Busy Weekend (5)
Buying a pile of cursed items I had never planned on left me no choice but to go into full austerity mode.
And what were friends for, if not this?
"…Why me."
Rice-grubber Yeon Hajin shot back with a thoroughly sour look, but I refused to budge.
You already made enough money that you never have to work another day in your life. And thanks to the world ending, most of that fortune is going to go to waste unused anyway. Feeding me a few meals in exchange for helping save the world is a bargain for you.
"Know any good places around here? Let's eat out."
"…I don't."
Don't even try to lie. You have every restaurant and every single shop near the academy memorized down to the last detail.
"Hmm, I'm craving pasta. Pasta's fine, right?"
I thumped him on the back a couple of times and shoved him forward.
"Haa…"
He held out for a second, then his resistance crumbled and he let himself be pushed along without a fight.
"So, any good pasta places nearby?"
"…I'd rather have a hamburger than pasta."
Of course, in that brief window he tried to drift us toward the cheaper option…
But when you're the one getting free food, you can generously yield the menu choice.
"That so? Then hamburgers it is! I'll specially concede this one for you!"
"……."
Enduring Hajin's scorching stare the whole way, we arrived at a fast-food place—a brand famous for its cost-performance ratio.
This guy was truly ruthless.
I picked my order at the kiosk, then turned around and grinned at Hajin standing behind me.
"Haa…"
He sighed, stepped up, chose his own meal, and paid for mine as well.
"Thanks~ I'll dig in!"
I took the vibrating pager they handed us at the counter, found a seat, and sat down.
"What did you do over the weekend?"
"The weekend? Hmm…"
As Hajin settled into the seat across from me, he thought for a moment before answering.
"Just trained a bit and cleared a few gates and dungeons."
He didn't go into detail, but it didn't seem all that different from the original story. He was probably preparing to stop the Church's backdoor during Thursday's dungeon practical.
"What about you?"
"Me? Pretty much the same."
It had been a pretty eventful three days, though.
As I was replaying the past stretch of time, a question suddenly popped into my head.
"Oh, right. Do you know anything about the Black Shadow Society?"
"The Black Shadow Society?"
"Yeah, the ones who run the Black Market."
Even if the original novel never went into much detail, Hajin might still know a thing or two.
"Not really."
"Really?"
"…Why would you even think I know something like that in the first place?"
"Just because?"
His reaction made it feel like he knew something, but he clearly wasn't going to share. When he started grilling me instead, I gave a vague answer and changed the subject.
"What do you usually do when you have free time?"
"Huh? I just told you. Train and hunt."
"No, no, not that—"
Bzzzt— bzzzt—
The pager went off at the perfect moment. I stopped Hajin from getting up and went to the counter alone.
After setting the food on the table and sitting back down, I finished my question.
"Got any hobbies or anything?"
The expression of Hajin, who had been reaching for his burger, went distant for a second.
"……."
He simply started eating in silence, and I, having accidentally stepped on a landmine, found myself with nothing to say and quietly ate as well.
A short while later, after finishing his burger, Hajin finally spoke with a complicated look on his face.
"…I used to like games, but I haven't really played any lately……."
It was an expression that looked like it carried a whole backstory. He was probably thinking of the time before he transmigrated.
According to what was mentioned in the original, he had been an aspiring pro gamer—and a pretty promising one with a name that was starting to get out there. Then something happened that turned him into a full-blown rice-grubber, and later he transmigrated while gaming…
What that "something" actually was, I had no idea. The original never said.
I sucked on my zero-cola and asked the thoughtful-looking Hajin,
"You like games?"
"…Yeah. I do."
The answer that came back to my light question felt surprisingly heavy. It was as if his entire life was packed tightly into that short affirmation.
"What kind of games do you like?"
"…I'm not sure."
He said it with an awkward little laugh.
The game he had loved and trained for as a pro almost certainly didn't exist in this world. And the game that later became the setting of this world—the one he had grown attached to afterward—obviously didn't exist here either.
I couldn't really know what he was thinking or feeling right now. It was far too complicated to reduce to a few lines of description from the original novel.
Even so, the fact that the Yeon Hajin sitting in front of me held a depth beyond the character described in the story was something I rather liked. It felt like proof that this world wasn't fake.
Beyond my clear field of vision, Hajin's face held a tangled mess of emotions. I smiled faintly and said,
"So what? You can just start looking for something new from now on, right?"
"……."
"Are you planning on never gaming for the rest of your life?"
"It's not that…"
"Then that's that. If you keep playing, you'll find at least one more game that suits your taste, won't you?"
"…I guess so."
Okay. I was feeling generous.
"I'll play with you later too. It's more fun with company."
"You like games?"
"Nope? I've never played a game in my life."
"…?"
The complicated emotions filling his face drained away, replaced by a look of pure disbelief. Looking at his now much lighter expression, I said,
"You can just teach me, right?"
"Why would I?"
"Then don't. Just play by yourself."
At that, Hajin let out a dry little laugh.
"Nah. Let's play together later. I'll teach you."
His expression was far more at ease now. That ought to cover the cost of the meal, right?
Maybe I actually had a talent for counseling?
