Date (3)
“Tch. Those stupid jerks.”
Even after the game ended, she kept pouting, muttering complaints as she reported both the bot laner and the mid laner. It was a justified report since both of them had ended up using some pretty nasty language. After that, Sujeong and I played two more games. Thankfully, we won both of them. Sujeong absolutely crushed the enemy top laner and carried the games like a beast. Just what you’d expect from a Platinum 1 tier player.
“It’s about time now. Should we head out?”
“Yeah. Let’s go.”
When we stepped out of the building, dusk had already settled heavily over the city. It was a little past eight—definitely evening now.
“Huu… Sorry I made us lose.”
“Ah, no way~. It’s been a while since you played, stuff like that happens. It was the teammates who were bad.”
“Still. Thanks for covering for me.”
“Yeah……”
If it hadn’t been me, she probably would have roasted the jungler endlessly. But because it was me, even though I’d gone top and handed over kills for nothing, she comforted me instead. They say Legend League can even break up couples, but the affection effect really is something else.
We held hands again and walked toward the cable car. We sent each other the photos we’d taken at the karaoke and the pool hall earlier, chatting about ordinary things as we went. After walking a bit, the building where we’d bought our cable car tickets came into view.
“There are more people now, huh?”
“This is still on the lighter side. On weekends it’s easily three times this crowded.”
Once we entered the building, it was clear there were noticeably more people than before. There was even a line at the ticket counter. Good thing we’d bought ours in advance.
“First, let’s buy a lock.”
“A lock? Oh.”
When I pointed at the lock shop, she let out a small sound of realization.
“Hmm. What kind should we get?”
“How about this one?”
We stopped by the stall selling locks and picked one out together. I picked up a red lock with a heart drawn in the middle. Sujeong examined it for a moment, then nodded as if she liked it.
“This one’s nice! Then I’ll pay……”
“No, wait. Let’s split the lock together.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s for our love to last a long, long time. It’s jointly owned, right? I think it’s better if we each pay half.”
“Aha. That sounds good.”
We each pulled out six thousand won in cash and paid for the lock together. Twelve thousand won for one lock was a bit expensive, but for the sake of a memory, it didn’t matter. There were cheaper ones, but this was the only one with three keys.
“Alright~ Please line up in order~. You’ll be able to board shortly~.”
After buying the lock, we waited in a short line before boarding the cable car. The night view of the city seen from below the cable car was stunning. The lights embroidered against the pale purple sky created a subtle harmony with the night.
“It’s beautiful.”
“Yeah. Good thing we came at night.”
“Mhm.”
We held each other’s hands tightly. Her eyes, sparkling as she gazed out of the cable car, shone like jewels.
This is nice.
Watching her profile, I smiled contentedly. Just two weeks ago, all I thought about was how to slack off while working part-time. If a pretty customer came in, I’d secretly steal glances at her curves, and I’d get excited just from the slight brush of fingers when handing back change. I really was a pervert back then.
But now here I was, on a date with Sujeong—who was far prettier than any of them. It felt surreal.
I should go on more dates like this.
At first my head had been filled with nothing but thoughts of building a harem with beautiful women and having endless sex. But doing something as normal as dating like this brought a surprising amount of satisfaction. Even if I ended up with many women, going on lots of dates and trips with them seemed like it would be wonderful.
“We’re here.”
We got off the cable car. Because we were on the mountain at night, even though it was summer, a cool breeze brushed past us. The tall Namsan Tower came into view right away, and beside it was a sign pointing toward the love lock fence.
Both of our gazes naturally turned to that sign at the same time.
“Should we go straight there?”
“Yes!”
We passed by couples being affectionate, families strengthening their bonds, and foreigners marveling at the sights. Before long, we reached a space filled with countless locks hanging everywhere.
“Whoa~. There are so many. Are all of these locks?”
“Yeah. It’s really impressive.”
Sujeong looked around in awe at all the locks hanging from every possible spot. They covered the railings, strange sculptures—everywhere. I was surprised too. I hadn’t expected there to be this many……
We walked around together, trying to decide where to hang our lock.
“How about over there?”
“Yeah, that looks good.”
The tree Sujeong pointed at was quite large. It was a lock tree covered in dangling padlocks. There were lots of couples nearby, but now I was one of them too. When I used to walk down the street, plenty of guys would sneak glances at Sujeong. But here in what felt like true couple heaven, even when men looked at her, they only paused in brief admiration before quickly turning their attention back to their own girlfriends.
Using the pen I’d prepared in advance, I wrote on the red lock in my own style. Cheon Jinhyun. After writing my name, I handed the pen to Sujeong. She took it with a mysterious little smile and wrote her name beside the heart. Then she added a message underneath.
Cheon Jinhyun ♡ Kang Sujeong
Please let us stay together forever.
“……Is this okay?”
“Of course it is.”
