Chapter 28
Chapter 28
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 28
Chapter Title: The Outsider Wrapping Up the School Festival
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***
Put strawberry-flavored sugar into the cotton candy machine's sugar hopper,
and pink sugar threads come spurting out along with a sweet sugary scent.
Then I stick a wooden stick into the drum, twirl it around and around, and wrap the pink threads onto it.
Sugar per person: one teaspoon.
For teachers or outside visitors: one and a half teaspoons.
The students gathered here, the seniors, the teachers, the parents.
Is this festival not fun for all of you?
Yeah. If there was actually stuff worth enjoying, you wouldn't stand in line for over 30 minutes just for some free cotton candy.
I know that.
Before my regression, I wandered around the festival too.
If I even had friends, I probably would've holed up somewhere and chatted away.
But for outsiders without friends, a school festival is no different from stepping into a padded room for the mind and time.
The people lining up here clearly think that standing still and watching someone make cotton candy is more fun than wandering around to other classes' exhibits.
They say later on, staring blankly at a campfire while camping becomes a trend,
so in a way, aren't the folks gathered here pioneers ahead of their time?
.
.
.
I kept making cotton candy straight through lunchtime without a break, and the 3kg bag of strawberry sugar that came with the rented machine was already showing its bottom.
"Oh dear, everyone? Sorry, but we're out of sugar now, so we can't make any more cotton candy. We'll only make about 10 more before we run out completely, so those at the back of the line, I apologize, but please head back!"
After hours in front of the cotton candy machine, my whole body was caked in sugar.
I put about one teaspoon per cotton candy, and assuming a teaspoon holds roughly 5g of sugar, finishing off one 3kg bag means I'd made and handed out about 600 cotton candies.
Considering the street vendors at the school gate sell them for around 1,000 won each...
If I'd charged money for this, I could've pulled in 600,000 won.
Thinking about how a 3kg bag of sugar costs under 5,000 won, you can see just how insanely high-value the cotton candy business is.
"Huh? Student, running low on sugar? No big deal, that stuff's cheap. I'll run to the nearby supermarket and grab some, so make more with that."
No. Who even are you? You look like some parent, but we can't do that here.
I need a break too...
"We're good! If we start taking money from others to run this festival exhibit, I might get in trouble later!"
Our school festival has a strict no-food-sales policy.
But if a customer buys sugar with their own money, isn't that basically the same as charging?
Tell me it's not the same. Hurry!
The parent who'd heard me tilted their head a bit but seemed to accept it anyway.
Then, some teacher toward the back of the line spoke up.
"Ah, student. We have a small bag of sugar left in the home ec lab. It was a freebie from ordering baking supplies, and it's not on record, so go ahead and use it."
"..."
"Whoa, it was pink cotton candy earlier, now it's white? Should I get back in line?"
Just... kill me...!
.
.
.
The line of people continued until past 3 PM when the auditorium performances started.
Some students were adamant about not going to the auditorium until they'd eaten their cotton candy here,
so I had to lie and say the machine was overheating and couldn't make any more.
***
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ -Well done. An exhibit that drew half the school—probably the first record like that since this place opened.
-Though your mother seems pretty dissatisfied... What can you do? In business, the most important thing is whether you seized the opportunity or not.
-Keep that in mind always, Si-a. 'Loopholes in the rules' aren't all that different from 'blue oceans.'
Dad was thrilled about Class 1's exhibit being a hit.
Honestly, he didn't seem all that impressed by the exhibit itself.
Even though he praised it, it didn't feel like praise for me, so my feelings were a bit mixed.
So I asked Dad, 'What do you think of Jeong Yi-an?'
And he answered like this.
-Oh, you mean that guy you've been hanging out with lately? The one handing out cotton candy up front?
-Hmm... Good grades, good ideas... Seems like the kind of talent who'd be useful to have under you, but he won't become a big shot, will he?
-Not that it's something to say about someone else's precious child, but honestly, people like that usually sell off the company and run off to enjoy life as soon as the business starts looking big.
