A Line I've Never Seen Before
"A line I haven't seen before has appeared."
The short-haired girl said that as she looked at me. Her glasses flashed with a cold light.
"……."
I silently met the eyes of the female student.
"There was a thrill to pushing through the fierce, jostling crowd and barely managing to buy some after a hard fight."
She smacked her lips regretfully.
...What kind of flavor is that even?
I stared blankly at the name tag pinned to her chest.
Lee Chaera
At that moment, a male student who had been standing in line next to her yelled at Lee Chaera.
"Hey! Aren't you gonna stand in line?"
Suddenly, all eyes turned to the male student.
Undeterred, he declared confidently.
"I don't care if you're the Tteokbokki Association President or whatever. You still gotta stand in line, right?"
"Tsk."
The short-cut girl acting as her bodyguard clicked her tongue and tried to restrain the male student, but Lee Chaera silently raised a hand to stop her.
...What the hell are these people doing? Acting like they're in their own drama scene.
Lee Chaera, playing the role of leader, strode toward the male student who had spoken up with a click-clack of her shoes.
She pushed up her glasses and spoke in a haughty tone.
"You."
The male student crossed his arms and replied.
"What."
"Do you know why tteokbokki is called tteokbokki?"
"...Huh?"
Stunned by the unexpected question, the male student responded with a baffled look.
"'Cause they fry rice cakes, duh."
"No."
Lee Chaera shot it down flatly.
"Tteokbokki is a dish you make by adding broth and boiling it. Isn't the difference between wheat and rice tteok?"
"Uh... huh?"
"Do you know the origin and history of when tteokbokki was first made?"
"What does that have to—"
"What are the 33 benefits of tteokbokki? The 6 latest trendy tteokbokki flavors? The 50 trivia facts about tteokbokki? The 101 fun jokes about tteokbokki?"
"Wha..."
"You don't know? Anything? Not even one? Not a single one?"
"Th-that..."
Lee Chaera smirked with one corner of her mouth and leaned her head close to the male student's side.
Then she whispered into his flustered ear.
-If you don't know, just shut up and stay small.
"……!"
I wondered what that had to do with not following order, but overwhelmed by her momentum, the male student raised the white flag and backed off.
"...Hmph."
Lee Chaera snorted and turned her head sharply.
With an expressionless face, she click-clacked back to the front of the stand.
The noisy crowd in front of the shop fell silent in an instant, like cold water had been poured over them.
...This girl's no ordinary pushover.
Baeklim Girls' High.
I'd heard the name somewhere, and Dahyun's words suddenly came back to me.
-By any chance... the Baeklim Girls' High students haven't come yet, right?
"...Pardon? Baeklim Girls' High?"
-Yeah. It's a girls' high a bit far away, but some students from there come to the shop sometimes.
"...And?"
-Those customers are a bit... picky.
"……."
-Every time new staff come, they kinda... haze them? I guess that's the word.
"Haze them?"
-Yeah. They haze the newbies a little.
Hoo... so you guys were the ones.
Daring to haze in my shop as mere customers?
Heh heh... if you don't like it, just don't come. But you come all the way to harass us...
The corners of my mouth curled up involuntarily.
Bring it on.
If anyone saw me now, my eyes were probably gleaming with a dangerous light.
In the cold silence that had fallen, Lee Chaera pushed up her glasses haughtily and asked me.
Her round glasses sparkled in the sunlight.
"Are you the new guy?"
"That's right."
"Has there been any change to the previous owner's tteokbokki recipe?"
"No way."
"They say the taste has changed."
"I wouldn't know."
Every time I responded, the perilla-leaf-haired girl behind Lee Chaera scribbled something furiously on her clipboard.
"Um, sorry, but what are you writing?"
"You don't need to know."
Hoo... playing it like that, huh?
This girl is an arrogant customer and a harbinger of chaos that threatens the order I've painstakingly established.
She's a harmful presence that must be dealt with immediately, but the shop's main customers are students.
High schoolers make up a big chunk, and apparently this is some alliance of high schools called the Tteokbokki Association with considerable influence.
From the murmurs of the other students in line, it seemed they had real pull.
I glanced inside the shop.
