I Like You, Like, A Lot (3)
I like you, like, a lot.
“Did you get the camera? Ready to head out?”
“Yep. Let’s go, let’s go!”
“You’re way too excited about this. Look at you.”
Calling her Chae-ryeong felt off compared to back then. For one thing, the girl currently riding on my back was nothing like the one who’d been in pain that day. Instead, she was bouncing around like an excited little kid.
“Whoa, straight-up face cam. Isn’t this kinda embarrassing to film like this?”
She giggled to herself and played with the camera from her perch on my back. I kept my hands lightly gripping just above her knees as I slowly walked toward the infirmary.
“Can’t you at least pretend to be hurt? At this rate it’s not a reenactment, it’s just me babysitting you.”
“I don’t care. Who cares what it looks like? As long as it’s fun. Hehe.”
She looked like a little kid who’d just gotten a piggyback ride from her dad, which was cute… but also a little annoying. The distance from the gym to the infirmary was pretty far. We had to go all the way down from the third floor to the first. Since the camera was rolling and she knew I couldn’t say no, I really wanted to scold this little troublemaker for making me do all the hard work.
“Want me to make it more fun?”
“How?”
“This is what little kids like.”
“Kyaaak! What are you doing?! Why are you shaking?!”
“You don’t know the ‘bounce bounce’? Kids laugh their heads off when you do this. That’s what my little cousin used to do.”
“Kyaa! I’m—holding the camera with one hand—kyaaak! I’m gonna fall! Stop it!”
When I started shaking the arm that was holding her legs along with my body, Chae-ryeong let out a very girly scream and clung tightly to my shoulder with one hand. Normally she would’ve had both hands on my shoulders for stability, but right now one of them was occupied with the camera.
“Scared? How’s it feel, huh? This is your punishment for making me carry a sack of rice up and down the stairs!”
“Kyaaaaak! I’m scared! I feel like I’m gonna fall so stop! Hey! Eek!”
When I ignored her and kept chuckling while shaking her, Chae-ryeong wrapped the arm holding the camera tightly around my neck.
“Ack. Urk. Gahhhk. I’m sorry… let go… cough… please…”
“You’re not gonna do it again? If you do, I’m never letting go. I’ll choke you to death like this.”
“I won’t… cough… I said I won’t… whew… I thought I was gonna die.”
The moment I stopped in place and surrendered, her arm finally loosened and slid off. Her violent tendencies hadn’t changed at all from the past to the present. If anything, it felt like her mind hadn’t grown one bit since high school. The only thing that seemed to have grown was her body.
I couldn’t help but notice the way her chest pressed against my back—which had somehow gotten even broader and more menacing since I’d stopped growing. Or the way her thighs, which looked slim from the outside but had just the right amount of softness when you grabbed them. I never realized how much full-body contact piggyback rides actually involved. I’d never thought about it like this when I used to carry her before.
“Ugh… you messed up my posture… I need to readjust. Hold on a second.”
She squirmed around above me. I waited, still coughing and trying to catch my breath, while she repositioned herself.
“Move your hands a little. Yoon Taeo. The center of gravity feels off.”
“Where to?”
“A bit higher up my thighs.”
“Like this?”
“……Hya?!”
I thought I was just moving my hands a little higher on her thighs like she asked. But then a strangely sweet sigh brushed against my ear. The fluttering of her skirt against the back of my hand told me my fingers had gone deeper than intended. I felt the softer texture of her inner thigh and got a weird chill.
“……Ugh. You went in too deep, you idiot. Pull back a little.”
“S-sorry. I was doing it by feel and messed up…”
“It’s fine. Just a little lower. There. Yeah, that’s good.”
Her breathing had gotten a little rough, and it made me feel like I couldn’t even walk anymore. Why was she whispering right next to my ear like that? If she wanted the camera to pick it up she should’ve spoken louder…
“Good now?”
“Yeah. All set. Let’s go again. And if you shake me one more time, I’m really going to strangle you, okay?”
“That’s a pretty scary word to say with a smile, don’t you think?”
“If you don’t want to be strangled, I’ll let you pick another way to die. I’m merciful like that.”
“Can’t we just remove the dying option entirely?”
And so we bickered our way toward the infirmary.
# After finally finishing our tour of the infirmary, we stepped outside the school building. Chae-ryeong locked the main gate with the security key she’d brought, and we started walking across the athletic field. Once we were outside, she chattered away like everything was fascinating.
“The infirmary really hasn’t changed at all.”
“It would’ve been nice to see the nurse too. Too bad.”
“Right? I was pretty close with her.”
“Thanks to you, I got close with her too. You dragged me there basically once a day.”
“Hey, it wasn’t that bad. It was more like once a week.”
Whenever Chae-ryeong got hurt, she’d drag me to the infirmary with her, so I ended up seeing the nurse quite often too. That mischievous personality of hers had been even worse back in our school days. She was never not getting into trouble.
“So we’ve seen the whole school now. Where to next?”
“Where do you think? Guess.”
“Hmm… where? The PC bang we used to go to all the time?”
“Bzzzt! Wrong.”
