The Second Trip to Korea

I was hungry.

After our intense session, Han Yugyeong had passed out from overwhelming pleasure. Left alone with nothing to do, I felt a sudden pang of hunger and decided to step out for a bowl of soup. I pulled on the clothes I’d tossed aside earlier. It was already two in the morning. We’d eaten dinner, taken a short walk, stopped at an izakaya for a highball, and come back around nine. Subtracting the time spent unlocking her new trait, that meant we’d been going at it for a full four hours. I gave my still-perfectly-functional waist a proud pat. What a trooper.

As I left the building, I searched for a 24-hour Korean soup spot near Hanguk (Korean) University. Hmm… there were a few nearby. Since I was feeling lazy, I headed for the closest one.

“Hey.”

I was walking briskly toward the soup place when someone called out from a bench in front of Yugyeong’s apartment complex. I glanced around, wondering if they were talking to someone else, but at two in the morning the only people ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠around were me and Bench Guy. As I approached, his face emerged from the shadows.

It was Park Sangbeom. And he looked terrible. His eyes were as dead as a goldfish that had floated belly-up a week ago, and in just a few hours his chin and upper lip had sprouted a thick, scruffy beard. Had the news that Han Yugyeong had a boyfriend really hit him that hard?

“What do you want?”

“Break up with Han Yugyeong.”

Yeah, I figured that’s where this was going. I stared at him in disbelief. Should I just offer him to the Daughter of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the Abyss right now? Luckily for him, the whole area was covered in CCTV. Otherwise I would’ve beaten him into a bloody pulp first and then used him as tribute.

“No thanks.”

I turned away without another word and started walking toward the sundae-gukbap place I’d bookmarked. Footsteps pounded behind me—Park Sangbeom had sprinted ahead and planted himself in my path. To an ordinary person his build might have looked intimidating, but since I had both height and muscle on him, it didn’t register as a threat at all. I was ahead in looks and money too, so there was literally nothing for me to lose. Even my personality was probably better… right?

“Do you even know who I am?!”

“Not interested.”

I tried to walk past him again, but he dashed in front of me once more. Okay, now I was starting to get annoyed. I looked at him, patience rapidly running out.

“My father is Park Ilsu, president of BS Planning.”

“So?”

Up until now I’d been polite because he was Yugyeong’s senior, but let’s be real—he was her senior, not mine. No reason to show respect to a future villain. With one last shred of mercy, I decided to demonstrate exactly who he was dealing with. I happened to have a 500-yen coin in my pocket, so I pulled it out.

CRRRRUNCH!

Right in front of his eyes, I folded the 500-yen coin in half using only the strength of my thumb and index finger. Then I tossed it to him.

“If you don’t want your spine folded the same way, get out of my path. I worked up an appetite exercising in that room, so I’m starving.”

“...!”

I growled the words with clear killing intent, stepped around the stunned Park Sangbeom—who was still staring at the folded coin—and continued on to the sundae-gukbap restaurant. Apparently the show of force had worked; he didn’t follow me.

“Auntie! One special sundae-gukbap, please.”

As expected, gukbap was Korea’s time-honored fast food. Less than three minutes after ordering, a steaming earthenware pot of milky broth was placed in front of me. I mixed in salted shrimp and spicy sauce and dug in. Japan really didn’t have anything that felt this hearty. Sure, eating a lot of anything fills you up, but nothing beats gukbap. Nope, nothing.

Halfway through my meal I ordered another special to go. I was planning to offer it to the Daughter of the Abyss. She wouldn’t get mad at receiving gukbap, right?

After losing sight of Han Yugyeong and Jin Yongtae, Park Sangbeom had returned to the bar where the end-of-semester party was still going strong. Since the two of them hadn’t been gone long, the conversation naturally revolved around them.

“Fuck, I knew no ordinary guy could date Han Yugyeong… of course it’s a top-tier handsome bastard.”

“Please let his dick be small…”

“Tiny dick trio!”

The male students who had secretly been after Yugyeong fell into despair after seeing Jin Yongtae’s face. A few die-hards still chanted “tiny dick trio,” but…

“I was secretly staring at that area the whole time? There was definitely something snake-like in there.”

“Maybe it was his phone?”

“Judging by his facial features, it probably isn’t small…”

The “tiny dick trio” faction ultimately collapsed under the testimony of the female student who had been staring at Jin Yongtae’s crotch from the start and the arrival of the physiognomy enthusiasts.

“Shit… let’s just drink.”

“I loved you, Yugyeong…!”

Hearing that their crush had a boyfriend made the guys drink even harder out of spite. Park Sangbeom wasn’t exactly thrilled either, but he figured his wealth and power could easily remove her current boyfriend, so he wasn’t too devastated.

He stayed for about an hour and a half, handed the class president money for a second round, and stood up. A few girls clung to him, whining “Oppa, where are you going~? Let’s keep playing!” but he wasn’t in the mood for women tonight. He shook his head and left.

Outside the bar, he received a call from the secretary his father had assigned to look into Jin Yongtae.

