chapter_0586

586 – Pakkong

586 – Pakkong

Winter and the children were able to pick up five empty bottles during their walk.

Although it was an absurd amount to buy snacks, Winter decided to add more money and buy snacks with the children.

“Hey, what snacks should we get?”

“Hmm…”

What would be good to eat?

While the children were pondering, Haneul raised her hand.

“How about we buy something that Gaeul wants this time? She worked really hard picking up empty bottles among us.”

“That’s right. Gaeul was running around a lot.”

Bomi agreed with Haneul’s suggestion.

It was decided that today’s snack would be chosen by Gaeul.

“Gaeul, then why don’t you buy the snack you want? We’ll prepare for the snack party in the break room.”

“Okay…!”

Gaeul, with the empty bottles and her allowance, ran towards the convenience store.

Just as she was about to enter the store, she turned her body towards a delicious smell wafting from nearby.

Crunch, crunch—

Someone sitting on a mat in the park was eating snacks.

It was just ordinary popcorn, but Gaeul didn’t know the name of it.

“……”

She had eaten it before, but couldn’t remember its name.

Gaeul looked at the woman eating popcorn on the mat.

“Is it good?”

“Um… this is popcorn, do you want some?”

“Okay…!”

Gaeul stuck out her tongue.

The woman, watching her, placed a piece of popcorn on Gaeul’s tongue.

Pop—

The popcorn went into Gaeul’s mouth along with her tongue.

Crunch, crunch— Gaeul munched on the popcorn, and the woman smiled warmly.

“I want to raise a child too.”

“Me too.”

Gaeul ate the popcorn under the gaze of the people around her.

It was so delicious, savory and salty.

Today’s snack would definitely be popcorn.

Having made her decision, Gaeul stood up.

“I’m going.”

“Huh? Already going to the store? Aren’t you going to eat more popcorn?”

“No. I’m going to buy it myself.”

Gaeul announced that she would buy the popcorn herself and ran towards the convenience store.

Not knowing where to find popcorn, she tugged at the sleeve of an employee who was organizing the shelves.

“Popcorn, please.”

“Pop… popcorn?”

“Yes.”

With the help of the employee, Gaeul bought popcorn.

There were as many as five pieces in one bag.

As Gaeul was returning to the guild with the popcorn she bought, she suddenly felt something was off.

The popcorn she had eaten earlier was very large, but the five pieces she had just bought were too small.

“Huh?”

Feeling puzzled, Gaeul opened the popcorn packaging.

What she saw inside made her freeze in place.

There should have been white, fluffy snacks, but all that was in the paper bag were yellow corn kernels.

“Not popcorn!”

They gave me something else!

Surprised, Gaeul returned to the convenience store.

“Is it good?!”

Gaeul stomped her feet towards the employee who was organizing the shelves.

She made an X with her hands to indicate that she had been given the wrong item.

“Huh? Wasn’t that what you wanted?”

“No… I wanted popcorn…”

Gaeul, hoping for an exchange, instinctively sensed that asking to change something she had already opened might be a bad thing.

“…No. It’s okay.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

Goodbye.

Gaeul waved her hand to the convenience store employee and stepped back outside.

She had failed her important mission of buying snacks.

She felt too guilty to face her family.

**

We prepared for the snack party in the guild’s break room.

We decided to eat the snacks that were already there as well.

“Let’s put one chocolate on the table too.”

“Okay.”

Saebyeok placed chocolates one by one on the table.

Then I realized I had called the chocolate “choco.”

Did the children’s way of speaking rub off on me?

I tilted my head and looked at the other kids.

Gaeul, who had gone to buy snacks, still hadn’t returned.

“Hey, has Gaeul not come back yet?”

“Yeah! Not yet!”

“What’s going on? Should I go check on Gaeul? Can you wait a moment?”

“Yeah! Hurry back!”

“See you soon…!”

I set out to find Gaeul, receiving the children’s greetings.

Gaeul was sitting on a park bench looking gloomy.

“Ugh.”

With her ears and tail drooping, she banged her fists on the bench in frustration.

Then she made a gloomy expression again.

“Gaeul.”

“Okay…”

“Gaeul, why are you sitting here and not coming back?”

“I couldn’t get it… I couldn’t get it…”

“No snacks?”

“No… I couldn’t get it…”

Gaeul showed me the bag she was holding.

It was a bag of popcorn that looked delicious.

“Gaeul, that’s popcorn. You bought it well, so why?”

“Is it not good?”

“Huh? That is popcorn, right?”

“Huh?”

Gaeul, looking confused, shook the popcorn bag.

Then she put a corn kernel, before it became popcorn, into her mouth.

Crunch—

Gaeul, chewing on the hard corn kernel, suddenly stopped.

Spitting out the hard corn kernel, Gaeul shook her head quickly at me.

