Chapter 261 – Life Is Not Always a 1-for-1 Exchange

“Then Mary!”

“Merry Christmas!”

Other nuns also clashed their glasses at the toast of the head nun. Because of the lack of seats, I sat on a folding iron chair and clumsily lifted and lowered my glass along with Mina.

“Jiheon.”

Minah, who was sitting on a folding chair like me, held out a paper cup beside her. I bumped into my glass with a grateful heart for understanding my awkward feeling.

Widely

“Thank you.”

“No.”

We said a word to each other and put the glass to our mouths. Seeing that the fragrant grape scent goes well with the bitter alcohol, it reminded me of the wine I drank in another world.

Of course, the taste and atmosphere were much better here.

On the other hand, when the alcohol started, the nuns, who were shy like cats, sat down, not paying attention to me. Looking at the way he talked with a bright face, he seemed to have forgotten about showing his upper body earlier.

“…”

It wasn’t. Seeing you glancing at me

I drank wine, forcibly ignoring the nuns I occasionally met. The side dish was sundae that Mina had delivered.

She put the chewy vermicelli sundae into her mouth full of alcohol and talked with Mina.

“Hmm, do wine and sundae really go well together?”

“Isn’t it red wine? Red wine goes well with aromatic meats.”

“I see. Ah, let’s eat with Sohee and Sehee later.”

“Good idea. But…”

“Why?”

“Wine, I’m worried because my hangover is a bit strong.”

“You can drink in moderation.”

“I’m a little worried that Se-hee might do that.”

Well, Sehee is weak compared to us. Is not it? Are we too strong?

Speaking of which, we talked about the two of them.

“Come to think of it, they said they were having a party at their house with their mother, right?”

“I heard that. I sent you a picture earlier.”

“Where? Let’s see.”

Hearing my words, Mina took out her cellphone from the pocket of her suit pants. She manipulated the screen for a moment and then showed me a picture of the demon king and Sehee.

“Look here. It looks like you two are having fun.”

I put her shoulder to shoulder with her to get a closer look. I enjoyed Mina’s unique scent, which is slightly sour and bitter, and watched the photos of the two having fun.

Their faces in the photo were as red as carrots, as if they had been drinking a little like us. In addition, he was holding a drinking glass and chopsticks in both hands, so anyone could see that the picture was taken in the middle of a drinking party.

Looking at the picture of the two of them having fun, I asked Mina.

“Looks like a lot of fun. But where is your mother? You can’t see it.”

“Isn’t the person who took the picture your mother?”

“Ah, I guess so.”

Because both hands are in the picture. By the way…

“I miss you so much.”

I didn’t know it when we were apart, but looking at the photos like this made me want to see them in person. Even so, it was impossible to run straight to the demon king’s house.

“Can you give me the phone for a minute?”

“Yes, I understand.”

Instead, I soothed my longing just by looking at the picture.

“… Ah.”

Mina accidentally pressed her back button while touching her phone. Then, a chat window appeared in a group chat room without me, and I tried to view the photos before seeing their secret conversation.

However, there was one word that stood out among the conversation messages.

Demon King: Oh ho ho ho ho! I’m Santa!

Wait for a sec.

That bothered me so much that I moved the chat window up. Skimming the continuous ‘LOL’, I could see that there was a video where the laughter started.

“Jiheon.”

Mina noticed her crisis and tried to take her cellphone. But she was faster for me to watch the video than for her touch.

-Oh ho ho ho! It’s Santa Claus!

“Hey!? What is this?!”

I looked back at Min-ah in amazement at the video where I acted as Santa.

“… I don’t know.”

“You don’t know! You took it!”

“I do not know.”

“What if I post this in a group chat room, really!”

“I said I didn’t know.”

At times like this, her expressionless expression worked really well. Seeing that she didn’t show any emotion on her face as if she really didn’t know, I thought that she really didn’t send it without even realizing it.

“You don’t know! Knowing everything!”

But I witnessed the moment she took a picture of me with her cell phone.

“What if I send this, really!”

I deleted the video I sent here. Seeing that, Mina called out to me in a low voice.

“Jiheon. It will be of no avail.”

“What!”

“I saved both of you.”

I scrolled down just in case. Then, as she said, I was able to find a dialog between the two that said the save was completed.

