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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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…The place where the high-end sports car stopped was next to a street food stall.
“…Do you really like tteokbokki? Yoo Si-hwa?”
I asked her in a worried tone.
“Do I look like someone who would ask you to buy me food I can’t even eat?”
Si-hwa answered bluntly.
In fact, I couldn’t help but be surprised.
That’s because in my previous life, the first time Si-hwa tried tteokbokki was when I begged and pleaded with her to try it.
[No. Seriously. Just close your eyes and try it once? I’m telling you it’s really delicious?]
Si-hwa shook her head.
[No. You eat it. That kind of cheap food isn’t good for the body.]
[…So are you saying I’m also cheap for eating this kind of food?]
I intentionally used a self-deprecating tone.
[…That’s not what I’m saying.]
[Sorry… For being such a cheap guy.]
Of course, I didn’t mean it at all.
Si-hwa obviously knew that too, but she seemed to dislike me continuing to talk like this, so she eventually gave in to me.
[Just this once.]
I thought it was the moment, so I put a lot of sauce on the rice cake and held it in front of her mouth.
[Ah~]
Si-hwa ate the tteokbokki as if she couldn’t resist.
She chewed with her small mouth for a while without saying anything.
I wondered if she might not like it… If I made her eat it for no reason… So I waited for her reaction with an anxious heart.
She definitely finished eating, but for some reason, she had a subtle expression and didn’t say anything.
[Choi In-wook.]
[Yeah?]
[You’re really bad.]
It seemed my plan to introduce her to delicious street food had failed.
[Sorry.]
[Sigh… If there was something like this, you should have told me earlier!]
As I was contemplating an apology and a way to appease her, I finally realized my plan had succeeded.
[How is it? It’s delicious, right? I was right, wasn’t I? You should have listened to me and eaten it when I told you to!]
She seemed to dislike me looking at her with a sense of pride, so Si-hwa slightly corrected her reaction.
[Hmm… Well… It’s not bad.]
…She had already put another rice cake in her mouth with her own hand, and there was red sauce on the corner of her mouth.
Cute. So cute. Si-hwa, who couldn’t be honest, was always cute.
Si-hwa was sipping the fish cake soup so naturally.
“Oh my~ The pretty student eats deliciously too~”
The auntie who owned the stall looked at Si-hwa with a satisfied gaze and said.
“Thank you.”
Si-hwa picked up the tteokbokki with a skewer even while answering.
“…If it’s not enough, I’ll order more, so eat slowly.”
I was dumbfounded by how deliciously she was eating.
“Yeah. You eat quickly too, Choi In-wook.”
“Okay.”
We ate tteokbokki like that, without much conversation, sweating profusely.
Before I knew it, the bowl only had red sauce left, revealing the bottom.
As I took out my wallet to pay, she stopped me.
“Huh? Aren’t you done eating?”
Si-hwa glared at me fiercely.
No. Why. You told me to pay.
“…Gimbap.”
“Huh?”
“…How can you say you’re done eating when you haven’t eaten gimbap?!”
Her words were filled with sincerity.
I couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity.
“Ah… Sorry.”
Si-hwa turned her head and spoke to the auntie.
“Two gimbap, please.”
The auntie laughed, saying we were cute, and added a vegetable tempura as a service.
Si-hwa, who dipped the sauce so much that the green color of the plate was visible, looked satisfied.
Si-hwa in this life was definitely a snack food master.
Does she like it even more than me?
“Type in the address, Choi In-wook.”
She opened the navigation screen and told me after returning to the car.
“Ah. You don’t have to go that far.”
“I brought the car anyway, so just type it in.”
Si-hwa cut off my words and put on her sunglasses again.
Not wanting to start an argument, especially after receiving a gift, I silently entered the address.
As I expected, it didn’t take very long.
There was no traffic, and it took about 20 minutes.
“Yeah. You can drop me off around here.”
Si-hwa parked the car in a quiet alley near my house.
“Thanks. I had fun today. You even bought me an expensive gift…”
Although she was the one who called me out, I was slightly moved by her thoughtfulness towards me.
She slightly lowered her sunglasses and looked at me intently.
“…Choi In-wook. I’m saying this because you seem to have some misunderstanding.”
“Yeah?”
I didn’t think I made any mistakes or misunderstood anything.
“Those clothes. They’re not free.”
…What?
Wasn’t this a gift?
“There’s no way I would buy such an expensive thing for free.”
…It made sense, but due to my memories from my previous life, I unconsciously thought she had just given it to me.
“Then… do I have to pay it back?”
The thought of having to come up with 5 million won all of a sudden made my head spin.
Si-hwa chuckled after seeing my visibly flustered expression.
“Yeah. You have to pay it back. With tteokbokki.”
With tteokbokki…?
“From now on, whenever I want to eat tteokbokki, you have to buy it for me. How about that?”
If it was just the price of tteokbokki, it wasn’t burdensome at all.
But how many times do I have to eat tteokbokki for it to reach 5 million won? Seriously.
“If you think of it as 5,000 won each time.”
Si-hwa seemed to have finished the calculation in her head.
