115. Sofia (2)
115. Sofia (2)
I had a decent assortment of cooking ingredients on hand.
Fish, bear meat, plus seasonings. Bread. Hmm. What should I make with all this?
I'd managed to source a fair amount of ingredients locally,
but no matter how you looked at it, I was short on both ingredients and equipment to prepare a proper meal on an uninhabited island.
So in the early hours before dawn, I'd slipped over to the shop up ahead and bought various ingredients and cooking tools.
Healers and Supports had been camped out in front of the shop trying to recruit Damage Dealers,
but I went there and back using Covert Step while everyone was asleep and, thankfully, wasn't spotted.
First, the soup is ready.
Bubble bubble─
I glanced sideways at the pot simmering next to me.
That was the soup that had been going since yesterday.
The color was a slightly off-putting purple, but this was a substantial thing.
After all, it was a traditional dish with a long and storied history stretching back to the Middle Ages.
I threw in medicinal herbs, potions, bear meat, fish—basically anything good for the body—so it can't help but be good for you.
Mm. Mm.
I didn't know for sure, but for Sofia, who'd been wandering around for two days without eating a thing and was utterly exhausted, this would be the perfect restorative meal.
Still, just plopping this down on its own felt a little lacking.
As I was scanning over the ingredients, my gaze suddenly stopped at the fish sitting in a basket.
The fish I caught from the river earlier. Still fresh.
Even though some time had passed since I caught them, the fish were still opening and closing their mouths, boasting tenacious vitality.
What if I made a dish with them still alive, without grilling or steaming?
And since Sofia was a foreigner...
If I arranged things accordingly, I figured I could serve her something fairly interesting.
Having sorted out the recipe in my head, I put my sword to work and began prepping the fish.
* * *
Sofia was stealing glances at Jin Yu-ha with both hands covering her face.
......Is this a dream? No, is it real? Jin Yu-ha, Yu-ha actually appeared in the flesh right in front of me...?
She'd been abruptly hauled off to Velvet Academy's exam site, and now the person she met at the edge of a desperate cliff was none other than Jin Yu-ha!
Sofia couldn't quite tell whether this situation was reality or a dream.
Thump thump thump─
Her heart pounded like it was about to burst.
A complete reversal from how she'd spoken just moments ago, as if seeing Jin Yu-ha for the first time.
It couldn't be helped.
Jin Yu-ha.
A few months ago, he'd been the figure who set the world ablaze.
The aloof Fighting Dog (鬪犬), Kang Do-hee, who never formed relationships with others.
And Cheonhwa (千花), Shin Se-hee, for whom standing beneath anyone else seemed utterly unnatural.
The man who had appeared like a comet with those two below him.
That alone was enough to make him a hot topic.
But what made him even more famous was none other than that face, as if a god had painstakingly sculpted it!
Jin Yu-ha practically had no public activities outside of dungeon clearing,
and yet the Jin Yu-ha fan club formed the very day his article came out,
【Flower on the Cliff】, was already boasting explosive popularity, surpassing 360,000 members.
And Sofia.
What more needed to be said?
The truth was, she was an avid member of that very Jin Yu-ha fan club, 【Flower on the Cliff】,
using the nickname 「Climbing Yu-ha's Nose Bridge」.
Aaaah....... I need to quit the internet! Seriously!!!!
She clutched her head, remembering the conversation from moments ago.
This was the real Jin Yu-ha, hard to even glimpse in article photos. She'd even unintentionally(?) gotten an eyeful of his naked body.
At that titillating sight, her mind went blank, and without realizing it, she'd blurted out a term used in the underground to refer to Jin Yu-ha!
......I've lost it. I've lost it. Sofia! You've really lost your mind, haven't you? How could you say something like that to someone's face! You should have kept it inside your head and then let it out!!!!
Even thinking back on it now made her dizzy.
Still, th-thankfully, I managed to play it off naturally with the foreigner card.......
She never imagined the "I don't know Korean well" foreigner card, which she'd occasionally pulled out during modeling gigs whenever things got inconvenient, would come in this handy.
She almost wanted to compliment her own quick thinking!
After that, honestly, it had been a continuous stream of just saying whatever popped into her head and nodding along to Jin Yu-ha's words.
Sofia had dug deeper into him than anyone, but since she'd already adopted the attitude of not knowing him from the start, she had no choice but to keep charging ahead with it.
Stay calm. Sofia. The first button got buttoned wrong....... But if you do well from here on out, it'll be fine. I-It's okay. You can do this!
Sofia kept swallowing dryly and sneaking glances at Jin Yu-ha.
Jin Yu-ha was cooking.
So right now, Yu-ha is making a meal to serve me......?
It was a situation where her stomach was already stuck to her backbone from two days of starvation.
And at a time like that, Jin Yu-ha was preparing food just for her.
She was so happy she could have burst into tears.