“Oh really! Hey!”

I looked at Mina with a look of astonishment, shock, and annoyance. But despite my gaze, she said nothing.

“Jiheon also laughed at my album, right? Send a picture to both of them.”

“That’s what I ended up with by looking at my album!”

“Life is not always a one-for-one exchange, Jiheon. Irrational exchanges always exist.”

“You speak well, really!”

“Thank you.”

“Isn’t that a compliment?!”

Still, I couldn’t say anything more about what I had already sent. No matter what I said now, the saved video was not erased.

In the end, I drank, prepared to be teased by the two later.

I gave Mina her cell phone back and we shared a drink as if we had never quarreled. We had a fun time listening to her old stories.

By the time the nuns’ faces were getting drunk and our faces were turning red, the head nun approached us.

“Hey! Self!”

“Because it’s not, really. Ah yes!”

While talking with Minah, I looked at the head nun. Coming up to her, she put her hand on her shoulder and said, chinning outward.

“Let’s go smoke some cigarettes.”

“Yes? I don’t smoke.”

“Then let’s take a walk for a bit, honey!”

“What?”

I lifted her hand from my shoulder and put it under her armpit. I couldn’t help but get up when I tried to take him by force.

As I woke up, I looked at Minah with a face asking if I was okay. But she didn’t seem to care.

“Jiheon, isn’t Sister flirting? How about hanging out together?”

“Hey?”

“Mina! She’s not hanging out with her, it’s me hanging out! Ruler! Self! Let’s go!”

“What? Wait! I’ll put on some clothes!”

I tried to take her cloak before being taken away by the abbess nun. I put my coat on the hanger in the corner of the director’s office. Then the nun also put on a long padding and waited for me to leave.

“Shall we go?”

“Yes yes.”

“Then let’s go! Depart!”

I left the director’s office with the nun, who was drunk and full of energy.

Hehe♪”

Walking in front of her, she hummed happily. The song, like a marching song, continued until we passed through the hallways and out through the central foyer.

“Whoa, whoa, how cold it is!”

The nun shivered in the air that was colder than during the day. I also closed my collar because of the cold that seeped through my coat.

Meanwhile, the nun took out her pack of white cigarettes from her pocket. There she took out a disposable lighter and a cigarette and put it in her mouth.

“Huh?”

Then my eyes met, and he pulled out another cigarette and handed it to me.

“They say it doesn’t bloom, or do you want to learn?”

I was taken aback by her mumbling question and shook her head.

“Oh, no. It’s okay.”

“Okay. Don’t smoke I don’t smoke like that.”

Having said that, the nun put her cigarette back and lit her lighter. Chick! The dark surroundings brightened a little with the sound.

“…”

With a familiar gesture, she lit the cigarette in her mouth. When the tip of the white cigarette burned red, I extinguished the light on the lighter and put it back in the cigarette pack.

The nun, who smelled of burning cigarettes, pointed to a corner of her playground with her chin.

“Let’s walk over there.”

“Ah yes.”

“Let’s talk a little while we go.”

“… Yes.”

The nun, who acted lightly from the first time we met, put on a serious expression for the first time. Seeing that, I thought something had come.

“Let’s go.”

She said softly and followed her slowly through her clearing. She was silent at first, but as she crossed halfway through her clearing, the nun asked.

“So, are you marrying Minah?”

“Yes.”

“I heard he’s not alone?”

You know.

I wasn’t even surprised and brought up the name of the person I thought would have told me.

“Did Minah tell you?”

“Uh. He said it first Swoouuuuu…”

Blowing white smoke out of her mouth, the nun took the cigarette she was biting into her hand.

“Wait for a sec.”

He then switched seats with me so I wouldn’t touch the lighted cigarette. The nun, who lit the cigarette ash with one hand, put another cigarette in her mouth and started talking.

“It was pretty, they.”

I realized that the word ‘those’ refers to the devil and Sehee.

“Ah yes. Pretty. Lovely.”

“It sucks.”

“Yes?”

“It’s fucking.”

But the nun laughed at what I was saying. But she erased the ridicule that bloomed on her lips and looked at her with a serious face and called me again.

“Jiheon.”

“Yes.”

“I, Mina, are the first.”

“What?”

