Chapter 18
I applied to Chef Sung’s restaurant as a stagiaire on a whim.
Chef Sung said he saw himself in me—the version of himself who’d started out with nothing but his bare hands.
That was why I got the job.
Looking back now, it was incredibly reckless—and I was lucky.
I learned all sorts of things over the next six months.
That the path of a chef was long and arduous.
And that the world of wine was narrow and closed-off.
Head Sommelier Team Leader Jung was skilled enough to have won several competitions.
He must’ve played a significant part in Chef Sung’s restaurant earning two stars.
Fine dining called for wine pairings, after all.
But as a person, he was a complete scumbag.
The kind of man who used wine as an excuse to flirt with the female staff.
He’d offer a glass of his prized wine to the women he liked.
And I’d secretly drink it for them by the back door of the kitchen.
In other words, I was their black knight.
I’d tasted it back then.
A Naka Valley auction-exclusive vintage.
There were only three bottles in Korea, and Team Leader Jung had bragged about it so much.
I still remembered its name and taste.
That same taste had wafted from Ms. Yeon-seo.
The wine she’d drunk.
The possession case.
Team Leader Jung—.
Was it too much of a leap to think they were connected?
So I asked again.
“Ms. Yeon-seo’s boyfriend. Was he a sommelier?”
“No. He was a college student.”
…Huh? He wasn’t?
I felt someone looking at me, so I turned and saw Bori-bori watching me with narrowed eyes.
Come on! People can be wrong sometimes.
Then Ms. Yeon-seo spoke.
“Oh, I think he said he got that wine from some factory. He said we’d drink it together on our one-year anniversary, but that bastard went and cheated on me with my best friend….”
I had nothing more to say.
“Good grief, you were acting like some great detective, then got it completely wrong. Hilarious. Just hilarious.”
Before I knew it, it was eleven at night.
In front of the mansion.
Jo Se-na opened the driver’s-side door of her pink sports car.
“Which way do you live? Want me to drop you off on my way?”
“Really?”
It wasn’t every day I got the chance to ride in a sports car.
But that was a two-seater.
Which meant there was nowhere for Bori-bori to sit.
I couldn’t put Bori-bori in the trunk.
If I did… Bori-bori would never forgive me for the rest of its life.
“Thanks for the offer, but I’m good.”
“Hmph. You seemed to know your wine, so I was going to ask you to go drink some with me, but I guess it can’t be helped.”
Vroom—.
A Ferrari I couldn’t identify glided onto the road, leaving a red streak as it disappeared into the distance.
For some reason, I felt completely exhausted and trudged along.
Ding-dong—.
Just then, my phone rang.
「Kim Man-chun – 20,000,000 won deposited」
My eyes went wide.
The exhaustion that had soaked into me from head to toe like wet cotton and weighed down my body vanished in an instant.
A cool rush, like someone had poured cold water over the crown of my head, sent a thrill through my skull.
“…Ugh! I came….”
Magic is the best!
Magic is so, so, so good!
But as I stared at my phone, I remembered what Mr. Choi Jang-gun had said.
「Monkey’s Paw site」. He’d said it was best to get rid of it as soon as possible.
‘What should I wish for?’
The key to the Monkey’s Paw site was the reward and the risk.
It was best to wish for something with a risk I could handle.
‘A sports car….’
The sports car I’d seen earlier suddenly came to mind.
And Jo Se-na, wearing sunglasses and smoking in the middle of the night as she got into it.
Looking back now, she was stunningly beautiful.
If I’d gone to drink wine with her tonight….
‘…Damn it. Should I call her back now?’
Suddenly, FOMO set in, as if I’d let an incredible opportunity slip through my fingers.
This is enough to put me out of commission for at least four weeks.
As that thought crossed my mind, I suddenly wondered about something.
「Monkey’s Paw site」
「Enter your wish: A girlfriend」
「Risk: ■■■■■□□□□□」
Wow, this is funny.
The risk is already halfway full?
This is on the same level as the ‘10 billion won’ wish I tested before.
Is getting a girlfriend on the same level as earning 10 billion won?
Since I’d already started, I added a few more words.
「Enter your wish: A rich girlfriend」
「Risk: ■■■■■■■□□□」
“Oh?”
「Enter your wish: A rich, beautiful girlfriend」
「Risk: ■■■■■■■■■□」
“Oh, there’s still one bar left?”
I was overwhelmed by the urge to hit enter.
But I somehow managed to resist and cleared the wish field.
Then I filled the empty field with a new sentence.
「Enter your wish: What I desire most deep in my heart」
「Risk: ■■■■■■■■■□」
The same risk as a rich, beautiful girlfriend.
Thinking that this was probably too much, I was about to delete it when a mosquito buzzed down and landed on the back of my hand.
Maybe it was because there were so many bushes nearby, but it was an Adidas mosquito.
If it bit me, I’d be itchy for days.
Just as I raised my palm to swat the thing trying to stick its straw into a bulging vein—
Whoosh, smack—!
Something like a whip flew out of nowhere and struck the back of my hand first.
“Ow.”
I turned and saw Bori-bori brushing the tip of its arrowhead-shaped tail with its hand.
That was when I figured out how Bori-bori caught mosquitoes.
And then….
「Wish submitted」
「Loading: ■■■■■□□□□□」
“Huh—!?”
It felt like all the blood drained from my body.
Bori-bori had whipped the back of my hand with its tail while trying to catch the mosquito.
And my finger had accidentally hit enter at the same time—?
