Chapter 15
Chapter 15
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 15
Chapter Title: That Kind of Thing 1
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After finishing my shower, lunchtime arrived.
"Hm?"
The moment I put the spoon in my mouth, that sound slipped out.
A fierce spicy heat rose from the soft tofu stew, stinging my tongue. Even for me, someone who handles spicy food well, it felt like a real challenge.
Something's off.
Si-eun usually cooks so healthily that it tastes almost bland. Dishes this heavily seasoned were extremely rare.
Maybe she was coming down with a cold.
Her nose might be stuffed up, so she couldn't taste the salt properly. People often crave spicy, hearty food when they're sick, after all. That could explain why she made something this fiery today.
I nodded to myself with that explanation and looked up.
"Eee..."
Si-eun had her tongue sticking out, fanning her mouth frantically.
Hmm. At least it didn't seem intentional. Or maybe the dish had turned out way spicier than she'd planned.
"Pretty spicy today, huh?"
When I asked, thinking she'd botched the spice level, she cleared her throat a few times and forced a smile.
"Really? This feels just right to me."
"You were just fanning your mouth like crazy from the heat."
"The maid outfit was hot. That's all."
I see.
Whatever the case, it didn't matter. I wasn't one to hate spicy food, and if it was because of a cold, I had no room to complain.
Besides, I wasn't the one cooking, so there was no reason to backseat drive. I just decided to enjoy it.
"But hey."
As I kept shoveling food into my mouth nonstop, Si-eun spoke up, her face still scrunched in discomfort.
"Yeah."
I gave a short reply, and she stroked her chin, looking thoughtful for a moment.
"What kind of work does a maid do, exactly?"
A faint sense of déjà vu passed through me.
"Didn't you ask something like that before?"
"That was about what a housekeeper does."
Now that she mentioned it, I remembered. It was back when Si-eun had just arrived. I'd told her cleaning and laundry weren't urgent, so she'd asked what she was supposed to do on normal days.
"But now that I'm wearing this maid outfit, I suddenly got curious about what actual maids are supposed to do."
So many questions.
Normally, I'd be focused on eating, but she seemed to have given up on that today. Probably too spicy to manage. There wasn't much I could do to help with that.
I took a bite of stew in her stead and asked,
"Aren't housekeeper and maid basically the same thing?"
Maid was just the translation for housekeeper, at least according to me and Friend. I couldn't grasp any difference.
Si-eun put her hands on her hips and explained.
"There's a slight nuance difference, right? A housekeeper feels like someone who just helps with chores around the house. But a maid... doesn't she have that old-fashioned image from the early modern era?"
"Does she?"
I slurped up some stew and mumbled a sloppy response. The more I ate, the more the spice hooked me in. Si-eun hadn't even taken a single bite.
"Of course. Maids feel like they assist their master more personally or something. It's got a slightly different vibe anyway."
"Hmm, sure."
"That's why I got curious. Are there things a housekeeper wouldn't do but a maid would? What do you think?"
She asked with eyes full of curiosity.
Who knows. Asking me wouldn't get her anywhere. I wasn't from that era, and even if I looked it up, there'd be no real use for it.
But if she was so curious, there were places to find out. As I picked up some side dish, I tossed out casually,
"Why not look it up?"
"Huh?"
Si-eun tilted her head. After chewing and swallowing the food in her mouth, I continued.
"You can find it on the internet, right?"
"Oh, right. I can just search it."
Agreeing with me, she picked up her phone from the side. As a comp sci student council president, it was surprising she hadn't thought of searching first.
Soon enough, she seemed to find what she wanted and spoke with her eyes fixed on the screen.
"Cleaning, stoking fires, emptying chamber pots... It says maids have become less common in modern times. Yeah, definitely has an old-timey feel."
"Sounds like it."
Cleaning aside, stoking fires and chamber pots were definitely things from the old days. Might not be all that applicable as a reference.
Well, if maids still existed overseas as a job, they'd probably do things similar to what Si-eun was doing now.
At least her curiosity seemed satisfied. Good thing, too—I didn't want to hear about chamber pots while eating.
I was about to let it slide when Si-eun suddenly flinched, her body jerking as she slapped her phone face-down on the table. It was so out of nowhere.
