Chapter 186. An Unexpected Change of Pace (1)

Paat!

Light flashed. When Seol Jihu opened his eyes, he saw an unfamiliar room. Only after looking around a few times in awkwardness did he realize, ‘Ah, this is my room.’

Drrk. The cityscape that revealed itself when he opened the window felt way too unnatural and strange.

The cars on the side of the road, the densely populated houses, the students walking around in their uniforms… Seol Jihu stared at the cityscape in a daze before scratching his head hard.

His scalp itched, perhaps because he had not washed his head in several days. He immediately took off his shirt and headed to the bathroom.

Chwaaaa! Water poured down from the showerhead. Feeling the hot water striking his body, Seol Jihu softly closed his eyes as a soft moan escaped his mouth.

‘Hot water comes out this easily, huh….’

It wasn’t as if hot water was hard to come by in Paradise, but there was an annoying process involved when it came to acquiring enough for a nice bath.

Only now did Seol Jihu really feel like he was back on Earth. Everything that happened while he was in Paradise felt like a dream.

“Whew….”

He plopped down as he let the shower water pelt his head.

While Seol Jihu had no way of knowing this, he had just experienced the second of his four most dreadful, fierce battles. It was only natural for his legs to go limp.

He felt refreshed once he washed every inch of his body, but he was soon confronted with a difficult problem that he had long anticipated he’d run into.

He had absolutely nothing to do.

Rather, he had no clue what he should do.

He opened the fridge without much thought, then closed it feeling troubled. Even when he turned on some loud music and wandered around the room or when he picked up a book that caught his eye, nothing seemed to hold his attention for more than 10 minutes.

He opened his laptop and read the latest news, but it was nowhere as interesting as reading the news report from the assassin organization.

When he realized there was nothing to do, an unbearable silence descended upon him.

In the end, he turned on the TV, took out a can of beer rolling around in the fridge, put a cigarette in his mouth, then leaned against the wall. Meanwhile, his head was filled with all sorts of thoughts.

Kim Hannah and Jang Maldong’s requests echoed inside his ears.

“So boring….”

Seol Jihu murmured to himself as he lit the cigarette. However, he did not drink even a sip of the beer he’d opened, and even the cigarette only let out white smoke.

Seol Jihu glared at the celebrities laughing and joking on the TV screen with empty and lifeless eyes.

“They don’t even know anything.”

Soon, as the unused cigarette burned to the end of the filter, and the screen changed to an advertisement…

“….”

He lowered his head dejectedly. He didn’t understand why he was like this, but he felt as if all energy had been sucked out of his body the moment he returned to Earth.

Less than half a day had passed since he left Paradise, so why was he feeling this way?

Seol Jihu looked down at the plain floor and muttered briefly.

“…It’s so lonely.”

**

After sitting lethargically on the couch for a long time, Seol Jihu left the room as if he was escaping from something.

Time flowed and soon it was dinner time, with dusk slowly blanketing the sky.

Seol Jihu walked aimlessly, though he clearly did not have a plan or a place to go. He simply walked without a destination or a goal.

His half-reflexively moving steps stopped when a bright light touched the tip of his toes. Seol Jihu, who had been contemplating deeply while fiddling with the piece of paper in his pocket, raised his head.

Hongik University Station Exit 2.

‘Oh right!’

His darkened complexion regained a little bit of life.

Without hesitation, Seol Jihu mingled into the crowd of people walking up and down the stairs.

After exiting the subway at Exit 8, he walked around without a plan again. He thought he would have to search for a while, but he found what he was looking for quicker than he expected.

‘Good Pork Belly Place.’

Seol Jihu looked up at the sign on the three-storied building rather dumbfoundedly. The light was still on, but perhaps because it was late at night, he couldn’t see many people inside.

Chime. He opened the door and went in.

“Welcome— Oh, my!”

The waitress flinched when she saw Seol Jihu.

“Are you still open?”

“…Yes! We’re closing in an hour though. How many people are in your party?”

“It’s just me.”

“Just you? Alright, this way please.”

Seol Jihu muffled his voice in embarrassment, but the waitress guided him to his seat indifferently.

“What would you like?”

“I heard the meat here is great.”

“Of course~ It’s delicious~ So you’ll have pork belly?”

“Yes, two portions please.”

“Got it~”

Once the very cheery waitress left, Seol Jihu observed the restaurant thoroughly. He figured there had to be a reason Jang Maldong told him to come here. There had to be something related to Paradise in some way.

However, he couldn’t find anything no matter how many times he looked around the place. Just as he was considering walking up to the second floor, the food he ordered arrived.

He wasn’t sure if this place was normally like this, but the cheery waitress grilled the meat for him without looking tired or annoyed in the slightest.

When the sizzling sound of the meat being grilled flowed out, accompanied by a savory smell, the thought of looking for any clues disappeared.

Now that he got a closer look, the pork belly boasted a chunky thickness with the perfect ratio of fat and meat. He couldn’t lie. It looked incredibly mouthwatering.

Gulp. Seol Jihu swallowed the saliva pooling in his mouth, then asked.

“Can I get a bowl of rice too?”

“Sure~ A bowl of rice here please~”

Why not worry later on a full stomach?

Seol Jihu took a spoonful of rice and a piece of meat that the waitress cut into bite-sized chunks. Seol Jihu moaned as he tasted the harmony of the chewy meat and the well-cooked rice.

To think it would be this good…

Like the saying, ‘hunger is the best sauce’, Seol Jihu finished the two servings of meat and the bowl of rice in the blink of an eye. When he next ordered another four servings of pork belly, the waitress asked back in a startle.

“F-Four servings?”

“Yes, don’t worry. I can finish it.”

As if to prove these words, Seol Jihu devoured the pork belly as soon as it finished grilling. Sweating profusely, he focused only on eating.

He knew it wasn’t good for his health to eat so much this suddenly, but he was struck by an unbearable hunger the moment he smelled the meat.

Once his stomach got a taste of the pork belly’s fatty oil, it demanded more and more of it. In the end, Seol Jihu ordered extra servings.

Only after finishing 10 servings of pork belly, four bowls of rice, one soybean paste stew, and naengmyeon