chapter_0636

636 – Hot Bar

636 – Hot Bar

“Um, uhmm…”

“Hek…?”

Bomi, with her arms crossed in contemplation, and Gaeul, looking puzzled.

Gaeul tilted her head, perhaps sensing something was off since Bomi wasn’t lightening the mood.

She pointed at the barbell again with her finger.

“It’s hard.”

“Unfortunately, I can’t do it right now.”

“Huh?!”

“What I showed you earlier is a more difficult technique than it looks. It requires a lot of preparation time.”

“Challenge…?!”

Gaeul’s tail, which had been swaying, suddenly stopped.

She seemed disappointed that she couldn’t perform the bench press as impressively as she wanted.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, Gaeul can do it.”

Gaeul struggled to remove the weight plates.

I grabbed Gaeul’s arm.

We didn’t have to make it light; we had a way to lift the barbell together.

“Gaeul, do you want to try lifting this with us?”

“Together?”

“Yeah. It might be hard alone, but if we all lift it together, we can definitely do it.”

“……!”

Gaeul’s tail, which had been still, began to sway happily.

She smiled brighter than before, seemingly pleased at the thought of lifting the heavy barbell together.

“Bomi and I will support you from the sides, so do you want to give it a try?”

“Okay!”

Gaeul lay down on the bench press.

After adjusting her awkward posture a bit, Bomi and I helped her grip the dumbbells.

“Ready?”

“Yes!”

With a shout, Gaeul extended her arms upward, and we lifted the bench together.

Even with three of us lifting, the bench felt heavy enough to make our arms tremble.

“Now, we just need to lower it and then lift it again…”

“U-uh…”

Gaeul’s arms trembled as she slowly lowered the bench to her chest.

Just as all our arms were awkwardly bent, Gaeul squeezed her eyes shut.

“Chuing! Hello! Hello!”

“Is it hard?”

“Yes…! It’s hard!”

It was definitely very tough.

I thought I needed to lift it quickly, but raising the dumbbells was much harder than lowering them.

“U-uh…”

I just needed to lift it a little more, but that little bit wouldn’t budge.

Before I lost all my strength, I decided to call for help from those in the gym.

“Help, please…!”

“Help! Help us…!”

“If you don’t help, Gaeul will get crushed!!!”

“Huh?!”

At our urgent cries, the adventurers in the gym approached us.

Among them, a large male adventurer lifted our barbell with one hand.

Surprisingly, he raised the sixty-kilogram barbell effortlessly.

“Are you guys okay?”

“Y-yeah…”

“You need to be careful with heavy weights here.”

“Yes, I’m sorry. We’ll be careful.”

I expressed my gratitude to those who helped us along with the kids.

Gaeul also bowed deeply in appreciation.

“Alright, let’s do something else since the barbell is dangerous.”

“Let’s do that. It seems like heavy weights are too much for us.”

“Hek…!”

I moved with the kids to the dumbbell corner.

We picked up small dumbbells weighing one kilogram each and worked out diligently.

‘Even one kilogram feels quite heavy when lifted repeatedly.’

Just as I set down the dumbbell and rubbed my sore arms, Gaeul, who was also exercising with a one-kilogram dumbbell, showed me her bicep.

“Chuing, look at my muscles.”

“Muscles?”

“Yes. Do they look big?”

Gaeul flexed her arms like a bodybuilder.

Unfortunately, her arms didn’t seem thicker than usual, but I decided to praise her anyway.

“Um… I think your arms look a bit bigger than usual.”

“Really?!”

“Yeah. Gaeul, the mighty!”

“……!”

Perhaps motivated by my words, Gaeul repeated lifting the dumbbell.

Despite it being tough, she managed to lift it five more times.

And Bomi…

Was lying flat on the gym floor.

I poked her side.

“Aren’t you going to exercise?”

“No. I’m tired.”

“I see.”

Having lifted the barbell and done some dumbbell exercises, she had every right to feel tired.

“Then shall we go home and rest?”

“Yeah!”

**

While Gyeoul went to work out, Levinas headed to the convenience store alone.

Browsing items at the convenience store when bored was one of Levinas’s hobbies.

He satisfied his curiosity with new household items and bought tasty snacks to delight his family.

For Levinas, the convenience store was a place of happiness.

However, there were certain items Levinas would never touch at the convenience store.

Alcohol, cigarettes, and very, very spicy food.

Spicy food hurt his tongue.

Levinas didn’t like spicy food, but he wanted to show his family that he could eat it well.

He occasionally challenged himself with spicy food but always failed.

