Who Did You Come With?
"Who did you come with?"
"So what?"
"What do you mean, so what?"
The voice on the other end of the line, needling me like she was cross-examining a suspect, belonged to Lee Yeon-ah.
And the reason she was grilling me first thing in the morning?
"You made such a fuss about not giving it to me, so why'd you just hand it over to Unnie?"
My phone number, of course.
After establishing a working partnership with Lee Yeon-hui, I'd exchanged contacts with her in case anything came up. Somehow Yeon-ah had found out about it, and now here we were.
"I gave it to you too."
"I snuck it off you, remember?"
"Oh, so you were aware of that..."
She said it so shamelessly that I had nothing left to fire back with.
"How did you even find out Yeon-hui had my number?"
Knowing Yeon-hui's personality, she wouldn't have gone out of her way to tell Yeon-ah.
"Unnie was grinning at her phone all day long, so I snuck a look while she was in the shower."
"......"
Hey. That's a crime.
And she sounded so proud of herself that I could practically hear the smugness radiating through the speaker.
"No, wait — more importantly, how did you even unlock it? Didn't she have a passcode?"
"I watched her finger movements when she typed it in. Tried a few combinations based on that and it opened right up."
"......"
Terrifying. Lee Yeon-ah was terrifying.
She had some kind of spy-movie skillset running as a passive ability. I rubbed the goosebumps rising on my arms and tried to settle my nerves.
"Anyway, you played favorites. So you're meeting up with me."
"What is that supposed to mean? When did I play favorites?"
"You wouldn't give me your number, but you just handed it to Unnie! I had to blackmail you for it, and she got it for free!"
"Oh, so you were aware you blackmailed me too..."
Then why couldn't she take the next logical step and conclude that she shouldn't do it...? Yeon-ah's moral compass was starting to seriously concern me.
"No. I'm not going out unless I absolutely have to."
Last time, going out with Choi A-rin had been different — I'd already planned to eventually leave her with the Association, so I hadn't needed to worry about her safety. But if someone spotted me meeting with Yeon-ah, that person could end up in danger too. Nothing like that had happened yet, but there was no harm in being careful.
"Oppa. Did that sound like a request to you?"
"Huh...?"
"I know where you are."
"......."
"Should I just come over?"
Was this kid okay...?
Thinking about it, Yeon-ah had said "meet up" — not as a suggestion or a request, but as a decision I was expected to make. From the start, refusing hadn't been an option. The moment I picked up the phone, this outcome had already been locked in.
"You're here."
I was waiting in front of the station we'd agreed on when I spotted Yeon-ah walking toward me from the far side. It was the dead of winter, so she'd bundled up in a thick coat with a scarf wrapped around her neck. Her expression looked a little sulky, and I was just starting to wonder if something was wrong when—
"Hey."
Lee Yeon-hui stepped out from behind her.
"You two came together?"
"No we did not! She caught me on the way out!"
Yeon-ah let out a tiny, frustrated whine.
"It's been a while. You been doing okay?"
We'd been exchanging check-ins ever since swapping numbers, but maybe the slightly awkward atmosphere we'd parted on last time was still lingering in my mind.
"Yeah..."
Apparently she hadn't quite shaken it off either. Yeon-hui answered while awkwardly avoiding my eyes.
"More people is always better, right?"
I said it while glancing toward Yeon-ah.
"Oppa. You wanna get hit?"
The reply that came back was downright vicious.
Why was this kid's personality getting more and more like her older sister's...? Looking at them today, Yeon-hui actually seemed like the well-behaved one.
"Where do you want to go? I know this area pretty well."
I deliberately changed the subject and started walking ahead. I needed to redirect Yeon-ah's foul mood as quickly as possible. Fortunately, it seemed she'd come out with a purpose, because an answer came from behind me almost immediately.
"I want to look at some clothes before we move into the dorms."
"Oh, I want to look at clothes too."
Fair enough — once they entered the dorms, their free time outside would be limited, so shopping now made sense. And since Yeon-ah wanted to look at clothes as well, we settled on a destination in no time.
"There's a mall nearby that connects to the underground shopping arcade. Let's go there."
I'd been there once with Choi A-rin, so I was reasonably confident I could play guide. I led the two of them along without the faintest idea what kind of catastrophe I was walking into.
The gates of shopping hell swung open.
"Unnie, try this on."
"This one looks good too. Yeon-ah, try this."
The two of them had been sparring a little when we first met up, but before I knew it they were shopping together like the best of friends — and just like that, we'd sunk into the endless swamp of shopping hell.