“Secretary Kim, what’s the situation? Did you find out what that Jin Yongtae guy does? Who are his parents?”

—There’s no information on him in Korea, so just as you suspected, young master, it seems highly likely he’s active in Japan.

“No information means you found out absolutely nothing, right? You’re getting paid to tell me that? You want to get fired? Secretary Kim, you’d better dig up more detailed intel!”

Park Sangbeom snapped at the secretary and hung up.

Then he headed straight for Han Yugyeong’s apartment. As a member of the student council, getting students’ addresses was easy, so he already knew where she lived.

He sat on the bench in front of the complex, staring blankly into space.

She was supposed to be my woman…

It was entirely his own delusion, but up until yesterday Park Sangbeom had genuinely believed Han Yugyeong would become his.

“Huh?”

He saw a couple walking arm-in-arm toward the entrance of Yugyeong’s building. It was Han Yugyeong and Jin Yongtae! The fact that they were going in at this hour could only mean one thing. In his head, an image of the two of them rolling around naked played on repeat.

“Wait!”

He shouted, but it was already too late. They had disappeared inside the building, and the only person who heard his voice was Park Sangbeom himself.

He stared up at the window of the apartment where Han Yugyeong lived. Not long after the couple went inside, the lights turned on. So I didn’t imagine it… Park Sangbeom trembled as if he were a boyfriend who had just been betrayed by his lover. Even though he and Han Yugyeong had only ever been senior and junior at school, he shook with a sense of betrayal.

The light in her window stayed on until two in the morning. Only then did it finally go out. Seeing the light turn off, Park Sangbeom was about to leave when Jin Yongtae—the same guy he’d seen earlier—walked out of the entrance.

“Hey.”

He deliberately lowered his voice and called out to Han Yugyeong’s boyfriend. Back in high school he had intimidated and bullied smaller kids a few times, so he thought cornering this guy would be no problem. But it wasn’t. Jin Yongtae basically ignored him. He was also bigger than Park Sangbeom, and his gaze seemed to look down on him.

Even after Park Sangbeom revealed he was a third-generation chaebol of the BS Group, the guy didn’t react at all. He just looked annoyed. When Park Sangbeom kept blocking his path, Jin Yongtae sighed, pulled a coin from his pocket, and folded it in half right in front of his eyes. The grip strength was monstrous.

“If you don’t want your spine folded the same way, get out of my path. I worked up an appetite exercising in that room, so I’m starving.”

For the first time in his life, Park Sangbeom felt true killing intent. He was like a herbivore frozen in front of a tiger—completely powerless. Jin Yongtae tossed the folded coin at him, glanced at his phone, and walked away. Park Sangbeom tried to unfold the coin, but it wouldn’t budge. Upon closer inspection, it wasn’t even a Korean coin. It was 500 yen.

So she really does have a Japanese boyfriend. But that wasn’t the important part anymore. He could no longer forgive Jin Yongtae for humiliating him like this.

“Krrrk… Just you wait… How dare a nobody like you threaten me?”

His voice echoed hollowly through the apartment complex with no one around to hear it.

I stepped outside carrying the bag with the packed special sundae-gukbap. After thinking it over, sending only gukbap felt a little cold. Shouldn’t I include a drink and dessert too? I stopped at a convenience store, bought a cola and some ice cream, then borrowed a piece of paper and wrote on it.

Perfect. This should be enough for her to enjoy it properly. With everything prepared, I slipped into a dark alley, set the gukbap, cola can, and ice cream together, and activated the magic circle.

The alley was already dark, but an even deeper darkness spread across the ground beneath the offerings as the magic circle etched itself into the earth. From within the circle, abyssal darkness rose and greedily swallowed the tribute. The sundae-gukbap, cola, and ice cream vanished instantly.

“....”

The trait description clearly said that if the Daughter of the Abyss liked the offering she would give a reward, but there was no reaction. I figured it was a failure this time and started to turn away when the ground split open and spat something out with a soft thud. Oh! Is this the reward?

Heart pounding with anticipation, I picked up what the abyss had ejected. It was a pair of black gloves and a small note. I read the note first.

Apparently the Daughter of the Abyss liked sweet things. Should I bring her sweets next time? Or maybe test it by offering a corpse? Well, as long as she was satisfied, that was what mattered. I pocketed the note and examined the gloves. Since they came from the abyss, they seemed to register as an item. When I focused on them, a semi-transparent description window appeared.

It was a pretty good item. Almost all my abilities except telekinesis were abyssal in nature, so the massive boost and increased special effect chance were huge. I’d been stuck in Japan without any proper gear because I didn’t know where to find items, yet one tribute had netted me a Narrative-grade piece of equipment. At the price of a bowl of sundae-gukbap, it was practically free. The Offering to the Daughter of the Abyss trait… I’d thought it was useless, but it was actually amazing.

“I’ll bring you more next time, Daughter of the Abyss…!”

In a good mood, I headed back to Han Yugyeong’s place. Fortunately for Park Sangbeom, he was no longer on the bench when I returned. Too bad. I was thinking of giving him to the Daughter of the Abyss as a present.