Chapter 42
After a long pause, that’s what Joo Kwon-oh said to me as I was anxiously fretting about whether he was badly hurt.
I was so dumbfounded that a deflating sound escaped my mouth. Looking closely, there was a small drop of blood on Joo Kwon-oh’s lower lip.
“Your lip…”
“Oh no, we’re out of time. We need to choose the photos.”
“Huh?”
“What do you want? Which ones do you like?”
Joo Kwon-oh suddenly urged me to look at the screen. As he said, the screen was counting down the allotted time. Feeling rushed along with him, I quickly scanned the photos.
“Uh? W-wait.”
“Hurry. Choose four photos.”
He had already chosen the photo where he was biting my earlobe with a mischievous expression and the one of us kissing, but he asked as if I had all the choices.
But I liked those two photos too, so I left them and chose additional ones from the rest.
Then a screen for decorating the photos popped up. After touching the screen a few times, Joo Kwon-oh raised both hands in surrender and put them behind his neck.
“I’m not good at this. You do it, Jeong-ha. You’re the art student.”
With very little time left until the photos were printed, I quickly added a few emoticons.
We barely made it within the time limit.
“Oh, as expected of an art student. It has a nice feel to it.”
A moment later, Joo Kwon-oh admiringly looked at the photos that came out of the machine.
We amicably split the photos, one for each of us. Then we lined up at a cafe known for its delicious Einspänner, got takeout, and walked side by side down a quiet alley behind the busy street.
When I said it was the most delicious coffee I’d had recently, Joo Kwon-oh smiled and said it was worth his effort of persistently searching Instagram. Then he confessed that although he came because I liked coffee, he actually doesn’t know much about coffee tastes.
That was unexpected. I thought I had seen him drinking coffee quite often.
“Then don’t you like this either?”
“It’s tasty because it’s sweet. But I’m not sure if it’s much better than other cafes.”
Joo Kwon-oh said, licking the cream on top of the Einspänner.
“But I can make it for you when you come over to my place.”
“You don’t have to go that far… We can just buy it.”
“No. I’ll make it for you, so come over again. Come and stay overnight.”
“……”
How can he say “stay overnight” so casually? He’s shameless.
“You don’t want to?”
I shook my head.
“Let’s eat something you like too, Kwon-oh.”
“I prefer Korean food.”
Come to think of it, he did say he was good at cooking Korean food. Does he dislike things like pizza and pasta?
“Is that why you hardly ate at the pizza place last time?”
I casually brought up the past incident I had kept in mind, pretending to ask lightly.
“Pizza? Ah, I just can’t cook it, but I don’t mind eating it. And that time…”
Joo Kwon-oh stopped walking, slightly frowning one eyebrow as if trying to recall the memory.
“That time?”
“I could only see your lips, so I couldn’t focus on eating.”
“……”
“I was half out of my mind then.”
Joo Kwon-oh’s gaze fell on my lips.
“W-what!”
I looked around excessively, worried that someone might have heard.
“Even during class, I kept thinking about Ryu Jeong-ha’s lips. When you were biting your lips in front, I felt like I was going crazy wanting to eat them. How could I pay attention to the pizza?”
“……”
“Honestly, I don’t even remember what I ate that day.”
“I… thought you didn’t like pizza because you barely touched it. I was blaming myself, thinking I had chosen the wrong menu.”
“Really? Damn, was I that rude?”
Joo Kwon-oh jumped in surprise.
“Y-you were sitting there with a really bored expression.”
When I explained, imitating Joo Kwon-oh from that time as if tattling, Joo Kwon-oh was indignant.
“To dare to do that with Jeong-ha in front of me. What a crazy bastard.”
“……”
Despite the fierce criticism, I couldn’t completely erase the hurt from that time. Perhaps reading the dubious look on my face, Joo Kwon-oh awkwardly scratched his cheek.
“I was kind of troubled then. Think about it. Did you think I ever imagined I’d want to rub lips with a guy in my life?”
“Really? You’ve never had such thoughts about a guy before?”
“About other guys besides you? Do you seriously think that’s possible?”
Joo Kwon-oh frowned as if the mere imagination was disgusting.
But if it was his first time, how could Joo Kwon-oh so naturally and confidently demand a kiss from another man? He didn’t even forcefully demand it, but actually seduced me.
From that perspective, Joo Kwon-oh is undoubtedly the embodiment of flirting. He’s bewitching not just women, but men too, without discrimination.
We continued bickering as we walked, spontaneously entering shops we saw to look around. Like any couple or friends.
Before meeting Joo Kwon-oh today, I had worried a bit about whether it would be awkward to date him. It was a foolish concern. Joo Kwon-oh brought up new conversation topics without a moment of awkwardness. He responded to my bland comments as if they were great and interesting. Even that process maintained a not-too-excessive, simple line.
