10. A Poem for the Puppies
“Tsk, seven hundred? Eighty? Thirty thousand?”
So it wasn’t free.
For that kind of money, how many bowls of bean sprout gukbap could he buy?
Of course, when it had mentioned something about payment, he’d figured it wouldn’t be free—but he’d never imagined it would be this expensive.
“Can’t you give me a discount?”
The damned audio remained silent, just as expected.
It was no small sum; it wasn’t something he could spend on a whim.
He could simply not buy it, but since it was being sold by this mini audio that he’d received as a reward, it felt like a waste to give up on it.
“What kind of business doesn’t give discounts? At least knock a little off the thirty thousand won.”
After trying to talk to it repeatedly, Jinha gave up and discovered a search-bar-shaped icon at the top of the audio screen.
‘What is this?’
[You can check whether a song similar to this one exists in this world.]
Was it telling him not to agonize and just buy?
They’d even provided a service designed to make it impossible for him to resist buying.
If this song already existed, as the text said, there was no need to spend money on it.
Jinha pressed the button on the screen, and a video popped up.
Doo-doom-doo-doo-doom—
It was a screen playing the sample music into a music search site.
All three songs in the search results were songs that didn’t exist in this world.
He didn’t know how much lyric writing and composing usually cost, but if this song truly didn’t exist in this world, it might not be that expensive.
The video itself could be manipulated, but since it couldn’t play this music on Jinha’s phone, he had no choice but to believe it.
And judging by the rewards he’d received so far, he didn’t think the video was fake.
The remaining problem was whether this song would actually resonate with the people of this world.
“Woof! Woof!”
For now, it did seem to be an incredibly good song for puppies.
But there was no way everyone in this world had the same taste as Haebi.
“Then, Haebi. I’ll trust you this once.”
Let’s go for it.
He didn’t need the money right away, and while there were rewards he hadn’t used properly until now, there were no useless rewards.
After Haebi ran back to Ayoung, he purchased the third song.
It wasn’t that he intended to blow his easily earned money carelessly.
It was because he believed that since it was a song received through a reward, there would definitely be a use for it.
Chime— The moment the payment went through, a small progress bar appeared on the audio screen, and the instant it hit one hundred percent, text appeared.
[You have acquired ownership of the final song.]
[Source audio file provided.]
Light emanated from the audio screen, and a small stick appeared.
A USB. This was probably the source audio file.
“Ownership acquired means this is my song now.”
It had no lyrics and no title, but Jinha now had a song of his own.
“Then I guess I need to write the lyrics first.”
There was no need to make it difficult.
Lyrics just had to contain one’s thoughts.
When you thought about it, hadn’t he been doing that his whole life?
Lyrics with the wit he had traded with the clown while walking the tightrope.
He figured he could create the choreography by slightly adapting his experience of dancing at the performance ground.
I don’t know why I’m here.
The hazy sky and the ground beneath my feet haven’t changed.
Everything has changed, and only I remain the same.
Humming to himself, he crafted lyrics about his current situation.
“Woof woof!”
“Ah, Haebi! Come here! Even though you have an owner, you keep coming to me.”
Every time the song rang out, Haebi barked as if answering and ran to Jinha.
Haebi seemed intoxicated by the song and began hopping in place.
“You like it that much?”
“Woof woof!”
“If I polish it a bit more, it might be pretty good.”
If people liked it as much as Haebi, it would really be a huge hit.
He had written the lyrics easily, but they felt like a perfect fit for the melody.
As expected, it seemed he’d done well to trust Haebi’s sense.
* * *
Jinha refined the lyrics through the night.
What had looked easy made him greedier the more he worked on it, and better words kept coming to mind, so he couldn’t sleep.
*Gurgle*— Hungry, he went downstairs.
Today was the shop’s monthly day off, so there was no prepared food.
Since they were resting, they’d apparently decided to do a big cleaning; everything had been completely tidied up.
“Ah… I’m peckish.”
Jinha went outside.
It was still very early, so almost nowhere was open, but he could see that Seongyeon’s macaron shop had its door open.
