#16. 999 In the future.
…The expensive sports car stopped next to a street food stall.
“…Do you really like tteokbokki? Yoo Shi-hwa?”
I asked her in her worried tone.
“Then do you look like someone who asks you to buy food that I can’t even eat?”
Shihwa answered bluntly.
Actually, I couldn’t help but be embarrassed.
That’s probably because the first time Sihwa of a previous life ate tteokbokki, I ate it because I begged to eat it.
[No. Really. Why don’t you just close your eyes and eat once? Is it really delicious?]
Sihwa shook her head.
[No. Eat you Such cheap food is not good for the body.]
[…Then you’re saying that I’m cheap, too, who eats these kinds of food?]
She deliberately used a disparaging language.
[…It’s not like that.]
[Sorry… Because he’s such a cheap guy.]
Of course, they were just sayings that did not contain any sincerity.
Sihwa of course knew that, but she didn’t want me to keep talking like this, so she lost to me in the end.
[This is the only time.]
I wanted to do it now, so I put a lot of sauce on her rice cake and gave it to her mouth as a colonel.
[Ah~]
Sihwa pretended not to win and ate her tteokbokki in her mouth.
It was a poem that kept her small mouth filthy for a moment without saying a word.
Do you want to hate it…? Did you just eat…? I wanted to wait for her reaction with her nervous heart.
She obviously ate it all, but for some reason she had a subtle expression on her face and didn’t say anything.
[Choi Inwook.]
[Huh?]
[You are really bad.]
My plan to tell you about delicious street food seems to have failed.
[Sorry.]
[Ha… If there was such a thing until now, I should have told you in advance!]
I was thinking of an apology and a way to break her heart, but then I realized that my plan had worked.
[How are you? Is it delicious? Am I right? When I ask you to eat some of that, eat it!]
It seems that she didn’t like looking at her because she was filled with pride, so Sihwa slightly corrected her reaction.
[Um… Well… Not bad.]
… She had already put one more of her rice cakes in her mouth with her own hands, and her lips were covered in red sauce.
It’s cute. Cute. Sihwa, who was not honest, was always cute.
It was Sihwa drinking oden broth very naturally.
“Uh-huh, what a pretty student eats is also delicious~”
The owner aunt looked at her poems with happy eyes and spoke.
“Thank you.”
While Sihwa was answering, she constantly picked up tteokbokki with a toothpick.
“…If it’s not enough, I’ll give you more. Eat slowly.”
I was stunned at the sight of her eating so deliciously.
“Yes. You eat it too Choi In-wook.”
“Okay.”
We ate tteokbokki while sweating without even talking like that.
All of a sudden, only the red sauce remained in the bowl, revealing the bottom.
She pulled me out of her wallet trying to pay her, and she stopped me.
“Huh? Haven’t you eaten it all?”
Sihwa looked at me with fierce eyes.
From n̲o̲b̲l̲e̲m̲t̲l̲.̲c̲o̲m̲
No. Why. You told me to count“…Kim Mali.”
“Huh?”
“…I haven’t eaten seaweed, how can I say that I ate it all!”
The sincerity of her words came out.
I laughed out loud because it was ridiculous.
“Ah… sorry.”
Shihwa turned her head and spoke to the aunt.
“Two seaweed rolls. Please.”
The aunt laughed like we were cute, and as a service, she put a fried vegetable on top as well.
Sihwa, who had enough sauce to show the blue color of the plate, had a satisfied face.
It was clear that the poetic painting of this life was the master of snacking.
You seem to like me more than I do?
“Put the address. Choi In-wook.”
Returning to her car, she opened the navigation window to me and talked.
“Oh. It’s okay if you don’t even have to do that.”
“I brought the car anyway, so just take a picture.”
Sihwa stopped talking and put on my sunglasses again.
I should have received a present. I did not want to cause a quarrel, so I entered the address without saying anything.
It also didn’t take as long as I expected.
There was no traffic jam and it took about 20 minutes.
“Yes. I think you can set it up here.”
Sihwa parked the car in a quiet alley near my house.
“Thank you. Today was fun. I even bought you an overpriced gift…”
It was true that she called me, but I was slightly moved by her heart that cared about me.
She lowered her sunglasses and looked at me intently.
“… Choi In-wook. I’m telling you because I think I’m misunderstanding something.”
“Huh?”
I don’t think I made any mistakes or misunderstood.
“The clothes. It’s not free.”
…Yes?
Isn’t this a gift?
“There is no way you can buy that expensive thing for free.”
… It was a common sense story, but because of the memories of her previous life, I thought involuntarily that she just did it for me.
“The… then… do I have to pay it back?”
My head was spinning at the thought of suddenly having to raise 5 million won.
When Sihwa saw my expression of embarrassment, I smiled.
“Yes. Have to pay With Tteokbokki.”
With tteokbokki…?
“From now on, whenever I want to eat tteokbokki, you will buy it. What do you think?”
It was not a burden at all for the amount of tteokbokki.
But how many times do you have to eat tteokbokki to make 5 million won? Why.
“If you think of it as 5000 won at a time.”
