Picnic by the Han River

"I'll take your picture, so you two stand close together!"

The Han River was just as packed as the subway had been, but Dayeon noona and Eunchae still wore the biggest, brightest smiles. Even without the quest, I would've wanted to capture the two of them looking this happy.

"Like this?"

Noona posed as if she were gently gathering Eunchae into her arms. I gave her a solid thumbs-up and started snapping shot after shot. That was just how photos worked — you had to take a bunch if you wanted even a few keepers. And if anyone asked how I knew that when I'd never even had a girlfriend, well, the internet had come a long way.

Click. Click!

"I'll take a few more, so switch up your poses however you want."

Click! Click! Click!

Dayeon flashed a peace sign like it was nothing, then turned her back to the camera as if she were walking away. She was clearly used to being in front of a lens — everything she did looked effortless.

"Ugh, this is hard..."

Eunchae, on the other hand, was a regular person through and through. She looked completely stiff in front of the camera, fidgeting and second-guessing every angle. They each had their own kind of charm, but everything they did looked cute to me. That was probably just the rose-tinted glasses talking.

"Yeah, I think we've got a few keepers in here."

Every single shot of Eunchae was still a little off, but even that looked good in its own way. Probably because we were all in such high spirits.

"Ooh~ My legs look so long! Dohyun, Dohyun, you're actually good at this!"

Eunchae seemed pretty happy with her photos too, chattering away with excitement.

"Well, I did study up a bit. But even then, I take dozens of shots just to get one or two decent ones."

Last night I'd been so wound up about today's outing that I'd searched photography tips online and practiced like crazy. The fact that my camera roll was now stuffed with failed shots from bizarre angles was a secret I intended to take to the grave.

"Come on, there are people who take dozens of shots and don't get a single good one. This already counts as being good at it."

Now noona was jumping in to praise me too, and I genuinely didn't know what to do with myself. Guess all that studying had paid off.

"Ahem. I'll take a few more, so both of you stand there."

"Pfft, so cute. Look how happy he got. Dohyun, Dohyun."

"That's not it, okay? I was already going to take more!"

By the time it felt like I'd taken ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠hundreds of photos instead of dozens, everyone started making it known they were hungry.

"Is it finally time for the grand unveiling of Dohyun's lunch boxes?!"

We rented a picnic mat and picked our way through the crowd until we finally carved out a spot. Noona stared at the lunch bag with the most expectant look on her face.

"Ah, it's really nothing special. It's just completely ordinary stuff, so don't get your hopes up that high. The pressure's killing me."

I'd packed regular kimbap, tuna kimbap, and cheese kimbap, plus inari sushi and octopus-shaped cocktail sausages. It was basically just two kinds of food — kimbap and tofu-pocket sushi — so all that anticipation was a lot to live up to.

"Come on, the fact that you made it yourself is already amazing!"

"Well... just don't be too disappointed."

Diversifying the kimbap fillings had been my way of hoping they wouldn't get bored. That was part of it, too. Then I opened the lids.

"Whoa, what is this? These lunch boxes are gorgeous?!"

Eunchae was the first to gush.

"Ah, wait! Nobody touch anything! I have to take pictures of this...!"

Dayeon noona suddenly shouted, whipping out her phone and snapping photos of the lunch boxes like her life depended on it.

"Uh, uh... no, it's really nothing special."

"Nothing special?! These are ridiculously pretty!"

"Unnie, share those photos with me too!"

"Yeah, I'll drop them in our group chat!"

Watching them make such a fuss — taking photo after photo and even sharing them in the group chat — I felt this warm swell of pride. I'd felt so guilty about being late because I'd been wrapping these, but seeing them this happy left me with nothing but gratitude.

"Alright, let's eat!"

Eunchae grabbed her chopsticks, popped a piece of kimbap into her mouth, and chewed with the happiest expression I'd ever seen on her.

"Mmm~! Tuna kimbap! This is so good!"

"Huh? That's tuna? This one's cheese?"

Watching Eunchae, noona picked up a different piece, popped it in her mouth, and looked at me with a puzzled expression.