Three hours in already.
The last person I'd gone shopping with was Choi A-rin, so maybe my expectations had been calibrated to her. Back then, A-rin had barely any shopping experience, and she'd been hesitant about the cost on top of that, so it hadn't taken long at all.
"Doesn't this look nice too?"
"Yeah, it does. Do they have it in another color?"
These two had both shopping expertise and zero concern about the price tag, so nothing held them back. They shopped at a leisurely, unhurried pace. A truly leisurely pace. Circling the same spots, wandering into new ones, over and over.
"Should we grab lunch soon?"
At last, the bell signaling the end of hell rang out.
"Yes! Yes! I know a good place!"
We needed to get out of here. Fast. If we lingered even a little longer and some tempting store caught their eye, the shopping nightmare would start all over again.
"Western food okay?"
"Yeah, I'm good with that."
"Me too."
The only restaurant I knew around here was the one I'd gone to with Choi A-rin last time. But she was around their age and had liked it, so I figured it'd be fine for both of them. With that thought, I headed up to the upper floor of the mall — only to find a waiting line outside the place we were aiming for.
"Oh? I know this place. It's a pretty famous chain."
"Yeah, that explains the crowd."
It was a late weekday lunch hour, but with winter break still on, the restaurant was packed with students.
"Looks like about three parties ahead of us. Want to wait?"
"Sure."
"Yeah."
It was full, but since lunch rush had already peaked, the wait wasn't that long. We chatted outside for a bit, and before we knew it our turn came up. We ordered simple meals and drinks and picked the conversation back up.
"Oppa, how do you even know a place like this? It's a pretty well-known chain."
Choi A-rin had found it through a search last time. Apparently it really was popular.
"I came once before. It was pretty good."
I said it casually, remembering that the food hadn't been bad and A-rin's reaction had been positive. It was the kind of offhand comment you'd make while catching up — nothing more. But the two of them seemed to take it differently.
Yeon-hui, who'd been mid-sip of water, froze completely. And Yeon-ah, who'd been excitedly chattering about everything under the sun, suddenly clamped her mouth shut.
What? Why?
Sensing the sudden shift in atmosphere, I snuck a sideways glance at both of them.
"Who did you come with?"
Yeon-hui asked, the corners of her mouth curling up. Her lips were smiling, but her eyes absolutely were not. Even her voice seemed to have dropped about two degrees from before.
"A friend... of mine."
I stammered without meaning to.
"What friend?"
This time Yeon-ah piled on from the side. She was giving me a full-on spill it look.
"Someone you don't know..."
"That person who was with you last time? This doesn't seem like the kind of place two guys would come to."
Hey, what's wrong with two guys coming here?!
Park Jae-hyun just has severe social anxiety — if he didn't, we'd be going everywhere together!
I wanted to blurt out something that childish just to escape, but one look at the glares fixed on me told me this wasn't something I could laugh off.
"No... it's not that."
I hadn't done anything wrong, so why were my palms suddenly dripping with sweat? Just telling the truth should have been fine, but every instinct I had was blaring a warning not to.
How was I supposed to talk my way out of this? I was running through every possible conversational route when—
"Your drinks are ready."
A lifeline dropped straight from heaven.
"Hey, our drinks are here. Let's drink them before they get cold."
"Those are iced."
"Exactly. If they get any colder the ice will melt and they'll taste watered down. Drink up."
Even I knew that made zero sense, but in moments like this it was best to just let the words fly without running them through your brain first.
"Fine. Let's just eat first."
Thankfully, unlike Yeon-ah — who looked ready to keep digging — Yeon-hui threw me a rope. As expected of the more emotionally mature Yeon-hui—
"We can just ask which girl he came with after we're done eating, right?"
—she dropped the finishing blow.
In that case.
"Excuse me, I'd like to order more!"
I needed to stretch out the meal.
"Ah! Sorry! Wrong table!"
And as if she'd read my mind, Yeon-ah shut down the additional order with surgical precision.
"Oppa, let's just get dessert at a café later. If you eat more now you won't have room."
"......"
"Oh, and since you've been here before, you must know a good dessert place nearby, right?"
"......"
I was so screwed.
The rest of the meal was surprisingly comfortable. Neither of them brought up the earlier topic, and the conversation flowed along normally. I started to think that maybe, just maybe, I could bury this and move on—
"So, shall we finish that conversation at the café?"
—or so I thought.
No such luck.
We found a decent café nearby, ordered a few desserts and drinks, and the interrogation resumed.
"It was a girl, right?"
