Although there was no urgency in doing so, as Haein would appear at the ramen restaurant at the same time anyway, I felt like I had to go see this girl again to make any sense of what had happened after our first encounter.
I thought it would be pretty weird for me to turn up wearing the T-shirts that I got from her as it was supposed to be her couple look with her boyfriend, so I got changed into what I normally wore and made my way.
I knew exactly what time I had to be there and where I was supposed to sit. I didn't want to introduce any new variable so I ordered the same meal I ordered the last time and made sure that I followed all the routines exactly as they were.
Just like clockwork, Haein came and sat next to me as expected, ate her ramen while reading my novel, went Mm, hmm, mm-hm, and ah~ as she was doing so, and left one-star review.
Man… do I really have to do this again?
"YOU! YOU… You cruel, cruel, heartless bitch!"
I jumped up from my seat and shouted at her.
Haein was startled and her round eyes became even bigger, with her mouth open in shock at this unprovoked verbal assault from a scruffy-looking girl that was me.
Then to my excruciating surprise, her eyes started to swell up with tears before I could even say my line about the one-star review.
What the hell?!!
"What… what did I do…?"
The shocked girl stuttered as tears started to roll down her face.
How is this even possible?
All eyes were on me in the packed restaurant. Some looked with amusement, some with annoyance, and some with disgust.
"I-, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to", I apologized in panic.
"Miss, please don't cause a scene"
The chef working behind the counter interrupted.
"This wasn't how it was supposed to go! I'm sorry"
I bowed my head as deep as I could, bending forward by more than 90 degrees to the poor girl.
But she was too shell-shocked to respond to this crazy girl that I was, almost shivering while wiping her tears.
"It's not what you think… I just…", I tried to explain.
Haein looked into my eyes expectantly, still shocked but there was curiosity behind her eyes now waiting to hear what I was about to say.
"It's all because you left me a one-star review!"
Kek. I fucked that up.
"I'm sorry… I will never do it again…"
She was surprisingly quick to catch on and got up from her seat to apologize just the way I did a moment ago.
"Ye-, yes. You better apologize"
The conversation wasn't going the way I intended, but it was going somewhere.
"I.. never expected I'd be sitting next to a Webnovel author"
"Er… I guess nobody could have expected that…", now I was getting increasingly more unsure of how to handle this apologetic girl.
"I will make it up to you. I'm so sorry…"
"It.. it's alright"
"No, please. Allow me to"
Then she quickly grabbed her phone again and tapped on it furiously with her still-shaking fingers.
What is she doing?
"Please check your Webnovel app"
Confused, I pulled out my own phone and opened the app.
Haeya has rewarded The World Will End and I Will Stop It!!! a Magic castle worth 5000 coins!
Are you frigging serious?!
"Would this… be enough?"
The sheepish girl asked me nervously.
"Hell, yeah! This is what I'm talking about!"
I jumped and fist-pumped in the air, but by the time my feet touched the ground again, I was already aware of how stupid I was.
"Ahem, ahem… it's not like I was expecting anything like this… but thank you. Like really. This is the first gift I've ever received"
"I'm glad it makes you feel better"
I just responded with a smile, stopping myself from spouting any more silliness out of my cursed mouth.
"So… can I go now?"
Haein asked me after letting me enjoy a few seconds of smugness.
"Yes, yes. You can go now"
With that, the now relieved girl politely bowed and left the restaurant, and it was only after some time she left the premises that I got yanked down from my cloud nine.
FACK. What am I doing?!
I quickly paid for my ramen and ran out of the shop, desperately trying to look for any sign of the girl that justdisappeared. Luckily, I spotted her about 100m away from me. She was just about to get on an escalator going downward.
"Hey!"
I shouted out at her but she did not look my way. The Yongsan Shopping Mall, situated in the central area of Seoul, is usually a very busy place and today was no exception.
Sprinting toward the escalator, I kept calling out to her but it was no use.
When I got to the top of the downward escalator, I put my hands around my mouth and yelled out.
"Haein! STOP!"
That finally alerted her and she turned around, but seeing that it was this mad weirdo who was now chasing after her and even knew her name, she panicked and started to dash away toward the exit.
I ran down the escalator saying a lot of 'excuse me's. Fortunately for me, it seemed she was terribly unathletic and couldn't run very fast - even worse than me.
I almost caught up with her when she just about managed to to escape me through the exit, but when I came out, I saw the massive Hell Beast standing in the plaza in front of the shopping mall staring down directly at Haein.
"NOOOOOO!"
It was all too late as the poor girl rooted to the spot got swiftly picked up by the monster and got her head bitten off.
"FUCK YOU!!!"
I shouted at the Beast in a rage that I had never felt before, but…
Did it just grin…?
Before I could think any further though, it lifted its heavy foot and stomped on me hard.
This time, I could feel every bone in my body get crushed and all my organs splatter and flatten.
FUCK. THIS HURTS.
I woke up back in my bed screaming in pain. I checked the time again and it was 12:04.
Where did it all go wrong?
I browsed through Neyver again and everything was identical. I even managed to get my prawn curry-flavor potato chips one more time too.
However, I did not dare to venture out of my room this time.
If I didn't go to find this girl again, maybe everything would go back to how they were. I don't know how long I'd be stuck in this cycle, but was it worth experimenting just to see her die a horrible death again? And not only her - I would die a fucking horrible death too if twice it happened could be considered as a pattern.
As I confined myself to the comfort of my bed for about an hour with my mind full of doubt and confusion, I got a notification on my phone - it was Webnovel app.
Haeya has rewarded The World Will End and I Will Stop It!!! a Magic castle worth 5000 coins!
What…?
I quickly went to my novel page to check if the review was any different, but it was the same one-star review from 'Haeya', except that for the first time, the review was written differently.
"Lol, this author is so bad I gifted her a magic castle out of pity. Go buy a rope and hang yourself ^^"
Fuck you.