! He’s unbelievably fast!
— Touchdown!!!
— Amazing! So fast!
On TV, a replay of Saturday’s football game was playing.
Nothing to do.
As if by habit, Clarence pulled his Apple phone from his pocket.
Then he opened FreeChat with practiced fingers.
…Still no message today.
The profile photo pinned at the top of his friends list belonged to Jenny, the girl who went to the same school as him, his childhood friend, and his neighbor.
A girl with pale skin sprinkled with freckles and red hair that looked as if it might catch fire in sunlight.
Clarence was hopelessly in love with her.
He didn’t even know when it had started. He just knew that, somehow, at some point, he’d begun to like her.
He got messages from other friends, from other girls too, but Clarence cared only about Jenny.
[Me: What are you doing?]
He typed What are you doing? into the chat box, then deleted it a second later.
[Me: Bored. What about you?]
That wasn’t great either. It made him sound like some guy with absolutely nothing going on.
I don’t even know what I’m supposed to say.
If he suddenly messaged her out of nowhere, it would make his feelings for Jenny way too obvious.
Not long ago, advice from a cousin who claimed to be a dating expert had lodged itself in his brain.
— Hey, girls don’t like guys who show too obviously that they’re into them.
— R-really?
— Of course! Men have to be mysterious. Cool. Detached!
— Detached, mysterious… noted.
— Yeah! You’ve got to act a little indifferent, a little chic. Girls are drawn to guys like that.
It had come from a relative who, by his own account, had dated plenty of girls and knew what he was talking about.
So Clarence had no idea whether the advice was right or wrong, but for a shy kid like him, it was the perfect excuse.
And so, once again, Clarence maintained his “indifferent” act while staring holes into Jenny’s profile picture.
He kept opening and closing her profile, then opening it again, over and over, until it must have been dozens of times.
Bzzzt.
A brief vibration shivered in his hand.
A blue notification banner appeared at the bottom of the screen.
[A message has arrived from Jenny.]
“W-what…?!”
Clarence jerked so hard he nearly dropped the Apple phone on his face.
Sh-she contacted me first?
Before he even had time to check what it said, his heart was pounding harder than it ever did in an actual football game.
His trembling finger tapped the notification.
[Jenny: Jenny has invited you to Crazy Bird!]
[Jenny: If you accept, both of you will receive eggs for another 5 rounds!]
“……”
What the hell was this?
Crazy Bird?
It looked like some new kind of spam ad.
But the sender was definitely Jenny. The profile picture, the name—it was unmistakably her.
…She wants me to play a game?
A little deflated, he’d been expecting something ordinary—What are you doing?, or Have you finished your homework?—not a game invitation.
But Clarence quickly changed his mind.
No, this is even better. This is my chance.
He had an excuse to talk to her naturally, didn’t he?
He could use this as a way to start a conversation.
[Me: Jenny, what is this? Crazy Bird?]
Even sending that FreeChat message took him several drafts.
But Jenny replied in less than a minute.
[Jenny: Ah! Clarence! Sorryㅠㅠ I surprised you by sending it so suddenly, didn’t I?]
[Jenny: Crazy Bird is this game that just came out today, and it’s seriously so much fun! But I’m really bad at games… I ended up using all 100 rounds they give you in a day.]
[Jenny: If I invite a friend who hasn’t downloaded it yet, they say I get 5 more eggs… so could you help me out? haha]
Clarence tilted his head.
They give you 100 free rounds a day, and she used them all?
And it was only 2 p.m.?
Had she been glued to this game since morning?
I didn’t know Jenny played games… how fun is it, exactly?
At the same time, he felt a little sad.
Jenny had contacted him only to get more “game attempts.”
Still, it was Jenny asking.
If the girl he liked needed something, there was no reason he couldn’t help.
[Clarence: Oh, really? I just download it?]
[Jenny: Yep! Just tap the link and download it! It’s seriously fun, so you have to try it too!]
It was a thoroughly ordinary conversation… perhaps even a businesslike one.
“Sigh…”
Clarence gave a bitter smile and hit the download button.
If he could at least score a few points with this, that would be enough.
And then.
His phone buzzed again.
[Jenny: Oh, right, Clarence.]
[Jenny: If you’re going to play, do you want to come to my house and do it together?]
“……Huh?”
Clarence let out a dazed sound aloud.
[Jenny: I’m alone right now. Mom and Dad went to visit relatives, so they’re not home!]
The moment he read that sentence, Clarence shot up from the sofa like a coiled spring.
“Y-you’re alone at home… and you want me to come over now?”
An empty house with no parents around.
