City of Backstreet Nymphs - Chapter 21



21 – 021 – Trolley Dilemma # 1

021 – Trolley Dilemma # 1

I was pretty self-sufficient, so I was pretty good at cooking.

I made it myself, but it was delicious.

But the food I really liked was cooked by someone else!

Chiiik-.

A frying pan on an induction stove.

It is quite surreal to see Yuari grilling pork belly in front of him.

“The cooking will be finished soon. Senior, could you put some spoons on the table? As a junior, I should do it, but I’m grilling meat….”

Yua-ri moved her hands busily while grilling meat, boiling soybean paste stew, or slicing leeks.

He looked really busy, but he was very professional in his workmanship.

“Where are the juniors and seniors in setting the cutlery? It’s just what people who can do it. If that’s the case, you’re a B and I’m a D… No, it’s class C.”

“Is that the case again?”

I put my spoon and chopsticks on the table and remembered the old days.

In the past, until there were less than 30 Awakened people in Korea, the hierarchy was strict with Kisu Culture.

I had the excuse that a top-down system should be strict because you could lose your life inside the rift—but honestly, it felt like there were just a lot of bad guys.

“There were a lot of kkondae among seniors in the past, right? At the restaurant, I have my juniors scoop up the tray and throw away the leftover side dishes. Anyway, bad guys, what are you all doing right now?”

I remembered that there was no separate army.

Even though it was actually an army.

I, who awakened when I was in high school, also served as an alternative to subjugating cracks instead of the military.

Tak-.

Yuuri smiled as she put the well-roasted pork belly and stew on the table.

“If you say that, weren’t your work and seniors pretty old-fashioned? There were a lot of things I was told to do, a lot of things I was told to do and a lot of things I was told not to do. Sunbaenim also cursed at me behind my back.”

I knew.

Actually, I was kind of shocked when I heard Seo Ye-rim swear at me from behind.

Still, I had an excuse.

“It’s me, I’m saying that all of you are doing well. Back then, even the slightest mistake could cause serious injury. But now that I think about it, what….”

I wonder if I was one of the common kkondae seniors.

It was when I was thinking about that.

Jjoreureu-.

Before I knew it, Yua Lee opened a can of cold beer and poured it into her glass. The air bubbles and bubbles rising up seemed very cool.

In addition to that, Yuari opened a bottle of soju.

Then, she skillfully mixed soju into a glass of beer, but in many ways, it was unrealistic.

“Senior, why do you look at me like that? What’s weird Do you need anything?”

“… No, she was a high school student and since her child is eating her wheat, she thinks the years are going by so quickly. But if she eats like that, it’s not good for her body. Even if the Awakener has stronger stamina than others….”

“Senior, you nag again.”

Damn it.

It was a habit that developed in me to nag others for advice.

In the past, I had enough qualifications and rights to do so, but when she stayed in D-class in her later years, she was greeted with glares saying, “You’re good-looking.”

Soon, Yuari said.

“Soju is bitter. To be honest, I still don’t know what to drink. I think I’ve aged to some extent, but maybe it’s because I still have childish tastes.”

Child… To say that, Yuari grew up very well.

She seemed to be quite skinny even when she was in high school.

The current appearance after taking off the long padding seemed to explode in many ways.

“Still, as I get older, there are things that seem new to me. For example, the nagging that seniors gave me was quite useful——it’s a story.”

That’s right.

Yuari, who was an F-class high school student, has become more mature than I thought. It’s like I’m still dreaming of Peter Pan.

I suddenly became a little ashamed of myself.

# # #

Awakeners generally drank well.

But Yuari was more talkative.

Even though she emptied several bottles of soju by herself, there was no sign of drunkenness on her face.

Compared to that, I was quite agitated.

“Yuari, how can you look fine when you drank more than me?”

“Didn’t you know that alcohol decomposition and absorption are different depending on the Awakener’s magical power? The higher you go, the less drunk you become.”

Even if you drink alcohol, you won’t get drunk.

It was a terrible story for me, who drank to get drunk to forget the sorrows of the world.

“It seems that only good things happen when the grade goes up.”

“That’s right. The higher you go, the more work you have to do, the more you have to be responsible for. In fact, there is no such thing as a good thing.”

Shut-.

Yua Li pulled her white legs together in front of her chest.

The white light was so dazzling that I felt a little bit awake. My head was now thinking about the beings that made Yua Li’s life painful.

Is it Lee Jeong-hoon?

“Ari Yoo, I heard you talked about marriage with Junghoon Lee?”

“That’s just a story that went on their own!”

Yuari screams in a playful way.

Soon I heard a rustling sound from the door that was closed behind me.

Is it an oinoi?

Yuari asked.

“There is that nymph behind that visit, right? Was your name Oinoi?”

“Right.”

“Are you shy?”

No.

Actually, Oinoi was not shy.

But Oinoi was afraid of Yuari.

Oinoi’s intuition was quite good.

She’s actually to the extent that she’s never been wrong.

However, that meant Yuari was a bad person.

The Yuari I remember was a weak and naive girl who couldn’t kill the monsters that appeared in the rift out of pity.

