The time spent in the hospital wasn’t very long.
I wanted to stay a bit longer, using my sick body as an excuse, but since the doctors had already said I was fine, there was no justification for staying any longer.
Oh, how I miss that comfy bed.
Under the sky that had almost turned black, I head towards my accommodation.
On the way, I stopped by a mart to buy some alcohol and a 5KG bag of rice for tomorrow’s supply.
I wasn’t sure if this was okay, but since I said it was for my parents, they let me buy it.
“Um… Can you carry it by yourself?”
“I think I can manage.”
In fact, the rice was so heavy that I thought I should have asked for help.
.
.
.
.
“Ugh…!!”
After arriving home, I threw the rice down and took a short break, then took off my sweat-soaked clothes and put on something else.
After that, I put rice and water into a pot provided as basic supplies and cooked it to make porridge.
Bubbling.
The rice in the pot cooked to softness and the porridge spread out into a bowl.
And when I scooped some porridge into my mouth and chewed…
“Ugh.”
As expected, plain white porridge had no flavor.
I had wanted to try eating it without soy sauce, but that didn’t seem possible.
“Yuck.”
Currently, I am looking for food that can fill me up for a long time at the cheapest price possible.
Since after fainting last time, I’ve realized that not eating is impossible.
‘I thought I could manage on just grass and water like in cartoons.’
Moreover, I had never drunk alcohol for such a long time, so I didn’t know, but after extended drinking without a break for several weeks, I realized.
‘My stomach feels horrible.’
It’s not just a hangover, but putting spicy food in my stomach hurts.
Therefore, what I chose was simple and easily digestible porridge… but it tastes so bland.
Additionally, I currently have about one million won.
If I generously deduct the amount for alcohol and chocolate, it’s about five hundred thousand.
Before next month arrives, I need to somehow find a job and have food to sustain me in the meantime.
There were many opinions about this on the internet.
[Cheap food that can last a long time]
Just looking at the examples that came up, they mentioned curry powder or buying meat in bulk online.
But I don’t have a refrigerator right now.
Looking back, I see a one-room space where a person could barely live, with no proper furniture at all.
I can’t indulge in luxury items like a refrigerator when I’m in a situation where I don’t even have a bed or blankets and sleep on the floor every night.
So meat is out.
Initially, I thought it would be a bit awkward to just eat the porridge I made, so I decided to add some curry powder that I had previously purchased.
Slurp.
“Wow.”
It definitely improved once I added curry.
The problem is that it only tastes like real curry…Well, is that to be expected?
Curry-flavored porridge without any staple vegetables like carrots or potatoes.
It looks a bit dull.
It would have been nice to have some kimchi, but in reality, kimchi was a far more significant entity than I thought.
I hadn’t noticed it at home, but when I went out to get some, I was shocked at how expensive it could be.
“…”
To improve the dish’s completion, I decided to add a little more.
First, I added a bit of the alcohol I bought earlier.
Since it’s sweet, it should be fine.
Then I also added some unknown grass that was growing in my front yard.
A few basic spices I had were added several times.
After that, I tasted it.
“The taste… is it okay?”
It wasn’t bad.
I would have to wait a bit longer to see how my stomach felt, but the flavor was just slightly altered from curry, and since I didn’t put any spicy ingredients in it, I thought it shouldn’t upset my stomach.
Now the problem is…
“But I made way too much.”
I made enough porridge to fill half the pot provided.
No matter how I try to divide it up, there’s nowhere to store it.
Without a refrigerator and with spring coming, it would spoil easily if I just left it out.
“Hmm…”
After a moment of contemplation, I picked up the cold pot and opened the door to go outside.
***
The sun had completely disappeared, and the moon and stars filled the sky.
Under that blackness, a girl in a detached house was raising her arm as she drafted plans for the month.
“Ugh…!”
She, with blue hair, stretched and looked at the planning sheet on her computer that was coming into her view.
“Is this enough?”
Indeed, it was a tightly packed schedule.
Aside from sleep time, every moment was filled with activities and exertion to invest in her future; she was proud of her diligence.
Since this was Noah herself, she couldn’t even think of lazily lounging around or lying down to sleep.
Ding-dong!
At that moment, the sound of the doorbell rang in her ears.
“?”
‘Did I order something?’
She had no recollection of ordering a delivery, and she doubted anyone would come to visit at this hour, so she stood up with a puzzled expression.
“…? No one is here?”
And on the screen connected to the camera, nothing appeared.
A chill ran down her spine at that moment.