The two of them alone.
For a teenage boy, this was an offer impossible to refuse.
Thump-thump!
His heart started hammering like a machine gun.
All kinds of rosy, pink, ridiculous fantasies bloomed in his head like a cloud of cotton candy.
This is… let’s go!
Clarence typed with trembling fingers.
He made typos three times and deleted them each time before trying again.
[Me: I’ll get ready and be right over!]
The instant he sent it, he ran to the bathroom.
He washed up at the speed of light and sprayed Febreze all over himself.
Chk! Chk!
Then, before leaving the house, he stood in the entryway mirror and took a deep breath.
“Hoo, hoo. Calm down, Clarence. You’re a cool guy. Football captain, Clarence. That’s who you are. Mysterious, mysterious, mysterious!”
He brainwashed himself into believing it.
Then Clarence left the house.
He headed next door.
It was a route he always took, but today it felt completely different.
Standing before the front door, he pressed the doorbell with a trembling hand.
Ding-dong~.
A moment later, the door opened.
“Wow! You got here fast!”
Jenny stood behind the door, her red hair tied back neatly.
She was dressed comfortably in shorts and a T-shirt, as if she were just at home. Her freckled white face was lit by a bright, carefree smile.
The moment he saw it, Clarence’s mind went blank.
She’s so pretty.
“Uh… y-yeah. I had nothing else to do.”
He tried to sound as casual as possible, but his voice nearly cracked anyway.
“Come in! Let’s go to my room.”
“Y-your room?”
“Yeah. I’ve got two chargers, so we can charge your Apple phone and play at the same time!”
Jenny gestured for him to follow and led the way.
At the words let’s go to my room, Clarence’s legs nearly buckled. He followed behind her with the stiff, jerky movements of a robot.
Jenny’s room had a faint lavender scent.
It was a typical girl’s room, with a bed, a desk, and a fluffy-looking rug spread on the floor.
…I feel like I’ve walked into a place I shouldn’t be allowed to enter.
Clarence didn’t know where to look, so he just stared into empty space.
“Sit here.”
Jenny patted the rug on the floor beside her bed.
Clarence sat down beside her, stiff and awkward. Their shoulders were just barely close enough to touch.
He was terrified she might hear his heart beating like crazy.
“Did you download Crazy Bird?”
“Y-yeah. Earlier.”
“Good! If you log in with your FreeChat ID, you can start right away.”
“O-okay. Got it.”
In front of other boys, Clarence was good enough to be called a top dog. But in front of Jenny, he somehow turned into a harmless lamb.
He took out his Apple phone and tapped the Crazy Bird icon.
— Chirp chirp
— Piyooooong!
— Kyokyokyokyokyokyo!
A loading screen appeared with cheerful sound effects.
A red bird with a face full of rage glared back at him.
“How do I do this?”
“Ah, look. I’ll show you.”
Jenny leaned over to look at Clarence’s phone screen.
Her red hair brushed his cheek, and the scent of good shampoo rushed over him.
Clarence held his breath.
“See the slingshot here? You grab this red bird with your finger and pull it back.”
“L-like this?”
“Yeah, exactly. And then you adjust the angle… see those green pigs over there? You’re supposed to hit them. You can also knock down the wooden planks.”
Jenny’s finger pointed at the screen.
But Clarence honestly wasn’t seeing the game at all.
This situation—the two of them alone together—was the only thing that mattered.
I’m supposed to act like I’m playing… and talk naturally at the same time…
“Okay, fire! Now!”
“Huh? O-okay!”
At Jenny’s urging, Clarence let go of the bird in a panic.
Whoosh—!
With the snap of a rubber band, the red bird flew in a neat parabola.
Thwack! Crash-rumble~.
[Gyaaah!]
The bird struck the bottom of a wooden pillar dead on.
The planks collapsed like dominoes, and the green pigs on top tumbled to the floor.
[Amazing!]
[Stage Clear!]
“Wow! Clarence, you’re seriously good for your first time!”
Jenny clapped and cheered.
At that single compliment, Clarence’s shoulders lifted in pleased pride.
“Huh? R-really? It’s nothing special.”
Praise could make a whale dance, and it could make a boy in love dance too.
But even beyond that, the game itself had a strangely exhilarating feel.
The thrill of watching wood collapse with a massive crash. The grotesque yet satisfying sound of the pigs exploding.
“Try the next one too! Hurry!”
“Sure.”
Clarence started the second stage.
This one mixed stone and wood.
Higher angle this time…
Pyiiing~.
Plunk.
The bird missed and dropped to the ground.
