“X Talk!”
The message that was sent arrived at Mari with a short notification sound.
Not knowing when she would go out, she casually wore a loose-fitting short-sleeve T-shirt over her underwear.
Scratching her lower abdomen under her clothes, she tilted her head at Siyeon’s message that arrived while she was in the midst of a game.
‘She said she would call, but suddenly sent a message?’
The message, checked briefly by the notification, contained news that she would be returning home right away tomorrow.
The face that looked so mournful at the thought of not going to Sokcho was still vivid in her memory, so what could have caused this sudden change of heart?
Of course, it’s not like she’s going to a soldier’s barracks for an overnight trip, but it was definitely a shorter time than she had pleaded for.
“Lady Mari? Siyeon says she’s coming back tomorrow?”
“Uh, I saw the message.”
Yet, without thinking of anything else to say, she turned her gaze back to the game screen.
She said she would return, so there was nothing to be done.
Regardless, she focused on the game that had significantly dropped in rank after taking a long break.
With a few clicks to time her builds and item purchases, she was able to achieve decisive victories in one-on-one situations thanks to the muscle memory embedded in her body.
After a few rounds of casually winning the game, time slipped away and it was already 4 AM.
She had expected a few monsters to appear in the game, but for some reason, those pesky creatures were unusually quiet at times like this.
Or perhaps news had already spread at the battleship?
If that were the case, she could have stretched out and had a relaxing sleep.
“Haah…”
In the end, she let out a long yawn and lay down on her side on the bed, closing her eyes.
After a long time standing awake until 4 AM as a sentry, she found herself without any worthwhile achievements.
Wondering what time she would wake up if she went to sleep now, she surrendered her hazy mind to the bed.
The fan she had turned on felt inadequate against the stickiness covering her body as her eyes casually fluttered open.
It seemed like she had only closed her eyes briefly, but the light seeping through the window and her smartphone indicated it was already 11:40 AM.
“Ugh…”
If she kept her eyes closed, she felt she might wake up around 3 PM.
Struggling to lift her sluggish body, she sluggishly made her way to the living room, her feet making soft sounds on the floor.
The humidity was so high that her feet stuck to the floor with every step.
Scratching her lower back, she peeked into Siyeon’s room.
Siyeon hadn’t returned yet.
Wondering if there were any messages, she squinted one eye shut and glanced at the bright smartphone screen.
[I’ll be heading home tomorrow] – 12:36 AM
[I took the 9:50 bus] – 9:55 AM
[I’m on my way home] – 10:12 AM
[I’m almost in Incheon] – 11:23 AM
[I’m getting off the bus!] – 11:32 AM
[Taking a taxi home] – 11:39 AM
While she was asleep, a total of five or six messages from Siyeon had piled up.
It seems she took the 10 AM bus from Sokcho.
Comparing the latest chat message about taking a taxi with the current time, there were only a few minutes apart.
Coincidentally, Siyeon was returning almost exactly when she had woken up.
She didn’t think she had eaten anything at 10 AM when she took the bus, so it looked like she would be making lunch right after getting up.
Without much thought, she turned her footsteps toward the living room and naturally headed for the refrigerator.
What’s in here, what’s in here?
The situation inside the refrigerator, which she opened most frequently, was a complete blank.
Ten eggs, and tofu so old she couldn’t even remember when she bought it.
Various leftover side dishes from takeout, and on the walls, only a hodgepodge of sauces and disposable peanut sauces.
Besides that, there were only some canned ham pieces she had diced up into cubes, claiming it was fried rice.
‘There’s nothing here.’
With no other choice, she closed the refrigerator door and opened the freezer door next to it.
The freezer was clearly stuffed compared to the refrigerator.
Most of it consisted of easy-to-cook convenience foods that could be quickly prepared in the air fryer.
With just the click of a button, she could eat a completed meal, so she figured both Siyeon and herself were more focused on this side.
To be honest, it was just more convenient.
As the rubber at the freezer door fell with a thud, she plunged her hand into the misty white vapor.
She had no particular thought; she just grabbed something because she couldn’t recall what it was.
‘What is this? Oh.’
Turns out, it was the thick slice of pork belly she had bought from the butcher about a month ago, intending to make boiled pork.
After forgetting about it and having takeout for two or three days, she completely overlooked the meat.
Since it had landed in her hand and the thought came back to her, she placed the meat in a plastic bag on the sink.
Her hand trembled slightly from the cold as she held the thoroughly frozen meat.
Pulling out a suitable pot from under the sink, she filled it with enough water to submerge the meat.
At that moment, she heard a cheerful sound of the front door opening.
Pausing mid-scoop of bean paste from a plastic container, she walked over to the front door.
Of course, the person entering through the front door was Siyeon.
“Did you have a good trip?”
“Yep! What are you doing?”
“I’m going to make boiled pork; you didn’t have lunch, right?”
“Boiled pork!”
