Looking Forward to the Date
The bare stretch of her legs felt strange. Hong Yumin let out a sigh.
"The times have changed. Far too much……."
The top covered only what absolutely had to be covered, and below the thigh everything hung on the perilous edge of decency. It was a style that had thrown warmth to the wind, and Hong Yumin was mortified by it. Not even a gisaeng, a courtesan of old Joseon, would have worn a thing like this.
"How uncomfortable……. It cannot even do a garment's proper work, and yet the price is this outrageous."
She drew her coat closed. She only hoped no one else would have to see so shameless a sight.
It was lamentable. She was beginning to wonder why she had ever opened her mouth about this date.
"Soryeong was right. I must truly have taken leave of my senses."
Even so, it was too late to take it back. She had chosen this herself. For the sake of the dear friend who had bought her the clothes, she would endure.
"And yet why has that fool still not come?"
Barely ten minutes remained until the appointed hour.
"Tsk. Making a woman wait. This date is already beyond saving."
That she herself had come out thirty minutes early did not enter her calculations. A man ought to have foreseen even that.
"……Were you waiting?"
"I was wait—"
Hong Yumin saw Phantom, and the words died in her throat. Because he looked like the Phantom she knew? No.
"Who are you?"
"It's me. Phantom."
"You?"
"Yeah."
She rubbed her eyes and looked again. The distortion that always clung to Phantom was gone. There was no splitting headache every time she looked at him, and he did not warp into some monstrous shape. A black-haired young man simply stood there, neatly dressed in ordinary clothes.
"Do not lie to me. How could you be Phantom?"
"Look at my waist."
The young man indicated his hip. The mask Phantom wore hung there.
Hong Yumin's brow knotted hard. She could feel the distortion coming off that mask.
"……So you are Phantom."
"Who else would I be?"
"That is true enough."
It was unfamiliar—that low, heavy voice in place of his usual high tone, and the man himself without a single eccentricity.
"……Could you have gone about like this all along?"
"Hm? Sure."
The young man shrugged.
A faint twitch ran through the corner of Hong Yumin's eye.
"Then why did you always go about as Phantom, driving people mad?"
"Because I had to."
"What?"
"If I wasn't Phantom, it was too hard."
"………."
Her Insight Eye looked into the frail young man's heart. He was in pain, and he was anxious. Something was always chasing him. He whipped himself onward and could not rest for thinking of the future.
"You planning to stay here?"
"Hm? No. We ought to go."
The Insight Eye, which had nearly sunk too deep, snapped off at his urging. Hong Yumin regarded him with a sour look.
"……Well."
"Anywhere you want to go?"
"……I am hungry. Let us eat first."
"Come on. I know a place."
"Lead the way."
She could not bring herself to ask if he was all right. The pain she had felt from him was no longer there.
"Welcome. Do you have a reservation?"
"Yes, under ■■■. We're a little early. Is that all right?"
"An EX-course guest. For our guests, any time is perfectly fine."
"Thank you."
"I'll show you to your private room."
A server in a kimono led Hong Yumin and the young man in.
"Please wait just a moment. We'll have everything ready shortly."
"Yes."
The paper door slid shut, and only the young man and Hong Yumin remained. A trickle, then a hollow knock—beyond the window, the shishi-odoshi tipped and spilled its water down.
"……What is this place?"
Hong Yumin asked, running a hand over the tatami underfoot.
"A traditional omakase house. You can only come if you've reserved. It's special."
"…Is it not a poor choice for a date?"
"You don't like it?"
"It is not that……."
Was a place like this not meant only for special days? She did not say the last of it aloud.
I chose the order wrong.
She should have suggested a film, not said she was hungry. This was the sort of place that belonged at the end of a date.
If we dine here, where are we supposed to go sightseeing afterward?
One was meant to look about here and there and keep the mood lively, and instead they were eating where the high and mighty quietly discussed affairs of state. What was supposed to come after this?
I was a fool to expect any sense from him.
Why not simply eat at a restaurant high above the city? Why come here of all places…….
While she could do nothing but dart her eyes about, the paper door rattled open and the chef came in. Behind him, ingredients filed in one after another. Before she could so much as gasp, the room had been set for omakase.
The old chef said not a word. He drew out a flounder and prepared it in an instant. Knife-work that had reached the height of its art turned the flesh to sashimi, and the sashimi became sushi.
"Oh."
Hong Yumin admired the sushi that had appeared before her before she quite knew it.
"Try it. It'll be incredible."
