Chapter 141
That evening, Jaeha came to visit. He suddenly appeared and abruptly thrust something at Heesu, who had opened the door. As she took it in a daze, a strong scent of greasy toppings and cheese wafted up before she could even check what it was. It was a pizza. Moreover, it was three pizzas piled on top of each other.
When Heesu, who was blinking, utterly confused while holding the pizzas, looked at him, Jaeha wore a look of having dumped something extremely bothersome and spat out.
“Eat it.”
“Uh…… what’s this for?”
“The family I tutor gave it to me.”
“I’m trying not to gain weight…….”
“Gain it.”
Jaeha turned away sharply as if his business was concluded, which flustered Heesu.
“Uh……. Aren’t you going to come in and stay?”
“Why would I?”
“Since you’re here, you could eat it with us…….”
“Are you crazy? Eat that while mingling with those guys.”
“Don’t be like that…….”
“It’s fine. Just eat well.”
Jaeha got into his car, shut the door without lingering, started the engine, and quickly drove away. Heesu, with a bewildered expression, watched the car disappear, then tilted her head and returned to the living room.
“Smells delicious!”
Rufus was the first to react to the smell wafting from the boxes, scampering over. Violen, who was tidying up the kitchen, also poked his head out and looked at the boxes Heesu was holding.
“What is it?”
“Jaeha dropped it off. He said to eat it.”
As Heesu set the boxes down on the table, everyone, as if enchanted by the smell, crowded around. Each time they opened a box and lifted the lid, Heesu’s eyes widened, and gasps of admiration echoed around.
The pizzas were all different types. One had a generous piling of large-cut steak toppings, and another was so heavily loaded with sausage that even the crust around the pizza had sausage instead of cheese. The remaining one was a Chicago pizza, so thick with cheese that it looked like it would ooze out just from poking it with a finger.
It was obvious, without looking, that these were the most expensive items at that pizza place. And an expensive price was virtually synonymous with high calories. Furthermore, calories and flavor were, in most cases, directly proportional. In other words, these were the most expensive, high-calorie, and delicious pizzas.
“Heeya…….”
At the scent of grease, which she hadn’t smelled in a while, Heesu’s rationality was already halfway gone. Even so, Heesu glanced at Violen and asked.
“Can I eat it?”
“Hmm…….”
Violen smiled awkwardly and quickly checked the clock.
Nine in the evening. It was quite a calculated time. They must have already had dinner, but it was likely the time when it had digested somewhat and they were feeling a little peckish, making it hard to refuse food. It was also a time when they couldn’t skip the next meal just because they ate this.
In short, it was a timeframe guaranteed to make someone gain weight.
“Please, eat.”
Even though he knew this, Violen had no choice but to nod. What could he do? It was practically an order from the next Demon King to make that someone eat pizza.
“Yay!”
Heesu devoured the pizza thoughtlessly. After completely stuffing her stomach with pizza, cola, and a little pickle, she promptly fell asleep.
***
The next day, Jaeha came again at nine in the evening. What he handed over this time was chicken.
“What is it this time?”
“The family I tutor gave it to me again.”
“If I eat this again today, I’ll really gain weight…….”
“I told you, gain it.”
When Jaeha answered as if it were nothing, Heesu glared at him and grumbled.
“You’re talking like that because it’s not your weight…….”
“Just eat it well. I’m leaving.”
“You’re not going to eat with us again?”
“I’m busy.”
Watching the car zoom off again without an ounce of lingering attachment, Heesu tilted her head. Why would someone who was so busy come all the way here just to drop something like this off?
Anyway, that day too, Heesu stuffed her stomach with fried chicken, seasoned chicken, soy sauce chicken, cola, and pickled radish and then fell asleep.
***
The day after next was jokbal (pig’s trotters). Heesu was aghast.
“Again? Is it that tutoring family again?”
“Yeah.”
“That family is truly odd!”
“Tell me about it.”
Jaeha, who replied thus, again drove off without a hint of attachment.
After eating pizza, chicken, jokbal, hamburgers, and tangsuyuk (sweet and sour pork) five days in a row like that, naturally, Heesu…….