— Puhahahahah!
— Oink!
A green pig laughed mockingly at him.
“……Huh?”
Clarence’s brows twitched.
It was bad enough that he’d made a mistake in front of the girl he liked… but now it was laughing at him?
“……Again.”
Clarence pulled back the slingshot once more, this time more carefully.
Pyiiing— thwack!
Crash! Boom!
“Nice!”
Clarence clenched his fist.
Jenny gasped beside him, “Ooh!” Her eyes were on him with what looked almost like admiration.
That feeling.
Not bad at all. No, it was incredible.
Competitiveness, and somehow, a sense of accomplishment too.
“Next! Next stage!”
As if possessed, Clarence hit the “next” button.
Jenny’s shampoo scent, the warmth of her shoulder against his, both faded little by little.
At some point, romance with Jenny had become an afterthought.
All he could see now were the red bird and the green villain pigs.
And how much time had passed like that?
“Hahahaha! Clarence, I told you not to overdo it—why are you making it so hard on yourself?”
“I mean… if you want a higher score, it’s better to use as few birds as possible.”
“Even so!”
Jenny’s laughing voice sounded beside him.
That was when it happened.
[You are out of eggs!]
[Invite friends through FreeChat, or wait 10 minutes.]
[Or watch an ad to receive 1 egg!]
“……Huh?”
When he looked out the window, the sun had already set, and darkness was gathering outside.
Only the lamp was on in the room.
He’d come over at 2 p.m., and now the clock hands pointed to 7 p.m.
A full five hours had been deleted.
“……I used up all the eggs.”
All 100.
No, counting the bonus eggs they’d both received after he accepted Jenny’s invite, it was 105 in total.
He had used every single one.
Dammit…
Clarence clutched his head.
Instead of creating a romantic mood with Jenny, he had spent the whole time wrestling with the game until the sun went down.
I didn’t even really talk to Jenny…
Bzzzt.
Then Jenny’s phone vibrated.
“Oh? It’s Dad. …Yeah, Dad. Huh, really? Yep! I want that. Okay!”
After talking to her father, Jenny looked over at Clarence and smiled.
“Dad says he’ll be home soon. He says we’re having pizza for dinner.”
“Ah…”
Clarence snapped back to his senses.
If Jenny’s father was coming home, he couldn’t stay in the empty house any longer.
…Jenny’s dad is seriously scary.
He was a former soldier who had even served overseas.
Clarence genuinely respected him, but because he was the dad of the girl he liked, that only made him more intimidating.
“Then I guess I should get going.”
“Yeah. That’s too bad. This was really fun.”
And so Clarence left Jenny’s room and headed for the front door.
On the way back to his own house, Clarence bit his lip hard.
Idiot… you blew your chance to be alone with the girl you like just because you wanted to play a game.
He couldn’t believe he had gone all the way to the end without having a single proper conversation and spent the whole time shooting birds with a slingshot on screen.
I really am hopeless. To waste an opportunity like that…
“No, it’s the company that made this game’s fault. Bastards… no matter how fun it is, as if I’d ever play this again.”
Another Technology, was it? He’d curse them for this.
As he trudged home, chewing himself out, someone called from next door.
“Clarence!”
From the neighboring house, Jenny was calling to him through the window of her second-floor room.
“The eggs recharge after a while, you know? Or you can fill them up instantly by watching ad videos and stuff!”
“Oh. Yeah. I think that’s how it works.”
“Yep! So go home, let your eggs recharge, and tonight let’s chat on FreeChat and play together!”
“……!”
“It’d be more fun if we played while talking about what stage we’ve reached, or giving each other tips and strategies. What do you think?”
At that invitation, Clarence nodded furiously.
It wasn’t just that they’d play a game together.
He now had a reason to talk to her all night on FreeChat.
“Okay! I’ll definitely do it! I’ll log in right after dinner!”
“Pfft, okay. I’ll wait for your message.”
Jenny waved and went back inside, closing the window.
Clarence’s steps felt as light as if he were walking on clouds.
Clench.
He gripped his Apple phone tightly, as if it were a lifeline.
The icon inside that little machine—the one with the red bird on it.
That game had become the Cupid tying him and Jenny together.
The company that made Crazy Bird… and the developer!
Looking up at the night sky, Clarence shouted inwardly.
Thank you so much! I’m going to play a lot!
Long live Another Technology! Bless them!
In a blink, Clarence had flipped sides.
As expected, youth was like a reed: not so easy to break, but easy to sway.
Monday morning, Republic of Korea.
The office of the Head of Seongsam Electronics’ Future Innovation Office.
