The Date I Had Been Waiting For
It was the date with samchon I had been looking forward to so much… ‘Haah… seriously.’ The atmosphere felt strangely awkward. We kept avoiding eye contact. Our conversations kept breaking off awkwardly. To be precise, it was all samchon’s fault. Why does he keep watching his niece’s every move like that? It’s annoying. We’re two people who have already kissed, sitting here together. Yet samchon doesn’t even think about holding my hand. The moment his niece lays out the mat for him, he just stares blankly into space like an idiot. ‘This isn’t what I wanted at all.’
I had looked forward to today for so long, over and over. I spent forever worrying about what to wear in front of samchon. I even put on makeup when I usually don’t. I sprayed on perfume. I curled my hair. In short, I agonized for ages over how to make samchon see me as pretty. And yet you… how can you be like this? You won’t even say a single word to your own niece—that she’s pretty, that you love her?
‘It’s not like we got caught.’ If he’s being cautious because he groped me while I was sleeping, then he should know it’s fine. That I don’t mind. That I’ll just let it slide. In fact… I even enjoyed the way samchon touched me. Since the person involved is saying it’s okay, I don’t understand why he keeps acting like this. If I had known it would be this way, I should have just grabbed his wrist right then and there. I should have demanded to know what the hell he was doing to his sleeping niece. I should have seized his weakness and warned him that if he doesn’t listen to me from now on, I won’t let it go.
“For now… should we head to a café? There’s a place with really pretty decor.”
“A café?”
“Yeah. The coffee’s decent, and the cakes and stuff were delicious.”
The one sentence samchon finally managed to squeeze out. We’re finally on a date—surely he didn’t come without even planning a proper itinerary. Of course anything with samchon is good, but still. Effort matters.
“Mm… since you’re the one driving, I’ll go wherever you want.”
“Or is there somewhere you want to go?”
“Not really. Since you probably planned everything, today I’ll follow your lead, samchon. You should earn some points with me at times like this.”
“This is bad. I’m already worrying about where you’d like to go.”
“Don’t tell me you didn’t prepare anything?”
“Of course I prepared. I did prepare, but… what you like is the most important thing. The truth is, I’m not very good at planning date courses. I just go to places that are newly opened. Or if I hear the photos turn out nice, I go there too.”
Well, that makes sense. When ordinary office workers meet up, there are only so many things they can do. A café, a meal, maybe a movie at most. But I’m not looking for anything special. As long as I’m… special to samchon, that’s enough. That’s all I need. Instead, I like watching the way he racks his brain for me. The way he worries about how to make me happier. The way he holds his head, thinking about how to make our time together linger longer in memory. While samchon is worrying like that, he can’t think about anything but me. He loses track of time trying to please me. He probably doesn’t even have the mental space to think about that woman. Of course not.
“I’m not that difficult, you know? Just take me wherever you think is fine, samchon. That woman always picks fights, doesn’t she? No matter where you take her, she makes it annoying. If she’s going to be like that, she should drive herself.”
“Haha…”
Samchon’s laugh came out like a sigh, as if I’d hit the nail on the head. I don’t even have to look to know. That woman probably lives for the fun of tormenting samchon. Bragging about money thanks to her rich parents, and scheming to tame my man with the occasional wad of cash she tosses him—like the bitch she is.
“Then let’s go to the café first. A lot of people take photos there, so you can take some too.”
“You should take them for me, samchon. Ones I’ll like. Have you thought about the next place?”
“We haven’t even arrived yet.”
“I need to know in advance so I can enjoy the thrill of anticipation. I wonder where samchon will take me next.”
“This is hard. I told you I’m not confident about this.”
“I’ll cheer you on from the side, so just do it.”
Pat. I patted samchon’s thigh encouragingly. He had been focused on driving, but the moment my hand touched him, he flinched hard in surprise.
‘Samchon touched me too.’ It wasn’t even a caress. I just gave him a light pat. On the other hand, what samchon did was far worse, wasn’t it? How could he do that to his sleeping niece? To a girl who was trusting him completely, sleeping beside him without a care in the world? He had groped my stomach like that, stroked my waist like that. And my butt… my butt! So this is perfectly legal. Anything I do—touching samchon, kneading him, stroking him—is all legal. I won’t make it an issue, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t one. In exchange, I’ll take this as consent. I’ll also… touch him however I want. I’ll do a lot more skinship than before.
