What Are You Grinning Like an Idiot For?!

"Stop! Are you trying to destroy that bag of Shin Ramyun, you demon?!" Of course, Bae Joo-hyun would never say something so cringe.

She merely stared at the man in front of her with an utterly strange expression, equal parts astonishment and incomprehension.

Xu Junyan realized the elevator had arrived and that someone was watching him. He immediately looked up and once again met Bae Joo-hyun's pretty face, beautiful no matter how he looked at it.

Xu Junyan gave her an apologetic look, stepped aside, and gestured for Bae Joo-hyun to get out first before he entered.

Bae Joo-hyun understood. She walked out of the elevator and passed Xu Junyan, but she really could not hold herself back. Turning around, she asked, "Um, what are you doing?"

Remembering that Xu Junyan did not understand Korean, she reached for her phone, only to find nothing. She had forgotten to bring it out!

Bae Joo-hyun immediately felt annoyed with herself for being so careless.

"Eating instant noodles dry. Want some?"

Xu Junyan actually understood her this time. Thanks to Teacher Mina's tutoring, the five hours of Korean study he had done today had truly paid off!

He could now understand some short, simple Korean sentences, and he could barely communicate with others in Korean as well. His pronunciation was just not very standard, so he sounded a little odd.

Bae Joo-hyun asked in surprise, "You speak Korean?"

"Just learned it."

Xu Junyan pointed toward Kim Min-ah's apartment.

Bae Joo-hyun turned back to look at it strangely, then looked at Xu Junyan again. She clearly did not quite believe him. Learning a language in one afternoon was simply too unbelievable.

Xu Junyan smiled faintly and did not explain much. He merely raised the Shin Ramyun in his hand, which had already been shaken into tiny pieces, gave it a light shake, and asked again, "Want some?"

Bae Joo-hyun became a little flustered.

Refuse?

He had already offered, and she really was curious about what exactly Xu Junyan had done to the Shin Ramyun.

She wanted to try it!

But how was she supposed to take it?

Judging from the way Xu Junyan had shaken it just now, the noodles had definitely been crushed into crumbs. She...

Xu Junyan noticed Bae Joo-hyun's embarrassment. He spread open his right palm, opened the bag, poured some into it, then tilted his head back and tossed it straight into his mouth.

He chewed. Mm! It really tasted quite good—just like eating dry instant noodles as a child! And since he had not added the spicy sauce packet, this crispy Shin Ramyun was not spicy at all.

Bae Joo-hyun watched blankly, especially Xu Junyan's look of enjoyment after he put it in his mouth. Was it really that delicious?

Shin Ramyun was supposed to be soaked in hot water! Crushing the noodles completely like this and even skipping the spicy sauce packet was downright heretical!

Yet despite how resistant she felt, somewhere deep inside her, a strange and guilty urge to taste it sprang up.

"Want some?" After happily finishing his first mouthful, Xu Junyan asked Bae Joo-hyun again as she continued staring at him blankly.

As if possessed, Bae Joo-hyun held out both of her small hands, palms open and pressed together at the base.

Xu Junyan's eyes widened.

Both hands? You wanted to scoop it up? Were you that greedy?

Bae Joo-hyun instantly understood. Two blushes appeared on her pretty face, and she awkwardly hurried to pull one hand back.

But Xu Junyan had already poured the crushed instant noodles into her palms. Though she was using both hands, Bae Joo-hyun's hands were small and fair, so they could not hold much anyway.

"Give it a try."

After pouring some for Bae Joo-hyun, Xu Junyan poured a little more for himself, tossed it into his mouth, and chewed with enjoyment.

Delicious!

Bae Joo-hyun copied him. Just as she was about to tilt her head back and pour it into her mouth, she suddenly realized she could not!

She had caught it in both hands. How was she supposed to pour it into her mouth? It would spill, would it not? Besides, there was so much that she could not finish it all in one bite.

Amused, Xu Junyan gestured with his hand. "You can try lowering your head and taking a bite. Or you can lick it."

The moment he finished speaking, Xu Junyan felt that the wording was somewhat wrong. Fortunately, Bae Joo-hyun did not think in any weird direction—or perhaps she simply did not understand. Copying his movements, she boldly opened her little mouth and took a bite of the "crispy noodles" in her palm.

After one bite, the sensation of those tiny noodle crumbs entering her mouth was very strange.

She could not quite describe how it felt. It was even a little dry, yet unexpectedly delicious.

Bae Joo-hyun's eyes lit up. She glanced at Xu Junyan in surprise, chewed, then lowered her head and took another bite. After finishing the second bite, she copied Xu Junyan, tilted her head back, and boldly ate the rest in one go.

"Delicious!"

Bae Joo-hyun instinctively wanted to stretch out both hands again and ask for more, but she saw that Xu Junyan had already entered the elevator and closed the doors.

"See you next time. Bye-bye."

Before the elevator doors shut, Xu Junyan smiled and waved at her.

Bae Joo-hyun was so irritated that she stamped her foot and shouted, "Hey! You only gave me one bite of Shin Ramyun, so why are you running away? Cheapskate!"

Though she said that, she did not move or press the button to reopen the elevator. It seemed she was merely venting.

When the elevator doors shut completely, Bae Joo-hyun turned toward her apartment. As she walked, she suddenly burst out laughing.

"No! What are you laughing at?"

"Have you gone stupid?"

"You're Bae Joo-hyun, Bae Joo-hyun! The famous Red Velvet leader, Irene! What are you grinning like an idiot for? Stop it right now!"

Bae Joo-hyun hurriedly shook her head and covered her face. But as she walked and finally reached her front door, the image of the two of them standing by the elevator, pouring crispy Shin Ramyun into each other's hands and eating it, surfaced in her mind. She burst out laughing again.

SKT's club base.

When Xu Junyan returned, he found the atmosphere in the training room utterly gloomy, negative to the extreme.

Xu Junyan did not need to think too hard. Remembering that SKT had a match today, he immediately understood.

With the atmosphere this bleak, they had definitely lost today's match, and probably quite badly.

Looking at the utterly miserable faces of Untara, Pirean, and Blank, Xu Junyan guessed that the team they had lost to today might even have been ranked near the very bottom.

Just as he had thought, he was completely right.

Today was SKT's second match of the spring split, against KDM. What kind of team was KDM? Put simply, from top laner to support, they did not have a single ID that anyone was familiar with!

But the thing was, these KDM players were not making their first appearance in the LCK either... Clearly, that showed just how little presence KDM's five players had in the LCK, how utterly insignificant they were.

Before the spring split had even begun, after KDM officially announced their roster for the new season, most people had already predicted that KDM would definitely finish last in this year's spring split. No one could shake them from the bottom spot.

But now, SKT had shaken it!

Just moments ago, they had narrowly lost to KDM 1–2, starting their spring split with two straight losses!