Chicken and the Lost Child
I stared at my bank account, unable to hold back a gasp of amazement. “Wow.”
JB Comprehensive Account - Savings
463,150 won
The eighty thousand won came from four straight days of attaching eyeballs to teddy bear dolls. And in just two days of hardcore rice-eating streams, I’d pulled in three hundred thousand. Of course, that was because I’d sold off every single ingredient I’d stockpiled beforehand. It probably wouldn’t keep flowing in at this rate. Still, one thing was crystal clear—this was way more efficient than gluing plastic eyes onto stuffed animals.
Sure, it still wasn’t enough to live on, so I’d have to keep looking for part-time work. But just having a little breathing room in my account was enough to make me feel lighter.
“Huuuaaaam…”
Now that the tension had drained away, my whole body felt lazy. When I get like this, nothing beats eating chicken. Come to think of it… I hadn’t ordered delivery in forever. Right after I returned to Earth I ordered it pretty often, but once I bought the Reverse Capsule I had to start pinching pennies.
…Hmm. Maybe I should treat myself to some chicken after so long. My wallet situation wasn’t completely solved yet, but I figured everyone needs to let their lungs expand once in a while. Just for today. Just this once, ordering chicken wouldn’t be so bad, right? Like a little reward for how hard I’d been working lately.
“…Alright.”
Once you make up your mind about something, there’s no point hesitating. Hesitating over something you’re going to do anyway is just a waste of time. Knowing that very well, I immediately opened the delivery app on my phone—‘HereYong’—and tapped into the chicken category.
My absolute favorite was the cheese-seasoned chicken loaded with cheese powder. That unique salty, savory flavor… If I had enough money I was confident I could eat it every single day without getting tired of it.
While I was happily daydreaming, an unexpected obstacle slammed into me.
Delivery time: 30 ~ 35 minutes
Delivery fee: 4,000 won (details)
Four thousand won for delivery? A single chicken was twenty thousand won, so the fee was literally one-fifth of the price. If I added a cola on top… even a small one would bring the total to twenty-six thousand five hundred won. Wasn’t that just too expensive?
I knew I wasn’t supposed to hesitate, but the price made it impossible not to. Especially since I wasn’t exactly swimming in cash. And it wasn’t like chicken was super cheap either. Maybe I should just give up…
The thought flashed through my mind, but I shook my head and pictured it instead. Grabbing a drumstick with my right hand, ignoring the heat as I took a big, juicy bite. The crispy, salty fried skin. The hot steam rising from it and the tender meat inside. Then a cold, refreshing cola to wash down all that heat and grease.
“Krrgh…”
Yeah, there was no way I could give up on chicken today. When you think about it, I hadn’t eaten delivery for over a year. This much was fine, right?
But the delivery fee really did sting. Which meant there was only one solution.
I really, really didn’t want to… but it looked like it was time to go outside.
★
I put on a hat and sunglasses. Not forgetting past mistakes and preparing thoroughly like this—I could probably call myself a pro hikikomori. Of course, my hair was so long that a hat didn’t do much, but I wanted to believe it would at least help scatter people’s attention a little.
Wouldn’t it be easier to just cut it short? I’d be lying if I said I’d never thought about it. But back when my hair had grown so long it dragged on the floor, one of the nuns suggested trimming it a bit. That was when a divine oracle came down saying it was absolutely forbidden. If anyone tried to cut my hair, the entire church would be punished. Wasn’t that goddess totally insane?
Anyway, when I kept complaining that it was too inconvenient when it got that long, I received a blessing that kept my hair at its current length automatically. …I still wasn’t sure if that counted as a blessing, though.
So I asked if she could also make it so the hair maintained itself, and she said watching me personally take care of my long hair was apparently very pleasing. What a creepy, perverted goddess.
Ever since that day my hair hadn’t changed length at all, and that stayed true even after I came to Earth. She did say cutting or trimming it for styling was allowed, but since I had zero interest in styling it, that didn’t mean anything.
In any case, thanks to this ridiculously long silver-white hair, going outside was always torture.
