Chapter 41: Serial Runaway Event (4)
Coming out of the motel, I looked around the nearby shops with Sansuyu.
“I was told to find something suspicious. But the problem is what to do.”
“Yeah.”
Sansuyu responded to my words with an expressionless face.
Her emotions weren’t visible, but she probably felt frustrated, too.
Originally, the most desperate time for a social newcomer was when they were ordered to find their own work.
It would be nice if tasks were clearly and concretely provided. Strangely, people wanted flexibility and initiative.
I had come to know this fact while helping with my uncle’s company work before college life.
So, how should this situation be resolved?
Based on experience, there are only two kinds of dispositions I can have.
If the client paid me a decent fee, becoming a slave and finding work until the client was satisfied was one way.
What if I didn’t receive a fee?
“Suyu.”
“Hm?”
“What do you want to eat?”
Well, what to say.
We were just playing around.
I decided to give Sansuyu a piece of heaven today.
Of course, I had to persuade her first.
Honestly, what could we find here? They probably anticipated that and separated us first.
When I talked in such a nuance, Sansuyu seemed to ponder and eventually nodded reluctantly.
The first place we visited was a chicken skewer restaurant.
It seemed like it was Sansuyu’s first time in a snack restaurant, radiating a warm aura as she carefully looked around the shop. Then, she picked the last item on the menu.
“I want this.”
“This is really spicy.”
“If it’s spicy, it’s good.”
Nuclear bomb flavor. She also had a rare taste.
I ordered the mild cheese flavor, and the shop owner handed over the cooked chicken skewers with a hearty laugh.
“Hehehe, the young one is very patient. Is she your girlfriend?”
“No, she’s just a friend.”
“Usually, friendship turns into a relationship.”
“Hahaha.”
I sneakily glanced at Sansuyu, and she just tilted her head without understanding the meaning of the words.
When we left the shop, Sansuyu quietly said,
“So, if it’s a relationship, it’s dating?”
“Right.”
“Does friendship usually turn into dating?”
“It might, or it might not.”
“…What does that mean?”
Relationships between people were unpredictable.
The cliché phrase ‘yesterday’s enemy is today’s friend’ found in boys’ comics was famous for a reason.
In fact, there weren’t many phrases that penetrated relationships as much as that one did.
Just look at Jin Dallae, the girl who hated me as if she wanted to kill me. Wasn’t she now sending texts every three hours regularly?
-KakaoTalk!
[Jin Dallae: I just finished training. How about you?]
Like this.
“Who is it?”
I tilted my phone to show the chat screen to Suyu.
“Jin Dallae.”
“You’re friends with Pink Scallop? Were you friends?”
“I’ve been friends since a while back.”
“……Really?”
Sansuyu bit into her chicken skewer. She mumbled to herself as she chewed.
“Then, I should be friends with her too.”
Having more friends was good. There was a lot to learn, and ambiguous emotions could be understood more clearly.
I proudly looked at Sansuyu. She looked back at me as if I was strange and licked the corner of her mouth. Yet, there was sauce on it.
I knew this would happen, so I took out a tissue I had prepared in advance and wiped off the sauce for her.
“……?”
“Stay still.”
Sansuyu frowned and stepped back but accepted the gesture, realizing it was an act of kindness.
As I pressed and wiped, I could feel the soft touch of her skin through the tissue.
Her face was without a single blemish.
Then suddenly, Sansuyu’s face crinkled up.
“… It’s spicy.”
Well, it was a nuclear bomb flavor, after all.
Sansuyu, shedding tiny tears, finished the chicken skewer on the spot.
“What flavor is that?”
Sansuyu, with her eyelids reddened, asked me with a sob.
I handed her a chicken skewer without thinking, and Sansuyu bit into it without a second thought.
The unique stretchy taste of cheese. It was strangely addictive.
“Ugh. Not bad.”
Sansuyu, sniffling, gave her approval. I handed her a tissue, and she coolly blew her nose.
As we walked a bit more, a familiar silhouette caught our eye.
Seeing the pure white hair, it was Baekdo. But today, she was in casual clothes.
““Hmm?””
We both spoke almost simultaneously.
Baekdo had three chicken skewers in her hand.
“What are you doing there, Master?”
“What about you? Not working?”
“What time is it now? It’s 2 o’clock. Has the master ever fed us adequately? So, we’re filling our stomachs. Are you not working and holding three chicken skewers?”
Hearing my words, Baekdo blushingly sneakily hid the plastic bag on her wrist. That plastic bag had ‘Sa Cheop Snack’ written on it.
“You talk like a dog. I just had a meal, too. Anyway, the work will all be done by a diligent elder.”
“Is that so?”
I sneakily checked the chicken skewer she was holding.
Cheese. Teriyaki. She had some taste.
She could have been a good gourmet friend if she didn’t have such a strange taste in uniform.
“You also chose cheese?”
“Yes.”
“…This brat knows the taste.”
Baekdo seemed to think the same.
“It’s about time to hand over the shift. If you have anything to say, say it now.”
“Shift?”
“It’s Hwangdo’s time today.”
