Just One Day (2)
I'd originally meant only to try the outfit on for real. But taking it off would mean wasting even more time fretting over what to wear, and more than anything else...
Just wear it....
I couldn't bring myself to look away from those pitiful eyes, so I ended up stepping outside just like this.
"Philin. You're so pretty."
"Could you stop saying that already?"
"But you really are too pretty."
"Fine, I get it. I get it, so just..."
Even if he didn't keep saying it, every passerby seemed to be staring as they walked by. Between the ribbed cardigan and the hot pants—both items that put my figure on full display—I silently vowed that the moment today's schedule was over, I would throw every last piece of this outfit away.
"So what are we doing today?"
Just how grand a plan had he cooked up to ask me to spend the whole weekend hanging out with him? If this turned out to be some motel date, I was fully prepared to slap him across the face and immediately lock myself indoors for the rest of the day.
"Want to go ride bikes?"
What was with this wholesome energy?
"Bikes...?"
"They rent tandem bikes at the riverside park. Let's go ride one."
Wholesome, and with a retro vibe thrown in for good measure. What was I supposed to do with this pure-hearted boy? The fact that I'd been the one spinning my thoughts in a more suggestive direction made me feel downright filthy by comparison.
"Fine. Whatever. Let's do it."
"Okay!"
Watching Junhyuk pump his fist, I couldn't help but snort out a laugh. Was he really that happy?
"But before we go bike riding."
"Huh?"
"I'm hungry."
We had to take care of this first. I'd woken up and immediately burned through the morning fretting over clothes without eating a single bite, and now I was starving to death.
If I went bike riding in this state, I might actually collapse from exhaustion. A girl's body was fragile, after all. Ahem.
"Alright. What do you want to eat?"
I was so hungry I couldn't even wait for Junhyuk to search around on his phone, so I just pointed at whatever shop happened to catch my eye.
"There. Let's just go there."
"A pork cutlet place?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"We could still find somewhere a little nicer..."
I understood wanting a proper meal for one of the few chances we'd have to eat today, but I was hungry.
"You looking down on pork cutlets? What's wrong with pork cutlets?"
"Wouldn't something a bit more fancy be better?"
"Pork cutlets are fancy. You slice them up all elegant, dip them in the sauce, then take a bite of pickled radish and a green chili pepper dunked in soybean paste—do you have any idea how incredible that is?"
The description came out so middle-aged-man that I scratched my head in embarrassment. Still, Junhyuk was hesitating, still hung up on the idea of a "proper meal," so I needed to get him moving.
"Come on, let's just go!"
I grabbed Junhyuk's hand and marched us straight toward the pork cutlet restaurant.
"Wha—!"
The dumbfounded look on his face as he got dragged along was hilarious. I snickered and stepped inside, calling out "Table for two!" before claiming a seat.
"See? Easy."
For a place we'd walked into completely at random, the interior was clean and the restaurant felt decent enough. A male server came over to our table, setting down menus along with bowls of soup. Looks like it was the Western-style pork cutlet kind of place.
"What are you getting?"
I scanned the menu first, picked something without much fuss, and held it out to Junhyuk—
"Why's your face like that?"
His faintly flushed cheeks were twitching as he tried to hold back a smile, and it was clearly not nothing. Watching him keep fidgeting with his hands, I quickly caught on to the reason.
"Last time you went and hugged me out of nowhere, even touched my horns, and now you're playing coy?"
"N-No! Back then I'd been drinking, and also... I didn't know the horns meant something like that yet."
"Then what did you think they were?"
"Like some kind of super ticklish weak spot? Anyway, I genuinely never thought they had any sexual meaning. Really."
"Alright, then could you keep that kind of talk a little quieter?"
He was so proactive about everything it was a real problem.
"...I just grabbed your hand because you were being too slow. Don't read into it."
With that, I lowered my head and focused entirely on spooning up my soup. Junhyuk quietly opened the menu and shifted his gaze there as well. After a moment of thought, he seemed to decide and called the server over.
"One spicy pork cutlet, please, and—"
"One cheese pork cutlet. Oh, and actually."
I asked the male server to wait a second and held the menu back out to Junhyuk.
"Don't you want buckwheat noodles? The bibim noodles look good. My treat."
"No, I'm fine."
"I want them. I can't finish a whole order by myself."
When Junhyuk nodded, I turned back to the server with a friendly smile and finished the order.
"Sorry about that. Could you add one buckwheat bibim noodles to the order we just placed?"
"Yes, of course."
The server gave a polite bow and headed back toward the counter, but not before glancing our way a couple more times.
What was that about? I tilted my head—
"Philin."
Junhyuk's expression had soured a little.
"What?"
"Don't smile like that at just anyone."
Oh, for crying out loud. I was so floored I actually laughed. The rose-colored glasses were on full force with this one.
"Yeom Junhyuk, take it easy. I'm not so... um..."
Saying "I'm not that pretty" out loud was something my sense of identity absolutely refused to allow.
"...I'm not that much of a catch. Stop overreacting."