“Then… the movie theater we always went to?”
“How can you have zero sense? How did you even win the school Golden Bell quiz show?”
“That just required studying. Easy.”
“Ugh, you’re so annoying.”
“So where is it?”
“Right here, right now—the snack shop right in front of the school~! I wonder if it’s still open?”
When I heard that, I thought she’d picked a really good spot. The snack shop where I used to go with this tteokbokki-obsessed girl to eat Tteok-Sun-Twi. It was really close to the school.
“Ah. That place. The one where we always bought tteokbokki?”
“Yeah. There’s no place that screams high school nostalgia more than that, right?”
“You just want tteokbokki, don’t you?”
“……I can’t deny that. Their tteokbokki is seriously delicious.”
Walking alongside Chae-ryeong as she swallowed hard, we headed toward the snack shop of our memories. It was less than five minutes from school. I’d been worried it might be closed on the weekend, but even though it wasn’t even afternoon yet, the place was brightly lit and open.
“They’re open on weekends too.”
“I checked all of that beforehand, of course. Hehe. Preparation is Yoo Chae-ryeong’s specialty, isn’t it?”
“Alright, okay. I’ll give you credit for today.”
“See? I did good, right? Right?”
“Is YouTube scared of Yoo Chae-ryeong’s growth?”
The way the planning kept getting more and more meticulous—from the security key to scouting the snack shop—was honestly a little scary. What if she turned into the next MrBeast someday? Would she still film vlogs with me then?
“Hello?”
“Yes, welcome!”
As we entered the snack shop with the camera, the owner greeted us with a bright smile. Her hair had turned a little white with age, but she was exactly the same auntie I remembered.
“You’re ordering the same thing as back then, right?”
“It wouldn’t be a nostalgia trip otherwise.”
“Okay. I’ll go order?”
I grabbed one of the narrow seats in the corner and waited for Chae-ryeong to come back. She chatted with the owner while ordering and then returned.
“What did she say? Did she remember us?”
“Mmm, no, not really. But she hasn’t changed at all, has she?”
“Yeah. I would’ve been kinda sad if the owner had changed.”
“Totally. Heh. Oh right. She asked what we were filming for.”
“Ah, that’s why?”
“Yeah. So I told her we used to be students around here and came to film a nostalgia vlog, and she said we could film as much as we wanted.”
“Then since we have permission, you can loosen your belt a bit?”
“Acting all tough. You’re a guy but you can’t even eat as much as me. Hehe.”
“What are you talking about? That’s not true. I’d win against you.”
“Huh? Wanna bet? Prove it right here?”
“Then how about we bet on today’s snack bill?”
“Wow, Yoon Taeo. You’re so dead.”
“Who’s saying what now? You’re the one who’s dead meat.”
We were having the same childish argument we used to have in high school when the owner quickly brought out our food. On the tray were fried items, sundae, and tteokbokki sauce poured generously over everything. The fragrant smell of the perfectly soaked Tteok-Sun-Twi made my head spin.
“Are you two a couple?”
“Ah, yes. We are.”
“You look cute together so I added a little extra. Enjoy your meal.”
“Aww, thank you so much.”
“It’s nothing. Just eat comfortably.”
So they gave extra service if you came as a couple. Chae-ryeong and I met each other’s eyes and, without needing to say anything, both broke into smiles.
And then the two of us started our mukbang—deliciously and greedily.
“Waaaah! It really tastes exactly the same as back then. So freaking good. I’m dying.”
“Right? It’s delicious. This place never disappoints.”
Watching Chae-ryeong excitedly stab the food with a wooden skewer and inhale it, I pointed the camera at her.
“What are you doing right now?”
“You really should be a mukbang YouTuber. Forget this, let’s switch to mukbang content.”
“Heyy. Put that away? Don’t film. I said don’t film.”
Chae-ryeong did a perfect impression of a celebrity dodging the paparazzi, waving her short arms cutely to block the camera. As I watched her, I noticed a red spot at the corner of her mouth. She’d gotten sauce on herself again. Typical.
Without even sighing, I naturally reached over and pulled out a tissue. Then I told her,
“Hold still.”
“……Huh?”
“I said hold still. Don’t move.”
“……W-why all of a sudden?”
When I said it with a serious face, Chae-ryeong’s cheeks turned slightly red. Her eyes wandered around in the air like she didn’t know where to look. I leaned my face in a little closer and precisely targeted the spot at the corner of her mouth. Then I wiped it clean with the tissue in one smooth motion.
“Done.”
“……What did you just do?”
“What do you mean? I wiped the stuff off your mouth.”
“……You could’ve just told me. Why did you wipe it yourself?”
She grumbled, her gaze dropping to the floor. I’d thought she’d be happy about the YouTube moment, but why was she acting like this? Was she actually embarrassed? Since when did we get embarrassed about stuff like this?
“Whatever. We’re dating, aren’t we?”
When I said that while looking at the camera, Chae-ryeong’s eyes suddenly went wide like she’d snapped back to reality.
“Ah, right… we are…”
She said it as if she had completely forgotten we were supposed to be acting like a couple.