No matter how accustomed to fasting she'd gotten from modeling work,
starving while burning through stamina in a state of high tension had been agony even for her.
Thwack─ Thwack─ Thwack─
Jin Yu-ha's dagger danced across the wooden cutting board.
Every time he moved the dagger, the little fish were swiftly and cleanly prepped.
And next to him, something that looked like soup was bubbling away, emitting white steam.
Oh my, he even looks skilled at cooking. Is there truly anything our Yu-ha can't do?
Before she knew it, her fangirl heart had her eyes sparkling as she watched Jin Yu-ha cook.
......But something was a bit strange.
The color of the simmering soup was purple.
And he prepped the fish raw, then without any grilling or cooking process, just abruptly shoved it between bread.
Wh-What is that......? What kind of dish is that?
A slight unease flickered for a moment, but since Sofia already had her delusions about Jin Yu-ha fitted over her eyes like lenses, even that was translated through fangirl goggles.
Ah, that's definitely purple sweet potato soup! And the fish between bread....... It must be a dish like a shrimp burger?
At last.
Having finished cooking, Jin Yu-ha presented the food to her with a triumphant attitude.
Purple soup in a wooden bowl.
And raw fish wedged between bread.
The bizarre visuals hadn't changed one bit from what she'd been watching.
She lifted her head to glance at him.
Jin Yu-ha opened his mouth as if to explain the dishes.
First, he pushed forward the purple soup.
Opaque bubbles rose and popped, gurgling.
"This is Eternal Soup."
"......E-Eternal Soup?"
"Yeah, it's a dish that was always present at inns in the Middle Ages. Brought to a boil 24/7, 365 days a year, and whenever the contents reduce, you top it up with water and whatever ingredients you've gotten at the time—a traditional dish. I threw in everything good for the body, so it should be great for recovering from fatigue."
Ah.
How could he be so thoughtful?
Sofia's eyes melted softly as she gazed at Jin Yu-ha.
What did it matter if the visuals were a little strange?
This was food personally served by her bias, with her physical condition in mind.
Sofia gazed reverently at the bilious blue-tinged broth, then scooped some up with a wooden spoon.
And brought it to her mouth.
Urk!? Th-This is......!?
In that instant, Sofia's golden eyes went round.
......Mama?
Why, of all things, was the taste of her British-born mother's cooking surfacing here?
That dish her mother used to make whenever her father was busy.
The taste brought back memories of those days when she used to fuss and complain at the dinner table.
"......Urgh!"
Sofia covered her mouth.
Misinterpreting that as being overcome with emotion, Jin Yu-ha looked at her with warm eyes.
"Heh heh, it must be tasty. Eat slowly. There's plenty."
How can I say I can't eat it when you're looking at me like that!
Maddening hunger, a dish made by her bias, and a palate tolerance forged by her mother.
On those three foundations, Sofia was able to force down the soup, spoonful by spoonful.
"How is it? Feeling a bit better physically? It should have an immediate effect. I added potions to it too."
Y-You put potions in the food......?
Sofia's pupils trembled.
It seemed that wasn't a lie—separate from the horrific taste, the more of that soup she ate, the more she actually felt her body gradually recovering.
But even that had its limits at about halfway.
The terrible hunger had subsided to some degree, and she felt like if she ate any more, she'd end up throwing up what she'd already swallowed.
"......Th-Thank you for the meal."
And so, as she set down her spoon.
"Hm? Done already? Ah, right. You stopped because it'd be a shame to fill up on just this dish, huh?"
This time, Jin Yu-ha pushed toward her the dish whose identity she still couldn't discern—raw fish wedged between bread.
"I caught this myself from the river out front. It's fresh fish, so you don't need to worry even though it's raw."
"......What kind of dish is this?"
Sofia asked, her voice full of wariness.
"Hmm, it doesn't have a name yet, but if I had to give it one... bread-sushi, maybe?"
"......Bread-sushi?"
"Yeah, originally I wanted to make sushi, but you're a foreigner, right, Sofia? So instead of rice, I put the fish on bread."
"......."
Sofia glared at Jin Yu-ha.
Where was she even supposed to start taking issue?
She'd actually encountered sushi quite frequently while working in Korea.
And she was someone who rather enjoyed it too.
The prejudice that a foreigner would prefer bread over rice.
And to begin with, making sushi with freshwater fish was something she'd never heard of or seen in her life.
......Our Yu-ha is someone who should absolutely never cook.
A belated realization dawned, but she couldn't refuse the look in his eyes, so Sofia reluctantly brought the "bread-sushi" to her mouth.
"......."
Having taken a bite of the dish, she closed her eyes gently.
And smiled serenely.
"Jin Yu-ha, I'm sorry, but I'll be fasting from now on. I'm on a diet these days."
Contrary to the initial plan,
though her affection for Jin Yu-ha had originally been at MAX from the very start.
Due to his cooking, her affection level dipped ever so slightly.