“Um…”

If he could eat spicy food well, he would look really cool.

As Levinas imagined himself eating spicy food without a care,

“Sniff.”

“Ah, it’s spicy. Let’s buy a drink.”

At the tables and chairs set up in the convenience store, there were kids who looked to be around Levinas’s age.

They were sometimes the neighborhood boys who played at the swimming pool playground.

Levinas noticed the boys of similar age eating sausages.

Seeing them gulping air, it was clear they were eating spicy sausages.

‘Hot bar?’

It looked like a sausage, but was it really that spicy?

Levinas listened to the conversation of the kids eating hot bars from a distance.

“Hey, isn’t it spicy? You should switch to something else.”

“What are you talking about? It’s not spicy at all!”

The two kids who said that gulped down their drinks.

Levinas could tell there was some exaggeration in their conversation.

Even if it was an exaggeration, if the kids were enduring it, it couldn’t be that spicy.

And in Levinas’s understanding, sausages couldn’t be that spicy.

“Um…”

Levinas closed his eyes and imagined himself eating spicy food in front of his family.

Sniff.

He raised his thumb casually while breathing in the air.

Just thinking about it felt cool.

Levinas hurried to the instant food section.

**

After finishing my workout, I returned home with the kids.

Gaeul, thinking she had become a muscular man, was showing off her arms at home.

“Ex-ham.”

Gaeul entered the living room with a serious expression.

In the living room, Levinas was making a similar expression.

“What are you doing, Levinas?”

“Wanga!”

Levinas rushed in, holding a sausage.

It was labeled hot bar, with the word “Hot” written on it.

“Levinas, isn’t that spicy?”

“Yeah! Levinas is going to challenge this!”

Ahem.

Levinas puffed out his chest.

It seemed that the spicy sausage had sparked Levinas’s desire for a challenge.

“That must be really spicy; are you sure… you remember what happened when you ate something spicy before?”

“Levinas checked, and this one isn’t that spicy!”

“R-really?”

“Yeah! Because it’s a sausage!”

“Um… is that so…?”

Surely, since it was a sausage, it wouldn’t be that spicy, right?

While I was pondering for a moment, Levinas moved to the kitchen with the sausage.

Curious, I followed Levinas into the kitchen.

“I guess you just unwrap it and microwave it for about thirty seconds.”

“Yeah!”

Beep beep—

Levinas skillfully pressed the microwave buttons.

A smell began to waft out from the microwave, along with a spicy aroma.

Beep! Beep!

The alarm rang, signaling that the microwave had finished.

Without hesitation, Levinas took the sausage out of the microwave.

“Um…”

Levinas stared at the sausage for a while.

Then, as if he made up his mind, he raised the sausage high.

“Yap!”

With a shout, Levinas took a small bite of the sausage.

As he chewed, Levinas’s ears perked up.

“It’s delicious!”

“Is it good?”

“Yeah! Not spicy at all! So tasty!”

“Really…?”

Curious, I took a small bite of the sausage Levinas was holding.

Just as Levinas said, it wasn’t spicy at all and was just delicious.

“Wow, this is really tasty.”

Seeing my tail wagging, Levinas puffed out his chest again.

He seemed to be feeling proud.

“Levinas is one of the kids who can eat spicy food well…! Huh…?”

“Levinas, why… huh?”

Levinas and I had to stop talking right there.

The tingling sensation started to rise from deep in our tongues.

The prickling feeling on our tongues intensified.

Our ears and tails bristled.

“Ah…! Ah…!”

That’s right.

The tingling sensation from spiciness tends to come a bit late.

I felt like it had been like this before.

Just as I reached for a cup to drink some water,

I noticed Gaeul trying to take a bite of the sausage Levinas was holding.

“……!”

I couldn’t say that it was too spicy to eat.

Just as I was about to grab Gaeul’s wrist instead of the water,

“Fwoooosh.”

Levinas breathed fire.

Not metaphorically, but actually spewing flames like a flamethrower.

“Huh?!”

“Whoa…”

Gaeul stopped trying to eat the hot bar at Levinas’s fiery breath.

The kids, including Gaeul, widened their eyes and clapped, while Levinas, who had breathed the fire, just stomped his feet.

“Wow!”

Fwoosh!

Levinas’s fiery breath kept coming.

The flames coming from his mouth were so fascinating that I momentarily forgot about the spiciness.

Levinas had learned a new magic…!

If he keeps eating spicy food… that wouldn’t be good, right…?

───

Thank you, AABABBA, for your 11 coin support!