At the mention of meat cooking, Siyeon’s eyes sparkled and grew wide.
For any Korean, it’s meat that’s impossible to dislike, whether grilled, boiled, or fried.
Roughly peeling an onion on the cutting board, she chopped it in half and tossed it into the pot.
Chopping the last remaining green onion in the refrigerator into three large pieces, she threw them in as well.
Though there were no whole garlic cloves, she added three tablespoons of minced garlic instead, making do.
Once she tossed them in while thumping the stem of the spoon against the pot’s edge, the preparation was almost complete.
After bringing the vegetables to a boil, she generously ladled in some bean paste and sprinkled ground pepper instead of whole peppercorns, stirring the earthy-colored broth.
After waiting a little longer, bubbles began to form and it started boiling vigorously.
Carefully introducing the meat so that the broth wouldn’t splatter, she added the large pork pieces one by one.
Once all three sizable pieces of meat were in, the pot was about 80 percent full.
A sufficient amount that would still leave some left over for the two of them.
Tilting the pot lid slightly to let steam escape, she set a timer on her smartphone for about 20 minutes.
Given that it was meat taken directly from the freezer, it would naturally take a while to cook all the way through.
She planned to boil it on high heat for 20 minutes, and then switch to medium-low heat for the next 30 minutes.
“How long will it take?”
“About 50 minutes at least? Since it was taken directly from the freezer.”
After wrapping up the discussion about the meat, she untied her apron and returned to her underwear. She asked Siyeon,
“Why did you come back after just one day, when you wanted to go so badly?”
She was curious about why, after wanting to go to Sokcho so much, she had returned in just one day.
Deai… Ah, I can’t remember. Anyway, she went there to play that game, right?
If it was a game she really wanted to play, she should have immersed herself in it for a few days.
It was such a simple question.
Siyeon, perhaps feeling a bit awkward for returning after being so insistent, hesitated and stole glances around before answering.
“Well… The first few hours were really fun, you know?”
“Yeah.”
A fitting response to her claim that the first few hours were fun.
Immediately following, Siyeon said,
“But all the characters were pretty similar, and as I kept playing, it got boring…”
It seemed that the game wasn’t as fun as she had anticipated, and she began throwing out various excuses.
Thinking back, she remembered having a similar conversation with one of the guys from the army.
“You, while only playing that low-spec NexX game, why do you want a good graphics card?”
“Hey, it’s totally different between not playing and being unable to play!”
She recalled the argument they had about graphic cards when that hot new game was being released.
This was around the time rumors circulated about high-spec games that were highly anticipated by gamers.
She thought back to how her army buddies, facing their discharge, were checking their computer specs, including graphics cards, and crossed her arms.
Of course, the guy who had argued about that soon quit the game he had to use that good graphic card for because it didn’t suit his taste.
Siyeon seemed to be experiencing something similar.
When she’s told she can’t do something, she wants to try it, but when given the chance, she can’t enjoy it…
Anyway, releasing her crossed arms, she exclaimed,
“See, you only suffer when you leave home.”
It struck her as odd when they stirred up a fuss about traveling because of a game.
Still, Siyeon seemed eager to boast, as she fiddled with her smartphone, turned on the game screen, and showcased the characters she had collected.
“Look at this!”
“You’ve caught quite a few, huh?”
There were characters that anthropomorphized water-element breakwaters, and earth-element buses, among other things… there were indeed a lot.
Beep beep beep, the basic notification sound from her smartphone.
The notification indicated that the 20 minutes she had set was up, and rather than grabbing the smartphone first, she adjusted the induction burner from 10 to about 4.
After stopping the alarm, she reset it for another 30 minutes.
She was also a bit concerned about receiving something from Taehyun’s place, so she decided to treat him to a meal, albeit a small token of appreciation since there was likely to be food left over.
The current time was 12:23 PM.
If one were a human whose sleeping patterns had been disrupted by the sweet poison of vacation, it wouldn’t be strange to have just woken up.
She opened the one-on-one chat room she had used last time and typed out a message.
[Hey]
[Have you eaten lunch?]
[Nah, nah]
[Why?]
It seemed her friend also had their phone in hand, as within two seconds of her sending the message, the “1” indicator quickly disappeared, and a prompt reply followed.
Finding out that he hadn’t had lunch had her feeling pleased, and with a blunt expression, she tapped the screen.
Along with the note ‘Pork will be done in 30 minutes’, she added a message about whether they should come down to eat, or not, and then set the smartphone down on the dining table.
With the previous episode of being in her underwear, she had swiftly changed into some short shorts and a short-sleeve t-shirt, getting ready to receive guests.
“Taehyun will be here soon, so let’s get the food out, and set out some ssamjang and mu-sam.”
“Okay.”
Then, 30 minutes later, lunch began with three middle school boys gathered around.
As the meal progressed amid the silence at the table, Siyeon was the first to break the ice.
“Are you two dating?”
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