*Ting-a-ling! Ting-a-ling!*
"Oh, you've finally arrived…"
Saionji Kumiko turned her head at the sound of the shop's door opening, only to find herself involuntarily stunned.
And for good reason—the two people who were supposed to be supporting her from the shadows were standing right next to Kim Yu-seong.
The two of them avoided her gaze as if they were criminals.
Kim Yu-seong, on the other hand, was oblivious to the situation and explained.
"I ran into the Vice President on my way back from the restroom. It seems he came to Nakano to hang out with Minami today. Since they're always helping me out, I wanted to treat them to a meal, so I brought them along."
Fortunately, it seemed he hadn't realized they were tailing him.
With them naturally joining the group, the four of us sat in a row at the counter. Minami, who sat right next to Kumiko, whispered a report.
'My apologies. My idiot brother bumped into Kim Yu-seong after going to the restroom, and I was discovered in the process.'
'What's done is done. For now, let's just act together. We can find a natural way to split up later.'
'Yes, ma'am.'
After a short wait, Kim Yu-seong's and her ramen were placed before them.
She had seen it many times on TV, but this was her first time eating it like this.
As she hesitated, unsure of how to proceed, Minami came to her aid.
"Excuse me."
She took a pair of wooden chopsticks from the container, split them in half, and placed a spoon for the broth and the chopsticks for the noodles in Kumiko's hands.
"My lady, ramen is a dish where you enjoy the broth and noodles simultaneously. While everyone has their own way of eating it, people usually taste the broth first before eating the noodles."
"…I think I understand, more or less."
In other words, the broth was just as important as the noodles in ramen.
Recalling how she ate soba, Kumiko carefully scooped a spoonful of broth and brought it to her lips.
"Mm!"
It was clean yet rich.
The slightly salty, chicken-based flavor spread through her mouth, sending a pleasant warmth all the way to her stomach.
Next, she took a bite of the noodles, just as Minami had instructed.
The springy noodles, having absorbed the broth, slurped into her mouth, creating the ultimate harmony.
"Hahh."
A Möbius strip completed by repeating the sequence of actions.
She couldn't stop eating!
As she unknowingly became engrossed in the taste of ramen, an experience new to her, the three student council members watching her couldn't help but smile warmly.
***
After the four of us finished our ramen, the mood shifted to hanging out together since we'd met up, so we headed to the arcade on the first floor.
Nakano Broadway has a total of three arcades. The one on the fourth floor specializes in fighting games, so regular folks usually frequent the other two on the first floor.
The first-floor arcades were filled with rhythm games, shooting games, and a variety of other arcade classics. There were photo booths, UFO catchers—literally all the quintessential games you'd think of when you hear the word "arcade."
The President seemed to have gotten hooked on a UFO catcher she'd never seen before, burning through a thousand yen in ten minutes trying to get the doll she wanted.
Honestly, if Minami hadn't won it for her, there's no telling how much more she would have spent.
The Vice President, on the other hand, seemed to have a strange sense of pride when it came to fighting games and boldly challenged me to a match.
And after securing one victory, he declared,
"Hmph, Kim Yu-seong! Is that all you've got? I guess the rumor that Koreans are good at games was just a lie!"
While boasting of his dazzling control skills, the Vice President proceeded to teabag my defeated character.
At first, I didn't think much of it, but I couldn't just stand by and let him say I, a Korean, was bad at games.
I had to unleash my main character and even resort to cheap tricks, which I'd been holding back for the sake of a fair game, and completely turned the tables on him, leaving him utterly helpless.
"Ugh! I… I just let my guard down! One more round!"
The Vice President challenged me twice more after that, switching characters each time, but he failed to win a single match.
Back in college, whenever my friends and I had a drink, we would always hit the arcade and play this game.
When I returned with the dejected Vice President, who had suffered a complete defeat after his confident challenge, the President, who was playing a spot-the-difference game with Minami, asked,
"Is it over now?"
"Yes. Though I won all the matches."
