A Hero's Appetite

I figured that if I offered to treat someone to a proper meal, most people would either refuse outright or at least pretend to decline once or twice out of politeness. "Really? It does look like a restaurant. What are you going to make?" But Snow White completely ignored such common sense. Her eyes sparkled as she practically pounced on the offer. Honestly, if I coaxed her just a little more, she might have started drooling.

"Ah, I'm fine. I need to return to the scene quickly..."

In contrast to Snow White, the police officer who had driven us here politely declined my suggestion. He turned the car around and headed straight back to the incident site. But while he left, Snow White stayed right where she was, planted firmly in front of my shop.

"I was actually planning to grab a snack at the market since it was mealtime, but I got a support request and couldn't eat anything."

"I see..."

"I skipped breakfast this morning because I wanted to eat a lot at the market during today's patrol... so I'm really hungry."

Maybe she realized even she had accepted the offer a bit too eagerly. Snow White started explaining details I hadn't even asked about.

As if to back up her words, a loud rumble echoed from her stomach.

'Now that I think about it, they did say that when superhumans use their powers, they burn through an insane amount of calories along with their superhuman power, right?'

Watching Snow White look genuinely starving brought back a piece of common knowledge I'd momentarily forgotten. Superhumans burn calories at an extreme rate, so it's rare to see them gain weight, and their regular appetite tends to be enormous. Astra had always eaten quite a lot whenever she visited my shop too. I'd never pointed it out, worried it might make her self-conscious.

"Come inside and wait. I'll whip something up quickly."

"Okay!"

Even though I was a little flustered, I'd already offered, so I decided to at least treat her to a meal. I ushered Snow White into the shop. It might have started as a polite gesture, but after she'd saved me and even escorted me all the way here, I genuinely wanted to repay her.

'I bought plenty of ingredients at the market. Should I use those? Hmm...'

"Is there anything in particular you'd like to eat?"

"Huh? Aren't you just going to serve me something from the menu? Um... then, do you have anything spicy?"

"Spicy food?"

I'd asked while thinking over the menu, but her answer caught me off guard. Spicy, huh. Come to think of it, quite a few women actually seemed to enjoy spicy flavors.

'Alright. Decision made.'

Thanks to her, I settled on the menu right away. I happened to have just the right ingredients from the market too.

I stored the remaining ingredients in the pantry and pulled out what I'd need immediately. Green onions, cabbage, a bit of garlic, and sausages. And...

"Tteok?"

The fresh, warm, chewy garraetteok I'd bought straight from the rice cake shop that morning.

'We're going with garraetteok tteokbokki.'

It was a little different from the usual tteokbokki made with thin rice cakes. The long, thick garraetteok soaked up the thick sauce beautifully and tasted fantastic. Even though they'd cooled a bit, the ones I'd bought fresh today were still wonderfully chewy, so the tteokbokki should turn out great.

I placed the cabbage and green onions on the cutting board and sliced them into appropriate sizes. Then I took out the fish cakes from the fridge, cutting some into long strips and the rest into squares.

I prepared two pans. One I filled with water, the other with oil. In the water pan, I added gochujang, starch syrup, chili powder, a touch of curry powder, and other seasonings to make the sauce.

'She said she likes it spicy...'

I slightly increased the chili powder ratio to amp up the heat. Meanwhile, once the oil was hot, I dropped in the long strips of fish cake to make fried fish cakes.

'I personally like adding kimmari to my tteokbokki, but...'

There wasn't enough time to soak, boil, and wrap the glass noodles in seaweed, so I settled for the fried fish cakes instead.

While that was happening, I tossed the garraetteok, green onions, cabbage, and fish cakes into the bubbling sauce. I also brought out some sausages from the pantry and added them in.

"Hmm. She did say she was hungry..."

This alone would be plenty and quite filling, but since she was a superhuman, I decided to prepare an extra side dish. I took out some pre-boiled eggs I always kept in stock, added them to the tteokbokki, scooped some warm rice, and mixed in salt, seaweed flakes, a bit of flying fish roe, and tuna to make rice balls.

I plated the freshly fried fish cakes separately, poured a peach-flavored drink into a cup to go with it, and as a finishing touch, sprinkled cheese over the tteokbokki. The moment the cheese began to melt from the heat, I brought the dish out.