“Aha. I have nothing to say. Does Hwangdo also work?”
“Right. Hwangdo has more magical talent. It’s right for her to do the exploration.”
Saying so, Baekdo went into the alley next to her. Soon, the sound of something bursting was heard, and Hwangdo, with a bright smile and a chicken skewer in her mouth, jumped out of the alley.
“Brother!!”
Hwangdo, who had already eaten half of the chicken skewer, spread her arms wide and ran to me when she saw me.
“Sister!”
I hugged her on the spot because I liked her energy. The tightly pressed chest felt quite good.
“Have you been well, brother?”
“It hasn’t been long since we last met.”
“I think I’d be sad if I didn’t see my brother even for a day!”
She spoke so sweetly. I tightened my arm around her. Hwangdo held tight, giggled, and whispered in my ear.
“…I even showed you my naked body.”
Startled!
I took a step back quickly. Hwangdo poked her cheek with her finger and tilted her head.
“Hehe.”
‘This tree. It’s mischievous.’
A very mischievous tree.
“I wish we could be together, but we can’t. I have a lot of work… Brother, we have to work together today. Is that okay?”
“Hey, of course, it’s fine.”
“Really?”
Hwangdo gave a bright smile and handed me a very sweet chicken skewer that kids love from the bag.
“Eat this! Hehe. It’s a gift from your sister.”
Laughing at his cute act and accepting the chicken skewer, smoke suddenly arose from Hwangdo’s body.
-Bang!
“What are you doing now?”
The hand holding the sweet-tasting chicken skewer stiffened like a log.
The majestic voice filled with vitality sent shivers down my spine.
“Cheondo?”
“Let go.”
Cheondo, who snatched the chicken skewer from my hand, was enjoying the visually sweet thing.
-Slurp.
Hehe. Cheondo was laughing. It was scary.
Eventually, Cheondo, who finished all the chicken skewers on the spot, silently handed the body back to Hwangdo.
“…I got scolded.”
The returned Hwangdo looked somehow miserable.
“If it’s Cheondo’s, you shouldn’t have given it.”
“I got scolded by brother, too. Sniff. Shall we go to work?”
Hwangdo, looking gloomy, conversed a few more words and then left the spot.
-Pat Pat.
Only then did Sansuyu pull at the hem of my clothes. For some reason, her previously dim eyes were shining.
“I want to try that this time.”
Did she find another restaurant in the meantime? Where Sansuyu’s fingertip pointed, there was a famous place for rose tteokbokki.
It was the moment signaling the beginning of the gourmet journey.
“-This time, that one.”
It seemed there was no end to Sansuyu’s appetite.
She started with tteokbokki and went on to eat spicy pork feet, chicken feet, and spicy pork cutlets. She even finished off with cheese tteokbokki flavored ice cream as dessert.
I subtly gave her a hint, asking how she could eat so much, and she responded with an absurd answer that if it was spicy, it all went in.
Ultimately, feeling like she couldn’t eat anymore, we used the excuse of cultural life to enter a movie theater.
Work? Well, we looked around the nearby alleys while eating, but there were no suspicious people in sight.
The movie showed the shining stories of youth.
It was a typical storyline where a boy and girl reconciled after a conflict through some event.
-Ah~
As a scene with a couple sharing food popped up, Sansuyu patted my shoulder.
“Suhon.”
“What?”
“That.”
“What about it?”
Sharing food was a common scene.
But Sansuyu must have had a different thought. She, with a somewhat shocked face, placed her hand on her mouth and spoke.
“Were we… lovers?”
“Huh?”
What was this girl suddenly talking about?
Thinking about her abrupt remark, I could roughly guess what was going on in Sansuyu’s mind.
Lovers fed each other.
We fed each other.
Therefore, we were lovers.
“How can you think of something so absurd?”
“…No?”
“Obviously not.”
Sansuyu nodded as if understanding. And then she muttered, seemingly justifying her action.
“This is a first for me…”
I got it. Because she was inexperienced, that was precisely why I brought her to the movie theater.
“Don’t usually watch movies?”
“…Yeah. I only trained at home.”
“Then watch diligently. Who knows? Things might get much better.”
“Get better?”
“Making more friends.”
In truth, I wanted to improve that dull emotion of hers.
Having more friends might increase the chances a bit.
Sansuyu glanced at the movie for a moment. There, groups of young men and women were enjoying their youth. Playing soccer, training together, or sharing hobbies. She couldn’t take her eyes off the movie for a while, her thoughts known only to her.
-Swish swish swish.
The movie ended, and the screen lifted.
Only then did Sansuyu turn to me and clutched my clothes.
“Siwun.”
“Why?”
“I don’t think I can do those things.”
Sansuyu, giving her sincere review, lowered her head dejectedly. Wrinkles formed in the empty popcorn container she was holding.
I said nothing.
Encouragement wouldn’t be late even after she realized her feelings.
“I’m still glad that Siwon is a friend.”
“Really?”
I giggled.
“It’s Shiheon, not Siwon.”
“…Siheon.”
This girl kept getting my name wrong until the end.
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