Woojin, You're Scared of Me, Aren't You? (3)
We left the animal café after about an hour.
Next stop with Lim Jiwoo: the bowling alley.
It was a bit of a trek from where we were, so we decided to take my car. Bowl a game, drive over near Jiwoo's place for dinner, then head straight to her apartment from there.
...Laid out like that, it really did feel like a date.
And in the car on the way to the bowling alley, all I had to do was glance sideways to find Jiwoo grinning at me, all sunshine.
"Woojin, are you good at bowling?"
"When was it — middle school, maybe? I played about twice a month as an after-school thing. But I'm not that good. What about you, sunbae?"
"I'm pretty good, actually."
"Do you go a lot?"
"Not a lot. Sometimes with friends. It's probably not the kind of bowling alley you're picturing... wait, no."
She cut herself off.
"It's still afternoon, so it wouldn't be."
"Wouldn't be what?"
"You know when you go at night? It turns into kind of a club vibe. You know that?"
"A club? What club?"
"Drinking, hanging out, that kind of thing."
I glanced at her instead of answering, and she laughed awkwardly, looking embarrassed.
"...It's not the kind of hanging out you're thinking of. We just have fun. The music's loud, everyone laughs, that's all."
"What do you think I was thinking?"
"You thought we were out there getting wild and messy, didn't you?"
Honestly, denying it would have been a lie.
"No. You just had this look like you were having the time of your life, so I was wondering how much fun it actually is."
"...Really?"
"Yeah."
If I hadn't been Jiwoo's first, I probably wouldn't have bought it. But the fact that I was her first... it's a little rude to put it this way, but it was proof she wasn't the kind of person who partied that hard, no matter what she claimed. She really had meant it in the most literal sense — she'd just been out having fun. She looked every bit the typical social butterfly, after all.
"You should come with me sometime, Woojin. It's fun."
"To a bowling alley? At night?"
"Yes. I'm telling you, it's fun."
"Is it okay if it's just the two of us? From the way you described it, it sounded like a group thing."
"It's more fun with a group, sure, but it doesn't have to be. It's fun with two people too."
For a second, listening to her, I found myself wondering what it would be like to take all the Intensive Management Targets at once. Jiwoo, Chae Dayeon, Han Minah, Min Seoeun — and Ju Harin on top of that.
Jiwoo might have gone purely to have fun, but I sincerely doubted everyone who showed up at a place like that had such innocent motives. There was bound to be some pickup culture involved. And in a venue like that, my Intensive Management Targets would turn more heads than any other party in the building.
"Sounds fun."
"Right? I'm telling you, it really is."
Jiwoo smiled, completely oblivious to what I actually found appealing about the idea, as the car rolled into the underground parking garage of the bowling alley building.
After we got out, we stood in front of the elevator to go up to the seventh floor, where the lanes were.
Ding—
When the doors opened and we stepped inside, we were the only ones in there. I figured maybe it was just a quiet time of day.
But then.
Ding—
The moment the doors opened on the first floor, a sizable crowd was waiting, and I was a little startled.
Shame. I'd been planning to mess with Jiwoo on the way up — give that ass a few playful smacks.
Meanwhile, with so many people piling in, Jiwoo and I — who'd gotten on first — had no choice but to squeeze into the corner of the cramped space.
It reminded me of the elevator at the office during morning rush...
Sliiide...
Jiwoo, who'd been standing right beside me, wrapped her arms tightly around mine.
Unlike earlier, when she'd been discreetly bumping her chest against me here and there, now she pressed in so close that my arm was mashed firmly into her breasts. She leaned in that close and said,
"Woojin."
"Yeah?"
"Want to make a bet today?"
"What kind of bet?"
"Bowling scores, obviously."
In the strangely quiet elevator, Jiwoo's voice came out very small.
But there was one thing I had to keep in mind.
From head to toe, everything about Lim Jiwoo was dazzling. Long hair falling in thick waves. A tall frame at five-foot-six, with the proportions to match. And above all, that face of hers. On top of that, she was wearing white jeans — a look that's genuinely hard to pull off — which only made her stand out more.
When the elevator doors had opened on the first floor, every single guy getting on had given her a once-over. Fully aware, whether she let on or not, that she had every man's attention.
Ding—
She finished that rather loaded sentence just as the elevator stopped on the seventh floor.
The others didn't get off — they seemed to be going higher — so we had to squeeze through the crowd, repeating excuse me—getting off— as we pushed our way out.
The instant we made it through, the clatter of bowling pins going down reached us.
"Let's go!"
"Ah — right, right."
Did Jiwoo always like bowling this much?
The second she heard those pins fall, her eyes lit up, and she dragged me into the bowling alley by the arm she was still clinging to.
We paid, changed into bowling shoes, and each grabbed a ball that matched our strength.
"Want to go first, Woojin?"
"Sure."
"Okay. Then I'm B, you're A."
Maybe I should've said I'd go second.
