First Date
The destiny of the penalty costume, woven from so many tangled flags, couldn't haunt her forever.
The free Chuseok holiday that greeted her after comfortably passing her math makeup test had more than enough power to wash it away.
Was her daughter—so like his late wife—still too young, or was he truly busy? Either way, her father wouldn't be coming home this Chuseok.
And thanks to that, Yeoncheong found herself with the entire long holiday all to herself.
Though she'd been awake for quite a while, she was still sprawled across her bed, rolling around with a book in her hands.
Midterms were over. So was the makeup test. What she was reading had absolutely nothing to do with schoolwork—it was a book on pastry-making.
On the last day of the holiday, she'd promised to bake with the friends from her café's refreshments team, and since this would be their final properly student-run festival, everyone was burning with enthusiasm.
Yeoncheong, too, was throwing herself into preparation in her own way.
Studying the fundamentals meticulously while rolling around on her bed, she suddenly snorted with laughter.
If only I'd studied my schoolwork like this.
The thought came to her when she noticed how much time had slipped by without her realizing.
Okay, I should get up now.
Yeoncheong noted where she'd left off, set the book on the nightstand, and finally stirred herself out of bed.
“Uuungh!”
Stretching both arms forward like a cat, arching her back with her rear pushed out, she loosened up her stiff body and climbed out of bed.
Today was the day of her movie date with Seoha.
They'd agreed to meet up and have lunch together first, so she needed to start getting ready.
Yeoncheong had just opened her closet and pulled out something to wear, and was a beat slow in checking the weather when—
Seoha's message floated up at the top of her screen.
Seoha
Barely had Yeoncheong fired off her reply than the “read” notification popped up, and Seoha's next message came flying in.
For a moment she was flustered by her friend's lightning-fast response.
Yeoncheong sassed back at a friend she'd assumed was still asleep.
At the expectedly lightning-fast reply, Yeoncheong sent back the exact same message with only the punctuation changed.
She didn't reply, and went back to checking the weather, which had been her original purpose all along.
Setting her phone on the corner of the nightstand, Yeoncheong pulled clothes from the closet and muttered under her breath.
Don't worry, my butt. There's no way in hell I'm granting your wish.
Having laid her outfit out on the bed, she headed straight for the bathroom.
When Yeoncheong arrived at the meeting spot, she grinned.
She's not here yet, right? Not yet?
The streets were crowded, but Seoha's looks were impossible to miss. No matter how hard she scanned the area, there was no sign of her friend. Of course there wasn't.
There's still a whole thirty minutes before we're supposed to meet. No way she's here.
No matter how often Yeoncheong got called a dummy, she wasn't about to hand Seoha a wish coupon.
She'd arrived a full thirty minutes early.
She'd even taken a taxi, something she rarely used, just to be absolutely prepared for any variable.
Her plan was to hide and prank her friend, who would surely arrive right on time.
Hunting for a hiding spot, Yeoncheong smirked as she slipped behind a pillar into the shadows.
Imagining Seoha's startled face, she reached the pillar and—
“Raaah!”
“KYAAAAH!”
Seoha popped out of the darkness, red eyes flashing, and Yeoncheong screamed and toppled backward flat on her rear.
Passersby glanced over at the girl's shriek, but...
“You okay?”
...the sight of Seoha emerging from the shadows and offering Yeoncheong a hand sent them drifting back to their own little worlds.
Her face burning crimson, Yeoncheong grabbed her friend's hand and pulled herself up.
Slipping away from the hand that was casually brushing the dust off her backside, she shot Seoha a glare.
“What was that? How long were you watching me?”
Seoha brought a finger to her chin and let the corner of her mouth curl up slowly.
“Since you got out of the taxi and started grinning?”
“You saw EVERYTHING?! Why were you hiding?!”
Realizing her smirk must have been caught too, Yeoncheong—whose ears were now red all the way through—thumped Seoha on the arm.
“I wasn't hiding. You came straight this way, so I figured you'd seen me.”
“...Then why'd you have to scare me like that?”
