My Childhood Friend’s Stock Will Never Fail Chapter 53

“So you’re saying she went in here?”

 

“Yeah, I saw it clearly. I didn’t see her come back out, so she must still be in there.”

 

There was a small gap between the break-room building and the ground. Apparently, Ppyakki had slipped through that gap.

 

“Let’s shine a flashlight in there.”

 

The gap was so narrow that they would have to get into a somewhat awkward position to look inside, but there was no other choice. Yoohee was searching for the flashlight button on her phone when Joohoon turned his flashlight on first.

 

“I’ll do it.”

 

“Huh?”

 

“You two are wearing skirts.”

 

Jinhee, who was standing nearby, let out a small sound of admiration.

 

Without hesitation, Joohoon knelt on the ground and shone the flashlight through the gap in the building.

 

“See anything?”

 

After carefully checking both sides, Joohoon brushed off his hands and stood up. He then shook his head.

 

“I can only see the entrance, so I don’t think we’ll be able to find her this way.”

 

“I see…”

 

“Oh, should we put some of Ppyakki’s food in front of here? You know how people set up traps on YouTube.”

 

Jinhee suddenly came up with an idea. Yoohee also thought that might be better and nodded.

 

Jinhee’s face immediately brightened with hope as she chattered away.

 

“I’ll run back to the dorm and get Ppyakki’s food. In the meantime, keep watch in case she comes out.”

 

With that, Jinhee hurried off toward the dormitory. A little while later, the cleaning lady who had been inside the break room also came out, exchanged a few words with them, and left.

 

Only Joohoon and Yoohee remained in front of the break room.

 

The early summer sun was slowly giving off its heat. When Yoohee raised a hand to shield herself from the sunlight, Joohoon pointed toward a nearby bench.

 

“Should we sit and wait?”

 

They sat together on a bench beneath a small patch of shade. As the waiting time gradually grew longer, Yoohee began to feel sorry for Joohoon.

 

“Do you want to go back first?”

 

“You already know my answer.”

 

A playful smile appeared on his face.

 

It was the same unwavering attitude Joohoon had always had, both then and now. If there was anything that had changed, perhaps it was that he had learned how to act a little more shamelessly.

 

“If you have something else to do, you can go. If… you’re only staying here because of me.”

 

Yoohee said this while rolling her eyes around, slightly embarrassed.

 

A small laugh escaped Joohoon.

 

“It’s fine, so don’t worry about me.”

 

Joohoon smiled like sunshine. His smile seemed to sweep away all her worries and concerns.

 

Yoohee smiled shyly along with him, but then the tips of her fingers caught on something hard.

 

She lowered her head and saw a familiar-looking snack wedged between the wooden slats of the bench.

 

She pulled it out with some force.

 

It was a fortune cookie.

 

“No way.”

 

Who would leave another fortune cookie here?

 

“Ah, so this is what you were talking about before.”

 

“Yeah, but… why is it here?”

 

“Maybe it’s part of an event? Like a random fortune-cookie hunt where you find them and read your fortune or something.”

 

Joohoon spoke casually, without a hint of suspicion.

 

“Open it. Let’s see what fortune is inside.”

 

“Should I?”

 

This made three fortune cookies in total.

 

Crack.

 

Yoohee broke the crispy fortune cookie in half, and once again, there was a white slip of paper inside with a message written on it.

 

Rustle.

 

As she unfolded the paper, her brow instinctively furrowed.

 

[This is your third fortune cookie! Only one more to go! An unexpected stroke of luck awaits you when you open the fourth fortune cookie.]

 

How does it know…?

 

Rather than feeling happy about the promise of good fortune, Yoohee was filled with a strange sense of unease.

 

It was just a fortune cookie she had happened to find, yet it seemed to know that she had already opened three of them.

 

“What does it say? Let me see.”

 

When Yoohee froze, Joohoon tilted his head curiously.

 

“Good luck? It’s probably just superstition, but it’d still feel nice if you found some. If you do find it, I’ll give it to you.”

 

Joohoon smiled without the slightest suspicion.

 

Am I just being too sensitive?

 

The uneasy feeling lingered, but then Jinhee’s voice came from a distance.

 

“Guys! I’m back already!”

