Chapter 51: Until the Blue Sky Comes (11)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 51: Until the Blue Sky Comes (11)
Two days had passed since we returned from our trip.
On the day we got back, I had been quite concerned about Blue’s family situation. However, a text message I received that evening made me feel that things were gradually becoming more comfortable for her.
And today. Normally, it would have been a day for a duel, but it was canceled due to the monsoon season. I was standing outside under an umbrella, waiting for someone.
To be perfectly blunt, I was waiting for Blue.
I had come out at her request, and without knowing exactly why she had called me, I stood there quietly listening to the sound of rain pattering against my umbrella.
"Mr. A!"
I turned my head at the sound of her voice in the distance. Blue, dressed in a modest T-shirt and a long skirt as usual, was approaching under her own umbrella.
"Don't run."
Seeing her rushing toward me, I gestured for her to slow down, worried she might slip on the wet road. Realizing the danger, Blue slowed her pace and walked toward me.
"Hello. Have you been waiting long?"
"I just got here. But what’s going on?"
Though we had grown closer after meeting by chance and going on a trip together, I didn't know her well enough yet to guess the intent behind all her actions.
If it were about her family affairs, I wouldn't be able to solve them, and she wasn't the type of person to ask me for help with domestic issues anyway. Looking at Blue as she stood right in front of me, peering up at me, I grew curious about why she had called.
"I’m planning to look at some houses."
"Houses?"
I had heard her mention that she was going to move out and live independently. I’d even heard about the savings account her brother had prepared for her, so I figured she’d be looking around for a place, but I never expected her to call me.
"Yes. I don't know much about this, and you were the only person I could think of to ask for help, Mr. A."
It wasn't as if I was an expert on housing either. In the twenty years since I came to Korea, I hadn't lived in more than three different houses.
The studio apartment I was living in now was the one I had stayed in the longest.
Regardless, even if I didn't know much, I figured two pairs of eyes were better than one, so I decided to accept her request.
It wasn't like I could refuse anyway. It would be awkward to come all this way and just go back home without doing anything.
"Sure. Are there any places you've looked into?"
"There are a few, but I’m only planning to visit two today."
Even though she asked for help, it seemed like all I had to do was look around with her and offer a few words of advice. Though, I doubted my advice would be of much help.
Still, just in case, I used my smartphone to search for tips on what to look for when moving into a new house as we walked.
My gaze dropped to the screen as I looked for information, and Blue, perhaps worried by my unsteady walking, grabbed my arm.
"?"
I looked at her, feeling the soft touch on my arm. Blue spoke to me in a tone that sounded like she was scolding a child.
"You shouldn't look at your phone while walking."
"Ah. Sorry. I was just looking something up."
"Is it something important?"
She seemed to worry that she had called me out when I had other work to do.
"I was looking up things about houses. Since I don't know much either, I thought it would be better to know at least one more thing before we get there."
"Oh," Blue let out a short exclamation and nodded.
"May I see it too?"
"Yes, of course."
Since it was inconvenient for both of us to hold our own umbrellas while huddled together to share earphones, we shared one umbrella and walked side-by-side, watching videos about house hunting on a video site.
"It seems like they hide things like leaks in newly listed houses."
We confirmed our understanding by discussing the content of the video, and I tried to recall my own limited experiences from when I had moved.
"You also have to check the water pressure in the bathroom. If the pressure is weak, it becomes incredibly inconvenient later on."
Hearing my words, she looked at me with wide, round eyes and nodded as if she had just learned something vital.
After watching the videos for a while, we were getting closer to the first house Blue had found.
"It should be around here."
I had lived in Seoul for quite a while, but this was a neighborhood I was visiting for the first time. It was lined with many studio apartment buildings.
"How much is your budget?"
"Let's see."
Blue pulled out her smartphone, opened her banking app, and showed me her balance. I nodded in admiration at the savings her brother had faithfully built up over ten years.
"Is it enough to move in right away?"
"It might be a little short, but I can just work hard after I move in, right?"
To put it nicely, she was positive; to put it bluntly, she was optimistic.
But I didn't intend to see it in a negative light. Seeing her approach things with a positive attitude, thinking only good things would happen from now on, I felt there was no need to worry about her being too optimistic.
Eventually, we entered the first house Blue had looked up.
It was an officetel slightly larger than the place I lived in, with two rooms. It looked reasonably spacious and pleasant, but we couldn't decide on a house just because it seemed "okay."
"How is the size of the master bedroom?"
"It's not bad for this size."
As we talked and inspected the house, the real estate agent followed closely behind us.
Since it was a relatively new building, it was clean.
"The distance to the mart is decent too."
"It's a good size for one person, but it might be a bit cramped for a married couple."
At the agent's words from behind us, Blue and I turned our heads at the same time. I suppose it was natural to mistake us for a couple since a man and a woman were looking at a house together.
"Oh, no. We aren't a couple. We're..."
Blue tried to explain our relationship but trailed off.
Come to think of it, our relationship was truly ambiguous.
To call us acquaintances who knew each other as guardians of children in kindergarten—well, we no longer had that connection to the kids. To call us friends—we weren't quite that close or casual yet.