"Your tteokbokki is ready, ma'am."

"Whoaaa..."

She had the appearance of a cool beauty, yet her behavior was exactly like an affectionate puppy. With an expression that would have made her tail wag furiously if she had one, Snow White stared at the tteokbokki I'd served like a girl in love, licking her lips.

"I'll eat well!!"

She stabbed a long piece of garraetteok with the fork I handed her, lifted it up, and took a big bite. The chewy garraetteok, which didn't break apart easily, slid down her throat coated in the spicy sauce. As she savored the flavor, her eyes sparkled.

"It's delicious!"

She devoured the garraetteok in an instant, just like a squirrel nibbling on an acorn. Then she moved on to the fish cakes and sausages that had been added in. Her gaze landed on the fried fish cakes I'd set aside.

"What's this?"

"They're fried fish cakes. They're really good dipped in the tteokbokki sauce."

"Mmm... Then shouldn't you have put them in from the beginning?"

What was she talking about? The whole point with fried items like these was to serve them separately later so people could dip them in the sauce according to their preference. She stared at the golden-brown fried cakes with a puzzled look for a moment, but then trusted me and dipped one generously in the sauce before taking a bite.

Luckily, it seemed to suit her taste. The moment it entered her mouth, her eyes lit up, and she began polishing them off two at a time.

"Hoo... It's spicy!"

"Try the rice balls too."

Even though she was a superhuman, her sense of taste seemed no different from a regular person's. With her face slightly flushed and repeatedly saying how spicy it was, she soothed the heat by eating the salmon roe rice balls and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠sipping the peach drink.

'This is nice to watch.'

As a cook, seeing someone enjoy the food I'd made so enthusiastically put me in a good mood too.

'Astra eats well too, but she has this graceful way of eating. It's different from this frantic devouring... Astra?'

The moment I naturally thought of the other beautiful woman who ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠often ate at my shop, I remembered the original promise I'd completely forgotten about amid today's chaotic escape drama.

At the same time, the bell on the shop door jingled, and a familiar figure stepped inside.

"Siwoo, I'm here... Huh?"

"Mmm?"

Astra walked in without hesitation since I'd left the door open while attending to Snow White. Her eyes met Snow White's, whose mouth was smeared with red sauce as she ate her tteokbokki.

"Seol...?"

"Yuna?"

Both of them stared at each other with startled expressions. Astra spoke first.

"Seol, why are you here? Weren't you supposed to be clearing out a villain organization in your district today?"

"Yeah. But I escorted the person who was taken hostage here, and he offered me a meal, so I'm eating."

After her initial surprise, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Snow White answered in a completely casual tone. She scraped up the last of the tteokbokki sauce with her rice ball and took a bite before turning the question back on Astra.

"What about you?"

"Me? I came to see Siwoo... Wait, hostage?!"

"Yeah. During the operation earlier today, we let one D-class villain slip away..."

Snow White explained to Astra, who had frozen in shock at the word "hostage." I stood there awkwardly between the two women who seemed incredibly close, just watching them.

"To think something like that happened... Are you hurt anywhere?"

"No. Snow White rescued me in time, so I'm fine."

Snow White, who had finished eating, tilted her head curiously as she watched Astra sigh in relief and express concern for me.

"So what's the relationship between you two? Yuna, why did you come here at this hour?"

"...Ah?"

Astra flinched, her body trembling slightly. She quickly exchanged a glance with me before spitting out a normal-sounding excuse.

"Ah... It's nothing. This is part of my patrol route, you know. So we've gotten a bit friendly from seeing each other often."

"Hmm..."

"I often stop by for a meal after work, so I just came to eat today too."

"But didn't you say the shop wasn't open today?"

"...R-really? I didn't know..."

"You said you eat here often, right?"

"I-I've never come on weekends before."

Snow White wore a strange expression as she pried into our relationship. Watching Astra fumble through her lies, she smiled slyly and said,

"Liar. That's not it at all, is it?"

".......!!"

The meaningful smile on Snow White's face startled both Astra and me, who had been staying out of it. We both held our breath in surprise.