“Umm…”
I finished throwing on some clothes and checked myself in the mirror to make sure nothing looked weird. The hat was pulled down tight, and the sunglasses completely hid my eyes. If I added a mask on top of that… yeah, it would probably stand out even more. A hat and sunglasses could pass for fashion, but a mask on top of that screamed “Please notice me!” So this outfit was apparently the optimal stealth configuration for going outside.
Having reached that conclusion, I headed toward the chicken place—which was a murderous one-kilometer round trip away.
★
“Hic…”
What do I do?
On the way back home with my chicken, completely problem-free, a little girl with dark brown hair was standing at the entrance to the park, sobbing her eyes out. She definitely hadn’t been there when I went to buy the chicken…
There wasn’t a single other person passing by—maybe it was the time of day. Still, with a little kid crying like that, wouldn’t at least one person come over after hearing her?
…Ah. That one person was me.
“Umm…”
Our church had a saying about taking care of lost lambs. Of course the situation was a little different, but how could I just walk past a child crying all by herself? No matter how much my official title was Inquisitor, the fact that my roots were still those of a priest hadn’t changed. Which meant it was time for this perfectly respectable priest to step up.
“U-um, excuse me…”
“Hic…?”
When I approached her hesitantly, the little girl wiped her tears and looked up at me.
“Is something wrong…?”
“Who… are you…?”
“Ah, well… I live around here? I think…”
Her arms were trembling—she must have been really scared. Too bad for her. I was shaking even harder… Unlike the helmets I used in New Dimension, sunglasses perfectly hid the color of my eyes but didn’t completely block my gaze. Still, backing out now would mean I wasn’t qualified to be a priest. I turned my eyes slightly to the side and continued the conversation.
“If something’s wrong, I-I’d like to help…”
“I don’t… know the way… hic.”
Just as I thought—she was lost.
“What about your parents…?”
“They went to work… We just moved in the day before yesterday, and I was looking around the neighborhood and got lost…”
“Umm… Do you know your home address or your parents’ phone numbers?”
The little girl shook her head at my question. In that case, the only option was to take her to the police station. After organizing my thoughts, I held out my hand. She quietly grabbed onto my sleeve.
And then—
Gurgle—
Both my stomach and the little girl’s rumbled at the same time.
“…Are you hungry?”
The little girl nodded, and my eyes fell on the steaming chicken in my right hand.
…No helping it.
“Then before we go to the station… why don’t we stop by my house and eat some c-chicken together?”
“Is that… really okay?”
She looked up at me anxiously. There was no way I could shake my head in front of her.
“It’s fine. I ordered way too much for one person anyway.”
Well, I had ordered a whole one planning to eat the rest tomorrow, but…
“Thank you.”
When she bowed her head politely, I didn’t feel even the slightest bit of regret.
★
The little girl’s name was Yu Bora. She was six years old and a first-grade elementary student.
“My name is Selene.”
“Your last name is Sel? That’s weird.”
“It’s not exactly… well, you can think of it that way. Just call me Lene.”
And her personality was more energetic than I expected. Maybe because she’d warmed up to me, she immediately started talking casually, and once she calmed down she smiled brightly all the time…
“Why are you shaking so much, sis?”
“Ah, um, it’s because it’s winter and I’m cold…”
“It’s not even that cold today! That’s weird!”
“Haha…”
Even though the other person was only a six-year-old child, talking to someone was still quite a burden for me. No—actually, because she was a child it made me even more nervous. They say you’re supposed to make eye contact with kids. Unfortunately for me, that was impossible. Plus I kept stuttering and my body was trembling, so it was no wonder Bora found it strange.
“…Huh?”
“Ah, we’re here.”
“You live here, sis?”
“Ah, yes…”
“My family just moved here too!”
…Huh?
★
Regarding the lost child I found on the street turning out to be a resident of the apartment floor above mine.
Well, after coincidentally arriving at Bora’s house, I dropped her off and was about to enjoy my happy chicken time alone…
“It looks just like our house!”
“Because it’s the same apartment building…”
I couldn’t. As much as I wanted to just rest by myself, I wasn’t cold-hearted enough to leave a hungry child alone in an empty house.
And then Bora said,
“Do you live alone, sis?”
“Yes.”
“Then don’t you clean?”
“…”
The moment I stepped inside, she drove a nail straight into my heart.