Three Minutes Is an Eternity
“Three minutes feels way too long.”
“Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.”
The moment I got back to the dorm, I started preparing instant ramen. I’d skipped dinner and gone for a full run, so my stomach was screaming at me to shove something in it right now.
“What’s that~? YeriYeri~ Just one bite!”
Yu Hana, who had somehow sniffed it out like a ghost, crawled out of her room and immediately pulled the classic “just one bite” routine. But I wasn’t falling for it. I’d predicted the arrival of this damn bite-stealing demon and had already prepared portions for the other members too.
I tossed her a cup of her own with the clear message of shut up and eat yours. She immediately settled down.
“Our YeriYeri… your taste is a little…”
“If you don’t like it, don’t eat it.”
“It’s not that I don’t like it…”
For the record, Yu Hana’s was the mild version of X Ramen. I’d deliberately picked something I knew was just ambiguous enough to annoy her. Call it my petty little revenge.
Watching her press her lips tightly shut after my warning actually put me in a good mood.
“Instant ramen, huh. Eating ramen at night isn’t exactly ladylike, but…”
“Emergency discharge. Needs charging.”
Following Yu Hana, Seong Jiyeong and Ji Seoeun joined the lineup. All of them had dark circles under their eyes, clearly worn out from a full day of being worked to the bone. There’s nothing quite like a cup of ramen when you’re exhausted.
And so we all slumped over the table and started inhaling our noodles.
“Everyone looks completely wiped out.”
“That fat dog… I mean, Bulldog Teacher was even fiercer than usual today. And Senior Seoah kept saying we didn’t have time and just pushed us harder. Honestly, I thought it was a bit much.”
To hear the words “fat dog” come out of Seong Jiyeong’s mouth—the same girl who usually only used refined, elegant language—was shocking. Our Bulldog Teacher really lived up to the name. Add in Senior Seoah, who was clearly stressed about the tight schedule, and it was no wonder even the ever-dignified Seong Jiyeong had ended up this drained.
Still, every bit of it was training that would become blood and flesh for us later. After debut, Seong Jiyeong might end up leading the vocal line alongside Yu Hana. Her skill improvement was especially important to me.
The faster she improved, the sooner she could do a duet unit with Yu Hana. Since she was going to be the one running a duet with Yu Hana for my sake, I had no choice but to be endlessly kind to her.
“Jiyoo. Demon. Blackmailed with overtime. Black company.”
“Ah, is that so?”
It seemed Ji Seoeun had been worked just as hard all day. Senior Kim Jiyoo, who had mentioned a meeting in the afternoon, had dumped an overwhelming amount of assignments on her before disappearing. As a result, Ji Seoeun had been forced to analyze other people’s acting footage down to the nanosecond—something she normally wouldn’t even glance at.
If she didn’t finish the analysis properly by the time Jiyoo returned, she wouldn’t be allowed to go home. Since coming home was the only way she could enjoy her favorite hobby of designing space battleships, overtime was the ultimate penalty Ji Seoeun feared most. She’d stared at the screen until her eyes nearly fell out to finish the task, which explained why her dark circles were practically dragging on the floor.
“But why are you like that? I thought you were supposed to be sucking honey.”
“I thought it was honey too… but it turned out to be a trap card. Ha, who would’ve thought Teacher Yuri would betray me~?”
The surprising part was why Yu Hana—universally acknowledged as the queen of honey-sucking positions—was so exhausted. Once she explained, it made sense. Dance trainer Teacher Yuri had apparently sharpened her blades to the max.
Yu Hana was a natural all-rounder and an efficiency freak. She only practiced at the level that suited her and was extremely good at building skill in the most efficient way possible. Teacher Yuri, who had always been dissatisfied with that attitude, had pushed her to her absolute limit today. So it wasn’t strange that she’d ended up like this.
“It’s all because she cares about you. So good work~?”
“…Can I return that care? It feels way too heavy.”
“You think that’ll work?”
Seeing Yu Hana completely deflated gave me a strangely satisfying feeling. After all, she had spent the entire morning bragging that she would have the easiest day. To think she’d been knocked out cold in just one day. It was the moment my evaluation of Teacher Yuri went up another notch.
“Mmm…”
“It’s good.”
“Ugh…”
“Wait, why?”
But that small joy was short-lived. I was momentarily speechless at the absurd scene unfolding before me. On the very table where we were all eating ramen, an unscheduled side battle in the Great Kimchi War had suddenly broken out.
Every time a piece of kimchi disappeared from the other person’s plate, Seong Jiyeong and Yu Hana reacted in real time. They were twitching at every single pick-up. How were they supposed to eat their ramen properly like that?
I’d wondered why they’d left so much kimchi untouched and only brought the “surrender kimchi.” Turns out they’d planned this from the start. This was practically obsession at this point.
Just by looking, it was obvious Seong Jiyeong was the one who had set up this matchup. Yu Hana, who had already won the main match, had no reason to bother with an extra round. Sharp-eyed Yu Hana had simply noticed the hidden intention behind Seong Jiyeong’s movements and gotten swept up in it. For someone who looked so normal, she was strangely childish in the weirdest places.
Seong Jiyeong, are you really okay?
The only remotely normal ones here seemed to be me and these two. At this rate… Ha. Never mind. Whatever, it’ll work out somehow. Let’s just eat the ramen.
“Krr~ This is nice.”
“Ramen really is best at dawn.”
“Tomorrow’s problems can be handled by tomorrow’s me.”
“It’s fine. Calories acceptable.”