The young man was a step ahead of her, dipping a piece of flounder sushi in soy sauce and eating it.
"Hm."
She did as he did and tapped the sushi against the soy. The white rice sank, sodden, into the sauce.
"Mm."
Careful not to let a drop fall, she set it in her mouth and chewed.
Delicious.
Nothing else mattered. The single fact of its deliciousness hammered itself into her head.
The rice melts away with the fish. Even the wasabi is sweet, not harsh.
She could say it without hesitation: of all the sushi she had ever eaten, this was the best.
"Hm?"
While she was still savoring it, another dish had been prepared without her noticing—a sashimi plate, many kinds of fish arranged in a circle until they became a single painting.
"From the near side: squid, tuna fillet, and salmon. All wild-caught."
The young man spoke with a knowing air.
"How many times have you come to eat here?"
"I haven't. I did some research instead."
"Thorough in your preparations."
"It's my first date too."
"Hoh."
There are demerits, but this is not so bad.
The young man stole a sidelong glance at Hong Yumin.
"You like it, don't you. Sushi."
"What did you say?"
Hong Yumin asked again, thinking she had misheard.
The young man, as if nervous, opened his mouth slowly.
"Back when I brought food up the mountain, you really liked the sushi."
"………."
Hong Yumin's gaze turned toward the past.
When the young man had still been Phantom, he had brought her all manner of food to win her favor, and sushi had been among it. Seafood was no stranger to her. On a peninsula bounded by the sea on three sides, it was easy to come by, and common folk had cooked it in every way imaginable. Beef and pork had been the privilege of the upper class, so it was only natural that the cooking of readily had seafood should flourish. Even for her, sushi had been a new experience.
I ate it happily, and the wasabi punished me soundly for it.
She had leaked tears in little starts and eaten like a woman possessed.
It certainly stayed with me.
Had this fool remembered that, and brought her to an omakase house……?
"Puhahahaha!!!"
"Huh?"
When Hong Yumin burst out laughing and clapped her hands, the young man was thrown.
"Uh……. Did I get it wrong?"
Color rose in his cheeks. The guileless look of him only made Hong Yumin laugh harder.
"Haha……! No. No, it is not that. You are right that I like it. I am very fond of seafood."
"Really?"
"Of course. I like seafood better than meat. I even know how to make jeotgal—the old salted ferments."
"That's a relief, then."
The young man swept a hand down his chest and relaxed. There was something oddly endearing about it.
"Keep eating. The omakase is only getting started."
"Very well. I shall empty your purse."
I am looking forward to this date.
Hong Yumin ate her sushi and smiled at the young man with her eyes. He smiled back.
Tap, tap, tap.
"This is bad. They've already gotten that far."
Mi Soryeong bit at her nails, uneasy.
"Soryeong. Don't do that—come over here and eat. How long has it been since we had omakase?"
"Mom. This is embarrassing."
Dan Miryu and Dan Chuyeon tried to stop her, watching the chef's face. Mi Soryeong glared at father and son.
"My friend is about to fall for a man who doesn't even know how to court someone, and I'm supposed to relax?!"
"He seems to be doing all right, though……."
Dan Chuyeon muttered it, sulky.
"All right? What is all right about it! He is nothing but flaws!"
"Still, he took her somewhere with food she likes. That alone seems like a success……."
"Tsk, tsk. This is why people who have never once dated don't understand. With so little experience."
Mi Soryeong looked at the two men as if they were hopeless.
Mom, you don't have any experience besides Dad either.
Shh. Be quiet.
"Yumin. The moment you start finding a man cute, you have to get past it. Fail at that, and it's over!"
Mi Soryeong stamped her feet and would not take her eyes from the wall.
"Mrrrow."
San-gun sighed over a bowl of sashimi rice.
Chomp. Chomp.
Pele, who had granted them clairvoyance and the power to eavesdrop, was too busy eating.
"………What a mess."
Sword tilted back his sake.
"………."
Sipsado ate her sashimi with perfect decorum.
The chef, who had been cooking without a word, broke into a cold sweat down his back.
Why is there a tiger in here?
No—more than that, they seem to be the same party. So why are they eavesdropping and peeping?
"Nyaa, nyaa……. O great one……."
And why did they knock that person out?
The chef gave serious thought to calling the police.
"Mraow?"
One look at the tiger with red sauce smeared across its face, and he gave up at once.
Forget it. Just forget.
Today, he had seen nothing at all. The chef abandoned thought altogether.