The Concert (2)
How should I give this ticket to Choi Saeron?
That was my biggest dilemma right now.
"It's a bit tricky."
The VIP ticket? Of course I was going to give it to Choi Saeron.
I was going to give it to her, but...
"It's no fun if I just hand it over normally."
That was the problem.
To be frank, where was the fun in just giving it to her?
If it were Kwon Dain or Yoon Seolah, I would have just handed it over.
But with Choi Saeron, it was a different story.
"We usually click pretty well, too."
You could say we had great banter.
Choi Saeron felt less like a female friend and more like a female friend.
"Or..."
Should I just give it to her?
Putting her to work now and then going to the concert, or going to the concert first and putting her to work later—it might amount to the same thing.
No, actually.
"Thinking about it again..."
Making Choi Saeron work before the concert didn't seem like a good idea.
The reason was simple.
She was probably conserving her energy for the day of the concert.
I didn't want to drain the stamina she was working so hard to save just for the sake of a prank.
"In the end, the concert is what matters."
I pulled the two carefully stored tickets out of my bag.
Then, I picked up my phone.
Click!
After taking a photo of the VIP tickets,
I sent the message to Choi Saeron.
"She's probably working her part-time job, right?"
If she was working, I planned to drop by the cafe.
If not, I would talk to her at school tomorrow.
"She must have noticed by now, right?"
Sending a photo of the VIP tickets out of nowhere, and saying I had something to give her.
To anyone, it was an obvious hint saying, 'I'm going to give you a VIP ticket.'
So I expected her to catch on, but...
"...A hairbrush?"
She really didn't get it.
Seeing how she was talking about a hairbrush, she hadn't even imagined it.
She had absolutely no clue.
"I wonder how surprised she'll be."
Since Choi Saeron was someone with very dramatic reactions.
"Is she going to start jumping up and down?"
With that anticipation, I headed to Cafe Monologue.
It didn't take long to arrive.
"It's been a while!"
Choi Mina welcomed me warmly.
She even gave me a friendly pat on the back.
"Any plans on coming back to work?"
"...Pardon?"
"Sales dropped after you left. By about... twenty percent?"
"...That much?"
"Of course. A handsome cafe part-timer is a cheat code for sales, and you..."
Choi Mina scanned me up and down.
"...Even seeing you after a while, I'm still not used to it. Seriously, if I were just ten years younger..."
She placed a hand on my shoulder.
"Jisul."
"Yes?"
"You shouldn't say mean things like, 'Even if you were ten years younger, Boss, I wouldn't date you.'"
"......Huh?"
"You were thinking it, weren't you?"
"......"
I swear to God, I never thought of such a thing.
Seriously.
In the first place, the Choi sisters were exceptionally good-looking.
Honestly, in my eyes, they were on par with Kwon Dain and Yoon Seolah.
"I didn't think that at all."
"Ha, look at you, getting better at social skills."
Choi Mina ushered me into the cafe with a pleased smile.
Inside, instead of customers, Choi Saeron was sitting there, tapping away on her phone.
"Oh, you're here?"
Choi Saeron waved her hand at me.
"What is it you wanted to give me? I couldn't think of anything besides the hairbrush."
Sitting down across from her,
"I came to give you this."
I casually placed the two tickets on the table.
"What's this?"
Choi Saeron naturally shifted her gaze to the table.
After staring at the tickets for a moment, she leaned in closer to get a better look.
Showing me the crown of her head, I see.
A faint chuckle escaped my lips at the sight.
"...Huh? Uh... uh...?! N-No way...!"
Choi Saeron's eyes darted to me,
then back to the tickets on the table.
They kept bouncing back and forth.
Meanwhile, her eyes were twice their normal size.
"Ah..."
Perhaps because she had been darting her eyes around so much, Choi Saeron pressed a hand to her forehead as if dizzy.
"Is this real?"
She then asked me with a serious look in her eyes.
"It's real."
"...Where on earth did you get these? They're completely sold out. No, wait, how did you even get the money? Two of these would be a million won!"
"Someone I know gave them to me as a gift."
"...These?"
"Yeah."
"Sigh..."
Choi Saeron let out a deep sigh.
"I can't even not believe it."
"So, you don't want them?"
Honestly, this wasn't the reaction I had hoped for.
I was expecting her to jump for joy.
Her reaction was much calmer than I thought.
"...Of course I'm taking them. Absolutely taking them."
However, my disappointment was short-lived.
A grin slowly spread across Choi Saeron's face.