Yeoncheong had marched straight toward the pillar without a hint of hesitation.
That, at least, was how it must have looked to Seoha.
“You didn't notice me even when I was right next to you, so I figured I'd give it a shot.”
“Uuugh...”
Watching Yeoncheong tremble with frustration, Seoha glanced at the watch on her wrist.
“Anyway... there's still a full thirty minutes until we were supposed to meet...”
When those red eyes bore into her, Yeoncheong couldn't hold her gaze and looked away.
“Don't tell me you came early just because you don't want to grant my wish.”
Caught dead to rights, Yeoncheong flinched. Casting about for an excuse, she jabbed a finger at Seoha instead.
“I—I just got the time wrong, that's all. What about YOU, huh? Why are you here so early?”
Seoha snorted at the transparent lie and pinched Yeoncheong's nose between her thumb and forefinger.
“Lie to me again and your nose will grow?”
“It's not a lie!”
For all her protests, Yeoncheong's blue eyes wouldn't meet Seoha's—they just darted restlessly around the plaza.
Seoha regarded her friend with a look that was almost unbearably fond, then nodded.
“The truth is... I came out early because I was worried our little Derp Yeoncheong might get the time wrong and show up ahead of schedule.”
“No, Derp Yeon—?! That's a lie—! Eeeeek...”
There were simply too many things to object to.
Unable to string together a single coherent sentence, Yeoncheong let a strange strangled noise escape her mouth.
But Seoha just shrugged, utterly unbothered.
“What? If you really did get the time wrong, then the nickname fits, doesn't it? Or... was it a lie?”
Seoha stared pointedly at Yeoncheong's nose.
Out of sheer pride alone, Yeoncheong found she couldn't bring herself to call it a lie.
Pointing at her own nose, she answered in a voice like a crawling insect.
“It's not a lie. I really did get the time wrong...”
“I see~ Then the nickname Derp Yeoncheong is accurate, too.”
Yeoncheong swallowed the growling in her chest and her lips wobbled.
“F...ine... Derp Yeoncheong it is...”
Only then did Seoha smile with satisfaction.
And then—
“F...ine... Derp Yeoncheong it is...”
Yeoncheong's own voice rang out.
From Seoha's smartphone.
“The world's such a wonderful place these days, don't you think? The recording quality is crystal clear and everything.”
Yeoncheong found herself speechless, staring at Seoha fiddling with her phone.
“You... you...!”
“I should send this to the girls. Proof that Yeoncheong officially endorsed her nickname.”
Somehow she'd already finished editing it—the clip of Yeoncheong's last words was now looping on infinite repeat.
“Delete that RIGHT NAAAAOW!”
The restaurant they'd come to for lunch—one Seoha claimed to have reserved—was steeped in elegance from the very first step inside.
Yeoncheong sat with a sulky expression, glaring at Seoha across the table.
“...That was so mean. You actually sent it.”
The group chat with Suyeon and the others was so rowdy that even now Yeoncheong had to keep her notifications silenced.
“The girls all said it was cute. They were laughing about it. Come on, let it go and let's enjoy the food.”
“I did not, I did NOT get dolled up to be called cute over something like that.”
With her forehead pressed against the table, Yeoncheong could only pray that her friends would forget the whole incident by the end of the holiday.
She was busy sweeping her blue hair back and forth across the tabletop in silent denial of reality when—
“Um... miss?”
She flinched at the male voice from above her.
The moment Yeoncheong lifted her head, the server set down the dishes and slipped away as if nothing had happened.
Once his footsteps had faded, Yeoncheong glared at her friend, who was covering her mouth and snickering.
“Why didn't you warn me?!”
“More dishes are coming. Eat up.”
Ignoring the question entirely, Seoha used her fork and knife to portion the food at the center of the table onto Yeoncheong's plate.
It would have been rude to keep sulking with food in front of her, anyway.
Fork in hand, Yeoncheong happened to glance at the spread before her and tilted her head.
“Hey, Seoha?”
“Mm?”
Seoha, who had been serving only Yeoncheong's plate, looked up.