It was the owner's shop, not mine, so I couldn't go totally wild.
The owner, who had noticed the commotion outside and was watching, met my eyes.
She smiled softly and nodded.
Meaning: I trust you, handle it your way.
Okay.
Permission granted from above.
"Alright. Then give me one. I'll taste it."
Lee Chaera looked up at me and enunciated clearly.
With permission secured, time to cook this arrogant high schooler.
"……."
First, I need to break that stuck-up nose of hers.
I silently filled a cup with tteokbokki.
She strode up haughtily with her round glasses and reached out to take it.
But I handed it to another student who had been waiting patiently in line.
"……!"
Lee Chaera's outstretched hand hung awkwardly in the air.
The middle schooler who received it by surprise looked back and forth between me and Lee Chaera with a frightened expression.
I nodded reassuringly and gestured for him to scram before the sparks flew.
Lee Chaera's face turned beet red.
"...What do you think you're doing?"
I ignored her and kept filling cups for the customers in line, replying nonchalantly.
"Serving tteokbokki to the customers who ordered it?"
"Does that mean I'm not a customer?"
"Yes."
"...What?"
"You didn't stand in line."
"……!"
This kid, wearing a big hat despite her age, was disrupting the order I'd worked hard to create.
Like one mudfish muddying the whole pond.
If I let this slide, the so-called Tteokbokki Association members might demand exemption from lining up too.
Strutting around like officials.
If they started skipping one by one, this hard-won order would crumble like a sandcastle.
Back to the chaotic era.
The gates of hell would open, with zombie hordes swarming disorderly and clawing like demons.
Can't have that.
Got to nip it in the bud here.
Lee Chaera's shoulders trembled as she glared at me like she wanted to kill me.
She enunciated each word, suppressing her rage.
"You must be new and don't know, but I'm Lee Chaera, president of the High School Alliance Tteokbokki Association in this area."
"Nice to meet you, Student Lee Chaera."
"Not Student Lee Chaera—president of the High School Alliance Tteokbokki Association!"
Lee Chaera snapped.
But I didn't even glance at her, busily filling cups and asking indifferently.
"So?"
"...Pardon?"
"Does the president not have to line up?"
"……!"
"Can the president jaywalk? Piss in public? Extort money?"
"……."
Lee Chaera just opened and closed her mouth wordlessly.
"What is this, a dictatorship? Don't those in high positions need to set an example?"
"Uh... well—"
"Isn't that right, everyone!"
Lee Chaera tried to speak, but I didn't give her an opening.
I turned to the lined-up customers and shouted.
I shouldn't pull her down myself.
You all have to do it.
The agents should be you, the faceless crowd—not me.
That way, even they won't have a comeback.
And they won't dare cause trouble at the shop later.
So, I began the agitation.
Revved the engine.
Where to, folks?
"Does being Tteokbokki Association President make you above the rules? Does that give you a free pass to skip lines?!"
"...Ooooh!"
"President Lee. Chaera's statement outright denies equality! The principle of equality in the Korean Constitution!"
"Right on!"
To my agitation—no, my rhetoric—the students in line started raising their voices little by little.
"In a democratic nation where everyone has equal rights, ignoring order and promoting discrimination and inequality like this. Do you all think that's right?!"
"No!"
"Do you think Baeklim Girls' High's Lee Chaera, Tteokbokki Association President, should enjoy the privilege of skipping lines?!"
"No!!"
"I believe whether it's the president, the principal, or the Tteokbokki Association President, everyone should line up equally! What about you all?!"
"They should line up!!"
The stage was set.
I covered my mouth with my hand and muttered a specific chant in a small voice.
"Line up. Line up."
I tossed the spark.
Prodded them.
The hot-blooded youths ignited at the slightest flame.
The students quickly chanted in unison.
"Line up! Line up! Line up!"
Nothing beats a short slogan for rallying the masses.
The front of the shop was soon filled with the customers' chants.
Nearby shops poked heads out windows, wondering what was going on.
"Line up!! Line up!!! Line up!!!!"
Everything according to plan.
I looked at Lee Chaera with a triumphant face.
"Q-quiet down! Lower your voices!"
The short-cut bodyguard tried to calm them, but the wildfire once lit wouldn't die out.
