Jesse clearly came to Hyunsoo’s house.
She checked the address one more time.
“It’s correct.”
But why on earth is this person greeting her here?
“Ah! Our baby is here?”
Angela ran out and hugged her tightly. Then, she showered her with kisses on both cheeks.
“I’d appreciate it if you could step back a bit…”
Although she was shorter and smaller than Jesse, why was she so strong?
Jesse, with a resigned look, waited until Angela let her go.
“I missed you so much. It’s so unfair that you ignored my messages but texted him first? I’ve never seen you send the first message before. Has Kyle ever seen that?”
“Enough. What are you doing here? Were you close? I’ve hardly seen you two talking at school.”
“We’re really close. I come here every week.”
“…!?”
Jesse’s expression wavered for a moment. She managed to compose herself after seeing Angela’s playful eyes, but Angela’s smile had already deepened.
“It’s… interesting. Well, don’t get the wrong idea. I’m close with his mom. I came to keep her company.”
“Keep her company?”
“She wanted to practice English. She’s already good, but she didn’t have many chances to use it. We got really close, and it feels like chatting with a friend.”
“Ah…”
“Let’s go, darling. The kids are waiting in the dining room.”
Angela, who seemed to come here often, familiarly guided her to the dining room.
“If someone saw this, they’d think this was Angela’s house.”
In the modestly sized dining room, there was a table set for four.
“What?”
Jesse doubted her eyes when she saw the two men who had already taken their seats.
“Why are you two here?”
It made some sense for Charles to be here, but it was hard to find any reason for Diante, who sat with a sullen face.
“Oh, yeah. Nice to see you too.”
“Don’t tell me you come here every week too?”
Charles asked back with a puzzled look.
“No? We come almost every day. We play basketball with Hyunsoo at the park nearby.”
“Even Diante?”
“Of course! Diante, Hyunsoo, and I are all on the basketball team.”
“…”
It sounded so natural, but it was definitely not.
‘Charles is very sociable, so he gets along well with Diante, but isn’t Hyunsoo almost like an enemy to him?’
A quick glance showed that Diante also looked uncomfortable. His silence and the way he stared at the wall spoke volumes about his feelings.
‘What could have happened…’
Jesse wasn’t the type to pry into others’ business, but she was curious.
Just then, the person who could provide more clues poked his head out from the kitchen.
“You’re here? Thanks for coming right away even though I called suddenly.”
Hyunsoo, wearing an apron, greeted Jesse with a smile.
“Oh, um… I was nearby.”
“Wow, lucky. I was worried since it’s a weekend morning. You could’ve been sleeping in or had plans.”
“You do know. Next time, make a reservation 48 hours in advance, okay?”
“Haha, got it. I didn’t think much of it, but when I came out in the morning, these three were at our house… without having eaten. Even uninvited guests are still guests, so I had to feed them something.”
“I see. Then why did you call me?”
Hyunsoo scratched his head awkwardly.
“Well, since my friends were here, I thought it would be nice to have a meal together. You’re the only friends I know.”
“…”
Jesse finally remembered.
Just last year, Hyunsoo was a ghost student with no presence. His profile even mentioned that he had trouble adapting to school due to a lack of friends.
“But now, he’s doing so well. Who would believe it? That he changed so much just over the summer break.”
As Jesse nodded silently, she whispered in Hyunsoo’s ear.
“I’m really disappointed that you treat these kids as if they’re on the same level as a super mentor like me, but Diante is a bit much, don’t you think? Are you really treating an enemy like a friend?”
“Hmm.”
Hyunsoo glanced at Diante briefly. Though he seemed uninterested in their conversation, he was clearly eavesdropping.
“Hehe, that’s a secret. We have our privacy too, super mentor.”
Then Hyunsoo asked everyone with a curious look.
“Speaking of privacy… how did you all even find my address? None of you asked me, yet you found it easily?”
“…”
Instead of answering immediately, Diante looked at Charles, Charles looked at Angela, and Angela looked at Jesse.
No, just as Angela was about to look at her, Jesse hurriedly pushed Hyunsoo into the kitchen.
