Seo Won-jae took out a ballpoint pen and a light purple sticky note, writing each character with firm pressure.

You really...

He read the words aloud through his lips to check if he wrote them correctly. A sentence is supposed to have the writer's intent match the reader's interpretation, but no matter how he looked at it, it seemed suspicious from the start.

You really want to be crocodile chestnut?

...Hmm.

He didn't like it. No matter how he looked at it, this was a threat. He couldn't afford to end up at a police station while trying to share neighborly warmth. Won-jae frowned and drew a large X over the word 'chestnut' (bam).

It's not chestnut, it's meal (bap). Meal.

He had no intention of feeding Guest to Zero. In the first place, a crocodile wouldn't... anyway, that wasn't the point.

He could have contacted Guest by phone. He could have opened the front door and pressed the doorbell. Yet, Won-jae was struggling with a sticky note much smaller than his palm.

He couldn't tell if the position of Oyabun was naturally like this, or if it was his own peculiar constitution to put so much effort into calling a neighbor even at the age of forty-five.

After agonizing for a long time, Won-jae finally corrected the sentence.

You really want to be crocodile meal?

...Is this not it either?

It was ambiguous whether it was a threat to come before being turned into crocodile food, or a dinner invitation disguised as one. Won-jae let out a short sigh and added small text below the sentence.

I've made food. I'm making takoyaki too. Come eat.

This should be enough. Probably.

Won-jae smoothed the sticky note with his fingertips and stepped out of his front door. He walked a few steps down the hallway and stopped in front of the neighbor's door. Instead of pressing the bell, he stuck the note on one side of the door and pressed it down with his finger.

Staring at the door for a moment, he took out his pen like someone who had missed something and added one more line at the bottom.

Zero says he's hungry.

Done!

Only then did he nod with a satisfied face.

Sharing food with a neighbor was a good thing. Showing off the decorated crocodile tank was too. Since he had even bought a new takoyaki pan, it was all true that he needed someone to try the test batch.

So, this was strictly for the sake of neighborly socializing.

Won-jae reached that conclusion and returned to his home. However, he decided not to dwell on the fact that he looked back at the light purple sticky note on the neighbor's door one last time just before closing his own.