"You're the one who needs to be a little more self-aware."
"About what..."
I started to protest, but Junhyuk just flicked his eyes toward the counter. I whipped my head around—
And sure enough, just as he'd said, my eyes met the server's again.
So it was real. As I finally put on a look of understanding, Junhyuk drove the point home once more.
"Stop smiling at random people. It bothers me, and any guy is going to get the wrong idea."
So that was the level we were at. I understood how he felt, but admitting it outright would hurt my pride.
"Well... is that really why? Maybe he just got caught staring because a person with horns is interesting."
For an excuse made up on the spot, it was pretty solid. I propped my chin on my hand, gazed out the window, and spun my spoon in idle circles while Junhyuk simply watched me.
I'd seen the note that cooking started the moment an order was placed, but even so, it was taking a while. I pulled out my phone, put it away again, and poked at the empty soup bowl with my spoon until Junhyuk struck up conversation.
"What were you originally planning to do this weekend?"
At that, I thought back over the past few weekends.
But for all the mental replaying, I hadn't done a single thing worth mentioning.
"Just lay around on my phone all day."
"Ah... the TV broke last time, right."
The guilt from that first day still seemed to be lingering; Junhyuk looked dejected. I tapped the table for emphasis.
"It's fine. Don't worry about it. I can entertain myself just fine with my phone alone."
"I'm sorry."
"On a nice day like this? Don't bring that up again."
It wasn't that I hadn't thought how convenient it would be if I could still watch TV. But given his circumstances, there was no way he could replace it for me anyway.
More than that, he'd come out today full of anticipation and happiness. Neither of us wanted to dig up something that had happened when we were both still clumsy with each other.
He was a little rough around the edges, sure, but at his core he was a decent guy. Better to leave the past alone.
If the conversation died, the mood would turn heavy and awkward for sure, so I started babbling about whatever came to mind. He wasn't the chatty type, so this part was on me.
"Hey, do you know the difference between Western-style and Japanese-style pork cutlets?"
"What difference?"
"See, Western-style comes with soup like this. Japanese-style doesn't. And with Western-style, they usually pour the sauce over the cutlet and you slice it yourself, but Japanese-style comes already sliced. And you dip it."
"……."
"Not that this is the place for it, but I honestly like Western-style better than Japanese. Because Western-style is thinner and comes in bigger pieces, so it feels more generous somehow. You know what I mean?"
Junhyuk listened quietly, then answered with a gentle smile.
"So that's what they call Western-style. I had no idea."
Truth be told, I didn't really know either. I wasn't even sure I'd gotten it right.
"Anyway, I picked lunch, so you pick dinner. What do you like?"
"I..."
"I've got amnesia, remember. Don't get too disappointed."
I jumped in first just in case this was something I'd already asked before. Watching Junhyuk smile and say "No, it's fine," it seemed he'd decided not to make a big deal of it either.
Thank goodness, the thought flickered through me before I even realized it.
Junhyuk hummed thoughtfully for a moment, then—
"How about fries and beer?"
"...Drinking again?"
"No, actually."
"What now."
Even as the words left my mouth, I startled at myself—already gearing up to snap something about a "fries-and-booze party at a motel" without even realizing it. We hadn't even said anything yet. What kind of logic circuit was this?
And of course.
"There's... this fun movie that came out recently. I've really been wanting to see it."
"You can drink beer with fries at a movie theater?"
"Yeah. I've been wanting to try that with you."
Facing his pure-hearted request for the second time, I sank into a deep gloom, wondering if my own brain wasn't the one pickled in filthy, lewd delusions.
Did this guy genuinely have no ulterior motives for today? Was he really just wanting to spend time together, nothing more and nothing less?
Feeling like I was the only weird one here made me irrationally irritated, so I picked a fight over nothing.
"Hey, but we're already riding bikes, and then drinking in a dark movie theater on top of that? How are you supposed to watch the movie if you're falling asleep?"
"Then should we save the movie for next time?"
"Yeah, it's too much. That can wait until next..."
Wait. Hold on.
Why was I making plans for next time?
Watching Junhyuk beam with happiness, I belatedly realized something had gone very wrong.
"Hey, what I just said—"
"It's a promise."
"No! You did that on purpose, didn't you?!"
"Your orders are ready."
The male server arrived with our food at the most untimely moment imaginable, cutting me off mid-sentence, and a surge of irritation flared up. So I slammed the table for no good reason and—
"Why is it taking so long?!"
—ended up yelling that.
"...I'm sorry."
As the male server bowed his head, Junhyuk's shoulders shook with what looked like pure delight while he sliced into his pork cutlet.
He seemed to be under the impression that I was deliberately giving the server a hard time because of the flirting earlier—the guy who'd been making eyes at me.
"Haa..."
Fine. Misunderstanding or not, for today, just be as happy as you want.
I'm sorry, sir. I truly didn't mean it. Please just write me off as an awful customer and forget about me.
...But saying that out loud right now would only make Junhyuk sulk again, so I chewed those words up along with the pork cutlet and swallowed them down.
I was completely done for.