Strawberry Pocha 1999

How long had I been out?

Doing the homework I put off, so many resolutions packed tight...

Listening to that utterly tranquil alarm melody, I quietly opened my eyes.

I'd slept maybe five hours, and every last scrap of accumulated fatigue had melted away. By any common-sense measure that should have been impossible — but if you factored in the System and Demonic Energy, it made a certain kind of sense.

My shift didn't start until eight, so I still had time to spare.

"Food first."

After that insane ordeal I hadn't eaten a single meal, and even just waking up I was ravenous. For all I knew, hunger was the only reason I'd come to at all.

Click. I opened the fridge, pulled out a clearance lunch box I'd brought back from the convenience store, and shoved it in the microwave.

The cheap microwave screamed like it was about to explode. Over that dying-appliance whine, I carefully typed out a message to Han Suhui — partly to check on her, partly just to hear from her.

The reply landed before I could even set my phone down. Ding.

It was so cute, so vividly alive, that a stupid little smile kept leaking out of me. I wasn't imagining it — I could feel, through the screen, that she really was that excited.

In this day and age you could have pork cutlet or spaghetti delivered to your door whenever you wanted. Was eating it at school really that special?

Then again, back when I was a student, I used to secretly look forward to no-leftovers Wednesday more than anything else too.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Click. I pulled the steaming lunch box out like it was nothing and sent Suhui a reply before too much time could pass.

I'd been about to tell her I was quitting anyway. I shook my head.

Not yet. I still couldn't tell Suhui about any of this.

I was going to tell my little sister everything eventually — but I wanted to say it at the moment I pulled her out of that wretched hell and made her happy.

You never know how things in this world are going to turn out.

If the worst-case scenario came to pass, getting her hopes up first would only make the shock hit harder. That possibility wasn't zero.

I sent that last reply and filled my starving stomach with the lunch box, forcing myself to think through the future I hadn't had the clarity to plan before I passed out.

First things first. Revenge on the ones who made my life hell.

It wasn't just about a grudge.

In high school, most of the money I earned working at a convenience store had gone straight into the pockets of the school gang. I had no parents and no backing worth mentioning. If I wanted to graduate in one piece, that was the only option I had.

Put bluntly, even if I took a hundred hits from those bastards and landed one in return, I was still the one who'd catch hell for it. I was still the one who'd pay the price.

Back then, enduring it was the only choice.

It was an era when who held the power wasn't decided by fists — it was decided by who had connections.

That era was over.

No matter what those bastards tried now, I had the strength in my hands to overturn all of it. I was going to use that strength to take back every won they'd stolen from me, and while I was at it, I was going to pour out every drop of rage I'd been swallowing for years. I needed operating money for a while even after I quit the part-time job, after all.

In the end, it was all for Suhui.

"You're really all about your little sister, huh."

"A siscon?"

"That's right. I am a siscon. The kind they'd call a psychopath."

So the world would do well to start bracing itself. Han Suhui was the only salvation I had left in this life, my only hope — and the only leash around my throat.

If that leash ever snapped, I had no intention of honoring even my parents' teachings.

"What point is there in leaving a world standing when there's no reason left to live in it? Suhui and I did nothing but suffer. Watching people who never gave a damn about us go on living happily — I don't think I could stand it."

"......Here's hoping humanity makes the wise choice."

"They probably won't."

If humans were a wise species, everyone would be getting along far better than they do now, sharing what they had, living happily. But humans are selfish, foolish animals at the root, and that is exactly how this age was built.

Vrooooom.

I gave the empty lunch box a quick rinse, dropped it in the recycling bag, and watched the delivery bikes screaming past in every direction like they owned the streets.

The world ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠has made staggering progress, no question.

People no longer starved to death from droughts or floods or failed harvests the way they used to. Public safety had come so far that Korea had even been ranked the safest country on earth.

The problem was that even in a country that safe, everything still ran according ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to the appetites of the people at the top.

"......"

"Not that it matters anymore."

I pulled off my T-shirt, muttering to myself.

"Because even those people at the top won't be able to stop me."

I was the only one who knew that era was coming. For now, though, I was nowhere near strong enough to push back against what they'd built. That was why I still couldn't save Suhui.

Just a little longer.

The ones who'd looked the other way, the ones who'd knelt to power — every last one of them was a sinner as far as I was concerned. I turned their names over in my mouth one by one, tasting the revenge I owed each of them, and looked into the bathroom mirror.

Then I opened my eyes a little wider.

It wasn't some aftereffect of the Tutorial. I didn't think of that world as virtual just because it was called a tutorial, and my mind as a human being was perfectly intact. What had startled me was that my body had changed.

"Not bad."

"Oh my god. Oh my god. 'Not bad' does not cover this."

"Heheh..."

Karina was letting out that filthy little laugh, which meant that even through a woman's eyes, the view wasn't half bad.

"Is this Demonic Energy too?"