"Ha! You crazy bastard, Jeong Jisul!"
Showing off her pearly whites, she suddenly lunged toward me.
"Look at this guy's style...! You brought VIP tickets just to make your noona happy? Are you insane? Should noona give you a kiss?"
What a reaction...
The energy was exactly what I wanted,
but her choice of words left a lot to be desired.
"Hey."
"Yeah?"
"I'm the one who brought the tickets. Why are you the noona?"
"...True."
"Show me the crown of your head, Choi Saeron."
We indulged in a bit of playful banter like that.
Even while we were joking around, Choi Saeron looked genuinely thrilled, like an innocent child.
"Are we going together?"
"Of course. The reason I got two tickets was so we could go together."
"Okay, then I'll pay for everything we spend that day. I saved up money just for this."
"Sure."
"Let's eat something expensive after the concert. Noona's buying."
...Why is she so obsessed with calling herself noona?
I couldn't understand her train of thought, but
"Ah, this is crazy, seriously crazy...!"
seeing her eyes sparkle as she stared at the VIP tickets
was quite a pleasant sight.
Choi Saeron's excitement reached its peak only after she returned home.
"What is this? Seriously?"
Although the tickets had gone back into Jeong Jisul's possession, the image of the VIP tickets was still vivid in her mind.
"I should tell the girls."
Lately, the relationship between Jeong Jisul and the others didn't seem very good.
Of course, Jeong Jisul had said nothing was wrong and that he didn't know why it seemed that way,
but judging by her sharp intuition,
something had definitely happened between them.
Especially with Kwon Dain.
So, if she shared this heartwarming story about Jeong Jisul right now,
"Things will go back to how they were, right?"
Choi Saeron praised herself inwardly for coming up with such a thought.
"Since he gave me a VIP ticket... I can definitely help him out this much."
"...Is that a bit too obvious?"
Maybe she shouldn't have just blurted out that he was nice.
"Ah, but beating around the bush isn't my style."
"...Honestly."
Yoon Seolah was also a cause for concern.
Unlike her cold impression, she was practically a sloth on the inside.
"At least it's a relief we have Jeong Jisul."
As she muttered those words,
a realization about Jeong Jisul struck Choi Saeron.
Come to think of it...
"Jeong Jisul is always the one helping out."
Contrary to that fact, she had never really helped him in return.
So, what should she do?
"Well... I guess I just have to help him out more often."
Choi Saeron came up with a simple solution.
While Choi Saeron was making that resolution,
"......"
Kwon Dain was lost in deep thought, silent.
Jisul is nice, but...
Jeong Jisul was naturally a kind person.
He was considerate and quick-witted.
Yet, because he seemed uncompromising when it came to his work,
she liked the charm that came from that contrast.
"Ah, no, that's not it."
Kwon Dain shook her head vigorously to clear her stray thoughts.
Even if Jisul is nice...
spending 500,000 won for a friend...
at least to Kwon Dain, made no sense.
They hadn't even known each other for that long.
It wasn't even her birthday.
And she was a girl.
Yet he gifted her a 500,000 won ticket?
A high school student?
And he bought two of them to go to the concert together?!
Could it be that Jisul...
likes Saeron...?
The more she thought about it, the more it seemed like the only logical conclusion.
"...I'm such an idiot."
Kwon Dain let out a deep sigh.
Recently, she had stopped talking to Jeong Jisul.
It was by her own choice.
Yet, the one who constantly occupied her mind was always Jeong Jisul.
"What's the point of not talking to him..."
when he's all I think about anyway?
It was the same right now.
Hearing that Jeong Jisul and Choi Saeron were going to the concert alone together
made her chest tighten with frustration.
At that moment, a knock sounded at the door.
"Dain, can Mom come in?"
"...Yes."
Seong Haein slowly walked into Kwon Dain's room.
"Didn't you say one of your friends likes Orchid?"
"Yes, there is."
"Sol told me she has a few Orchid tickets and said I could have them if I needed them. Do you want to give them to your friend? If so, I can get a few."
Kwon Dain fell silent for a moment at Seong Haein's words.
...The ticket Jisul gave Saeron.
He must have gotten it from Aunt Sol.
The tightness in her chest eased instantly.
However, the fact that the two of them were going on a date remained unchanged,
so her frustration wasn't completely gone.
To completely put it to rest...
"Just one ticket is fine. My friend already has one..."
"Just one? You're going, sweetie?"
"Yes, I'd like to go."
...Seeing their date with her own eyes would be the best way.
That was Kwon Dain's decision.