My First Blind Date

The morning of my long-awaited first blind date finally dawned. Normally I'd be unable to contain my excitement from the crack of Sunday morning, but my steps out into the living room felt heavy as lead.

Yesterday's decision to go grave-sweeping with Harin hadn't been a bad one. We got some rare father-daughter time, shared a bit of what was really on our minds, and managed to grow a little closer in the process.

Even if it was only at Aunt's restaurant, we had our first meal out as father and daughter. We walked the busy streets together, and I even gave her her first gift.

I still can't believe it—those dreamlike hours when I finally felt the hope that we might become an ordinary family.

But. It. Only. Took. Thirty. Seconds. For the dream to shatter. All thanks to Jinho, who called at the worst possible moment and set up a blind date I never wanted, dealing a massive blow to Harin's innocence.

Of course she acted mature about it, saying she was fine and even encouraging her dad's free love life. But she's still just a second-year high schooler.

Why did I forget that this is the age when they're stuffed full of bravado and don't even know what they're saying?

And the way it all went down was ironic as hell. I'd just poured my heart out playing the romantic who only had eyes for Mom, and the second we got home I brought up the blind date? What kind of human being does that?

From Harin's perspective, of course she'd think the clothes gift was just a bribe to shut her up. With bad luck piling on bad luck, here I was sighing in front of her ironclad-secure room door first thing in the morning.

Knock knock.

"Harin? You up?"

"..."

I mustered the courage to speak first, but not even a breath came back. I knew better than anyone that Harin wasn't the type to sleep in. This was pure cold shoulder.

Hoo... What can I do? I really did mess with the feelings of my sensitive high school daughter, so I have to take full responsibility.

In the end, with a heavy heart, I had to get ready for that damn blind date or whatever it was. I put on the clothes I'd bought last time, roughly fixed my hair, and stood in front of the mirror.

Is this enough not to disgrace Jinho's name as the introducer? But if I go looking this dark and keep my mouth shut, the other person is going to feel uncomfortable, right?

Grin...

So I forced my facial muscles open into a smile. Just because I'm in a bad mood doesn't mean I should ruin her weekend too, right?

Creeeak...

But of course, right then Harin ended her long silence and opened her door. The moment she stepped into the living room she came face-to-face with me practicing my smile in the mirror.

"New clothes?"

"Huh? Oh... I've had these for a while."

"Have a good time."

Thud! Click-click!

Just like that the father-daughter conversation ended in an instant. Fuck, why did she have to come out right then?

This situation is way too awkward, isn't it? Last night I made a ton of excuses about how it was a blind date I never wanted.

But the first thing she sees when she wakes up is me in new clothes, standing in front of the mirror with a big smile? What is Harin supposed to think?

In the end I left the house with the misunderstanding only deepened. I wonder if I can even finish this blind date safely in this mood.

I arrived at the meeting place right on time for lunch at twelve-thirty. A cozy fusion restaurant with a sharp, distinctive style.

Barely pulling myself together, I entered, and the staff guided me to the pre-reserved seat. Jinho seemed to have booked a nice sunny spot by the window.

The weather was good and it was something of a hot spot, so just people-watching would make time fly. But it wasn't enough to lift me from the gloom that had seeped into my bones because of Harin.

Calm down. This is my first ever blind date, right?

I decided to look at the photo Jinho had shown me before and firm up my resolve anew.

Name: Kwon Sehee. Thirty-four this year, same age as me.

Jinho said she was a coordinator at the dermatology clinic he goes to, but looking at the photo there was no way she looked thirty-four.

Is it because ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠she works in what they call the capital of beauty in South Korea, the land of plastic surgery and makeup? The word "urban chic" might as well have been invented for ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠her.

Sharp nose bridge and a confident expression. Even to fashion-sense-less me, her clothes and accessories rivaled a celebrity's.

Her Instagram follower count alone put her at influencer level. Do I really deserve to meet someone this amazing?

Jingle!

Just then the door opened, and it was so dazzling it was like a total solar eclipse. The short woman who appeared from afar was Sehee herself, exactly as in the photo.

