A Christmas Eve Like Any Other
Snow falling on Christmas Eve! On a day like that, if you dragged a friend out, there was only one thing to do.
“Let’s see, where were we planning to go today…… the movie theater, the PC bang, the arcade……”
“Nartika headquarters.”
“Right, we were going there too. After that, your place.”
Just hanging out. It was the very picture of students whose exams had all vanished. Naturally, it didn’t feel strange or out of place at all. It was far too familiar, far too consistent. But it wasn’t just the playing around that had become routine. Spending this kind of time with Cheon Mari itself had turned into something repetitive.
“By the way, how many years has it been since we started hanging out together on Christmas Eve like this?”
“We’ve been spending Christmas Eve together since fourth grade…… so this year makes nine.”
Nine years already. Enough time that doing this together felt less like a choice and more like the natural order of things.
“Nine years since my life went to shit? Insane.”
“That’s what I was going to say, you bastard.”
How the hell had I ended up spending Christmas Eve with a regressor for nine years straight? If this kept happening even after we entered the academy, that would be truly shocking. In a bad way, of course. Spending Christmas Eve with the same person for years on end was a bizarre sight no matter how you looked at it. Yet there was no way to break this cycle. We were already out together, and there was no turning back or canceling now. Probably the same thing would happen next Christmas Eve too. We’d just hang out out of habit and repeat the same thoughts I was having today. So I didn’t think any deeper about it. I simply followed our set schedule and enjoyed Christmas Eve with her.
“Four popcorns and four drinks…… You want to split this in half? Can you even eat all that?”
“What, you want me to carry just one and shove it up someone’s nose? With our builds, this much is normal!”
“Just take three for yourself.”
. . .
“Ooh, ooh, a big one’s coming. Is it going in? Is it?”
“Shut up. I can’t hear the movie.”
. . .
“Honest take: the director’s parents are probably dead.”
“……Did you not watch this movie before regressing?”
“Couldn’t be bothered, so I skipped it. But seeing how this movie turned out, maybe that was the right call.”
. . .
“Jungle diff, jungle diff, jungle diff, jungle diff, jungle diff, jungle diff, jungle diff, jungle diff, jungle diff, jungle diff. No, you fucking talentless, brain-dead top laner, stop feeding!!!”
“Mari, ditch them and get over here right now! Let’s just backdoor!”
“You see an opening? Whoa, there really is one? I’m going in!”
“Mina? Mina? This is actually working?!”
“Hell yeah, we won!”
. . .
“Throwing the game. Bye.”
“You piece of shit.”
. . .
“Sian~ I bought four bubble teas~”
“……Four?”
“Here, one for you. Three for me.”
“???”
Four bubble teas with straws neatly inserted. Cheon Mari gathered three of them in her arms and stuck all three straws in her mouth at once. Then, with vulgar slurping sounds, the drinks began to shrink. It was honestly amazing that she could drink like that and still stay so slim.
“Mmm, as expected, more bubble tea is always better.”
“Hey, give me one.”
. . .
Not everything went smoothly, though. Cheon Mari had smashed the punching machine at the arcade, which cost us some time cleaning up the mess. To be fair, it wasn’t entirely her fault. She was an idiot, sure, but not the kind who randomly destroyed old machines. This had started because she got into an argument with some woman, and an impromptu bet had been made.
“Listen here, you cheapskate. I’m an International Hunter School admit. Don’t be surprised by the power of my fist.”
“You can barely speak Korean and you’re still running your mouth?”
She looked about our age. Her name was something like Nankong? Nangong? Whatever. Either way, she didn’t seem Korean. Probably a Chinese tourist who’d come here after passing some exam, only to run into us at the arcade and start a fight. And the moment Cheon Mari one-shot the machine with her signature punch, the foreigner cowardly ran away.
“Cǎo Shàng Fēi!”
That pathetic speed and shameless judgment were worthy of comparison to some martial artist from China. No honor, no chivalry—just a bastard with no parents.
“Y-you crazy bitch!!!”
“She’s even faster than her ancestors!”
We’d been saddled with the blame out of nowhere. Naturally, Cheon Mari threw a fit, declaring she’d test whether she could use a human as a baseball bat the next time they met. For a second I genuinely wondered if we’d have to pay for a machine worth tens of millions of won. Thankfully, the owner just said it was an old machine anyway and told us not to worry about it. Still, we had some conscience—and money—so we paid a reasonable amount before leaving. By the time we were done, it was around eight in the evening.
We’d originally planned to stop by a manhwa cafe to read, but the timing felt off. In the end, we just wandered around outside. With dinner not happening until around ten at night, it was inevitable. While we were at it, we bought some street tteokbokki and headed to a park bench. Cheon Mari sat neatly at one end and tapped her black-stockinged thigh. I roughly understood the signal, nodded, and got into position. I laid my head on her thigh right away. She picked up pieces of tteokbokki with a toothpick and slowly fed them into my mouth. It was soft, delicious, and comfortable. I wanted to look at her face, but her chest blocked the view completely. Left with no choice, I turned my head slightly to the side and gazed up at the clear sky.
