018 – New Wine in New Wineskins # 2
018 - New Wine in New Wineskins # 2
I recklessly applied for a stagiaire position at Chef Seong's restaurant.
Chef Seong told me that seeing me reminded him of himself when he started out with bare hands.
That was the reason I passed.
Thinking about it now, it was truly reckless, and I was lucky.
I learned all sorts of things over half a year.
That the path of culinary arts is long and arduous.
And that the way of wine is narrow and insular.
Head Sommelier Team Leader Jeong was a highly skilled man who had won competitions multiple times.
His contribution to Chef Seong's restaurant earning two stars must have been quite significant.
Because wine pairing is essential for fine dining.
However, as a human being, he was utterly rotten.
A guy who used wine as an excuse to hit on female employees.
He would hand a glass of his cherished wine to women he fancied, but.
I used to empty those glasses for them behind their backs near the kitchen back door.
So to speak, a black knight.
That was when I tasted it.
A Naka Valley Auction limited vintage.
Team Leader Jeong bragged so much about how there were only three bottles of it in South Korea.
I remembered its name and flavor to this day.
That very flavor radiated from Yeonseo-ssi.
The wine she had drunk.
The ghost possession incident.
Team Leader Jeong─.
Is it an overreach to think they are connected?
So I asked again.
"Yeonseo-ssi's boyfriend. Was he a sommelier?"
"No. He was a college student."
...Eh? He wasn't?
Feeling a gaze, I turned my head to see Boribori looking at me with narrowed eyes.
Geez! People can get things wrong sometimes in life!
Then Yeonseo-ssi spoke.
"Ah, I think oppa said back then that he got that wine from some factory or something. He said we should drink it together on our first anniversary date, but that bastard had to go and cheat on me with my closest friend...."
I had nothing left to say.
"Haigo, you looked like you were making some grand deduction, only to get it completely wrong. Funny, so funny."
Before long, it was 11 PM.
In front of the mansion.
Cho Sena-noona opened the driver's side door of her pink sports car.
"Which direction is your home? Want noona to give you a ride on the way?"
"Really?"
An opportunity to ride in the passenger seat of a sports car wouldn't come by often.
However, that was a two-seater vehicle.
Which meant there was no room for Boribori to ride.
I couldn't put Boribori in the trunk, after all.
If I did that... Boribori would never forgive me for the rest of his life.
"Thanks for the offer, but I'm fine."
"Hmph, you seemed to know wine well so I was going to ask if you wanted to go grab some wine, but oh well."
Vrooong─.
The nameless Ferrari slid out onto the road and disappeared into the distance, leaving a red trail behind.
Feeling somehow immensely exhausted, I trudged along.
Ding-dong─.
My cell phone chimed right then.
「Kim Manchun - 20,000,000 KRW deposited」
My eyes went wide.
It felt as though the fatigue that had piled up from my fingertips to my toes like soaked cotton—making my body so heavy—vanished in an instant.
A refreshing thrill, as if cold water were poured over the top of my head, shook my skull.
"...Ugh! I just came...."
Magic is the best!
Love love love magic!
However, as I stared at my phone, Choi Janggun-ajeossi's words came to mind.
He said it would be better to get rid of the 「Monkey's Paw Site」 as soon as possible.
'What kind of wish should I make?'
The core of the Monkey's Paw Site is return and risk.
It makes sense to wish for something with a manageable risk.
'A sports car....'
Suddenly, the sports car I saw earlier came to mind.
And Cho Sena-noona, who got into the sports car in the middle of the night wearing sunglasses with a cigarette in her mouth.
Saying this now, she was a tremendous beauty.
If I had gone to drink wine with her today....
'...Ha, fuck. Should I call her back right now?'
Feeling like I had personally blown a massive opportunity, FOMO started creeping in.
This is worth at least four weeks of medical treatment.
Reaching that thought, I suddenly became curious.
「Monkey's Paw Site」
「Enter your wish: Girlfriend」
「Risk: ■■■■■□□□□□」
Wow, this is hilarious.
The risk filled up halfway?
This is on par with the '1 billion won' wish I tested before.
Is me getting a girlfriend in the same tier as earning 1 billion won?
Since I was already at it, I added more words.
「Enter your wish: Rich girlfriend」
「Risk: ■■■■■■■□□□」
"Oh, look at this."
「Enter your wish: Rich and beautiful girlfriend」
「Risk: ■■■■■■■■■□」
"Oh, even with this, there's still one block left?"
The urge to press enter was overwhelming.
However, I barely managed to suppress that emotion and cleared the wish input field.
And the new sentence I filled into the blank space was as follows:
「Enter your wish: What I desire most from the depths of my heart」
「Risk: ■■■■■■■■■□」
So it's the same tier of risk as a rich and beautiful girlfriend.
Just as I thought, 'As expected, this might be a bit much,' and was about to erase the input, bzzzz—a mountain mosquito landed on the back of my hand.
Maybe because there were many bushes nearby, it was an Adidas Mosquito.
If I got bitten by this bastard, it would itch for days.
At the moment I raised my palm, watching the fellow trying to insert its straw into my bulging vein─.
Hwoosh, thwack-!
Something like a whip flew out of nowhere and struck the back of my hand first.
"Ouch."
Turning my head, I saw Boribori dusting off the tip of his arrowhead tail with his hand.
That was the moment I figured out how Boribori catches mosquitoes.
And....
「Wish Submission Complete」
「Loading: ■■■■■□□□□□」
"Huh─!?"
I felt all the blood drain from my entire body.
Boribori had hit the back of my hand with his tail to catch the mosquito.
