Nara means country in Korea so the site can also be called “Potions Country.”
? Hmm, if we use that site, anonymous transactions will be tricky. We’d have to entrust all our information to PotionNara, and we can’t exactly trust them… Plus, they have a transaction limit of 1 billion won, and the commission fees are steep.” “Then that won’t work.”
I rested my chin on my hand, tapping the desk lightly. Nothing particularly brilliant was coming to mind. As my thoughts dragged on, Yeon Seung-yeon, who had been growing more anxious, finally spoke cautiously.
“Um, Ho-hyun nim. Now that I think about it, Team Leader Han Seo-hyun had one more proposal.”
“I told you, reject anything related to sponsorship.”
“No, it’s not that… She asked if you’d consider working with her on selling the recipe. She sent over a proposal last time…”
I took the proposal Yeon Seung-yeon handed over. It laid out how they would handle the rewards and recipe sales on my behalf, guaranteeing my anonymity, but in return, they’d have control over the order and timing of the sales. It was all wrapped in polite and formal language, but to put it bluntly, they wanted to leverage the Guiding Potion for diplomatic purposes—at a price.
I knew very well that what was unnecessary for me would be useful for them. I had already been considering recommending certain countries for pre-sales as a way of helping out, and now they had conveniently made the first move. Perfect.
“This is exactly what I needed! Why didn’t you give this to me sooner?”
“…I’m sorry.”
For a brief moment, I wondered why Seung-yeon had waited until now to bring this up, but the thought quickly passed.
“I’ll read this over again and contact them tomorrow. You’ve worked hard, Seung-yeon ah.”
Seung-yeon shyly nodded.
***
[“My ideal type? Haha, that’s embarrassing… but it’s Kang Eui-jin.”]
[“The hottest topic right now is the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors, centered around Kang Eui-jin and Novarion. Let’s go over last week’s developments.”]
[“Kang Eui-jin still hasn’t commented on the Guiding Potion, but at this point, everyone knows who made it. The global Esper quest, his spectacular comeback—it’s so predictable it would flop as a movie.”]
No matter which channel I flipped to, it was all about Kang Eui-jin. Getting so annoyed, I turned the TV off, which prompted a chorus of complaints from the group huddled together on the sofa.
“Aww…!”
“We were watching that!”
“There’s nothing interesting about it.”
“Boss, you’re just jealous of Kang Eui-jin, aren’t you?!”
Baek Da-hye pouted her lips and shouted. I pretended to flick her forehead in the air, then turned the TV back on and asked.
“Who, me? Jealous of that guy? Hey, kid, who’s better-looking, that guy or me?”
“Well, obviously Kang Eui-jin is way more—”
As soon as the screen brightened, Kang Eui-jin’s face appeared large on the TV. Baek Da-hye, glancing between me and the screen, clamped her mouth shut, unable to finish her sentence. Seeing her silently admit defeat, I laughed triumphantly. Just then, the doorbell rang, and Jin-myeong walked into the shop, making me get up curiously.
“Hey, boss.”
“What are you doing here? Today’s not delivery day.”
“Huh? Oh, um, well, I was just passing by…”
“Oh, Jin-myeong ah, you’re here?”
“H-Hello, noona…”
As Baek Da-in greeted him, Kim Jin-myung’s face turned as red as a tomato. Narrowing my eyes, I looked between the two of them. Baek Da-in sat back down, focusing on a new ingredient catalog with Yeon Seung-yeon, while Jin-myeong, clearly flustered, awkwardly shuffled closer to them. Amusement curled my lips into a grin.
‘Wait a minute… could it be…? This punk, Jin-myeong…’
As he sat down, Jin-myeong glanced at the still-running TV, then sheepishly spoke up.
“Oh, were you watching Kang Eui-jin?”
“I wasn’t watching it. I’m turning it off.”
I grumbled, but with everyone in the lobby clearly interested in the show, I couldn’t bring myself to switch it off. Instead, I changed the channel to something unrelated to Kang Eui-jin. As I looked at the group lounging on the sofa, engrossed in the TV, I couldn’t help but sigh at the absurdity of it all.
‘What a sight. What a sight to behold.’
The Baek sisters, Jin-myeong, Yeon Seung-yeon, Zero, and Lim Cheong were all here, while outside, Su-cheol was busy watering the lettuce. The sofa was packed, with not a single seat left open, yet there wasn’t a single customer among them. Not to mention, ever since the shop had opened, no proper customer had ever walked through those doors.
‘What even is the problem? My workshop is perfect!’
I let out a long, heavy sigh, silently promising that, when my first customer finally arrived, no matter what kind of potion they wanted, I would make it for them.
As if to rub salt in the wound, the TV was now showing footage from the first time “Fake Eui-jin” revealed his true identity. Watching him, I turned to Seung-yeon and asked a sudden question.
“Seung-yeon ah. What would you do if someone took something precious from you? How would you get revenge?”
“Something precious to me…?”
Seung-yeon’s eyes went wide as he looked at me. He blinked a few times, staring in confusion. I nudged my chin, signaling him to go on, and he stammered out his response.
“Well, I guess if it’s something precious to me… I’d probably do my best to make sure it doesn’t get taken in the first place…”
“What if it’s already been taken?”
“Then… I don’t know if I could really take revenge… I’m sorry.”
Of course, asking a squirrel like him—someone so kind that he’d probably get everything taken from him in the first place—was my mistake. With everyone’s eyes now on me, I decided to ask the rest of the group.
“What about the rest of you? What would you do if someone took something precious from you and was living their life happily? But, at the moment, you can’t do anything directly.”
“If I couldn’t act right away, I’d just focus on recreating what was taken from me. This time, I’d make sure it was stronger and more resilient.”
“Are you an idiot? In that situation, you smash their head in!”
“Da-hye! Sorry about that. Well… it’s hard to say since it’s not my situation, but I think, for your own sake, forgiveness is the best form of revenge.”
I was most satisfied with Baek Da-hye’s answer so far.
This kid… could she secretly be a genius?
As the conversation went around the room, Zero’s turn came up, and he pushed his glasses up with a sly grin.
“I know a good hitman if you’re interested. Want an introduction?”
“…There’s a child listening.”
“I’ll give you a discount, boss.”
I couldn’t help but think that Zero himself might be the hitman he was referring to, but maybe that was just my imagination.
Regardless of the methods suggested, none of them sat well with me. After all, it was me that Kang Eui-jin was impersonating, and that made it all the more difficult to approach the situation casually. His stolen name carried enough weight to make any direct retaliation a tricky affair.
None of the answers so far felt like the perfect solution. Everyone’s eyes turned to Lim Cheong, the last to speak.
“What about you, Lim Cheong?”
Lim Cheong’s cold gaze locked onto me. Her stern expression made me feel a brief flicker of hope—maybe she would have the answer I was looking for. Slowly, she opened her mouth to speak.
“I wouldn’t be weak enough to let something be taken from me in the first place.”
“…Yeah. Great. You’re amazing. I’m so jealous.”
My expectations collapsed, and I slumped down onto the desk in disbelief. No one was any help. Not a single one of them…
If I went after Kang Eui-jin as myself, Tae Jae-heon would be on me. If I went as Joo Ho-hyun, then I’d have the crazies from Hamal and the Center chasing me.
‘Damn it. Give me back my name…’
Just as I was sinking into my own misery, the doorbell rang, signaling that someone had entered. Who could it be this time? Some other idle passerby? I glanced lazily toward the entrance, but then I saw a man limping across the garden, someone I had never seen before.
The moment I laid eyes on him, I shot up from my seat.
“A customer!”
Flo here!
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