The taste of the macarons Seongyeon’s mother had given him last time came to mind, and he naturally swallowed his saliva.
He had to stop by the shop anyway.
“Hello! Are you open now?”
“Welcome— Oh! It’s Jinha. Hello. We literally just opened and aren’t ready yet. Have you eaten?”
“No. I came out to eat…”
“Then please have this for now. It was made yesterday, so it’s fine.”
Seongyeon’s mother gave him cream bread and milk.
“Ooh…”
A fantastical taste, different from macarons.
It was a taste of supreme ecstasy that no meal could ever provide.
“Seongyeon, hi? You’re up early?”
Feeling a gaze from behind the counter, he turned to see Seongyeon peeking out halfway and looking at him.
“Woof! Woof!”
Haebi, who was beside him, slowly approached Seongyeon.
Seongyeon was a bit scared at first but quickly petted Haebi’s back and got friendly.
“Seongyeon, play with Haebi for a moment. I’ll eat quickly and go.”
“Haebi?”
“Yeah, Haebi. The puppy’s name.”
“Haebi, ah, pretty Haebi.”
Seongyeon seemed to like Haebi too and hugged him tight, and Haebi wagged his tail and clung to Seongyeon.
“Is business alright?”
“Thanks to you. The shop didn’t suffer much damage, so we recovered quickly.”
“That’s a relief. I was very worried.”
“But, do you know everyone in this alley has been talking about Jinha lately?”
“Yes? Me?”
Listening to Seongyeon’s mother, it seemed he had been a hot topic for a while due to the performance in front of the alley and the hospital video uploaded on YouTube.
“Everyone says they wish you’d perform once in this alley, talking about it every day. I missed it last time too, so it would be nice to see it in person once.”
“Me too.”
Seongyeon, who was petting Haebi beside them, chimed in.
Listening to them, performing in the alley seemed like a good idea.
He could promote the alley restaurant district, and he needed separate practice time when he wasn’t performing anyway.
On top of that, he could refresh his quest too, so it was killing three birds with one stone.
“Shall I try? If the merchants just give permission…”
“Really? Then I’ll tell them right away. Everyone would welcome it if you do it.”
“Then sorry to trouble you, but please talk to them. If it’s not every Saturday, I’m available even today.”
Performances were the best for quest refreshes.
It went without saying that setting up a performance ground on the straw mats laid out in front of the alley was far better than performing cautiously at the park from time to time.
“Thank you for the meal! How much is it?”
“No, money is fine. I gave it to you because we had it. It’s not food we’re selling.”
“Ah… then I’m sorry, but… next time I’ll come with Ayoung to buy macarons.”
Jinha handed an envelope to Seongyeon.
It was a reply to the previous letter.
He had included a ten-thousand-won bill as pocket money.
“Oh… thank you. Come again…”
Jinha patted Seongyeon’s head as he received the letter politely with both hands and bowed, then headed to the store for the quest refresh he had planned today.
* * *
“Passing customers, hello! This is Alley Alley, the alley of delicious restaurants. Hard to find, but once you enter, they say you’ll come back every day—that alley restaurant district! Table d’hôte, bean sprout gukbap, fish cake soup, tteokbokki, Jinha-strong coffee, stir-fried sundae, even macarons—there’s nothing we don’t have, Golmok!”
Wearing a mask, he sang a nonsensical song and did acrobatics, drawing the gazes of passersby.
He had set up a rope in the back too, but he had to gather people first.
“Welcome! If you shout ‘Come into the alley!’ when you enter, there are no discount events—attention seekers only, please! Table d’hôte, bean sprout gukbap, fish cake soup, tteokbokki, Jinha-strong coffee, stir-fried sundae, even macarons—there’s nothing we don’t have, Golmok!”
Shouting a hastily made song into the microphone, people began to gather, showing interest little by little.
“Woooaaah!”
People who had come following the sound from inside the alley exclaimed at the sight of Jinha doing acrobatic feats.
Nearby merchants came out to watch the performance too, and there was even a merchant dancing along to Jinha’s dance.