So at some point, I found myself foolishly wishing that time would pass slowly, just for today.
As we walked around like that, we soon got hungry and went to a meat restaurant for dinner. Even though this wasn’t a place Joo Kwon-oh had researched in advance, it was delicious.
Joo Kwon-oh not only grilled the meat for me but also insisted on paying. This time, I couldn’t let him treat me, so I stepped up to pay, but the employee at the counter took Joo Kwon-oh’s card.
“How can you pay for everything? It must have been expensive.”
“You bought clothes, Jeong-ha.”
He grinned satisfactorily, looking me up and down.
“What does that have to do with this? And those clothes are mine.”
“It’s related to me too because my eyes enjoyed it.”
He even whistled as he put the card returned by the employee into his pocket.
When we left the meat restaurant, it had become completely dark outside. Feeling like we should part ways now, I felt a sense of urgency.
I had been thinking about how to spend more time with Joo Kwon-oh since before entering the restaurant. I had come to a conclusion of sorts while eating.
I’m not sure if I can say what I’ve been thinking about. I took several deep breaths, trying to calm my pounding heart.
“Um… Kwon-oh.”
“Yeah?”
“Since you paid for everything we did today…”
I glanced up at Joo Kwon-oh, swallowing dryly. The corners of my lips trembled from nervousness.
“Do you want to come to my place?”
The truth is, I enjoyed all the time I spent with Joo Kwon-oh today, but separately from that, I was a bit dissatisfied with his attitude that seemed overly familiar with this kind of course.
It felt as if he had experienced similar courses before.
So I wanted to take him to a completely unfamiliar place, somewhere he couldn’t move according to any calculations.
If it was a place I knew well and conversely, a place Joo Kwon-oh would find unfamiliar, there was only one such place.
My studio apartment.
Joo Kwon-oh’s eyes widened for a moment, as if surprised. Silence flowed between us for a few seconds.
But strangely, at this moment, there was no fear of rejection. Perhaps because my romance cells, awakened after 21 years, had become quite active, I had reached a level where I could catch green lights quite well, and even sometimes turn them on myself.
“…Okay.”
Joo Kwon-oh answered in a low voice.
At the same time, a green light turned on by my romance cells flashed in my head.
“Do you want something to drink?”
“Yeah.”
“Um, just a moment.”
As soon as we entered my studio apartment, a strange atmosphere flowed. Since it wasn’t a large space, Joo Kwon-oh couldn’t readily enter the area where the bed was and lingered around the entrance.
I tried to act as nonchalant as possible, but all my senses were focusing maximum attention on Joo Kwon-oh.
“You can sit comfortably.”
When I handed him a glass of orange juice, Joo Kwon-oh nodded and took it. He must have been quite thirsty, as he downed the full glass of juice in one go.
Then he smiled and said,
“Thanks.”
“…It’s nothing.”
“Ah, I’ll send you the photos we took now.”
Joo Kwon-oh put down his bag, sat on the single-person sofa, and took out his phone. I brought the desk chair next to him and looked at the photos we had taken together today.
Most were photos of us together or of food, but there were also occasional photos of just me.
“When did you take this?”
“Look at those lips.”
I fidgeted in embarrassment as soon as I saw my face in the album.
I’m not sure what I was doing with one cheek puffed out, but in any case, my cheeks looked excessively puffy.
“What’s this? It’s weird.”
“Why? It’s just cute.”
“Delete it.”
“No.”
Joo Kwon-oh turned the screen towards me and chuckled teasingly.
“Why are your cheeks like jelly?”
“Give it here.”
“So squishy.”
As I urgently reached out, Joo Kwon-oh quickly pulled the phone back. I tried to follow the movement but suddenly stopped.
“……”
“……”
I could clearly see Joo Kwon-oh’s intention, hoping I would fall over onto his body.
When I just held out my hand, not falling for his trick and demanding he hand it over, one of Joo Kwon-oh’s eyebrows raised sharply. His expression seemed to say, “Oh really?”
“It’s not working.”
“Of course not.”
“As expected, Jeong-ha is quick-witted.”
“If you know that, delete it quickly.”
“You know what? Actually, it doesn’t matter if you catch on. If you don’t fall for it today, I’m just going to push you down anyway.”
“W-what?”
Joo Kwon-oh suddenly pushed me towards the bed. Then he immediately climbed on top of me. His movements were very swift and efficient.
As my view suddenly flipped, Joo Kwon-oh carefully examined me as I stared with wide eyes in surprise.
“How can a person’s face look like this? If I bite it, juice might come out. Peach flavor.”
“…Pervert.”
When I covered my face with my hands, Joo Kwon-oh brought his mouth to my hands and made kissing sounds.
“You don’t know how pretty your hands are too.”
“I-it tickles. I told you to delete the photo.”
“Okay. After we do all this.”
