I was Thrown into an Unfamiliar Manga

Fortunately, Minami didn’t refuse my request.
Apparently, she had been out in Shibuya for some personal shopping.
She agreed to take the subway from Shibuya straight to Akihabara.

And about thirty minutes later, she arrived at the all-you-can-eat barbecue place, spotted me sitting alone at a table in the corner, and her eyes widened in surprise.
“…Is that really Kim Yu-seong?”
“That’s right.”

When I nodded, Minami, still looking bewildered, sat down across from me.
“It’s only been about a week since I last saw you. What the hell happened to you in that time?”
“It’s a long story. Let’s order the meat first, and then I’ll explain.”

After sitting there for thirty minutes just smelling grilled meat, I was starving to death.
I flagged down a passing staff member and ordered the most expensive set on the menu.
For only 4,380 yen, you could eat all 120 items, so it was reasonably priced.
“Have you had lunch yet?”

“Not yet. Actually, I came here partly because I wanted to eat too.”
Saying that, Minami took off the cardigan she was wearing and stuffed it into the empty space of her chair.
Soon, the ordered meat started arriving in droves, and I grabbed the tongs, ready to show off my skills.

But then Minami suddenly spoke up.
“Wait, give me the tongs.”
“Why?”

“You holding the tongs makes it feel like I’m bossing around a little kid.”
“Don’t worry about what other people think. We’re sitting in a corner; nobody can see us well anyway. Besides, I’m the son of a barbecue restaurant. Can you grill meat better than me?”
“…No.”

“Then just sit quietly and eat.”
When I said that and insisted, Minami gave up on trying to grill.
Having secured control over the grill, I started grilling the meat with a craftsman’s dedication.

***
“It’s delicious!”
At first, she clearly didn’t like the idea of me grilling, but after the first bite, her attitude changed.

Watching her devour the meat without a care for appearances, I smiled in satisfaction as I kept grilling. Then, looking apologetic, Minami asked:
“Kim Yu-seong, aren’t you going to eat?”
“Of course I will. Just let me finish this batch first.”
I replied, placing a freshly grilled skirt steak onto her plate.

Minami hesitated with her chopsticks for a moment before putting it in her mouth.
She seemed guilty, but it was clear she couldn’t stop because the meat was too good.
“So, when are you going to tell me that story you promised?”

“Ah, right.”
I had been so focused on grilling that I almost forgot.
I popped a freshly grilled sirloin into my mouth and began explaining what had happened.

I’d repeated the same explanation to every person I’d met since Fuma-senpai’s hometown, so at this point, I could probably recite it in my sleep.
When I finished, Minami gave me a dumbfounded look.
“That’s something out of a manga. You’re saying that’s actually possible in real life?”

A perfectly reasonable reaction.
And exactly the reaction I wanted.
“Honestly, it’s ridiculous. My body getting younger because of the drug’s side effects? It makes no sense.”

But what could I say when the result was right in front of us?
“Anyway, for the next three days, I’m going to focus on eating nourishing food.”
“So that’s why you suddenly wanted to eat beef.”

“Right. Protein is important.”
I nodded and started grilling garlic and kimchi on the grill.
Minami looked shocked.

“You grill kimchi?!”
“All Koreans eat it like this.”
Since Japanese people usually eat kimchi raw, it must’ve been a cultural shock.
Replying calmly, I pressed the call button and ordered more.

Minami looked like she was starting to get full, so now it was finally my turn to eat properly.
I put three different cuts of beef on the grill all at once.
And as soon as they were cooked, I devoured them.

Unlike pork, which takes longer to cook, beef only needed to lose its redness before it was ready, making it easy to eat in large quantities.
Minami watched me shovel meat into my mouth at an alarming pace, looking horrified.
We weren’t even halfway through, and she was already like this—what a problem.

Even though my body had gotten smaller, my appetite hadn’t changed, so I kept eating nonstop.
It literally felt like the meat was turning directly into bones and flesh.
By the time I’d eaten roughly two kilograms of beef all by myself, I left the restaurant under the owner’s glare.

