"Running into you here?"
"Yeah…"
Lee Ji-hoon greeted her with a smile, as if genuinely pleased to see her.
Kang Da-hyeon pressed her lips together slightly and gave a small nod.
*Prejudging people isn't great, but.*
Ji-hoon glanced at the book in Da-hyeon's hand.
Just as he'd come here looking for a math concept book, she was holding something math-related too.
Still, no matter how he looked at it, she didn't strike him as the studious type. Their high school was the kind of place where plenty of students had already half-given up on academics by the second semester of first year — and Da-hyeon, who dressed well and seemed to run with a crowd that wore noticeably heavy makeup, had seemed like someone who didn't bother much with studying either.
*Interesting.*
For Ji-hoon, who was throwing himself into life with everything he had, one of his few small pleasures was observing the students around him with a clearer head than he'd ever had before. And Da-hyeon was a girl he found himself genuinely curious about.
There was something about her, too — she looked tough on the surface, but there was an oddly gentle quality underneath that he found appealing.
"Done picking out your book?"
"Huh? Yeah."
"Then let's grab something to eat. I was going to be eating alone and it seemed a bit dull."
"What?"
"Hm?"
He'd said it as naturally as anything, but Da-hyeon's voice jumped up a notch. Enough that the bookstore employee working nearby glanced over.
"…"
Da-hyeon gave a small nod.
"Okay."
"A-alright then."
Ji-hoon scratched the back of his head.
Was that really something to react to like that?
"Let's see."
The two of them came up from the basement bookstore, which sat inside a large shopping complex in Mok-dong, Yangcheon-gu, Seoul.
The area was well-known for its cram school district, so there were plenty of students around — but on a quiet Sunday like this, there were also plenty of parents out with their kids.
"Anything you feel like eating?"
"I'm fine with anything."
"Alright, then I'll pick what I want."
"…"
Da-hyeon glanced sideways at him as he said it so matter-of-factly. The boy was wearing glasses that suited him even on a weekend, his hair styled in a way that was surprisingly put-together — and he was smiling with easy, unhurried confidence.
*What do girls tend to like.*
But for all that he was smiling and scanning the restaurant options around them, he was actually being quite deliberate about the choice.
He'd had plenty of meals with women — in Gangnam, in Shinjuku — but never once had he calibrated his choices to the tastes of a high school girl.
"Oh?"
Ji-hoon spotted a place.
And quietly thought: not bad.
"Shark Tteokbokki?"
One of the more popular tteokbokki franchise chains as of 2015.
Ji-hoon knew well enough that tteokbokki was practically a soul food for girls.
"Sounds good."
"Let's go."
The moment Da-hyeon gave her quiet approval, Ji-hoon moved straight for the door.
"Oh, perfect timing — there's exactly one table open."
"…"
Ji-hoon found the spot with something almost like excitement.
"Anything you can't eat?"
"Not really."
"Alright then."
Ji-hoon studied the menu.
A small grin.
"Why are you smiling?"
"No reason."
Da-hyeon caught the out-of-nowhere smile and asked, but he didn't bother explaining.
It was something she could never have understood anyway.
*Well, well.*
Ji-hoon was actually thinking quite hard.
He was going through the menu carefully — the combinations, the price points, even whether to include drinks that cost next to nothing.
Something he never would have done in his past life.
Back in his Nonhyeon-dong days, he'd at least given some thought to what he ordered at restaurants.
But during his time in Shin-Okubo and Kabukicho, he'd stopped even glancing at prices. At some point, he'd forgotten to check the tax-included prices on Japanese menus altogether.
Now, though, it was completely different.
He was working within a tight budget, thinking through every order with care.
Strangely, Ji-hoon didn't mind this at all.
"I'll get the tteok-twi-sun set."
"Sure."
"Excuse me!"
Ji-hoon called over the part-timer.
"One tteok-twi-sun set, please."
"Of course."
"Um…"
Da-hyeon raised her hand slightly.
"Do you like sundae with the organs?"
"Hm?"
She turned to Ji-hoon, who was sitting across from her.
"Not particularly."
"Could you leave out the lung, then, please?"
"Sure thing!"
The part-timer smiled and took the modified order without missing a beat.
"You could've said something from the start."
"Sorry."
"No, don't apologize—"
"…"
Da-hyeon, looking a little embarrassed, drank from the glass Ji-hoon had poured for her. She'd been absently tucking her blonde hair back every so often since they'd sat down.
"Da-hyeon, do you like VTS?"
"Huh?"
Da-hyeon's eyes went wide. It was a question she hadn't seen coming.
"Oh — or maybe you're into a different idol group?"
"…"
Ji-hoon backpedaled a little.
He didn't know much about it, but for all he knew, she might be devoted to some rival male idol group. In that world, bringing up the wrong name could be a faux pas.
"I don't really follow idols. I only know VTS's recent songs."
"Oh, is that right?"
"Do you like male idols?"
"Hardly—"
"Then why'd you ask?"
"My little sister's in middle school and she's really into VTS."