Sujeong grinned brightly and handed the pen back to me.
“Now we just hang the lock and throw away the keys.”
“Throw the keys away?”
“Yeah. So our locked love can never be opened again.”
“Ah……”
Sujeong’s cheeks flushed bright red. I handed her one of the keys.
“But let’s each keep one as a memento.”
“A memento?”
“Yeah. One for me, one for you. And we throw the last one away.”
“Aha~. So that’s why you specifically chose the one with three keys.”
I nodded at her question.
“That’s right.”
“Hehe. Okay. Let’s do that.”
With a shy expression, Sujeong slipped one key into her wallet. I did the same. Then, using the last remaining key, we unlocked the padlock, fastened it to the tree, and held the final key together.
“On three, we throw it together?”
“Yeah!”
“One~ two~ three!”
The key flew away from us without a single trace of regret. It disappeared somewhere down the slope of Namsan, no longer visible.
“Is that it now?”
“Yeah. Now let’s take pictures.”
After all, what remains are memories and photos. We took plenty of pictures of each other, selfies, shots of the locked padlock from every angle, and even asked another couple to take photos of us together. After capturing everything, we finally headed toward Namsan Tower.
“Whoa, look at that line……”
Sujeong made a shocked face. Even though it was a weekday, we had to wait fifteen minutes for the observatory elevator. If we’d come on a Saturday, we probably would’ve waited at least an hour. To ride the elevator up to the observatory, we had to buy tickets for ten thousand won each. There was also a beer set option for twenty-six thousand won that came with popcorn and two beers. I simply bought two of the ten-thousand-won tickets.
The line moved surprisingly fast, and before long we were able to board the elevator.
With the elevator attendant’s explanation, we reached the observatory and looked around in awe.
Since the tower was on top of a mountain, the entire cityscape spread out before us in one breathtaking view. As we slowly walked around the observatory, just like we had at the love lock fence, we asked a couple who were gazing at each other with honey-sweet eyes to take a photo of us together.
“Ah. Thank you for taking it for us.”
“No, no. Haha. We should be the ones thanking you. It came out really well.”
“Thank you~.”
After exchanging the favor of taking photos, we got on the elevator going back down. Suddenly, Sujeong spoke up.
“I’m glad we came.”
“That’s good to hear.”
Throughout today’s date—except for when we were playing Legend League—a smile never left Sujeong’s face. Seeing her like that made me feel warm inside too.
“Want to eat over there?”
As we were walking down past the souvenir shop, Sujeong suddenly pointed at a sign. It was a restaurant that required taking a separate dedicated elevator instead of being on the second floor. Didn’t places like that usually need reservations? Still, we decided to go up and check.
“Oh……”
“It’s beautiful.”
We stopped in front of the restaurant entrance. At first glance, it was clearly an extremely expensive, elegant French restaurant. The interior was spotless, the view was incredible, and the whole atmosphere screamed luxury.
As I stood there staring inside, she must have thought I was hesitating because of the prices, because she added,
“Don’t worry. I’ll pay.”
“No, Sujeong. You really need to stop paying for everything. What if you get scammed by some bad guy?”
I spoke in a worried tone. Honestly, though, saying it made me feel a little guilty. Was this really something I should be saying? But I quickly shook my head. No, it’s fine. It’s fine. Sujeong is my heroine. It’s okay if I scam her, but she absolutely cannot get scammed by any man other than me. Yep. Absolutely.
“Pfft…… Anyway, I don’t do this for anyone but you. We’re dating, aren’t we? I’m doing it because I want to……”
“Heh. Alright. Let’s go in then.”
Come to think of it, after stuffing ourselves at TGI Friday’s and eating popcorn at the movie theater, neither of us had eaten anything since. She must have been quite hungry too.
“Do you have a reservation?”
As soon as we entered, a staff member stopped us. When we explained, it turned out it was indeed a restaurant that only accepted reservations. Sujeong looked disappointed and was about to turn around when the staff member suddenly seemed to remember something. He asked us to wait a moment, disappeared somewhere, then came back.
“We have one table available. I’ll show you the way.”
Somehow, we ended up being guided inside the restaurant. And luckily, it was a window seat.
We sat down at the luxurious table and immediately opened the menu. Even the texture of the menu felt expensive. But wait a second. These prices……
“What should we get?”
“How about this couple’s course? It comes with two glasses of wine~.”
I looked at the menu she was pointing at. There were all sorts of fancy explanations I couldn’t even understand, but none of them registered. My eyes were instantly glued to the course price written at the very bottom.
310,000 won?
Was this for real? For someone who had lived his whole life as a loner, the idea of spending 310,000 won on dinner for two was something I had never even imagined. I had planned to pay for tonight, but didn’t this kind of place require wearing a suit at least?
Well, still……
It was quite expensive, but not an amount I couldn’t afford. It wouldn’t be bad to have this kind of experience once in a while.
