WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Arsène
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Became the Convenience Store Clerk the Rankers Are Obsessed With ◈
Chapter 20: Do Humans Usually Move This Fast?
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“……”
Friella’s head felt hot.
Part of it was because of Kim Mincheol’s miracle. He had made a World Tree grow in this barren city, something even she, who had been the elf queen, had never managed.
But what made her nervous most of all... was the fact that she was now inside the home of a human man, Kim Mincheol.
Once the wonder and emotion she’d felt upon seeing the World Tree settled down, she belatedly realized she was in a human man’s room.
In all her years of elven life, this was her first time stepping inside a man’s room.
The scent of nature she’d missed so much.
And beneath it, the scent of a male.
That masculine scent stirred her sensitive elven senses, leaving Friella at a complete loss.
Gulp.
She swallowed hard.
‘Th-this is madness. Where’s my dignity as the elf queen? How could I just grab a man’s hand like that?’
For elves, holding hands was an extremely bold form of physical intimacy.
It wasn’t quite a kiss or a hug, but it still carried a deeply intimate meaning. It wasn’t something they did unless they were truly close to someone.
She’d been so moved by the sight of the World Tree that she’d grabbed Kim Mincheol’s hand without thinking.
Of course, she’d expected something like this to happen.
Hadn’t he invited a woman into his home himself?
In the dramas, movies, and comics around here, bringing someone home always led to some kind of physical contact.
Naturally, she’d expected something like their shoulders brushing.
But she’d assumed Kim Mincheol would be the one to start it.
She’d never imagined she would reach out and grab him first.
She’d practically taken the virginity(?) of Kim Mincheol’s hand.
By elven standards, she’d done something completely insane.
If the other elves heard about this, they would all point fingers at her.
They’d call her a perverted elf who’d gone mad over the World Tree and forced herself on a man.
‘No. I-I didn’t mean it that way...’
After spending so long in Taepyeong City, she’d forgotten the rules of the elves for a moment and acted without thinking.
She’d realized her mistake and quickly let go, but she could still feel his hand.
How would she describe it?
His hand had been larger and rougher than hers, even though she did hard physical work every day.
Were all men’s hands like that?
Coarse, rough, thick...
Just thinking about it made her heart race.
How long had it been since her heart had pounded this hard?
The warmth of a human man’s body had thrown all her senses into chaos.
So this was why holding hands had been forbidden as something indecent since ancient times. It stirred the heart so much.
If people did this all the time in the Elven Forest, the place would have been filled with scandalous behavior.
Even though the World Tree’s power filled the room with fresh air, she felt stifled.
Her heart was pounding far too wildly.
For the inexperienced elf queen, physical contact with a man was simply too intense.
She ought to leave now.
She’d confirmed that the World Tree had grown, just as Kim Mincheol had said. She no longer had a reason to stay in his room.
She knew she should go.
But she couldn’t shamelessly leave like this.
After all, wasn’t she the older one?
Having done something like that, she should apologize and take responsibility...
“I-I’m sorry.”
Friella spoke while hiding her red face beneath her baseball cap.
“For what?”
“Y-your hand. I was so moved that I grabbed it. I-I’m sorry.”
“...Why would you be sorry about that?”
“Huh?”
She blinked at Kim Mincheol’s answer.
What kind of reaction was that?
She’d held his hand, and he thought she had nothing to apologize for?
“Oh...”
Then Friella realized.
Kim Mincheol was human.
He belonged to a species with completely different values from hers.
Unlike her, who’d made such a fuss, he considered this level of physical contact perfectly normal.
And once her thoughts reached that point...
“H-how indecent!”
Her species’ trademark Confucian morals(?) flared up inside her.
“What? We only held hands. Is that really indecent? It’s not like it wears anything out.”
But Kim Mincheol’s reply was calm.
“I-it’s not about wearing anything out...! When a man and woman hold hands alone in a room, it’s a promise to move on to the next step...!”
“The next step? What step?”
Kim Mincheol tilted his head as he asked, leaving Friella speechless.
At that moment, she remembered all the dramas she’d watched in Taepyeong City.
The scenes that followed after the male and female leads touched each other in a small room.
Holding hands, pressing their bodies together, kissing, whispering each other’s names as they took each other’s clothes off.
Physical contact that was shameless and barbaric by elven standards.
Immoral(?) acts she couldn’t possibly say aloud.
Her eyes began to shake as if an earthquake had struck.
‘If holding hands is nothing special, then next comes kissing... No, straight to bed?!’
Friella stiffly turned her head toward the single bed on one side of the room.
The bed that had looked perfectly ordinary a moment ago suddenly seemed entirely different.
‘D-don’t tell me Mincheol planned to go that far with me? J-just how fast do humans move...?’
Kim Mincheol had readily agreed when she asked him to raise the World Tree.
What if he’d taken that request to mean he should take responsibility for her?
‘That’s why he said I didn’t need to apologize for holding his hand! He already thinks of me as his woman!’
Her misunderstanding raced ahead like a runaway train.
Her face turned so red that steam might rise from it. Friella backed away until her back pressed firmly against the wall.