"This way..."

Guided by the staff, she approached. I'd braced myself for Instagram filters and imagined the real thing, but meeting her in person she looked like she'd stepped straight out of Instagram—not a bit different.

Her height probably didn't even hit 160 cm—pretty short. But the presence of her bust, swaying left and right with every step, was anything but small.

Even if I put Yu Jiyeon, the owner of the biggest heart(?) I know, next to her, it wouldn't compare. Overwhelming was the only word that came to mind.

"Here we are."

Finally she arrived right in front of me. In that moment it was like my brain got a quick format—I didn't think of Harin at all.

Without realizing it I shot up from my seat and immediately bowed my head.

"Ah, hello..."

"Huh? This doesn't seem to be the place?"

"...?"

But what the hell? The moment Sehee saw me she looked greatly flustered and asked the staff.

"It should be? This is Hwang Jinho's reservation seat."

"That can't be right? Mr. Hwang clearly said he was the same age as me..."

"That's me!"

"...?"

Sehee still seemed unable to process the situation, her expression stiffening. But it really is me!

Because of Saiyan Syndrome there's just a little visual distortion, but you and I are same-age friends, okay?

"Ah, no... H-how..."

"I'm just a 'little' baby-faced, but I'm thirty-four this year. If you want, I can show you my ID."

"..."

Somehow things felt twisted from the start. Sehee, upon meeting her blind date, started looking around at the staff and surroundings as if she'd suffered some great humiliation.

We somehow sat down, but her eyes were still uneasy. In a voice full of suspicion, like she'd witnessed a mythical unicorn or some cryptid, she asked.

"Now that I look, you do seem similar to the photo... I'd heard you were baby-faced, but I thought the photo was just heavily edited. But this..."

"You look exactly like your photo yourself, Sehee. You look at least five years younger than me."

"Are you making fun of me right now?"

"..."

I know. It's five years younger by thirty-four standards—if it were five years under my face value, it'd be straight to prison.

"It's a bit shocking. This is really my first time with something like this. I thought I'd met all sorts of people working at the dermatology clinic..."

"But if you look closely, there are times I look thirty-four."

"How so?"

"..."

I don't know either. Why do I have to hear this crap on my first blind date because of that damn Saiyan Syndrome?

"W-well, why don't we order, Sehee? What do you like?"

Let's just order food first. But I wonder how to kill time until the food comes.

"I heard from Jinho that you work at a dermatology clinic?"

"Yes. I'm a coordinator who does a kind of consulting work. It might seem a bit lacking to someone who works at Jeil Shipping..."

"Jeil... Shipping?"

If it's Jeil Shipping, even someone with no interest in logistics would have heard of it at least once—one of the top shipping companies in the country. But why does Sehee think I work there?

"No? Mr. Hwang clearly said so. That you work at Jeil Shipping and already made team leader."

"..."

My conscience wouldn't let me say I'd never even applied to Jeil Shipping. Of course my title is team leader, but the only employee is Eom Chaewon, and I do more work than her?

"Um... Sehee? Sorry, but could I step out for a quick call with a client? My work doesn't really have weekends, so there's an urgent call I need to take."

"Go ahead."

I quickly slipped out of the restaurant and called Jinho. Luckily he seemed free and picked up right away.

Just listening made my ears feel dirty; I lost all words. And at that level he's not a bad boy—he's just a motherfucking piece of shit, isn't he?

Continuing the call with Jinho wasn't going to help the situation one bit. Better hang up and go back to Sehee.

"Sorry, Sehee! Kept you waiting long?"

"Not at all. But you must be incredibly busy? Is that because it's such a successful company?"

"About that... Sehee? There must have been some message mix-up. Actually I don't work at Jeil Shipping."

No matter how I thought about it, doing things the way Jinho said wasn't the decent thing to do. But apparently this was an even bigger shock to Sehee.

"Y-you don't? Then Mr. Hwang lied to me..."

"It's kind of like an affiliate! You know how even Hynix is an SK affiliate, but when people introduce themselves they say Hynix, not SK?"