Right now I might not look like much, but someday I wanted to become the kind of man who could confidently buy even more expensive meals for my lovely heroines. And thinking about the money I’d saved from part-time jobs, I could at least survive two months without starving to death. Of course, I’d need to figure out some way to make money in the meantime.
“Sounds good. Let’s do that.”
I nodded and called over a staff member to order. The course was called the ‘Exclusive Couple Course.’ The staff asked about allergies and how we wanted our steaks cooked before leaving.
While we waited, the dishes started coming out one by one.
“This is the amuse-bouche.”
The staff explained that each item was a gougère, tart, crudo, and beef tartare before leaving. Honestly, the only one I recognized was the tart.
“Let’s eat.”
“Yeah.”
The food was incredibly delicious. Maybe the atmosphere helped too. After the amuse-bouche came the appetizer: uniquely shaped dumplings, low-temperature cooked carrot and abalone puree, and muscat grapes. Next was the soup, which unusually came with an ice sorbet. After quickly finishing the soup and sorbet, the main course arrived.
“Here is the main course.”
Tenderloin, sirloin, and hanger steak. Three different kinds of steak appeared along with various side dishes. Sujeong took a quick photo, then sliced a piece of steak and held the fork out to me.
“Here, ah~.”
I was slightly flustered by the sudden attack, but I still ate the steak she offered. It was delicious. Someone had said satisfaction at fine dining restaurants could be low, but the food itself was amazing. The only downside was that the price was insanely, disgustingly high.
“Then it’s your turn, Sujeong. Say ah~.”
“Okay. Aaaah~~~.”
That’s a little erotic.
Her slightly parted lips, glistening a soft pink, stimulated my desire. The glimpse of her red tongue and white teeth looked incredibly appetizing. I’d transformed at four o’clock today just like she wanted and had been on a date without touching her, but it seemed I’d built up some tension in the meantime.
“Mmm…… slurp.”
“……”
Whether she knew how I felt or not, Sujeong sensually licked the fork along with the steak. Then she even gave me a playful, flirty smile. She looked a bit embarrassed, but it seemed like she was trying really hard to act sexy.
What is she doing? Is she seducing me right now?
When I was feeling a little flustered, she made an awkward face, pulled out a new fork from the table, and handed it to me.
“S-sorry…… Here.”
“What are you sorry for? It’s fine.”
I chuckled and didn’t take the new fork. Honestly, in this industry, that was basically a reward. I used the fork Sujeong had licked, sliced some steak, and then—exactly as she had done—sensually licked the fork that was still glistening with her saliva.
Slurp.
She watched me with wide eyes, then suddenly got embarrassed. She lowered her head and continued eating. But there was a smile on her lips.
“……”
“……”
As we ate each dish, we spoke less and less. No words were exchanged, but it didn’t feel awkward. It was just a natural silence. A silence that would eventually be broken.
The one who broke it first was Kang Sujeong.
“Jinhyun, do you want to know what my dream is?”
She asked suddenly. Her voice wasn’t overly serious or overly playful. Her wine glass was half empty. She didn’t seem drunk, but it looked like she was borrowing a little bit of courage from the alcohol. I could see the emotions in her eyes reflecting the light—slight trembling and nervousness.
I pretended to think for a moment before answering.
“Hmm~. Your dream? Having a successful broadcast career?”
“Hehe. That’s right. At first, I just wanted to eat well and live well~ so my goal was to join one of the big broadcasting companies.”
“Has that changed now?”
“It’s still the same. But one more thing has been added.”
Her eyes burned with a faint longing. In contrast, her cheeks were filled with shy energy.
“What is it?”
“H-house…… wife……”
She fumbled over her words, her lips moving awkwardly. Under the lights, her lips glistened an alluring pink. They looked truly seductive.
“House……? Housework?”
“Aish! That’s not it!”
She puffed out her cheeks, but soon let out a small laugh as the tension eased.
“……A devoted wife.”
It was an incredibly wholesome dream. Just imagining her taking care of me made me smile naturally.
“I didn’t really have any thoughts about it before, but ever since I started spending time with you, Jinhyun, I’ve been so happy. Even when you confessed…… I felt like I was flying. I was actually planning to do it first.”
So Sujeong really had been planning to confess first. But at this point, the order didn’t matter anymore. If anything, the fact that I confessed first might have raised her affection even more.
“And today too…… it was the happiest day ever. Just being together makes my heart race. You really are my destined person, Jinhyun.”
“Destined?”
“Yes. Destined.”
From the moment I set her as a heroine through the Heroine App, we had been connected by fate. Well, she still didn’t know that the one who had been violating her was my transformed self.
“S-so…… um, today……”
She struggled to speak properly, then swallowed once before looking at me with a determined expression.
“Hold me tonight……”