‘I really milked them for everything.’
It must have been a disaster for the restaurant.
***

“How did you even manage to eat all that?”
Minami, standing beside me as I rubbed my bulging stomach, asked in awe.
“I just kept putting it in, and it kept going in.”

“……”
Her face twisted as if she couldn’t believe it.
But what else could I say? It was true.

Standing side by side at the crosswalk in front of the subway station, I asked Minami:
“So, what are you planning to do now?”
“I finished shopping, and I ate, so I’m going home.”

Expected, but still pretty cold.
Even though we’d been in the student council together for a while, we didn’t actually know much about each other.
That was because our only connection had been through the president.

This was the first time we’d been alone together like this since joining the student council.
Usually, the president or vice president would always be there between us.
It was… a hard relationship to describe.

After hesitating, I spoke up first.
“Since we’re already here, want to hang out a bit before going back?”
“What?”

“I just thought, you know, we’re in the same student council, maybe we should get closer. We’re the same age, after all.”
“……”
Minami didn’t answer immediately.

She seemed to be debating it internally.
Well, I’d be caught off guard too if someone I wasn’t close to suddenly asked to hang out.
And she was pretty blunt by nature, this girl.

Finally, Minami spoke.
“Alright. So what are we going to do?”
“…Huh?”

“Why are you looking so surprised?”
“No, I just thought you’d refuse for sure.”
“…Want me to go home then?”

“No, no, wait!”
I instinctively grabbed Minami’s hand as she moved to cross the street when the light turned green.
It had been a reflex, but with my current body, I shouldn’t have been able to stop her.

But surprisingly, she stopped.
“…What kind of strength is that…”
Only then did I realize.

Just eating beef had restored a significant amount of my depleted yang energy.
***
Minami and I went to a nearby arcade.

Maybe because of the vice president’s hardcore gamer influence, Minami turned out to like games quite a bit.
We spent time at the SEGA arcade in Akihabara, playing various games.
We started with UFO catchers, then played Puyo Puyo, Tetris, Whack-a-Mole, and other arcade games.

Minami turned out to be a hidden Tetris master, constantly ranking first in online matches.
It felt like I’d discovered a whole new side of her.
After playing to our hearts’ content, we ended up taking sticker photos.

If I had been alone, I never would’ve done it, but Minami insisted strongly, so I had no choice.
[Cheese!]
Click!

With the machine’s recorded voice, the photos were printed immediately.
The special-effects-covered photo showed me with a stiff expression and Minami with her usual deadpan face.
Anyone could tell it looked like two people who weren’t close being forced to take a picture together.

But surprisingly, Minami seemed to like the sticker photo. She tore it in half and tucked her half into her wallet.
“Here. The rest.”
She handed me the other half.

It seemed like I could do whatever I wanted with it.
I slipped the sticker photo into my pocket and asked:
“So, what now? Should we call it a day?”

Minami stared at me for a moment, then turned her head and said:
“I’ll hang out with you a little longer. I don’t have anything to do at home anyway.”
“Well, that’s great for me. I still need to have dinner like this.”

As {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} we left the arcade, discussing what to eat for dinner, Minami let out a small “Ah.”
“There’s an eel restaurant the President goes to often. Want to go there?”
“Eel? Isn’t that expensive?”

If it was good enough for the president’s tastes, it had to be a high-end place.
Seeing me hesitate, Minami casually said:
“If it’s about money, don’t worry. You treated me to meat earlier, so I’ll pay this time.”

“What? You don’t have to do that.”
When I tried to refuse, waving my hands, Minami pulled something out of her wallet.
A credit card.

“Believe it or not, I’m a working woman with a salary.”
Ah! So cool!
For a moment, it felt like there was a halo shining behind her.

***
The place Minami took me to for dinner was a high-class eel restaurant in Shinjuku.
There wasn’t a trace of a casual vibe anywhere.

It was obviously ridiculously expensive.
As soon as we sat down, a server dressed neatly in a kimono handed us two menus.
When I opened it, the familiar dish names were all there, but the prices had an extra zero at the end.

…Better not even dream about ordering extra.
I ordered an eel rice bowl, quietly closed the menu, and pushed it to the side of the table.