After a commotion took place in the research hall, I brought Arna outside the building.
To help Arna calm down a bit, I decided we’d spend some time sitting on a bench.
“Ugh…!”
She must still be embarrassed, because Arna had her face hidden in her hands and let out a groan.
“Of course it was a mistake to come to the research hall…!”
At the same time, she violently shook her legs, almost like someone doing a blanket-kick.
“I told you before, didn’t I? You should tone down on the community posts.”
“Ughhhhh…!”
What? The revered hero of all people would post a worry thread on some community forum. Was there ever a funnier story? Arna, who must have realized this, squirmed in her seat.
By now, her ears had turned as red as ripe tomatoes.
“So, what kind of worry thread did you post?”
“Huh…?”
When I asked, Arna slowly uncovered her face. Her eyes were quite moist as she stared directly at me.
“Wasn’t that comment yours…? Anonymous 803….”
“Anonymous 803? That wasn’t me.”
“Eh… then who….”
It seems Arna had assumed from the start that it was me. Thankfully, I wasn’t about to be made the bad guy here.
Though I’m plenty bad already anyway.
“Do you remember that kid from earlier in the lab?”
“Yes.”
“That’s his doing. Yoo Ji-woo, first year Technical Soldier.”
“Ah…”
Arna nodded, showing she understood.
Later, she confirmed the truth with me once more.
“So, you truly have nothing to do with this?”
“Yes.”
“You don’t even know what I wrote?”
“Well, you can trust me on that.”
Sigh ─!
Arna let out a large sigh, like someone who’d come back from the dead. The unruly behavior she displayed earlier, full of shame, was now completely gone.
Her tears had dried up already.
Hmm, is it really that lucky for me to not know what she wrote?
“So, what sort of worry thread did you put up?”
“T, that’s…!”
At the question, Arna suddenly hunched her shoulders. She looked as though I’d caught her off guard.
“It’s none of your business anyway!”
“Is that so? If you won’t tell me, I’ll just ask Yoo Ji-woo directly.”
“Ah, no!”
As soon as I pulled out my smartphone, Arna quickly grabbed my wrist. Her grip was incredibly strong. Still the bosom fiend she always was.
“If you make that call, I swear I’m going to wreck both your wrist and that phone…! You know that, right…!”
Arna’s gaze was fiercer than ever. Her eyes were completely bloodshot, and she looked ready to make someone cry if I crossed a line.
“Alright. I’ll consider this none of my business.”
Well, anyway, Arna is a girl, after all. She probably has some secrets she can’t share with others.
I don’t intend to pry any further. Truly.
“Are you really serious, right? You won’t ask later when we’re alone or something…?”
“Do I look like the kind of person who would be that despicable?”
“Yes. Extremely.”
“…”
When said that way, it leaves me speechless.
What kind of impression does she have of me normally? It’s almost like being treated like a swindler?
Gurgle ─
“Ack….”
Right then, an empty stomach growl echoed. It came from Arna’s stomach, and it was loud enough to silence both of us.
“You haven’t eaten yet, have you?”
“Yes, somehow…”
“Would you like to grab something to eat?”
I pointed far off at a row of food trucks. It was the food zone set up for this school open event, and they were currently in the trial operation phase.
“Smack….”
The savory smell of oil reached us here, and Arna instinctively swallowed her saliva. She must have been quite hungry.
“Just wait here. I’ll go grab something to eat.”
“Ack… thank you….”
There’s no way to let our protagonist starve, right? No matter how much I’m the villain, I still need to feed her before tormenting her. Standing up, I headed toward the food trucks.
“Oh, Spoon!”
While deciding which food truck to visit in the midst of so many, a man called me from somewhere far away.
The man with the black tattoos that stood out on his neck—it was Moon Shin-chung.
“Are you here for a food truck too?”
Moon Shin-chung was busy preparing ingredients inside his truck. He was dicing green bell peppers and pristine white mushrooms.
“It’s the big festival that happens once a year, after all. You’ve got to make money while you can.”
All the food trucks here are managed by students. One of them belongs to Moon Shin-chung.
“Is this pizza?”
The menu was simple: pizza. Inside, a moveable wood-fired oven was impressively set up.
“How about it? Don’t I match perfectly?”
Moon Shin-chung showed off his weapon, the cooking version of his Pox.
It seems like he plans to use that to bake the pizza. Very creative idea.
