Chapter 110
* * *
A fast-food restaurant.
Maybe because it was Friday. Or perhaps because it was mealtime. Either way, it was busier than usual.
“I’m sorry, but that item isn’t currently available.”
Ha Seorim was frantically dealing with customers in the dining area.
“What?! How can that be?”
“It was a limited-time item. If you don’t mind, could you order something else?”
“No, you were selling this until yesterday!”
“Yes, until yesterday.”
Why were there so many people like this?
After a long argument, the customer stormed out of the store.
“……Phew.”
Only then could Ha Seorim finally catch her breath.
“……When are they going to fix the kiosk, anyway?”
Ha Seorim asked Kim Boyoung, the part-timer her age working in the kitchen.
The reason she had gotten into an argument with the customer was that the kiosk had broken down.
“They said they’re going to fix it… but I don’t think it’ll be done this week.”
“This week….”
Ha Seorim’s expression hardened on its own.
Did that mean she would have to go through this all week?
Just thinking about it made the days ahead look bleak.
Kim Boyoung patted her on the back.
“Go take a short break. I’ll cover for you.”
“Mm-hmm. I’d appreciate it for a moment.”
Ha Seorim dragged her tired feet along.
She was already overwhelmed from dealing with unreasonable customers.
At least when Lee Seungho was around, he would step in and cover for her…… But that wouldn’t happen today. It was his day off.
“……!”
Ha Seorim jumped in surprise and lightly patted her cheeks.
No, what am I thinking right now?
Get a grip.
No matter how well-behaved he had been lately, he was still someone she couldn’t let her guard down around.
“Huu…….”
Inhale—exhale—
When she stepped outside through the back door, cool air filled her lungs.
A high, deep-blue sky without a single cloud.
The scenery was beginning to show the signs of autumn.
Ha Seorim gazed up at it quietly.
“The weather’s ridiculously nice….”
It was perfect weather for going out. As she stood there enjoying the breeze, her mood gradually lifted.
At least it was better than being trapped among the din of customers and the noise of cooking utensils.
“…?”
Bzzzt—
She felt a small vibration in her pocket.
A notification appeared at the top of her phone screen.
Since she rarely received messages from anyone,
she wondered if it was related to the band club and unlocked the screen.
“…Oh.”
[Yoo Haneul]
That was the name displayed there.
Someone she had known since middle school. They occasionally kept in touch.
……And she had also been Lee Seungho’s almost-girlfriend back in middle school.
* * *
While walking down the road after leaving school,
I saw Isol’s and Shin Ayoung’s Minimis stretching their bodies this way and that.
— “Vice president…….”
— “Come to think of it, we did have something like that.”
They were stretching hard with their short arms and legs.
— “…I can’t lose to Ayoung.”
— “Let’s beat Sol no matter what.”
They shot silent looks at each other.
They were burning with the determination not to lose under any circumstances.
“Hmm.”
Was the counseling club’s jinx really bothering them that much? It was nothing more than a superstition.
It wasn’t even a very old jinx. If we stayed in the club long enough, there would surely be presidents and vice presidents who weren’t couples, too.
Meanwhile, Ji Nuri seemed busy for an entirely different reason.
— “Isn’t this a chance to become president if I play my cards right…?”
Ji Nuri’s Minimi let out a low laugh, revealing her ambition.
I watched her quietly.
She was a fun person every time I saw her. I never got tired of her.
I slowed my steps as we reached our destination.
“How about here?”
“This is an OTT room?”
“Yeah.”
I nodded at Ji Nuri’s words.
“Isol can’t bowl, and at a PC café we’d probably end up playing something with rules anyway… But that would give Shin Ayoung an advantage.”
“Heheh. Am I that good?”
Shin Ayoung shrugged her shoulders.
That was why I had chosen an OTT room. If it was something like Nintendo, everyone could play comfortably.
“Seems fine.”
“Yeah.”
Everyone reacted positively.
Now that we had decided on a place, we went straight inside.
I paid for the room and the time we would rent through the kiosk, then handed the paper ticket with the password on it to Shin Ayoung.
“Want to go to the room first?”
“Where?”
“The snack bar.”
I was planning to buy a few simple snacks from the snack bar inside the OTT room.
Ji Nuri and Shin Ayoung turned around and headed off to find the room.
“Have you been here before?”
Isol quietly followed after me.
“Once last year?”
At my answer, Isol’s steps slowed slightly,
then she quickly came up beside me and asked,
“…With whom?”
— “Was it a girl?”
A dark shadow fell across her Minimi’s eyes.
I felt the pressure and my shoulders flinched.
“I came here once with the counseling club.”
“Ah-ha.”
Isol nodded faintly. Once she had figured out the situation, she didn’t say anything else.
Rustle, rustle.
I picked out a few small snacks from the snack bar inside the OTT room.
“…Take a picture of me.”
Just then, Isol spoke softly.
I turned my head while scanning the snack barcodes at the register.
“Here?”
“Yeah, just take one quick picture so I can upload it. Do you have your camera with you?”
“I do.”
I carried it with me everywhere, after all.
I took the camera case out of the bag hanging from my shoulder.
After making a few adjustments, I captured her figure in the lens.
“Try posing naturally.”
“L-like this?”
Isol moved her body, but she looked strangely stiff.
It was odd. Since she had worked as a model, she should have been used to having her picture taken.