I hadn't exactly started from a ruined body. I'd been working part-time jobs steadily since high school, and circumstances had never once let me overeat, so I'd had a reasonably decent build. What I couldn't do anything about was the shoulder width that never filled out because I never ate enough, and the height you either inherited or you didn't.

The person in the mirror now had easily cleared six feet.

"This is broken."

The proportions were clean. On top of that, sculpted muscle had settled onto the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠frame — not excessive, but you could feel the power in it.

"......And this came out perfect too."

I hadn't said it out loud, but the fact that what sat between a man's legs — his pride, you could call it — had been thoroughly average was a flaw, if you wanted to call it that. Now even that was nowhere to be seen.

"Not that I'll have much use for it."

I muttered that, then let out a short laugh. Who was I kidding, saying I wouldn't have use for it?

A certain hole I needed to bury myself in was already rising to the surface of my thoughts.

The shower roared to life.

"I'd go see her right now if I could. But the job comes first."

Just because I had power now didn't mean I was going to irresponsibly throw away everything I'd been doing. That would make me no different from the garbage who'd done whatever they wanted the moment something didn't suit them.

"Hah..."

Washing in cold water in this weather didn't bother me in the slightest. I threw on some clothes and headed out. It was a blessing I'd been buying cheap clothes online instead of trying anything on — Suhui had always, just in case, ordered everything a size too big.

If it's too small you can't wear it, but if it's too big you still can!

I huffed a quiet laugh.

"Ah, there he goes thinking about his little sister again."

"You know you look so warm when you think about her? Like, I cannot see the Seed of the Devil in you at all right now."

"Smiling when I think about Suhui is the most natural thing in the world. Not because she's my sister — because Suhui is perfect. Her personality, her looks, all of it."

"That's literally what a siscon is, just so you know."

"Karina, you still don't understand how great Suhui is. Once you do, you'll find yourself crying without even knowing why."

"......You've got it so bad."

Trading that kind of useless banter with Karina, I somehow arrived at work before I knew it.

Talking to someone, it turned out, didn't feel half bad.

I still had no idea why the owner had named the place that, but it was a pretty popular spot in the neighborhood around Subok University, where I went to school.

The problem was that the more people who showed up, the more often a nightmare customer showed up with them.

"Good evening."

"Oh, hey. Naengjung's here?"

I'd thought I was arriving early. I'd lost again today.

Whether you called it being the owner or just being born incapable of sitting still — looking at Kim Jeongyeol, already deep into opening prep, even I had to click my tongue.

"Aren't you here a little too early?"

Kim Jeongyeol scratched the back of his head with that easy, good-natured smile of his.

"Even when I'm home I just keep thinking about the shop. Besides, today's the alcohol delivery. There's a lot of it, and it's heavy as hell for the kids to haul by themselves, so I figured I'd shift some of it."

"That's what you hired part-timers for."

"Hahaha! Our Naengjung's ice-cold as ever. You, kid — you take everything way too far."

I'd lived the way I had. There wasn't much I could do about it.

I looked at the mountain of liquor boxes piled at the entrance and reached out.

"I'll move them."

"Ah, we'll do it together."

"No."

Clunk. I hoisted four boxes at a time — twelve beer bottles in each — like they weighed nothing, and shook my head.

"I think I'll be faster on my own."

"Heomi..."

What language is "heomi" even from?

"Haha, still, I'll grab one at a time at least. Kid's got some serious strength. You should've shown off a little sooner."

I only got this strength yesterday.

And this man would keep working even if you told him to rest. The type that was pleasant if you wanted to call it pleasant, and exhausting if you wanted to call it exhausting.

"Boss."

"I told you to call me hyung. You little— you are ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠genuinely impossible to get close to, you know that? Don't tell me you're doing this on purpose so I'll keep talking to you?"

"That's not it. More importantly..."

"You wanna know why I work this hard?"

"..."

I'd been trying to say I was quitting. How did someone even arrive at a misunderstanding like that?

I considered cutting him off, but Kim Jeongyeol was so wound up and talking so happily that interrupting felt awkward.

"Kid, no matter how well business is going, these days it's all a flash in the pan. You know what an opening honeymoon is?"

"I was under the impression this place has been open for over a year."

"A year in and the opening buzz hasn't even died yet. I haven't paid off thirty percent of the loan. You think I can sleep at home right now?"

"You look like someone who was born to work, honestly."

"That's not wrong either, but in a world like this, a guy who never even went to college has to grind while he's still young if he wants to eat for a long time."

That's the problem, I think.

People in this country start living hard from the age of seven, and even if they live harder once they're adults, they're more likely to end up unhappy than happy. The world kept advancing. Life just kept getting more miserable.

Hah. Forget it.

None of it had anything to do with me. I wasn't some saint contributing to world peace. If anything, I was closer to a devil.

"More importantly, Boss."

I set down the last of the liquor and finally got to the point.

"Hm?"

"I'll work through the end of this month, and then I'm quitting. Something personal came up."

At that, Kim Jeongyeol's eyes went round.