Pepero Day
Pepero Day
As I entered the lecture hall, the completely shut-down air conditioner and the wide-open windows caught my eye.
Because the school was situated on high ground,
the crisp air blowing in filled the lecture room,
carrying the thick scent of warm autumn.
Personally, I could do without four seasons — I'd rather spring and autumn just rotate
and influence the Korean Peninsula in turns.
With that absurd, near-disastrous thought in my head, I approached the seats where Jeong Hwan-yi and Lee Min-ho were sitting.
Since the department had almost no men, we tended to clump together and hole up in the corner,
so sitting in the same spot every time had felt stifling, but with the wide-open window right next to us,
somehow my mood lifted.
"You made it?"
"Yeah."
My greetings with Jeong Hwan-yi and Lee Min-ho, who had become full-fledged friends by now,
had settled into a single "You made it."
I had no friends before, so I wasn't sure,
but wasn't this proof that we'd gotten pretty close?
Though, those two had greeted me like that from the very first time I met them.
I placed my bag on the desk
and sat down. Both of them simultaneously thrust rectangular boxes at me.
"Want some?"
"Pepero?"
"Tomorrow's November 11th."
I took the almond Pepero that Jeong Hwan-yi and Lee Min-ho handed me.
Apparently, since Pepero Day was tomorrow but it fell on a Saturday and they couldn't give them out then, they'd decided to give them today.
"I didn't buy any Pepero."
"We figured as much, so just eat up."
The two of them reacted as if that was obvious and chuckled.
"You can be like that with us, but you know you can't do that with the missus, right?"
"Wait, was Pepero Day supposed to be the guy giving them...?"
"There's no rule like that. You just give and receive."
"Is that so?"
"Sigh... as if you've ever given Pepero to anyone. You've probably only ever received them."
"Hmm... that's not entirely wrong."
Strangely, ever since I was young, I'd always received a lot of Pepero,
so I used to share them with the younger kids at the orphanage.
Now that I think about it, the quantity really was excessive.
There were days I received a hundred of them.
"Everyone knew about my personal circumstances — maybe they gave them to me out of pity?"
"Haah... sure, let's go with that."
"Pepero isn't exactly a donation item."
"I'm kidding, kidding."
Knowing what the two of them were trying to say,
I laughed it off.
At this point, I've come to understand —
whether I wanted to or not —
that my face holds quite a bit of sway.
And even though I was already a married man,
the Pepero relay continued just as it had last year and the year before.
"Seong-hwan-ssi, please have this."
"Have this one too."
"Ah."
Before I could even say thank you,
I watched the retreating figures of my seniors as they fled.
Were they really that embarrassed?
"The professor's going to be here soon. Should we put these away?"
"Sure."
"Still, at least you actually listen. It's Lee Min-ho that's the problem..."
"What about me?"
Lee Min-ho, who had turned around as if to say what he'd ever done wrong,
was already tearing open a Pepero box with a rustling sound,
making a complete mockery of the warning that the professor was about to arrive.
"That guy never listens."
"You've got it tough."
I patted Jeong Hwan-yi, who had hung his head, on the back.
Still, since he's your assigned writer now, you ought to take proper care of him.
***
"Pepero..."
The truth was, Pepero was something sold at any convenience store or mart,
so it wasn't a hard item to obtain.
If anything, they sold all kinds of gift-friendly versions bundled with dolls and such,
and even more practical products, like Pepero-shaped pillows,
were on the market.
What I was agonizing over now
was how to create a memory that would last a long time,
rather than giving Pepero that would just vanish once eaten.
What method should I use to achieve that goal?
"Did A-ra like dolls? No, she didn't..."
Originally, hobbies like collecting dolls show up pretty similarly in both men and women.
But that kind of hobby is only really viable when you're young.
Would a doll mean anything to a 22-year-old like A-ra... well...
"Hmm... a pillow is also..."
Even when A-ra had to leave the house for program filming,
she took her own pillow with her.
She couldn't sleep if it wasn't her usual pillow.
So I had considered a Pepero-shaped hugging pillow,
but there was a major downside: if I bought her one, I wouldn't get hugged anymore,
so I had ruled that out early.
"As expected, should I ask Lee Min-ho at a time like this...?"
No matter how much I thought about it, no decent method came to mind.
It wasn't as if I'd never given A-ra Pepero before,
but maybe it was because this was the first Pepero Day we were facing since we got married.
I wanted to create a memory in a way that would linger for a long time.
*
- At times like this, just play the Pocky Game or something.
"Pocky Game? What's that?"
- Y'know... that thing. You each hold one end of the Pepero in your mouths and eat it all the way to the end.
"Ah. So that's the Pocky Game?"
Now that I thought about it, such a game did exist.
A game where a man and a woman each hold one end of a Pepero stick in their mouths and slowly approach each other —
whoever pulls their mouth away first loses. A chicken game.
It was one of those party games you'd call a pride game.
"But that game — someone has to break the Pepero midway to decide the winner and loser, right?"
- You idior, why are you trying to decide a winner and loser?
"Because it's a game?"
- It's a game in name only. It's about physical affection, got it?
"Aha... so basically, until you kiss..."
I grew too embarrassed and cut myself off.
What Lee Min-ho was trying to say was: don't break it midway — hold out without letting go until your lips overlap with A-ra's.
- Pretending to be all embarrassed... coming from a guy who's done way more than that.
"Wha... what exactly?"
- Anyway, I gotta go meet my girlfriend, so I'm hanging up.
"Nothing else? You're just telling me to do the Pocky Game?"
