Season 5: Chapter 4. Spicy Memories (1)
OrangeKing was the main MC of Treevy’s funeral. With his powerful voice and smooth delivery, he was a solid choice as a Treevy alumnus. OrangeKing went around the venue, talking to streamers and conducting interviews.
“Uh, there. Over there. Let’s head that way, camera.” He approached when he spotted Almond and ForeverAlone together. “Everyone, it’s the Lord! Looooord!”
The protagonist of Survival Craft, Lord Almond, had appeared in the real world.
— Nice
— Finally
— The Lord is here!
— Oooo
From ForeverAlone’s perspective, he could finally exchange a few words with Sang-Hyeon.
‘Huh?’
Suddenly, a big-headed man barged right in. “Hello! Almond!”
Between all the noise and chaos, and given who the interviewer was, the interview fell apart immediately.
“His head isn’t big. His head.”
“Pardon?”
No matter how OrangeKing tried to prompt him, Almond kept saying the same thing.
“His head! Really! It’s not as big as I thought!”
— LOL
— LMAO
— Holy shit
— ??? His head is big... it really is... it’s actually huge...
— Damn
— Reverse Japanese accent
— Truly big
Flustered, OrangeKing tried to wrap things up. “Ah, got it! I heard you, Almond. Please calm down.”
He tried to move on to another interview.
“Lord! Lord! Lord!”
More streamers crowded in and naturally pushed aside OrangeKing and the cameraman.
“W-whoa?”
— Holy shit
— His popularity is insane!
— Wow...
— This is chaos
— This is a funeral, right?
In the end, Sang-Hyeon almost forcibly ended up at a table with the others. Streamers who wanted to be on the table camera practically abducted him.
“Let’s eat, bro! Everything is free here!”
The Knight Order members led the charge.
“Is Almond here? Almond?” Sweet Potato asked.
“No, I’ll have chicken.”
“Chicken, chicken sounds good! Nut chicken?”
“No... just chicken.”
— LOL
— They’re obsessed with teasing him about nuts haha
— Almond eats chicken too...
— LMAO
— So cute
— They’re really young...
Like that, Sang-Hyeon ended up ordering food while surrounded by his companions.
‘It’s been a really long time...’
When was the last time he drank like this while celebrating with so many people? He had gone to a few of the national tournament team dinners, but this felt different.
Back then, everyone cared about winning and gathered purely for the same goal. In the end, their paths diverged from Sang-Hyeon’s. They walked the path of being pros and athletes. Sang-Hyeon chose the path of a streamer. He had made good connections, but everyone returned to their own path after that season passed.
“Oppa, the camera is here. Just talk toward the table camera.”
“Looooord! Have a drink!”
The people beside him now were more familiar.
‘Friends.’
He had long forgotten this kind of relationship.
***
As the night deepened, the Treevy funeral mellowed.
“Ahahahahaha!”
With alcohol in his system, Sang-Hyeon found himself explaining to the table camera how he got the idea to turn people into Fertile Soil. Calling it an explanation was generous. It was really just an excuse show.
Having drunk quite a bit, Sang-Hyeon said with mild excitement, “I mean... They don’t actually die, right? They revive anyway. It’s not a big deal.”
Sweet Potato chimed in beside him, “Exactly!”
“They just die for a moment and wake up again. It was the same when I worked at Ah-Sung. You work yourself to death, literally die for a bit, then wake up again the next morning. That’s how companies make money.”
— Holy shit
— This guy spent all day thinking up excuses before coming LOL
— Hahahaha
— He’s not wrong...
— Only an office worker could say that
— Honestly, companies are worse, agreed
— Ah-Sung...
Ding.
[RubySword has donated 30,000 won.]
[So what was Ah-Sung’s legal department email address again...]
When RubySword started lining up a lawsuit, Sang-Hyeon replied firmly, “No.”
— LOL
— Immediate “no”
— No explanation, just “no”
— Then what is it?
“It’s not like that.” Sang-Hyeon just kept repeating the same thing.
Sweet Potato backed him up from the side. “It’s not!”
— What is it then LOL
— Sweet Potato is probably drunk haha
— What do you know to say no?
On top of that, Black Tea kept asking awkward questions like why he had targeted her to set things on fire. The misunderstanding had already been cleared up, but they were deliberately teasing him.
— This is basically an Almond press conference LMAO
— Reporters, over here~!
— Almond is so cute!
— He’s getting more and more flustered
Questions to corner Lord Almond kept coming. This turned into its own content with various streamers stopping by to add their own comments.
— You could listen to the Lord’s stories all day and it’d still be fun
— Lord story hotspot
— Look at everyone coming just to hear the Lord’s stories
Not just the Knight Order members, but Miho and other streamers he’d interacted with back then came by as well. Among them, the strangest question came from Miho.
With her face flushed, perhaps a bit drunk, Miho shot her hand into the air. “Lord~! Tell us about your first love!”
She hopped and failed to keep her balance, wobbling to the side.
— Holy shit
— Now it’s just pure chaos
— Nice
— How much did Miho drink?
— The Lord’s popularity...
— First love story!
Miho had meant it as a playful question, riding the mood to get laughs. Everyone around them laughed. However, even in her drunken haze, she noticed something.
‘Huh?’
Sang-Hyeon’s smile looked painfully awkward. His eyes wavered far more than expected.
‘Is there... still something there?’
It looked like he still held onto feelings for his first love. Others wouldn’t have noticed, but it seemed like that to Miho.
“F-first love... haha. At my age, what kind of...”
An awkward silence followed. It wasn’t especially long, maybe two or three seconds at most. To Miho, that brief pause felt uncomfortably long.