Ji-hoon's younger sister, Lee Ji-hyeon, was like most girls her age — she liked male idol groups, and as far as he could remember, her devotion to VTS had lasted quite a while.
Back when she had no idea what he was actually doing, only knowing he was working in Japan. He still remembered her telling him about some limited-edition VTS merchandise that had come out over there.
"I was thinking, once I get my part-time pay next month, I'd pick something up for her. Guess she's not into it, though."
"That's kind of unusual."
"Hm?"
Da-hyeon was blinking at him like she was looking at some rare specimen.
"You want to buy your sister a gift because she likes a celebrity?"
"Well — yeah, something like that."
"…"
*Is that weird?*
Ji-hoon scratched his head, feeling slightly awkward.
"And also, out of nowhere—"
"Yeah?"
Da-hyeon paused for a moment before continuing.
"Out of nowhere you're studying so hard, and you've lost so much weight, and also… no, never mind, forget it."
"Hahaha."
Da-hyeon seemed to have a habit of stopping herself just before the end. But Ji-hoon took it as a compliment regardless.
Just a cute, interesting girl — that was how he thought of her. From that vantage point, the shy look in her eyes didn't register at all.
"How do you manage to work so hard at everything?"
"Hmm?"
"…"
*How do you manage to work so hard.* No matter how Ji-hoon looked at it, the unspoken end of that sentence was: *I can't.*
"Sounds like you've been thinking about studying harder yourself?"
"…Yeah."
Da-hyeon nodded. But there was something oddly sheepish about it.
*What do I even say to that.*
Ji-hoon didn't open his mouth right away. It had somehow turned into an advice session, but he figured it was something he, as someone who'd lived a full life, could actually offer.
People don't change easily. That was Ji-hoon's conviction.
Back when he'd worked at host bars in Korea and host clubs in Japan.
The men and women who swore they were quitting always came back. The customers who said they'd never return always came back too.
*I was the same.*
Even when he'd recognized that things were going badly wrong, he hadn't been able to turn it around.
And yet — if a person could change?
*Tch.*
"…"
Da-hyeon pressed her lips together as she watched Ji-hoon's brow furrow for a moment. It felt like she'd made him look too serious on her account, and she wanted to tell him it was fine — but the words wouldn't come.
Somehow, the boy sitting across from her didn't feel like a peer. He felt like an adult.
*There were moments like that for me too.*
Moments when he'd truly felt he had to change — and then changed.
The first was when his mother collapsed.
When the family's finances fell apart, and he understood for the first time just how hard she'd been working to hold him and his sister together. In that moment, he changed.
The kid who'd been coasting through life started living with more intensity than anyone around him.
The second was the moment he understood what death was.
When regret and helplessness took hold of him completely. And then, when life began again — he changed.
"Hmm."
What had started as an advice session was deepening into something closer to self-reflection.
*The problem is I don't really know her.*
But that kind of experience — the kind that forces change — was rare, or simply impossible to manufacture. If dying and coming back to life happened to anyone else, they'd be shouting it from the rooftops.
As his thoughts neared their conclusion, Ji-hoon arrived at something he could actually say to her.
"Just do it."
"What?"
The answer came at the end of a silence that felt longer to Da-hyeon than it did to Ji-hoon.
"I just thought, well, I'm basically dead anyway — and then I started dieting, and eventually the weight came off. But here's the thing — I read somewhere that the two hardest things in the world are studying and dieting."
"Is that actually a saying?"
"Yeah."
*I made it up.*
But what did that matter.
"I managed to pull off the diet, so I figured, why not studying too? That's why I'm still at it. Working through math problems I never understood before, seeing English vocabulary I memorized actually show up in class — it's been a pretty good experience. I feel like I've actually got some confidence now."
"I see."
"…"
*Did that land?*
He'd mixed truth with a little invention, and Da-hyeon seemed to find it convincing enough.
It wasn't entirely wrong, either.
In his past life, the reason Ji-hoon had struggled with school in the early years of high school was simple: he'd believed it wouldn't matter how hard he tried.
But once he'd gone through the experience of grinding through Japanese — really grinding — he'd come out the other side with a genuine belief in his own ability to learn.
A quiet smile.
Ji-hoon smiled to himself where Da-hyeon couldn't see.
*Those were some intense study sessions.*
Working as a host in Japan had been far better than Korea in almost every way — better pay, and because of the licensing laws, clubs could only operate until 1 a.m., so there was no need to flip his sleep schedule completely. And while the clientele at Korean host bars tended to be rough women from the room salon world, Japan had a fair share of ordinary customers too.
"Here you go, enjoy your meal!"
"Thank you! Could we get one apron, please?"
"Of course!"
"…"
Ji-hoon took the apron.
"Thanks! Da-hyeon, here — put this on."
"Huh?"
Da-hyeon's eyes went wide — she hadn't realized it was meant for her. Ji-hoon was wearing dark clothes, but Da-hyeon had on something light-colored.
"It'd be awkward to tie it yourself."
Smoothly.
