Shopping
Shopping
A peaceful weekend morning dawned.
Since it was a rare day off, I had slept in and my body felt stiff,
so I stretched with all my might, and the sound of my joints cracking echoed loudly through the room.
"Mmm... Seong-hwana..."
The sound was so loud I thought A-ra had woken up, but it seemed to be sleep-talking.
On A-ra's cheek, as she called my name even in sleep,
I pressed a kiss.
It felt like I had brought my lips to soft tofu or pudding.
Perhaps she was the very embodiment of what they call baby-soft skin.
"Hehe..."
She was sleeping...
No, she wasn't.
Maybe because she was dreaming of me giving her a kiss or something,
I caught A-ra smiling meaninglessly in her sleep
and smiled wryly as I stepped outside.
It was still only 9 o'clock, so it would be fine to let her sleep more.
Since we hadn't been able to go on a date yesterday,
I headed to the dressing room, thinking we would go today.
On one side, A-ra's clothes were hung in abundance,
and on the other side, my clothes were hung in abundance.
Maybe because our home was a penthouse,
the dressing room was incredibly spacious.
It was hard to describe, but
there was an accessory storage case in the center
and it was roomy enough to hold at least twenty hangers.
Even that was lacking for A-ra,
so she was using some of the space allocated to me.
It had taken a full 24 hours just to organize A-ra's clothes,
so the sheer scale was probably hard to imagine.
In contrast, the clearly meager number of my clothes
created an indescribable atmosphere.
You could call it polar opposites.
'Come to think of it, I need to go buy clothes.'
There were too few clothes, and some had become too small to even wear.
I had gotten a little taller, so the lengths had gotten too short,
and with my shoulders widening, there were clothes I could no longer fit into.
So I'd decided to buy a lot of clothes.
I examined my body reflected in the full-length mirror in the dressing room
from all angles.
At 172 cm and about 50 kg, I had a decent build;
my upper-to-lower body ratio wasn't model-level, but
it was reasonably presentable.
It wasn't narcissism,
just that my body was decent enough that even A-ra would nod in approval.
Of course, I couldn't exclude the possibility that she was misjudging due to love goggles.
'Today, shall we go on a date and buy some clothes...?'
As I held up clothes that had grown a little tight against my body and muttered to myself,
A-ra came up behind me, rubbing her eyes.
It looked like she might fall asleep at any moment,
yet she was walking perfectly fine.
Seems idols are people with quite remarkable abilities.
"Noona, shall we go on a date today?"
A-ra came up from behind and sat on the plush sofa in the dressing room.
I chuckled, turning toward A-ra and holding up various clothes one after another
against myself.
"Sounds good... where do you want to go?"
"Let's go to an outlet or a department store."
I had money saved from my convenience store part-time job, and my YouTube earnings had piled up enormously,
so I planned to buy some department store clothes one by one and try them.
And I had gotten a recommendation from the Director.
They had advised me that when I go to a department store or mart, I could buy electronics and upload unboxing videos, which would be good.
For me, if I just filmed the video, the editing team would edit and upload it on their own,
so it wasn't a bother.
I had been wanting to buy an action cam, so it worked out well.
"Are you going to buy clothes?"
"Because it's spring, I want to get some light clothes."
"Right, Seong-hwan, you should buy yourself some clothes. A guy should show some interest in his clothes, after all."
I smiled wryly at A-ra's words.
Not long ago, A-ra had discovered a clothing bag,
inside which were clothes so old it was hard to tell if they were clothes or rags.
Originally they were outdoor clothes,
but because I had worn them so much, they had turned into rag-like things.
I had worn them enough, and because I was the type who hated throwing things away,
I couldn't bring myself to throw them away and had stashed them in a bag. That was what A-ra found.
When she found them, A-ra called me out,
scolding me severely and saying a man shouldn't go around wearing clothes like those.
She gave me a big lecture.
I hadn't actually worn them,
but it was true that I'd hidden them because I was reluctant to toss them,
so I had no defense and kept silent.
Certainly, there was no reason to wear such clothes when I had money.
Since I am A-ra's husband, I have to consider A-ra's dignity.
If I went around in such rag-like clothes, what would people around think of A-ra?
They would probably think she's a violent head of household who doesn't even buy clothes for her husband.
"Then, let's go to the department store first."
A-ra grinned broadly
and went into the dressing room, beginning to pull out clothes to put on.
Was going on a date really that enjoyable?
I looked over A-ra's whole figure after she had finished changing.