“I-I was struggling with so many feelings! And you were already that far ahead...!”
“What? What did I do?”
“D-don’t come any closer! Even so, today is too soon! I haven’t even showered, and f-for something like this, I need to prepare myself...!”
Friella squeezed her eyes shut and wrapped both arms around herself.
She could sense him approaching.
Oh, what should she do?
What was she supposed to do?
She didn’t want to use force.
She didn’t want to hurt Mincheol, the only man who had treated her kindly.
“Um, Friella?”
“I-if you truly want this, then I’ll steel myself...!”
“Have a drink and calm down.”
At Kim Mincheol’s words, she cautiously opened one eye, still keeping her guard(?) up.
He was holding a cold drink covered in beads of condensation.
“Wh-what?”
“You seemed a little worked up. I thought this might help you calm down.”
The moment she saw the drink, the rosy fantasies filling Friella’s head shriveled away.
She felt deflated. Then, as she realized just how far she’d gotten ahead of herself, embarrassment flooded in. She wanted to crawl into a hole and hide.
“R-right. Thank you.”
Pouting, Friella accepted the drink Kim Mincheol offered.
It certainly wasn’t the mood she’d expected, but she didn’t turn down the can.
‘Well, he’s looking after me, anyway. And I did get carried away all on my own...’
Comforting herself with that thought, she carefully sat on the edge of the bed.
Pssht!
She took a sip of the cold drink, and the sweet scent of peach spread through her mouth.
Beside her, Kim Mincheol sat quietly, tidying up around the World Tree’s pot.
“I-I’m sorry. I think I got the wrong idea all on my own.”
“No, I think I gave you the wrong idea.”
“Ahem.”
Silence fell.
Feeling awkward for no particular reason, Friella fiddled with the drink in her hands.
“I-I should get going. I-I’ve stayed far too late. Ha, hahaha!”
“Get home safely.”
“Y-yes. I’ll come again... To see the World Tree.”
“Anytime.”
She fled his room.
Her heart was pounding like mad.
She felt as if she could still smell the masculine scent from his room.
All that fuss over a misunderstanding.
Too embarrassed and sorry to hold her head up, she rested a hand on her chest and tried to calm herself.
“I should bring him a gift next time.”
And she could use that as an excuse to visit his home again.
* * *
After Friella left...
“Did I do something wrong? I think she got the wrong idea about something.”
Knowing absolutely nothing about women, I blinked in bewilderment at Friella’s reaction.
“Could it be because of the World Tree?”
You know how it goes.
Like how cats go wild when they see catnip.
Surely elves didn’t go into something like heat when they smelled the World Tree?
“That would be a problem...”
That would mean this thing was seriously dangerous.
I sucked in a breath. Had I made a mistake by agreeing to grow it?
Should I take it back while I still could?
I shook my head.
“A man can’t take back his word.”
Besides...
“I like this air.”
I breathed in the fresh, clean air filling my room.
The fragrant scent of phytoncides kept me feeling my best every day.
And amid that refreshing scent...
“……”
The soft, distinctive fragrance that had come from Friella’s body still lingered.
“Ahem. This is embarrassing.”
Remembering what had happened made me feel strangely shy and awkward.
Sure, Friella was a problem customer, but she was also a truly beautiful woman, just as you’d expect from an elf.
Seeing a woman like that show interest in me had been a little appealing...
Slap!
“Get a grip. Friella’s a customer. You can’t have weird thoughts about a customer.”
Besides, there was a little(?) bit of an age gap.
Honestly, more than five hundred years was a bit much, wasn’t it?
I cleared my throat, sorted out my thoughts, and watered the World Tree.
A soft light surrounded it.
It looked like I would sleep soundly again tonight.
At the same time...
[Title: [Relationship Advice] Guys, I got invited over to someone’s place at night and we held hands. Is this a green light?]
Author: IAmTheQueen
A request for relationship advice appeared on Taepyeong City’s gallery.
The elf queen, who had never dated anyone, had posted it because she couldn’t contain the heat building inside her.
She’d written the post hoping to get even a little help.
[7 Comments]
HwamokDongFireFist: If he invited you over at night to look at a potted plant, that’s 100% a sure thing. Holy shit. It’s the plant version of “Want to stay for some ramen?”
GukbapManiac: But if you held his hand first, doesn’t that mean you’re the one making all the moves? lol That younger guy was probably cheering inside.
LightHeavenOUT: Wait, weren’t you with him just now? Why are you posting this...?
A crowd of misguided relationship advisers poured in.
“Sh-should I have stayed instead of running away...?”
Friella, who had posted the request for advice, stamped her feet with regret.
But she didn’t have the courage to visit Kim Mincheol’s home again.
* * *
My first day off since getting the convenience store job.
As a rule, I never set a single foot outside on my days off.
Lying in bed, killing time as I stared blankly at my phone, was how I usually spent them.
But today, I decided to make a small exception.
“Maybe I should go out today?”
Footnotes:
“Want to stay for some ramen?” can be a suggestive invitation to spend the night in Korean pop culture.
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