"Ah, since I only made kimbap and inari sushi, I mixed up the fillings. There's tuna, cheese, and regular, so just pick whatever you like."

It had been my little strategy to keep things from getting boring.

"No way~ Wait, you packed three kinds of kimbap? This morning? No wonder you were late!"

"Right? It would've been weirder if he hadn't been late."

Eunchae had always been the dramatic type, but today even Dayeon noona was joining in on the fuss, and I was just embarrassed.

"Ahem. Ahem. It's really nothing."

"It is something, so stop saying it's nothing!"

"Ah, this is actually embarrassing, so cut it out. Jung Eunchae...!"

"Oho~ What's this? You looking all embarrassed is super cute. Now I wanna tease you even more."

They kept fussing and teasing me so much that I could barely tell if the food was going in my mouth or my nose. Eventually, noona stepped in and reined Eunchae in.

"Coming out like this feels so good."

Noona looked genuinely happy, like a lot of her stress had melted away. Watching her, I naturally opened the camera app.

"Noona, you look really pretty. If you filmed this kind of thing and posted it as a vlog, I bet your viewers would love it."

I snapped a few photos, then said the thought that had just popped into my head.

"Whoa, unnie's vlog? I would absolutely watch every single one."

Eunchae nodded along like she agreed, but—

"I don't know. I've never thought about anything besides game streams. It'd be pretty hard, I think?"

She'd started out as a hardcore gaming streamer, and the only other videos she posted ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠were casual chats with her viewers. The idea of planning something completely different seemed to weigh on her.

Hmm... isn't this something I could solve just by raising my Planning Stat?

...So that was why the Planning Stat kept catching my eye. I should've been spreading my stat points around from the start. Damn it...!

Yeah — I should dump every last quest reward from this one into the Planning Stat. The idea I'd been turning over in my head finally locked into place.

"Hmm, I'll try putting together a concept for you later."

"What, Dohyun, Dohyun, you can do planning too?"

"No, I can't. That's why I'm gonna study up."

I wasn't ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠actually going to study — I was just going to raise the stat. But hey. Same difference, right? Either way, it was about getting better at it. Same idea.

"Oh my, I'll be looking forward to it. But then you'll get so capable that other streamers will start trying to poach you."

It wasn't like I was going to run into other streamers. She was worrying about the strangest things. And I'd need to raise the Planning Stat quite a bit before I could even use it, so that would take some time.

First things first — I needed the stat points before I could do anything. I sneaked a look at the quest details to see how far we'd gotten.

Okay, so the lunch boxes had cleared just from what I'd prepped this morning. And the photos I'd taken earlier had been enough to fill that quota. That left the selfie and dinner.

Come to think of it, if noona had gone off to stream this afternoon, we would've failed the quest, wouldn't we? Oh... I'm glad I followed Eunchae's lead and talked her into staying.

"Want to take a group selfie?"

I waited for the right moment, then casually brought it up.

"Sure! Now that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠you mention it, we don't have a single photo of all three of us!"

"Then after the three of us take a selfie, I'll take one of Eunchae and Dohyun too."

"Oh, then I'll take one of unnie and Dohyun too!"

A two-shot with noona...! God, I wanted that so badly...!

"Pfft, look at Dohyun's eyes. The second she said she'd take a picture with him, they started sparkling."

Ack... did I really? Crap. I let how happy I was show way too much. How embarrassing.

"Anyway, let's take the group selfie first!"

Noona steered the conversation back, and I pulled out my phone so we could all take a selfie together. I'd tried to get the Han River in the background, but we were a bit far from the water, and with three faces filling the entire frame, you couldn't even tell where we were.

But that was fine in its own way, wasn't it? It was our first photo together. That was monumental enough.

"You've gotta share all of these later, okay? In the group chat?"

"Yeah, yeah, I know."

"Filter out the ones where I look bad, please. And delete those from your camera roll too, if you can."

Noona delivered this request-slash-order with a completely serious face.

"Yes, ma'am."

This kind of everyday life... I really, really liked it.

I hoped we could go all sorts of places together from now on and take tons of pictures. And later, if I actually planned out a vlog series and we filmed it, we could use that as an excuse to all go on a trip together.