Chapter 15: Gukbap Restaurant
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 15: Gukbap Restaurant
When I finally woke up from my nap, it was already 3:00 PM.
As I stretched my stiff body, I looked at the clock—which informed me that half the day was already gone—and let out a smirk.
“I’m off tomorrow, too.”
And.
“The day after that, as well.”
How glorious.
I wondered if I’d ever had such a productive use of time since starting university.
For a few minutes, I lay on the bed, wiggling my hips in a little "joy dance" at the prospect of having the next two days off.
Even though I felt like I’d finished all my exercise for the day, I stayed glued to the floor and turned on my phone.
“Whoa.”
Normally, I’d only have game notifications or ads, but today, the messages were piled up.
Is this what the "insider" life is like?
Checking your phone after waking up must be a chore for these people.
“Let’s see here...”
There were several 1:1 inquiries in the Bamboo Forest, but most were useless.
‘What’s this guy’s deal?’
I took a quick look at the list of posts they’d written. It was the person who had sniped me over the English Department karaoke incident.
“Get a load of this guy.”
I didn’t know who they were, but I wondered why they were so desperate to make people hate me, even resorting to such nonsense.
I’d already explained the reason earlier.
Sometimes, kids think "freedom" means they can do whatever they want, but freedom only has meaning when it exists within the boundaries of the law.
If you just let everyone do whatever they want, it’s not freedom—it’s lawlessness.
It’s the difference between a lion being inside a zoo fence and one roaming the streets.
‘Anonymous 46 is probably from our department, too.’
Thinking it was likely one of the kids who had been at the karaoke bar, I checked my other messages.
The department group chat was flooded to the point of exploding, but I ignored it.
Nothing substantial ever comes out of those chats anyway.
The places I needed to check were...
“Seo Ye-rin, Choi I-seo... wait, who’s Yoo Ah-rin?”
I could understand Seo Ye-rin and Choi I-seo since we’d been talking a lot lately, but I had no idea who Yoo Ah-rin was.
I checked her profile: a girl taking a selfie with cat whiskers and ears. Her hair was a bleached, golden blonde, and it clicked immediately.
“Ah, it’s her.”
She was the girl who stood out because of her hair color.
I knew she was Seo Ye-rin’s friend...
I didn’t know why she’d messaged me, but I checked Seo Ye-rin’s chat first.
She had sent the most messages; it looked like her "Anonymous 69" habits were resurfacing.
“Whoa, what is this?”
She was making a huge fuss, thinking I’d been hurt by the sniping post in the Bamboo Forest or the kids talking in the group chat.
I replied and was about to get back to Choi I-seo, but Seo Ye-rin’s response was incredibly fast.
“Look at that initiative...”
Why was she being so proactive?
I’d messaged her as the Administrator yesterday to comfort her because she seemed down, but maybe I didn’t need to.
Seeing her bounce back and move so passionately made me wonder if I’d worried for nothing.
“Yawn.”
Yawning, I checked Choi I-seo’s messages next.
“Ahem.”
Caught red-handed.
Feeling awkward, I cleared my throat and sent a quick reply.
Having said that, I fled to the next chat.
The emoticon of a cat waving its paw was actually quite cute.
With only that impression of her, I replied.
I tried to keep it brief and move on, but Yoo Ah-rin’s reply was faster than expected.
After saying that, I just left the chat room with Yoo Ah-rin. Reading the trash posts in the Bamboo Forest was more productive than having a pointless conversation.
I threw on some clothes to go eat, put on a hat, and headed out.
Since I lived in a studio apartment, there were plenty of restaurants nearby, so I was able to find a seat in a shop quickly.
I ordered a "special" Gukbap, and when I checked my phone again, a reply from Choi I-seo had already arrived.
“Work out?”
This time, the reply came instantly.
What didn’t I know?
“...”
Now that I thought about it, I did say something like "I'll punch his lights out" when I was talking to Senior Han-gang... no, just Han-gang.
A wave of embarrassment washed over me at the thought that my language had gotten so rough because I was agitated.
‘But I should at least be able to run away if things go south.’
Between the Department Representative Ahn Hyun-ho and that senior, Han-gang, the number of people who seemed to have it out for me was growing. I figured I should at least build up some stamina so I could make a break for it.