Of course comparing Jungso Shipping to Hynix was basically an insult to Maxwell's equations. But I had to lower Sehee's expectations somehow if I was going to salvage this later.

"I-is that so? It's different from what I heard. Your father is a doctor, right?"

"He... was a doctor, but he passed away. He was working with Doctors Without Borders and got shot by rebels in Afghanistan. Jinho was so busy he never made it to the funeral, so he probably still doesn't know."

"I-is that so? Then you live with your mother who retired from teaching?"

"Uh, Mom? Mom passed away much earlier. Maybe Jinho mixed her up with my aunt? My aunt taught for thirty years, retired, and opened a pork cutlet place."

I spun whatever I could to match reality as closely as possible. Of course the more I did, the darker Sehee's expression grew.

"W-well, it's quite different from what I knew. But at our age parents can pass early. And even if it's not Jeil Shipping, if it's an affiliate of that level the salary should be pretty high and the future bright, right?"

"Uh... do I need a high salary?"

"What? How much do you make now?"

"Well, I negotiated for thirty million this year..."

"Thirty million!? I make forty million and you're making thirty!?"

Sehee's eyes bulged as if that was farmhand wages from the Joseon era, not a real salary. But isn't that just how shitty little companies are?

"W-well, youth unemployment is at an all-time high, and considering I joined as a new hire..."

"No? Among the people around me, you're the first thirty-four-year-old making thirty million."

"..."

That's because you work at a dermatology clinic and only see those kinds of people. How many men in their thirties in this country can even afford to throw money at their skin when just surviving is hard?

"Excuse me, but... is the place you're living in now owned?"

"Not owned—jeonse. I came to Seoul in a hurry so for now I'm on a jeonse lease..."

"Jeonse—so like an apartment?"

"Ah... no? It's called Nobel Townhouses, a kind of villa..."

"It's not a villa, it's a townhouse, right? The name itself says townhouse."

"But when I got it through the realtor they called it a villa..."

"Don't you know realtors always bump everything up a grade? How can this be... how can this be..."

Sehee was so thoroughly disappointed she wouldn't even listen to me anymore. Well, from the first impression a guy who looked more than ten years younger than her had shown up, so her pride was probably a little bruised.

And then learning that a thirty-four-year-old was making a measly thirty million at a shitty little company while living in a townhouse pretending to be a villa—yeah, disappointment made sense.

Bringing up Harin to her face on top of that would be literal suicide. Meanwhile the clueless waiter brought out the appetizers.

"Your appetizers are here."

"..."

Sehee didn't even look like she intended to pick up her fork. Whine... Is a blind date supposed to be like this?

Aren't first meetings supposed to be about ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠learning each other's hobbies and values and slowly building a relationship?

But I got entrance-cut on basic specs alone. Sehee no longer saw any value in staying here.

"Um... Sehee? Even if my job is nothing special right now and my salary is low, you never know how life turns out, right? How about we just eat and slowly get to know each other..."

"You've already told me everything—what more is there to learn? So what's your plan going forward? Thinking of starting a business like Mr. Hwang?"

"Business... I've thought about it! My dream is to build some experience and connections where I am now, then start my own shipping company!"

I actually had no such dream. But if I didn't show some kind of vision, Sehee looked ready to burst into tears and run out any second.

"Business takes seed money—not just anyone can do it. These days even a townhouse jeonse runs around three hundred million, and you're pouring your whole paycheck into loan payments, right?"

"Ah! But I actually don't have a single debt."

"Really? Did you inherit something? How much have you saved?"

"Excluding the jeonse deposit, available cash is about seven hundred million..."

"Seven hundred million!?"

"...?"

For a moment I had the illusion that Sehee's eyeballs had turned into dollar signs. Then she started seriously thinking.

It felt like she was sunk in endless agony between my many flaws and the assets I possessed. But these days there are so many rich people that a mere seven hundred million couldn't possibly cover all my shortcomings...

"What do you usually do after work?"

Apparently it could. Only then did Sehee pick up her fork, smile with crow's feet, and beam brightly.

Having finished what seemed like an endless intro, we finally entered the main game.