People Don't Change Easily (2)
Prepared Trap has been triggered.
The next evening, I finished packing up earlier than usual. Even then, I didn't leave.
I only pretended to go.
Something felt off.
The moment I stepped away, the alert chimed.
Knew it. They took the bait.
I almost cheered.
When I came back, the scene was pure chaos.
"Aaaaaah! What the hell is this?!"
"A m-monster!"
The thugs were trapped inside. They scrambled in every direction, thrashing without rhyme or reason.
They're seeing hallucinations.
The trap that cast illusions had activated. It showed you whatever you feared most. Ghosts if you were afraid of ghosts. Crawling insects if bugs made your skin crawl. Hearing them scream about monsters, I figured they were the type who got the creeps from monster movies and the like.
Weird.
This wasn't the apocalypse. I hadn't expected them to conjure monster illusions. Maybe the visions ran deeper than I'd thought.
The thugs turned aggressive.
"Stay back! Stay baaaack!"
"Uwaaagh!"
Hiss— hiss—
Each of them clutched a can of spray paint.
"Ack! What the hell? Don't spray me!"
"Gyaaaaah!"
They started blasting the stuff every which way. Their whole bodies bloomed into a riot of colors.
How long they kept spraying, I couldn't say.
Psssshhhhh.
The cans wheezed like deflating balloons and ran dry.
Around then—
Trap skill has been dismantled.
The trap that had seemed ready to hold them forever finally let go.
"Haaah… hah…"
"What…?"
The monsters that had chased them, the forest that spat them back into place no matter how hard they fought to escape—all of it vanished.
And what remained was the real world.
"Is the sun up?"
"…It's morning?"
For people like them, it was the hour when the hangover of night usually set in.
Early morning.
The Food Truck Zone was packed from the crack of dawn.
Everyone had come for the open-run at Kim Sunwu's food truck, Ramenkase.
On a normal day, people would be yawning and swallowing boredom. Not today.
"Hey, what are those guys doing to each other?"
"What a mess."
"What even is that?"
From first light, a bunch of thug types had been spraying paint cans all over each other. They flailed and screamed as if something invisible were after them, then snapped awake all at once.
"Hwaaah…!"
"Th-this is insane… all of this… uwaah…!"
They shrieked, looked around wildly, stood there dazed for a long stretch—then finally muttered,
"D-did a ghost get us or something?"
"Hey… hey… let's go…"
They filed out in a line and left.
Ten minutes after they were gone, the crowd was still buzzing. Unexpected free entertainment will do that.
One man, though, completely misread the scene.
Boss Bang had come out early that morning.
Oh. Crowds already? Guess it worked.
Hearing the murmur, he nearly crowed with satisfaction. He figured the job had been done right.
With a ruckus like this, they must've painted the place good. Heh heh. You're finished. For real.
Evidence like this needed photos—proof that the Food Truck Zone's "environment" was a disaster. Thinking he might even throw the kids a bonus, Boss Bang flipped on his phone camera and strode forward.
"Heh heh heh."
He didn't even try to hide the laugh bubbling up.
Then he stopped cold.
"Huh?"
What? The food truck was supposed to be coated in spray paint. The whole area was supposed to look like a trashed dump.
It's fine?
Worse than fine—it was spotless. As if nothing had happened at all.
He was still reeling when a voice cut in from behind him.
"Wh-what the—!"
"What do you think."
He spun around and found Kim Sunwu standing there. Sunwu was clearly smaller than him, and yet somehow he looked enormous—like a giant.
Boss Bang flinched. Then Sunwu's low voice reached him.
"Y-you…"
"How about you cut the games?"
"Hiiik…!"
Just one line. That was all it took.
Thump. Thump.
His heart slammed against his ribs as if it might explode.
Wh-what the hell is this guy…
The moment Boss Bang recognized the feeling as fear, he dug up the thug instincts he'd buried since his school days.
Bully the weak, run from the strong. Pure flight response.
"N-next time…"
He was about to bolt when an alert only Sunwu could hear went off.
Skill Trap is activating.
"Aaaaaaaah…!"
Boss Bang started thrashing—like he was dancing.
"Haaah… hah…"
What just happened?
Ten minutes? Maybe. He couldn't tell. After thrashing for what felt like forever, Boss Bang felt the fog over his vision suddenly lift.
"Pfft… what is that?"
"Is he putting on a show?"
"If that was supposed to be a performance, uh…"
The voices hit him the second he came to. Laughter rolled in from every side. Boss Bang could barely keep his head straight.
"Kh…"
What in the world was going on? He couldn't name a cause. He couldn't make sense of any of it. He wanted to storm over to the food truck and take his anger out—but
…I can't. I'm scared.
His feet wouldn't move. That was the effect of Kim Sunwu's thorough, no-exceptions education.
Face burning red, Boss Bang retreated like a man running for his life.
The target caught in the Trap is fleeing.