"Hehe, it seems Shinjiro needs a bit more training. And here I thought he loved games so much."
While waiting for the President to finish her game, I wondered what to do next. That's when the punching machine near the arcade entrance caught my eye.
The Vice President must have spotted it too, because his eyes suddenly lit up, even though he had been trudging along with slumped shoulders after his loss.
"Kim Yu-seong! Let's settle this with that!"
"Huh? The punching machine?"
"Yes! Real men should compete with their bodies, not with games!"
"I don't really feel the need to—"
As I tried to refuse, the Vice President's glasses flashed.
"Hmph, are you scared? Scared of losing to me?"
His words irked me a little, but I nodded.
"I just don't want to break the machine."
"In that case, I'll go first."
With that, the Vice President strode over to the punching machine.
The punching machine—a hot spot that no group of high school boys could ever just walk past.
Standing before it, the Vice President chuckled and began to unbutton his dress shirt.
"Kim Yu-seong. I haven't told you this, but in truth, I…"
As he removed his shirt, the Vice President's formidable muscles, which had been tightly hidden beneath his clothes, were revealed.
"Am the type that looks thin with clothes on."
Huh?
I couldn't help but stare blankly at the Vice President's muscles, which seemed to completely defy the laws of physics.
I knew he was surprisingly strong for his slender frame, but I never expected a twist like this.
More importantly, can muscles like that really be completely hidden just by wearing clothes? It's like his whole body type changed.
As I blinked at the truly cartoonish sight, the Vice President, who had evolved from a regular glasses-wearer to a post-apocalyptic one, assumed a perfect punching stance.
With a straight punch carrying his entire body weight, his fist slammed into the machine's red target!
*KWHAAANG!!!!*
With an unusually loud crash, the punching machine's score shot up.
*Diri-diri-diri-diri-ding!*
960 points.
Having shattered the machine's high score with a single blow, the Vice President flexed his brawny arm muscles and said to me,
"Now it's your turn, Kim Yu-seong."
Startled by the loud noise, even passersby had stopped to watch us with interest.
The atmosphere was such that I felt I had no choice but to accept the challenge.
When I looked at the President and Minami for help, they too were watching the punching machine with fascination.
"I've been curious for a while now. I wonder what kind of power you'd unleash at full strength, Kim Yu-seong."
"If you're worried about breaking it, please don't be. We will provide full compensation in the event that it is damaged."
As she spoke, Minami took a card out from her pocket.
'Seriously, you're going to set the stage for me like this?'
An unstoppable current seemed to be forcing me into this duel, making it impossible to escape.
Expectant gazes from everyone.
I had to make a decision.
"…Alright. I'll do it."
I rolled my wrists and stepped up to the punching machine.
I had realized this while trying out different sports clubs for my trial membership, but my body, blessed by the laws of muscle-bound comedy characters, had already reached a state beyond common sense.
They say that leg strength is typically three times that of arm strength.
That meant my punching power should be weaker than my kicking power, but for some reason, I felt that in my current state, I could probably shatter that punching machine with a single hit.
But that would draw too much attention, so I'd have to break it in a slightly different way.
"Hssss…"
Raising my fist to my waist, I took a short, deep breath, then twisted my hips and threw a straight punch.
*CRACK!!*
The moment my outstretched fist collided with the punching machine's pad, the steel frame supporting it bent backward with a loud bang, then snapped and fell to the arcade floor.
*Diri-diri-diri-diri-ding!*
0 points.
It seemed the score was nullified due to equipment damage, but the people who had been watching with bated breath erupted in cheers a moment later.
"Woooooah!"
"I believed in you, dammit!"
Apparently, breaking the machine like this had a much bigger impact than simply getting a high score like the Vice President did.
As I let out a silent sigh of relief, the Vice President, who had been watching from the side, clicked his tongue and said to me,
"I'll call it a draw for today, Kim Yu-seong. But next time, I won't lose."
"Ah, okay."
Listening to the Vice President, who seemed strangely conscious of me, I nodded my head, bewildered.
Was he really that upset about losing at a video game?