Cock-a-doodle-doo!
The Korean chickens were going up trees and flying around like birds. Chicks were toddling about on the ground.
As soon as Lee Hyun and the never before seen Seo-yoon came, they rapidly fled into a corner or above the trees. It was a sight of wholehearted wariness. As they hid in the corners, poked out their heads, and examined the movements of the humans, they didn’t intend to come out.
However, through Half Sauce Half Fried, Seo-yoon was familiar with the habits of the chickens. She tore the short rib patty she’d prepared into small pieces and sprinkled it on the ground.
Clu-clu-clu-clu-cluck!
The chickens leapt out of the trees and from the woods like savage beasts and pecked down the pieces. Even the chicks dove in with their small beaks and were tearing into the ribs.
Seo-yoon patted the chickens and chicks. Despite the fact that she was a stranger, they had quickly became friendly through the patties and stuck to her side like burrs.
‘They’re taking a liking to me.’
Not knowing what to do, Seo-yoon petted the chickens with joyful eyes.
Lee Hyun was distressed. ‘The same short rib patties that was in the lunch I ate…’
A life where he had come to eat the same food as a chicken! Even so, at the sight of the nearly expressionless Seo-yoon really having fun being with the chickens, he followed suit and felt good.
She, a girl who had silently stared without being able to approach, was being touched so deeply while being with the chickens that tears were welling in her eyes.
Even Lee Hyun was getting choked up for nothing. ‘This feels even stranger than the first time I fried a chicken for my little sis.’
He knew that Seo-yoon wasn’t a very bad person. However, that was not easy for him to acknowledge. ‘Whether she’s a bad person or a good person… she can’t be close to me.’
Realistically speaking, they were living in circumstances that were too different. Lee Hyun could roughly estimate how expensive one of the clothes she wore was well enough. ‘Even the brand name clothes that show up on television are over 100 thousand Won ($~100)… with fabric that good, a brand called Dior, and the design, it must be at least 150 thousand Won!’
There was too big a difference in their household situations. A girl like Seo-yoon would like a great guy who Lee Hyun couldn’t even compare to. ‘A qualified guy will show up.’ It was the same with Jung Hyo-rin and other girls.
Lee Hyun made a big decision. “Just pick one. And if there’s one you like… you can pick two.”
Having been petting the chickens in bliss, Seo-yoon looked back at him with happy eyes. Eyes that asked if he really meant it!
Lee Hyun gazed far off into the distance as he spoke. “Something like a chicken… two or three are nothing.”
Unusually enough, Lee Hyun was showing great generosity. That was because trying to make up for the lunch price with a single chicken still made him feel indebted.
Seo-yoon chose three chickens.
Every time she picked a chicken, Lee Hyun’s face became bloodlessly pale. ‘That one’s a laying hen… and Boiled Chicken, and even the plump chick that shows promise for a great disposition later!’
A laying hen was of course a valuable creature. He intended on catching it when his little sister married and brought home a husband in the future. But the chickens would keep reproducing until then, and there were two other laying hens left, so it was okay… Even so, the moment Seo-yoon chose the laying hen, he felt a sadness and pain that broke off a piece of his heart.
Lee Hyun spoke mournfully. “I’ll… package them for you.”
To make it convenient for Seo-yoon to take them, he tied the chickens’ legs and necks with string and connected them to each other. Looking like a chicken sled, it couldn’t be any weirder, but Seo-yoon took the string.
She wrote on a note.
I’m truly grateful. Thank you so much for listening to my request even though it was excessive.
“It’s nothing. This much is meh. If necessary, one more…” Lee Hyun hastily revised his words. “Next time you can take one more chick.”
Really?
“…”
Seo-yoon, who wanted to take one right away when he said she could!
As Lee Hyun conversed via notes, he thought it was a little strange. ‘Why doesn’t she speak?’ He’d originally thought that she was hiding the fact she could speak on purpose to fool with him, but she wasn’t. In the MT and the festival, he hadn’t heard her speak even once. Even as they ate lunch together, she didn’t speak. To be honest, that they conversed through notes after she left a note in the lunch box could be called a tremendous advancement.
‘She spoke just one word in Royal Road, but her voice was extremely nice on the ears… it’s probably something like her actual voice is really dry, right?’
When Lee Hyun was about to leave the backyard to see Seo-yoon off, Dogmeat approached while whining. Seo-yoon also seemed to think Dogmeat was cute because she wasn’t able to move away.
Lee Hyun spoke with a trembling voice. “D-do you happen to like this dog?”
“…?”
“Do you want to… take Dogmeat too?”
Lee Hyun’s shocking transformation! He would even give Seo-yoon Dogmeat, who he had cherished and raised for the days of summer.
[T/N: Summer is a popular time for eating dog meat, which is said to energize and revitalize. As a reminder, this is a cultural difference we hope everyone will understand.]
Can I really take him to keep?
“You can. Because it seems like this dog likes you.”
More than anything else, Seo-yoon looked delighted beyond measure at the words that it seemed the dog liked her. Surprised and touched, she went as far as to drip tears.
Lee Hyun spoke in a low voice. “This rascal eats a lot, so it’s good to feed him often. He’ll overturn a food bowl that’s too small, so prepare a big one for him, and let him go play in the backyard on rainy days. Don’t tie him up at night. He hunts things like mice and weasels. He takes about a 2 hour nap, but if you want to play with him just call his name. He’ll wake up. He likes radish and carrots, so give him some now and then…”
Every single word of his explanation was like sending off his lover.
‘It feels like my heart is being ripped out.’
Even as he suffered intense agony, Lee Hyun didn’t retract his decision.
When giving a gift, you mustn’t show a reluctant face. Giving properly was the way to bribe!
‘The second and third S-rank difficulty quests… honestly, I think it’ll be almost impossible for me to complete them.’
He was grinding to raise his Sculpting skill. However, he couldn’t guarantee quest success.
‘With the alliance with the barbarians, the Power of the Deliverer, and the Sentence of Death, and also a lot of luck, I was able to finish the 1st step of the quest.’ He couldn’t hope to have always such luck in the quest. ‘The 2nd and 3rd steps will be even harder.’
From here onwards, he would be in a desperate and lonely position where he had to go up against the quests with nothing.
‘If we could do it together…’
If Seo-yoon participated in the quest with him, it would be much more reassuring for him.