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It was the last day of the trip.
Before heading to Hakata Port,
I stood at the bus station at Hakata Station, took out my notebook,
and circled the last place we had visited in Japan.
Most of the places I'd written down in the notebook had circles drawn around them,
but there were also some marked with an X.
One was a restaurant and the other was a place that had closed.
The restaurant didn't even have the basics down, so I just counted it as a place we hadn't gone.
I hated the thought of having a memory of a place like that
after coming all this way on a trip.
And then there was the place that had closed.
It was a spot A-ra had checked out, but when we actually went there it was closed, and A-ra's expression had crumpled.
She'd been so adorable, apologizing for making us walk all that way for nothing.
Thinking about that, I drew a circle around the last restaurant we'd visited.
"We've been to almost everything."
"What are you doing?"
"Checking off the places we visited."
"You really are meticulous... You keep a household ledger too, right?"
Keeping a household ledger was just a natural thing for a homemaker to do—
so wasn't that pretty much the same as being meticulous?
Anyway, we had diligently gone around all week,
so we had managed to visit just about every place we'd targeted.
I figured, even if we came here again sometime,
there probably wouldn't be anywhere left to visit.
"Noona, what place did you like the most?"
"Personally, the ryokan was the best, and for dating, maybe Canal City?"
"That place really was great."
You could say it was a place you had to visit at least once if you came to Hakata, Fukuoka.
I really liked its catchphrase—a city center within the city center.
Because that massive city itself was a work of art.
"Then, what was the most delicious thing?"
"Hmm... you, Seong-hwan?"
"I meant food. Food."
"For food, too... probably the kaiseki cuisine we had on the first day."
That was true.
Especially the pumpkin dumplings—I couldn't forget those.
It seemed like it would make good content for the next Qtube video,
so I'd have to try making it.
Just then, I saw the 100-yen bus approaching
with a rattling sound.
The 100-yen bus I'd seen at the port on the first day had felt full of energy and anticipation,
but the one I saw now felt full of lingering echoes and regret.
"Let's come again someday."
"Okay."
I didn't know when that 'someday' would be,
but I held that thought as I firmly clasped A-ra's outstretched hand.
Let's come back here together with A-ra someday.
A-ra stroked my head,
then boarded the bus first and took a ticket.
"Now that I think about it, I feel like I'm forgetting something..."
A-ra, who was sitting in the bus seat,
frowned as she tried to recall something,
but gave up when it didn't come to her.
Usually, the things you can't remember
tend to come to you suddenly.
Trying to force yourself to remember never works.
*
When we entered the country, we had come on the Kobi instead of the New Camellia,
so it only took three hours to arrive at Busan Port in Korea.
After finishing immigration, I was waiting for A-ra near the arrivals area.
She was a little late...
Only after about 40 minutes did A-ra show up.
She had a receipt in her hand, and judging by her troubled expression,
she seemed to be trying hard to figure out the numbers.
"How much did it come out to?"
"8.45 million won?"
A-ra had handled the taxes on the items she'd bought
and showed me the receipt.
It stated the total purchase price as 42.27 million won,
and the applied tax amount was about 20 percent—she seemed to have paid a total of 8,455,680 won in a lump sum.
Below that, it said there was a reduction of -150,000 won as a voluntary declaration deduction.
So if you don't voluntarily declare, it's +150,000 won?
I guess because they were expensive items exceeding 200 dollars, there were no duty-free exemptions and the taxes came out to be enormous.
"With these taxes, you could buy one more item!"
"...."
That seemed to be what mattered more to A-ra.
Seeing that, I gave a bitter smile.
*
We returned the pocket Wi-Fi, headed to Busan Station,
and took the KTX up to Seoul.
Was the atmosphere really this different between going on a trip and coming back?
When we departed, it had felt bustling with anticipation and excitement,
but on the way back, it felt calm and full of lingering echoes.
Probably because it was a shame for the trip to end.
I turned my head to look at A-ra, and she was grinning lecherously
while looking at my face reflected in the window.
"Now that you mention it... There's no one around, huh?"
At A-ra's words, I looked around and saw there really was no one.
Maybe because it was the off-season, and because of the time of day,
it seemed there was nobody in this train car.
Maybe because of that, A-ra was being a little more forward.
She put her hand on my thigh and started tracing circles with her fingers.
Her finger, which had been circling clockwise, moved from my thigh toward my inner groin
and then stopped abruptly.
And then she started gently stroking the inside of my thigh.
Even though I was flustered for a moment, I started answering A-ra's questions.
Since this kind of thing happened often, I was used to it by now.