"What's up?"
When I asked, she averted her eyes.
"Ah, nothing. It's nothing."
"That doesn't look like nothing."
It reminded me of how she'd dodged yesterday when pretending she wasn't hurting. She was definitely trying to hide something.
"No, it's just..."
I pressed her with a look, and after hesitating for a bit,
"A p-picture of a maid doing... that kind of stuff just popped up out of nowhere."
"Ah..."
I regretted asking. There was a good reason she had trouble saying it out loud.
The atmosphere turned awkward in an instant, and we finished our meal without exchanging another word.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ After wolfing down lunch, I headed back to my room.
Unlike Si-eun, who had a lecture at 1 p.m., I only had one ninety-minute class starting at 2:30. I still had time to kill.
Time is something you can't buy for money, but money is something you can buy with time. I decided to use the spare moments to gather investment info.
I turned on my computer, and a notification popped up saying I'd auto-logged into the messaging app on PC.
With no friends, I never had notifications waiting. Han So-hye occasionally messaged about group projects, but otherwise, it was dead silent.
Not expecting much, I checked the messages anyway—and surprisingly, there was a little number one today.
It was a message from Friend.
[Check this out. https://...]
What kind of link was this? When Friend suddenly sent a shady URL, suspicion came first. It could be from a hacked account.
Just in case, I decided to message him.
[What's the link?]
The reply didn't take long.
[Normally, you don't ask—you just open it. That's how you make friends.]
His tone confirmed it was my Friend.
Setting aside his lack of security sense, a lone link like that naturally sparked curiosity. Since he told me to open it, I clicked without hesitation.
What appeared in the new window was...
A woman in a maid outfit doing that kind of thing in a video.
......
I jumped up immediately, locked the door, and came back.
Then I reopened the messaging app on PC and sent Friend a message.
[Are you insane?]
[Guess you opened it.]
He replied totally nonchalantly.
[Why send something like this in broad daylight?]
[Thought you might like it. Also curious if you even have a sex drive.]
[What do you take me for?]
[Asexual?]
What a flattering assessment. I'd have to smack the back of his head when we met in class later.
This prank was way over the line, though. I decided to call him out, mixing in some anger.
[Does your girlfriend know you watch stuff like this?]
[Yeah. We watch it together sometimes.]
No effect at all. They must have solid trust between them. Maybe from dating a long time, or maybe they were pretty open sexually.
Whatever. My own problems were piling up—I had no time to worry about their relationship.
With a sigh, I went to close the window.
But for some reason, my eyes drifted to the video.
Looking closer, she was pretty. And the maid outfit specifically... it formed some weird connection to reality, stirring up a strange feeling.
I could swear I'd never once had weird thoughts about Si-eun.
If that moment ever came, I'd hand over a month's salary on the spot and kick her out. It'd be harsh on her, but it'd be for her own good.
Still, after seeing a video like this, it was unavoidable that maids—or maid outfits in general—felt a bit sexy in and of themselves.
I watched for a few seconds in that daze before snapping out of it. There was no reason to be watching this in the middle of the day. Not that I planned to at night either.
As I moved the mouse toward the X in the top right corner,
there was a creak, and the sound of the door opening.
A sound that absolutely shouldn't have happened. I'd definitely locked the door earlier. There'd been no key since we moved in. There was no way to open it from outside.
There shouldn't have been.
Only now did I recall the conversation with Friend on moving day.
'Is this place even in decent shape to begin with? The door handle on this room is already loose as hell.'
'A door handle isn't important for living. I'll be staying alone anyway.'
Looks like I should have paid more attention to that.
"Uh, I'm heading out first..."
I whipped my head toward the voice reflexively.
Standing there was, of course, Si-eun.
My eyes went to Si-eun, who'd opened the door that should have been locked.
Si-eun's eyes, which had been on me, shifted to the monitor beside me.
And on that monitor, Friend's site was plastered front and center.
Slam.
After a brief silence, Si-eun bolted out.
Not long after, the sound of the front door lock echoed from outside.
Left alone in the house,
I slumped over my desk and clutched my head.
Hmm... what the hell do I do now...