“So, is today’s brunch prepared by you? You don’t happen to be good at cooking too, do you? Should I help? What should I start with?”
Hyunsoo’s first-ever dish was a huge success.
The menu was spicy braised pork ribs. He had been soaking the blood out of the meat to have it for lunch with his parents, but unexpected guests turned it into a shared meal.
“Cooking is so much fun!”
Thanks to the development of MiTube, cooking wasn’t that difficult. As he got used to his increasingly perfect body, he could easily follow along after watching something once.
Even his clumsy knife skills had become so adept that he could chop onions and various vegetables in no time. On MiTube, they even showed how to handle different cuts of meat, which sparked a slight interest in butchery.
“Is this a side effect of not being able to do anything in the past? I want to try everything.”
Hyunsoo shook his head to clear his thoughts and focused on cooking.
“They probably can’t handle spicy food…”
He drastically reduced the amount of gochujang and gochugaru, substituting mostly with soy sauce and sugar. He adjusted the changed ratio of ingredients with his sensitive taste buds.
The perfect blend of sweet and salty, with a slight spiciness to stimulate the taste buds.
“Wow, this is crazy. Is this Korean food? I’ll have to eat this often from now on.”
Angela even set up a camera to record herself eating. She confessed that since becoming a MiTuber, she had developed a habit of recording any scenes she wanted to remember.
“Well, it’s not bad. Worth giving up a weekend morning.”
Jesse elegantly moved some ribs onto her plate and began cutting them with a knife.
Meanwhile, Charles and Diante…
“Chomp chomp chomp”
Even though it was hot and spicy, they kept blowing on it and eating the meat nonstop. They were masters, shoving several pieces into their mouths and spitting out only the bones.
“Hey, eat slowly. You’re not the only ones eating!”
Seeing the two start eating with both hands, Jesse scolded them.
“What, it’s already almost gone???”
But as the guys kept inhaling the meat without stopping, both Jesse and Angela felt a sense of urgency and abandoned their forks and knives.
“Food should be eaten competitively.”
They put on the plastic gloves Hyunsoo gave them with a determined look and started to match the pace of the guys.
“Oh right, I forgot to put cheese on top. Wait a moment.”
When they took a bite of the ribs with melted cheese…
They all looked at Hyunsoo with a look of resentment.
“Why did you bring out the cheese only now?!”
Hyunsoo just smiled contentedly. He realized that the real joy of cooking came not from the process of making it, but from watching people enjoy the food.
“No wonder mom says she’s happy just watching me and dad eat.”
The food was gone in no time. The girls seemed somewhat full, but the guys even needed fried rice afterward.
“That was delicious!”
“You could open a restaurant. I’ll be your number one regular.”
“This is amazing. When are you going to film a cooking show? I think it would get a lot of views.”
Hyunsoo felt a bit wronged after thinking for a moment.
“But you didn’t even ask me to taste it?”
“…”
Everyone awkwardly avoided his gaze.
Jesse, at least, pulled out some tickets from her handbag.
“I do have some decency. You know our school’s football season opener is this Saturday, right? These are the best seats, so you can come with your family or these guys.”
The rest were much more excited than Hyunsoo.
“Wow, as expected of the quarterback twins’ connections. These seats are hard to get.”
“Isn’t it because she’s the student council president?”
“Well, anyway. Power is sweet. You can do whatever you want.”
“…Give them back. How dare you insult me to my face even when I’m being kind?”
The kids started bickering again.
“Ah, youth is wonderful.”
Hyunsoo, who had his food taken and tickets snatched, looked at the scenery outside with an empty feeling.
With the high school basketball league’s opening two months away, the basketball team started full-scale training, and Hyunsoo was exempted from joint PE classes.
Music class with Jesse would start in the second quarter of the first semester, so there was still some time.
The only class Hyunsoo consistently attended was Pete’s fashion class, held once a week.
“Son, are you ready?”
“Yes, let’s go!”
Today was already the third class.
Last week, they, along with Lugerfield, examined every luxury handbag released this year to discuss what the trends were and how each brand’s identity influenced those trends.