But to call us mere acquaintances—we had gone on a trip together and knew a bit about each other...
Anyway, it was a very difficult relationship to explain.
"Are you not married yet?"
When Blue stopped mid-sentence, the agent seemed to mistake us for an engaged couple instead of a married one. I couldn't think of the right words to explain either.
It wasn't that I had to explain, but leaving it ambiguous felt awkward for both of us. I felt like drawing a line and explaining would somehow be the wrong thing to do.
"Yes. We're not married yet."
Deciding to just roll with it, I let the agent continue with the misunderstanding.
Blue looked at me with surprised eyes, and I sent her a silent signal of apology with a glance.
After finishing the inspection, we stepped outside. An awkward air lingered between us.
"I just didn't have a good way to explain..."
"I felt the same way, but I didn't expect you to just admit it like that..."
I felt like I had been rude to Blue for no reason, and she blushed, perhaps recalling the ambiguous atmosphere that had persisted while we were looking at the house.
"How was the house?"
"It seemed okay for living alone, but I didn't really love it."
No matter how pretty or well-built a house is, there’s always that moment where you feel, "This is the one."
And usually, the houses that make you feel that way are expensive.
"Let's look at a few more. We have plenty of time. It doesn't cost anything to look, after all."
"Then... would it be okay if we looked at a few more than planned?"
It seemed she had intended to see only two places because she didn't want to inconvenience me. Even if it didn't cost money, house hunting is more exhausting than one might think.
I couldn't tell her, but I possessed physical abilities that were incomparable to an average Earthling. Since there was no duel today and I had time to spare, I decided to help her as much as I could.
"Sure. Since we're at it, let's even look at houses that are over your budget."
My joke seemed to land, as Blue smiled, and we moved on to the next house, huddled under the same umbrella.
As we saw several more houses, there were a few places that felt reasonably good.
At some point, I started looking at the houses from the perspective of someone who would actually live there, and I even found myself thinking that I wanted to move too.
And since a man and a woman who looked to be around the same age were house hunting together, most of the agents mistook us for newlyweds or a couple about to get married. At first, I had just gone along with it out of a "whatever" attitude, but later on, Blue seemed too tired to explain and just accepted being called a "wife."
And surprisingly, this was when we first learned each other's ages.
"There wasn't much of a difference."
Of course, my age was just an arbitrary number I chose to live on Earth, so it wasn't my real age, but based on Yubin or Yura's reactions, I seemed to look the part.
On Earth, my age was set at 25, and Blue was 28. Since she had a very youthful face, I was a bit surprised when I heard her age. Although 28 isn't old, there are certainly people who look much younger than that.
Blue also seemed a bit surprised that there was only a three-year difference, as she had apparently pegged me for being in my early twenties.
"Since I'm younger, you can speak comfortably to me."
"No, I couldn't..."
Polite speech seemed ingrained in her, and after knowing her for the past ten days, I couldn't really imagine her using casual language.
Besides, if she were the type to speak casually to someone who looked clearly younger than her, she would have asked my age and checked the seniority long ago.
"Should I... call you Noona?"
The word Noona wasn't familiar to me. All the older women I had known in my life were not people I could call Noona. It wasn't because they were elderly, but because most of them were my superiors at work.
Esmeralda, the 1st Team Leader. Angelica, the 2nd Team Leader. Other than them, there weren't really any older women in my life. It wasn't that there were no other people, but none of them were in a relationship where I could use such a term.
"You can just keep calling me what you do now. Please, just be comfortable."
Though we were both telling each other to be comfortable, we decided to maintain the current status quo for the time being, as this was what felt most natural to us.
By the time we had seen a fair number of houses, the sun was already starting to set.
Because of the dark clouds, I couldn't see the sunset directly, but I could feel the sky growing significantly darker.
"Was that last house the end of it?"
"There is one left, but..."
"But?"
When she trailed off, I caught the end of her sentence and didn't let go. She continued.
"It's a house that's over my budget."
"...Let's go see it. Looking is free."
I had joked about looking at houses over the budget, but it seemed she actually had looked one up. Of course, she’d only researched it and hadn't intended to actually visit, but given the situation, she seemed to think it wouldn't hurt to take a look.
So, we headed to the house Blue had found. It was the penthouse of a high-rise apartment. The square footage was large, and the high ceilings made the place look enormous. The design was excellent, and with the overall color scheme and the view from the window being so good, I could see why she had looked into this place despite it being over her budget.
"How much is this place?"
When I asked the price, she whispered into my ear, perhaps afraid the agent watching from behind would realize we were just window shopping without enough money.
Hearing the price, it was definitely an amount that would be impossible to cover with her current savings.
"I only looked at this house thinking it would be nice to live in a place like this, so it's okay."
She clearly desired it, but she was trying not to linger on the regret. Even as someone who didn't know much about houses, I could tell for sure that this place was great.
If I were to try and buy a house like this...
At that moment, something flashed through my mind.
I remembered a conversation I’d had with Luche about two months ago, right when I had started dating Yubin.
I smiled and caught Blue, who was about to leave, and whispered softly into her ear.
"This house... you might actually be able to move in here."
"What?"
Having no idea what I meant, Blue stared at me with a bewildered expression.