“What kind of restaurant 'does chicken breast well'?”
Last time it was a place that did good salads; now it was chicken breast.
Choi I-seo and I were at a sharp impasse over what to eat for dinner.
‘Wait, we could just eat separately.’
I’d only ended up at the karaoke bar because I went to dinner with Choi I-seo, so honestly, I wasn’t that keen on eating together.
Besides, I was eating a "special" Sundae Gukbap right now; was I really going to work out in three hours and then eat dinner again?
‘Actually, I totally could.’
Just as the steaming Sundae Gukbap arrived and I picked up my spoon, a woman walked into the shop.
Her brown hair, catching the sunlight, looked exceptionally glossy today.
She scanned the restaurant, sweating slightly, and when she spotted me, she approached with a bright smile.
“Woo-jin!”
“Oh? Uh... you’re here.”
Seo Ye-rin’s welcome felt a bit excessive and awkward, but she didn’t seem to have the mental capacity to notice.
She sat down across from me and asked frantically.
“Are you okay? It must have been so hard for you.”
“...”
“Don’t worry. I’ll take care of everything. I’ve already talked to the other kids, and I’m going to go talk to Senior Han-gang separately, too.”
“...”
“So don’t get too stressed...”
“Let me eat first.”
I just wanted to enjoy my hearty, hot Gukbap; why was she talking so much?
I shoveled rice into the earthenware pot and tried to calm the frantic Seo Ye-rin down.
“Don’t worry. Like I said, I was sleeping until just now, so I didn’t even know what was happening. And I don’t really care anyway.”
“Oh.”
“I don’t have any close friends in the department to begin with, so it doesn’t matter to me what the rumors are.”
At my words, Seo Ye-rin stared at me blankly, the corners of her mouth twitching upward slightly.
But the emotion behind it was a strange mix of bitterness and...
“I’m jealous.”
It was a kind of envy.
“You really don’t care what the people around you say, do you?”
“Well, yeah.”
What was the point of stressing over every little thing? You need a certain amount of social awareness, but I didn’t think it was necessary to let it dictate who I was.
“Anyway, have you eaten? If not, have some. I’ll buy.”
“No, I’ll pay for yours too. Instead...”
“Hmm?”
Hesitantly, Seo Ye-rin handed me her phone.
“Give me your number. I realized I didn’t have it.”
“...”
To think the day would come when I’d get asked for my number by someone like Seo Ye-rin. Of course, I knew it wasn’t out of romantic interest, but my heart still fluttered a little.
After I punched in my number and handed it back, Seo Ye-rin looked at it for a moment, then asked with a finally satisfied smile.
“What should I save you as?”
“Kim Woo-jin, English Dept.”
What else would it be?
That’s how I was going to save her.
“That’s a bit stiff.”
While Seo Ye-rin was pondering, her own Sundae Gukbap arrived.
I frowned as I watched her carefully stack the sundae pieces one by one on the rice bowl lid, eating with extreme modesty.
“You don’t know how to eat this. You’re supposed to mix the rice into the soup and eat it all together for that hearty feel.”
This time, Seo Ye-rin didn’t back down.
“You have to eat it like this to fully appreciate the flavor. If you mix the soup and rice, the seasoning gets all muddled.”
“Isn’t that the whole point of Gukbap?”
“The point is dipping the sundae in wasabi soy sauce.”
“Wow, you should just leave.”
“I’ve been thinking this since last time, but you have a strangely 'old man' palate, don’t you?”
“You mean a traditional Korean palate passed down through the generations? Thanks for the compliment.”
I thought the conversation was flowing quite well, but the moment that thought crossed my mind, a silence fell.
You know those moments?
When you’re talking up a storm and then suddenly run out of things to say, and a momentary silence takes over.
I was just mindlessly eating my food when...
“Woo-jin.”
In the midst of that silence, a secret.
A voice, tender and sweet, brushed against my ear.
Like a passing spring breeze.
Small, yet clear.
And finally, with a soft smile.
“Thank you.”
She expressed her gratitude.
There was no need to ask what she was thankful for.
I simply nodded my head in response.
For a while, we just ate our food in silence.
But somehow, I found that it wasn’t so bad.