“Hi! I saved you a seat. Hello, Mrs.!”
When they arrived at the workshop, Adriana was already there as usual.
She hugged both him and his mom, lightly kissing their cheeks.
She was wearing a black mini dress that showed off her figure, but she looked sophisticated rather than revealing.
“The dress is very pretty… but isn’t it uncomfortable for class?”
“Why do you say that? Adriana looks lovely. She’s young, so she can wear that. I can’t even if I want to.”
Hyunsoo had to agree with his mom.
“That’s true.”
“Son?”
“Oh! No, mother. Shh! If you say you’re old, people will scold you. Honestly, that dress would look even better on you. Adriana, take off the dress for a moment.”
“That’s enough. I’ll be watching, so do well.”
“Yes!”
Hyunsoo felt a sense of incongruity and turned his head to the left.
“What are you doing?!”
In the already crowded workshop, Adriana was unzipping her mini dress, and Hyunsoo quickly zipped it back up, startled.
“Adriana. It was a joke. People will think I’m abusing you… You try to do everything you’re told.”
“Ah, well. Models often have to change clothes anywhere, so I do it without thinking… Haha. Occupational hazard, right? If you tell me to take it off, I take it off. If you tell me to put it on, I put it on.”
“…”
Hyunsoo just waited for the class to start quickly.
“Finally, he’s here.”
Right on time, Lugerfield walked in.
“The weather is nice these days, isn’t it? It’s already autumn.”
He started the class gently, talking about the weather and asking about the students’ recent activities.
“As you know, our special class lasts only six weeks. We’re already halfway through. Time flies, doesn’t it?”
Having a big name like Lugerfield dedicate an entire semester was nearly impossible. Hence, the first-quarter class of the semester was scheduled.
“In the first week, we looked back at the past through my designs. Last week, we examined the present through handbags released in 2020. So, what will we do for the remaining four weeks?”
Someone raised their hand.
“Then we will design and create a handbag suitable for the future, I think.”
Lugerfield smiled pleasantly.
“Wrong. I’m sorry. I deliberately led you into a trap. Frankly, even I don’t know the future. Fashion is unpredictable until the moment it arrives. Instead, let’s focus on the present, right now.”
“…?”
“In the next four weeks, we will design, create, and sell a handbag. I know it’s a tight schedule. But don’t worry too much. We only need to make one.”
Still, there was a commotion among the students. Designing a new handbag itself was a grueling creative task, let alone making it.
Lugerfield seemed to have anticipated this reaction and continued with a very pleased look.
“The goal I demand from you is just one: to release ‘the most valuable handbag.’”
“Teacher, do we really have to sell it?”
He answered very firmly.
“Yes. I took your participation in this class as a sign that you aspire to be a designer like me. Are we making handbags just for self-satisfaction? No. We create the best pieces to gain recognition for their value from others. No matter how excellent an artwork is, if it doesn’t sell, does it have value?”
“…”
A moment of silence ensued. Everyone seemed deep in thought.
“Show me. What each of you considers valuable. It could be money, or it could be artistry. Just remember that it must be conveyed to others, and approach this assignment with that in mind.”
His words carried weight. The value defined by each individual. Hyunsoo felt this was the teaching Lugerfield most wanted to impart to his future designer protégés.
Lugerfield then ignited a fire in everyone’s hearts.
“It wouldn’t be fun if we just did it, right? Let’s have a small competition.”
“…?”
“If your definition of ‘the most valuable handbag’ impresses me, I will buy the design and pay royalties, and it will be released worldwide as a model under my brand RR.”
“…!”
The impact was enormous. More than any previous words, the promise that their design could be released under RR exploded the students’ enthusiasm.
“Hmm.”
While the assignment itself was fascinating, Hyunsoo wasn’t particularly interested in the competition.
He had already turned down a collaboration with Coco, so he didn’t feel the need to release his design under RR…
“Oh? My handbag could be released under Lugerfield’s brand?”
Seeing his mother flutter like a young girl gave Hyunsoo a brilliant idea.
“Perhaps…”