"F-first class cabins usually don't have many people anyway."
"Is that so? I think I like that there's no one here."
"N-noona...?"
Apparently, what A-ra found regrettable wasn't just the trip.
Caressing me inside a train... what if we got caught...
I squeezed my eyes shut and decided to entrust my body to A-ra.
"....?"
A-ra's touch, which just moments ago seemed about to devour me,
suddenly fell away, and a question mark popped into my head.
I quietly opened my eyes and looked at A-ra's expression.
Her eyes had become unreadable—I couldn't tell if she was laughing or crying.
"........I forgot to buy the presents."
I had been wondering what was going on,
right until those words came out of A-ra's mouth.
That's right...
I forgot to buy the myeongran jeot...
What A-ra had been trying to remember before we got on the bus
was that we had to buy presents...
And we couldn't go back now...
***
I'm sorry to say it, but we ordered the presents online.
We could buy the exact same things they sold in Fukuoka in Korea,
and they said they'd deliver them the very next day,
so I just had to take them to the agency myself.
The plan was that A-ra would pretend she'd left the presents at home and forgotten them,
and then she'd call me to bring them over.
I felt really sorry because it felt like we were deceiving her,
but the Director would probably never know...
I'm sorry...
We arrived at the apartment, opened the door, and went inside.
As soon as we entered, the living room lights turned on, the curtains automatically drew back,
and the air purifier started up automatically.
This was what they called the IoT technology revolution!
"We're back~"
"Why are you greeting when there's no one here?"
"We haven't been here in a while."
Wasn't it only natural to greet your beloved home when you came back after a long time?
It was obviously normal to make your presence known when you came home.
Because when I had lived alone, I hadn't had that sign of someone's presence, so it had been lonely.
Speaking of making your presence known, there was that time when I was dating A-ra... so, before we got married,
I quietly opened the door and went into A-ra's house because I had something to take care of,
and since there was no sign of anyone, I ended up just opening the master bedroom door.
Back then, I had run into A-ra while she was changing her underwear, and I'd gotten so startled I slammed the door shut.
When I thought about that incident, it made me
try hard to deliberately make my presence known every time I came home.
....Huh?
When we were dating, before we got married....
Did something like that happen...?
"Seong-hwan! Put this in the washing machine for me!"
Just then, I heard A-ra's voice calling me,
so I shook my head to clear my thoughts.
Was I starting to have delusions or something?
Clearly, when I had come to my senses, I was already married to A-ra.
Had I dreamed something at some point?
"I'll be right there!"
I picked up the large laundry basket and headed to where A-ra was.
She had been organizing her suitcase in the master bedroom,
sorting out the clothes she had worn from the ones she hadn't.
"This is... something I wore... and this... is something I didn't..."
I went over next to A-ra, who was sorting them one by one,
and decided to help out.
Anyway, she had really brought a ton of clothes.
"Sniff sniff... This one's been worn..."
If it smelled like fabric softener, it hadn't been worn,
and if it smelled excited and a little musky, well, it had been worn.
I'd been doing it secretly, trying not to let A-ra see my actions,
but I guess she was curious about what I was doing over here.
She let out an 'eutcha' sound as she stood up,
came over to me, bent her knees, and leaned down to look.
"S-Seong-hwan! Wh-what is a boy doing!"
A-ra, having seen that sight,
let out a scream that was almost a shriek,
and snatched the panties out of my hand and hid them behind her back.
"Come on, what's the big deal between a married couple?"
"Th-that's true, but! A boy shouldn't be doing that!"
"Then is it okay for you to do it, noona?"
"Ugh... That's not what I meant..."
To think that A-ra, who did things much worse than what I was doing,
would get angry just because I smelled her panties.
I couldn't help but be shocked.
"Th-that's not it... I meant that since I'm on my period, it might smell unpleasant..."
Like a guy confessing to the girl he likes that he'd had a fantasy about her,
her face went red and she kept twisting her body.
Then, without distinguishing between worn and unworn clothes,
she dumped all the clothes into the laundry basket.
Now that I thought about it, she was on her period, wasn't she.
Because A-ra's expression had been so clear and bright during the trip, I'd completely forgotten.
"Well then, we won't be able to do it for a while."
"U...uh? Th-that's right..."
A-ra's mood when she heard what I said
resembled the chart of a cryptocurrency in freefall.
"Noona, I'm just as disappointed, but they say it's best not to do it when your body isn't feeling well."
"Yeah... I know..."
Even so, I suppose it couldn't be helped
that she couldn't shake off her disappointed look on her face.