episode_0007

“Let’s go to a snack bar.”

This was what Riya said to me in a stern voice as soon as school ended.

Riya liked snacks sold in the market.

Not only tteokbokki, but also sundae, fish cakes, seaweed rolls, fried foods, etc. I liked most of the things sold at snack bars.

To be honest, if you only look at her food, you would wonder who would think that Riya is half-Russian.

“You’re not good at eating spicy things either.”

“What you like spicy food. Separately.”

Although she liked snacks, Riya herself was not good at eating spicy foods like tteokbokki or ramen.

Sometimes, when I go to a snack bar with Riya, I fill my stomach half with water instead of eating snacks.

As she said, liking spicy food and liking it are two different things, but wouldn’t it be okay to like something else if that’s the case?

“Okay, let’s go right now.”

“Right?”

“Yes. There’s no time.”

There was enough time to eat, but since school started at 2 o’clock, there wasn’t much time for the two of us.

It’s 1 o’clock now, so we have to leave almost immediately after eating.

Because of that, Riya and I went straight to a local snack bar that we often go to.

Although it is not a franchise, it is quite famous in this neighborhood. He was also our regular.

“Tteokbokki and fried food set.”

Since it was lunch time and not dinner, there was no need to eat a big meal.

For Riya, who had to go straight to the academy, and for me, who had to go to kendo, eating it too hard was actually poisonous.

After ordering food, it didn’t take long for the snacks to come out.

After waiting for about 5 minutes, a red tteokbokki and fried food were piled on the table.

“I will eat well.”

The tteokbokki at this store was spicier than other places.

It wasn’t so much that it made my stomach ache, but it was a lot spicier than I thought it would be to just eat it.

‘I’m fine though.’

I tend to eat spicy food well, so this was okay. In the past, we ate a lot of fried chicken noodles.

The problem was Riya, who was breathing heavily in front of me with her tongue sticking out.

“Suuu..ha.. I like it.”

Her flushed face, which contrasted with her white face, was wet with sweat.

Even though I had already eaten tteokbokki several times, I could see tears welling up in my eyes due to how spicy it was.

“Spicy?”

“Yes. It’s okay though… haha…”

Her face was bright red, her tongue was sticking out and she was breathing heavily, but her expression itself did not change much.

Is it just acting on the outside? To the extent of thinking,

Of course, she was sincere when she said that.

“Do you have a drink here?”

Today, just like last time, I ordered fruit juice for her.

She took the peach-flavored fruit juice and immediately drank it down.

“Huh…”

Riya still had her tongue out because it was spicy, but she seemed to have calmed down somehow and exhaled.

As she took a moment to catch her breath, I dipped the last of the sweet potato fries in soy sauce and gave it to her.

“Now.”

“Ah… thank you.”

After hesitating for a moment, she popped the fried food into her mouth.

Both cheeks were slightly swollen as the fried pieces were quite large.

His slightly swollen cheeks looked like a hamster.

Riya’s mouth and head were so small that even if she ate something slightly large, her mouth would be full.

‘The personalities are completely different.’

As I was watching her chewing in her mouth for a moment, she suddenly stretched out her finger behind me.

A finger pointing backwards, clearly not mine.

“Sihyeon, friend.”

“Friend?”

When I heard the word “friend,” I turned my head and soon understood what she was saying.

The person standing where Riya pointed out was none other than Kim Ho-yeon.

I wouldn’t have been so surprised if it had stopped.

However, one thing that was quite surprising and unusual to me was a female student next to Hoyeon.

“Baek Si-hyun?”

“Why are you here?”

“You must have come with your girlfriend.”

Kim Ho-yeon asked as if surprised, but I was more surprised.

Because he was a man who had no relationship with women.

It’s not that he has a bad personality… but the person who was unusual in not having relationships with women was Kim Ho-yeon.

Or, more accurately, he wasn’t interested in women.

If you look at his personality alone, I think he would be more interested in you than anyone else.

That’s why the woman next to him was very unique.

He looked a little younger than us. Looking at the gym pants he was wearing, he was a second year at our school.

She had a very unusual appearance, with long black hair and green eyes, but I didn’t know her.

He was a new person I had never known before.

“Who?”

I didn’t name anyone in particular, but Hoyeon knew who I was asking about.

He looked a little embarrassed and then spoke to me in a stern tone. Although his face was not stern at all.

“I am a junior. I have to go to an academy together soon, so I asked you to eat with me.”

“Hello, my senior, this is Jin Ha-ryeong.”

Jin Ha-ryeong, it was definitely a name Ho-yeon had heard of before.

The name of the junior who gave Ho-yeon chocolate on Valentine’s Day was Jin Ha-ryeong.

