<b>Trantor: MarcTempest</b>


    <b>Editor: NicoleTempest</b>


    Chapter 250


    “Ah…”


    His voice was so loud that he felt embarrassed and his face turned red in an instant.


    “Did you skip lunch?”


    I didn’t want to talk about Kang Yu-geon. We had a lot of interactions, but it was different to think of him as a fan, a rival, a colleague, and an employee I had to take care of.


    “Uh, yes. The time was a bit awkward earlier.”


    There was not much time left until dinner. I nced around and saw a few more guys who seemed to be friends with the one who talked to me, upying the bunk beds and gathering together.“Hey, what’s wrong with you, you’re not a bully, why are you bothering someone who’s just sitting there?”


    The student who came to me retorted with an indifferent tone that they threw among themselves.


    “Oh, I’m not bothering him. I’m just happy to see him.”


    To feed this many boys… I had to prepare twice as much as the Climax kids ate.


    Except for Yi-jun, they were mostly light eaters or ate moderately for weight management, so I couldn’tpare their food intake with ordinary teenagers.


    “Is there still some time left before dinner?”


    “Uh, I guess so?”


    He looked at me with a puzzled expression as if to ask why I was asking that. I got up from my seat with myptop bag on my shoulder.


    “I’ll go ask if I can use the kitchen for a while.”


    It wasn’t hard or time-consuming to make something if I had the ingredients.


    I knocked on the kitchen door and a volunteer who was taking a break greeted me.


    “It’s not dinner time yet. Do you want toe backter?”


    I might look like a nuisance. I hesitated for a moment and looked down at the kind-faced volunteer and asked carefully.


    “Can I make something for myself? I’m confident in cooking because I’ve been working part-time at a restaurant for a long time.”


    Then the volunteer’s eyes widened as if he heard something unexpected and then narrowed again.


    “Food? You’re going to make it yourself?”


    “Uh, yes. If it’s not possible…”


    I trailed off and the volunteerughed heartily and patted my back.


    “You’re a funny kid. It’s the first time I’ve seen a male student ask to make something for himself while I’ve been volunteering here, so I was a bit surprised. Sure, what do you want to make?”


    “…!”


    Fortunately, it wasn’t a negative reaction. I entered the kitchen through the entrance that the volunteer opened and washed my hands first.


    “I’m going to make tteokbokki and kimchi fried rice first, do you have any frozen pork cutlets or cold noodles?”


    As I quickly found the cooking utensils of the right size and ced them where I needed them, the volunteer’s expression changed to astonishment again.


    “You’re going to do all that by yourself?”


    Well… 20 minutes might be difficult. But if I organized my movements well, it would be possible in 30 minutes.


    “Yes. I’m not going to eat it alone, I’m going to share it with the kids in the dormitory.”


    Then the volunteer asked me with a worried expression.


    “The ingredients are all there, so you can use them. But can you do it by yourself?”


    It was a question that touched the pride of my 20 years of food service experience. Of course, the volunteer didn’t mean to ask me that.


    “Yes. Just sit down and rest. I’ll do everything.”


    I smiled broadly and answered.


    “Wow! Did you really make all this yourself?”


    Exactly 20 minutester. I hadn’t had to prepare food for almost 10 people in such a hurry at the restauranttely, so my hands might have been a bit slow, but I was so motivated by Pilseung’s order earlier that I finished much faster than I expected.


    “Yes, it doesn’t take much time if you have the ingredients.”


    It was practically the same environment as the restaurant, so the kitchen was optimized for fast cooking. I also shared some with the volunteer and spread it out like a banquet on one side of the cafeteria, and the other students also nced at this side.


    ‘I made a lot, so maybe they cane and eat more?’


    I cautiously asked the group of students who had talked to me.


    “I think I made too much, can I share it with the others?”


    The food that was served at the right time like a group meal was delicious, but it seemed like I had never prepared a snack bar set like this that made my legs bend.


    “Well, we’re just getting it for free…”


    “It doesn’t matter, right?”


    “If you give it to us, we’ll just bow our heads and thank you and eat it.”


    They were a bit rough in their speech and behavior, but they weren’t that threatening. Soon, the other students in the cafeteria also came and scooped up their tes and filled their stomachs.


    It wouldn’t have been bad to order delivery, but it took time to cook there and then deliver it, so I chose to make it myself.


    ‘They’re eating well.’


    It seemed like a good decision as the food I prepared quickly revealed the bottom.


    They didn’t seem to be very close, and the sound of chewing food in an awkward atmosphere upied most of the audio.


    Suddenly, someone spoke to me.


    “Excuse me.”


    “Oh, yes.”


    What did he want to ask me? I answered nervously.


    “How old are you? It’s awkward to keep using formalnguage since earlier.”


    He looked like he had just entered high school. He probably wanted to talk casually like the other kids if we were the same age or I was younger.


    Well, it wouldn’t matter if I pretended to be an adult since he wouldn’t check my ID anyway, but I didn’t feel the need to lie, so I answered with my current age.


