Chapter 16: Braised Short Ribs and Lingering Attachments

“Right. He kept wanting to eat something. And do you remember how food came up in his living memories?”

“Braised short ribs?”

“Ah… the braised short ribs his mother made.”

“Is he still craving that? Licking his lips and wandering around?”

It wasn’t that the guy was wandering around licking his lips because he specifically wanted braised short ribs. No, he was just hungry—always hungry, no matter how much he ate.

Still, considering that the braised short ribs were a quest item, it seemed he had at least a shred of lingering attachment—regret, guilt, or something—toward his mother.

But if I started explaining that the ghost was a Preta, with such-and-such traits, and that it was stuff about sins committed in life and so on, I’d likely get suspicious looks.

People would say, “Do you really have supernatural powers?” or worse, “Aren’t you a shaman’s son?” That’s the number one thing I hate hearing. Number two is “Can you see ghosts? Do you have powers? Ever caught one?”

Catch a ghost, my ass. I’m not a Marine.

I remember back in middle school, a kid from my class—we’d never exchanged a single word—suddenly approached me hesitantly and asked that.

I was so flustered I just denied it. Maybe because it was so absurd, the memory stuck with me.

Normal people probably think all ghosts are just ghosts, unless you’re talking about the kind of yokai that appear in folktales.

If I said ghosts have types and traits, every single one of them would ask if I could distinguish them with supernatural powers.

So I didn’t want to step up and explain about Pretas. Fortunately, once I gave them a tiny hint, the kids figured it out themselves, reasoning step by step.

“You mean he still craves the food his mother made?”

“Maybe seeing his mother cry at the end left an impression on him…”

“Whatever the reason, the fact that it specifically showed up in his memory must mean something.”

I chimed in at the right moment to steer the conversation, and soon the topic settled on “Where do we get braised short ribs now?”

‘Just open the school meal app.’

I wanted them to remember that today’s dinner menu was braised short ribs. But these guys had been at school all evening and hadn’t eaten dinner, so they couldn’t figure it out.

Finally, Kim Ji-ho suggested making a fake version from the store’s three-minute meatballs and soy sauce.

Would you want to eat that crap? If we threw that at the Preta, we’d be lucky if it didn’t tear off our arms.

I had no choice. I scratched my head and reluctantly opened my mouth.

“Come to think of it, wasn’t today’s dinner menu braised short ribs?”

“Was it? We didn’t order dinner; we all just ate from the store.”

“But Jae-yoon, you don’t eat dinner either, right? And didn’t you go home early and come back?”

Seo Yi-han started digging into another weird corner. This was related to the story, wasn’t it? Why was he doing this again? I got nervous, afraid he’d act like when the “Lee Ji-hoon” topic came up.

Seo Yi-han’s eyes were gently curved, but it was the same look he had when he questioned me about Ji-hoon earlier. It was practically his default expression when looking at me. Then when I said “I’m tired,” he went blank.

It was the first time I felt scared seeing someone’s angry face. Moreover, since he usually acted as affectionate as a pet dog, it was… complicated. I never wanted to see him like that again.

“…I highlight every menu item that looks good. Even for dinner…”

“That’s surprising. You don’t seem like a foodie.”

Yoon Soo-ah giggled at my desperate excuse. Han Bo-bae and Kim Ji-ho also had faint smiles. Damn… Trying to avoid Seo Yi-han, I ended up ruining my image.

I swallowed a curse and glanced sideways at the person who made me seem like a glutton. Of course, Seo Yi-han hadn’t pushed me into it, but if it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t have had to make such excuses. So I felt a bit resentful.

But the person in question just smiled brightly and said,

“Did the braised short ribs look good? You should have told me earlier. Let’s go home and ask the housekeeper to make them. What other menus did you highlight? Oh, just show me later. I’ll pass them on to the housekeeper.”

He chattered on so casually.

In the end, I secretly opened the meal app behind Seo Yi-han’s back and highlighted every meat dish and dessert. For the record, the app was installed on my phone as if it had always been there.

