Chapter 102
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Even after lunch, business continued. It wasn't until well into the afternoon that I finally took down the sign.
Customers were starting to dwindle, and we'd sold all the popcorn we'd prepared. There was no reason to keep going.
As I was cleaning up the booth—
“I’m here.”
Lee Seungah appeared in her school uniform.
“Oh, you’re here?”
Had it really gotten that late already?
Since she was carrying her bag, it looked like she had come straight here from school.
“Where are the unnies?”
Lee Seungah looked around.
“Shin Ayoung and Ji Nuri stepped out for a bit, and Isol’s in the back of the clubroom.”
“Really?”
Lee Seungah lifted the corners of her mouth and lowered her stance.
She seemed intent on surprising them by showing up unannounced.
Rattle—
She carefully opened the clubroom door, then crawled forward in a duck-walking crouch.
Isol was apparently too preoccupied with cleaning up the back of the clubroom to notice her approach at all.
“Boo!”
Lee Seungah shouted and grabbed Isol’s shoulder.
“……”
Isol’s head turned around with a creak, creak.
Isol gave her a blank look.
“Uh… um… ahem….”
Lee Seungah awkwardly cleared her throat. Since there had been no reaction, she seemed embarrassed for no reason.
— “She’s not very surprised.”
The corners of the Minimi’s eyes drooped. She was disappointed by the lack of a big reaction.
But that wasn’t it.
— “---------”
She was so startled that she had frozen. The burst of noise made that clear.
I slowly checked Isol’s condition.
“You okay?”
“…I-I was just a little startled.”
She nodded, saying she was fine.
— “Hoo-ha, hoo-ha.”
The Minimi spread its arms wide and took deep breaths. Its short limbs flailed back and forth.
She gradually calmed down.
“Huh?”
Just then, Shin Ayoung returned from her brief absence.
“What? Seungah’s here? Did you come to enjoy the festival?”
“Yep. I wanted to look around the school I’ll be attending next year.”
That was a very confident thing to say.
Well, her grades weren’t bad, and she was exceptionally good at drawing. She had every reason to be confident.
Shin Ayoung showed interest at the news.
“Seungah, you’re coming to our school? What department?”
“The art department.”
“Oh… art, huh?”
She nodded, saying that was the first she’d heard of it.
She seemed somewhat excited at the news that Lee Seungah would be coming to our school.
“By the way, Oppa, what kind of booth is this?”
Lee Seungah looked around the clubroom. It had been tidied up completely, so there was nothing left.
“A simple game and snacks.”
“…Snacks? What kind?”
“Popcorn. You know, the kind they sell at convenience stores. You microwave it and it pops.”
“Oh, that?”
She looked a little disappointed.
“I thought you might be selling something tasty.”
We were out of popcorn anyway, so I had nothing to give Lee Seungah.
“Buy something somewhere else.”
“Hey, I wanted to do that, too.”
Lee Seungah patted the sofa, telling me to listen to her story.
I lifted the low table and carried it into the clubroom.
“No, but why were the lines so long? Wow, they were lined up all the way to the end of the hallway. I’m telling you, it continued all the way to the stairs!”
“Really?”
“So I wanted tteokbokki, but I couldn’t get any. How was I supposed to resist when the smell was spreading everywhere?”
“Really?”
“Oppa, are you actually listening to me?”
“Rea—”
Just as Lee Seungah’s expression began to crumple, I gave a short cough and changed the subject.
“…But there are plenty of other things. Waffles, parfaits, and so on. Eat one of those.”
“No, I want tteokbokki.”
Lee Seungah tapped her thigh sharply in complaint.
She was my little sister, but she certainly had strong tastes.
Shin Ayoung, who had been quietly listening to the conversation, leaned toward us.
“…Seungah. You wanted tteokbokki? Should I buy you some?”
Shin Ayoung asked casually.
“Huh? Really?”
“Sure. If you want some, I can buy it for you.”
Shin Ayoung casually brushed her hair back behind her ear.
— “…I should score some points in advance.”
Shin Ayoung’s Minimi opened its crescent-shaped eyes.
“…But the line’s really long. You’ll have to wait a while even if you go now, right?”
Lee Seungah waved her hand, saying it was fine.
Even as she said that, her throat told the honest story. The way she gulped made that clear.
Shin Ayoung let out a faint laugh at the sight.
“It’s okay. A friend of mine runs that place. I’ll go ask them to slip out just one cup for you.”
“You really don’t have to….”
“They might say no. I’m just going to ask if it’s possible.”
“If that’s all….”
Lee Seungah nodded as though she had no choice.
— “I’ve helped her out plenty of times, so one cup should be fine. Good thing all that image management is paying off now.”
Shin Ayoung’s Minimi gave a low, alluring laugh.
Is this the power of connections?
— “…That’s sneaky.”
Isol’s Minimi’s eyes trembled indignantly.
No matter who she was, she couldn’t beat Shin Ayoung when it came to connections.
A little while later.
“…Wow, she really got that.”
Shin Ayoung had brought back a cup of tteokbokki. I let out a small exclamation of admiration at the sight.
I didn’t think she’d actually manage it. She sure had gotten it somehow.
