Are You at Fault This Time Too?
Women love tteokbokki, and I do too.
It was a choice that no one would lose out on.
Celesty, who had been buzzing with excitement over the tteokbokki, later voiced a worry that this might not do much for her hangover.
“It’s fine, it’s fine. Spicy foods usually settle the stomach well. I heard somewhere that they even use pizza for hangovers!”
“Mmm, if that’s the case, maybe I should get a chocolate milk too.”
“Tteokbokki and chocolate milk…?”
Since both Gabi and I said it was okay, Celesty… no, Jaemin didn’t seem particularly concerned.
Instead, while looking at the menu, he tried to order something strange.
Someone had the idea of pairing tteokbokki with milk, and I figured it was doable.
Spicy food generally cleanses oily components, right?
So water or milk being more effective is common sense.
But chocolate?
Well, since it contains chocolate, the white milk might be a bit oilier than it appears, but…
Would it really blend well with the tteokbokki…?
But if you think about it that way, it’s not that different from pairing tteokbokki with peach juice.
As long as we didn’t do something as reckless as pouring chocolate milk directly over the tteokbokki, it would just be weird, nothing more.
But curry has chocolate added, kimchi jjigae has cacao, and even choco tteok exists.
Why couldn’t there be something like choco tteokbokki…?
While I was tilting my head in confusion, Jaemin and Gabi chose the menu and raised their hands.
Since there were no other customers, the auntie server didn’t need to press the call bell and walked over straight away.
“Auntie, one set of tteoksoon-twi please. That should be for three people, right?”
“A food vlogger like you might be able to manage with less.”
The auntie didn’t recognize Jaemin because he was holding a phone showing the livestream.
After all, they had gotten filming permission when they first entered the jjajangmyeon place.
But maybe it’s because most people who film in restaurants do the “eating reaction” broadcast that the auntie tilted her head.
Fortunately, no big eaters were around here.
Oh, was it just me and Gabi? I didn’t know Jaemin’s eating habits.
“Ah, we’re not food vloggers.”
“Ah, then yecam?”
“Hehe, I’m just a gamer streamer. I came out to buy a wheelchair, so I thought I’d have a meal on the way.”
“Slim gamer girls usually can’t eat much. So go ahead and eat the tteoksoon-twi set first. If you’re still hungry, order more. That should work.”
“Mmm, let’s try that? Then give us that… and what about drinks?”
“I’ll have lemonade. This side is chocolate milk. Jaemin?”
“I’ll have peach soda and Pepsi Zero, please.”
“Tteoksoon-twi set with lemonade, chocolate milk, and Pepsi Zero, right? I’ll get it right away.”
It was a level of kindness that didn’t compare to a busy gukbap house.
That place was mean, yet it sold well, and here they had to be this friendly for customers to come, right?
Or was the server’s kindness inversely proportional to the work intensity?
Whatever, jjajangmyeon places had their own issues too.
It was something I could fully understand.
Even if they could move a chair, there were already many people, and the space to place an extra one was tight.
If they left the wheelchair outside and someone stole it, they couldn’t be held responsible.
Instead of letting a few gukbap bowls sell and causing accidents, it was more reasonable not to take in customers like me.
Thanks to that, I could eat tteokbokki while thinking about Gabi and old times.
If I had been alone, I wouldn’t have even dared to eat something like this.
“But Gabi and I were supposed to meet today, right? I thought our schedules overlapped.”
“Ah, originally I was planning to buy underwear last time. She said I couldn’t go if I used a wheelchair, so we pushed it to today. Then I ended up meeting Jaemin like this too? Hehe.”
“Whoa, I also want to go underwear shopping with friends… no, that’s not it. Don’t girls usually get underwear from their moms?”
“Yeah? Why do you talk like you’re a man, Jaemin?”
“Yeah, I am a man.”
“…?”
Jaemin looked like a woman in every way—voice, face, body.
So Gabi immediately understood she was female, but her eyes widened at the way Jaemin spoke like a man.
I quietly whispered to her.
“I’ll explain later.”
“R-right. There are things like mental gender these days… ahaha.”
“Ah, it’s just cosplay. I got a mission from the viewers. To meet Noel while dressed as a girl.”
“I-I see.”
The air grew awkward naturally.
If I explained, Gabi would understand quickly, but I couldn’t do it in front of the viewers either.
Just as I was worrying how to resolve it, Gabi spoke first.
“Anyway, there’s nothing but men’s underwear in the closet of a grown woman. This is a good chance—I’ll take her and buy some new ones.”
“Men’s underwear…?”
I thought that was her way of easing the tense atmosphere.
Of all things, it had to be my weakness.
Gabi realized belatedly and looked at me with a start, but I had no sharp explanation for that.
