Became a Swordsman Genius in a Pretty Girl Game

387. Confession (3)

The next person chosen by the lottery was Lee Yuri.

“Rice Soup, there’s a place I’d like you to take me.”

“A place you’d like me to take you?”

Where could it be that Jin Yuha wanted to bring her?

Vrooom—

Driving the car, Jin Yuha remained silent.

An awkward stillness hung in the air.

Yuri stole glances at Jin Yuha from the passenger seat.

‘Ugh, what is this…?’

Ichika had clearly been told something separate yesterday,

but no matter how much she pressed, she refused to say anything, insisting she hear it directly from Jin Yuha.

Still, there was something Yuri desperately wanted to hear from Jin Yuha.

“Ahem! J, Jin Yuha?”

Hearing her clear her throat and call his name, Jin Yuha flicked his eyes toward her in response.

“Yeah? What is it, Rice Soup?”

“Th-that…uh… yesterday, Ichika… that thing… did it…rise?”

“That thing?”

Jin Yuha feigned ignorance, tilting his head in confusion.

“Th-that thing, you know! The, the Ring of Affection and Obsession? I’m still the Vice Party Leader, you know? It’s my duty to grasp the current state of the party members, wouldn’t you say? So?”

“You were curious about that?”

“I-I’m just curious! Ichika won’t tell me anything…”

Yuri mumbled, her voice trailing off.

Jin Yuha chuckled softly, as if finding her endearing.

“Yeah, it rose. To 5%.”

* * *

Thump.

Lee Yuri bit her lip at the news that Ichika had risen to 5%.

Unconsciously, she had thought that she, of course, would be the first.

She was Jin Yuha’s first companion, always by his side, after all.

To hear that someone had usurped that place, she felt her heart plummet.

“Ahaha… Is that so.”

“Mm… Actually, Shin Sehee was the very first.”

“…Shin Sehee?”

Could it be, that there was even one before Ichika?

And Shin Sehee, of all people!

No wonder she had found it strange how Shin Sehee had stepped back from the lottery this time,

saying her turn didn’t matter and even the last would be fine.

“…Is that so.”

Lee Yuri’s mood sank, feeling as though her ranking had been pushed back.

“I hope you don’t misunderstand, this isn’t based on the size of one’s affection.”

“…Then?”

“It’s just, Shin Sehee figured out a secret I was keeping all by herself.”

“…Figure out a secret?”

“Yeah, that’s it.”

Come to think of it, it seemed possible that Shin Sehee would have been able to.

Shin Sehee was extremely intelligent, unlike herself.

“…What secret?”

“The day is long. I’ll tell you slowly.”

Screech—

The car came to a halt.

Lee Yuri glanced around, her eyes widening.

“Ah, this is…”

She had only been here once, but she knew where it was.

Jin Yuha’s old house.

The place where she had come to pick him up for the academy.

Jin Yuha stepped out of the car and stood before the rusted green iron gate of the old villa complex.

The gate groaned open.

“I bought this building.”

Lee Yuri followed behind Jin Yuha, down the stairs.

A basement one-room.

The door opened, and what entered Lee Yuri’s vision was a one-room apartment, the size of a bathroom.

In the small space, barely three *pyeong*, sat a worn single bed, all alone. A desk and a small wardrobe were the only other things.

Empty, utterly bare.

A desolate scene devoid of any warmth.

‘…Jin Yuha lived in a place like this?’

Entering the room for the first time, Lee Yuri scanned the interior with surprised eyes.

Looking at Jin Yuha as he was now, it was difficult to imagine.

Yet, at the same time, an oddly familiar feeling stirred.

She, too, had lived in a place like this before entering the Academy.

Memories surfaced of huddling with her mother, father, and younger sibling in a cramped one-room. Piles of bedding stacked in a corner, desperate moments spent trying to utilize every inch of the tiny space.

But she had had a family, whereas Jin Yuha did not.

“I didn’t originally live here, but the place I lived before was similar to this.”

Jin Yuha brushed the surface of the old desk with his fingertips. A faint cloud of dust rose.

“…You, of all people, could have lived in a much better place than this.”

That was true.

In reality, Jin Yuha had been strong from the very beginning.

Of course, it was difficult to compare to the present, but from the moment she first met him, he had been the one who slashed through hordes of goblins with a single stroke.

And just from seeing him casually hand over top-grade mana stones to Senior Ga-eul, it was clear that he and poverty did not belong together.

‘But why?’

It was then.

*Grumble*—

In the silence, her stomach, oblivious to the atmosphere, growled.