Ding-dong!
The doorbell rang again, but still, no one appeared on the screen.
A late-night doorbell suddenly ringing with no one to be seen?
It was a truly terrifying situation.
“Wh-who is it…?”
And the response to her cautious question came back.
“Could you please open the door…?”
It was a familiar voice.
Surely it was that white-haired girl she had met before.
Her profound impression made it impossible to forget.
Click.
As she opened the door, a small girl was standing there, struggling to hold a huge pot on her head while looking at her.
“Oh, it’s you…!!”
“I came to make food and give it to you.”
“Food?”
“Yes.”
“Uh… okay! Come in for now!”
She thought to herself, ‘So there’s still a child making food and sharing it these days.’
“Whew…!!!”
The girl who entered her house placed the pot on the table and took a moment to catch her breath, collapsing for a second before finally opening her eyes and sitting up.
“You’re sweating too much.”
“Ah… is that so?”
And the girl wiped her sweat and presented the food she made.
“What is this…?”
It looked somewhat like… uh…
“Excrement…”
“What?”
“No, no…”
There’s no way the food made by this little girl could be something so grotesque.
The outward appearance may look a bit… no, significantly similar, but there should be no ill intentions behind it.
“I ended up making too much, so I brought it since I gave you food last time.”
“Uh… really?”
Even so, did people usually come over to deliver homemade food?
It was a very unfamiliar experience for her, so Noah couldn’t help but think about the girl’s kindness.
“Would you like to try some?”
As the girl spoke, Noah involuntarily nodded and scooped a bit of the unknown substance into her bowl with a spoon.
Slurp…
“Um…”
Is it actually safe to eat this?
It was too gooey to be porridge, and the color was quite off.
The ingredients don’t look special, with only a faint hint of curry, but it somehow felt instinctively repulsive…
“Can you tell me what this is?”
“It’s curry porridge.”
“This?”
Despite the questions arising, she couldn’t refuse the girl’s gaze, so she pushed the questions from her mind.
“Mmpf!”
Nevertheless, with a rising sense of unease, she put the curry-flavored porridge into her mouth.
“Um… it’s okay…”
Surprisingly, the taste was acceptable.
It looked hard to eat, but it seemed to be merely an unnecessary worry…
Huh?
“Noah?”
“Uh…”
Why is the child in front of me lying down?
“Oh.”
That wasn’t it.
In fact, it was I who was lying down.
Realizing that fact, Noah momentarily lost consciousness, spilling porridge from her mouth.
.
.
.
.
.
“Ugh!!”
“Oh, I was going to call an ambulance, but you woke up.”
Her whole body was soaked in sweat.
What was that taste from earlier?
“Do you often feel unwell? You collapsed suddenly.”
“Uh… I guess so.”
It was strange. She had definitely improved her fitness by jogging every day.
Was it stress or fatigue that built up?
As her consciousness returned, she noticed the large pot and the significant amount of curry porridge inside it.
Sweat dripped down her back.
Am I supposed to eat all of that?
“Uh… now that I think about it, I don’t even know your name.”
“Oh right, I’m Aesha.”
“Then… Aesha? Is there someone else to share that with besides me?”
At Noah’s question, the girl pondered for a moment before quickly giving a short answer.
“No, not really.”
“…”
For a moment, Noah wondered if the person who rang the doorbell earlier was a ghost, but she didn’t give up.
That shouldn’t be something a person should eat.
If she eats alone, she might not even finish half of it and could die…
“Oh, is it perhaps unappetizing? That might really be the case.”
“It’s not that!! It’s just… I feel a bit weird about eating it all by myself…”
“Honestly, if I had a place to store it, I would have eaten it. But we don’t have a refrigerator.”
“Is that so?”
At those words, Noah’s spirits lifted as she immediately proposed a solution.
“Then you can use our fridge…! Yes, please feel free to use it!”
Please. She didn’t explicitly add that phrase.
Even if Aesha’s porridge tasted terrible, she wanted to maintain courtesy and not hurt feelings.
On the other hand, one might think it’s quite sad that such a small child tried to cook but hadn’t properly learned how to cook, resulting in such a dish.
What a pity.
If she learned to cook properly, she could make more delicious food.
Surely that’s the case.
“Is that okay?”
“Of course!”
“Then I’ll be thankful to use it!!”
And as she watched the girl smile and bow, she felt a wave of relief wash over her.
She was a bit worried about other food items in the same fridge, but surely, just being in the same space wouldn’t cause too many problems.
It would be fine for sure.
