NPC Fell onto My Bed C7

Chapter 07

Ding-dong…

The heavy atmosphere was broken by the sharp chime of the doorbell, echoing throughout the apartment. Gu Taeheon glanced at Noah with a complicated expression before murmuring that the food had likely arrived, and left to fetch it.

Left alone, Noah watched his retreating back with a faintly troubled look. Perhaps speaking of restoration without any visible proof had seemed unconvincing to him.

Restoration. Returning to its original state.

If it had been an ordinary wound, Noah would never have spoken of such a thing. But Taeheon’s leg was one already long healed, and if he were to make it whole again—well enough to let him return to sport—restoration was the only path.

With the divine staff, it might have been faster. But even without it, given time, it was possible. Watching Taeheon return with a bag of hamburgers, Noah spoke softly.

“So, beginning tonight, each evening I would like to place my hands upon your leg and—”

“First.”

Thud.

Cutting him off, Taeheon dropped a massive plastic bag onto the dining table. Noah blinked, not knowing what this white thing was.

“Let’s eat first.”

“Ah, yes.”

It seemed Taeheon was hungry as well. Noah, in no different state, obediently took a seat at the table.

Taeheon seized the bag at both ends and tore it apart in one swift motion. Why fuss with knots when brute force would do? Packaged hamburgers tumbled out across the table.

“This… what is… all this?”

Confusion clouded Noah’s face as the round, wrapped bundles rolled everywhere. In his world, meals were always placed neatly upon plates. But here—no plates at all?

Noah, who had thought this world more advanced than his, now abandoned the idea. So they do not use tableware here. Respectful of culture, he quietly copied Taeheon’s method.

First, take the “hamburger” in hand, peel away the paper wrapping, adjust it, and lift it to the mouth.

A simple method.

“Oh dear…”

Simple for others—yet for Noah, it was the hardest task in the world. Lacking deftness, he could not imitate Taeheon’s way of keeping the sauce from spilling while holding the burger in its wrapper. Inevitably, the contents of his burger tumbled onto the table, scattered to pieces.

“…Forgive me.”

Embarrassed at the mess, Noah began gathering the fallen ingredients, stacking them back together. But with no idea of their proper order, he placed bread atop the meat patty, then wrapped it clumsily with lettuce.

Taeheon stared, dumbfounded. At last, unable to watch, he extended a hand toward the sweating, flustered Noah.

“Give it here.”

“T-this…?”

“Give. It’s just a mouthful anyway. Eat this one instead.”

A mouthful?

Noah blinked in bewilderment. The burger was as large as his face—how could it be a mouthful? His doubt was immediately dispelled.

The one he handed Taeheon disappeared in three bites. First half, then the other, then the final piece—gone. And far from messy, Taeheon’s eating was cleaner than Noah’s fumbling attempt.

At last, Noah understood how one ate a hamburger. Gripping his own with both hands, he opened his mouth as wide as he could and bit down.

“…This is strange.”

Strange indeed.

Though he had taken as big a bite as he could, it amounted to barely a fifth of what Taeheon had swallowed in one. He frowned down at the burger, his small teeth marks glaring back at him.

So Noah abandoned the thought of matching Taeheon’s method. Instead, he nibbled diligently, faster and more often. By his tenth bite, he had finally finished half. Exhausted, he set the burger back down.

“It doesn’t shrink.”

When watching Taeheon eat, the portions had seemed so small he thought he could manage two himself. In truth, even one was overwhelming.

“You stop eating, of course it doesn’t shrink. You’ve barely touched it.”

“B-barely?…”

Startled, Noah looked at him—then noticed the difference. Several empty wrappers already lay stacked neatly before Taeheon. While he had struggled through half of one, Taeheon had devoured three, maybe four. The man ate prodigiously.

“You truly eat well. I envy you, Gu Taeheon-nim. I’ve never been able to eat much, even when I wished to. I fill quickly.”

“Eating’s a habit. During weigh-ins, I couldn’t eat, then once it was over I’d gorge…”

He trailed off. The memory of judo’s constant weigh-ins came back. His hand, holding the burger, fell still.

Back then, tournaments had come in endless waves, and he had been forced to deny himself almost every food he craved. With a body prone to gaining muscle, losing weight had been arduous. He had starved, then feasted once weigh-ins were past—burgers among his indulgences.

But recalling his glorious past, he found his appetite gone. Even now, when nothing restricted him, he felt no hunger. His face darkened.

Beside him, Noah took another small bite and asked, “Weigh-in? What is that?”

“…You had to weigh yourself. There were limits for each competition.”

“Ah, so that is how your sports were organized. How curious. In my world, there were no such things as professional athletes.”

His world, overrun with monsters and dungeons, had no space for sports. Hunters, slayers, mages, swordsmen—they filled that role.

“Hunters would sometimes return maimed—missing arms or legs. Many lived in despair, for hunting had been their life’s purpose.”

Noah spoke while chewing carefully, making sure to finish. Taeheon had given him this food—he would not waste it.

“And I would return their lost arms and legs.”

The words were delivered calmly, as though restoring limbs were no more remarkable than bandaging a cut.

“As long as they still lived.”

“…”

“As long as life remained, I could heal anything.”

His tone was steady, unshaken, filled with quiet conviction. Perhaps it was his priestly bearing, but Taeheon found it hard to imagine this man as a fraud.

“So then, ought you not eat this ‘ha… hambug’ first?”

“Hamburger.”

“Ah, yes, hamburger. You said you could not eat them once weigh-ins began. Better eat while you can.”

Noah at last finished his single burger, smoothing the wrapper flat and folding it neatly three times before setting it aside.

“And… as I was saying. If it pleases you, I would heal your leg each night. I would do it more often, but my power recovers so slowly in this world. For now, that is the best I can manage.”

“Do as you like.”

Taeheon answered easily. Healing, if it could be called that, was no trouble. All he had to do was sit still and let Noah touch his leg.

At his consent, Noah’s face lit in gratitude.

“Thank you for permitting me. And also—”

Ding-dong…

The bell rang again, cutting him off. Noah lifted his head in surprise.

“Another delivery?”

Had food been left behind? He looked to Taeheon, curious. But Taeheon rose silently and walked to the intercom.

There, staring at the screen, his eyes narrowed.

“No.”

Bang, bang, bang! The door shuddered under heavy kicks, as though it might break. Noah’s head snapped toward it in alarm.

“…A friend.”

—Gu Taeheon, you bastard! You still alive in there?!