It was the middle of a sweltering summer, but the back of my head felt as cold as if it had touched ice.
「Loading: ■■■■■■■□□□」
「Loading: ■■■■■■■■■□」
The mysterious loading bars kept shifting—
Until they finally turned into words and numbers I could understand.
「Calling….」
「010-9XXX-7XXX」
“…Uh….”
My phone started calling a number all by itself.
I heard the ringback tone once—
─Who are you?
Soon, a woman’s voice rang out from my phone.
Her voice was so clear and refreshing, it sounded like a voice actress’s, and it jolted me fully awake.
“Uh… I’m sorry, wrong number!”
「Call ended」
I hurriedly hung up.
My heart was pounding, and cold sweat kept breaking out on my forehead.
But the strangest thing here was Bori-bori.
Bori-bori took my phone from me as if snatching it away.
Then it rubbed its cheek and face against the screen.
“Malka….”
Its half-closed eyes grew just a little moist.
Why was it doing that?
「Risk: ■■■■■■■■■□」
Even now, the black bar I’d seen earlier kept coming to mind.
I didn’t know exactly what was going on, but it seemed like I was in big trouble in more ways than one.
Just in case, I turned off my phone and hurried home.
Then I logged on to ‘Monkey Gallery’ and made a post.
====
ㅇㅇ(3.0)
Title: I just made a max-risk wish on the Monkey’s Paw site. What do I do??
Can I take it back or something?
Is there really no way to fix this?
====
The Monkey’s Paw site was like a reward item you got for serving as a moderator of this ‘Monkey Gallery’ for a year.
So the people on this forum ought to know more about the situation than anyone.
Comments soon started coming in.
└Alphabet Magician: What’s the Monkey’s Paw site?
└This guy’s back to stir up trouble with some weird IP again today
Could it be that none of them knew what the ‘Monkey’s Paw site’ was?
Another comment soon appeared.
└Get Caught Up in Ghost Stories: You mean one of those urban legends derived from the Monkey’s Paw? If you wished on it, just assume you’re screwed lol
└Get Caught Up in Ghost Stories: Monkey-related ghost stories are at least Hohwan-class, gg
# # #
「010-9XXX-7XXX」
“This number is ‘what I desire most deep in my heart’?”
In the end, I stayed up all night.
When the birds started chirping in the morning, I got out of bed and immediately turned on the internet.
If there was one thing I’d learned recently, it was that the internet had more information than I’d expected.
「010-9XXX-7XXX」
I searched online for the number I’d found out about yesterday.
I figured something might come up.
But this time, things didn’t go as I’d hoped. Nothing much came up at all.
I was sweating buckets from the moment I woke up.
Even though I had the air conditioner blasting thanks to the 20 million won deposited yesterday, I was still hot.
Whatever happened, I couldn’t just sit around like this.
In my experience, things I’d been terrified of often turned out to be no big deal once I actually faced them.
Maybe this was the same kind of thing?
So I stared at the number I’d saved in my phone for a long time.
Then, with a firm resolve, I pressed the call button again.
Brrrring—.
Once again, I only heard the ringback tone once.
I sensed a presence on the other end of the phone, and soon a frail, fleeting voice came through.
━Who are you?
Every hair on my body stood on end as if I’d been struck by lightning.
If it wasn’t my imagination, it was the exact same voice as yesterday.
As if someone had played back a recorded audio file.
The pitch, rhythm, and mood were all exactly the same.
My thoughts didn’t stop there. I noticed another strange thing.
When you answer the phone, shouldn’t you usually say hello?
But the woman on the other end asked who I was the moment she picked up.
This wasn’t ordinary.
「Risk: ■■■■■■■■■□」
Still, I couldn’t just stay scared forever.
My life might be on the line.
I had to keep my wits about me.
So what should I say, and where should I start?
Should I just man up and say we should meet and talk?
Just as I was about to speak, lost in thought—
━Let’s meet and talk.
━Come to the address I’m about to give you by two today.
The person on the other end of the phone beat me to it.
Meet and talk, huh.
Who did she even think I was?
But the address she gave me next made my head spin.
━Gyeryusan Bacchus Winery.
And with that, the call ended.
Of all things, a winery.
Hadn’t Ms. Yeon-seo, Mr. Kim Man-chun’s only daughter, started acting strangely after drinking wine?
Where had she said the wine came from?
The timing was awfully strange.
Was it a coincidence, or…?
As my thoughts grew more tangled, Bori-bori grabbed my phone and brought its ear to it.
As if it wanted to hear more of the voice coming from inside.
“Malka….”
The call had ended ages ago, but its tail was swishing gently, like a border collie that had just run into someone it was thrilled to see.
‘Could the woman on the other end of the phone know Bori-bori?’
Maybe I’d learn all sorts of things about Bori-bori this time.
After all, learning more about Bori-bori might be what I desired most deep in my heart.
So I packed a few things and headed out.
Gyeryusan was somewhere I could reach from my apartment after changing buses a few times.
I sometimes went there when I felt like hiking, and climbed all the way to the summit.
“Mheh-heh….”
Bori-bori stared out at the scenery beyond the bus window, its eyes sparkling.
Just like someone riding in a car for the first time.
It even kept pressing the stop button over and over.
Beep—.
The bus driver only clicked his tongue in confusion.
“Who keeps pressing the stop button!? What a weird thing!”
Making the bus stop at every single stop and causing a traffic jam.
Indeed, that was devilish.