## Chapter 27 – Enchantment
‘Finally, I’m completing the quest.’
My heart pounded.
This quest was quite challenging.
Just getting the coconut was incredibly difficult because coconut trees are usually well over 20 meters tall.
Climbing those tall trees that grow as a single trunk without branches was difficult for anyone who wasn’t an expert.
Even after getting the fruit, there was still a problem.
The shell was so hard that it was nearly impossible to get the contents out without tools.
‘But I can just buy it with money.’
The moment I spent money, all the aforementioned problems were solved in one go.
It felt so refreshing. Is this why people are all about the money?
[You have purchased ‘Coconut’.]
[₩1,843 has been deducted from your cache.]
[You have unreceived items from your purchase. Would you like to receive them now?]
A prepared coconut appeared out of thin air and dropped into my hand. I waved at Kim Yeon-ju.
“Yeon-ju, that metal chopstick you had earlier? Pass it over here.”
“This? Why?”
Kim Yeon-ju, who was grilling clams, blinked.
“If I give it to you, can I get a BJ?”
I snatched the chopstick from Kim Yeon-ju and settled down in the shade.
I grabbed the coconut and spun it around, and sure enough, I could clearly see where to poke a hole, just like Kim Yeon-ju had said.
According to our homeroom teacher, that spot was where the sprout grows, making it the weakest part of the coconut.
‘Anyway, she said to stick the chopstick in here, right?’
Thwack.
The chopstick went in easily. When I pulled the chopstick back out, there were indeed droplets of liquid on the end.
I wondered what it tasted like.
‘Hmm. I can’t really tell.’
Was it because I only had a little bit? I just grabbed the coconut and poured the whole thing into my mouth.
‘Oh. There’s a taste. It’s a bit bland, but there’s a subtle sweetness.’
I wouldn’t recommend it as super delicious to modern people accustomed to sweetness, but it wasn’t bad, maybe because I was eating it after suffering in this heat.
It was quite sweet.
I quenched my thirst and was about to take another sip when suddenly a dark shadow fell over my vision.
“Huh?”
Wondering what it was, I glanced up and saw two faces looking down at me.
They were twins.
Shin Yu-ri and Shin Ye-jin were leaning over, looking down at me.
“Oh, it’s just you guys. What is it?”
“…….”
“Go on. Go get more sleep.”
Shaking their heads.
The twins shook their heads and stared at me. More precisely, at the coconut in my hand.
Look at these brats?
“Hey, this is mine. Go away.”
Twinge—Two little kids looking at me with pitiful eyes.
Their clear, big eyes sparkled like jewels. Their desperate look pierced my heart.
Looking so sad with those pretty faces. I felt a strong urge to hand it over right away.
Anyone who saw those faces would feel the same way, not just me.
They looked more pathetic and pitiful than rain-soaked kittens.
In fact, whenever the twins made that twinge-like expression, everyone couldn’t help but grant their wishes.
Even the teachers at school.
Even the headstrong kids in our class.
“Yu-ri, Ye-jin, did you drink water? Is there anything else you need? Tell your teacher!”
“No, tell this older sister. I’ll do anything for you!”
And the twins, who had even won over the homeroom teacher and the stewardess, were now talking to me.
They said they wanted to try the coconut in my hand.
Sparkle, sparkle.
“Heh. That won’t work.”
I waved my hand dismissively.
Having rolled around with those little devils for three years, I was so used to their antics that their charm offensive had no effect on me.
I ignored them like they were stones and put the coconut water back in my mouth. The twins dropped their pitiful expressions and smacked their lips.
Then they rubbed their bellies with their hands.
Grumble.
‘Come to think of it, it’s already lunchtime. Is it long past their mealtime?’
Thinking that, I felt a little softened.
Sigh. I can’t help it.
“You want to eat it?”
Nod, nod.
“But the world is give and take. If there’s giving, there must be receiving.”
The twins gestured with their hands. Then they grabbed my hand tightly. Using the experience I’d built up over three years, I roughly understood and asked if I was right.
“Aren’t we friends?”
Nod.
“Hey. If friends borrow money and don’t pay it back, is that okay?”
Shake, shake.
“It’s the same thing. Because we’re friends, we have to be even more thorough about that. We have to protect that even more.”
“!!”
A look of realization.
I’m not even their tutor, I don’t know what I’m doing right now.
I scratched my head at that thought, and at that moment, a small hand suddenly reached out from the side.
Whack!
It was the twins. It was Yu-ri, the older sister as far as I knew, though it was a subtle difference.
Shin Yu-ri, who had slipped out of my sight, snatched my coconut and carried it away with both hands, and her sister excitedly followed beside her.
Then they shared it, taking sips each.
