I was back in the dorms, getting ready for bed, when my phone rang.

“Huh?”

Nayoung’s name came up on the Caller ID.

“What’s she calling for?”

Anyways, I picked up.

Click.

“Yes, hello?”

– Hi, Sian~

“Hello there. Not to be rude, but why are you calling so late?”

Seriously. Why? Jia and Yoo-jin were staring at me, also confused. They were probably also fascinated. I usually don’t talk to anyone outside of the group.

– Did you see the article about the Food League?

“I did. I heard it’s going to be in Seoul. I entered a while ago.”

– Oh, really? Already?

“Yeah. Why?”

– I wanted to help you out.

“What?”

She wanted to help me? How? Somehow, I got a bad feeling about this.

– Let’s try to go over 10 million!

“….”

– What? You don’t think you can do it?

“Well…I…”

To be honest, I wasn’t sure. 10 million was a lot of money. But more than that, I had a feeling that Nayoung wasn’t going to care whether my stomach exploded or not. She actually managed to make me fear food. Scary.

– Huh. Guess you can’t.

This bitch.

“No. I can do it,” I found myself saying.

– Great. Let’s meet tomorrow at Ji-chun’s restaurant. Okay?

“O-okay.”

Shit. Guess I had other plans then.

– Okay. Good night then~

“You too.”

I hung up the phone.

“Who was that?” Jia asked, climbing onto my bed. Every time she did that, it drove me crazy. I keep getting these lewd thoughts in my head that I can’t control. Considering that I haven’t actually done anything is a miracle in itself. Even if the legendary gisaeng Hwang Jini herself were to climb onto my bed and try and tempt me, I wouldn’t do it.

“Oh, that was Nayoung Kim. She’s the girl I saved when I was in Japan.”

“Oh~ The daughter from Saman Group?”

“Yeah.”

“What did she want?” Jia asked, looking curious.

“She heard about the Food League and wanted to help.”

“Really? How?”

“She’s going to feed me 10 million won worth of food.”

“Pfft,” Jia and Yoo-jin both snorted. Their faces looked skeptical.

“You don’t believe me? I ate 9.5 million worth last time.”

“Yeah, right. How can anyone do that? I bet even Elephant couldn’t do that,” Yoo-jin said, scrunching up her nose. Jia did that as well. Oh, but not a real elephant. They were talking about the most famous mukbang star in Seoul whose name was Elephant. Shoves down about 102.3kg of food every day and spends around 74,700 won on food daily. Hey, I reached 9.5 million…hmph. But still. Food also fills you up at different rates, so I guess price doesn’t matter.

“It’s true,” I said, but the two girls continued to look skeptical.

“Hey, Sian,” Jia said.

“Yeah?”

“Have you looked at the rules?”

“Oh? Don’t I have to just eat as much as I can?”

“I don’t think so. I think they set a 10 minute limit.”

“Really?”

10 minutes…there’s no way I can eat enough food in that time. Ugh. Now I’m sad.

“Yeah. I think the record for men is 68 hotdogs in ten minutes.”

“Wow,” Yoo-jin gasped.

“Oh?” That was me this time.

“What do you mean ‘oh?’ That’s 68 hotdogs in 10 minutes. I can barely eat one,” Jia said, her face looking rather horrified. Yeah. I guess it would be weird. There was no way anyone else could eat that fast…until now. Because now there was me.

“I bet I could do it.”

“Nuh-uh,” the two gasped.

“What about the women?” I asked. I wanted to know what the record was for females.

“Oh. Give me a sec.”

Jia began to search on her phone and soon, she had the answer.

“Her name is Black Widow and she ate 37 hotdogs in 10 minutes.”

“Whoa,” Yoo-jin said.

“That’s not much,” I said.

“Sian, do you really think you can do it?” Jia asked.

“Of course,” I answered with full confidence.

“Then let’s practice starting tomorrow. I’ll go out and buy 40 hotdogs.”

40 hotdogs is 40,000 won. Yeah, okay. It wasn’t like it’d be every day. 40,000 won wasn’t that expensive. But would 40 be enough? No, it’s fine. I’m not practicing to fill up my stomach. But Nayoung…she’s not going to feed me 10 million won worth of hotdogs, is she? No way…that’s too much.

***

The next day was sunny and bright. There was no schedule today, except my plans with Nayoung. So, I headed over to Ji-chun’s restaurant. The moment I entered, Ji-chun flounced over to me happily. I guess he had good reason to. I had eaten almost 10 million won worth of food here last time.

“Hi, sweetheart!”

“Hi, Ji-chun. How’ve you been?”

“Great, now that I’ve seen you!”

“….”

Why did that sound like he was asking me to eat another 10 million won worth of food?

“Where’s Nayoung?”

“She’ll be here soon. Go on upstairs. Anyways, aren’t you competing for something?”

“Huh?” I asked. How did he know?

“Nayoung asked me to prepare 1000 hotdogs.”

“What?”

It’s official. This girl was crazy. Not 100, but 1000?

“Sigh…”

There’s no way it will really be 1000. I’m not some pig. I bet even a pig couldn’t eat 1000 hotdogs. I went upstairs like Ji-chun told me to. The employee from last time wasn’t there.

“Hey, Ji-chun.”