“But, I wonder how good it tastes. Do you usually cook?”
“What’s so hard about pizza? Just spread some sauce on dough and add some ingredients. Simple.”
Moon Shin-chung started flattening out a prepared dough.
“How about it? Now that you’re here, will you order a pizza?”
“Hmm.”
Since I need to get food for Arna anyway, packing it here wouldn’t hurt, would it?
I decided to place an order right away.
“Medium-sized Hawaiian pizza. Please pack the pineapple toppings generously.”
“What?”
Moon Shin-chung tilted his head after hearing my order.
“Hawaiian pizza? With extra pineapple as well? You’re serious?”
“I’m always serious.”
Especially when it comes to tormenting Arna.
“Will you beg for a refund later?”
“Just make the pizza already.”
“Seriously, I see all sorts of strange people.”
Moon Shin-chung took out a stainless-steel rectangular container hidden in the corner. It was filled with pre-cut pineapple chunks.
It looked like it was kept aside due to poor sales.
“You wanted lots of pineapple, right? Get ready.”
Moon Shin-chung filled a ladle with pineapple chunks as if to show me.
But there’s no way I’m eating any of that pineapple—it’s all for Arna.
The more pineapple, the better.
*
“Ugh…!”
While Shin Yoon-seong was away buying food, Arna sat alone on the bench, cooling her burning cheeks.
My cheeks are still so warm. I don’t even know what kind of shame this is. If I could erase today’s events from my memory, it would be so wonderful.
“At least it’s good that Anonymous 803 isn’t him…”
The only relief is that Shin Yoon-seong wasn’t Anonymous 803. If he had been, Arna was prepared to bite her tongue and die right there.
That much of an embarrassing post she made.
“From now on, I should probably hold back on posting on the community, especially relationship advice…”
Suddenly, Arna froze after hearing her own words. Her eyes widened.
“What did I just say?”
Did I just say “relationship advice”?
Relationship advice? What nonsense is that? I’ve never once considered Shin Yoon-seong as a romantic interest.
He’s just a pest like a bed bug.
“Y, yeah…! This is just a slip of the tongue! How can someone like that be a romantic interest? Ahahah…!”
“What did you say?”
“KIEEEEEEEEEEEEK…!”
Suddenly, Shin Yoon-seong appeared from behind. Arna screamed loudly like birds scattering.
“What, what, what is it? Why are you here already?”
“The food came out faster than expected.”
Shin Yoon-seong held out a rectangular box. The smell of freshly baked bread wafted softly.
“This smell…”
“It’s pizza. Eat it while the cheese is still melted.”
How did he know I like pizza? Arna took the box. The warmth from the cardboard box was directly transferred to her hands.
“Huh…?”
But her joy didn’t last long. When she looked inside the box, Arna frowned.
This was definitely pizza, alright. On the round crust, various vegetables and meat were placed, ending with a generous drizzling of white cheese.
It was undoubtedly pizza in composition…
“But what on earth is this…?”
The problem was the strange toppings scattered all over the cheese.
Yellow cubes. It couldn’t be Emmental cheese, given the sweet smell. Judging by that, this topping was…
“Pineapple.”
“…”
Sure enough, it was pineapple. And there was plenty of it. It was almost like it was poured on.
The pizza could almost be called a pineapple bread rather than pizza.
How dare he call this dinner.
“Eep…! Always thinking of tricks to play on me…!”
“Hardly tricks. Everything I bought was truly for Arna’s sake.”
“Even so, this is excessive!”
If I were to take a bite, tomato sauce would probably squirt out as pineapple juice instead. Sweet juice would mix with salty cheese in my mouth.
This was practically monstrous cuisine. Surely, my body would reject it as soon as it went down.
“So, are you planning to throw it away?”
“I didn’t say I was going to throw it away!”
That said, it wasn’t so terrible that she couldn’t eat it. After all, Hawaiian pizza is an officially recognized dish, fairly common.
And this was, indeed, rare for Shin Yoon-seong to buy food by paying with his own money.
Of course, this was not out of consideration for Shin Yoon-seong. It was purely because it was a waste of the money he spent.
Huff!
Arna bit off a big piece of the pizza.
“Ugh…!”
It was inevitable that her expression would crinkle. The taste was exactly as expected: a mess.
It was like Arna’s own emotions.
Salty, bitter, sour…
And yet, unbearably sweet at the same time.
