Cherry Blossoms and a Blushing Face
Second Vlog (2)
“In the spring breeze~ those fluttering cherry blossom petals~!”
She sang the song that used to echo through our school days every spring as she walked along the path lined with cherry blossom trees. Watching Chae-ryeong looking just as excited as ever today, I asked in a bored tone,
“You come here to see the flowers all the time. Why are you still so hyped up?”
“All the time? Where are you getting that nonsense from?”
“You came last year and the year before that too.”
“That’s not ‘all the time.’ That’s just ‘every year.’”
True to her energetic personality, Chae-ryeong loved running around and exploring. Even though she had plenty of friends at school, she didn’t have many who stuck to her side like I did. That meant I usually ended up getting dragged along on most of her little outings. So visiting a festival to see the flowers wasn’t exactly rare for me either.
“Anyway, anyway. Let’s take pictures! Pictures!”
“Yeah, yeah. I’ll take them, so go stand over there.”
She turned her head this way and that, scouting for a spot where there weren’t many people but the photo would still turn out nice. Before long, she seemed to find the perfect place and settled under two cherry blossom trees in full, glorious bloom.
“One, two!”
Click.
The shutter sound of the phone camera went off as I captured her image. Smiling against that beautiful background, the simple photo looked like a spring-themed fashion spread. The pink cardigan and white skirt she’d worn to match the blossoms blended perfectly with their soft colors.
“Did you get it?”
“Yeah. Carrying two cameras at once is killing me, though.”
“Of course it is. Hehe. Wait a second?”
Suddenly she looked around, then smiled and picked up a fallen branch from the ground. A few pure white flowers were still clinging to it. Chae-ryeong held it up beside her face and leaned close to the cherry blossom tree.
...Was she asking me to take a picture like that?
I lifted the phone again with one hand, but then—
“Taeo.”
“Yeah? Why does your voice sound so ominous?”
“Eheheh. Who’s the flower~?”
That was next-level cringey. Her pure-hearted manga-girl act left me completely cold.
“You’re way too old to be acting like this...”
“Ah~ Hurry up~! I said, who’s the flower?”
But Chae-ryeong was always stubborn like this. This answer-seeking creature clearly wasn’t going to stop until she got the reaction she wanted. Maybe she thought this was what a couple was supposed to look like.
Still, the sight of her holding those flowers was endlessly beautiful. I almost lost myself staring at her. But the words that came out of my mouth were the complete opposite.
“This is the flower, and this is the person. A grown woman who doesn’t act her age. Ahem.”
“Yoon Taeo… that’s so mean… so cold… I’m gonna get sulky…”
When I pointed precisely at the flower and then at her to make the distinction, she pouted and dropped her head. Even though she wasn’t actually upset, she let her shoulders slump dramatically as she walked away.
“Was saying one little line that hard…? No matter what, we’re dating, you know…”
Then she whipped her head around to look at me, turned back forward, and kept pretending to be mad. The whole act was so ridiculous that a chuckle slipped out of me. Her sulking was cute, and part of me wanted to leave her like that a little longer, but we had content to film. I couldn’t just let her stay that way, so I spoke first.
“Yoo Chae-ryeong.”
“What.”
“My legs are starting to hurt. Want to sit at that table over there? Are you hungry?”
“Starving.”
“Then let’s grab some cup ramen from the convenience store. My treat.”
The outdoor tables were set up for festival visitors. There were wooden chairs and tables. We claimed a spot, then headed into the convenience store to buy food.
But when we came back to the table after supposedly only buying one cup of ramen…
“Didn’t I say I was only buying one cup of ramen?”
“But! They were selling chicken skewers over there!”
“Huh? If they’re selling it, you have to buy it no matter what?”
“That’s just the way of the strong, right? And they were selling hot dogs right next to them. If I only bought chicken skewers, how sad would the hot dogs feel…?”
“Now you’re empathizing with hot dogs. And what does that have to do with being strong? That’s just the way of the pig.”
“It’s fine~! I’m the type who doesn’t gain weight easily even if I eat a lot.”
“Wow. Every single person watching this vlog across the country is going to want to kill you for saying that.”
With the power of F, the power of P, and a healthy dose of gluttony mixed in, she returned to our spot with both hands full of food.
“Heheeng. This looks so good.”
Chae-ryeong’s eyes sparkled at the feast spread out in front of her as she launched into a delicious mukbang. I subtly showed the menu to the camera and filmed the food fighter going all out.
I pointed at the chicken skewers lined up in front of her.
“What flavor is the one you’re eating right now?”