Wait, thinking about it, counseling fees are usually more expensive than a hamburger, aren't they? I could probably get another free meal out of this later.
Whether he knew about my freeloading plans or not, Hajin started clearing the table. I stood up with him, helped tidy up, and we left the restaurant.
As we walked side by side toward the academy, a convenience store suddenly caught my eye.
"Hey, let's stop by the convenience store real quick."
"……."
When I said that, Hajin didn't answer and just stared at me with a thoroughly suspicious look.
"Ah, I'm not asking you to buy anything this time."
Only then did he nod and head inside.
Look at him, drawing such a strict line between public and private. Ruthless bastard.
While I was browsing around the store, I spotted Hajin standing blankly in front of the drink fridge. I walked up, poked him, and asked,
"What are you doing?"
"…Nothing. It's nothing."
Leaving the limp reply behind me, I grabbed a Forest's Eye from the fridge. I felt his gaze from the side.
"What?"
I asked him as he stared at the drink in my hand with a thoroughly dubious expression.
"Want one too? Should I buy it for you?"
"…I'll pass."
Even the rice-grubber who would normally leap at anything free had things he avoided, huh?
I snorted a laugh and moved on. I'd make him drink one later when the chance came. It only had a weird image; once you actually tried it, it was pretty good. The world was just too harsh.
After grabbing a few more daily necessities, I headed for the register—only to find Hajin already checking out.
"I'll wait outside."
"Okey~"
I watched him leave the store, then finished paying myself.
Ding-a-ling—
I dumped everything I'd bought into my inventory except the Forest's Eye and stepped outside. Up ahead, I saw Hajin's back as he stared blankly at the sky.
I pulled a drink from my inventory and walked up to him. Sensing my presence, he started to turn around.
I rose onto my tiptoes and pressed the cold can against his cheek.
"Ah, cold. What is this."
"Here. A present."
Mid-turn, his cheek met the can I was holding out. He flinched at the chill and jerked his head back.
"You kept staring at this earlier. Didn't you want one?"
The drink he had been eyeing so intently in the convenience store just now.
It was…
"…How did you even get this."
Beer.
"This noona has her ways~"
I hadn't bought it just now. I'd bought it yesterday. It hadn't even been that hard to get. You just walk into a convenience store with a somewhat clueless-looking male part-timer, flash your face at the register, and while he's flustered staring at you he forgets to check your ID.
He probably didn't even register what I bought. Of course, there was the side effect of a high chance of getting hit on, but all you had to do was politely refuse and never go back to that store. It was far away anyway, so there was no reason to return.
"…You drink?"
"Nope?"
"…?"
I was a model student who had never touched alcohol or cigarettes in my life.
"I just bought it to try feeding it to Chae-ah later."
"……."
That was a lie. I had bought it for Hajin from the start. Even in the original story, whenever his stress piled up he would start craving beer. It seemed like a preference that had carried over from before he transmigrated, but after becoming a minor he could never get any, so he always looked regretful. Being completely clueless about how to obtain it, he just kept wishing until the frustration eventually exploded into a full mental breakdown.
And male mental breakdowns had zero market demand.
I held the beer can out to him. Whether drinking it would actually relieve that stress or not, I had no idea—but doing something was better than doing nothing.
Hajin took the beer and looked at me with extremely suspicious eyes.
"Ah, if you don't want it, just say so."
Feeling unnecessarily annoyed, I reached out to snatch it back. He dodged my hand and lifted the can high over his head. Thanks to the height difference, my fingers couldn't reach. When I glared up at him in dissatisfaction, he averted his eyes.
"…It's not that."
Right. If you like it, why keep playing hard to get?
I snorted a laugh and poked him in the chest.
Of course, someone might worry that if I kept this up he might eventually launch a confession attack, but the odds of that were basically zero. In the original, Hajin kept an iron wall up until the very end even when the heroines openly pursued him. Odds were high that either his sexual orientation or his sexual function had some serious issues.
Either way, treating him without reservation and looking after him a little now and then shouldn't cause any major problems. So all I needed to do was pile up affection and keep freeloading meals.
"One hamburger set for this much is a solid profit, right? Admit it."
Hajin looked down at me with a complicated gaze and answered quietly.
"…Yeah."
"Then you're buying me food again later?"
"……."
"Answer."
"……."
…Ruthless bastard.
The next day, thanks to my completely wrecked sleep schedule over the weekend, I showed up at school in a total daze.
"Haaawn…"
With a little time left before morning assembly, I couldn't fight the fatigue any longer. I spread a blanket on my desk and face-planted into it.
How long was I like that?
Knock-knock—
At the sound of someone tapping my desk, I lifted my head to find Han Yeoreum looking at me. Our eyes met, and she asked after me.
"You look really tired. Did you stay up late over the weekend?"
"Yeah…. Pretty late…."
Maybe she heard the exhaustion in my voice. Yeoreum smiled a little, then got to the point.
"Anyway, Haneul. Kang Hyun says he wants the dungeon team to hit a gate together after school today. What do you want to do?"
Ah, right. I had tossed Kang Hyun that bait earlier.
…Would it give a lot of experience?
Yu Haneul Casual Outfit Illustration