Goblin Library - Chapter 114
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 114.
【Oh Mi-hee】
Author: Gluttony Goblin
Oh Mi-hee had been a gymnast since childhood, recognized as a prodigy in the sport.
Gymnastics demanded rigorous dietary control, so she had to restrict her food intake from an early age.
This caught the attention of the Gluttony Goblin. The stress of restraining herself from food had cultivated an insatiable appetite within her.
After retiring from her athletic career, Oh Mi-hee indulged in all the foods she had longed to eat during those years.
***
Oh Mi-hee gazed at the spread of dishes before her with delight. The table was laden with Chinese cuisine.
Sweet and sour pork, eight-treasure mixed vegetables, abalone with scallop, steamed dumplings….
Oh Mi-hee pulled out her phone and began taking photographs.
Click! Click!
Her friend Kim Hee-sun sighed.
“Why did you order so much food?”
“We’re two people eating together—this is the right amount.”
Kim Hee-sun shook her head at Oh Mi-hee’s response.
“I don’t eat this much.”
Kim Hee-sun, whose eyes were notably large, pointed at the sweet and sour pork.
“Just this one dish is more than both of us could finish.”
“After you retired, didn’t you eat more food?”
“More than when I was competing, sure. But this… even grown men couldn’t eat this much.”
Oh Mi-hee laughed at Kim Hee-sun’s exasperated headshake.
“Come on, let’s just eat. It’s been forever since we’ve seen each other, right?”
“I retired before you and I’m in school now. It has been a while. It’s been about two months since I retired?”
“That’s right.”
Oh Mi-hee spooned some abalone with scallop onto her plate.
Watching the abalone and squid fall with the thick white sauce, Oh Mi-hee swallowed and quickly scooped a piece of abalone with her spoon to eat it.
“Slurp! Mmm… delicious.”
“Hey, don’t eat with a spoon. You should use chopsticks.”
Oh Mi-hee laughed and shook her head at Kim Hee-sun’s reproach.
“No! Dishes that come with sauce need to be eaten with both the sauce and the ingredients scooped together to taste it properly. Go on, try it.”
At Oh Mi-hee’s words, Kim Hee-sun scooped some abalone with scallop with her spoon and ate it.
“It is delicious.”
“Right?”
Oh Mi-hee reached for a steamed dumpling after finishing her Jjajangmyeon. Unlike the ordinary dumplings from a typical Chinese restaurant, these had slightly thicker skin and were large, bun-like creations.
“This place is famous for their dumplings.”
“They’re not pre-made?”
“No. They make everything fresh here by hand.”
As she spoke, Oh Mi-hee grasped the dumpling on both sides and pulled it apart.
Whoosh!
Hot steam billowed forth, and succulent juices began to drip.
“Ahhh!”
Oh Mi-hee let out an exclamation like a sigh at the sight of those juices, then placed the dumpling in her mouth.
Her eyes closed involuntarily.
“This is absolutely delicious. The pepper flavor is incredible.”
“Pepper?”
“The pork broth and pepper blend together perfectly. It’s wonderful.”
“Well, well.”
At Oh Mi-hee’s exclamation, Kim Hee-sun chuckled softly and spoke.
“Didn’t you retire way too late?”
“Retire? What do you mean?”
“You seem obsessed with food right now.”
At Kim Hee-sun’s words, Oh Mi-hee stared blankly for a moment before responding.
“The day I retired, I immediately cooked myself some ramen.”
“Ramen?”
“I couldn’t eat it while I was active.”
“That’s true. Even when we did eat, we had to hide it from the coaches—we’d cook one pot between the two of us and only have a bite.”
At Kim Hee-sun’s words, Oh Mi-hee smiled.
“Yeah… that was the first time in my life I’d ever eaten so much ramen.”
“Did you enjoy it?”
“I thought my tongue was melting.”
At Oh Mi-hee’s words, Kim Hee-sun laughed.
“I felt the same way when I ate grilled pork belly after retiring.”
“Grilled pork belly is really delicious too.”
“And cheesecake. Wow! When I ate cheesecake, I almost bit my own tongue off.”
“Sweet potato cake is really delicious too.”
Oh Mi-hee spoke with a laugh.
“Anyway, after eating that ramen… I made a decision. I’m going to enjoy all the delicious foods I couldn’t eat before.”
“Quite a resolution from just one bowl of ramen.”
“Life should be enjoyed. Come on, let’s eat.”
At Oh Mi-hee’s words, Kim Hee-sun shook her head slightly.
“But if you keep eating like this after retiring, you’ll gain weight.”
“Huh?”
