Baek Seol's Side Effect

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"I told you, I'm fine."

In one of the treatment rooms maintained by the Association—a place countless heroes had relied on over the years—Astra, already looking remarkably recovered, was patiently fielding Baek Seol's endless fretting.

"The full workup didn't turn up anything else, did it?"

"Yeah, but…"

"What about you, Seol? You're the one who took a real beating."

"Me? I'm, well…"

Astra, packing up to be discharged, pointed at her friend. Baek Seol answered with a faintly awkward air.

"Back then. That cookie… after I ate it, my recovery kicked into high gear. My body was already a lot better by the time they got me here."

"Ah…"

Astra cast her mind back. The first day she had met Siwoo. She had broken a leg fighting a giant beast, yet the moment she received her first buff from his cooking, the fracture had mended to a startling degree. It hadn't been a complete cure, but the cooking had clearly supercharged her natural regeneration. Baek Seol must have experienced the same thing…

"Ugh… so what the hell is that guy, really?"

The moment talk turned to Siwoo, Baek Seol finally asked the question she had bitten back the entire time medical heroes had been hovering nearby. She had read the room well enough—Astra had clearly been trying to paper over Siwoo's ability—and had gone along with the cover story for the time being.

"Does this make any sense? I eat a cookie some guy hands me and suddenly I'm taking down a B+-rank villain by myself. Now the tests come back clean. How is that even possible?"

"Calm down, Seol."

"Do I look like I can calm down? I've been dying to grill you about this from the start, but you were obviously hiding something, so I held it in!"

While she soothed her friend and let the bottled-up words pour out, Astra cast a careful glance around them. They had left the treatment room, yet the Association was still a constant thoroughfare of heroes. This was no place for the conversation they needed to have.

"I'll explain everything. Just come with me. We can't talk here."

"…Where are we going?"

"It's not something I can explain alone."

Astra pulled out her phone, scrolled through the mountain of missed calls that had piled up while she was under care, and found one particular man's name. A quiet smile touched her lips.

That guy actually said he would come find me—and then showed up at the scene itself…

Siwoo had walked straight into a villain attack for her sake. Because of him, both she and her friend were alive. Gratitude flooded her chest until it almost hurt.

Siwoo.

Why was her heart hammering so hard while she typed a message saying they would head to his shop to talk?

"Yeah. I wanted to ask him myself anyway… and I still need to thank him properly."

Watching Astra send the text, Baek Seol murmured the same man's name under her breath. As disorienting as everything had been, she knew full well that the only reason the two of them were sitting here chatting like this was because of him.

Astra regarded her fondly—until another forgotten detail about Siwoo surfaced, and she looked at Baek Seol again with fresh concern.

"But Seol… are you really okay?"

"Huh? I already said I am. No problems with my body, no aftereffects. If anything, my power feels sharper."

"No, I mean… um. Your chest didn't suddenly get bigger, or you didn't start lactating out of nowhere, or anything like that…"

"…Yuna. Is your head okay? I'm a virgin who has never been pregnant. Why would I be producing milk? What kind of nonsense is that?"

"No—!!"

Astra had only meant to voice a genuine worry born of her own experience, and instead she was being treated like a woman with a screw loose. She thumped her chest in frustration.

Is she actually fine?

Looking at Baek Seol—perfectly normal, with none of the things that had happened to her—Astra felt a flicker of relief… and, at the same time, a strangely unfair pang.

So it was possible to walk away completely unscathed? Then everything that happened to me…

"Finally."

I let out a long breath of relief as the message arrived on my phone.

Both of them had recovered without serious aftereffects, been discharged, and were on their way here for a proper talk. I had expected at least a month of recovery given how badly they had been hurt, but they were out far sooner than I imagined.

Did superhumans just bounce back that much faster?

Looks like they still don't know about the side effect.

Well, it wasn't the kind of thing that showed on the surface. If anything, it was a side effect you could probably just leave alone… though I had no idea how Baek Seol would react once she found out.

Still, they both owed their lives to me. She wouldn't get angry just because a side effect had appeared… right?

…Yeah, no idea.

Astra had taken the side effect and its release condition in stride, but there was no guarantee Baek Seol would do the same. Even if I had saved her life, the content of that condition—and what it took to lift it—was not something easy for a woman to accept.

Maybe I should cook something good.

They were coming here, and I still had a little time before they arrived. I decided to throw together a simple meal they would enjoy.

Time was short, so it had to be something that cooked quickly. After nothing but bland hospital food, they would want something with actual flavor…

Fried food it is.

The kind of deliciously unhealthy dish you would never get in a hospital. And as long as you had the ingredients prepped, it came together surprisingly fast.

One of the best perks of running a restaurant is being able to fry things whenever you want.

At home you would never dream of heating that much oil, but in a shop you could deep-fry to your heart's content. Of course, feeding freshly discharged patients a mountain of fried food felt a little wrong…

I just asked them straight out by text. Both of them were on board, so fried food it was.

Mind made up, I pulled the ingredients from the storage room. The last time I had made tteokbokki for them I had regretted not having proper fried sides ready, so I had stocked up.