At the time, I thought it would be okay, but it seems like the relationship didn’t end there.

‘…really?’

I couldn’t believe that this guy had a kite.

Of course, that didn’t mean I had any intention of interfering. There is something good that can come from being intertwined between the two.

I have no intention of interfering with my friend’s love life.

…I was curious as to why I suddenly became interested in the opposite sex.

“Sihyeon.”

“Huh?”

“Look this way.”

When I turned my head back to Riya after hearing those words, she was looking at me with an expression of dissatisfaction.

It would have been very difficult for someone who didn’t know me to notice from the outside, but I knew.

The slightly raised eyes and the slightly lowered corners of the mouth.

He had a slightly dissatisfied face.

Not really, but a slightly dissatisfied face.

“Look at me.”

“….”

Riya grabbed my head with both hands and fixed my gaze on her.

Two fixed gazes with the surroundings obscured.

Riya’s face is naturally and fully expressed.

After about 3 seconds in that state, her face became increasingly red.

“Ahh…”

In the end, Riya, whose face turned red, let go of my face that she was holding with both hands and stepped back.

Sometimes it was like this.

Not very often, but when we meet up after not having seen each other much lately. Or it’s time to break up soon.

He did this when he was alerted to someone else, not himself.

‘For some reason, at the end, he felt embarrassed and quit…’

But I didn’t hate it.

Rather, it was good.

I don’t know the specific reason.

“Haryeong.”

“Yes, senior.”

“..Should I just go somewhere else?”

“…Okay, then let’s go to a place I know.”

Tackle-

With those words, the two left this store and headed to another store.

A bit of silence.

After a moment of silence, Riya, who had calmed down her red face, was the first to open her mouth, picking at the last bit of fried food with her chopsticks.

“That junior. I know.”

“Jin Ha-ryeong? Where did you know?”

“Art academy. Same class. I’ve never talked about it, but.”

I had no idea such a relationship existed.

If it was an art academy, she would have known. For the most part, she lives in an art academy.

It was natural that we didn’t talk to each other unless we were close friends.

On the contrary, it was amazing that I even knew his face.

“Then let’s go.”

After that, we put away all the remaining food and left the store.

I looked at the time and saw that if I go now, I won’t be late for the academy.

As we left the store, she suddenly wrapped her arm around mine.

“I’ll go alone.”

“Shop alone? Let’s go together?”

“It’s okay.”

She leaned her head on my arm for a moment, but then let go of it as if she felt regretful.

No, looking at the expression on his face, it was true that he was disappointed.

“I’ll go.”

“Work hard, don’t overdo it.”

With those words, Riya headed to the art academy and I headed to my house.

I didn’t think there was anything to do anyway, so I was thinking of going to the kendo gym.

‘I’ll just grab the bamboo sword and go quickly.’

That’s how I am.

After a while, I moved on, not knowing what would happen.

#

“If you don’t give it to me quickly, you will be hit real hard.”

It was a voice heard in the alley leading to the kendo gym.

The harsh, typical gangster voice and its content.

The security in this neighborhood isn’t that good, but it’s not enough to hear voices like that.

‘What’s going on?’

It wasn’t a surprise.

In the first place, there was no threat as it was just a short distance away.

‘I also want to go.’

Normally I wouldn’t have cared, but… for some reason, this time something ‘worried’ me.

I don’t really know why.

In most cases, you can just use porridge.

If it doesn’t work out, it’s okay to jump out.

With that in mind, I went a little deeper into the alley and saw three people.

“Hey! Give it to me quickly!”

“There really isn’t one!!”

Two gangsters.

These are guys I’ve never seen before.

However, looking at their school uniforms, they were students from a nearby specialized high school. It’s also from a school that is known for being of quite poor quality.

Before I even thought about how I ended up here.

I was embarrassed to see a student among them.

Black messy hair, thin body. He was the person I saw today.

‘Kang Yoo-won?’

Kang Yoo-won.

The protagonist of this world.

He was surrounded by two gangsters and being ripped off.

‘No, this is… a cartoon-like situation.’

In what era are we living in these days, are there any gangsters who extort money?

This is the first time I have seen this in both my past and present lives.

Now that I think about it, there was a setting that Kang Yu-won suffered school violence in middle school…

It wasn’t a very important setting so I skipped it.

That’s just the background setting, such as the story of the high school protagonist and the reason for his personality.

That hasn’t happened since high school.

‘I guess I should help.’

Anyway, when I looked at them, I saw that they were not ones that could be cleaned up.

After confirming that, I held a bamboo sword wrapped in cloth in my hand.

A person with a degree in kendo is not allowed to hit someone with a sword.

‘You are no longer a sword.’

I approached them holding a slightly stiff stick made of cloth.