The poem seemed to have been calculated in my head.
“The next 999.”
It’s number 999…
If you eat once a week, 999 weeks. 142 Months. 11 Years or so?
Even if I ate tteokbokki in the four years I was given, I thought that 999 times was not enough.
“So. Choi In-wook.”
Sihwa came out and made eye contact.
“Come out when called. Got it?”
“Okay.”
It was me who suddenly became Sihwa’s tteokbokki shuttle.
Of course, if there is income, of course, at that time, I was thinking of paying it back in a way other than tteokbokki.
It was a gift that was too large to receive as a favor.
“Then. I will go in.”
“Yes. See you at the academy.”
When I opened the door, Sihwa’s sports car started with a loud engine sound.
When I returned home and looked in the mirror, I thought it was a really cool outfit.
“…The money is good too.”
A luxury item is half the price of its name. Although there is a saying, nevertheless, at this level, even the clothes themselves were shiny.
There was a feeling of being a gwiti that was not suitable for the house I live in now.
I took off my clothes and hung them neatly on a hanger, thinking of Sihwa lying in bed and eating tteokbokki.
It would be nice if I ate well from the beginning in my previous life.
I was like that.
* *
Monday is back.
It seems that the academy has not yet started the semester, so it seems that it is giving strength to convey information about the monster as much as possible.
From the second year onwards, most of them are converted to practice, but the first graders still had to receive thorough education for practice.
As expected, there was nothing more to say.
Looking blankly at the screen that the teacher had brought up, I was tracing the memories of the dungeons that I could personally apply for.
Where do you want to go with the Guryongsan dungeon I saw before…
The last class was over and the bell rang.
I was thinking of going back and training as planned, but as I was going down the stairs, I thought of entering a club room.
It’s still 4:30 anyway. There was no problem at all if I started training after 7 o’clock, so the time was slightly off.
I turned and headed to the club room, I opened the door thinking that there might be people here.
And there were only two people.
This person didn’t go home, but Jena was painting with the manager, who was slowly doubting whether he was leaving here or not.
“Ah… how are you?”
I greeted the manager.
“Uh, Inuk-ah! Did you come to play too?”
Yes. What. It’s similar though.
Jenna didn’t give me a single glance to see if she was concentrating.
“Before I go home, I also want to get to know the seniors a little more. Haha.”
“Hey, didn’t you roughly expect that there would be no one? You really wanted to get to know me!”
…That’s not it.
“With all that, Lee hyung will teach you even a monster version.”
Oh. But does that mean he’s not just a manager?
Taesu crawled out of the blanket and sat down next to me with a canvas and a croquis book stuck in a corner.
“Come on. The basics of monsterization are composition. I mean, it started with figuring out the composition.”
…It was the manager who was going to take an art class in earnest.
I was just going to kill time…
I didn’t really think much about painting, but I listened intently to his explanation.
“Come on. Now here.”
Bang!
Someone came out kicking our broken door with great force.
Me and the manager sitting in front of the canvas. Jena, who was absorbed in her painting, looked at her in surprise.
“Oh Tae-soo! You bastard! I thought you were here!”
Looking at her half-talking, it was clear that she was a senior, but she seemed to be very angry.
“Wow. Inwook-ah. Cooked See you later!”
The manager, who got up from his seat, pushed him away and tried to run away, but there was no way.
The senior, holding his neck, shouted at the head of the whale whale.
“You man! Are you killing yourself here after sending out presentation materials like that? Ok!”
“Everything… for some reason…”
“Don’t be ridiculous! You can’t go anywhere until you make it right!”
“Hey hey!”
It was his voice, like the cry of a monster.
Before leaving because I was dragged by seniors. The manager shouted at Jena as if leaving a will.
“Yena! Even though i go like this Be sure to teach Inwook the basics of becoming a monster! Let me show you how great it is!”
“It’s noisy, you bastard. I’m going to take this person with me. I want my juniors to see it too.”
After those words, the manager was taken to the hands of the senior.
…In the same bankruptcy after a storm swept through.
Jena opened her mouth first.
“You. Do you know how to hold a pencil?”
It must have been Jena who was going to do the manager’s request.
I shook my head.
“Come on. Look.”
Jenna comes with two pencils and shows me a demonstration.
“I’m holding it like this.”
“This… like this?”
I think I was mimicking something similar, but it was my posture that looked a little awkward.
“No. Not that.”
I clenched it back and forth again, but she frowned, not satisfied with Jena’s eyes.
“Ha…”
She took a deep breath and got up from her seat.
When I was moaning while changing the shape of her hands here and there, Jena’s profile suddenly came into my view.
Even in the midst of embarrassment at the sudden proximity to the street, I had no choice but to unconsciously lose her gaze to Jena.
Long eyelashes, a straight nose, and straight features. The impressive dots under the eyes and the familiar scent of Jena that I will never forget…Gi?
Huh? It’s not the sweet smell you’d get for a girl, it’s…
The smell that I will never forget, and the smell that I used to wear all day in my previous life.
It was the scent of nicotine.
Huh?