No matter how exhausting a Monday morning might be, the atmosphere in this office was far too heavy.
“……”
“……”
Inside were only Director Kim Hyeoncheol and Executive Vice President Seo Heeun, the marketing executive.
Seo Heeun, who was usually so confident, had her head bowed like a criminal, chewing anxiously on her lip.
“……You called me in because of Crazy Bird, didn’t you?”
She forced the words out.
Hoo…
Instead of answering, Kim Hyeoncheol let out a deep sigh. At that sound, Seo Heeun’s shoulders flinched.
“I’m sorry, Director. I never dreamed the game would do this well… 4.67 million downloads over the weekend…”
4.67 million downloads.
And not from a free app, either. It was a paid app that cost $1.99.
By simple calculation alone, the revenue was approaching $10 million—more than 13 billion won.
In just two days over the weekend.
What hurt even more than the money, from Seongsam Electronics’ point of view, was the impact.
The whole world was going wild over a ridiculous game about firing a slingshot bird to smash villainous pigs.
In effect, Seongsam Electronics had kicked away the very “killer content” it had wanted so badly.
Seo Heeun shut her eyes tightly.
She had expected Kim Hyeoncheol to rain down ruthless criticism.
A written apology… no, maybe even resignation.
But unlike what she feared, Kim Hyeoncheol only looked at her calmly.
“Executive Vice President Seo. I didn’t call you in to talk about that.”
“……Pardon?”
Seo Heeun looked up in surprise.
Kim Hyeoncheol’s expression was composed. If anything, it looked almost indifferent.
“The water’s already been spilled, so I called you in to make sure you don’t needlessly burden yourself or shrink back because of it.”
“……?”
“You’re not the sort of person who needs me to tell you we made a major mistake. So there’s no point in me getting angry, is there?”
“Uh…”
“So focus only on the Galleon marketing that starts next week.”
“B-but… this time I made the wrong judgment…”
“The final approval authority was mine.”
Kim Hyeoncheol cut her off cleanly.
“I had full authority over this project in any case, and it was ultimately my approval that held back and rejected the Crazy Bird proposal.”
“……”
“That’s all I called you in for. You should go back now. The ad launch is right around the corner, after all.”
Kim Hyeoncheol smiled. But the smile was clearly heavy and forced, and Seo Heeun could tell.
Trying to swallow the strange lump rising in her throat, Seo Heeun bowed deeply.
“……I’ll keep that in mind. I’m truly sorry, and truly grateful.”
“Yes.”
It was rare for her to bow this deeply at work.
Click.
The door closed, and Seo Heeun left. Only then did the smile vanish from Kim Hyeoncheol’s face.
“Hoo… I’m going to lose my mind.”
He leaned back in his chair and scrubbed a hand over his face.
He had blocked the blame from reaching his subordinate, but he was different. He had no shield.
The report has already gone up.
Crazy Bird’s record-breaking numbers had already been reported to Vice Chairman Lee Jaeyoung over the weekend.
And this morning, a call had come from Vice Chairman Lee Jaeyoung: Let’s have a cup of coffee.
“Coffee” sounded pleasant enough, but it was obviously nothing more than a dressing-down in disguise.
Kim Hyeoncheol stared blankly at the meeting materials on his desk.
If I get fired right now, I’d have no defense.
Nearly five million downloads.
That was a number impossible to achieve even if you poured hundreds of millions of won into marketing.
And yet he had kicked away a game that had reached it without a single marketing push, simply because it “didn’t fit the brand image”… If the shareholders found out, they’d be screaming for a breach of fiduciary duty lawsuit.
But he couldn’t back down like this.
I need to ask for a chance.
Kim Hyeoncheol’s eyes sharpened.
A chance to make up for my mistake. I’ll speak directly with Another Technology and, even if I have to bend and compromise… I’ll make sure we bring in an app that fits our strategy.
The project’s fate, and the responsibility for it, aside.
More than anything, Kim Hyeoncheol was ashamed of himself for making such a massive mistake.
But if… the vice chairman doesn’t give me that chance.
Swish.
Kim Hyeoncheol reached into the inside pocket of his suit jacket.
Inside was a resignation letter he had prepared in advance.
“……I’ll have no choice but to take responsibility and leave.”
With a grim expression, he rose from his seat.
He checked himself in the mirror, straightened his clothes, and stepped out of the office.
His footsteps were heading toward the vice chairman’s office on Seongsam Electronics’ top floor.
“Let’s go, Assistant An.”
“Yes, Director.”
Secretary Anna-hui followed behind him with a tense expression.