Successfully driven away.
Experience points acquired.
"Well, look at him go."
The uneasy feeling in my chest had eased a good deal.
"Welcome!"
"Two bowls here, please."
"Yes, sir. Two orders coming up."
Orders kept rolling in. Today's special was green onion ramen—the theme was a dish that filled you with stamina.
Boss Bang could've used a bowl of that himself.
I'd even have given him two for free if he'd shown up. Unfortunately(?), he didn't so much as stick his nose near the place.
Regulars drifted in here and there. I served the Janus customer and the two elderly folks their meals, then called out,
"Jin-woo, restock the takeout cups over here!"
"On it!"
I topped up the dwindling bowls and passed the time with Jin-woo while he cleaned. Before we knew it—
"Whoa… lunch is already over?"
Time had flown.
"Right?"
"Seriously. I had a free day with no classes, so I figured I'd come help out, but damn… Hyung-nim, you do this every day?"
"Of course. It's how I make a living."
"How you make a living…"
Slurp. Slurp.
Jin-woo never seemed to get tired of ramen, even eating it every day. He was already polishing off his second bowl, thinking hard about something as he did.
He's being unusually serious for himself.
From the look of him, the word livelihood had lodged deep in his head. I understood. In my past life, I'd been a fresh-faced rookie once too. Landing a job had taken a long time. The frustration and the blank wall of uncertainty back then—
Not something I'd want to go through again.
Even if someone told me they got it, I wouldn't believe them. I hated that stretch of life. Genuinely. Everyone passes through a stage like that, but for Jin-woo it was probably no easier.
I should dish him up another bowl.
Sometimes action matters more than comforting words. I was about to use an enhancement skill and set out a special ramen for him when Jin-woo hit me with a question I hadn't seen coming.
"Hyung-nim, do you like cooking?"
"Like it?"
"Yeah. Every time I look, it's nothing but hard work. Even when you go home, it seems like you're still working. Growing ingredients, prepping everything yourself before you come in…"
Prep. Ingredient work. Sauces, seasonings, the whole foundation of a dish. In plain terms, the grunt work underneath. Because I aimed to cook by my own design rather than fixed recipes, even something as simple as ramen needed more prep than most people realized. Jin-woo knew that—which was why he was asking. Was it still worth it when it was this hard?
"It is hard, yeah."
"But you still do it."
"Add that to the answer to your first question and it's simple. Because I like it."
"You really like it that much?"
"Yeah. I really love cooking."
After awakening, I'd set my path in the food business—but
Even without the awakening, I probably would've ended up cooking someday.
Sooner or later, I would have cooked. What kind of food didn't matter. Cooking itself. That was what I loved so much. And the moment I set a plate in front of a customer, too. Was it greedy to hope that sincerity reached them?
"Hmm…"
Jin-woo stared at my face for a long time. His lips twitched. Then, just as he seemed to steel himself to speak—
"Hypothetically speaking. If I…"
"Hmm?"
Down at the entrance to the Food Truck Zone, a group of people had arrived. Judging by the armfuls of gear, they were here to post an official notice and hang a banner. My attention split for a second.
"Something's going on over there. Anyway, what were you about to say?"
"…Never mind. Next time."
"You brat. What a tease."
Jin-woo hesitated again, chewing on whatever was in his head.
He's clearly got something he wants to say.
Whatever it was, I was ready to hear him out. But he still didn't have enough resolve. The doubt looked bigger than the decision.
In moments like this—
Leave it for now. If he settles on something, he'll come talk to me.
Leaving it alone was also an answer. You shouldn't shove someone from behind in either direction. Decisions you make yourself leave less room for regret.
With that thought, I stretched hard and said,
"Looks like they're done. Want to go check it out with me?"
"Me too?"
"Yeah. Let's look before break time's over."
We headed for the board where the notice had been posted.
Fast.
The contents were exactly what I'd expected.
In celebration of the opening of the Youth Startup Mall, the City of Suwon, in collaboration with the food alley, will host a new cooking competition.
Eligibility for participation is as follows…
It was the official notice for the Youth Mall opening commemorative cooking competition. Above it hung a banner that read:
Congrats — Cooking Competition Now Open! — Cheers
I'd guessed as much from the wording.
"The Youth Mall's opening already."
"That was fast."
"Tell me about it. They usually drag their feet on everything… but today they really moved."
"So this Food Truck Zone is actually going to disappear, huh. Whew."
"Look—there's also an application for Youth Mall residency. It says people from this Food Truck Zone get bonus points?"
"Hmm… if the bonus points are what I was thinking, that might not be so bad."
"Bonus points aren't everything, though."
"That so?"
"First we just have to hope we get accepted."
The Food Truck Zone owners each reacted differently—half worry, half excitement. Amid the swirl of feelings, I was still staring blankly at every notice posted there when—
Ding—
Something I hadn't expected popped up.