Gulp. Gulp.
I was dumbfounded. I yelled-
“Hey!”
They glanced at me for a moment and then ran away.
Giggle!
Damn it. I only drank half of it. And since one coconut doesn’t even have much volume, the stat only went up a little.
[147/500ml]
But maybe that’s why?
Halt.
The kids who were running away stopped dead in their tracks. Even when they turned the coconut upside down and shook it, only a few drops came out.
“Hey.”
I conspicuously bought a new coconut from the store and tossed it into the air, catching it repeatedly.
“!!”
The two impudent little kittens who had stolen my fruit saw that and started to creep back towards me.
“You want to eat it?”
Nod, nod.
“But what should I do? I don’t want to give it to you.”
“!!”
“I’m only going to give this to my friends. Like the homeroom teacher over there, or Kim Yeon-ju.”
The twins pointed at themselves wildly with their hands. As if they were my friends too.
“Nah. If you were friends, you wouldn’t steal your friend’s things. How can a thief be a friend? Yeon-ju! Catch! Homeroom teacher too!”
The two coconuts I threw drew an arc and flew towards the two women.
The twins’ eyes widened as they followed the trajectory.
“Oh my. You succeeded in cracking a coconut, Master? How did you do it?”
“There’s a way. That’s for you guys, so don’t give it to the kids no matter what.”
Then I looked at the twins, and they were in a frenzy.
The kids repeatedly looked at the coconuts in the two women’s hands and then at me, who had given them the coconuts.
The twins gestured and gesticulated at me.
“I told you, there’s none for you.”
Whimper.
“What? That was a joke? You won’t play pranks like that again?”
Nod, nod.
The twins put their hands together and approached me.
Making a very pitiful face.
‘A joke. A joke, huh.’
Do you know the saying? A frog dies from a stone thrown as a joke.
Shin Yu-ri and Shin Ye-jin, the twins. They may have always been playing pranks for fun, but for me, it was three years of suffering.
-Huh? Where did my tablet go?
-To not bring the necessary materials for class during class time. Jung Woo-jin, you must think I’m a joke! Get out! A student like you doesn’t need to be in my class. Come to the faculty office after class too!
This kind of thing was common.
-What? You lost the teaching materials for class? Are you out of your mind? Find them right now, no matter what!
This kind of thing also happened often.
Maybe the kids just wanted to play with me.
But for me, it was suffering.
Even if the twins didn’t intend to torment me, it was too hard for me every time.
‘But I can endure all those things.’
Do you know when people get the most emotionally charged in life?
It’s when they’re misunderstood.
I focused on the twins.
‘They’re starting to move, I see.’
When their charm offensive had no effect on me, the two twins’ gazes turned to the homeroom teacher and Kim Yeon-ju.
They approached them and made twinge-like pitiful expressions.
“Oh? What’s wrong, kids?”
“Tell your older sister everything. What’s wrong!”
Whisper, whisper.
After whispering, the two women turned around and glared at me with fierce eyes.
“Woo-jin! Even if the kids are playing pranks, you can’t bully them!”
“What? You’re hungry? Here, eat your older sister’s.”
“You eat your teacher’s.”
…It’s still amazing to see.
The twins’ looks are insane. I heard they’ve been like that since they were little.
That’s why they’ve always gotten what they wanted with their looks.
Whenever they made a twinge-like expression, followers inevitably appeared around them.
When the twins were in trouble, people were always eager to help them.
When the twins felt threatened, people even became violent.
-Are you saying these kids are lying? Woo-jin, you’re a real scumbag!
The twins caused all the pranks, but all the blame fell on me.
Thanks to that, I was branded as trash for three years.
Later, when people came to their senses, they knew the twins were the culprits, but because of the twins’ family, the issue was never brought up again.
“Master! I’d like the chopstick I gave you back!”
Kim Yeon-ju shouted, saying she was going to feed the twins her coconut and needed the tool to poke a hole.
‘If I’m going to take those twins and keep them by my side, I have to discipline them once.’
Fortunately, this wasn’t school.
There was no family to be their strong backing.
And I already knew how to discipline them.
“Yu-ri. Ye-jin.”
I took out a new fruit from the store and held it in my hand.
“!!”
The twins’ eyes widened as much as they could.
“You want to eat this?”
Nod, nod.
Nod, nod.
I held up two strawberries in front of the kids. The twins were drawn to me, little by little, by their red, luscious, and enchanting appearance.
“Huh? Yu-ri, Ye-jin?”
“Kids?”
Even when the homeroom teacher and Kim Yeon-ju tried to hold them back, they roughly pushed them away and came to me.
As if completely captivated, only the strawberries flickered in the twins’ eyes.