Putting aside Jaemin’s confused expression, what were the viewers watching this live broadcast thinking?
For Jaemin, learning I was male wouldn’t be a big issue.
Just one person, and if Jaemin mentioned it elsewhere, no one would believe her.
But if many viewers heard this fact…
Well, most would probably think it was a joke.
But if any university classmates had been watching, there might be someone who would trace the connection between the male Yoon Noeul and me now and prove it was the same person.
Just like my father and mother did to me…
“F-fact is, Noel’s parents raised her as a boy… you know, those families that prefer sons over daughters.”
“What kind of parents exist in this world!”
“Yeah, exactly. Anyway, that’s why we’ve been out of contact, and I’ve been living alone. I was planning to take her to buy women’s underwear.”
But Gabi gave Jaemin an excellent excuse.
The effect was clear from Jaemin’s flushed face and the chats that were hard to read on my phone.
I let out a sigh of relief.
Well, it wasn’t entirely wrong that my parents raised me as a boy.
I really was male.
But to the listeners, being raised as a boy in a household with son preference would carry far more weight.
Gabi would be the only one to believe a man had become a woman.
I felt a bit sorry that Jaemin and the viewers got unnecessarily angry, but…
“Your order is ready. Cut the tteok and toppings with scissors and eat. This is service mandu. You can turn off the heat when the broth reduces.”
“Ah, thank you.”
Thanks to the food arriving at the right time, it cooled down quickly.
The viewers were still sparking fires in the chat…
I wonder if, since it’s Jaemin’s broadcast, she’ll handle the suppression herself or not.
Jaemin seemed completely lost in the tteokbokki, so the broadcast was probably the last thing on her mind, but…
“Wow, look at how generous the tteokbokki is.”
“It was a good choice to come here. Jaemin really loves tteokbokki, huh?”
“There’s no person who dislikes tteokbokki!”
“Hehe, actually, we used to buy tteokbokki on the way home sometimes. Back then it was a thousand or two thousand won, but these days that much tteokbokki costs over ten thousand.”
“Yeah, it’s really expensive. But ten thousand is worth it!”
I hadn’t looked at the price, but this was twenty thousand.
Compared to the tteokbokki I ate as a kid by saving allowance, although the amount was about double…
There was also the mixed fry and sundae…
Back then, with that much food, I could splurge under ten thousand, but now it’s over double.
It felt a bit bitter in the stomach.
Ah, maybe it was because of the hangover.
But since Gabi and Jaemin liked it, it was fine.
On the contrary, the expensive price made my heart feel at ease.
After all, the reason we gathered was to treat each other to a meal after helping.
Even if the three of us didn’t spend ten thousand, it would be too heartless.
“Here, Noel.”
Jaemin cut the long kkaeduk with scissors and handed me the first portion of tteokbokki.
The problem was that the amount was about the size of a cup ramen I usually ate.
“Ah, I can’t eat that much.”
“Huh? This can’t be eaten? Then we feel too bad….”
“No, because of you guys I can eat variably in one meal. If I were alone, I’d order one tteokbokki and eat it for three days, then a fry one and eat for two.”
“……”
It was just a casual suggestion that I shouldn’t feel burdened and eat deliciously together.
But both Jaemin and Gabi suddenly fell silent.
…Right, I didn’t have a place in girls’ gossip.
Every time I spoke, the atmosphere worsened.
So I stepped up, served tteokbokki to both of them, and then started eating first.
The satisfying chew of the tteok, and the spicy-sweet broth filling my mouth.
The way it didn’t let go easily as my teeth bit in was definitely attractive.
Maybe because I became a woman. The texture felt really good.
“It tastes great here. I’m glad I came.”
“Yeah. I was worried because there are so many places that are just bright red and super spicy, but this one is perfect.”
Gabi and Jaemin praised it one after another.
I almost said it tasted delicious for the first time in a while, but I was afraid the atmosphere would turn sour.
So I silently picked up a piece of lettuce fry and dipped it in the tteokbokki broth.
The sweet potato fry looked too filling, so I chose the vegetable fry as an alternative.
The broth tasted just like tteokbokki, but maybe the oiliness of the fry neutralized the spice.
Unlike the chewy tteok, the crisp texture gave me the feeling of eating another dish.
And the subtle lettuce aroma spread.
Tteokbokki itself was a carbohydrate bomb, far from healthy, but the vegetable taste made me feel like I was eating something healthy.
As a bonus, I dipped the sundae in the tteokbokki too, and the broth soaked between the fillings kept seeping into my mouth.
By the time I was done, my stomach was starting to feel full, so I sank deep into the wheelchair and sipped the chocolate milk.
Clearly, eating like this sobered me up a lot.