「King of Hell」's death has been reported in the news for about a week.
In the meantime, it's safe to say that my daily life has settled into a certain orbit.
If there's anything unusual, it's that Deok-sun and Tae-seong have become quite close after attending a rock singer's Korean concert?
“Deok-hee, I listened to the musical 「Death Notebook」 you recommended last time yesterday, and it was good. Do you have any other songs you can recommend? I'll listen to them while working part-time at the convenience store.”
“Ra...Radiohead's ‘Creep’ is a must-listen. I especially like the lyrics that self-deprecatingly describe oneself as a geek and insignificant person in front of the person they have a crush on...”
It seems that Deok-sun, who knows a lot of things, recommends music, movies, etc. to Tae-seong, and Tae-seong watches and listens to them and gives feedback.
When the quiet and gentle Deok-sun and the voluntary outsider Tae-seong talk, it seems as if they are independent from this noisy D-Class and in their own world.
The problem is Bangdeng-i.
“Bangdeng-i, why are you making that face?”
“Deok-sun and Tae-seong seem to be getting closer and closer, but there's no progress. It would be nice if Deok-sun would just be a little braver. Don't you think so too?”
Bangdeng-i seems to think that Deok-sun has a crush on Tae-seong. And he has a sense of duty that our 「No Leftovers Day」 members should help their love.
“Is there a way we can help Deok-sun's love?”
“Why bother? We're not Cyrano. Bangdeng-i, you should think about connecting Seo Ga-eul and me. Don't you know what kind of food she likes, what kind of movies she likes?”
Bangdeng-i and I are in a mutually invincible contract.
If I teamed up with Bangdeng-i and got him ‘Reward Points,’ Bangdeng-i would provide me with information to increase Seo Ga-eul’s favorability.
These days, I'm going crazy because of Seo Ga-eul.
I don't know if she's unaware that she's been kidnapped, but she's making more and more demands─asking me to do this and that, making me feel like my limits are being tested.
Not long ago, she even asked me to “Imitate a cat” and whined for an hour.
The manifestation of the Concept hasn’t progressed or yielded any results since 「Length」.
“Elementary school days.”
Baek Yeo-ul said.
“There was a time when I ate all the apples in elementary school, and she got really angry. Seo Ga-eul, she likes apples. But does this information mean anything now that she’s missing?”
I handed the cleanly washed lunchbox to Baek Yeo-ul, who was tilting her head.
“I enjoyed the lunchbox yesterday. The rolled omelet was a bit salty.”
“The rolled omelet was salty? That can't be right.”
These days, Baek Yeo-ul has been packing me a lunchbox every day. I’ve been giving that lunchbox to Seo Ga-eul, which is, of course, a secret from Baek Yeo-ul.
Seo Ga-eul rated the rolled omelet in this lunchbox as salty.
I relayed that to Baek Yeo-ul as if it were my evaluation, and Baek Yeo-ul reflects that and packs the next lunchbox ─ meaning that such a cycle has become my daily routine.
It was such a trivial day that I couldn't believe a big incident had happened a few days ago. But soon, this peace would come to an end.
Why?
Because it’s time to prepare to kidnap Yoo Yeo-reum.
“Hey, Ha Nam-jjin!”
Bangdeng-i nudged my side.
“We’re still friends, right?”
“Soulmates.”
“But what if Seo Ga-eul doesn’t come back like this......”
“Seo Ga-eul?”
“...No, it’s nothing!“
What? What a bland girl.
And yet her omelets were salty.
# # #
After school, the last day of in-school volunteer work.
I picked up trash littered around the school with Yoo Yeo-reum.
“......”
“......”
Yoo Yeo-reum was generally quiet.
When silence settled between us, I didn’t bother opening my mouth unnecessarily. After a long silence like that, Yoo Yeo-reum would speak first, as if she had organized her thoughts.
“Are you still enjoying your hobby?”
“Hobby?”