She was worried that if she stayed like this, she would seriously get hurt——so much so that she wanted to nag while giving advice.

But.

From noble mtl dot com

She had no choice but to admit it honestly.

Today’s Yuari is different from the girl I used to know.

Still, from the time I became an Awoken, I set the course of her life to believe only what I saw. So I decided to ask.

“Yuari, what happened?”

“I mean. The truth is she wanted to be a doctor. Our house was poor. You know? I didn’t even have a plain clothes, so I went around wearing my school uniform. I became a doctor because I hated poverty, and I wanted to make a lot of money.”

“… What. I thought you were good at studying.”

A high school girl who is good at studying.

Just an ordinary high school student.

The son of a chaebol family.

Aspiring celebrities.

At that time, the awakened people were pulled out equally and put into the rift.

At that time, most of the Awakeners were in their teens and 20s, and they did not follow the ethics of conscripting child soldiers.

Because the world was considered to be on the verge of extinction. In the face of a real crisis, morality and law are weaker fences than tree branches.

Shut-.

Yua Li buried her own face in her knees pulled together in front of her chest.

“You may not know, but I did well in the Awakened industry. So there was a lot of confusion. Do you know the story that when Awoken people marry each other, they give birth to an Awoken person?”

“I know. Wasn’t that a rumor?”

“It’s true. There are quite a few samples now.”

Is this true?

It was credible, perhaps because it was said by a B-level health doctor. Why, even if you say the same thing, if doctors say it, the story will have more weight.

Soon Yua Li added her words.

“It was at that time that Lee Jung-hoon brought up the topic of marriage with me. I refused in many ways, but at the time I was receiving orders from Osa Group, so it was a bit difficult.”

Osa Group was a company run by Lee Jung-hoon’s family.

Among them, did you say that the pharmaceutical affiliate was Lee Jung-hoon’s affiliate?

How do you know?

I search for not only my name but also other people’s stories on Awakener’s social media.

Soon Yua Li lifted her face.

Tears welled up in Yua Li’s eyes.

“I have nothing to do with Lee Jung-hoon. Senior, you can’t misunderstand and spread strange words to others.”

“Don’t worry. Never say anything.”

I came to understand how the marriage story with Lee Jung-hoon came about.

Also, Yuari is “Hiding” A lot of things from me.

Soon, Yuuri asked me.

“Come to think of it, seniors said in the past that they wanted to earn a lot of money and raise their name to the highest level. Like the heroes in the movies. I still remember it because it was so serious.”

“I did.”

It was an embarrassing memory.

When I was just becoming an Awakener, I wanted to be like Tony Stark from Iron Man. I thought it could actually happen.

If you think about it now, it’s a ridiculous story—isn’t it?

“I think I can still be.”

I have now risen to C grade.

I also made good friends including Kyeongkongi.

I thought I wasn’t too late yet.

Soon, Yuuri laughed.

“Sure. What would you do with the trolley dilemma?”

“A troll?”

“The trolley dilemma. A train is passing by, but you can change the track. If there are five people tied to the rails on one side and only one on the other—”

“Ah.”

I knew that too.

It’s called the trolley dilemma.

Yuari asked as she turned the glass of wheat round and round.

“Senior, if you want to become a hero, what will you do at this time?”

I never thought about it.

And it was a difficult story.

Sacrificing one person to save the many?

It was when I was thinking about it.

“Senior, if you are aiming for the top spot, you should think hard about it now. This is my heartfelt advice.”

Yuari said in an unexpectedly cool voice.

When I looked up at her in surprise, Yua-ri was stretching her body as if nothing had happened.

“I feel good—! It’s late. Can she go to sleep? If you don’t have a room, you can just lay a futon in the living room.”

Boaang─.

Then I heard a loud noise.

I heard a lot of dogs barking.

!

!

No, is it the barking of squirrels?

Anyway.

At the time of 10:00 p.M., I wondered who was making such a loud noise, but I wondered if I could hear a td-d-td-sound from the front door, and then someone entered the house.

It was Seo Ye-rim.

“Hey, what’s wrong with you not calling at this hour?”

I was startled and asked.

Then Seo Ye-rim suddenly got angry.

“What? I sent a tel talk, but you didn’t check it. Didn’t I tell you to check your phone carefully because the staff can contact you for collecting well samples?”

“Really? Have you contacted me?”

When I opened my phone, there were 15 Tel Talk messages from Seo Ye-rim.

I don’t check my phone often when meeting people, so it seems like I forgot.

So, when she thought that she had come to visit her, Seo Ye-rim roughly pushed her bottles away with her foot and held out her hand to Yoo-ri.

“It’s been a while, Yuari. Isn’t this the first time we’ve met in person since Hayang’s wedding three years ago?”

“Sure. Nice to meet you, Yerim.”

Shut-.

Yua-ri stood up from her seat and held Ye-rim’s hand.

I first learned that women of the same age shake hands.

Isn’t it usually nice to see you hugging while jumping around?

It seems that those were the women in my imagination.

Exclude-.

Then the closed door opened.

Soon Oinoi came out.

“Ah, Kore Yerim is here… !”