Ah. From the night before, she had been so preoccupied thinking about what Jin Yuha was going to say that she hadn’t eaten a thing.

Lee Yuri’s face flushed crimson.

“Hungry?”

“…N-no, not really? What was that noise just now?”

She tried her best to act nonchalant, but.

*Gurgle—!!!!*

Her stomach protested its emptiness with a sound even louder than before.

Lee Yuri’s face flushed an even deeper red.

Jin Yuha chuckled softly and started tapping on his phone. “I had a place in mind we were originally going to go, but now that I think about it, if we went together, it’d cause a scene. Let’s just order in.”

Less than five minutes after ordering, a drone gently knocked at the door.

What Jin Yuha had ordered was…

*Gukbap*, a hearty rice soup with a milky broth, alongside chili paste, kimchi, and soju.

Jin Yuha set out the food on the floor with a practiced ease.

A surprisingly down-to-earth gesture, especially considering he looked like the type who only ate high-end cuisine.

Seeing the name of the *gukbap* restaurant written on the plastic bag, Lee Yuri’s eyes widened.

“Oh, this is!”

“Yeah, you remember. The *gukbap* place you took me to for the first time.”

“Wow…. It delivers all the way out here.”

“They use drones now for deliveries. You can get anything delivered these days.”

Lee Yuri was suddenly flooded with memories of that day.

When this man had first entered her party, she’d thought he was just a cadet-in-training who was short on cash….

The skills he’d shown that night, the things he’d done for her….

Sitting in this humble space, about to share *gukbap* together, those memories felt even more vivid.

As Lee Yuri smiled and lifted the lid of the plastic *gukbap* bowl,

Jin Yuha grinned mischievously and picked up a piece of *kkakdugi* – diced radish kimchi.

“…Hey!”

“I’ll teach you the best way to eat *gukbap*.”

“Don’t! Seriously, don’t do it!”

Lee Yuri tried desperately to stop him, but

*Drip.*

It was already too late.

Jin Yuha’s speed and clever tricks, Yuri couldn’t parry them.

Scarlet kkakdugi juice splashed across the pale broth of her soup.

Lee Yuri bit her lip, glaring at Jin Yuha. Just like that day.

“Why, it’s a dish that evokes our memories.”

“I! HATE! Putting! Kkakdugi! In! Gukbap!!! Absolutely!!!”

Jin Yuha chuckled, pushing her own gukbap forward, toward Yuri.

In a flash, Yuri swapped the bowls. Like a mother guarding her young, she cradled the pure, milky broth to her chest.

Jin Yuha burst out laughing at the sight. And then, she took a spoonful of the kkakdugi-tainted gukbap.

“Still good, though.”

*

Yuri and I slumped down in the room, using gukbap as a chaser for soju.

At first, Yuri had utterly loathed the taste of this liquor, but now she gulped it down without a second thought.

“How are those kids doing these days?”

“Those kids?”

“Yeah, Go Yunseo and Choi Soyeon.”

The ones we first explored the dungeon with.

Yuri’s friends.

A remarkably cheerful bunch, they were.

Never hesitating to throw themselves in harm’s way to protect Yuri.

Yuna, well, I live with her, so it’s impossible not to know.

She’s training hard to get into Velvet Hunter Academy.

“They’re doing well these days.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, ever since it got out they were originally in the same party as me, Go Yunseo’s been getting massive support from the guild, and Choi Soyeon’s getting fast-tracked promotions at the Hunter Management Bureau, apparently.”

“Well, they always had potential, I suppose.”

With Go Yunseo’s smooth charm and Choi Soyeon’s calm disposition, I figured they’d do alright anywhere.

But hearing they’re doing *this* well made me even happier.

We chatted about old times for a good long while.

Then, a peculiar silence settled between us.

“Um, Gukbap-ah.”

“Mm.”

Lee Yuri answered, a hint of tension in her voice.

She knew too. That what was about to be said was the main point.

“…Um, this might sound out of the blue. But try to listen with as little bias as possible.”

“Jin Yuha.”

“Huh?”

“I believe anything you say. Any story at all.”

Lee Yuri nodded, her expression unchanged.

“So, you don’t have to be nervous.”

Lee Yuri looked at me with eyes full of trust.

“….”

Come to think of it, Gukbap was always waiting for me.

She was the one who had been watching me be strange longer than anyone else, waiting for me to do something.

It’s just that, I had been hiding it.

“Well, I guess I should start with the story before I came here, so, what happened was…”

I took a sip of my drink and began to tell Lee Yuri my story.

And that night.

[Lee Yuri – 5%]

Gukbap’s percentage increased in the Ring of Affection and Obsession.