“Watching porn next door.”
So that's what she's talking about.
This is the problem with lying. You have to make two lies to protect one lie, and you have to make four lies to protect those two lies.
“I watch some every day.”
“Every day?”
Yoo Yeo-reum's mouth rounded slightly, as if surprised by my answer.
Soon, she looked at me with wary eyes as if I were some kind of pervert, so I decided to reveal one of the world's secrets that only men know.
“All the men you know are probably watching it every day. Your school instructors, the boys in your class, all the men you pass on the street.”
“......”
Yoo Yeo-reum looked like she couldn’t believe it.
My expression when I found out there was no Santa Claus must have been just like that.
“Do men usually do that?”
“It’s normal. Most women probably watch it too.”
“Women too? You’re saying that’s normal?”
Worry clouded Yoo Yeo-reum’s face. Another brief silence. The silence continued until the condensation from the drink can I had bought to drink after volunteering work thoroughly soaked the table.
“Should I watch it too if I want to live like a normal person?”
“That would be good.”
“Then, do you have any recommendations?”
“What kind of things do you like?”
“Like?”
Yoo Yeo-reum's eyebrows went up.
“I don't know. I’ve never seen it before.”
What? Never? So, there really are natural monuments like sheltered maidens.
I suddenly became curious about Yoo Yeo-reum’s preferences.
“Then what do you usually do at home? Do you have any hobbies?”
“I just train, or watch squirrels.”
“You watch squirrels?”
“Squirrel MeeTube videos. They’re cute.”
She was as tough as steel, but unexpectedly, she had a girlish side.
Actually, I liked squirrels too. They're quite cute when they scamper around, and they taste good when fried.
There aren't many other animals that are as pleasing to both the eyes and the mouth as squirrels.
Just like that, the volunteer hours ended.
I felt a little disappointed thinking that the time I could meet and exchange information with Yoo Yeo-reum was now over.
Now where and under what pretext should I meet her?
While I was thinking that, Yoo Yeo-reum spoke.
“Do you want to come to my house today?”
Yoo Yeo-reum invited me to her house.
“Why?”
“I wonder if normal people invite their friends over to their houses. You and your group members seem to visit each other's houses often. The people around me, for some reason, all find me difficult to approach.”
It's understandable that they’d find her difficult to approach. Being close to a girl who shoots lasers from her eyes must feel like living next to a Taepodong missile that could explode at any moment.
Does Seo Ga-eul really want to kidnap this kind of girl and keep her by her side?
That’s how I ended up following Yoo Yeo-reum to the apartment where she lives.
It’s common sense and basic for a kidnapper to know where their target lives.
“Yeo-reum, you’re here. Did you come with a friend?”
“Yes. We’ll go up.”
It was a high-end apartment with security guards on standby on the first floor. This is the kind of place that would serve elegant breakfast in the apartment dining room every morning.
Yoo Yeo-reum lived on the 21st floor, the top floor of the apartment.
The entire floor that appeared when the elevator door opened was Yoo Yeo-reum’s house.
“Is no one here? Can we just go in?”
“Put on the indoor slippers over there.”
After putting on the unusually fluffy indoor slippers and going inside, I saw a large picture hanging in the living room.
It was a picture of Yoo Yeo-reum sitting in a chair with a man standing behind her, holding her shoulders.
“Is that your father? I’ve seen his face somewhere. Was he a famous National Assembly member?”
“Something like that.”
I pretended to ask casually, but Yoo Yeo-reum didn’t seem very interested in talking about her father.
Yoo Yeo-reum went straight into her room.
As I followed behind her, I thought, since it’s Yoo Yeo-reum’s room, wouldn’t it be full of barbells and dumbbells and punching bags? The floor would be covered with a jiu-jitsu matrix.
While thinking that, I entered the room, and the moment I saw the colorful dolls placed all over the room, my mind went astral.
Even Bangdeng-i’s room, with its pink hair dye-stained mind, wouldn’t have been this girly.