As expected. Jeong Yi-an isn't the type to waste his life on something like Bitcoin; he's the kind who needs a leash around his neck to be controlled by someone.
So I asked, 'If you wanted to keep someone like that working under you, how would you do it?'
At my question, Dad stared out at Jeong Yi-an beyond the classroom for a moment before saying,
"Money. So much money he can't refuse. So much that any thought of starting his own business vanishes completely."
"..."
"So if you're thinking of seducing him or something as a romantic interest..."
"...I don't have thoughts like that."
***
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ A few minutes after the school broadcast announced the start of the auditorium performances.
Students wandering the halls, kids managing exhibits in classrooms, and outside visitors all headed to the auditorium,
and Class 1-1, which had been swarming with cotton candy hopefuls, soon fell into silence.
Yoo So-mi, whom I hadn't seen all day because Class 5 was running a haunted house, must've been looking forward to the show too—she stopped by in her ghost makeup just to say hi and left.
"Jeong Yi-an, you're not going to the auditorium? The only worthwhile thing at this festival is the invited singer's performance, I thought."
As I was cleaning up the cotton candy machine, Han Si-a spoke up from behind me.
Well? I'd already seen the exact same thing before my regression, so I wasn't sure I needed to bother watching it again.
Plus, it wasn't even that great.
The invited singer tried to hype up the crowd for atmosphere, but it didn't land well, and I remember feeling bad for them as they got flustered.
Of course, if I said I was a regressor, I'd just get treated like a lunatic, so I gave a vague answer.
"I don't like crowded places. Anyway, if I want to return this machine by today, I need to start moving it now."
Not a lie, of course. Just not the whole truth.
If there wasn't money rolling in right in front of me, I wouldn't want to lie to a friend.
"What about you? You don't have to go to the auditorium?"
I asked her in return. Unlike me, she had nothing else to do now, so why was she sticking around?
The school had cleared tomorrow morning's classes for students to clean up exhibits and restore the classrooms.
So there wasn't much cleanup to worry about today, which made me even more puzzled about why Han Si-a was still here.
And at my question, Han Si-a gave a slight smile and said,
"Watching that stuff sounds way less fun than just hanging out with you."
"..."
What is this? If I weren't a regressor uncle but your average high school guy, I'd have fallen for that line 100% just now.
But Han Si-a herself seemed oblivious, leaning against the hallway wall and continuing to watch me wipe down the cotton candy machine.
She looked like she had something to say, so I paused and turned to her.
"Did you meet your stepmom? She probably had something to say to you."
I had met Han Si-a's stepmom.
Right around when the strawberry sugar ran out and I started using white sugar from the home ec room, she handed me her business card, said she'd set up a meeting later, and left.
"Actually, we made a bet on whether Class 1's exhibit would be a success. If I won, she'd apologize to you; if I lost, she'd control my weekend outings."
"If you hadn't handed out cotton candy in front of Class 1, the exhibit definitely wouldn't have hit the visitor numbers, and I'd have lost the bet. Thanks a lot. I mean it."
Hm. I see.
Betting to force her own stepmom to apologize to me—Han Si-a's no ordinary tough cookie.
But honestly, this uncle doesn't really want to meet that lady, apology or not...
Still, since Han Si-a went out of her way for me, I thanked her.
But she still had more to say, it seemed.
"What that means is, now no one can say anything if I meet up with you or So-mi on the weekend. So..."
"This weekend, wanna go see a movie with me?"
.
.
.
.
.
.
"Nah? This weekend is right after the midterms bread shuttle contract expires. If you wanna drag me out on a weekend for personal reasons, beat me in the finals first."
"..."
"Haha! Si-a, you thought you could win and run?"
"...Yeah. As expected, Yi-an, you're cuter when you're struggling pointlessly like that... So I'll just put the leash back on you."
Han Si-a seemed pleased about betting on final exam scores with me again, laughing like she was looking forward to it too much.
It was that expression she only shows when she's mainly trying to mess with me.
Judging by her face, if I lose this time, I'm in for something big... But if I win, that's that, right?
Last time was just bad luck with the test questions. This time, I can win.