“How’s it taste?”
“Good. Really good.”
I heard her chuckle. Whatever she was thinking, it didn’t seem negative. After being fed once, twice, three times like that, and just as she was about to wipe my mouth with a napkin, something in the corner of my vision caught my eye. A news broadcast was playing on a large screen attached to a nearby building. The topic wasn’t unrelated to us.
“Nartika’s overseas expansion a success? It all depends on future strategy…… No time to relax yet?”
“You should read to the end. The large-scale relief efforts during the academy incident had a huge impact on their image.”
It was the relief plan I’d casually suggested and Cheon Mari had immediately carried out. I’d only proposed it because I thought it would be better to avoid the image of a company that just sucked up money during a quasi-wartime situation. Honestly, aside from a bit of image improvement, there wasn’t much to gain. For someone who wasn’t even an official Nartika employee and held no shares, suggesting something like that had been a bit much. What was truly impressive was Cheon Mari’s decisiveness and her ability to control the company.
“Our overseas sales used to be pretty insignificant. Thanks to this, we’ve managed to open some doors. It’s all because of you.”
“I just said a few words. You’re the one who actually did it.”
“No. I only executed it. I was just following exactly what you said back then.”
“Don’t hype me up just because we’re friends. That’s a bad habit.”
“Even if I’m forcing it a little…… you’re Nartika’s treasure. Of course I can do that, right?”
After that, I stopped denying it. I knew she’d done everything, but if I kept arguing, the conversation would never end.
“Besides, because of the gains we made this time, we were able to hand over a decent house to your aunt.”
“Ah……”
It had happened shortly after we escaped the academy. Before dealing with Lim Hana and her friends, I’d needed to get my aunt somewhere safe, so I’d made a request. I wanted to use some of the investment funds to buy her a new, safe, and comfortable home. If that had gone through, I wouldn’t have had to worry about Lim Hana living next door. With a drug addict’s mood swings, at least we could’ve avoided becoming victims of some sudden outburst. But back then, Cheon Mari had suggested something else instead of withdrawing the investment money. Rather than that, Nartika would hold an event and just give us a whole house as a prize. A completely rigged event. The prize: one house. That way, there’d be no need to touch the investment funds. After all, Nartika was footing the bill anyway. Still, I hadn’t wanted to burden the company, so I kept refusing, but Cheon Mari had stubbornly insisted it was fine. It was the first and last time she’d been that firm about something. Since the conversation had gone nowhere, I’d eventually raised the white flag. In the end, my aunt received a house with an easy commute as a gift. Her reaction? Predictable, but she’d been overjoyed. So overjoyed that it had almost felt like a festival. Really, it would’ve been weirder if she hadn’t reacted that way. Getting a house worth one or two billion won basically for free—who wouldn’t be thrilled? So my aunt’s family and I sold our old place and moved into the new one. In the process, we also dealt with the surrounding houses Cheon Mari had bought for speculation. Since she’d held onto them for so long, they’d basically become storage units. Those were cleared out too due to management and security concerns. The only problem was that we’d needed to quietly move the documents and belongings before getting rid of them. So I’d asked Cheon Mari for help, and while we were moving stuff with Nartika employees……
“Of course, I had no idea it would snowball into a fight with a bunch of drug addicts.”
Who could’ve predicted that a bunch of junkies would go crazy? This world was truly unpredictable sometimes.
“Still, the results turned out pretty good. So it’s fine, right?”
“Yeah, that’s true.”
We kept reminiscing about everything that had happened this year. All sorts of topics came up, all sorts of reactions followed, and plenty more tteokbokki went into our mouths. We were maintaining a warm atmosphere despite the cold weather when I felt something sharp pricking at me. I glanced around. A bunch of couples were staring straight at us.
“Sang-cheol, do that for me too……”
“Let’s just stay quiet.”
“Seo Na-eun, where do you keep looking?”
“No, it’s just……”
“Wow…… I’m so jealous……”
“Oppa!”
“Noona, I may not be at that level, but I’m still pretty good—”
“Sigh……”
They weren’t just staring. They were whispering too, though I couldn’t hear what they were saying. What gave couples the right to look at us like that on Christmas Eve? It was a pretty depressing reality for singles.
“Sian, those disgusting couples are telling us to get lost.”
“Hah, it’s not like we’re doing anything weird.”
“Agreed. They should get lost themselves.”
What a brutal world. And what a hard world to live in. Ignoring the dirty looks from the couples, we switched roles. I slowly brought a piece of tteokbokki toward Cheon Mari’s mouth. Christmas Eve faded away amid the stinging glares.