Fourteen
Fourteen
"Wow, so this is what arcades are like these days......"
"It's not the arcade from our elementary school days. People actually call them 'game rooms' these days."
"If you say 'game room,' don't you mean an internet cafe?"
"That's true, but people usually just say 'PC bang' for those."
I can tell she really isn't the type to be familiar with this kind of stuff.
Se-na would probably have a better time than anyone if she came to a place like this.
"Wow, there's a punch machine at the arcade."
"Shall we give it a try?"
"I feel like I'll get hurt."
"It's fine."
The high score is 879.
I loosen up my shoulders, arms, and neck, then stand at a reasonable distance from the punch machine.
I clench my right fist, brace it with my left hand, and throw a proper full-swing hook.
"Eek!"
Ye-seo-noona let out a short scream, startled by the loud sound of the punch machine.
"Are you okay? Is this your first time in a place like this?"
"I was startled. You didn't get hurt, did you?"
"I'm fine. Some guys do get hurt hitting the punch machine, but that's only the ones trying too hard to get a high score......"
I turn my eyes to the punch machine.
Back when I was in college and going to the gym to do MMA, I used to hit high 900s pretty often.
I chuckle at the score of 938.
"Wow, you broke the high score."
"Do you want to try it, noona?"
"Oh, me?"
"Come on, come on, stand there."
Clink.
I insert a 500-won coin, and the punch mitt raises itself to a good height for hitting.
I grab Ye-seo-noona by both shoulders, teach her how to make a fist and throw a punch, and then position her.
"Good, just extend your arm straight out like that."
It's not as loud as when I did it, but Ye-seo-noona is startled even by that.
Next up is shooting.
Ye-seo-noona is delighted to see a small keychain with an unknown character drawn on it.
After losing while running together on the monitor screen, she gets a little down, so I let her drive the car while I shoot zombies with her.
Ye-seo-noona giggles, as if all of this is a first for her.
"This is so much fun, Jin-man-ah."
"Glad we came, right? Ah. Do you want to try the claw machine too? I'm not very good at it, but some people have a surprising talent for this."
"I've never tried it either."
"The settings are different for every machine, so just give it a go."
Next to the area filled with various game machines, several claw machines are lined up, waiting for customers.
Whoosh.
When I grab Ye-seo-noona's arms with both hands, her body flinches.
She stands in front of the machine, led by my hand, pretending she couldn't resist.
I coolly insert a 10,000-won bill into the machine I chose since there were no other customers.
"Give it a try, noona."
"Mm, okay?"
Ye-seo-noona cautiously grabs the console.
Her movements are very careful, yet like a cat quietly stalking its prey.
Clack!
She presses the button, but the doll gets caught and then heartlessly falls from the claw.
"Augh, what a shame."
"You have more chances, so keep trying."
But Ye-seo-noona misses ten times in a row.
Did she really want that squirrel-looking doll?
I reach past Ye-seo-noona, who is looking at the machine with an annoyed expression, and insert another 10,000-won bill into the machine.
"Ji, Jin-man-ah. It's a waste of money, let's stop."
"Wait a second, noona."
I'm not great at claw machines either, but at that distance, it's doable.
Careful maneuvering.
Only after dropping it a few times was I finally able to get the squirrel doll in my hand.
"Noona, here."
"Wow, Jin-man, you're amazing. How do you win things like this?"
"Win? It's just because you set it up well for me. I'm getting a bit thirsty, shall we go get some coffee?"
"Okay!"
Ye-seo-noona tucks the doll under her arm.
And she takes my hand with her other hand.
"I saw a cafe nearby on the way here."
"Sounds good."
We enter the cafe, and there are quite a lot of people.
Naturally, most of them are couples.
Those who came alone or with friends of the same gender mostly just buy coffee and leave quickly.
"Most of them are couples......"
"That's how spring is, I guess."
"I know how to be a couple too."
Ye-seo-noona looked at me with an intense gaze, as if she were feeling something was lacking.
I don't dislike her either, though.
'She's a good person, so why don't I see her as a woman?'
I'm sure I felt a flutter when we first went on the blind date.
Sip.
As I drink my coffee, I find myself harboring thoughts that would hurt Ye-seo-noona's feelings if she heard them.
Maybe it's because I don't have the luxury, and I'm not really paying attention to my surroundings.
"Noona, I didn't ask when we first met because I thought I'd look too materialistic, but may I ask what you do for a living?"
"Mm, me?"
"Yes. As for me, I just messed around in college and somehow managed to get into a public institution, but no matter how I look at it, you don't seem like the type of person who would hang out with a guy like me."
Even though Cha Ye-seo is dressed casually, she is a woman who exudes a certain elegance and grace.
That's why I was curious.
What on earth does a woman like this lack that she would like me?
"That's embarrassing. I wasn't going to say, but since you asked."
Actually, I already know because I heard it from Jeong Hae-in, but still, like this...
It's only right to hear it from her own mouth.
"I work as a professor at N University."
"A professor?"
"Mm-hmm."
Then, Ye-seo-noona confesses a shocking fact in a shy tone.
"Actually, you're the first guy I've ever gone out with, just the two of us, to a cafe, an arcade, or an art museum."
"What?"
"There were quite a few men who hit on me, but when I was younger, I was just running forward looking only ahead, so I didn't get close to men."
Isn't she still thirty? It's too early to say she's old.
And even if she is thirty, her appearance is believable as being in her late 20s.
I don't think she'd be without men hitting on her even now.
Everything is a first?