“Mmmph… gulp. This one’s cheese flavor, this one’s a little spicy. And this one’s spicy too.”
“Which one suits your taste the most?”
“Just a moment. Mmm… yeah. The spicy one is the best. Koreans really do love spicy food.”
“You can’t even handle regular yeop-tteok. You’re such a weakling when it comes to spice.”
“Excuse me, please stop making baseless accusations just because the camera is rolling. I am not a spice weakling.”
“We should film a yeop-tteok vlog next time. Then we’ll see if you’re lying or not.”
“I must decline any filming with such malicious intent in order to maintain my dignity as an actress~.”
Where exactly is this dignity of yours?
We kept talking nonsense while happily devouring the festival food. Once she was full, Chae-ryeong’s mood improved dramatically. As expected, the best way to cheer her up was to feed her.
With a satisfied expression, she glanced around.
“Is there anything fun to do?”
Then suddenly she squatted down on the ground. At yet another random burst of behavior, I just stared at her, wondering what she was up to. She was carefully picking up every single fallen cherry blossom petal from the ground and placing them in her palm.
“What exactly are you doing?”
“Can’t you tell by looking? I’m picking up petals.”
“What for? Are you taking them home?”
“There’s a use for everything. Don’t rush me—just wait.”
She kept fidgeting on the ground, gathering the petals. After a few minutes, her palm was overflowing with pure white and soft pink cherry blossom petals. Once she had a nice big handful, she finally stood up, apparently satisfied. Then, as if answering my questioning gaze, she gave me an order.
“Okay, from now on, make sure you film me really well. Get it all clearly on that camera.”
“Yes, ma’am. Understood.”
Wondering what she was about to do, I watched her closely through the camera lens. Suddenly Chae-ryeong started humming the Pocari Sweat commercial jingle and spun around once.
“La la la, la la la la~ I like you~.”
Whoosh.
She scattered the petals she’d gathered above her head and began twirling round and round on the spot. The fluttering cherry blossom petals and the girl smiling as she spun beneath them—it was such a perfect scene that I couldn’t help but be amazed at where she got these ideas from.
Anyway, it really did look like a painting. Once all the petals had fallen to the ground, Chae-ryeong stopped spinning.
“Whoa… I’m dizzy.”
“You spin pretty well. You could totally go on a variety show. You’d be great at elephant trunk spinning.”
“More importantly, how was it? Didn’t it look like a CF?”
“It looked more like a movie scene to me.”
“Really? What movie?”
“The woman with flowers in her hair from Welcome to Dongmakgol.”
“That means I looked crazy!”
Well, what else would you call a woman scattering petals and spinning in place? It was a good thing she was pretty; if an ordinary person did it, they’d look completely unhinged.
But there was an even bigger problem that caught my eye.
“By the way, you’ve got petals all over your hair.”
“Ah, really? Eeee. Get off, get off.”
Chae-ryeong made weird sound effects with her mouth as she shook her head. She looked like one of those bobblehead dolls, which was cute, but it didn’t seem very effective. The petals on her shoulders and clothes fell off when she shook her body, but the ones tangled in her hair clearly needed more than that.
“If you want to get them out like that, you’d probably have to breakdance or do some serious b-boying.”
“They’re not coming off?”
“Nope. There’s still a ton left in your hair. Come here. I’ll get them out for you.”
I walked over to her as she toddled toward me with petals still stuck in her hair. Using the hand that wasn’t holding the camera, I carefully began picking the petals out of her hair one by one.
The distance between us had become incredibly close. She stood there obediently, waiting for my touch. I delicately ran my fingers through each strand of her hair, focusing entirely on removing every last petal.
“…Um, when are you going to be done?”
“It would’ve been done faster if you hadn’t dumped a whole bunch of petals on your own head.”
“Your touch feels kind of perverted. How should I put it… overly delicate?”
“Are you trying to compliment me or insult me? And you always get mad when I touch your hair because you say it messes up your curls.”
It’s not like I want to be doing this. It’s hard to remove the petals without ruining her curled hair.
“Doing this… you know…”
“Hmm?”
“Doesn’t it make your heart flutter a little?”
“Yeah. It does.”
“Your reaction is way too cold… I’m hurt…”
She was obviously just teasing me. That’s what I told myself as I focused on picking out the petals.
“Ah, all done. These things are ridiculously stubborn.”
When I finally removed the last petal and looked at her face—
“Why is your face so red? Are you sick?”
“Huh? Is it? No… it’s not that… maybe the weather’s a bit hot? Ahaha. Maybe I shouldn’t have worn this cardigan?”
It was the first time I noticed that Chae-ryeong’s face had turned bright red.