I grabbed her shoulders, turned her around, and thoroughly checked the back.
The white spring dress and the fluttering hat suited her very well.
The fit was so good you would believe she was a model...
A-ra was an idol, of course, but
if she had become a model, she might have conquered the world.
Come to think of it, she had already conquered the world once with her music.
She was so talented...
"Oh right! There's something to do before going on a date!"
In a slightly awkward, scripted tone, as if she had just remembered,
she took off her hat, left the master bedroom,
and headed toward the kitchen.
Once in the kitchen, A-ra pulled out a chair, sat down,
rested her chin on her hands, and greeted me with an expectant look.
"Breakfast!"
"Ah..."
A-ra might burst into tears while working if she didn't eat breakfast,
so I had to make sure she ate.
Did she know how much this side of her set my heart on fire?
Before preparing breakfast,
I brought up one thing A-ra had overlooked.
Changing into outdoor clothes was fine, making sure to eat was fine —
all good. But she'd forgotten that one thing,
even though the traces of last night's lovemaking were still all over her body.
"Before that, go wash up."
"Huh?"
"Noona, you changed your clothes without washing first, didn't you?"
"Ah, right..."
She said she'd forgotten and threw me a wink,
then headed back to the master bedroom.
That sight was so cute,
I kept my eyes on her until the very moment she disappeared, and to hold onto the image,
I kept watching that direction.
***
The place we arrived at in A-ra's beloved car, the Porsche Boxster GTS, was
the New World Department Store in Gangnam.
It was said to be the number one among the branches
commonly referred to as the nation's top five department stores.
Simply put, it was the department store with the highest sales.
As A-ra had advised, before going out,
I put on a large mask.
The KF94 mask was one everyone wore in spring, when yellow dust was the default weather,
so it was said to be suitable for concealment.
A-ra got out first and opened my door for me.
Even though I told her several times it was okay, the stubborn A-ra insisted on doing it.
Was this an escort or something?
She said it was precisely because of this kind of place that she should do it even more.
After that, we handed the key to the valet
and entered the department store.
Because it was my first time inside a department store,
my pupils grew round like olive fruit.
Seeing that, A-ra smiled wryly,
took my hand and headed somewhere.
Of course, like a country bumpkin in Seoul, I looked around everywhere, taking it all in.
So this is what it takes to be number one in sales in the country.
Various luxury shops and famous cafes were also inside.
I didn't bother asking why there were cafes inside a department store.
It wasn't that I knew the reason, nor was I not curious.
Simply, I was too embarrassed to ask.
Dragged along by A-ra, we arrived at
a famous luxury boutique known for making wallets and bags.
"Welcome!"
A neatly suited employee bowed 90 degrees in greeting.
A-ra quietly nodded.
The staff member, who had been about to chatter a moment ago, didn't say a word,
and quietly followed behind us.
It seemed there was some kind of signal.
She wanted to shop quietly?
Was it some sign like that?
"Seong-hwan, how about this?"
"Looks pretty good?"
It was a sweatshirt with an illustration in the center of the chest.
A building and something like a tiger were drawn on it, giving it a slightly hip vibe that I liked.
Hearing my reaction, A-ra handed the garment to the employee and told her the size.
The employee checked the stock on a tablet PC,
and quickly disappeared somewhere.
After that, A-ra showed me several other clothes,
but only about two pieces caught my eye.
When I showed those to the employee,
she checked the stock, disappeared again,
and returned with the clothes in my size, then waited beside us.
"Let's go buy pants somewhere else."
"Doesn't this look okay?"
I pulled out a piece I had had my eye on for a while,
and showed it to A-ra.
A-ra took the garment,
stepped back a bit, and held it up against my lower body.
"I don't think it suits you that well, but do you like it?"
"I do like it. Let's go with this one."
"If Seong-hwan likes it, we have to buy it."
A-ra coolly handed the pants to the employee as well.
I had a feeling the employee's expression had been gradually crumbling since earlier,
or was it just my imagination?
Unable to find any more clothes I liked, we moved to the checkout counter.
The employee scanned each piece of clothing one by one,
removed the anti-theft tags from the boxes and attached payment-completed stickers.
By the way, A-ra was covering the POS machine, so I couldn't see how much it came to;
I couldn't directly check.
"How would you like to pay?"
"Please do a one-time payment."
A-ra took a card out of her wallet.
That card looked familiar — where had I seen it a lot?
It was black, and featured a man dressed like he was from the movie 300,
holding a spear.