It was 4^th of March, Tuesday. In other words, the actual first day of the school year. And Shin Ryeong was so not looking forward to it.

“Ugh…” she sighed. “I will be forced to see all those pig heads’ faces…” And every day from now…

With unwilling steps, she neared the school gates and when the building was clearly seen in front of her she stopped and sighed again. Then she continued walking, with more unwilling steps though.

After twenty three steps –no she wasn’t always counting her steps, definitely not! she just needed to distract herself now- she heard someone calling her name.

“Yah! Shin Ryeong! Hey! Hey! Are you ignoring me now, you ?!”

Rolling her eyes, she turned around and answered the rude bastard.

“No, I’m not ignoring you now, I’m always ignoring you.”

“You !” the rude bastard clenched his teeth.

“What the hell did I do to deserve this..?” Shin Ryeong groaned to herself before shooting the bastard a glare and saying “What the cow’s do you want, Jung Daehyun?”

The bastard a moment ago suddenly vanished, leaving a shy boy behind.

“Uh… umm… Shin Ryeong-ah please, please don’t quit competitive eating. It isn’t the same without you finishing a whole turkey beside me in a matter of minutes. So, come back huh? Your fans are missing you…”

It was crystal clear that he, too, was one of those fans.

“Huh?” she crossed her arms and raised one brow. “What happened to the , huh? I was starting to like my nickname, too…”

“Sorry for that..” Daehyun bowed his head. “I thought if I didn’t call you like that, you wouldn’t talk to me.”

‘He’s kind of right.’ Shin Ryeong thought, but she wouldn’t ever say that to Daehyun. So she just stood there, silent and her arms still crossed.

“You know,” Daehyun continued. “I’ve always been your fan and I still am and I’m proud of it. I’ve started competitive eating because of you. Because I wanted to compete like you, because I wanted compete with you.”

“And you’ve won against me. You broke my record, you took my title. Isn’t that enough? What else do you want from me?” Shin Ryeong suddenly talked in a sad tone.

“I want you to compete again!” Daehyun declared confidently. “I want you to take that title back from me, because I can you can do it!”

Right when she was about to say ‘No’, Gummy appeared between them with a megaphone in her hands and made an announcement to the whole school –or neighborhood, that thing was damn loud.

“Okaaaaay, ladies and gentlemen! Are you ready for our first ever speed eating contest?! You will be able to witness the competition between Korea’s top competitive eaters, Shin Ryeong and Jung Daehyun! Today at 11 am, at the sport hall! Come and watch, don’t miss this!”

“Oh myyyyy…” Shin Ryeong massaged her temples. “Tell me again why I was so determined to attend this school…”

The principal wasn’t sane, the vice-principal wasn’t sane, the teachers weren’t sane and looking at how they were cheering now, the students weren’t sane either…

Oh and there was also this overly excited boy named Jung Daehyun who was currently jumping up and down and shouting “Yaaaay! Thank you Gummy!”

“Remind me that I shouldn’t judge the book by its cover ever again, hm?..”

+++

Shin Ryeong sighed, her gaze on the chicken bones in front of her. She had done it, she had really done it after seven months!

The crowd was still shouting her name.

“Shin Ryeong! Shin Ryeong! Shin Ryeong!”

And one person, the person with just as many chicken bones in front of him, that person was smiling at her from his place beside her.

“Welcome back, wing killer.” He whispered still smiling.

Shin Ryeong immediately shook her head.

“Why?..” Daehyun questioned. She had really beaten Daehyun. Daehyun didn’t hold back, heck if he had held back he wouldn’t be able to show his face to anyone anymore because of the mountains between their scores!

‘She ing ate 93 chicken wings in 13 minutes 6 seconds! While here I am, not being able to eat even 80 of them…’

He had gone out of form. “If I was like seven months ago, I would easily eat 80…” he muttered. He too had stopped competitive eating when Shin Ryeong quit. Because it was meaningless without Shin Ryeong…

He turned his gaze back to his pile of bones.

Shin Ryeong was thinking, though she had shaken her head she still wasn’t sure. Would she really not go back? Really?

‘You’ve never stopped practicing, you idiot!’ her inner voice told her. ‘You wouldn’t do that if you were really  serious about quitting!”

She would occasionally buy big amounts of junk food and eat them as fast as she could, even if she told herself and everyone else that she quit.

‘I… this is where I belong!’

Sure, she was hesitant and had eaten just 10 pieces at the first minute but slowly her competent nature and love for this sport overtook her body and mind.

She glanced at Gummy who was smiling at her.

“Aaaaand!..” Gummy began after the audience stopped their fanchants –which took seven ing minutes. “The winner is Shin Ryeong with 93 chicken wings in 13 minutes 6 seconds! That’s a new record! Though, it’s a shame this wasn’t an official competition…”

After five minutes of ‘Aww…’s and ‘What a shame!’s, Gummy talked again.

“Now, to your classes! You still have afternoon classes to attend!”

A moment later, there were only three people left in the sports hall: Gummy, Shin Ryeong and Jung Daehyun.

“You will go back to competitive eating right?” Gummy and Daehyun asked in unison, with Gummy adding “as long as it doesn’t affect your studies, you should.”

After a moment of silence, Shin Ryeong slowly nodded.

“But, only if you don’t do something like this ever again!” she then glared at Gummy.

Not awaiting this kind of thing, Gummy widened her eyes in shock and saluted saying “             Y-yes ma’am, principal Shin, ma’am!”

She hadn’t ever thought she would ever stutter in front of a 16 year old girl…

_______________________

Yo! It's your author saghmet! ^^

So the REAL story will probably start next chapter! I mean, I will finally write about their school life at the next chapter.

This chapter's only purpose was to make Shin Ryeong go back to competitive eating. ^^

Hope it wasn't THAT bad. ^^"

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Love y'all! See you at the next chapter! *chuu~*