"...Y-yeah, it was a girl..."
"How old?"
"Same... age..."
"Is she pretty?"
"......"
Somehow this conversation felt exactly like the ones guys have after coming back from a blind date. Was Choi A-rin pretty? Well.
"She's pretty, I guess...?"
"......"
"......"
Among the main cast mentioned in the original story, Choi A-rin's name always came up whenever people talked about who was beautiful. Especially when she stood next to Yeon-hui, side characters would say things like the two of them practically radiated light. But personally—
"I think you two are prettier, though."
Choi A-rin was, without question, an absolute beauty. But my own deeply personal taste in women leaned more toward Yeon-hui and Yeon-ah's type. Before I could stop myself, that honest thought slipped right out.
I immediately regretted it and clamped my mouth shut, looking straight ahead — only to find both of them frozen solid, eyes wide, mouths hanging slightly open.
What is with these two now?
They'd locked up like a pair of glitched-out NPCs. I was still trying to figure out how to salvage the awkward atmosphere when—
Bzzzt—!
The buzzer went off, signaling that our drinks and desserts were ready.
"Be right back."
I grabbed the buzzer and fled the table, escaping the thick, awkward air hanging over it.
"He... didn't seem like he was lying."
"Yeah..."
The moment Park Yeon-chan left the table, the two of them started discussing what he'd just said.
"Hehe... he said I'm pretty."
"He said 'you two.' And he was looking at me when he said it."
Yeon-hui frowned and shot back, watching Yeon-ah grin like an idiot.
"You and I look pretty similar, Unnie. So it'd come down to personality — and wouldn't he prefer me over a tsundere like you?"
"I wasn't being a tsundere last time!"
"What? What happened last time? I never heard about this."
"Well, from what I can tell, you've stuck something weird on Park Yeon-chan too. And I never heard about that either."
Watching the two of them bicker back and forth, Park Yeon-chan returned to the table a little later than necessary, looking thoroughly pleased.
"What did you do next?"
I'd thought the interrogation was finally over, but apparently not — even after we left the café, they kept asking about my previous itinerary. At least the oppressive pressure from earlier was gone. For reasons I couldn't quite pin down, their moods seemed to have improved.
"After that we went to take four-cut photos as the last stop."
"Let's go."
For some reason they were weirdly fixated on everything I'd done with Choi A-rin, and insisted on retracing the exact same route. The two of them struck poses in front of the camera like they'd done this a hundred times. Last time I'd taken photos with Choi A-rin, who'd never been to a place like this before. Standing in front of the camera with two people who clearly knew what they were doing felt a little awkward by comparison.
Click. Click. Click.
After a few shutter sounds, the shoot was done. The two of them busied themselves at the monitor, fussing over simple edits. They held up the printed strips and talked animatedly about something, and then Yeon-ah came scampering over to me with one of them in hand.
"Here. This one's yours, Oppa."
After all that intense discussion, the photo strip she held out to me. I had no idea what the difference was that warranted such a debate. I hadn't been particularly invested either way, so I just took what she gave me.
"Don't lose it."
"I won't."
I slipped the photo into my wallet under Yeon-hui's watchful, almost admonishing gaze.
Outside, the sky had grown considerably darker. It was still January, so the sun set early, and the streetlights were starting to flicker on one by one.
"We should head back soon."
"Can't you come over for dinner at our place? It's been so long."
Yeon-ah latched onto one of my arms as she said it. Not a bad offer, but it wasn't the right time yet. Just coming out like this had already taken a huge amount of resolve on my part. I shook my head to decline, and Yeon-ah slumped, letting go of my arm. The way she backed off so easily — like she already knew throwing a tantrum wouldn't work — was honestly pretty cute.
"O-our mom would really love to see you too..."
Yeon-hui sidled up beside me and tugged lightly at my collar with her fingers. She wasn't actually pleading. She'd just watched Yeon-ah boldly cling to my arm and mustered up the courage to try something herself. Even so, she couldn't quite match Yeon-ah's boldness and had settled for this timid little compromise. I couldn't help but smile.
"Next time. I'll come by next time."
With that, we started walking toward the station together. And just like that, an outing that stirred up old childhood nostalgia came to a close.
Deep into the night.
Or rather, early morning would have been the more accurate term.
A familiar presence brushed faintly against my senses. Careful not to wake the sleeping Park Jae-hyun, I slipped quietly out of the apartment and made my way up to the rooftop.
"It's been a while, Oppa."
Softly radiating a brilliant golden mana, Lee Yeon-ah was calling for me.