We'd come here just to bowl, but the moment I remembered there was a bet on the line, a weird competitive streak flared up. Even though it didn't actually matter whether I won or lost.
"Hoo..."
First things first. I set my stance as best I could from memory and rolled the ball with the sole intention of not dumping it in the gutter...
Thud—!
"Ah, fuck..."
I muttered a quiet curse as I watched the yellow ball slide straight into the gutter. I turned around briefly to grab my second ball.
"Pfft..."
"......"
"Hm? Oh, no. I just burped. No, really — Woojin, your form is so good, wow—"
I ignored Jiwoo's reaction and picked up another yellow ball of the same weight. I'd more or less remembered the stance, so a slight adjustment to the feel should be enough.
Thump—!
On the second roll I angled it just a little to the side, and this time it stayed out of the gutter.
The problem, if you could call it that...
...Tink!
"You've gotta be..."
If it was going to miss, it could've just missed. Instead it clipped the 10-pin and nothing else, which somehow felt worse.
I looked up at the scoreboard...
I let out a hollow laugh at a score that was pathetic even to me and headed back to my seat. This time Jiwoo had her expression under control. She stood there holding a blue ball, looking thoroughly full of herself.
"You're not doing that on purpose, right?"
"Wouldn't doing it on purpose be harder?"
"Mm, that's true. Wow, if you put it that way, you must be a total pro. Woooow—. Guess winning today's going to be haaard—?"
"......"
I sat down wearing an exaggerated pout at a line so dripping with sarcasm it might as well have come with a receipt. Jiwoo giggled at my face, then stepped up to the line.
She'd said she still bowled regularly, and standing there with the ball held to her chest, even her back looked pretty impressive. But what really got me was... just Jiwoo herself.
"Oh..."
Black wavy hair falling all the way to her shoulder blades. Wide hips made even more dramatic by those white jeans. Legs that looked endlessly long even in nearly flat bowling shoes. And because I was sitting slightly behind her at an angle, I could see a sliver of her profile too. With that face in the picture, everything about her felt complete.
When I tore my eyes off her back and looked around, other guys were watching her the same way they had in the elevator — trying not to be obvious about it.
And Jiwoo, as if putting on a show.
Boom—!
Unlike my sloppy form, she sent the ball down the lane with a genuinely sharp delivery. The ball she'd rolled crashed through the pins with a satisfying clatter.
On the scoreboard, the number of pins Jiwoo had knocked down: eight.
"Oh..."
She wasn't a pro, so it wasn't going to be strike after strike — but starting with an eight on the first ball was more than good enough to call her skilled...
"You'd better step it up, Woojin. Did you see that? Did you see me drop eight right from the start?"
She already knew she was good, but she came right up to me anyway — she just had to — grinning from ear to ear.
"You're good, sunbae."
"I am, aren't I. Honestly, part of why I brought you here was to do exactly this."
"Do what? Beat me?"
"Beating you is part of it. But if I win the bet, I get to play with you however I want. You wouldn't even know what hit you."
That was quietly getting under my skin.
But what got under my skin even more was—
"Do your best, Woojin."
"......"
That look. That look overflowing with confidence in a completely different sense.
Bowling?
Of course Jiwoo was better. She'd been playing regularly, and I hadn't touched a ball in almost fifteen years. Losing to her at bowling didn't actually bruise my pride.
It was the content of what she was saying that pissed me off. To put it bluntly.
What? She was going to play with me? I wouldn't know what hit me?
After the last two times we'd slept together, anyone with eyes could see Jiwoo had been the one who "lost." The idea that she was going to toy with me and come out on top was something I could dismiss as complete bullshit.
And the fact that I could dismiss it as bullshit was exactly her angle.
Boom—!
Click—!
Her second blue ball knocked down only one of the two remaining pins, bringing her to nine.
"See? You're already down eight points to me."
"Hah..."
She kept needling me like this because she knew it would work out well for her.
On the other hand, I was curious.
"What about you, sunbae?"
"What about me?"
"The bowling score. If you win, we do what you said. But what if I win?"
"If you win? Hmm..."
After winding me up this much — what kind of face would Jiwoo make if she lost to me at bowling before we'd even had sex?
She thought for a moment, then something seemed to click. She giggled to herself and came right up to me. As if that weren't enough, she even signaled for me to lean my ear in.
I tilted my head toward her, and Jiwoo said,
"......"
...She'd just promised a title that, coming from Jiwoo, packed even more punch than Master.
That, I couldn't let slide.
"...Hoo!"
I picked up the yellow ball again and stepped up to the line, determined to win this game no matter what.
After a few deep breaths, I moved forward slowly, careful not to tangle my feet, letting the right hand gripping the ball trail just behind. The sensation of my body going first, the heavy ball following after — and the moment it passed me, my hand setting the line. Release.
The instant it left my fingers, I knew. This one was good.
And then.
Crash—!
"Ah, fuck."