Chapter 38

Chapter 38

I hadn't expected him to come again.

He was a man who had lived without wanting for anything, his pride firmly intact.

So I had figured he might at least repay me for letting him stay the night, but I never expected him to come in person like this. Without even contacting me beforehand.

I couldn't tell whether he was rude or well-mannered.

"I don't know what brings you here, but please come inside for now."

"Before that, this."

Assistant Manager Joo Dohyeok opened the trunk and took out a pile of shopping bags.

"Payment for letting me stay last time."

"It's fine. A coworker simply spent the night at my place. A cup of coffee would be more than enough thanks."

"I'm Joo Dohyeok of Daechun Group. Coffee? I've got my pride to consider. Besides, they're not for you—I mean, Manager Kim Jinseong. They're for the kid. The kid."

"Present for Lia?"

It was true.

Among the things inside the shopping bags, I could see several pink toy boxes that a little girl would probably like.

But there were far too many boxes. It was impressive that he'd managed to fit all of them into his car.

"Damn, these are heavy."

I stepped in front of Assistant Manager Joo Dohyeok as he tried to enter the coffeehouse carrying his bags.

"What?"

"I truly appreciate the thought, but I can't accept them."

"I'm telling you, they're for the kid. Just consider it payment for the ramen the other day."

Right. I should have known another fellow like this would come along.

I pointed toward the framed notice visible through the window.

"What? Pay for coffee... with money?"

"Yes. It's our coffeehouse's policy."

There was no need to use my Divine Eyes.

There's a saying that being fooled once is unavoidable, being fooled twice is foolish, and being fooled three times makes you practically an accomplice. Yet I'd already fallen for it four times.

At last, the moment had come for our coffeehouse motto to shine.

"Are you kidding me? Do you have any idea how much all this costs?"

"I don't. And I don't want to know."

I couldn't accept them. Especially since I'd stopped him before he could force them on me this time.

I felt bad that he'd gone to the trouble of bringing everything himself, but none of the tags had been removed, so he could simply return them.

"This is driving me crazy. Then just take one. One thing, that's all! If you refuse even that, I'm just going to throw everything on the ground and leave. Damn it, saying it like this makes me sound like I'm here to sell something."

While we were arguing back and forth, Lia came downstairs from the second floor and greeted him with a polite bow.

"Hello!"

"Huh? Oh, hey."

"What's all this?"

Lia asked as she picked up the shopping bags scattered around the car and arranged them one by one.

"I bought all of it. I was going to give it to you as presents."

Assistant Manager Joo Dohyeok had changed his approach and was now targeting Lia.

"Then are you rich, Mister?"

"Of course. These are really expensive."

"Wow! You're like Nicholas!"

"Hm? Who's Nicholas?"

Instead of answering Assistant Manager Joo Dohyeok's question, Lia ran to the bookshelf beneath the counter and brought back a faded storybook.

"He's the main character in this book! Saint Nicholas was really rich, they said. But he gave presents to poor children who didn't have parents. That's why I'm getting presents too, right? Isn't that right, Mister?"

"Well..."

He looked at me with eyes desperately pleading for help. But I was just as flustered.

Although I had taken it upon myself to be her guardian, I wasn't Lia's parent.

Hearing that fact directly from the child's mouth was painfully difficult.

If it was this difficult for me, who had known from the moment of her birth that she had no parents, how much worse must it be for Assistant Manager Joo Dohyeok?

"Then let's choose just one. All right?"

"Yes!"

No matter what she chose, it would be an expensive item costing hundreds of thousands of won. Far too much to accept as payment for a single bowl of ramen.

But it was a gift wrapped in goodwill. At least, that was how Lia understood it.

A present for a poor, parentless child? Somehow, it seemed likely to make the person giving it feel even more apologetic.

"Pick this one. It looks the biggest and most expensive."

"No! Then children who are poorer than Lia might not get the presents they want."

No, we're not particularly poor either...

After much deliberation, Lia chose a small hair tie.

For something displayed in a department store, it was relatively inexpensive.

"I'll take this one! It's the smallest."

"You chose it because it's the smallest? That's way too cheap. Pick something else."

"This is enough!"

It was a judgment based on experience. In the toy section of the supermarket, where Lia had actually been able to check prices, bigger boxes naturally meant higher prices.

"Thank you."

"Yeah, well."

Only after finally accepting one present were we able to gather around a table.

"You haven't had lunch yet, have you? If you have time, please stay for a meal."

"Huh? Sure!"

What's with that? Why did he answer so enthusiastically?

___________

"There's more, so let me know if it isn't enough."

'It's not pork cutlet...'

What Jinseong brought out of the kitchen was kimchi fried rice.

The simple dish, made with finely chopped kimchi, eggs, and Spam, was served in the same stainless-steel bowl that had held the ramen Dohyeok ate before.

If he had acted according to his usual personality, he would have demanded that Jinseong prepare whatever he wanted, considering how many presents he'd brought. That had been his intention from the beginning when he stopped by the department store to shop that morning.

But once he actually arrived at Jinseong's coffeehouse and finished handing over the presents, the atmosphere had become one where he found it difficult to make such a demand.

Instead, he was the one watching everyone else's reactions.

The present the pretty little girl had chosen was worth only around a hundred thousand won.

That was nowhere near enough to cover even one night's lodging and a meal.

'Honestly, this shabby shop and its owner and daughter are all the same. Well, it does look tasty.'

Like pork cutlet, kimchi fried rice was a dish that rarely appeared on a chaebol family's dining table.

He had never particularly wanted to eat it, either.