“When we were active… our training volume was insane. We ate barely anything.”
“That’s right.”
“Our bodies were already adapted to that lifestyle. But once you retire and stop exercising while continuing to eat, your body just balloons up. Calories come in, but there’s no activity to burn them off.”
Oh Mi-hee tilted her head quizzically.
“Is that so?”
“Haven’t you gained weight?”
“I’ve put on about two kilograms, but that’s only because I was too thin during my training days.”
“Well, honestly… it does look better on you now that you’ve gained a bit.”
“I think so too.”
Oh Mi-hee spoke while eating.
“So let’s eat now. I’ll have seafood noodle soup. What about you?”
At Oh Mi-hee’s words, Kim Hee-sun looked at her with wide eyes.
“You’re going to eat more?”
“Of course I need to eat rice.”
Kim Hee-sun stared at Oh Mi-hee in disbelief, then glanced down at the plates.
The food on the plates had diminished considerably. Not completely empty, but only a few bites remained.
Either way, she’d eaten three dishes already—and now rice?
Besides, Kim Hee-sun herself had barely touched any of it. Oh Mi-hee had practically devoured everything alone.
“Are you sure you’re not sick?”
“Huh? I’m not sick at all.”
“But why are you eating so much food?”
Oh Mi-hee laughed off Kim Hee-sun’s concerned remark.
“Come on! Does eating a lot mean you’re sick?”
Then she looked at Kim Hee-sun and asked.
“So you’re not going to order rice?”
“I’m… fine.”
Oh Mi-hee murmured regretfully at that.
“I was planning to have a bite of black bean noodles.”
Then she raised her hand to call over a Factory Employee and placed her order.
“One seafood noodle soup and one black bean noodles, please.”
“Didn’t you say you were eating seafood noodle soup?”
“I want to eat black bean noodles too.”
“You’re going to eat both bowls?”
“If I can’t finish them, I’ll just leave them. What else am I going to do with the money I earn?”
Kim Hee-sun looked at Oh Mi-hee with envy at her words.
“You really are different, being called the gymnastics fairy and all.”
Though she hadn’t won a medal at the Olympics, her performance had been quite good. Moreover, with her doll-like pretty and cute style, she was called the gymnastics fairy and gained popularity, appearing in many advertisements.
“Come on! Do I buy bags like other people, or watches? I just spend everything on food.”
Kim Hee-sun let out a small laugh at Oh Mi-hee’s quip.
“Now that you mention it, you really don’t buy that stuff.”
“I’m not interested in it now. Right now, my interest is in eating. I’m going to eat everything we couldn’t eat during our training days.”
Oh Mi-hee scooped food from the plate with her spoon, her face radiant with contentment.
Kim Hee-sun, who had been watching with a look of exasperation, soon witnessed something far more astonishing.
Oh Mi-hee had completely finished both the spicy seafood noodles and the black bean noodles.
Two entire bowls of food that would have been difficult to finish even one of—and that was after she’d already eaten the dishes prepared earlier.
Kim Hee-sun suddenly furrowed her brow and asked Oh Mi-hee.
“You’re not…?”
“Not what?”
“You’re not eating and then throwing it up, are you?”
“Come on! Do you think I don’t know that’s bad for you? I’ve seen more than one person get carried out on a stretcher during our training days for doing that sort of thing.”
There were girls who wanted to eat but worried about gaining weight, so they would put their fingers in their mouths to vomit up everything they’d consumed.
Doing that damaged the body, and if taken too far, it could lead to eating disorders, which were terribly unhealthy.
“Then how are you eating so much?”
“It just goes down.”
Oh Mi-hee laughed and patted her stomach before standing, and Kim Hee-sun watched her with worried eyes before speaking.
“Don’t you think you should see a doctor?”
“I’m fine, really.”
After watching the smiling Oh Mi-hee for a moment, Kim Hee-sun spoke with firm resolve.
“I’m staying at your place tonight.”
“All of a sudden?”
“I can’t help but worry.”
Though Oh Mi-hee insisted she wasn’t throwing up, Kim Hee-sun remained concerned. She had decided to go to Oh Mi-hee’s home and keep a close watch on her throughout the night.
Oh Mi-hee laughed at Kim Hee-sun’s words.
“Sure, let’s stay up late and reminisce about old times.”
Oh Mi-hee stood to pay the bill, and Kim Hee-sun spoke apologetically.
“The bill must be quite high, right? Should I chip in?”
“I said I’d treat. Besides, I ate it all, so it’s fine.”
After settling the bill, Oh Mi-hee and Kim Hee-sun left the Chinese Restaurant and climbed into a foreign luxury car in the Parking Lot.