And at that moment, my finger accidentally pressed enter─?
Even though it was a sweltering summer, the back of my head felt as chilled as if it had touched ice.
「Loading: ■■■■■■■□□□」
「Loading: ■■■■■■■■■□」
The mysterious loading bar gradually moved, and—.
Finally transformed into words and numbers I could understand.
「Placing a call....」
「010-9XXX-7XXX」
"...Uh...."
My cell phone started making a call to some number on its own.
Tuu-uu-uu—The ringing sound played once.
─You. Who are you?
Soon, a woman's voice rang out from my cell phone.
Her voice was so crisp and clear it made me wonder if she was a voice actor, snapping me instantly awake.
"Uh... wrong number. I'm sorry!"
「Call Ended」
I hurriedly hung up the phone.
My heart was thumping hard, and cold sweat kept dripping from my forehead.
However, the most strange thing in this situation was Boribori's reaction.
Boribori snatched my cell phone away from me.
Then he rubbed his cheek and face against the screen.
"Malka...."
His half-closed eyes grew slightly, tearfully moist.
Why is he doing that?
「Risk: ■■■■■■■■■□」
Even in this situation, that black bar I saw earlier kept flashing in my head.
Without even knowing for sure, it felt like I was screwed in more ways than one.
Just in case, I turned off my cell phone and hurriedly returned home.
Then I logged onto the 'Monkey Gallery' and posted a thread.
====
Anon(3.0)
Title: I accidentally hammered a maxed-out risk wish into the Monkey's Paw Site, what do I do??
Can't I cancel or undo this?
Isn't there any way around this?
====
The Monkey's Paw Site was like a reward item you could obtain after being a moderator of this 'Monkey Gallery' for a year.
So the users of this gallery ought to know more about the current situation than anyone else.
Comments soon poured in.
└Ganadaramajusa: What on earth is the Monkey's Paw Site?
└This bastard came to bait again today with a weird IP.
Could it be that nobody actually knows what the 'Monkey's Paw Site' is?
Soon another comment was posted.
└Get Caught in a Ghost Story: You mean the derivative ghost story of the Monkey's Paw? If you made a wish there, just consider yourself fucked lol
└Get Caught in a Ghost Story: Monkey-related ghost stories are at least Tiger Hazard Grade, GG EZ
# # #
「010-9XXX-7XXX」
"This number is 'What I desire most from the depths of my heart'?"
In the end, I stayed up all night.
When the morning birds began to chirp, I got out of bed and turned on the internet first.
If there was one thing I learned recently, it was that there is way more information on the internet than one would expect.
「010-9XXX-7XXX」
I searched the number I found out yesterday on the internet.
I thought something might pop up.
However, contrary to my expectations, nothing in particular showed up this time.
Sweat poured down from early morning.
Even though I blasted the air conditioner thanks to the 20 million won deposited yesterday, it was hot.
Whatever the case, I couldn't just sit still doing nothing.
Based on my experience, things I was terrified of often turned out to be no big deal when I actually faced them head-on.
Maybe this matter is like that too?
So after staring at the number saved in my phone for a long time.
I made a big resolution and hit the call button again.
Tuu-uu-uu—.
This time as well, the dial tone rang only once.
I felt a presence beyond the phone screen, and soon a somewhat slender and ephemeral voice was heard.
━You. Who are you?
My hair stood on end as if struck by lightning.
Unless it was just my imagination, it was the exact same voice as yesterday.
As if a pre-recorded audio file were being played.
Pitch, rhythm, tone—everything was identical.
My thought process didn't stop there; it noticed yet another oddity.
When someone answers the phone, shouldn't they usually say hello─?
However, the woman on the other end of the receiver asked who I was as soon as she picked up.
This is extraordinary.
「Risk: ■■■■■■■■■□」
However, I couldn't just remain terrified either.
My life might be on the line.
I have to pull myself together.
So what should I say, starting from where and how?
Should I just be a man and drop the line to meet up and talk?
The moment my dilemma reached its peak and was about to slip through my lips.
━Let's meet and talk.
━Come by 2 PM today to the address I'm about to give you.
The person on the other end of the phone beat me to the punch.
Asking to meet and talk.
Who on earth does she think I am?
However, at the address she read out after that, I felt a dizzying surge of vertigo.
━Gyeryusan Bacchus Winery.
The call ended just like that.
Why wine, of all things.
Didn't President Kim Manchun say his only daughter Yeonseo-ssi went strange after drinking wine?
Where did she say he got that wine from again?
The timing is truly bizarre.
Is it a coincidence, or....
As my thoughts deepened in various ways, Boribori grabbed my phone and pressed his ear to it.
As if trying to hear more of the sound coming from within.
"Malka...."
Although the call had ended long ago, the way he wagged his tail gently made him look just like a Border Collie that had met someone he was deeply glad to see.
'Could the woman on the phone be someone Boribori knows?'
Perhaps this opportunity would allow me to learn various things about Boribori.
Because there was a chance that getting to know Boribori in detail was the wish deep inside my heart.
So after packing my bags lightly, I set out.
Mount Gyeryusan was a location reached by transferring buses a few times from my studio apartment.
I used to go there often whenever I felt like hiking, even reaching the summit and coming back.
"Mhehe...."
At that moment, Boribori gazed at the scenery outside the bus with sparkling eyes.
Just like someone riding in a car for the very first time.
He even pressed the stop buttons recklessly.
Piiii─.
However, the bus driver only clicked his tongue in bewilderment.
"Who keeps pressing the stop button!? Geez, how bizarre!"
Stopping the bus at every single bus stop and causing a traffic jam.
Truly, one could call it demonic.