"But after I became a professor, men seem to find my title burdensome and now they find me intimidating."
"Is that why you didn't really want to reveal your job?"
"Well, yeah. I was a little scared. I was worried that if you knew I was a professor, you might find me a bit intimidating too. You know the image of a female professor. Intelligent, but also a woman who is quite difficult to approach."
Ye-seo-noona fidgets with her hands.
Is she scared in advance, thinking she might be rejected by me too?
"Well, I don't know. To me, you're just a comfortable noona."
"W-what?"
"Don't worry about what others say. Among the people who interact with Ye-seo-noona, how many have actually had a proper conversation with you?"
Has there really been no one who said this to her until now?
Ye-seo-noona suddenly stops talking.
Ah, damn, now that I've said it, it's a bit cringey.
"......Thank you."
It's a relief she didn't seem to take it badly.
Anyway, I need something to change the atmosphere.
"If you're thankful, you should buy this."
"Huh? You just paid for the coffee, Jin-man..."
"Not for me, for Hae-in. Actually, Hae-in asked to have dinner tonight, but I pushed it to next week to come out with you."
As expected, nothing beats talking about other people in times like this.
"Hae-in? Oh, is that so?"
"She was the one who told me to go hang out with you first."
"Did she say anything else by any chance?"
Well, she did say this and that.
Like how smitten I must be to do this for her, etc.
"Not really? If I can't remember, it probably wasn't anything important even if she did say something."
"Pfft, really? Well, Hae-in does talk a lot. But she's not the type to have a loose tongue."
"I only know Jeong Hae-in from work. What is Jeong Hae-in like in your eyes?"
I ask Ye-seo-noona, recalling that Jeong Hae-in has a medical license.
If she passed the national exam, her original career path must have been to be a doctor.
I sense this is a good opportunity to hear why she quit and ended up rolling around in this institution.
"Hae-in? Hmm, she's become very lively lately, but in the past, that child was literally a workaholic."
"A workaholic?"
"You know how there were kids who studied until their noses bled when they were in school? Hae-in was one of those types."
Oh, Jeong Hae-in.
She always talks nonsense, so I didn't think much of it, but this is an unexpected side of her.
If the evaluation from those around her is this generous, it means she really is a tough person even when seen up close.
"I guess you knew. That Hae-in went to medical school."
"I didn't know, I found out by chance a while ago. We don't really share our pasts at work. As long as you do your job well and are a good person, that's all that matters."
"She didn't just graduate, either. I heard she was always the top student in her department. The kind of kids who are smart and also put in incredible effort. Hae-in was that kind of kid, and even to me, she was sometimes scary-tough."
......If that's the case, she must have quit because something really happened.
I hadn't paid much attention to the usual Jeong Hae-in because she often gets scolded by the team leader and talks nonsense.
I recall that the work she was in charge of was always thorough.
The collaboration reports, which couldn't be produced without being good at practical work, always boasted perfection in my eyes.
"Looking at her now, she's a total dork. But she's a scary dork because she's good at her job."
"Pfft, is that so?"
Ye-seo-noona can't hold back her laughter at the way I define her in a single word.
If someone who knows the past Jeong Hae-in is laughing like that, it might mean the current Jeong Hae-in has a completely huge gap from her past.
"Since she was top of her class in medical school, she was a talent who could have entered any department she wanted as long as she got through her internship. But she suddenly quit her internship and went into hiding."
"Hmm, is that so?"
"And then, about two months later, Hae-in came to find me. She asked if she could stay with me for a few days. Hae-in and I weren't without connection, but we weren't that close because it was a teaching assistant and student relationship."
Is Ye-seo-noona lost in the past?
She continues her story without being conscious of my presence.
I didn't stop her because I, too, became curious about the person Jeong Hae-in after seeing her medical license.
"Actually, I was working as a medical school teaching assistant as a side job while pursuing my doctorate, so I was a bit surprised because we didn't have much of a connection. Hae-in and I have different majors. Our fields didn't completely overlap, but we were connected somehow like that."
This woman in front of me who is saying this is also quite the workaholic, though.
It's a bit surprising that she worked as a teaching assistant while pursuing a doctorate.
That's not the point to be surprised about right now, but when I recall the image of the teaching assistant hyung from my college days who was dying while going through graduate school......
"From what I see, you seem like an amazing person too, noona."
"Mm?"
"I know how tough it is to be a teaching assistant while attending graduate school. I haven't done it myself, but the teaching assistant hyung I was close with in college always had a face that looked like he was dying."
"It's embarrassing to be praised like this. I haven't lived my life to be praised by anyone."
I don't know when I finished all the coffee, but when I suck on the straw, I hear a slurping sound.
On the other hand, noona's cup isn't even half empty.
In this case, I should buy another cup.
"Still, compared to Hae-in, I've lived a pretty average life, so it feels a bit awkward."
"No, you're amazing too, noona. I was just a college student who was the definition of average."
Ye-seo-noona's smile as she laughs at my words is really pretty.
Someday, someone will be able to monopolize that smile, right?
"Noona, shall we get going now?"
"Sure. Where are we going next?"
"I want to eat meat. Let's go eat meat."
As we leave the cafe, Ye-seo-noona's hand rests on mine.
But is it right to keep holding this hand?
That Ye-seo-noona and I could be friends who have fun together, but that it wouldn't turn into love.
Even if she's comfortable, my heart, which doesn't flutter like it did when we first met, is proving it.
Even while agonizing over it, I couldn't let go of her hand and headed toward the car.