“I gained weight!”
She had gained weight. Heesu screamed while looking at the number on the scale.
“Of course you did.”
Violen, who was watching nearby, nodded.
It was the expected result. Since he couldn’t stop Jaeha from feeding her, he had decided to wait for the result to come out and for Heesu to realize it on her own.
Fortunately, Heesu was more frustrated than expected. With a shocked expression, she stepped off the scale, stumbled, slumped down onto the sofa, and started sobbing.
“I gained weight, I gained weight, I really gained weight…… sob……. How could the weight I lost come back?”
“They say that losing weight is hard, but gaining it happens in an instant.”
“I wasn’t specifically trying to diet, but it feels so unfair to gain it back!”
“Indeed. At this rate, the weight you lost over several months will be regained in an instant.”
“No…… This can’t happen……. If this continues, I’ll be treated like a squid again when I’m with you guys…….”
“Is that the problem……?”
“It’s a serious problem!”
Heesu, who had been hanging her head, looked forward with a determined expression.
“I’ve decided. Next time, I’ll somehow refuse…….”
“Will you?”
“I’ll…… somehow… I should…… refuse…….”
“Are you unable to commit?”
“It’s difficult……. Everything Jaeha brings is truly so, so delicious…….”
Watching Heesu suffer and hang her head again, Violen smiled with an ambiguous expression.
It must be. Since he must have gone to great lengths to select them.
Violen felt the difference between him and himself here, too.
If he was the type to manage strictly while acting gentle on the surface, Jaeha was the type to act harsh on the surface but be soft-hearted underneath, indulging all her whims.
Frankly, Violen couldn’t understand his method. Her appearance didn’t matter, but obesity was the cause of various complications. What did he intend to achieve by making her gain weight again just because it pained him that she was a little skinny? If you love someone, shouldn’t the priority be enabling them to live long and healthily? Especially since human lifespans are shorter than those of the magical beings.
“That tutoring family is so strange. Why do they keep giving so much to a kid who doesn’t even eat well?”
Meanwhile, Heesu, who still hadn’t caught on to what was happening despite the situation, grumbled, then suddenly…
“Actually, isn’t he just using the tutoring family as an excuse to feed me fattening things?”
She shouted, as if finally realizing something. Violen asked, a little anxiously,
“For what reason?”
“To make me a plain-looking girl for the rest of my life by making me gain weight!”
However, Heesu reached a completely unexpected conclusion, one that rendered his anxiety moot.
“What would he gain by doing that?”
Violen asked with a bitter laugh. While relieved, a bitter smile naturally surfaced.
“What else? He wants to keep me by his side to make his own beauty stand out more. When he was little, whenever he went out with me, he was always compared to me, and he got so many compliments about how pretty and handsome he was, you know? But he hates the idea of that being taken away. He’s a very sneaky bastard, that one.”
“…….”
At that, Violen could neither agree nor disagree, only offering an ambiguous smile.
He couldn’t bring himself to disagree, but agreeing would make that someone utterly pitiful. He was so pitiful that next time, Violen felt he could genuinely show a face of sympathy, not a feigned one.
“What if he comes again today…….”
Heesu muttered, anxiously looking at the clock. Even though she thought she shouldn’t, she involuntarily started waiting for nine in the evening.
Thinking of the delicious, greasy things Jaeha had brought all this time made her heart pound. She was just getting used to a life of cutting out instant food and carbohydrates and eating bland, healthy food, but the reintroduction of grease, carbohydrates, and stimulating sauces reawakened her forgotten life of extravagant eating. As if her brain had been pickled in grease, she found herself excited and waiting, constantly wondering what Jaeha would bring today.
She felt like the Fox waiting for the Little Prince.
If you come with something delicious at nine in the evening, I shall begin to salivate at eight o’clock. The closer nine o’clock draws, the more I shall drool. At last, when nine o’clock comes, my heart will beat fast, and I shall be fidgety. And through it all, I shall realize how precious and delicious greasy food truly was…….
However, the Little Prince that the Fox was waiting for did not appear that day.
It was the weekend. The day Jaeha devoted himself to filial piety for his parents.
***
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