- Well, melt some chocolate and drizzle it on your body or something.
As if he found his own suggestion hilarious,
Lee Min-ho burst out laughing and hung up.
Here I was dead serious, and he was talking like it was some rom-com drama —
wasn't he being way too casual about it?
"Then should I just buy Pepero and chocolate syrup?"
At first I'd thought it was a joke and dismissed it,
but when I imagined drizzling chocolate syrup on A-ra's body and licking it off —
I couldn't think of anything that sounded as fun,
so I figured giving it a try wouldn't be a bad idea.
***
And so, Pepero Day arrived.
I had finished preparing brunch — a combined breakfast and lunch — and was about to call A-ra when she came into the kitchen.
Speak of the devil.
But in one hand, she was holding something like a plastic bag.
"Seong-hwan-a, here. Pepero."
"Uh... Pepero...?"
I had planned to give mine in the evening, so seeing A-ra suddenly hand me Pepero in broad daylight
made me smile wryly.
If things went like this, the plan would fall apart.
But, looking closer now, something was a little different.
The Pepero A-ra handed me wasn't the kind sold in stores.
Not thin, small Pepero sticks, but something that felt more like thick, large cookies —
anyone could tell they were homemade.
There were about five of them inside a ribbon-tied pouch.
"Did you make these yourself, Noona?"
"Yeah, I made them with Eun-ji yesterday."
Her face flushed with embarrassment as she urged me to hurry up and try them, pushing them toward me.
Why hadn't I thought of making them by hand?
"Hurry, try one."
"Now? Can't I eat them after we have a meal?"
"Oh, right. Then eat after lunch."
As if she'd only just noticed the lunch laid out on the table,
she said she'd forgotten and set the Pepero aside before sitting down.
Watching A-ra prioritize lunch over savoring the Pepero taste,
I too sat at the table.
*
"How is it?"
After finishing lunch, the dishes, and all the cleanup, I went into the master bedroom,
and there she was, urging me with a cute face to hurry up and eat.
Putting on a "guess I have no choice" expression,
I tore open the pouch and popped the most appetizing-looking Pepero into my mouth.
"You said you made these with Eun-ji?"
"We did everything together, from the cookie dough to melting the chocolate."
Maybe it was because she'd made them with Eun-ji.
Eun-ji's taste for seriously intense sweetness seemed to have been reflected,
because both the cookie and the chocolate were extremely sweet.
On top of that, colorful decorative sprinkles were scattered on them,
giving them a sweetness so intense it felt like you could get diabetes at any moment.
It wasn't that I particularly liked green tea, but this was the kind of flavor that made you reach for it.
It's not like this was Japanese wagashi.
"It's too sweet..."
"R...really? I thought it was fine..."
Sweet things needed to be moderately sweet.
From what I could tell, this wasn't made with sugar,
but with a sugar substitute like stevia.
Sugar substitutes had the advantage of zero calories and not raising blood sugar,
but they were much sweeter than the same amount of sugar, so you had to be careful when using them.
The two who made these probably didn't have that knowledge.
"Wait a moment. I'll get some water."
When A-ra jumped up to head to the kitchen,
I grabbed her hand to stop her.
Asking why, A-ra stroked my cheek with a look of concern. I met her eyes
and smiled just a little sweetly.
"Noona, do you know what the Pocky Game is?"
"Uh... huh? I mean, I know of it... but are you okay without water?"
"I can replenish my fluids another way."
I pulled out another one of the homemade Pepero cookies A-ra had made and held it in my mouth.
Then, as if asking A-ra for a kiss, I pouted my lips out.
Yes.
The method of replenishing fluids I had in mind
was rehydrating with A-ra's saliva.
When I stuck out my lips, as if telling her to take responsibility and freshen up my mouth,
A-ra only blushed shyly, wearing an expression that looked ready to flee at any moment.
"Why are you embarrassed about this? We've done way more than this."
"W... well, still... Seong-hwan-a, I never imagined you would do something like this..."
"Come on, how hard can this be?"
Smiling, I took the end of the Pepero in my mouth again.
This time I held it in the opposite direction, so the part I'd just been holding was now facing A-ra.
"Ah...ahm..."
After what felt like ages of waiting, she finally bit the end of the Pepero
and started slowly approaching me.
It was way too sweet, but since I wasn't the one who was going to eat it anyway,
I quickly bit off my end and began advancing at high speed toward A-ra's lips.
And then, when barely one centimeter of Pepero remained between our lips,
our lips met.
"Chureup..."
I pushed the Pepero I'd gathered in my mouth into A-ra's.
It might feel a little messy, but between a married couple, something like this could never possibly be considered dirty.
When you're a couple who craves even each other's saliva and finds it delicious, would you be disgusted just because it'd been chewed a few times?
Before I knew it, the Pepero that had been in my mouth was sucked entirely into A-ra's without a trace,
and A-ra's pure, clear saliva began trickling into my own mouth.
"Hnngg..... Choop......"
"Puhaa... want to do it once more?"
"Not with the homemade Pepero. Let's do it with your Pepero, Seong-hwan-a."
A-ra was already as heated as she could be,
but it seemed she still disliked her homemade Pepero for being too sweet.
The problem was, I hadn't made any Pepero,
and I'd only bought three store-bought boxes for the Pocky Game...
When I honestly told A-ra and apologized,
she shook her head, saying that wasn't what she meant.
"A man has his own Pepero, doesn't he?"
With a lewd smile, A-ra
moved the hand that had just been gently stroking my hair downward, toward my lower body.