A New Hobby: Cooking
"?"
I had never in a million years expected to end up on the news.
Well. When I think about it, nothing actually changed, did it?
That was the truth. Even if I'd made the news, it wasn't my face that had appeared — just the username I used on YouTube. Neoguri.
I hadn't shown my face, either. And more than that, I ran my voice through processing during editing to make it easier on the ears, so what people heard wasn't a child's voice at all. It sounded like someone who'd just entered the workforce — young, but unmistakably adult. That was precisely why everyone was convinced I had to be at least a high school freshman.
"I don't know either!"
I only ever watched mainstream movies to begin with. That was just my taste, plain and simple. More than that, I was the kind of person who had zero interest in how a film actually performed at the box office. The only numbers I even knew were for Winter Palace.
They said both of them passed ten million, right?
And I hadn't even looked that up myself. I'd just happened to overhear kids talking about it in class. So to put it simply, the movies I reviewed were ones I had genuinely enjoyed. I was not sitting there cherry-picking titles destined to become 10-million-viewer films.
Is hitting ten million really that easy? Every movie and its dog is becoming a 10-million film these days.
Honestly, this was slander.
January 1st, 2015.
The new year had dawned, and I turned nine.
Second grade of elementary school...
I still had a long, long way to go before I became an adult.
"Yena! Come on, dinner's ready!"
"Yes! Coming!"
I stopped playing the piano and headed out to the living room, then made my way to the table in the kitchen. My favorite side dishes were already laid out and waiting — spicy stir-fried pork, a rolled omelette, seasoned whelk salad, and fresh lettuce for wrapping. A truly perfect dinner.
Grrrrl.
Ah.
I sat down in a hurry.
"Haha. Shall we eat, then?"
"Yes."
Mom and Dad were kind enough to pretend they hadn't heard a thing, so I quickly picked up my spoon.
"Thank you for the meal!"
"That's right. Eat plenty and grow big, Yena."
"Nyehp!"
The food already in my mouth kept the pronunciation from coming out clean, but the meaning seemed to land just fine. Dad nodded and started eating, after all. And just like that, I got to spend another happy dinner with my family.
The weekend arrived, and I went to Hwaryeong University for my lesson.
"Perfect, Yena."
The lavish praise burst out the instant I finished a piece. I had been a little embarrassed at first, but after more than half a year of this, I had gotten used to it.
Im Seong-deok looked at the unfazed Lee Yena and thought to himself, To her, playing at this level must feel like the most natural thing in the world!
It truly made no sense. Was she Beethoven reincarnated? How could a girl who had only just turned nine understand the piano better than he did?
Well. That isn't what matters.
What mattered was that unlike him, Lee Yena would hold her own on the international stage. Hold her own? If she kept growing like this, the world was going to produce a pianist who would devour the international circuit whole.
A Korean who steamrolls every international competition... now that is something I cannot sit still for.
Im Seong-deok was a hopeless addict of national pride. He spent his ordinary days thirsty for it, the kind of man who lit up with joy at any article about Korea accomplishing something on the world stage, no matter the field.
Does this mean I can finally feel that rush from piano, too?!
Ten years? No — if he waited just eight years or so, he would get to watch a Korean sweep every prize an international competition had to offer.
By the time she's seventeen, she'll be able to play the pieces she can't manage yet.
There were still so many works beyond her reach simply because she was young, and that only made him more excited. The older she grew, the more pieces she would be able to handle, and the ones beyond her reach would vanish one by one. Im Seong-deok could hardly wait for that day to come.
Before I knew it, well over half a year had passed since I started YouTube.
Has it already been that long?
A lot had happened in that time. Reviewing three 10-million-viewer movies in a row had dropped me square in the center of a media storm, and as my body grew I had become able to play pieces that had been physically impossible before.
My editing hit A- too.
That had been the combined result of natural growth and investing points. With editing skills that had crossed into A-, people gasped in admiration every time a new video went up.
With 2015 underway, my Fullmetal Alchemist reviews were also coming to an end.
Next I can just do Death Note, I guess.
I was in the middle of deciding what to review next when I noticed a changed ability in the system window.
Finally!
Eloquence, which had naturally risen from C to C+, briefly caught my eye — but that wasn't what I was here to look at.
Appearance, naturally ranked up.
Turning nine had definitely given my looks a little extra bloom compared to when I was a toddler. I had figured a natural rank-up would come along eventually. I just hadn't expected it to be this year.
At this rate, will it hit EX around the time I turn eighteen?
I had a feeling Appearance would naturally rise again somewhere around there.
Nice.
That meant I had just saved myself two whole points. The fact that I could pour those spared points into something else left me feeling stuffed and satisfied.
I'm hungry, but somehow I feel full.
Breakfast had been a long time ago, so my stomach was empty — but pocketing two points for free had filled me up all the same.
Whump.
"Ghk—!"
A dodgeball came flying in while I was thinking and slammed into my stomach. It wasn't one of those soft, squishy balls, either — it had a little firmness to it — so the hit packed a real punch. I picked the ball up off the floor, ready to return the favor, and asked,
"Who threw this?"
"I-I did! S-sorry!"
Ah. That made revenge a little awkward. There was no way that kid had hit me on purpose.
Forget it. I'll let it go.
I decided to let it slide, with an adult's magnanimity.
"If you're out, get off the court already, Yena."
"Ah. Yes."
"I'm bored."
I thought it while lying on my bed. There was genuinely nothing to do.
I can't play any more piano, this week's editing is already done, and nothing at the movies is calling to me.
There was truly nothing. My editing had reached the point of being an old hand at it — "whip it up in no time" was the phrase that fit — and my piano was EX rank, so even a little practice slammed my proficiency straight to the cap.
"Heh. That's kind of funny."
The same person who used to be unable to even meet a woman's eyes was now lying here complaining about being bored. If my past self had seen this, he probably would have told me to go die.
Still. Bored is bored.
My family relationships were excellent, my friendships were excellent, and everything I had put my hand to was going well. I needed a new hit of dopamine.
Should I try acting?
In my last life, when my looks had been the worst, the thought of becoming an actor had never once crossed my mind. In this life, with looks at the absolute peak, I sometimes found myself wanting to act — to stand in front of a camera and perform.
Ah.
On second thought, that was a terrible idea. I was someone whose energy got sucked out in real time the moment I stepped into a crowded place. What kind of actor would that make me?
I should just find a different hobby.
"Yena? Want to come help Mom cook?"
Wait. Cooking?
That's not a bad idea, actually.
Raising my cooking skills had nothing but upsides. I would be able to make myself a decent meal even when Mom wasn't around, and cooking was a great way to kill time besides.
This is it.
1 point granted as a level-up reward.
I used one of my two remaining trait-addition tickets to add Cooking.
C-, huh... actually, that's perfect.
I was only planning to cook as a hobby anyway, so there was no need to burn points rushing the rank up.
Slow and steady is all it needs to be.
I had Infinite Potential as a trait, after all. If I put in the work, the work would pay me back. That much was certain.
"Yena?"
"Coming!"
I ran for the kitchen.