'What is that look? The one that says she figured something out?'

They seemed pretty close. Had she been observing Astra up close and noticed the recent changes in her...?

"You're dating, aren't you?!"

"...Eh?"

"Right? You've been spacing out a lot lately, and your chest has gotten bigger... You're in a relationship, aren't you?!"

Just as I was watching Snow White with a tense expression, she let out a completely deflating guess. Her face was full of curiosity about her friend's love life, mixed with a hint of mischief.

'Well... that makes sense.'

To her, I was just the owner of a restaurant they'd happened to meet at. It was probably the limit of her imagination to assume I was simply dating Astra rather than thinking I was hiding some secret related to her.

"It's not like that."

"Come on. I know you. You work so hard on hero activities, but you've never gotten particularly close to any specific civilian before, right?"

Astra, who had also let out a sigh of relief like me, tried to calm Snow White down as she kept trying to link us together. Then she pointed at the communicator on Snow White's side.

"Instead of asking about me, shouldn't you be paying attention to that first?"

"Huh?... Gasp! Oh no. I left before finishing the cleanup!"

It seemed she'd been so focused on the food that she'd completely forgotten she still had work left. In a panic, she fiddled with the constantly ringing communicator, made a distressed face, and rushed toward the shop exit.

"Sorry, I have to go first! You'll explain everything properly later, right?"

"Explain what? I keep telling you there's nothing between us!"

"Yeah, yeah. Sure, liar. Oh, and was it Siwoo? Thanks for the meal!"

She rattled off her words in a frantic rush and disappeared. The shop, which had been incredibly noisy just moments ago, now felt even quieter in the sudden silence. I awkwardly spoke first.

"You two seem pretty close."

"Yes. We're friends. Though Snow White calls me her rival."

Astra let out a small laugh, a gentle smile lingering on her lips as she gazed at the spot where Snow White had been. She looked genuinely happy talking about her. Just from the way she kept going on about Snow White, I could roughly guess what kind of person she was to Astra.

She spent a long time almost bragging about what kind of person Snow White was, but her words were eventually cut off by the sound of a stomach rumbling.

"Ah..."

Did they even share similarities like this? The cute stomach growl reminded me of Snow White from earlier. Astra's face turned red with embarrassment as she shyly covered her stomach with her hands.

"You're hungry, aren't you? When I think about it, you originally came to eat my buffed cooking, but I ended up letting Snow White in..."

"N-no, after what you went through today, I couldn't possibly..."

"It's fine. Please sit. You've come all this way, and Snow White has left, so let's finish what we started."

I'd actually been cooking the whole time Astra was talking about Snow White, so her portion of tteokbokki was already done.

'Buff Bestowal.'

As I looked at the plated tteokbokki and activated my ability, strength flowed out of me and the buff took hold. I'd been through unexpected events all day and was tired, but... when I remembered that those events had happened while I was out buying ingredients to make her food, I felt like I had to finish no matter what.

I wouldn't tell her that I'd gone to buy ingredients for her dish and gotten caught up in the incident, though. It would only make her feel guilty.

"Here you go."

"Ah. Then... I'll eat well."

This was already the third time I was serving her a buffed dish. Thanks to that, she seemed quite used to it now. With a somewhat determined expression, she didn't hesitate and started eating the tteokbokki.

At that moment.

Snow White, who had left Siwoo's shop and was quickly returning to her assigned district, was getting scolded by her operator. Still, escorting a citizen who'd been ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in danger wasn't something worthy of blame, so the operator stopped the lecture there and told her she could head home for the day.

"Ugh."

Snow White sighed and ended the communication. If she'd just mentioned in advance that she was going to eat while she was out, she wouldn't have gotten scolded this much...

'Whatever. At least no one got hurt and everything wrapped up well.'

She'd nearly let an innocent civilian get injured, but since no one had actually been hurt, she felt relieved. Snow White began preparing to head home. Then...

"Wait. No, if work is over now..."

She no longer needed to return to her assigned district. So instead of heading home, she turned her steps in a different direction.

"I should go see Yuna again."

Back toward Siwoo's shop, where she'd just left.

"What exactly is her relationship with that guy? Did she really get a boyfriend? Hmm..."