Sang-Hyeon changed the subject. “Ah. This feels a bit heavy... Is there any hot soup?”
Sweet Potato pushed the menu toward him. “There are hot pot dishes.”
Maybe Sweet Potato still couldn’t let go of his days as Potato Servant because he held the menu out like an attendant.
“Is there fish cake soup or tteokbokki or something?” Sang-Hyeon asked naturally.
“Hm... Doesn’t look like it? Tteokbokki? Excuse me, do you have tteokbokki here? Or at least fish cake soup?”
The waiters shook their heads.
— Suddenly craving tteokbokki??
— That kind of thing hits when you’re drunk
— No fish cake soup...
— Yu Sang-Hyeon eats well when he drinks
After confirming it wasn’t on the menu, the Knight Order members ordered a seafood stew instead. It tasted fine like refreshing seafood broth. Still... something felt missing.
After a few more bites, Sang-Hyeon stood up from his seat. “Ah, I’m gonna step out for some air.”
“Yeah, bro. Going for a smoke?”
“No, no. I don’t smoke.”
“Oh, really? Then I’ll head out separately with Sweet Radish.”
“Okay.” Sang-Hyeon slipped out through the crowd.
Outside the venue, he let the breeze wash over him and glanced around. Without much thought, he walked into a nearby convenience store.
***
It was early summer when the sound of cicadas began filling the school grounds.
Under thick leaves that blocked the blazing sun, she said, “I want to eat tteokbokki.”
She had said it out of nowhere.
“Now...?”
“Yeah, let’s hop the wall and go.”
Tap.
Sang-Hyeon pressed his palm against So-Yeon’s forehead. “Did you get heatstroke?”
The summer was hot. Archery didn’t look like much, but it drained one’s strength fast. Still, hearing something like this from So-Yeon surprised him. He was usually the troublemaker. So-Yeon was the hall monitor type who stopped him.
Her eyes widened as she stepped back and knocked his hand away. “W-who got heatstroke? Just because I want tteokbokki!?”
“No, I mean... How are we supposed to eat it right now?”
It was lunchtime. She had complained earlier that she didn’t like today’s menu.
“Let’s hop the wall. Yeon-Woo and Ji-Hye went last time. They told me the route.”
Sang-Hyeon was dumbfounded. It wasn’t like he didn’t know how, but it was against the rules.
So-Yeon grabbed his arm and dragged him along. “There’s no time. Hurry!”
Sang-Hyeon automatically went along, and So-Yeon burst out laughing.
“Let’s go!”
“Hey, okay. Just let go.”
Tap tap tap tap tap.
True to their athletic nature, they sprinted with ease and cleared the wall in no time.
Whoosh!
Physically, it wasn’t hard. They just never did it before because they weren’t supposed to. Well, at least that applied to Sang-Hyeon. So-Yeon, being a bit shorter, struggled more.
Balanced precariously on top of the wall, So-Yeon said, “Uh... Here. Catch me.”
“Catch you?”
“Who else?”
Sang-Hyeon looked flustered. He’d never caught someone jumping down before.
“I’m jumping!”
He hurriedly caught her and tried to soften the impact by pulling her tightly into his arms.
Whoom.
The scent of fabric softener from her shirt filled his nose. For a moment, So-Yeon’s feet floated off the ground.
“H-hey. O-okay. You can put me down now.”
“Ah... yeah.”
He carefully set her down.
So-Yeon broke into a bright smile, then grabbed the collar of his white short-sleeved shirt and took off running.
“Come on. Hurry! We can’t get caught.”
Tap tap tap tap tap!
They sprinted toward the tteokbokki shop. The place they liked was called National Team Tteokbokki. Of course, they didn’t know that it closed on Mondays.
Doom.
It felt like the sound echoed straight out of So-Yeon’s heart. Pure despair filled her trembling eyes.
“We’re doomed!”
No other snack shops were nearby.
‘What do we do?’
Sang-Hyeon’s eyes darted around.
‘Ah.’
He grabbed So-Yeon by the wrist and ran.
“W-where are we going?”
“There’s a place that sells tteokbokki.”
“Huh? It’s too late now!”
“No, it’s right there.”
He dragged her into a convenience store.
Ding-ling~
The chime rang as the door opened, and the owner greeted them.
“Welcome... Oh? Students?”
“H-hello!”
“Well, aren’t you two a pretty pair.”
Without answering, they slipped inside. More accurately, Sang-Hyeon dragged her in. Then, he grabbed a microwave tteokbokki.
“This.”
“Ah!”
So-Yeon’s eyes went wide. Reflected in them was Sang-Hyeon, smiling. Then, she smiled too.
“That looks good.”
***
Beep~
Sang-Hyeon took the piping hot fish cake soup and tteokbokki out of the microwave. He found a seat and peeled open the packaging.
“Hah, hot...”
— Why is this suddenly a tteokbokki mukbang? LOL
— Wait, out of nowhere?
— Didn’t he say he wanted it earlier?? He really left to eat it LOL
— When he commits, he commits! Aka-Cola!
— Route selection GOAT
— Thought he left cause it was too loud in there
The viewers felt baffled by his antics.
“This is good. It’s good for sobering up too. I drank a bit much...”
— I’ve never seen someone eat convenience store tteokbokki like this
— This guy’s movement is just different LOL
— He eats it like it’s really good
— He did say that he wanted fish cake soup earlier
Sang-Hyeon had already stopped reading the chat. Staring out the window, he shoveled the tteokbokki into his mouth. Honestly, it didn’t taste very good.