“Piiit!”
phisto cried out from atop Guru’s head.
But Guru was too busy handing over her vienna sausages to Woojoo to notice.
phisto flapped his wings, stomped his feet, even tried stretching his feathers wide to get her attention—but Guru stayed laser-focused on her conversation with Woojoo.
He folded his wings back and glanced down at his feathers.
He mid picking up chopsticks with his wing like a human hand, but it still wasn’t working right.
Letting out a tiny, sigh-like whimper, phisto lowered his dusk-colored red-gold eyes.
“Piiiiiii...”
Just then, Veilach poked his head out from the open backpack and let out a yawn.
He gave the sulking phisto a strange look, then ducked back inside.
Soon enough, lunch was almost over.
“Oh, wight!”
Guru smiled and picked up her phone, turning on the cara.
“You’re gonna send that to Zenya, aren’t you?! Don’t you dare!”
But Guru went ahead and snapped a photo of Taemin and Gidan clinging to Serhi’s pants leg, then imdiately sent it to Jin Siwon.
“Ah, ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) fuck! He’s texting already!”
Serhi’s face turned pale as he scrambled to reply to Jin Siwon’s ssage. anwhile, Woojoo and Guru giggled and cleaned up their lunch.
At that mont, Gidan leaned in close to whisper in Taemin’s ear.
“Hey, friend. You should probably take that earring off.”
Then, with a sly grin and a flutter of his hand, he scooped Guru up in his arms.
“Let us handwe da west. Gwuu, go awong wif Woojoo.”
“Wuuung.”
Guru let herself be carried off, eyes fixed on Taemin, who now stared down at the ground.
***
The late afternoon sun shone brightly on the canola garden, casting a fresh light on the sprouting crops.
[Guru & Woojoo]
Guru bead as she checked on her well-growing potatoes beneath the sign.
“Gwuu’s potatoes awe doin’ gweat.”
“Piiit!”
phisto nodded repeatedly.
Looking at her thriving plants, Guru fell into thought.
Fluffy cloud thoughts gathered in her head until she pictured a single potato stem with a whole bunch of potatoes growing off it.
‘So many taters on just one stem.’
What if mana stones grew like potatoes?
She imagined a single stem dangling with mana stones and drooled.
'It’d be amazing.'
Mana stones were super expensive since you had to kill terrifying dungeon monsters to get them.
But what if you could grow mana stones like spuds?
One stem, loads of mana stones! Unbeatable efficiency!
Black Wolf would be shocked by the mana potatoes, and the baby sheep would puff out her chest in pride.
‘Yup. Gwuu still wuvs bein’ pwaised.’
But the important question was...
‘Can Gwuu actuawwy make dat?’
Guru crouched and stared intently at her potato plant.
Then her phone started ringing. It was the school pickup sitter, calling from the parking lot.
“Ah! Gwuu gotta go now!”
She’d only stopped by for a quick check before heading ho—ti to get going.
Bbyong!
Bbyong!
Serhi’s thermoter notification sounds rang out in succession.
‘Oh?!’
Soone, sowhere, was clearly liking Serhi!
Dudududu.
Guru ran around until she spotted a group playing basketball and peeked through the fence.
This was the source of the likability surge!
“Seowhi! Ova hewe!”
Serhi dodged the kid guarding him and swiftly passed the ball.
Taemin caught it and, standing beyond the three-point line, launched the ball.
Thump!
Clunk!
It bounced off the backboard and—swish!—fell straight through the hoop.
“Nice!”
“Wooooah—!”
“Yo, Lee Taemin, you crazy bastard! You actually made that?!”
Cheers and jeers burst from the court.
While everyone was sweating buckets, Taemin walked over laughing and slung his arm around the only dry one—Serhi.
“How the hell are you still so dry?”
“I’m built different.”
“This dude doesn’t even need showers.”
Taemin chuckled, and the rest of the kids began crowding around Serhi.
“What the heck? Serhi’s Korean is hella good.”
“Why didn’t you ever speak Korean before? Were you just shy?”
Serhi shut his eyes tightly at the oncoming chaos.
Sure enough, the group patted him on the back, cheering and supporting him.
Serhi now officially hated kind and nosy people more than anything in the world.
Bbyong! Bbyong! Bbyong!
Even then, his thermoter kept climbing non-stop.
Guru snapped a photo while watching Serhi fu.
Click!
He looked annoyed—but blending in with his mismatched classmates was the first step toward connection.
And it was definitely working.
The likability score was soaring.
‘Gwuu gotta send dis to Hung-sam Uncwe.’
Just then—
Click!
‘Huh?’
Guru had only taken one photo.
Click! Click!
The shutter was going off sowhere nearby!
She scanned the area, eyes darting.
“Piiit!”
phisto fluttered up to her shoulder and pointed with his wing.
Behind a building, Kang Jei was furiously pressing the shutter on a massive cara.
The lens was trained right on Serhi, caught mid-panic while wiping Taemin’s sweat off himself.
“Ah...”
No wonder the likability was going up so fast.
It made sense if soone had been obsessively liking Serhi nonstop.
Apparently, “Not-Subordinate #2” had been cranking up Serhi’s warmth.
'What should Gwuu do...'
Even Guru had heard of this kind of thing on cri shows.
She whispered to phisto.
“phi. Seowhi Oppaw is gettin’ stawked.”
“Pii?”
phisto tilted his head, clearly confused. Guru thought for a mont, then explained.
“Stawkin’ is... wike stawkin’s on yo wegs, but stuck on a pewson instead.”
“Piiit?!”
phisto covered his beak with his wing, shocked.
And even in that mont—
Bbyong!
Bbyong!
As Serhi started taking off his shirt, the likability reaction only intensified.
The stronger the likability, the more Guru felt like Serhi was truly the victim of a cri.
‘But then again...’
She opened her quest window.
Likability = [Filial Piety Points].
On a hunch, she checked the piggy bank—sure enough, a huge chunk of [Filial Piety Points] had accumulated along with the likability.
Guru’s jaw dropped.
[Filial Piety Points: 41,000]
‘Th-That’s insane...’
That was enough to make four more chick drones!
A fleeting thought passed through her mind—“Isn’t this... kinda fine?”
Serhi was S-Rank. No way he hadn’t noticed soone following him around like this.
He was probably just pretending not to see because it was too annoying to deal with.
‘Hmm.’
Guru narrowed her eyes.
‘Not weawwy a bad ting, is it?’
Bbyong!
Kang Jei’s likability ter was going up by the minute.
An irresistible stream of points and likability.
‘Hmm...’
It didn’t seem like it’d hurt Serhi—and it was definitely helping her.
So Guru made up her mind.
She grabbed her trowel and turned her gaze away, pretending not to see.
Ti to go ho. Her sitter was calling nonstop.
She rushed toward the parking lot, not wanting to worry them, when—
Guru suddenly stopped in her tracks.
The face getting out of the van looked very familiar. Guru raised her eyebrows sharply.
‘Bad man!’
Was he here to bother Taemin Oppaw again?
If so...
Guru opened her inventory.
‘Gwuu might gotta show him da taste of da fowk today...!’
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