CH 48

Hara’s phone rang at 7.58pm. It was an alarm she’d set to remind her of ticketing.

Despite hurriedly accessing the ticketing site and tapping back and forth on her phone the moment it turned 8pm, Hara failed to obtain tickets.

The empty seats, which were a purple colour just a moment ago, disappeared at the speed of light. Why didn’t anyone tell me that girl group ticketing is so hard?

As a sudden and unknown resentment welled up, she barely managed to grab a seat at the tail end of the third floor. And it’s a limited view seat at that.

Should she even buy this? She was going to see the face of her idol, but a seat with limited view, of all things? 

Some might ask, “It’s a concert. If the music is good, isn’t it enough?” 

But that would only be said by someone that wasn’t a fan of K-pop. The face was first and foremost in a concert, in second was the face, and the third was still the face.

In other words, even if she’s on the third floor, it’s alright as long as she has a clear view of the electronic display, but half of the view of the electronic display was blocked at a limited-view seat. 

So she’d succeeded in ticketing, but it was equivalent to a failure. Just in case, she searched ‘Sale of Yuri’s concert ticket’ on SNS, but swarms of people were selling it at a premium. 

When Yoon Seheon asked, “Is there something I can do for you?” in such a situation, she’d almost replied with…

‘Will there be complimentary tickets to Yuri’s concert at the broadcasting station?’ 

Hara would’ve definitely done that, if it wasn’t for Yoon Seheon asking, “All I have to do is raise a chick, right?” But she regained her senses upon hearing his words and realised that Seheon wasn’t talking about ticketing. 

Only then did she notice the quest window, which was still floating mid-air.

[Hidden Quest: Cultivate your love alongside this chick!]

It was slightly weird, but this was a golden opportunity.

She couldn’t afford to miss this opportunity.

* * *

The manager of the restaurant looked at the phone that’s used for regulating  reservations. The only customer that made a reservation today was running especially late. 

Anchor Yoon Seheon. In the years the manager worked at this restaurant, he has never been late for a reservation. 

But for some reason, he pushed back his reservation by two hours, which wasn’t that big of a deal. Then, when 8pm came, another text message came. That he was slightly delayed due to the traffic. 

He was already quite grateful that he’d informed them in advance. He’d planned to greet him and say, “It seems that you must’ve been rather busy today.” While having such thoughts, the manager quickly changed his greeting as soon as he spotted the two people that just exited the elevator. 

“It’s nice to meet you. You must have had a very difficult day.”

He’d never seen such a dishevelled appearance from the broadcasting station’s main anchor. The man, who always had neatly-combed hair and was dressed dignifiedly in a formal suit, currently seemed like he’d rolled around in a construction site. Not only was his suit wrinkled, there was dust on his hair.

What about the girl beside him? The black pants were tattered beyond belief, and her shirt was even stained with some black oil. A layer of dust covered the lenses of the glasses she wore. 

‘A fellow reporter?’

Although reporters were known to roll around at various kinds of places, it was his first time witnessing such an appearance. Additionally, they’d only managed to realise that they didn’t appear ordinary after hearing the manager’s words.

The woman’s cheeks flushed instantly, but Seheon responded brazenly.

“I’m sorry. I had my reasons for delaying the reservation.”

“I see. I’m thankful for your patronage. Allow me to show you to your seat.”

With a gentle smile, the manager led the two into a private room. 

Originally, he should have guided them to the hall because he’d made the reservation on the day itself. Additionally, it would have become plausible propaganda to customers if Anchor Yoon sat in the hall. But the manager couldn’t let him sit in the dining hall with that appearance.

And Seheon was also quite familiar with the manager’s intentions. What other reason would there be for the manager, who’d always seated him in the hall, to guide them into a private room? 

But conversely, he was rather grateful for this. It’s because it would be troubling if others were to overhear the conversation that he would be having with Kang Hara. 

“Anchor Yoon, I have a few things to settle, so I’ll be looking at my phone for a while.”

“Please do.”

“Oh, but what’s wrong with the screen……”

Seheon couldn’t help but chuckle at Hara, who was staring at her phone’s screen with a frown. He didn’t realise it while in the car, but the dust that covered Hara’s glasses was visible beneath the restaurant’s lights.

“Here.”

Seheon took out glasses cloth from the inside pocket of his suit and handed it to her. He would often wear glasses while checking articles, so he’d carry it around. 

Hara’s eyes widened.

“Ah……”

“You didn’t know in the car.”

“Ah, that’s because I was too focused…”

Hara’s probably the only one that wasn’t aware that her vision was blurred because she was totally preoccupied with ticketing. 

As Seheon watched Hara, who’d worked hard for six hours, wipe her dusty glasses, he pondered internally. Her existence itself was puzzling, but her unexpected appearance was a breath of fresh air. What an amusing person, not even knowing that her glasses were dirtied despite fighting with clenched teeth. 

Hara thanked him again after returning him the glasses cloth.

“Anchor Yoon really has everything.”

“That would be the case if I could store an ostrich egg in my pocket, right?”

It was meant as a joke, but Hara said, “That’s true…’ and became sullen.

Suddenly overcome with embarrassment for some reason, Seheon cleared his throat. Then, as Hara looked at the menu, she squinted. Seheon wondered if she was still unable to see it. 

“I’m sorry, but I’ve never been to such a good restaurant… Can’t the anchor order in my stead?”