“Didn't we come in without ordering anything?”
Could this have been someone else's order, delivered to the wrong table? Yeoncheong peered around the restaurant.
As if it were nothing, Seoha's fork and knife resumed their work.
“I ordered when I made the reservation. It's a special course you can only order in advance.”
“O-oh. Got it.”
Yeoncheong cut the food Seoha had plated for her into bite-sized pieces and brought a piece to her mouth.
The texture seemed to melt the instant it touched her tongue, the flavor bursting free in a wave.
Overwhelmed by the symphony of taste filling her mouth, any lingering sulkiness had long since evaporated.
Astonished by the flavor, she turned to Seoha with wide, sparkling blue eyes.
“This is SO good!”
“I'm glad you like it. All that agonizing over where to take you paid off.”
The soft upward curve of her lips. Eyes narrowed into the thinnest of crescents, half-hidden, half-shown.
Faced with Seoha's smile—pure delight without a shred of teasing—Yeoncheong abruptly ducked her head.
“Yeoncheong? Did something taste off?”
Even she could tell that her instinctive reaction had left both of them flustered.
As she racked her brain for something to say, she was relieved to spot Seoha's plate, still mercifully empty.
“You should eat too. Here, I'll serve you.”
Rising slightly off her seat, Yeoncheong began spooning food onto her friend's plate.
And so an absurd little spectacle unfolded: two girls serving each other's plates instead of their own.
Seoha, for her part, adamantly refused, insisting she wasn't hungry—
“If you don't eat, I'm not eating either.”
—and only after that threat-that-wasn't-quite-a-threat did she finally take a bite of the same dish Yeoncheong had started with.
“Well? Isn't it good?”
Yeoncheong bounced in her seat, waiting for Seoha's verdict.
Having enjoyed it so thoroughly herself, she was clearly dying to know how her friend felt about it.
Seoha found the sight quite adorable, and nodded while covering her mouth. Yeoncheong then urged her to try everything else she'd tasted so far.
Yeoncheong leaned back comfortably in her chair and sighed.
“That was sooo good~”
The plates, scraped spotless enough to make the chef proud, spoke volumes about the two of them.
Seoha handed her a packet of wet wipes.
“Oh, thanks.”
Yeoncheong took them and dabbed at the corners of her mouth.
“It feels a little early to head home... and I could use a walk to digest. Want to go for one?”
“Sounds good.”
The two of them rose to settle the bill.
Yeoncheong, who had naturally assumed they'd split it, froze.
What? Is something wrong with my eyes?
She hadn't expected it to be cheap—a place that required reservations obviously wouldn't be—but it was far more expensive than she'd imagined.
She rubbed her eyes, but the number didn't change.
Having confirmed there was nothing wrong with her vision, Yeoncheong stole a glance at Seoha to check if this was really correct.
But Seoha paid it all herself without so much as a blink, then tilted her head at her friend.
“Hm? Do I have something on my face?”
“No... it's not that...”
While Yeoncheong fumbled for words, other diners were finishing their meals and heading up to pay.
“Let's talk outside.”
Seoha took the hand of the malfunctioning Yeoncheong and led her out of the upscale restaurant.
Once outside, Yeoncheong collected herself and raised her phone.
“S-so, how much was it? Why'd you pay alone? I'll send you half.”
“Don't bother.”
Seoha plucked the phone right out of Yeoncheong's hand and stowed it in her own bag, shaking her head.
“I wanted to treat you. It's fine.”
“No, still, that's a bit much...”
When Yeoncheong kept grumbling, Seoha held out her hand.
“If you really can't let it go, then pay me back properly.”
“What's that supposed to mean?”
“Because I lied earlier, too.”
At the baffling non sequitur, question marks practically materialized over Yeoncheong's face.
Seoha chuckled lightly and let her lips part.
“The truth is... I came out early because I was just too excited for our date with you.”
After a brief pause, Seoha glanced quickly around at their surroundings, then leaned in close to Yeoncheong's ear and whispered.
“This is our first date, after all.”