“999 more times from now on.”
999 times…
If I think of it as eating once a week, it’s 999 weeks. 142 months. About 11 years…?
I thought even if I diligently ate tteokbokki within the 4 years given to me, 999 times would be far from enough.
“So. Choi In-wook.”
Si-hwa met my eyes.
“Come when I call you. Got it?”
“Got it.”
I had suddenly become Si-hwa’s tteokbokki shuttle.
Of course, once I started earning income, I planned to pay her back in a different way, not with tteokbokki.
The gift was too large to accept as a favor.
“Then. I’ll go in.”
“Yeah. See you at the academy.”
As I opened the door and got out, Si-hwa’s sports car took off with a loud engine sound.
Looking in the mirror after returning home, I thought again that these were really cool clothes.
“…Money is really good after all.”
There’s a saying that half of a luxury brand’s value is in its name, but nevertheless, when it reaches this level, the clothes themselves shine.
It felt like nobility was oozing out, not fitting for the house I was living in now.
I took off the clothes, neatly hung them on a hanger, lay on the bed, and thought of Si-hwa eating tteokbokki.
I wish she had eaten that well from the beginning in my previous life too.
That’s what I thought.
* * *
Monday came back around.
Perhaps because the semester had just started, the academy was putting a lot of effort into maximizing the delivery of information about monsters.
From the second year onwards, most of it would switch to practical training, but first-year students still had to receive thorough education for practice.
As expected, it was indescribably boring.
While blankly looking at the screen the teacher put up, I was personally trying to remember the dungeons I could apply for.
I wondered which one would be better, the Guryong Mountain dungeon I had looked at before or somewhere else…
Before I knew it, the last class ended and the bell rang.
I was about to go back and train as planned, but while going down the stairs, I thought I might stop by the club room.
It was only 4:30 anyway. There was no problem starting training after 7, and I had some time to spare.
I turned my steps and headed to the club room, wondering if there would even be anyone here.
And there were only two people.
The president, who I was starting to suspect lived here instead of going home, and Ye-na, who was drawing regardless.
“Ah… Hello?”
I greeted the president.
“Oh~ In-wook! Did you come to hang out too?”
Yes. Well. Something like that.
Ye-na seemed to be concentrating, not even sparing me a glance.
“I just wanted to get to know the seniors a bit more before going home. Haha.”
“Wow~ You didn’t expect no one to be here? You actually wanted to get close to me!”
…That’s not it.
“Since you’re here, this hyung will teach you a thing or two about monster drawing.”
Oh. So he’s not just a president for nothing.
Tae-su, who crawled out of the blanket, brought a canvas and a sketchbook from a corner and sat next to me.
“Now, the basics of monster drawing start with composition. It starts with setting the composition.”
…The president seemed to be seriously trying to give an art lesson.
I was just thinking of killing time and leaving…
Although I had no particular thoughts about drawing, I listened intently to his explanation for now.
“Now, from here.”
Bang!
Someone kicked our club room door with tremendous force and appeared.
The president and I, who were sitting in front of the canvas, and Ye-na, who was immersed in drawing, were startled and looked in that direction.
“Oh Tae-su! You bastard! I knew you’d be here!”
Judging by the informal speech, it was definitely a senior, but he seemed to be really angry.
“Wow. In-wook. I’m screwed. See you later!”
The president got up from his seat and tried to push him and run away, but it was no use.
The senior grabbed his collar and shouted at the president.
“You bastard! You send the presentation materials like that and you’re just sitting here?! Huh?!”
“Th… there were circumstances…”
“Don’t make me laugh! You know you can’t go anywhere until you make it properly!”
“Hieeeek!”
His voice was like a monster’s cry.
Just before being dragged away by the senior, the president shouted at Ye-na as if leaving his last words.
“Ye-na! Although I’m going like this, make sure to teach In-wook the basics! The greatness of monster drawing!”
“Shut up, you bastard. I’ll take this person away for a bit, so you juniors take care of your business.”
With those words, the president was taken away by the senior.
…In the club room after the storm had passed.
Ye-na spoke first.
“You. Do you know how to hold a pencil?”
It seemed Ye-na was going to listen to the president’s request.
I shook my head.
“Here. Look.”
She brought two pencils and showed me.
“This is how you hold it.”
“Like… this?”
I tried to imitate it, but it looked a bit awkward.
“No. That’s not it.”
I tried holding it in different ways, but it didn’t seem satisfactory to Ye-na’s eyes, so she frowned.
“Sigh…”
She let out a deep sigh and got up from her seat.
While I was struggling, changing the shape of my hand, Ye-na’s side profile suddenly entered my view.
Despite being startled by the sudden closeness, I couldn’t help but have my gaze stolen by Ye-na unconsciously.
Long eyelashes, a sharp nose, well-defined features. The impressive mole under her eye and Ye-na’s familiar scent that I could never forget…?
Huh? It wasn’t a fragrant smell that a girl would have, but this was…
The smell I could never forget and the smell I had been carrying around all day in my previous life.
The scent of nicotine.
Huh?
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