“Sit here and eat comfortably.”
“Thank you, unni!”
Lee Seungah eagerly took it and plopped down on the sofa.
Her Minimi let out a silly laugh.
— “Hee-hee.”
It seemed delighted.
“…Seungah.”
Isol, who had been watching, held out a can of cola. It was one of the drinks from the clubroom refrigerator.
“…Have this with it.”
“Really? Thank you!”
She didn’t bother refusing something that was offered to her.
Lee Seungah smiled like a happy quokka.
— “…Looks like I get to benefit from Oppa for once.”
The Minimi gave a chilly smile.
I wondered who she took after. I’d have to stop her if it looked like she was taking things too far.
Lee Seungah put a bite of tteokbokki in her mouth and spoke to me.
“Wh-what kind of game is your game?”
“Finish eating before you talk.”
“……”
Lee Seungah’s cheeks worked.
Munch, munch.
Gulp—Her throat bobbed as she swallowed. Then she asked again.
“…What kind of game is it?”
Perhaps curious, she looked around. Her expression said there was nothing to be seen anywhere.
I handed her the instruction sheet. It was something I’d written down because explaining it all individually was tiring.
Lee Seungah tilted her head as she read through it.
“…There’s a trick to this, isn’t there?”
She clearly found it suspicious that the prize was so large.
I nodded.
“Right?”
“Then it’s rigged gambling…!”
Lee Seungah smacked my arm repeatedly. It stung quite a bit.
“The school actually approved this? You didn’t do it secretly, Oppa?”
“…There’s a limit on the number of attempts and on the prizes.”
“No, but even so….”
She clearly found that even harder to believe.
“It’s fine. We aren’t keeping the proceeds anyway.”
I added an explanation.
“Huh? Then who gets them?”
She blinked as if she had no idea what I meant.
“Obviously, they’re all donated.”
If we were simply pocketing it ourselves, the school never would have approved it.
“I heard the donation money goes toward school supplies and student aid. The teachers’ office will take care of that part.”
In short, the money students spent on the games was set up to go back to the students.
The same was true of all the other booths, not just ours.
“Besides, everything we used to make this was provided through school funding in the first place.”
That included the ingredients used for the popcorn and tteokbokki. They were all bought with the support funds.
Otherwise, where would students have gotten the money to buy all those ingredients?
“And the kids already took all the 10,000-won gift certificates we prepared. There’s only one left now.”
Four of the five gift certificates had been won by students.
“Huh? How?”
She looked as though she couldn’t understand how I had lost despite the trick.
“I deliberately lost to anyone who noticed it.”
“…Oh?”
It wouldn’t have been fair if I had only lost to Ha Seorim.
I lost to every student who noticed the trick.
In other words, the essence of this game was that the people who noticed the trick along the way won, rather than those who beat me in a head-on contest.
That was also why the booth had ended sooner.
— “…That’s a vaguely bad booth.”
That was Lee Seungah’s assessment.
Even so, her tone implied that it was still a scam.
I had no excuse for that.
Rattle—
Just then, the clubroom door opened.
“Huh? Seungah’s here? When did you get here?”
Ji Nuri entered the clubroom, raising her voice.
Since she was the only person who knew Seungah was coming, she wasn’t surprised to see her.
“You’re here, unni?”
Ji Nuri had changed clothes.
A black cropped tank top and cargo pants. The guitar case slung over her back made it obvious to anyone that she was in a band.
She had said it was her performance outfit, and it was quite a hip look.
Since it was a high school festival, it wasn’t particularly revealing, but casual clothes worn at school still gave off a different atmosphere.
“Where did you go, unni?”
“To change clothes. What do you think?”
Lee Seungah got to her feet, her eyes shining.
“Did you look around a bit?”
“There was lots of fun stuff.”
As the two of them chatted and laughed—
I felt a cold touch at the nape of my neck. Shin Ayoung tapped me with her fingertips.
“…What’s with those two? Were they close before?”
Shin Ayoung whispered.
Come to think of it, had the others ever seen Ji Nuri and Lee Seungah hanging out together?
“It just happened.”
It really had been a coincidence.
Neither meeting at the festival nor running into her on vacation had been intentional.
It was a connection formed by chance.
“……”
Isol didn’t say anything, but she seemed to have become wary deep down.
“Since you’re here, want me to show you the band rehearsal room?”
“Is that okay?”
Lee Seungah, who had always dreamed of being in a band, showed interest.
“Do you girls want to come, too?”
I shook my head at Ji Nuri’s question.
“I’m good.”
The others would probably feel uncomfortable if I went there.
“…I’ll pass.”
“I’m fine, too. You two go.”
The other two also declined in turn.
“Really?”
Ji Nuri looked deliberately disappointed, but apparently had no intention of forcing us, because she didn’t ask again.
……”
I fell into thought as I watched Ji Nuri and Lee Seungah walk away.
I worried for a moment, then the feeling disappeared.
It should be fine.
Lee Seungah and Ha Seorim didn’t know each other, after all.
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(!Signboard!)
(There’s an AI illustration if you scroll down!)
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Seungah after a long time.
Munching Seungah.