I set a pot of oil over the flame and started prepping sweet potatoes first—some cut into thick rounds, some into long sticks—then soaked them in cold water to draw out the starch. While they sat, I threw squid and shrimp into the thawer and mixed batter with water and flour. In another pot I boiled glass noodles, then ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠tossed thinly sliced carrot, zucchini, and the drained sweet potato in batter and fried them off in quick succession. The squid, shrimp, and remaining sweet potato went into the oil next. Once the noodles were cooked, I chopped them just enough to keep some chew, mixed in a little perilla leaf, seasoned with soy sauce, and rolled them in seaweed for kimbap-style rolls.

Fried food really wants tteokbokki alongside it…

The only problem was that I had used up all my rice cakes the last time. So as a compromise I simmered a light broth with kelp and radish, then skewered the leftover fish cakes from that previous batch and let them bubble away.

I had just finished when the door—still wearing its Closed sign—opened.

"Excuse us…"

"We're here!"

The difference in their personalities was clear from the first words out of their mouths as they stepped carefully inside. Astra looked a little sheepish, yet her eyes were full of gratitude. Baek Seol wore an expression packed with curiosity and a healthy dose of spite, like she had a long list of questions ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠ready.

"We've got a lot to talk about, don't we? Yuna won't ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠say a word without your okay… What the hell did you feed me that day—"

"Please sit down and calm yourself first. I'll explain everything."

"Uh… huh?"

Baek Seol had stormed in ready to interrogate me, but at a single sentence from me her face went blank and she dropped obediently into the seat I had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠already set. Then she stared around in confusion, clearly wondering why she had just done exactly as she was told.

So that's how it works.

I nodded to myself as I watched her, then brought over the fried platter and the fish-cake skewers.

"Nom… just now… nom… what was that?"

Even while she looked puzzled, she started eating the food I had set in front of her. I began with the part she would be most curious about.

"This is probably what you want to know first. The buff that hit you that day—yes, that was me."

"I knew it…!"

"The ability settled into me when I turned eighteen…"

Just as I had once explained to Astra, I gave Baek Seol a rough outline of the power that had taken root in me. A buff ability that manifested through food. The fact that it had appeared in a man. And that Astra had already received its help once before.

"So you weren't the one who took down that beast back then?"

"No. It was only possible because of Siwoo's help. If he hadn't been there, I would have died."

"Well… with a power like that…"

Having felt the cooking buff herself, Baek Seol accepted the situation quickly. Then she blinked and turned to Astra.

"Wait. Hold on. So you didn't defeat the beast through an ability rampage?"

"Right."

"That doesn't make sense. After that, your superhuman power shot up like you'd already gone through a rampage."

"Exactly. Which is why the really important part comes next."

"What I've heard so far already sounds ridiculous…"

She still looked dazed at the existence of the first male awakener, and even more so when I said there was something more important. I wondered whether she would still say that after she heard the rest.

"Afterward, Astra came back because she could feel the changes from my ability and wanted to confirm them…"

I told her about the effect that let someone experience a level of power comparable to—but far more stable than—an ability rampage. How that effect made it dramatically easier to grow one's superhuman strength. And how, having tasted that growth, Astra had entered into a contract with me…

"What the hell is that?! That's broken!!"

Baek Seol reacted exactly as I had expected. Any superhuman who poured endless training into increasing their power—especially one who had been pushing her body to the limit lately just to catch up to Astra—was bound to be floored by news like this. Realizing that her friend, whom she had thought was finally reaping the rewards of hard work, had actually been using a cheat key, Baek Seol slumped face-down onto the table in defeat.

"Aaaagh… this is a massive shock. A male superhuman, buffs, accelerated growth… At least now I get why you kept it secret."

She seemed to understand that this was not something to take lightly. After a moment to gather herself, she looked at us with a more serious expression.

"Okay. I get that you have this ability. And I'm grateful you used it to help me… and Yuna."

"No. Each of you has already saved me once, too."

"That's just our job… Anyway. Separate from the gratitude—are you planning to keep this ability hidden forever?"

There was a strange heat in her eyes as she tried to persuade me.

"I've felt that buff myself. Add the growth effect you two described on top of it… This is an incredible power. If the Hero Association had access to this…!"

"Baek Seol."

I stopped her while she was explaining how much my ability could help the Association—how much it could aid the real heroes out there putting their lives on the line every day to protect people.

I wasn't blind to what she felt. If I revealed my ability to the Hero Association and put it to use for the heroes, it would absolutely make a huge difference.

But not yet.

Seeing them throw themselves into harm's way for others again had stirred something like admiration in me, and a genuine desire to help… but this still wasn't the time to go public. There were plenty of reasons, but for starters…

"Why? Sure, it's an enormous secret worth hiding, but that's exactly why the Association needs to know about—"

"Please calm down for a moment."

"Mph…!"

I quieted her and decided to show her one of the reasons I couldn't reveal the ability just yet—by making her experience it directly.

"Mph…? Mm?"

At a single word from me, Baek Seol's mouth snapped shut. It had happened earlier too. When I told her to calm down and sit, she had immediately taken a seat.

"Siwoo… is this…?"

Watching Baek Seol's flustered reaction, Astra caught on and looked at me.

Yes. Exactly.

The side effect.

Of course Baek Seol, who had received my buff, had developed one as well. And that side effect was none other than…

A side effect that turned her into a puppet who could not disobey my orders. Puppetization.