It was surprising that the room of Yoo Yeo-reum, the toughest steel high school girl, was filled with so many ‘Pokemon.’
Swish-
Yoo Yeo-reum sat down in a chair and turned on the computer, regardless of whether I was looking at the dolls or not.
And then she said.
“How can I watch porn?”
Is this for real?
Yoo Yeo-reum asked the question in her usual blunt and cool voice, but for a moment, I wondered if this was a trap to lure me in.
I suddenly got curious.
“Why do you suddenly want to watch porn?”
“Because I’ve never seen it before. You’re the only person around me who has ever talked about this.”
I want to watch it because I’ve never seen it before ─ simple thinking.
I guess that’s possible.
With that in mind, I downloaded 「Complete Education」, which I had uploaded to the internet cloud, and played it in front of Yoo Yeo-reum.
「Ah-haang, Aaht-.」
Just as the explicit sounds and flesh-colored images began to interact. Ziiiiiing. A heat ray, fired from somewhere, pierced a hole in the center of the monitor.
Looking at the monitor, which had transformed into something like a donut, I couldn't help but step back in surprise!
“Eek! Fuck, what the!”
Thud-! Whack-!
During my struggle for survival, my elbow hit Yoo Yeo-reum in the face.
“...Uh.”
Yoo Yeo-reum hurriedly covered her eyes.
“I didn’t do it on purpose. What is this? This is the first time this has happened.”
Judging by her attitude, it seemed she didn’t intentionally shoot the heat ray at the monitor. Under her palms covering her eyes, Yoo Yeo-reum's cheeks were visibly flushed.
Drip-
Perhaps because it was hit by my elbow, blood started flowing from her nose.
「Name : Yoo Yeo-reum
Possessions: Expand to see details ☜
《???》 – Your level of appraisal is insufficient to peek at this.
《Photosynthesis Lv.2》 - Has photosynthetic abilities like an old tree.
Status : 《Nervous and Flustered》 - Intimidated by the unfamiliar experience and atmosphere. Flustered by the situation where she cannot control her ability. Also hungry.」
Yoo Yeo-reum seemed flustered by the situation herself. I could tell by my 「Appraisal」 that her usually cynical and cool voice was trembling very slightly.
“Yeo-reum, you’re the type who shoots lasers when you’re excited. That can happen. In my case, when I get excited, my tailbone hardens. The front tail.”
“This is the first time I’ve ever had a nosebleed. Oh, it stopped.”
Through that experience, I’ve figured out the weakness of Yoo Yeo-reum that Seo Ga-eul was trying to tell me about!
Yoo Yeo-reum’s weakness was definitely porn!
Could it be that Yoo Yeo-reum loses control of her abilities while watching porn? That’s why she got a nosebleed even from my blind elbow.
The Yoo Yeo-reum kidnapping operation, which seemed to have no progress, suddenly made progress. Good ideas popped into my head.
Conclusion.
The Yoo Yeo-reum kidnapping is happening tonight.
Clatter- Creak-
At that moment, the apartment door opened and a man strode in.
“Yeo-reum, I’m home. What was that noise─.”
He went straight to Yoo Yeo-reum’s room and frowned at the speaker still moaning despite the broken monitor, the bloodstained bed, Yoo Yeo-reum, and me.
“Who the hell are you?”
He looked like he was about to jump me any minute.
Cursing at first sight? What a rude guy.
I retorted, not backing down.
“I’m Ha Nam-jin, the man who watched the first porn with Yoo Yeo-reum and made her bleed for the first time! Who are you?”
“What? What are you talking about? F-First time bleeding? I’m Yeo-reum’s oppa, you son of a bitch!!!!”
Crash-!
The man lunged at me like a starving tiger.
I’m a real man who doesn’t avoid a fight, so I kicked him in the groin like lightning.
“Nam-jin Kick!”
“Kyaaaack!”