Unexpected Neighbor

[I thought she arrived ridiculously fast, but then I realized we were in the same building. The city’s top cool-beauty beautiful woman Senior Colleague turns out to be a neighbor?! It wasn’t exactly like that. Actually, the floor difference was too huge to call us neighbors, but…]

The fact that I was rambling like this in my head meant I was so anxious and nervous.

Naturally, it wasn’t because my heart was pounding and fluttering at the concept of living together - cohabiting.

I wasn’t a hot-blooded teenage High School student, but an adult in his twenties.

It wasn’t like I had a lot of dating experience, but my head wasn’t so full of flowers that I would twist Sey’s pure goodwill of offering a temporary place to stay for a Junior Colleague in a difficult situation and let my delusions run wild.

I was long past the age for that.

[Hmm, is that so.]

Of course. It wasn’t like I was someone who had Never Been in a Relationship and never even held a woman’s hand…

[For someone like you, the chemical reactions in your brain were extremely active when you hugged. Test Subject, you cannot deceive this Assistant. For a moment, the Dopamine Secretion Level in your Forebrain Amygdala spiked to three times the usual…]

…But! That’s just how the male species is.

Isn’t it average for males to imagine a wedding and even to see grandchildren in his head just from a woman talking to him?

I Admit it. It was true that a Romantic Atmosphere momentarily filled my mind.

But it was unavoidable.

It wasn’t just anyone, it was Sey. She was the prettiest and most captivating person I had seen in my entire life, someone with what you’d call an aura.

For someone like that to hug me tightly as if saying it was okay, and Tell me to stay at her place for a while if I had nowhere to go, in an already mentally and physically unstable state - it would be weird if my heart wasn’t moved.

Even if I knew in my head that it was pure goodwill without a single ounce of Romantic Feelings, it was hard to shake off the ulterior motive of 'Maybe?'.

That’s just how the human heart is. It’s definitely my heart, but it doesn’t go the way I want it to.

[Fascinating. How fitting for an inferior Carbon-based Lifeform that cannot even perceive the activities of its own brain, the very essence of its conscious existence. So, were you fidgeting because of that uncontrollable Hormonal Action?]

“No.”

It was true that I felt Romantic Feelings, but I quickly cleared my mind. I had at least that much self-control.

I didn’t want to suffer Emotional Distress needlessly.

It was obvious that the party involved, Sey, had absolutely no thoughts in that direction, and my circumstances weren’t favorable enough to pour my Attention into The Opposite Sex either.

Just a few hours ago, I almost died by a cyborg Ninja, so what the Hell kind of romance was I thinking about?

And the target was my Senior Colleague? Wake up, Jo Aron.

There was no room for trivial sentiments like romance. My head was already in a Saturated State, right on the verge of exploding.

The reason I was hesitating and pacing around then… was simply because I didn’t have the face to see Sey.

The disgraceful behavior I had shown came vividly to mind.

It wasn’t just a little sniffling. In an instant, the Dam of Emotions collapsed like a bursting floodgate.

I let out a Storm of Weeping as if the World had ended, and Sey just patted my back and accepted it all.

I shed a tremendous amount of Tears and Snot, and I distinctly remember that those indiscriminately spewed secretions got all over the Coat Hem Sey was wearing.

That probably wouldn’t wash out with Regular Laundry. Or would it? Her washing machine was high-end too, so maybe it would clean off perfectly. Anyway, I was nothing but a Nuisance.

“…I want to die.”

How could someone like me confidently Step out of the room and face Sey?

As I writhed in unimaginable humiliation and shame, a Piercing Remark reached my ears.

[So it was indeed embarrassment over the tears you shed. The Sense of Defeat as a Male Adult is quite prominent for losing control and bawling like a child in front of a woman you like.]

“Shut up.”

Is this bastard really an Artificial Intelligence? It talks too much like a person.

* * *

The shame didn’t last long.

To be exact, it did last quite a while. For a few days, I was careful even stepping out of the room, and I felt like Dying of Embarrassment just making Eye Contact with Sey.

But humans were ultimately creatures of adaptation, bound to get used to any Extreme Situation.

As time passed, cunningly enough, I started thinking things like, “That happened back then. Thinking about it now, it was nothing.”

There were also Environmental Factors that made it inevitable.

I had no choice but to continuously interact with Sey, my Cohabitant and Senior Colleague, while living and working together.

It was especially true when doing Barback work, where synergy with the Bartender was important.

While working together like that, Sey acted as if nothing had happened, so wouldn’t it be ridiculous for me to be the only one acting shy over my dark history?

It was probably also thanks to Tony and Dragon President, who somehow heard the news and teamed up to tease me every day, calling me a crybaby.

Because of that, my face burned and I was so pissed off for a while that I thought, 'I’m going to kill these people and go to heaven,' but thinking about it later, it seemed to me they did it on purpose to lighten my depressed mood.