“Just relax like you normally do. Relax.”
“Even if you say that…….”
— “It feels awkward because it’s different from a model shoot.”
Her Minimi fidgeted.
“……”
Isol covered her lower face with the snack bag in her hands.
Her trembling eyelashes and averted gaze revealed her feelings in her place.
Her expression plainly showed how awkward she felt.
Click—
I simply took a picture of Isol in that state.
“…Huh? You took it?”
“I thought this one might work, too.”
It would have been an awkward picture if the subject had been an ordinary person. But since the subject was Isol,
even that self-conscious pose was transformed into youthful freshness.
She really was unfairly beautiful. I could see why they wanted her to model.
— Seungho! Come here, quick!
Just then, Ji Nuri called out to me from the hallway.
“What? What’s going on?”
Thinking something had happened, I hurried back.
“No, how do you connect this?”
Ji Nuri held up a controller.
The two of them were struggling with the controller and remote.
“It says right there.”
“I’m saying it won’t work even though I followed the instructions exactly. No matter what I do, it won’t switch to the Nintendo screen.”
“Let me see.”
I followed the instructions posted on the wall and operated the remote in order.
Then the screen lit up white and switched to the game window.
“…It works?”
“No, it definitely didn’t work when I did it!”
— “What’s with this rigged bullshit!”
Ji Nuri’s Minimi jumped up and down, protesting that it was unfair.
She must not have done it properly.
“……”
I shook my head from side to side.
I picked up a controller and reclined on the sofa.
“Wario Party is fine for the game, right?”
There was no better game for making a bet.
Since it was in a board-game format, the controls weren’t difficult, and even beginners could play it easily.
“Has everyone played it before?”
“No!”
“I’ve seen it before, but I’ve never played it.”
“…Me neither.”
Every one of them shook their heads.
That worked out well. I hadn’t played it before, either.
It looked like this would be a fair game.
“…We win if we collect the most badges by the end, right?”
“That’s right.”
I nodded at Isol’s question and started the game.
What we had to choose was—
“One president. One vice president. Two members. Whoever comes in first gets to choose their desired position first.”
A tacit agreement.
There were no objections, and the game began right away.
…….
The game continued for quite some time, and the current standings were as follows.
1st. Shin Ayoung.
2nd. Ji Nuri.
3rd. Isol
4th. Me.
The girls were pretty good.
They were coming at me with the serious intent to win, and I had gotten bogged down from the very beginning.
“……”
But I casually wiggled the tip of my foot.
I had something to rely on.
The reward I had obtained from the minigame we had just played.
———
[Spin, spin, spinning wheel!]
[Swap badges with yourself and a chosen opponent.]
———
With this, I could make a comeback in one shot.
Since it had to be used immediately, it would have been a lousy reward if I had been in first place.
But my current rank was fourth.
There was no item better suited to me than this.
“Hmm… Who should I pick? The person with the most badges right now….”
I drew out the words as I surveyed the group.
“…Shin Ayoung.”
“Shin Ayoung! Shin Ayoung!”
Isol and Ji Nuri threw her under the bus without a moment’s hesitation.
Shin Ayoung looked at me anxiously.
“W-wait, no, right? I’m not even that far ahead of Nuri in second place. Why don’t you pick Nuri instead—”
“Watch your tone?”
“……P-please let it slide just this once?”
Shin Ayoung immediately switched to honorifics.
She blinked her long eyelashes.
“Hmm.”
When I looked toward Ji Nuri, considering it for a moment,
she sprang to her feet, grinning as she rubbed her hands together.
“Aw—why are you being like thiiis—”
She rubbed my shoulders insistently.
It was the very gesture of a sycophant.
Press—
I pressed the button without hesitation. Naturally, my target was Shin Ayoung.
“H-hey, heeey! Seungho, you…!”
Shin Ayoung shouted with a tearful expression.
Don’t feel so wronged. I was simply paying her back for the prank she had pulled on me before.
“……”
Just as she usually did, I narrowed my eyes and returned a faint smile.
“Eek…!”
Heat rose over Shin Ayoung’s face, and she sharply turned her head away.
— “I-it’s okay! I can still make a comeback…!”
Though she said that, Shin Ayoung’s Minimi already looked like it was about to cry.
With her eyes brimming over, she pressed the controller repeatedly.
“……”
I let out a low laugh as I looked at the standings displayed beside me.
At this rate, I’d be able to escape the presidency unscathed.
…….
[END]
1st. Ji Nuri.
2nd. Isol.
3rd. Shin Ayoung.
4th. Me.
“……”
I stared at the results screen, my lower eyelid twitching.
“……No.”
I still couldn’t believe it.
“What the hell is with Ji Nuri’s luck……?”
I had been in first place until just now. Then, at the very last moment, I was instantly overtaken.
She had won the minigame and paid me back in exactly the same way.
This really was a garbage game.
“Nom nom! Lee Seungho’s badges are delicious!”
Ji Nuri began her first-place celebration. Her Minimi followed along beside her, chomping away at its cheeks.
Heh heh.
I watched them with a hollow feeling.
“……”
…Wait a second. What happens now, then?
I considered the variables depending on Ji Nuri’s choice.
First, Ji Nuri…….
“Starting today, I’m the president!”
Ji Nuri raised her hand and declared it.
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(!Signboard!)
(There’s an illustration if you scroll down!)
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Shin Ayoung, the one who got played