“Wow, what is that? Daebak. Aren’t you dizzy?”
“I saw that on YouTube last time.”
“He hung a rope in the back too, but is he not going to do tightrope walking?”
As Jinha danced and did front flips, backflips, and other acrobatic feats, he kept hearing quest refresh notifications.
-Fans have been gained: Total 189
-Gather people’s attention (100/100) Complete. Reward stage increases to Stage 2.
-Perform (2/30)
The quests were rising smoothly, and the promotional effect for the alley restaurant district was the best as well.
There was now a quest that had risen to Stage 2.
“Woof! Woof!”
As he worked the crowd and turned around, there were more than ten puppies around Haebi.
“Huh, huh—why are they suddenly coming here?”
“I don’t know; our dog suddenly dragged us here.”
Dogs that had been walking outside the alley all followed Haebi in, and the owners who had been walking them followed too.
He didn’t know for sure, but Haebi was like a super insider among puppies, always gathering dogs around him.
“Woof woof!”
‘Good job, Haebi.’
He hadn’t exactly ordered him to, but he praised the skill of bringing customers.
Though not enough people gathered to fill the alley, a much larger crowd than usual filled the alley with energy.
“But what’s with those dogs?”
“Did they come from a dog café meetup or something?”
Half people, half dogs.
The number of dogs Haebi had brought gradually increased, and before long they had taken over one corner as their own.
Finishing a dance that made shoulders move on their own, Jinha grabbed the microphone.
“Hello, everyone. It is an honor to meet you at Alley Alley Alley Restaurant District, where you usually worry about whether to enter or not and the entrance isn’t even visible. Containing that honor, I will sing the next song. Since the mood just got too high, and to bring it down a bit, I’ll try my own song this time.”
A song he had never shown people before.
It had no title, no finalized choreography, and no confirmed lyrics, but he thought this was the perfect time to gauge people’s reactions.
“A song? Is that person a singer?”
“Seems like it. But last time I saw them serving at a gukbap restaurant.”
“Singers can do part-time jobs too. But how’s the gukbap place?”
“It’s delicious. I was trying to keep it to myself, but people are going to flock there.”
Jinha calmed his excitement for a moment and played the song Ayoung had separately extracted from the source audio.
The speakers weren’t top-of-the-line, but with the merchants’ support, the sound spread to every corner of the alley in good quality.
“I don’t know why I’m here.”
Putting his mouth to the microphone, he sang the first line.
Then, contrary to expectations, the dogs watching the performance began barking like crazy.
“Url-url, keong-keong!”
“Keong-keong!”
“Keu-reu-reung! Keong-kang-kang!”
“Huh? Why is he like this?”
“Hey! Stay still!”
“Is it because of that song? Our kid is suddenly going crazy. He’s usually super quiet.”
The dogs jumped up and down in place and went wild, as if they were following Jinha’s song and dance.
‘What the hell is this.’
Thinking they were just reacting to loud noise didn’t make sense—their reaction was too excessive.
It was truly a dog frenzy.
The owners calmed the puppies down, avoiding total chaos, but the atmosphere was like a concert held just for the dogs.
Doom-doom-doom-doom!
When the music ended, the dogs’ movements stopped too.
“Kki-ing, kki-i-ing.”
“Nging-nging!”
“Awooooo!”
The puppies’ eyes sparkled, and they began whining.
It was as if they were calling for an encore.
“…Shall I play it one more time?”
“Woof woof! Keong-keong!”
The puppies hopped up and down as if they had heard they were going for a walk.
The dogs’ owners couldn’t understand why their dogs were like this either.
They were happy the dogs liked it, but…
“Is this perhaps on Melon? What’s the title?”
“I should play this for our dog normally.”
It was absurd.
‘Should I be happy about this or not.’
He seemed to have bought the wrong song after all.
“I haven’t decided on the title yet. If you have any good ideas, please tell me!”
“Dog-insider!”
“Dog Morpharty!”
“How about ‘A Poem for the Puppies’? The puppies love it so much.”
“Let’s shorten it to Gangsi!”