Of course, that didn’t mean I forgave them for having a blast teasing me.

Anyway, over a month passed like that.

Many things happened, but it was generally peaceful,

and I was still freeloading at Sey’s House.

* * *

2107-05-01

T07: 12:26

Sizzle.

Three heat pans danced over the Fire, making delicious sizzling sounds.

On the first pan, flavored oil sprayed from an oil mister was heating up.

Into it, I casually tossed in a Frozen Vegetable Mix of onions, celery, and carrots - the Mirepoix, known as the Holy Trinity of Western Cuisine.

Even if they were Frozen Cultured Vegetables rather than Fresh Wild Vegetables, vegetables were vegetables.

They weren’t even dried; they were frozen.

The price was quite high, so I wouldn’t normally have been able to use them so Freely, but right now it didn’t matter.

It wasn’t bought with my money anyway.

My job was to unleash the cooking Skill I had suppressed due to Realistic Circumstances, Freely.

thus Satisfying the Eater

That was the only thing I needed to care about right now.

After Stir-frying the vegetables in oil, I mixed in Cheap Wine, Lemon Seasoning, and soy sauce to Finish the Tangy Vegetable Sauce.

I soon turned my gaze to the Main Ingredient cooking next to it.

The Mirepoix mix? Compared to this, that was nothing.

The main was a jackpot.

On the second pan, four chunks of Frozen Cod Fillet coated in Pepper and Salt were searing to a golden brown in Krill Oil.

The sight of the oil splattering and infusing flavor was nothing short of mesmerizing.

Frozen Cod Meat, and four chunks of it at that!

Of course, it couldn’t compare to the High-Quality Ingredients I used to handle and slice for Sashimi at the Japanese restaurant.

It was a thoroughly convenient industrialized Preserved Food, made from Boneless Artificially Cultured Fish that underwent Factory Slaughter and was distributed in a Frozen Vacuum State.

Naturally, the taste was just okay.

You could consider it slightly less tasty than the Fish Meat Product sold cheaply in bulk at Costco, which you’d Impulse Buy, fry up a few times, and eventually shove into a corner of the freezer.

But still, what a luxury. It was fish meat derived from Live Fish, with a taste you could acknowledge as fish when you put it in your mouth and chewed.

To think things like this were just rolling around in the fridge.

After the oceans became polluted, the prices of Cultured Fish that weren’t canned had all doubled, so I would never have bought them because it’d be a waste of money.

Wasn’t it a whopping fifty thousand Korean Won for just one piece? Two hundred thousand won for four pieces? No matter how I thought about it, it was a luxury.

But well… as you could tell just by looking at the house, she must have a lot of money.

In an already difficult World, people need to live with a little luxury for the sake of Economic Revival. Hooray for the life of freeloading at a rich house.

My mouth was already watering.

How long had it been since I tried Real Grilled Fish?

After carefully flipping the easily breakable White Fish Meat, I turned my gaze to the final, third pan.

The sauce boiling here right now is another hit.

A Green Liquid Seasoning born from boiling Grain Milk in margarine, seasoning it, mixing in Dried Herbs and Suspicious Green Powder, and simmering gently.

It was right on the verge of completion. A Subtle Scent brushed past my nose.

It was an Experimental Sauce, considering it had been a long time since I made it and it had been heavily modified, but it would still work.

Because my House Owner and Cohabitant liked this kind of taste.

“It’s all done!”

I divided the cooked Cod Steak into two pieces per plate.

With the fish as the center, I drizzled the Soy Sauce-based Vegetable Sauce on the left and the Creamy Green Sauce on the right, doing a Balanced Plating in my own way.

And after shouting loudly about five times, my sleepyhead Cohabitant finally glided down from the upper floor stairs.

Even with her hair sticking out messily and wearing cute sleepwear, her face, with eyes narrowed in the Morning Sunlight, looked like a Flawless Work of Art.

[You are having indecent thoughts again. Your Dopamine Secretion Level has spiked.]

“…”

…Well, thinking that it was still hard to adapt in many ways, I held out Sey’s plate.

“Served, Cod Steak with two sauces.”

“I say this every time, but you don’t need to do this… Mmm.”

She said it wasn’t necessary, but her body was honest.

She naturally sat in front of the Marble Table, cut off a piece of the fluffy, soft fish meat with a knife, spread soy sauce on it, and put it in her mouth.

It was only for a very brief moment, but the instant she ate something delicious, Sey’s signature Cold eyes and stiff mouth melted into a soft expression.

It was a sign that she liked it.

“It’s not bad. What’s the other sauce?”

“You’ll know when you try it.”

It was a Suspicious light-green sauce, but as one could tell just by watching her inhale all sorts of food during company dinners, Sey was the Owner of an Iron Stomach who wasn’t picky about food.

Without doubting my words, she dipped the cod meat into the green sauce this time and put it in her mouth.

“This is…”