An idol about to debut eating instant ramen at night? In reality, that would be unthinkable. But here, it wasn’t a big deal. Of course, bingeing on chicken or something would be a problem, but one cup of ramen? Whatever.
The ridiculous basal metabolic rate of superhumans combined with the insane training volume of idol trainees meant a single cup of ramen couldn’t possibly affect us. The saying that the world’s most efficient diet is superhuman awakening wasn’t a joke.
That said, we’d loaded up on salt right before bed, so we’d just have to deal with slightly puffy faces tomorrow morning. The trainers’ dirty looks were also something we’d have to handle ourselves.
With even our late-night snack taken care of, all that remained was sleep. After a day this exhausting, surely no one would pull any surprise stunts. I figured I’d finally get a good night’s sleep for once.
…Or so I had thought at one point.
But that was nothing more than my own delusion. The opponent was far bolder and had far more stamina than I had anticipated.
Seriously, going out for a night stroll on a day this exhausting? She was clearly out of her mind. I’d tried to just ignore it and move on, but if she kept doing this, it was getting harder and harder to overlook.
“She went out again last night.”
“Figures.”
“The culprit is Tasha.”
“…How did you even know that?”
From yesterday’s experience, I had already guessed that the night-stroll mastermind was Tasha. No matter how superhuman we were, we still had physical limits. Tasha’s registered ability was Monstrous Stamina. She was probably the only one who could endure a full day of training, go out at night, and still handle the next day’s training.
It was likely thanks to Seong Jiyeong passing out like she’d been hit by a truck. But how on earth had Yu Hana figured that out?
“How could I not know~? Did you forget how I found you and Seoeun last time~?”
“…Right. You’re basically a walking GPS…”
Now that I thought about it, she was right. It was Yu Hana who had accurately tracked both my location and Ji Seoeun’s. I had no idea what she’d done to us, but assuming she’d only done it to the two of us would be even stranger. After all, Tasha and Seong Jiyeong were teammates too.
Which meant… this woman had known everything from the very beginning?
“Aww~ Don’t look at me like that. The expression on your face while you were worrying all by yourself was just too entertaining~”
“Ha, you really are…”
That squinty-eyed personality of hers, I swear. Still, if Yu Hana had planted something on Tasha, she would already know the general area where Tasha operated. Having spent some time with Tasha, I doubted she was the type to go to clubs. But I needed to know exactly what she was doing when she snuck out so desperately like this.
“So where does Tasha go?”
“Hmm, wouldn’t it be better for YeriYeri to see it with your own eyes?”
“See it myself, huh… Yeah, that might be the proper thing to do at this point…”
Since things had come this far, it was probably only polite to at least confirm what she was up to. At this rate, pretending I didn’t know was no longer an option.
Once I made up my mind, there was no reason to wait. I went into standby mode starting that very night. If my prediction was correct, Tasha would head out again today as well. Seong Jiyeong had once again collapsed like a corpse, just like yesterday. With her roommate knocked out cold, Tasha’s movements would be much freer, and there was no way Tasha would miss such an opportunity.
“She’s moving.”
“Yep yep, YeriYeri~ Fighting~”
“…Yeah. Keep updating me on Tasha’s movements in real time.”
“Leave it to me~”
While I followed Tasha to confirm her destination, Yu Hana would monitor the situation from the dorm. If I lost her, she would relay the location again. She even shoved a brand-new pair of Bluetooth earbuds into my hand, saying she’d prepared them specifically for a day like today.
I accepted them since it was a model I’d had my eye on, but it felt strangely like I was being fed a treat. Was this girl seriously trying to tame me with offerings?
Yu Hana had a strange talent for making people feel uncomfortable no matter what she did.
“Passed Namsung Intersection. First block, turning into the left alley~.”
“Copy.”
Tasha wasn’t using any transportation. She was running the whole way. Typical for someone who used to live hand-to-mouth by relying on company staff—she was solving everything with her body. Her movements were so fast that even I had to push myself hard to keep up. Her stamina really was on another level.
If Yu Hana hadn’t kept confirming her position, I might have lost her. My specialty had always been destruction and annihilation, not pursuit or tracking.
“So this is…”
“Yeongdeungpo Seokdo Street. Basically the back alleys, right?”
“Ugh, isn’t this place basically half slum?”
“It’s a district with a lot of incidents and accidents.”
“Why the hell would she come to a place like this…”
I couldn’t tell if this was her final destination or just a stop, but after reaching the back alleys of Yeongdeungpo, Tasha paused for a moment and slipped into a public restroom. The security around here was just as bad as the area near Hammer Shock, where we took our rap lessons. What on earth was she planning to do here?
“Huh? That’s… Tasha. But something feels off…”
Suddenly, Tasha walked out of the restroom. Her clothes and appearance were definitely Tasha’s, but the vibe was completely different. I couldn’t understand what was going on.
“Hana. Tasha’s current location.”
“Still in the same spot?”
“Really?”
Yu Hana reported that Tasha hadn’t moved. Then what the hell was the person who just walked past me?
“YeriYeri~ Tasha is moving.”
While I was tilting my head in confusion, the update came that Tasha had started moving again. At that exact moment, the restroom door opened and someone else stepped out.
A loose, shabby black uniform. A black yaksha mask.
It was exactly the Black Yaksha that Yu Hana had shown me a few days ago.
“Hana. The person who just came out of the restroom and went into the south alley—is that Tasha?”
“Correct. Why? What’s with your voice~?”
Ha. Fuck. What the hell is this? Why is she coming out of there?