Lee Chaera's face was flushed red, her shoulders shaking.
As the saying goes, three people can conjure a tiger that doesn't exist.
If three can do that, what about a crowd?
And if that crowd speaks with one voice?
They make gods and topple kings.
People are weak to the majority.
Especially students, sensitive to others' gazes.
The association president, in her unstable teen years, wouldn't hold out.
She must've strutted around thinking she was hot stuff because she could talk well, but no way.
"……Ugh!"
In the end, with tears welling in her eyes, Lee Chaera fled the scene.
Gone was her initial bravado; she scurried to the back of the line like a puppy dodging rain, head bowed.
Two other Baeklim Girls' High students hurriedly followed her.
"Woooaaahhh!!! "
The customers cheered to the heavens in joy.
I smiled, watching them.
They'd protected order with their own power.
Volunteered as guardians of order and vanquished the villain who defied it.
This heroic tale would spread far and wide.
Now, no one in this shop would dare defy order.
"Alright, what can I get for you?"
I greeted the next customers with a refreshing smile.
Glancing inside, the owner was giving me double thumbs up.
* * *
"It's just, it's so hard, you know?"
This was a mental health clinic.
Seo Eunmi smiled gently, listening attentively to Seo Ji-hyun's story.
"How hard is it, exactly?"
Chiming in occasionally, asking questions.
"Like, the feeling is, Doctor..."
Ji-hyun explained enthusiastically.
Since starting exercise recently, she'd become much more talkative, brimming with positive energy.
"Imagine a huge tree. Branches everywhere, a massive one."
"Super dense?"
"Yes. Completely packed."
"Mm... got it."
"And it's snowing all day. Snow piles up thick on the tree."
"Must be pretty with snowflowers blooming, right?"
Seo Eunmi asked with a grin.
But Ji-hyun's voice seethed with suppressed fury.
"...Yes. That fucking—oh, sorry. Slipped out. My bad."
"No no, it's fine. Refreshing, actually."
"Sorry. Really a slip. Ahem, anyway."
Ji-hyun, face red from the slip, cleared her throat and continued.
"You have to melt all the snow on that tree with fire magic."
"Doesn't sound too bad? You're an amazing mage."
Seo Eunmi knew Ji-hyun was a famous high ranker.
She'd heard about her rise week by week.
Ji-hyun shook her head vigorously.
"Without burning a single branch. Not even singeing them."
"...Not even one branch?"
"Yes! See how hard that is now?"
Ji-hyun whined to Seo Eunmi.
But it was more venting than complaining—no negativity.
Seo Eunmi, listening quietly, cautiously called out.
"Ji-hyun."
"Yes?"
"About that friend Hura... Could I meet him sometime?"
"...Pardon?"
Ji-hyun's brows furrowed instantly, her eyes turning guarded.
"...Why?"
She shot back sharply.
...She's this defensive?
Seo Eunmi was inwardly surprised.
I thought we'd built enough rapport.
Seo Eunmi spoke softly.
"Nothing much. You've been raving about how delicious his food is. I'm just curious what it tastes like."
"Oh, really?"
Ji-hyun's expression melted into a beaming smile.
"It's so good! Brings back old memories and stuff. Even made my eyes water."
"Ooh, really? Could you ask him about next week when you come again?"
"Sure! I'll ask!"
Ji-hyun nodded with a bright smile.
Seo Eunmi watched her with a subtle smile.
There was a time when seeing Ji-hyun smile was a wish come true.
She'd never smiled much in life.
Always bristling like a hedgehog.
Her pretty face always filled with sadness—it hurt to see.
But now she smiled so radiantly and often.
Watching such a Ji-hyun, curiosity about Hura bubbled up in Seo Eunmi's mind.
Who was he, to melt this winter-like girl so warmly and beautifully?
"Thanks."
Seo Eunmi nodded with a smile.
Ji-hyun was dressed in simple workout clothes, saying she had gym after.
Seo Eunmi found Seo Ji-hyun so admirable.
Not her daughter, just a distant relative, but she wanted to give her extra snacks anyway.
"I think I can catch him next time!"
"Hm? What do you mean?"
"Oh, nothing!"