Monday: lunch was sweet and sour shrimp, dinner was chocolate cake and sirloin tonkatsu. Tuesday: lunch was samgyetang, dinner was bossam set meal. Wednesday: special day—meat spaghetti and homemade yogurt…

It was a rich kids’ school, so every meal was lavish. Naturally, my meal plan got covered in yellow highlights.

If I showed this to Seo Yi-han, would he have everything made at home? Probably. The fact that he specifically mentioned the housekeeper suggested that was his intention. Though I’d never actually eat those menus at his house.

I was now twenty, doing something I’d never even done in high school. It gave me a bit of a reality check, but it was my own fault.

***

We put on the waterproof sheets again and headed to the new building this time. From the assembly area, the new building was much closer than the old one, so we didn’t get much rain and arrived quickly.

But no one dared to grab the doorknob first; they just shuffled their feet. Understandable—they had to step back into a place where they’d seen a procession of ghosts and been chased by a man with a dropped jaw.

I didn’t know how much time had passed, but it wasn’t enough to forget that memory.

“Isn’t that man ghost going to be right there when we open the door?”

“Don’t jinx it…”

Yoon Soo-ah shuddered at Kim Ji-ho’s unlucky remark. I pushed them aside from the door and placed my hand on the handle.

Anyway, the Preta was wandering near the second-year classrooms. So, contrary to Kim Ji-ho’s fears, it wouldn’t pop out like a jack-in-the-box.

There were more minor ghosts here than in the old building, and some were nastier…

In the original game, the old building had more evil ghosts than the new one, but strangely, now the new building seemed to have more. Still, clearing the Preta would solve that to some extent.

As a reward for clearing the first boss, the area around the new building’s auditorium and the store would be set as zones where minor ghosts couldn’t enter.

That meant I had to take out the Preta to eat at the store and rest comfortably in the auditorium. Desperate for food and rest, I focused on that one point and steeled myself.

“You all remember the precautions I mentioned, right? Follow them more strictly here. And Seo Yi-han, how much battery do you have left?”

“About 30% now.”

“I’ll hold it. We need to turn off the screen if anything happens.”

Seo Yi-han obediently handed me his phone. I took it and emphasized again.

“As soon as we enter the building, go to the cafeteria, take only the braised short ribs, and head straight to the second-year classroom. And when you see Lee Ji-hoon,”

“Throw the short ribs at him and say something touching so he can let go of his worldly attachments and ascend, right?”

The intensive cram session at the assembly area had paid off. The kids recited my words without missing a syllable.

But their expressions clearly showed they were wondering, “Would something like ‘touching words’ actually work?”

Honestly, I wasn’t confident about that part either. In the original game, you first found and handed over the thing they cherished most or were most attached to, reducing hostility, then chose dialogue options…

If the system showed me choices right in front of me like a pop-up, I could clear it in under five minutes. But I had zero expectations that this system would consider my convenience.

And the system didn’t disappoint my expectations.

[Choices will not be displayed separately!]

I wasn’t expecting it anyway, so you didn’t have to show up. It just pisses me off. But the system was having fun teasing me.

[Don’t hope for luck.]

Bastard. That sentence made me suspect there was some old geezer inside the system. I hadn’t even hoped for anything, and now I was being treated like a sneaky guy looking for an easy way out.

And what harm would it do to show me the original choices? You’re showing me all these letters so easily; making choices should be no trouble.

‘If you wander around like this, your mother would be sad. You caused her enough grief while alive; are you going to cause her more even after death? Eat these braised short ribs that still have your mother’s touch and ascend already…’

I grumbled and sorted through the choice sentences I remembered. Honestly, half of them sounded like picking a fight and the other half were embarrassingly childish persuasion… but those were the correct choices.

Even as I recalled being baffled back then—talking about a mother’s touch using cafeteria short ribs—I forced myself to ignore it. Now the bigger problem was having to say those words out loud.

Maybe I should just accompany the kids to the cafeteria and do the rest alone? I didn’t have the courage to spout those cringey lines in front of everyone.

Especially the part about the mother’s touch; I worried Yoon Soo-ah would burst out laughing.

But,

“Jae-yoon, let’s go in first.”

I glanced at Seo Yi-han standing beside me without much fear.

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