“Nice car.”
“I got it from doing a commercial.”
Oh Mi-hee answered with a smile and started the car toward home.
Oh Mi-hee’s home was a Han River Apartment with a view of the river. After changing into comfortable clothes, she retrieved a frying pan.
Kim Hee-sun looked at her with a puzzled expression.
“Why are you getting out a frying pan?”
“I ate something spicy earlier, so now I’m craving fried eggs. Do you want some?”
“I…”
She was about to say no, but Kim Hee-sun nodded instead. The thought of fried eggs made her realize she’d want some too.
“Just one.”
“Sure.”
Oh Mi-hee placed the frying pan on the gas stove and turned on the heat.
Then she opened the refrigerator and pulled out an egg carton containing ten eggs. She began cracking them one by one into a bowl.
Kim Hee-sun looked at her with a puzzled expression.
“Didn’t you say you were making fried eggs?”
“That’s right.”
“Then why are you cracking all the eggs into a bowl?”
“If I crack them one at a time and cook them individually, some will be overcooked and some undercooked.”
Kim Hee-sun, who belatedly grasped the meaning of Oh Mi-hee’s words, exclaimed in surprise.
“You’re planning to cook all ten?”
“What’s the point of tasting fried eggs with just one or two?”
Oh Mi-hee answered with a smile, checked the flame, then retrieved perilla oil from the refrigerator and drizzled it into the pan.
Sizzle!
Feeling the rich, nutty aroma of the perilla oil waft up, Oh Mi-hee poured the eggs from the bowl into the pan.
Sizzle!
As the eggs hit the pan, Oh Mi-hee gently shook it and sprinkled salt and pepper.
Thanks to the generous amount of perilla oil, the surface of the eggs began to crisp and fry.
Watching this, Oh Mi-hee reduced the heat and slowly swirled the pan back and forth.
Then she dipped a spoon in water and drizzled it along the edge of the pan before covering it with a lid.
“What are you doing?”
“When you add a little water and let it cook, steam forms, which helps the surface cook evenly. The outside becomes crispy while the top stays moist.”
Oh Mi-hee answered with a smile, waited a moment, then carefully transferred the fried eggs onto a large plate.
Slide!
“Done.”
As Oh Mi-hee placed the plate on the table, Kim Hee-sun stared blankly at the fried eggs.
Oh Mi-hee retrieved scissors and cut the fried eggs into pieces.
Creating ten pieces, she scooped one up with a spoon and gulped it down whole.
“Delicious. Rich and tender.”
Kim Hee-sun watched blankly as Oh Mi-hee rapidly devoured several pieces in succession.
“Did you always eat this much?”
“Always?”
“Back in the old days, I mean.”
“I’m not sure. Before I retired, I never had the chance to eat this much, so I wouldn’t know.”
Since I started gymnastics as a child and continued until retirement, I had never eaten much food.
“You must be sick somewhere. Or maybe you have parasites.”
“Come on, where would parasites come from these days?”
“Either way, you’re coming to the Hospital with me tomorrow.”
“The Hospital?”
“This really isn’t normal.”
“Is that so?”
“Of course. Where do you find someone who eats this much?”
At Kim Hee-sun’s words, Oh Mi-hee paused in thought before nodding.
“Alright, let’s go.”
Since my close friend was expressing concern for me, I couldn’t refuse outright.
The next day, Kim Hee-sun took Oh Mi-hee to the Hospital for an examination.
After running several tests, the Doctor spoke with a smile.
“The Gymnastics Fairy says she eats a lot, but there’s nothing wrong with your body.”
“Really?”
At Kim Hee-sun’s question, the Doctor nodded.
“Actually, you should eat more. Your weight is still below normal.”
Kim Hee-sun squinted as she spoke.
“Doctor, she really does eat a lot.”
“Haha! Yes, you should eat plenty.”
The Doctor laughed, wondering just how much a Gymnastics Fairy could possibly eat, and Kim Hee-sun spoke.
“Then Doctor, we’ll go eat and come back. Could you run another test after that?”
“After eating?”
“I think it would be better to run the test after she’s eaten.”
“Hmm… Tests are best done on an empty stomach…”
“I’m telling you, she really does eat a lot.”
“I understand. Then…”
The Doctor glanced at his watch for a moment before speaking.
“Since you came in fasting this morning, go eat now and come back at noon. I’ll skip lunch and wait for you.”
Noon was his lunch break, but the Doctor made time anyway. It was a special courtesy, after all, since the person in question was the Gymnastics Fairy Oh Mi-hee.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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