“You bastard who gets out here and comes back with good things. He is the first.”

I didn’t quite understand what you were talking about.

“What is that… ?”

Seeing me bewildered, I asked if I would become a nun.

“How many kids do you think will go out and come back?”

“Yes?”

“How long do you think it will be? The return of the original child.”

“Well, I don’t know.”

“Very few. No, you can assume there isn’t. Plus, I’m the first kid to come back to something good like marriage.”

The headmistress, who had said that, was silent for a moment. She wasn’t looking for something to say, she was smoking a cigarette.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa… !”

The nun, who let out a sigh clearer than her breath coming out of her mouth, continued her words.

“When he said he was getting married, I felt good too. Because she’s like my daughter. But it pissed me off that a man is marrying another woman as well.”

“Sorry.”

“What are you sorry about? You are living your life the way you want it to be. Is not it?”

Hearing this, she believed that the nun would approve of their relationship with me. Of course, that was just an illusion.

“By the way. This is different A bastard who lives as he pleases, and a bastard who lives as he pleases. Similar yet so fucking different.”

It went well with her nun because she spoke even though the vulgar word “Fuck” Came out of her mouth. Besides that, she spoke softly and her face looking at me seriously touched me more because she wasn’t joking.

“Hey.”

While listening to her silently, the nun asked.

“What do you think is different? Living the way you want to live and living the way you suck.”

“…”

“Are you okay. Just tell me Because there is no right answer to life. Say what you think.”

“Then,”

After taking a deep breath, I gave my answer.

“People who do what they want to do live doing what they want to do, but people who do what they want to do only live doing what they want to do.”

“Do you think so?”

“Yes.”

“Your hair is so damn good. I didn’t just seduce the three of you.”

Having said that, the nun stopped her feet in front of her bench. When I stopped walking along, he asked me again.

“Then which one are you? A bastard who lives as he pleases? Or are you a bastard who lives as he pleases?”

She was more difficult to answer than the previous question. Anyone can see that I was on the latter side, but if I answered like that, then marriage with Minah would be a waste.

“What are you?”

But she couldn’t even say that she was the former. I didn’t want to tell a blatant lie to the mother who raised Mina or to her other person.

“Hey. What are you?”

“… I am,”

In the end, I tried to tell the black truth, not the white lie.

“I, after,”

“It’s okay.”

“The latter, yes?”

“It’s okay.”

I was about to speak, but the nun cut her off. Then a mischievous expression appeared on her serious face.

“I didn’t come here if you were a baby who lived. You guys would have married each other without permission. It’s okay, marry Mina. I’ll give you permission. Although I am not the parent.”

She didn’t even listen, and I was taken aback by her permission, which was easier than expected.

“Can I?”

“What. So, are you not going to marry me?”

“Ha, I will. Can I really?”

“You can do it, little. Oh, but I won’t bless you. It’s kind of like that for a priest to bless bigamy.”

The nun held her cigarette in her hand and brushed off her ashes as she spoke.

“It doesn’t even sound bad. And you, don’t you like kids? No, I don’t hate it, but I’m a little clumsy, right? It all seemed There aren’t many bad ones among them. In addition, the heart is kind and immersed in it. Oh right.”

As she put her cigarette in her mouth, she asked as if remembering something.

“They forgive the kids who spilled coffee on you. Don’t do that. It’s not good for children’s education.”

“No, because it didn’t hurt that much.”

“It’s kind of bad for education. What if you do it to other people? It’s okay, it’s my job, so it’s okay. Be angry. It’s not good for you either.”

The nun cut me off and scratched the back of her head as if it were annoying. Then she took her words back to her mischievous face.

“Let’s go in now. Because the story is over.”

“But there you are.”

“Yes.”

“Are you thinking of making more girlfriends?”

“No. Absolutely not.”

“Just make one more, why? And I want that one to be me.”

“… Yes?”

“I’m tired of being a nun, and I’m tired of being the abbot. Just give up and live on Mina’s money. So just put me in Is my face okay?”

“I do, but I can’t.”

“Oh, you mean your face is fine? Okay. Stop dating, how about a physical relationship?”

“I hate that more.”

“You ugly bastard. I want to play and eat alone.”

“Am I going to work too?”

“It’s okay, I don’t believe you.”