Proof
"Hmm."
I gave the communities a quick glance, and sure enough — absolute chaos.
People were losing their minds. Calling it the incident of the century, asking if the author of Earth had gone insane, the whole nine yards. Every flavor of overreaction you could imagine was on full display.
I'd probably be doing the same thing in their shoes, but… yeah.
This was suddenly getting a little overwhelming. With Haon's clout in the mix, an absolute flood of people was going to pour in today.
"What happens if I shit the bed mid-game?"
"The vibe dies instantly."
"Yeah, fair."
"Hey, but is it actually true that you did all that? If you come clean right now, I can still try to cover for—"
"Shut it."
Overwhelming or not, I still had to prove myself. Haon might have been the one who blew things up, but I was the one who'd caused it in the first place.
"Hoo… Sis, should we go live now?"
"Let's go. Wait — why are you more nervous than me?"
"I dunno. First time streaming with family, maybe."
Excuse me? If you're nervous, what am I supposed to do? You're the big-shot streamer averaging five thousand viewers, Haon Lee. You're supposed to be leading this thing.
Ugh.
"Just hit me with those juicy reactions while we play. I'll handle the hosting."
"Oh, that I can do."
"Unreal."
Thankfully, this wasn't my first time playing host. If anything, I was used to it — I'd filled in as an MC on music shows more than a few times.
"Going live for real."
I hit the stream button.
And just like that, the viewer count started packing in—
Four-digit viewer count for the first time in my life. On top of that, the chat was scrolling so fast the messages were barely readable — pure, unhinged spam.
"……."
I'd expected it, but seeing it with my own eyes was a whole different feeling.
First things first — I needed to calm this rampaging chat down a bit.
"Ahem… ahem!"
I cleared my throat lightly.
"Could you guys settle down a little? I don't think I'll be able to get a word in like this."
I said it calmly. And just like that, the walls of spam flooding the chat started to thin out—
Chat was still flying by pretty fast, but it had calmed down enough. I felt like something similar had happened last time… eh. Not important. Moving on.
"First off, sorry about ending the stream so abruptly last time. I was so dumbfounded I just kind of… did that without thinking."
Apology first. Hobby stream or not, cutting the broadcast with zero explanation was clearly on me. That needed to be addressed.
Next up — the most important part of this whole thing. The explanation.
"And no, I don't have a boyfriend. I've never even dated anyone. My little brother here will vouch for that. Right, Haon?"
"Yes… Noona has never dated anyone."
"…I didn't scold him though? Haon, did I scold you?"
"Ah— no?"
I hadn't really scolded him, but the guy was sitting next to me looking every bit the cowed little brother. Honestly, this was preferable. Better than him accidentally blurting out something insane like, "Actually, Noona's an idol!"
Anyway.
Even after explaining, there were always people who just wouldn't believe it. People like that were never going to be convinced anyway…
"My brother here is putting his streaming account on the line saying it's not true."
Putting up serious collateral seemed like the right move.
"What? When did I say that!?"
"You will, won't you?"
"…Yes."
Haon's account was a safe asset either way. My goal was to become the strongest idol in this world, and until I achieved that, I had zero intention of dating anyone.
"Ah, and there's something else we need to clear up, right?"
Things had somehow drifted into this weird direction of certifying my romantic history. That wasn't the original plan. We were here to put the ghost-boyfriend-proxy suspicions to rest.
"We're hopping into a game right now. Just in case anyone wants to claim Haon's playing for me or whatever…"
I trailed off and glanced over at him.
"Haon, what's your rank?"
"Silver I."
"Trash— well, with a rank that low, nobody's gonna think that, right?"
"Noona, calling me trash is a little harsh, don't you think?"
"I didn't say trash. Slander. Defamation."
And with that, we queued up.
Knowing today had to be perfect, I was a little tense. After all, no matter how good your mechanics were, a 100% win rate in LoL was impossible. Even I'd forced some overaggressive dives on pure mechanical confidence and thrown games a few times.
The thought of making a mistake like that in front of this many people was a little terrifying.
But—
Taptaptaptaptap.
"Got him, right? Hehe."
My invincible TS body seemed to be enjoying the situation — it started demolishing lane from the very first moments.
"Hey hey, that's as far as you go."
She even hard-carried the teamfight on pure mechanics alone.
"I— penta penta penta! Kyaaaaaaah!"
And to top it all off, I closed out the game with a pentakill. I'd say that counted as a proper show-and-prove in front of several thousand people… mm-hmm.
"Whoa… Noona, you really are cracked as hell."
Haon was staring at me with his mouth hanging open. He'd said he'd work hard on the reactions, but he'd spent the whole time just watching.
Well, whatever. Carrying felt good either way.
I grinned wide and threw out a little celebration.
"Boc~chi. Hehe."
Chat was chanting my name in unison.
Thump.
Looking at that chat, my heart started pounding fast. It felt like it might be dangerous, and yet somehow… I didn't hate it.
If anything, it was addictive. I wanted to feel this again.
Ah, damn it. I can't get addicted. I have to quit streaming someday.
…That's what I was screaming on the inside, at least.
"Ahem ahem, that might not be enough proof, so shall we hop into the next game?"
My body was being honest.
Whatever. Future me could deal with the consequences.
Just as I was about to queue up again—
"Huh?"
I paused queuing at the sudden donation and looked over at Haon.
"You. Have you been bragging about me on stream?"
"Well… I mean, yeah, I have."
So he really had. What a good kid. Raising him since he was little had been worth it after all.
"Uh… um."
Haon glanced at me for a cue. His face was basically asking, Is it okay if I answer? I nodded, telling him to go ahead.
He scratched the back of his head for no reason, then finally opened his mouth.
"Pretty? Yeah, she's ridiculously pretty…"
Mm-hmm.
What a genuinely good kid.