“Yes?”

“Where’s the part-timer from last time?”

“Oh, Min-gyu? He got a callback for a drama audition.”

“What?”

To be honest, he wasn’t that good-looking. Then again, it’s not like only good-looking people go on TV.

“Tell him congrats for me.”

“Got it.”

I headed upstairs. The reserved table was next to the window, but the view wasn’t that great.

“At least the sun is nice.”

There were tall buildings next to the restaurant, so all I could see was into the alleyway in between. There were a lot of people passing by. Many of them were foreigners. White people and black people. There were even some Korean girls holding hands with black people…I guess it’s up to preference. Not my place to judge. I was sitting in my seat, continuing to people watch when Nayoung finally arrived.

“Nayoung,” I said, waving. Nayoung immediately ran over. Just like last time, she looked like a regular student. But as usual, her skinny jeans looked amazing on her. Her slender body was really nice. Too bad she had no curves.

“Hi, Sian. How have you been?” Nayoung asked with a bright smile. Was she that happy to see me?

“I’ve been good. How about you?”

“I missed you so much. I got in trouble because of that!”

“….”

I’m getting strong lesbian vibes from this one, but there’s no way. Just no way. Christine is enough for me, thanks.

“Did you come from class?”

“Yeah. I think I’m going to enter Daddy’s company as an intern soon. He wants me to learn the inside of the company from the ground up.”

“Good luck.”

“Yeah, yeah. So it’s true that you’re entering the Food League, right?”

“Yep,” I answered. All of a sudden, Nayoung’s smile turned rather evil. So much so that I could feel goosebumps forming.

“With that, I prepared some hot dogs for you.”

“Yeah, I heard. 100 of them, right?”

“Huh?” Nayoung said, staring at me. So I stared back.

“Ji-chun said he prepared 100?”

“But I ordered 1000.”

“….”

What…am I going to do?

Just then, Ji-chun came upstairs. With a hot dog in each hand.

“Oh, lovelies. Here. Taste this,” he said, holding out both hot dogs. I took one immediately, but it looked rather plain. It was just a plain sausage in between two buns.

“Looks kind of plain, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah. This is the hotdog you’ll be eating for the competition. They call it a New York hotdog.”

“Hmph.”

To be honest, I was a little disappointed. I thought it would just be me eating as much food as I wanted, but it was just eating as much of these sad hot dogs as I could in ten minutes. I have taste too, you know.

“Hey, Ji-chun,” Nayoung said.

“Yes?”

“I asked for 1000 of these.”

“….”

Ji-chun’s jaw dropped, looking shocked. I’ve never seen him look that surprised before.

“What’s with that face? Could you bring us 1000 please?” Nayoung said.

I quickly cut in.

“Hey, Nayoung. Let’s just do 100 today. I don’t feel so good right now.”

Wow. I’ve never lied to get out of eating so much food before.

“Oh, really? Are you really sick?”

“Yes. Really.”

“Okay then. It can’t be helped. Ji-chun. Just 100 then,” Nayoung said.

Ji-chun closed his mouth.

“Alright, sweetheart. 100 hotdogs coming right up!”

“Thanks.”

Ji-chun went back downstairs, swaying his hips all the way.

“He really is weird,” I said, staring at Ji-chun’s butt. To think that a tall and handsome guy like that is gay. I bet a lot of women are disappointed.

“Yeah, but he’s a good person. That’s why I come here a lot.”

“I see.”

It’s true. Even I have to say that Ji-chun is a pretty decent guy once you get to know him.

“But you know, 100 is rather disappointing,” Nayoung said, looking sincerely sad.

“Will 100 really be enough?” she asked.

“They say the record for women is 37…”

Therefore, 100 is fine. Did this girl really want to kill me or something?

“Yeah. 37. If you want to eat that much, you need to practice eating more than 100. Don’t you think?”

“….”

What was this girl saying? I didn’t get her math.

“Also, shouldn’t you have some sort of stage name?”

“Stage name?”

“Yeah.”

“Like what?”

“Hm. The male champion’s stage name is Jaws. And the female champion calls herself Black Widow.”

“Then I’ll be Venom.”

“Someone already took that.”

“Then I’ll be the Venom Special. Like ‘Venom’, but more special.”

“Hey. I like that. Okay. You can go with that.”

Nayoung seemed to be enjoying this more than I was. And just then, the first 10 hotdogs arrived.

“So…we’ll start with 10 first?”

“Nuh-uh. We need to wait for the rest.”

“But they’ll get cold.”

And when they get cold, they’re not good. Hotdogs are only good while they’re hot. They looked so perfect right now.

“They’ll be cold during the competition too.”

“Ugh.”

Great. The more I learn, the more I hate it. It’s bad enough that all we get is plain hotdogs, but cold plain hotdogs? Some people might like that, but I like mine sizzling hot.

“Just wait a bit more. They’ll be out soon.”

“Hmph.”

I stared at the hotdogs and waited until all 100 came out. Thankfully, they came out rather quickly, but it wasn’t that exciting. Just 100 sausages in plain old buns. Telling me, a foodie, to eat hot dogs this plain…it was rather offensive. Still, not like I could do anything about it.

“Now?”

“Hang on. Let me set the timer.”