“No, it’s not popcorn.”

“Um… Gaeul, you can’t eat it like this; you have to make it into popcorn.”

“Make it?”

“Yes. There’s a way to do it.”

I took Gaeul’s hand and returned to the guild’s break room.

To cheer up gloomy Gaeul, I showed the popcorn to the other kids.

“Hey, Gaeul brought popcorn!”

“Oh, I love popcorn.”

“Levinas too!”

“……!”

The kids were excited to see the hard corn.

Thanks to that, Gaeul’s tail began to wag happily.

“Gaeul, I’ll use magic to turn this into popcorn.”

“Okay…!”

I put the popcorn in the break room microwave.

Then I set the time according to the instructions to pop the popcorn.

Whirring—

The popcorn bag spun around.

Gaeul was glued to the microwave, watching the popcorn spin.

“Now, a popping magic will happen inside.”

“Popping?”

“Yes. When it pops, the hard corn will become soft?”

Boom!

Just as I was spreading my arms wide to imitate an explosion, it happened.

Pop! Pop! Boom!

The sounds of popping came from the microwave, and the bag began to puff up little by little.

“Huh?!”

Pop! Boom!

Every time the popcorn popped, Gaeul’s ears twitched.

For Gaeul, who didn’t know much about the world, making popcorn was an exciting event.

“How is it? Isn’t it amazing?”

“Yes!”

Whirring—

As the microwave finished, Gaeul hurriedly opened the microwave door.

Sniff, sniff—

The delicious smell drew all the kids in.

“Popcorn!”

“It smells so good.”

While the kids were smelling the popcorn, they only looked at Gaeul.

They acknowledged that Gaeul was the owner of the popcorn.

“Okay…!”

Gaeul, receiving the kids’ attention, took out the popcorn.

As she grabbed the edge of the popcorn bag with her fingers and pulled it out, it went pop! and exploded.

“……!”

Gaeul’s fur stood on end.

Gaeul hurriedly put the popcorn back in the microwave and closed the door.

It seemed she thought the explosion was dangerous.

“Wow, Gaeul, that was close.”

“Really?”

“Yes. You almost became popcorn too, caught in the explosion.”

“Really?!”

Bomi giggled at Gaeul’s surprised expression.

Thus, we waited for a while until the remaining explosions of the popcorn finished.

“Now, we can take it out, right?”

“……”

Gaeul carefully took out the popcorn.

I put the new popcorn in the microwave and moved to the break room table.

“Open the bag. There should be a lot of popcorn inside.”

At my words, Gaeul tore open the puffed-up popcorn bag.

As the white popcorn came out, Gaeul jumped up in excitement.

“Popcorn! Popcorn!”

I poured the popcorn onto the tray that Saebyeok had brought.

As everyone sat down to eat the popcorn, Levinas approached with a tray of drinks.

It was a deep red and yellow drink.

“Levinas, what drink is that?”

“Pomegranate and lemon!”

Did we have such a drink in our break room?

Just as Levinas was distributing the drinks to everyone.

“Levinas, can you eat popcorn like that?”

Bomi threw popcorn up to the ceiling.

The popcorn falling vertically went right into Bomi’s mouth.

“That’s really easy for Levinas!”

Levinas followed Bomi and threw the popcorn high.

The falling popcorn landed not in his mouth, but on the tip of Levinas’s rabbit ears.

“Oh?”

Rolling—

The popcorn that rolled down Levinas’s ear moved towards his mouth.

Levinas caught the rolling popcorn with quick reflexes.

“Wow, Levinas, that was amazing.”

“Right…!”

“Ahem!”

At the children’s praise, Levinas proudly raised his drink.

Before drinking, he lifted his glass towards us.

“Everyone, it’s time to cheers!”

“What’s cheers…?”

“It’s when you clink your cups together!”

“Do we break them by clinking…?”

“No! Just clink them!”

Haneul, looking confused, lifted her cup.

I decided to explain to Haneul.

“If you clink them hard, the drink spills, right? In the past, they used to clink and exchange drinks.”

“Why did they do that…?”

“To show that they weren’t poisoning each other by exchanging drinks little by little. It was a symbol of trust.”

“Oh…!”

At the mention of trust, the kids made serious faces as they clinked their cups.

They even clinked them hard enough to actually exchange drinks.

“Drink up!”

Levinas gulped down his drink, and I drank along with the kids.

The moment the sour pomegranate drink hit my mouth, it was so sour that I spat it all out.

“Ugh.”

“Bleh.”

“……!”

Dripping.

The kids also spat out their drinks just like I did.

It seemed they had brought a drink meant to be diluted with water, served straight.

A word from the author (Author’s note)

Thank you so much for reading today, PIA1747014585384!

Thanks for the comments and recommendations too! They always give me strength!

Diluted drinks are best enjoyed at about 1/5 strength!