While we talked, we soon arrived at the café. It was a charming place that felt like a fairy-tale house deep in the woods. ‘Maybe I should act like a sleeping beauty.’ The roles of princess and prince are already decided. We just need more practice. One kiss probably isn’t enough for the prince to wake the princess, right? At least ten times. A hundred times a day of practice. Until the princess’s lips are swollen and tingling. Only after feeding her the ecstasy of tongues intertwining like sweet cotton candy will she finally open her eyes with a start. She’ll wake from her long sleep, embrace the prince, and confirm their love. At least, that’s how I see it. That’s what it takes for me to be satisfied, to understand. My samchon and I have to do all the things we’re not supposed to. And we have to do them openly, right in front of people, or I won’t be satisfied.
We ordered drinks and sat down. Naturally, the place was full of couples. Of course—who else would bother coming all the way out here except couples? Now that I’m one of them, I get it. Why everyone is acting like that. Why they’re all killing time together.
“How’s the cake? Does it taste good?”
“Don’t just ask with words. Feed me some, samchon.”
“How old are you?”
“You always say I’m a kid when you look at me. So?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
I closed my eyes tightly and opened my mouth. Sweet cake wrapped around my tongue. It was delicious, sure. Sweet, sure. But compared to the kiss I shared with samchon, it was far less sweet—but that didn’t matter, so I let it slide. This wasn’t about talking about kissing. Still… I wondered if we really had to come all the way here and spend time like this. Just sitting shoulder to shoulder with samchon at home, eating snacks we bought on sale at the mart, would have been delicious enough.
When my reaction wasn’t very enthusiastic, samchon fed me several more bites of cake.
“If you don’t like it, should I order something else? There’s chocolate instead of whipped cream, strawberry, cheesecake…”
“They all taste about the same anyway. Instead of that, you know what I mean. When your niece clumsily gets something on her mouth while eating, her loving samchon has to take care of it.”
I pouted my lips toward him. Honestly, this man seems to need me to shove everything into his mouth before he understands. If cream got on his niece’s lips, he should be thinking about wiping it off with a kiss. Instead, I have to do this. I have to make it obvious in front of other people before he finally gets it?
“…… What are you doing?”
“What do you mean, what am I doing?”
Why did I close my eyes? Why didn’t I grab a tissue? Idiot samchon seemed to take it as simple whining. He casually wiped my lips and prepared to feed me more cake.
“No, not that. Seriously. Here. Open up, samchon. Say ‘ah’.”
If I show him, maybe he’ll understand. He can see, hear, and feel it for himself. I deliberately chose a corner seat where people’s eyes wouldn’t easily reach us, so even if we got a little intense with our affection, it probably wouldn’t be a big problem. And even if someone did make it an issue, so what? Don’t you all kiss? Don’t you all touch each other? Don’t you all love each other? Why are we the only ones making a fuss? I just want to spend some time with my samchon. We might accidentally brush lips. And, um… and, um… well, going that far… I still need more mental preparation, but anyway. At the very least, we should do the kisses that everyone else here is doing.
So I deliberately smeared cake on samchon’s lips. Only then did the idiot seem to realize what I was up to, but what good was that now? I was already pressing my lips to the corner of his mouth. I gently licked out to wipe away the cream. Soon the cream disappeared following the movement of my tongue, and I tasted samchon’s skin. If I went just a little further, I could delve into his lips. Our teeth would part. Our tongues would touch. Once again, intense emotions would swirl through my head… my vision would grow hazy. My legs would go weak. I would feel like I was flying through the sky. Just dizzy, just barely able to stay still. I would feel it all. I already know it all. But because of the eyes around us, I could only lick my lips and stop. When I pulled away with a disappointed expression and met samchon’s eyes, he looked completely dazed.
“Now you understand, right? When cream gets on your niece’s lips, how you’re supposed to wipe it off.”
“Haah. Being with you makes me feel like I’ve aged ten years.”
Why the sudden complaint? With that kind of nerve, how did he manage to touch his niece’s body? Pat, pat. I touched him again. This time the back of his hand. His palm. Then his hand. I held it tightly, stroking and playing with it. I don’t even know what I want to do anymore, so I just spend time holding samchon’s hand, our fingers intertwined.