    “Neen.”


    “Oh, you’re older than me.”


    The atmosphere became awkward, and I added casually.


    “You can talkfortably. It’s not much of a difference.”


    Then he piled on as if he had been waiting for it.


    “Really? Then can I talkfortably?”


    “Wow, this is so delicious. Did you make this with what’s in the kitchen?”


    “Hey, move the pork feet, I’m eating.”


    “What are you talking about? You ate the most. Have some conscience and stop eating.”


    As they quickly switched to bickering among themselves, I realized they were just kids.


    They all had some reason why they couldn’t go home, so they were resting here for a while.


    I didn’t expect to serve them a meal myself, but I was d that the facility I built was actually helping them.


    Then the spark of conversation flew to me again.


    “By the way, you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to. Why are you here?”


    I was surprised by the unexpected question and looked at his face full of curiosity. He blurted out without any malice.


    “No, it’s just that you don’t look like a professional runaway. You can cook well and you don’t look like a delinquent. I wonder how you ended up here. Theptop you brought today is also very expensive.”


    Then another guy hit his mouth with a chopstick.


    “Hey, don’t ask that kind of thing.”


    “Why, we’re all curious.”


    “Still, there’s something calledmon sense.”


    Iughed as I watched them argue among themselves. Well… it wasn’t entirely true, but it wasn’t 100% a lie either.


    Iposed a sentence in my head and opened my mouth.


    “I’m not close with my family. It’s a perfect home without me, but they keep nagging me, so I hate being there and it’s ufortable.”


    That’s how I felt when I first left home and became independent. My stepmother who treated me like a thorn in her eye, my half-sibling who always tried to beat me, my father who saw me as a nuisance.


    They seemed to live happily without me, but they weren’t really doing that well.


    When I, who was med for all the discord in the family, disappeared, the quarrels between my father and stepmother increased naturally, and my stepmother’s irritation turned to my half-sibling. It was inevitable.


    ‘And then they clung to me when I seeded.’


    I didn’t care about that family anyway. But that was because I had a lot of scars and became numb, and ordinary people couldn’t do that.


    So I made this ce for the kids who couldn’t get help from their families even though they had them.


    ‘I didn’t expect to stay here myself.’


    And I was surrounded by the kids who really needed this ce, having a trivial conversation. It was a different feeling.


    “I know what you mean. They curse you for being annoying when you’re at home, and then they curse you for leaving when you’re out.”


    “I hate it. What do they want me to do?”


    They all seemed to have simr stories, and they kept moving their hands to the tes. Soon, the food disappeared as if it had been washed.


    “Ah, I really enjoyed it.”


    “What now?”


    As they moved the dishes to the rest area one by one, someone shouted after looking at his phone.


    “Hey, Jaemun is busking today. Let’s go see.”


    I didn’t know who Jaemun was, but it seemed like he was performing.


    “Oh, that’s today?”


    “Yeah. Are you going or not?”


    “Of course. Let’s go and troll him from the front row.”


    “You’ll get beaten up again.”


    They giggled as they showed each other their phone screens, and one of them asked me.


    “Do you want toe with us? You can get there by taking one bus from here.”


    Where? I tilted my head and frowned. The tallest one among themughed out loud.


    “If you need to save your transportation card, I’ll pay for you. You gave me something delicious.”


    What are we going to see? I looked at the screen he handed me, and there were kids dressed like idol trainees around the amp.


    No… I… I’m notpletely uninterested, but I don’t have time for that. I had to call Yu-geon as soon as the recording was over.


    He took myck of refusal or positive reaction as a weak yes, and he grabbed my arm.


    “Come on, don’t back out. Let’s go together, bro!”


    I was dragged to a ce near where we had hastily performed a busking stage to promote Drink Me, our previous activity.


    ‘There must be a lot of amateur shows here.’


    Even though people hadn’t fullye out to the streets yet, there were quite a few groups that caught my eye, securing their spots.


    They wanted to get the best ces, I guess.


    “Over here, this way!”


    A male student who seemed to know the group that brought me here waved his hand and shouted at us.


    “What’s this? Why are you alling in a swarm?”


    He looked embarrassed as the group teased him.


    “Why, are you scared already? How are you going to dance then?”


    “Hey, I’m not scared, okay?”


    They were really annoying. While they bickered among themselves, the students who looked like a dance crew, wearing matching outfits, started to check their moves.


    “It’s going to start soon, so sit in the front.”


    “Okay.”


    I also sat down in a ce that was separated like a seat, and felt a twinge in my heart.


    “Is the sound okay?”


    “Yeah, it’s connected.”


    When I did the stage myself here, I was so afraid that I would die like this that I couldn’t enjoy the stage fully.


    It was the same now, even though I came here to watch, not to perform.


    No, at least then I had some hope that I could live. Now, I just wanted to finish everything as much as I could before I disappeared.


    As the bitter thoughts pierced my mind, the first song soon started to y with a thumping beat.