The Calm Before the Storm
The ATM machine let out a loud mechanical whir the instant I shoved ten fifty-thousand-won bills into the cash slot. The deposit flap snapped shut with a heavy clunk. A few seconds later, the monitor flickered to life and displayed a six-digit number.
“Whew. That takes some weight off my shoulders.”
Seeing the account balance finally gave me a genuine sigh of relief. Failing that last million-won mission had actually stressed me out more than I’d realized. After all, I’d gone so far as to give Kim Hanbin a handjob, and we’d walked away with nothing. On top of that, my bank account had been steadily shrinking. So getting five hundred thousand won out of nowhere thanks to this so-called Intermission felt like a gift from the heavens. My lips curled into a silly little grin without me even meaning to.
Eighty thousand left in spending money. That’s actually pretty comfortable.
I might even be able to afford one of those special prep-course lectures I’d been eyeing before the sixth retake. The lecture notes I got from it would be useful for me, and I could share them with Kim Hanbin too. He’d probably appreciate the help.
…I probably won’t run into anyone I used to know at the lecture, right?
I made a mental note to check later which of my old third-year classmates were retaking the exam and where. It would’ve been easier if Kim Hanbin weren’t such a loner. Then again, if he’d been a social butterfly, he probably wouldn’t be stuck studying with me in that rundown reading room in the first place.
Feeling much lighter on my feet, I stepped out of the ATM booth. Kim Hanbin was sitting on the marble steps right in front of the bank, staring intently at his phone screen.
“Hey, what are you staring at so hard?”
“We just got free money, so I’m looking for something to spend it on.”
I plopped down right next to him. It was well past lunchtime, so hardly anyone was walking by. The marble steps were in the shade and surprisingly comfortable to sit on.
“Soccer stuff?”
“Maybe I’ll splurge on some uniform customization. Easy to wear in the summer.”
“You never played soccer once in high school, yet you’re buying gear like a pro. Whoa… that’s expensive as hell.”
“Official site prices, what do you expect? Anyway, liking to play and liking to watch are two different things.”
“Sure, sure, whatever you say. Honestly, I bet I could still beat you at soccer even now.”
“…How fast can you run fifty meters?”
“Wanna time me?”
And that was how a sudden sprint bet started on the quiet path back to the reading room. Loser had to buy the other person any drink they wanted from the convenience store. There weren’t any cars that could suddenly appear, so we got ready—
“Ready!”
We both shot forward the moment the signal was given. Naturally, Hanbin pulled way ahead right away. He ran regularly around the park near his house, so his stamina was well above average for a guy. On the other hand, ever since I’d turned into this body, I’d completely stopped exercising.
“Ughhh!”
When I couldn’t pick up any real speed, I started pumping my arms wildly, trying to force myself to run faster. But the harder I tried, the more I became painfully aware of the enormous weight bouncing around inside my shirt…!
Jiggle. Jiggle.
I barely made it past ten meters before I had to slam on the brakes and stop completely.
“Hah… fuck… that hurts so bad…”
I bent over, hands on my knees, gasping for air, then lifted my head. Hanbin, who had already run far ahead, was jogging back toward me.
“……”
“……”
Kim Hanbin awkwardly scratched the back of his neck. I shot him a fierce glare without saying a word and strode right past him.
“Jian! Where are you going?”
“I lost the bet, so I’m buying drinks like we agreed!”
A little while later, the two of us were sitting across from each other at the usual blue plastic table outside the convenience store. In front of each of us sat one of the canned coffees I’d bought. I took a long sip through the straw and spoke first.
“Must be nice to be so fast at running, huh? You looked so happy sprinting off into the distance all by yourself.”
“Hey, you were the one who sounded so confident…”
He stopped mid-sentence and swallowed the words and you used to be good at sports. If he’d said it out loud, the mood probably would’ve turned icy.
“That was literally the first time I’ve ever run seriously since turning into this body. I didn’t know I’d be this bad at it. And I definitely didn’t know it would hurt this much. These stupid huge things just get in the way. Ugh.”
“……”
“I can see your eyes wandering. Look away.”
Hanbin quickly jerked his gaze away from my chest, where it had unconsciously drifted. I let out a small snort of laughter and took another sip of coffee.
“Still, the weather’s nice, so I’m in a good mood. We got free money too.”
“It does feel refreshing. It’ll start getting hot soon, though.”
“Do you have to keep jinxing me? I hate summer the most.”
“But our reading room has air conditioning, right?”
The building for Happy Reading Room stood directly across the street. It looked incredibly shabby, nothing like what its cheerful name suggested. I honestly wondered how anyone had thought to open a reading room here and how it was still operating.