 

Yoohee raised her head and saw Jinhee running toward them, completely out of breath.

 

When they returned after their next class, there was already a creature inside the trap they had set up.

 

Yoohee laughed lightly and tried to open the emergency stairwell door. She struggled to push the heavy metal door open, but Joohoon’s hand suddenly reached out and effortlessly pushed the door she had just opened shut again.

 

“Hm?”

 

“I changed my mind.”

 

“Huh?”

 

“I told you to tell me if you needed guiding.”

 

With both arms braced against the door, Joohoon had Yoohee effectively cornered between them. He lowered his upper body a little more and leaned close to her ear.

 

“I’d like you to do it.”

 

“R-right now?”

 

There wasn’t much time right now…

 

“Is that not okay? I’m hurting right now.”

 

Joohoon spoke in a slightly hurt voice.

 

But I just saw him forcefully shut that door with his left hand.

 

Still, Yoohee couldn’t pretend not to notice the sparkling look in Joohoon’s eyes.

 

“Then… just for a little while.”

 

She nodded, deciding to take the risk, and the corners of Joohoon’s lips curled up happily.

 

“Thanks. I knew I could count on you, Yoohee.”

 

They began guiding through the embrace that had gradually become familiar to them. But there was one thing that was different.

 

‘Was he always this tight?’

 

He seemed to be holding her a little more firmly than usual today. As if to prove that it wasn’t just her imagination, the veins on Joohoon’s arm, exposed beneath his summer uniform, stood out thickly.

 

His large hand gently pressed down on Yoohee’s head. Feeling his body heat through her cheek and the thin fabric of his uniform made her face grow hot.

 

‘I-I should move away a little….’

 

But Joohoon continued to hold her tightly with his entire body, making it difficult for her to say anything.

 

Her heart was pounding so hard that she felt as though Joohoon might be able to hear it. Her mind was beginning to go completely blank, to the point where she wasn’t even sure what she was doing while guiding him.

 

“J-Joohoon…”

 

Her voice trembled thinly from nervousness.

 

Suddenly, Joohoon pushed away the body he had been holding so tightly.

 

“Sorry. I’m fine now.”

 

The moment Joohoon’s perfectly aligned magical energy suddenly disappeared, Yoohee looked up at him with wide, startled eyes.

 

“If we go in now, we’ll make it just in time.”

 

He smiled brightly, as if intending to make her forget everything that had just happened.

 

***

 

“Waaah, sob… What if something happened to Ppyakki? What am I going to do? I can’t live without Ppyakki. Sob…”

 

It had been three days since they lost Ppyakki.

 

In the end, Jinhee burst into tears. She was crying so bitterly that anyone watching might have thought Jinhee was Ppyakki’s owner.

 

“If something had happened to Ppyakki, we probably would have found something by now. There hasn’t been a single report yet. She must be hiding somewhere really well.”

 

Yoohee patted Jinhee’s shoulder as she spoke.

 

She didn’t even want to imagine it, but even if Ppyakki had been bitten by a snake and died, there should at least have been some feathers left behind. Yet aside from mistaken reports, no one had even seen a single feather belonging to Ppyakki since she disappeared.

 

Reassured by Yoohee’s words, Jinhee sniffled.

 

“That would be a relief…”

 

Just then, Yoohee’s phone rang. It was extremely unusual for her phone to ring at eight in the morning.

 

“Hello?”

 

As she answered, a voice came through the phone that immediately made Jinhee stop crying.

 

—You’re looking for a chick, right?

 

They had morning classes, so they couldn’t rush over immediately. After the first period ended, Yoohee, Jinhee, and Joohoon headed to the place where the call had come from.

 

“Here, here. I definitely saw pink fur around here.”

 

The person who had reported the sighting was an older woman in charge of cleaning the academy buildings. She said that some kind of pink creature had suddenly darted past inside the small break room built outside the academy building for the cleaning staff.

 

“I was standing there when some pink blob suddenly went whoosh past me. Then I remembered all those posters plastered on the walls looking for a pink chick. Hahaha, it was so unusual that there’s no way I could forget it.”

 

The kind-looking woman laughed heartily.

 

It seemed the posters had actually worked.

 

“So you’re saying it went inside here?”