"…"
Ji-hoon stepped around behind her and wrapped the apron around her, fastening the velcro at the back of her neck.
*Why is she trembling like that.*
Ji-hoon found it strange, watching Da-hyeon flustered and shaking.
He hadn't noticed, but at the table next to them, three high school girls had been quietly watching the two of them — and when they saw the boy tie the apron on the girl, they started murmuring soft little gasps to each other.
"Eat up."
"Okay."
Da-hyeon nodded. Her hands, which had been resting on her lap, had settled into a more composed posture than before.
"So what made you suddenly want to study harder?"
"Ah…"
A question born of simple curiosity.
Da-hyeon hesitated slightly.
She pressed her lips together, puffed out her cheeks, tucked her hair back — went through a whole series of small fidgets — and then finally spoke.
"I'll tell you another time."
"…What?"
It must have been a difficult question for her.
"Sorry. You even said something really nice to me."
"No, it wasn't anything that great."
"…"
She looked so genuinely apologetic that Ji-hoon was the one who ended up feeling bad.
"Check, please."
"Coming right up!"
Two first-year high schoolers with anything but small appetites.
They'd cleaned the entire set.
"Send me your account number on KakaoTalk. I'll transfer 7,000 won."
"What? No, it's fine."
Ji-hoon declined.
It was habit, really.
In the Japanese host world, the standard arrangement inside the club was that hosts drank the drinks customers bought them.
But if a host ever needed to treat a regular client to a meal or drinks outside the club, it was always the host who paid. That was the rule.
That habit had made Ji-hoon pay for his classmate's share without a second thought.
"You don't have to send it."
"No, let me."
"…"
Ji-hoon was caught off guard by how firm she was about it.
"Alright, I'll send you my account number."
"I'll transfer it as soon as I get home."
"Okay."
He didn't know why she was being so insistent, but she probably had her reasons.
*Oh?*
On the way to the bus stop.
Ji-hoon spotted a small poster.
[Signing Event: The Talked-About E-Cup Girl Kim Min-ji.]
"…"
A cute face. An overwhelming chest.
She was an influencer who'd recently appeared on some broadcast and shot to fame.
*This person.*
He hadn't known her personally in his past life, but she'd been the top kyabajo in Kabukicho — and had gone on to build a successful lingerie business on top of that. A serious entrepreneur. Back then, she'd had hundreds of thousands of subscribers on NeTube as a young female businesswoman.
*Kyabajo — a woman who works at a kyabakura, a type of Japanese hostess club.*
If he'd been the most well-known Korean male host in Kabukicho, then Kim Min-ji had been the most well-known Korean woman. So she'd had a time like this too.
"You've got very specific taste."
"Hm?"
Ji-hoon had been lost in thought for a moment.
Da-hyeon, walking beside him, had said something.
"What do you mean."
"Nothing. Hmph!"
"…"
She turned her head away.
*Figures.*
His sister Ji-hyeon was the same way. Girls in their teens — you just couldn't tell what was going on in their heads.
"Are you heading to work again today?"
"Have to."
"That sounds exhausting."
"It's not like anyone's forcing me."
It was time to part ways. Da-hyeon had spent the whole day looking at Ji-hoon with something close to admiration.
"Let's both study hard from now on."
"Hm?"
"We're both playing catch-up, so we've got to close the gap on everyone else."
"…Pfft."
Something about what Ji-hoon said struck Da-hyeon as funny, and she burst out laughing behind her hand.
He still couldn't figure out what girls found funny.
*Right.*
Ji-hoon thought to himself.
He wasn't the person he used to be.
He was going to live like this — building honest, wholesome connections with people like her.
***
Trudge, trudge.
On the way to school.
Lee Ji-hoon and Lee Ji-hyeon were walking together.
"Hmm-hmm-hmm."
"Oppa."
"Yeah?"
"Why are you in such a good mood?"
"I'm always in a good mood."
Ji-hyeon caught him humming cheerfully to himself.
Not a trace of embarrassment. He was just letting what was inside show on the outside.
Ji-hoon had decided — even while living as intensely as he was — to enjoy himself, just a little.
And then, in Class 1-2.
"…"
Kang Da-hyeon was staring at her phone.
[Answer: A way to only gain weight in your chest? Impossible. Breast tissue is made up of fat, and it's simply not possible to gain weight in only one specific area.]
"…"
[Answer: Will exercising the chest area make your breasts bigger? Impossible. It's genetic.]
"…"
Thud.
"Hm?"
Ji-hoon came in and set his bag down at his seat.
Then, thinking he'd go say hello to Da-hyeon — they'd gotten closer over the weekend — he walked over.
[Question: (photo) How is it possible for someone like this, who isn't even that overweight, to have such a large chest?]
[Answer: E-cup girl Kim Min-ji? Obviously she was born that way. I mean, she's on TV precisely because she's such an unusual case, isn't she? Did you think before you asked?]
"Ugh."
"Hm?"
He'd been about to say hello, but the girl was glaring at her phone in irritation.
"Ahem."
*Something going on?*
Ji-hoon decided to hold off on the greeting.