The Triple Date Quest

Of course, it was a ridiculous excuse. They could always just meet separately to sign the contract. But now that Dayeon had played the Park Woojin card — her personal cheat code — Dohyun no longer had it in him to refuse.

Something in the way he said it — even gentler than usual, maybe because of how badly she'd been struggling not long ago — made the whole situation twist in Dayeon's chest. She was starting to feel genuinely sorry.

"O-okay..!"

The moment she hung up, a wave of conscience crashed over her, and Dayeon slumped face-first onto the table.

"Unnie, what's wrong?! Did Dohyun say he can't come?"

"Are you okay, Dayeon?"

The other two leaned in at once, worry written all over their faces.

"...No. He said he'd come."

"Then why?"

Eunchae tilted her head, unable to see the problem if he'd already agreed.

"It's just... saying I wanted a change of pace because of Park Woojin was probably way over the line, as far as lies go."

Now that Dohyun was genuinely worried about her, the guilt had settled in heavy and deep. If it was the kind, gentle Dohyun she knew, he was definitely still worrying about her even now.

"Haa... And if I don't even show up tomorrow after saying all that, he's going to be so worried, isn't he..?"

That was the part that scared her most. She'd asked to meet so she could cheer herself up — if she then failed to appear, Dohyun would spend the entire day too anxious to focus on anything else.

"Aagh! I wrote the whole scenario wrong from the start!"

The truth was, even without bringing up ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Park Woojin, she could have made some other excuse and Dohyun almost certainly would have given in anyway. Which meant she was now suffering for a lie she never needed to tell in the first place.

"Hmm. Then why don't we all spend time together tomorrow, and set something up for just the two of you later?"

Jiyun had the same concern — if Dohyun showed up in that state, the whole plan would fizzle out into nothing. Better to move as a group.

"No, but you said you wouldn't have time for a while, unnie."

Dayeon had wanted to carve out time for just the two of them, so they could get close as quickly as possible. It was well-intentioned — but she didn't realize that rushing things could just as easily ruin them.

"It's fine. It's not like I'll never have time again. I'm only busy through next week, so once my schedule clears up, we can always set something up then."

"...Unnie, you really are such an adult."

A flicker of embarrassment passed through Dayeon at how impatient she'd been.

"Hmm? At my age, I ought to be."

She said it lightly, but people had been calling Jiyun mature since she was a child. It was simply her nature.

"Come on, age has nothing to do with it. The world is full of people who get older and still don't act their age."

She was talking about Park Woojin. No matter how she turned it over, the way that man thought was far too childish for someone his age.

"Anyway... I guess we should all go out together this time. Ugh, I really wanted to make time for just the two of you. I'm so sorry."

Jiyun gave Dayeon's hair a light, fond stroke and smiled as the apologies kept coming.

"I'm really fine, so let's stop with the apologies."

Dayeon had never had someone this mature around her before, and she realized that being with Jiyun always left her feeling strangely settled. With other people, she felt like she had to be the one holding things together — but in front of Jiyun, it felt okay to lean a little. To be a bit spoiled.

...I've been feeling something like this with Dohyun lately, too.

Jiyun was a real unnie, and her maturity was on another level, so that made sense. But having the same thought about Dohyun so often lately was, from Dayeon's perspective, genuinely surprising.

Dohyun really is something else.

No matter what she thought about, the end of every thought always led back to him.

I'd barely gotten off the phone with Dayeon noona and accepted the date when two quests dropped on me at once.

Calling it a 3-to-1 date when I didn't even have any kind of relationship with Jiyun noona was already absurd. The quest that came after it was even worse.

"What the hell does 'that kind of relationship' even mean, you lunatic."

I figured I should at least check ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the details.

Why is it so obsessed with everything being trendy..?

Still, for a quest that paid 3 points, there wasn't much to it. A meal and a café were going to happen anyway — I just wasn't sure what counted as "trendy." I'd figure it out. Look up a few places that were popular these days and go from there.

Fine. That one I could live with. Now, what about the other one?

...Ugh. What even is this.

And what's with the Hidden? What hidden?

Hand-holding, flirting — this thing had gone completely off the rails.

"If I mess this up, am I getting arrested..?"

Noona's a lawyer, for crying out loud. If I just went in for a kiss out of nowhere, that was sexual assault. Straight to cuffs. No reduced sentence, no nothing — right into a real prison term.

Ah. Um. Um... should I just give up on this..?

But it's 5 points..!

Then again, I could earn that much just by signing with Jiyun noona and collecting the advance, couldn't I? Giving up had to be better than going to prison..!

"Right. She's a kind noona who wants to hire me and even pay an advance. I shouldn't even be thinking about pulling something this nasty. Yeah. Absolutely not."

Decision made.

The Seduce Jiyun Noona quest was a shame to throw away, but I was abandoning it. Time to look up trendy cafés and good restaurants instead. Missing out on 5 points was a pretty big loss, which meant I was definitely going to clear the date quest, at least, and pocket those 3 points..!

"Right, then. Trendy restaurants... cafés..."

I'd never paid much attention to this kind of thing, so I wasn't even sure where to start. Instagram, though, right? Places like that usually lived on Instagram?

When people said "trendy," they usually meant an Instagram-famous spot.

I downloaded Instagram — something I had never once done in my life — made an account, and searched for trendy restaurants and cafés. An avalanche of information poured out, enough to make my eyes roll back in my head.

"...Which of these are ads..?"

Most of them, probably. The real trick would be filtering out the ads and finding somewhere that was actually, genuinely hot right now.

Not that a place couldn't be trendy just because it ran ads. I just didn't want to end up somewhere so plastered with promotions that the food was a letdown. The quest would complete either way — but Dayeon noona had said she wanted a change of pace, and if I could help it, I wanted to pick somewhere good and give her a nice time.

"Well... the noonas have probably been to plenty of places like this already."

Finding one or two decent spots wasn't going to blow anyone's mind. That was just how I felt ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠about it, though.

Anyway, I had that feeling — you know the one — that I was going to be up all night. And if staying up meant I could find somewhere really good...!

Wait. Hold on.

We'd said we'd make a group chat and decide together. Was I really about to pick a place by myself and just announce it? They might already have somewhere they wanted to go.

"Hmm..."

I figured I should start by making the group chat, and reached for my phone.

The group chat already existed. The three of them were in the middle of a full-blown conversation, messages stacked all the way down the screen.

An amusement park, huh. I'd only ever gone on school field trips. Not once since then.

Going to an amusement park with girls. Wasn't that every guy's dream?

The rides weren't the point. It was the atmosphere — that fizzy, fluttering feeling of being there with someone you liked. That was the whole thing.

Both had clear pros and cons, so I actually had to think about it. Lotte World was easy to get to, but the park itself was small. Everland was farther out, but it was bigger, with a lot more to see.

And just like that, Everland's biggest downside — the distance — stopped mattering. A car fixed that instantly.

Once Everland was locked in, they tumbled straight into chatter about what to wear and whether it would be crowded tomorrow, and the whole thing was almost painfully cute. They were all wound up. Not that I wasn't. I was pretty wound up myself.

Anyway. Did that mean I had to find the trendy café and the restaurant inside Everland..?

Did Everland even have places like that..?