 

“Yeah, I saw it clearly. I never saw it come back out, so it should still be in there.”

 

There was a small gap between the break-room building and the ground. Apparently, Ppyakki had slipped through that gap.

 

“Let’s shine a flashlight in.”

 

The gap was so narrow that they would have to assume a rather awkward position to look inside, but there was no other choice.

 

As Yoohee searched for the flashlight button on her phone, Joohoon turned his flashlight on first and said,

 

“I’ll do it.”

 

“Huh?”

 

“You two are wearing skirts.”

 

Jinhee, standing beside them, let out a small, impressed “Oh.”

 

Without hesitation, Joohoon knelt on the ground and shone the flashlight into the gap beneath the building.

 

“Can you see anything?”

 

After carefully checking both sides, Joohoon brushed off his hands and stood up. Then he shook his head.

 

“I can only see the entrance. I don’t think we’ll be able to find it this way.”

 

“I see…”

 

“Oh, how about we put some of Ppyakki’s feed here? You know how they set up traps on YouTube?”

 

Jinhee suddenly came up with an idea. Yoohee also thought that might be their best option and nodded.

 

Jinhee’s face immediately brightened with hope as she chattered away.

 

“I’ll hurry to the dorm and get Ppyakki’s feed. You two keep watch in case Ppyakki comes out while I’m gone.”

 

Jinhee dashed toward the dormitory, and a little while later, the cleaning lady came out of the break room as well. After saying goodbye, she disappeared.

 

Only Joohoon and Yoohee remained in front of the break room.

 

The early-summer sun was gradually giving off more heat. Yoohee raised a hand to block the sunlight, and Joohoon pointed toward a nearby bench.

 

“Want to sit and wait?”

 

They sat together on a bench beneath a small patch of shade. As the waiting time gradually stretched on, Yoohee began to feel bad for Joohoon.

 

“Do you want to go inside first?”

 

“You already know my answer.”

 

A playful smile appeared on his face.

 

Joohoon’s attitude was as consistent as ever, unchanged from before. If there was anything different, perhaps it was that he had now learned to act a little more shamelessly.

 

“If you have somewhere else to be, you can go. If… you’re only staying here because of me…”

 

Yoohee spoke while rolling her eyes awkwardly, embarrassed by her own words. A small laugh escaped Joohoon.

 

“It’s fine, so don’t worry about me.”

 

Joohoon smiled like sunshine. His smile seemed to sweep away all of Yoohee’s worries.

 

Yoohee smiled bashfully in return, but then her fingertip caught on something hard.

 

She looked down and saw a familiar-looking cookie wedged between the wooden slats of the bench.

 

She pulled it out with some force.

 

It really was a fortune cookie.

 

“No way.”

 

Why was there another fortune cookie here?

 

“Oh, so this is what you were talking about before.”

 

“Yeah, but… why is it here?”

 

“Is this part of some event? Like, you randomly find one and check your fortune or something.”

 

Joohoon spoke casually, as though there was nothing strange about it.

 

“Open it once. Let’s see what kind of fortune is inside.”

 

“Should I?”

 

This made the third fortune cookie in total.

 

Crack.

 

She broke the crisp fortune cookie in half, and once again, there was a white slip of paper inside with a message written on it.

 

Rustle.

 

As Yoohee unfolded the paper, her brows instinctively furrowed.

 

[This is your third fortune cookie! Just one more to go! An unexpected stroke of luck awaits you when you open the fourth fortune cookie.]

 

How does it know…?

 

Rather than happiness at the promise of good fortune, a strange sense of unease came first.

 

It was just a fortune cookie she had happened to find, yet it seemed to know that she had opened her third one.

 

“What does it say? Let me see.”

 

When Yoohee froze, Joohoon tilted his head in confusion.

 

“Luck? It’s probably just superstition, but it would still be nice if we found something, right? If I find it, I’ll give it to you, Yoohee.”

 

Joohoon smiled without the slightest suspicion.

 

Am I just being too sensitive?

 

A slight sense of discomfort remained, but then Jinhee’s voice came from a distance.

 

“Guys! I’m back! That was fast, right?”

 

Yoohee looked up and saw Jinhee running toward them, completely out of breath.

 

When they returned after their next class, they found that a creature had entered the trap they had set up.