Uhh....

So how does this event work? I gave the girl the balloon and nothing happened afterward aside from the reward box, no quest to attack the statues or whatever? Was I supposed to do something different?

Also, I damaged the statue just fine with my regular attacks but my Rock Throw only did 0 damage without that statue-hunting quest; the current wording implies that they can't be damaged at all.

Quest is supposed to be short.

You either destroy his joke of a relationship and then go destroy sratues.

or say yes, deliver balloon and get the box. It's daily.

Is there a difference between doing the two?

Yes there is a difference. With the easy/short way, you get a box with one thing in side. That's siding for love and giving the girl the balloon. If you choose to break them up, you have to equip the balloon and then use rock throw on the statues. You can get what seems like between 3 and 7 items as a reward once you pop your balloon. While this isn't hard, it is more time consuming. You've got to hit the statue around 10 times (i never counted) and destroy 5 statues. If you didn't choose to break them up, you can't do damage with rock throw on the statues, and have no reason to waste your time attacking them.

• Be nice: Faster but only one reward.
• Be a douche: Slower but more rewards.

... Not liking the latter option... :/