“It better work. Besides, the old lady just put a new air purifier in the rest area. I’m pretty sure she’s actually the building owner.”
That was my theory, anyway. If she were just a part-timer, there was no way she’d be sitting at the counter so casually, listening to TTS novels without even wearing earphones. Or maybe we’re the only ones who would ever file a complaint.
These days I wasn’t the type to make a fuss about things, so I usually just let it slide. Same with the old lady’s TTS novels.
That was when Kim Hanbin spoke up.
“Hey, Jian. About our missions…”
“…”
The sudden mention of missions caught me off guard. Hadn’t we agreed not to talk about them outside? Honestly, I wasn’t completely against it, but people are hypocrites by nature. I glared at him sharply.
“We said we wouldn’t talk about missions out here…”
“It’s not that. I was just wondering how far the rewards might go.”
“Rewards?”
“The mission rewards have been getting pretty big, haven’t they? Last time it was a million won. This time we got five hundred thousand for free during the break period. If this keeps up, we might get even bigger rewards later.”
That was how Hanbin saw it. Even though we were only about to do the seventh mission, if you lined up all the rewards so far, it was obvious they were increasing.
First mission: 69,500 won.
Second mission: ??? (Not revealed due to failure).
Third mission: Penalty removal and a considerable amount of money.
Fourth mission: Something good related to family.
Fifth mission: Improved memory.
Sixth mission: Total reward of 1,150,000 won.
While abstract rewards were hard to put a number on, the jump from the first to the sixth mission showed nearly a fifteen-fold increase in monetary value.
“If that’s the case, then the missions…”
“The missions will probably get harder too, right?”
Neither of us had ever properly discussed it before, but we weren’t stupid. We’d gone from an eye-contact staring contest all the way to a handjob mission in just six tries. If we kept going, maybe eventually…
“W-what the hell are you thinking about?!”
“Whoa!”
I shot up from my seat. My knee slammed into the table with a loud bang, knocking my coffee over. The dark liquid poured straight onto Hanbin’s lap. Panicking, I grabbed some tissues and started frantically wiping his pants.
“Ah, hey. I’ll clean it. They’re black anyway, so it won’t show much.”
“Ugh. My good mood is ruined.”
“…Sorry about that.”
We sat down again, facing each other. Without speaking, we both sipped what was left of our coffees, eyes wandering everywhere. Even though we were sitting together, we avoided looking at each other—staring at the convenience store, then at the reading room behind us, then at a motorcycle passing in the distance.
“……”
“……”
Then Jian spoke again.
“By the way, how’s your dad doing these days?”
“…His numbers are staying stable for now. Not getting worse, not getting better. But just not getting worse is already a relief.”
“Well, that’s good to hear.”
I swirled the nearly empty coffee with my straw and continued.
“It’d be nice if another reward like last time came up someday—one that improves your dad’s health.”
“I’d take that over money any day.”
“…Still, I’ll help you as much as I can with that mission. Those perverted bastards will probably throw out some weird mission, but they wouldn’t make it something completely impossible, right?”
“That sounds like a death flag…”
Hanbin burst out laughing at the innocent way I asked what a death flag was.
“There’s something we need to pay attention to before the next mission.”
> [Count?]
“Yeah. Got any guesses?”
The person I was talking to on the phone after locking my door at home was, of course, Kim Hanbin. It would be too depressing to point out that there wasn’t anyone else I could call, so I kept my mouth shut. We’d agreed not to talk about missions outside, but the whiteboard had kindly given us a preview or hint, so we had to discuss it.
I tore off a small piece of paper and scribbled with a pen.
Kim Hanbin — 0
Me — 0
“It said we both started at zero the moment we entered that room, right?”
> [That’s right.]
Just to be sure, before leaving the reading room I’d gone back into the rest area with Hanbin and closed the door, but the whiteboard hadn’t reacted at all. It seemed we couldn’t see how the numbers changed in the middle. If some kind of action was the trigger for the count, then we’d need to track what each of us did and how many times over the course of a week.
“So while I was walking home, I thought about it. Let’s each organize our daily routines by time slot and share them.”
> [ … How detailed? ]
“What do you mean, how detailed?”
I frowned, giving him a look that said what the hell are you talking about.
> [ Do we have to include bathroom trips too…? That’s what I’m asking. ]
“Just write everything down. We’ll talk about it tomorrow during lunch in the rest area. I’ll even record how many times I go to the bathroom. That should be enough, right?”
> [ … Got it. Starting now? ]
“No. Let’s start clearly from lunchtime today.”
I drew a large grid on the paper, determined that we would absolutely succeed in this next mission.