Was it because of that? As Hara asked, she cautiously read his countenance again. Seheon nodded, called a waiter and handed the menu over.

“We’ll have the course.”

Kang Hara’s face became slightly  disappointed at his words. Seheon chuckled and added.

“Actually, I’m also not well informed either.”

“Don’t you come here often?” 

“That’s true. Because it’s in front of the broadcasting station. But I don’t know what I don’t know.”

Is that so? Perhaps that could be the case. Hara nodded. She didn’t even know that in Seheon’s mind, his evaluation of her rose slightly.

Seheon hated those that pretended to know when in reality, they didn’t. He’d rather that they let him know clearly that they didn’t know about it. 

And Hara was a pretty decent person to Seheon in that respect.

“Let’s talk about the pet.”

“Ah.”

Hara opened her mouth and tapped in the air. Soon, a system window that’s visible to Seheon appeared in mid-air. 

[Hidden Quest: Cultivate your love alongside this chick!]

“It really likes love…”

Seheon looked at it with his mouth slightly agape. 

[Target: Hatch a giant eagle’s egg (1)]

[Reward: A giant eagle’s eaglet]

[Special reward: Millet (1), Non-glutinous rice (1), Chickpeas (1)]

“Millet, non-glutinous rice, chickpeas…….”

“It seems to be food for the chick……”

[Clear condition: Co-parenting with the designated user Yoon Seheon (21 days)]

The condition of Georg’s egg, who has lost its mother, is unstable. Please give it loads of motherly and fatherly love!

Co-parenting Requirements: Stay with the egg for at least 5 hours a day (in a 5 metre radius)

Seheon laughed dumbfoundedly. He seemed to understand why Hara would occasionally glare at the air like a madman.

Just like that? Not only was it out of the blue, the conditions were ludicrous. While the rewards were modest, it was also rather troublesome.

“Five hours a day……”

“From the looks of it, it doesn’t seem like it’ll only require Anchor Yoon to clear it…”

Seheon’s eyes were wrinkled.

“Both Kang Hara and I have to be with that egg for five hours?”

“Yes, probably…”

Five hours a day? Seheon quickly calculated his daily routine.

Get up at six in the morning. Two hours of exercise. Going to work, attending the morning news, and working till evening.

Of course, usually he’d only have to host the evening news, but due to his back injury and the business trip, he had decided to temporarily pause anchoring for the evening news. As such, he should go to work at the news team regularly and at least search for coverage-worthy materials.

With simple estimation, Seheon realised that it would be difficult to meet for that amount of time, so he began to ponder deeply. Hara quickly opened her mouth.

“Erm, why don’t I just meet Anchor Yoon somewhere near your house or at the broadcasting station at night to hand the egg over?” 

It meant to put the egg next to him while he sleeps. It was a rather simple method.

“But for us to do that, we’ll have to meet every night. And for 21 days at that…”

“……”

“It’s like the constellation is really determined to make us date or something…”

Seheon groaned. Hara also rubbed her face a couple of times with a sigh.

“I’m sorry…”

“You don’t have to apologise.”

“Yes……” 

Just then, an employee entered and placed a menu in front of them. They were simple appetisers.

Seheon placed it into his mouth and asked Hara, who was currently looking at her phone again.

“Does it not suit your taste?”

“What? Oh, I’m sorry. It’s because I’m searching for something.”

Hara apologised belatedly. 

Seheon glanced at Kang Hara before thinking that the constellation was being rather absurd, and was really doing everything he could to get them into a relationship……

‘Kang Hara-ssi certainly isn’t interested in me…’

It was because it seemed like half of her mind was occupied with other thoughts while she was conversing with Seheon. Even now, she kept fiddling with her phone throughout their journey to the restaurant.

In fact, Hara, who’d failed to get tickets, was occupied with searching for concert ticket sellers. 

For some reason, Seheon thought that she was quite uninterested as she’d gulp down water like she was really thirsty.

In other words, the initial confession and request to date was really because of the constellation.

‘……’

But why did he feel weirdly empty?

Why does it feel like his pride was hurt?

Seheon’s gaze drifted towards the windows. It was dark outside, so the two’s appearances were reflected on the window like mirrors. He watched his image and the woman that kept looking at her phone through the window…… 

Seheon quickly pushed away the thoughts in his head because it felt like his thoughts would take a complicated turn for no reason, before opening his mouth. 

“Then, in the future, we’ll have to participate in four more of such guerrilla event dungeons, right?”

“Yes. Since it has started, it’ll be a little troublesome if we fail.” 

Presumably, the remaining four dungeons would definitely have an unimaginable penalty that’s comparable to the prohibition of passage through three large bridges.

“Indeed, prohibiting passage on those large bridges would be a little too much……”

Of course, Seheon had no idea that aside from that penalty, there was another one.

Hara, who didn’t mention the entire ‘If you fail, failure of Yuri’s concert’, was startled and confessed feebly.

“Actually, there’s another penalty.”

“What’s the penalty?”

“Oh, failure of an idol’s concert.”

Idol? Seheon’s eyebrows raised. 

‘I can understand the closure of the three bridges across the Han River, but what’s the mechanism behind the failure of an idol concert?’

Well, would traffic jams be factored into the failure of a concert? Even when he thought about it in that manner, he still found it preposterous.