Then, the moment the first steaming spoonful of kimchi fried rice entered his mouth,

"Mmph!"

It was so delicious that his head tingled.

Most of the food Jinseong prepared contained MSG. It produced a bold, straightforward flavor unlike anything Dohyeok had experienced in the fine cuisine he'd eaten all his life.

Moreover, the main ingredient, kimchi, was homemade by an elderly woman, packed with salted seafood, and purchased by Jinseong directly from the market.

In the blink of an eye, only an empty bowl remained in front of Dohyeok.

"Would you like some more?"

-Slide.

Without a word, Dohyeok held out his empty bowl.

Only after eating two more bowls did he finally put his spoon down on the table.

"It seems you enjoyed it."

Dohyeok nodded slightly at Jinseong's question. Even he found it rather embarrassing that he'd emptied three bowls.

"I thought wealthy families wouldn't like this kind of food."

"What, aren't we human too?"

"Still, in the movies, you're always cutting into steaks."

"Ha! That's all exaggerated."

'He's never even talked to someone like me before, but he's surprisingly perceptive.'

Wasn't there a saying that reality couldn't surpass fiction?

If he racked his brains, he could vaguely recall having eaten something like this before, but Jinseong was right that it wasn't food he regularly enjoyed.

On the other hand, Dohyeok, who was briefly glimpsing the lives of ordinary people at Jinseong's coffeehouse, was about to receive an unexpected shock.

It began with Lia's innocent question.

"But what's steak?"

"It's a big piece of beef that's been grilled. Want me to show you? How about this?"

"The meat is huge!"

"One plate of this probably costs about as much as twenty bowls of ramen."

"Wow!"

'You've got to be kidding me. She's never eaten steak? Not once in her whole life? Is this how ordinary people live?'

Fortunately, he kept the question to himself.

The child looked to be at least five years old. The idea that a child that age had never once eaten steak in her life went far beyond anything that merely inspired pity.

'Still, doesn't our company pay around four million won a month? A steak at All Four Gang costs two hundred thousand won a plate, so I guess it makes sense that they couldn't eat it. No, wait. Can you even live on four million won? That's not enough to buy a single outfit.'

There was a world of difference between vaguely assuming someone was struggling financially and confronting the actual figures.

For Dohyeok, who regarded luxury boutiques as places to buy everyday necessities, four million won was an absurdly small sum.

He had no idea that the pitiful father and daughter before him received a monthly payment from the National Intelligence Service for coffee that was comparable to the salary of a fairly well-paid professional.

____________

At the same time, on the second floor of the coffeehouse.

Sani had his ear pressed against the floor, attempting to eavesdrop(?).

"It's quiet now. I think he's gone."

"Who's gone? His car is still sitting right there."

"Sniff, sniff. Now I can smell food too!"

"I see."

-Growl.

"Whine, I want to go downstairs. I'm starting to get hungry."

"I cannot speak for myself, but if you go down there, Jinseong will have a great deal of trouble."

Although he said that, it wouldn't have been particularly natural for the nine-tailed fox to go down to the first floor either.

It would have been different if he had been there as a guest from the beginning. But if a stranger suddenly came downstairs from the second floor, the situation would be awkward no matter what explanation he invented.

Since the two divine beasts needed to avoid contact with ordinary people as much as possible, they had little choice but to wait quietly.

And for Sani, who couldn't suppress his appetite, it was a time of terrible suffering.

"I'm going down to take a look."

"I told you, you cannot."

"I'll secretly climb down this rope! Then I'll go into the kitchen and bring back some food. Guests hardly ever enter the kitchen, so I won't get caught."

"You certainly have a smooth tongue."

He wasn't enthusiastic about the idea, but Sani's argument had some merit. Besides, nobody would particularly lose anything.

As long as Sani could slip into the kitchen undetected, there would be food to eat.

And in any case, the raccoon dog would be the one doing all the hard work. The nine-tailed fox only needed to sit back and enjoy the results.

"Then go ahead and try."

"Ahem! Just trust me! I've already adjusted the length of the rope, so all I have to do is climb down."

And so Sani climbed down the clothesline and entered the kitchen without much difficulty.

That was thanks to Jinseong always leaving the windows wide open when he cooked.

'Ooooooh! That rice looks delicious!'

Instinctively trying to minimize noise, Sani began eating the kimchi fried rice with his forepaws rather than using a spoon.

'Phew! Now I'm full.'

Having eaten his fill until his belly was round, Sani laboriously climbed back up the clothesline.

"Did you bring it?"

"What do you mean?"

"Did you not say you would bring back food?"

"Ah!"

"You little rascal, don't tell me..."

"I couldn't help it. It was so delicious that I forgot about Fox."

"Stop making excuses and go back down."

"I don't want to. My body is heavy, and I barely managed to climb back up just now."

"I was not asking."

The nine-tailed fox pressed firmly down on Sani's head as he struggled to pull himself up while gripping the railing.

"Take your hand off me! Hurry! I'm going to fall! Whoa!"

-Crash.

And of all places, Sani fell in the direction where miscellaneous items had been piled up.

After a noise far too loud to cover up, a commotion immediately broke out downstairs.

"What was that sound just now? Huh? It's a raccoon dog. Is that the one Department Head Cha said he saw last time? But what the hell has it been eating to get so fat? Oh, right, a photo!"

Although he was subjected to all manner of insults and even had his photograph taken, there was nothing Sani could do except run far away from the coffeehouse in tears.

And even that was more of a waddling gait, thanks to all the rice he'd eaten.