Pretty Hands
Seorin parted her lips with a soft little "Ah."
Her small mouth opened right in front of me, just enough for a glimpse inside.
Did she get regular cleanings or something? Her teeth were so even, tiny and pure white—it was adorable.
I had no idea how to respond to what she had just said. I froze with my chopsticks still raised in the air.
"Y-you really want me to?"
And that was the only pathetic thing that came out of my mouth.
If only I could have just picked up the food with my chopsticks and put it straight into her mouth like some bold, smooth guy. All I could feel was pity for myself for not having that kind of courage.
Seorin watched me and broke into a bright, sparkling smile.
"I'm joking~ You weren't actually going to feed me, were you?"
"Ugh."
"…Ah, your reactions are way too fun. Hehe."
She closed her mouth again, picked up a piece of fish herself, set it on top of her rice, and took a bite.
Chew, chew.
I stared at her with a resentful look as she puffed out her cheeks cutely while chewing.
What a little fox. A total fox.
She was terrifyingly good at lifting a guy's heart up and slamming it back down.
"You're lying, Seorin."
"About what?"
"About never having dated before. That was a lie. I can tell just by looking."
"What? It's not a lie. Why would I lie about something like that?"
"Then how are you this good at playing with guys?"
"Playing with them? Someone hearing that might get the wrong idea."
I had been genuinely agonizing just now.
Should I feed her with the chopsticks or not?
What would she think if I did?
No—she asked me to feed her, so feeding her was the right move, right?
But if I actually did it, would she think I was dense and get turned off?
All those thoughts had been waging war inside my head.
"I was half-serious, you know. If you'd fed me, I really would have eaten it."
She was still saying things like that, complete with an adorable eye smile.
"Really?"
"Who knows? Maybe I was."
Then she laughed again, a soft little chuckle.
Aigoo. If she weren't so pretty, I swear—
And I hated myself for falling for it again.
"Whatever. Let's just eat."
"Ijun. Don't tell me you're sulking?"
"No. Not at all."
"Come on~ Anyone can see you're sulking."
"I'm not sulking even a little. I'm just hungry. Let's eat. Stop saying useless stuff."
"Wow~ Oh no. You really are sulking. I'm sorry. Was the teasing too much?"
I said that and actually shoved some side dishes into my mouth, chewing with big, deliberate bites. Seorin glanced at me sideways and apologized.
Honestly, I wasn't that sulky.
I'd already figured out over the past few days that she liked teasing people.
And I knew she wasn't doing this just to mess with my feelings either.
If she were, she never would have asked me to come eat with her in the first place.
She was purely doing it because my reactions were fun.
If that made her even more of a menace, then fine—she was a menace.
Sure, I felt a strange little emptiness, but it wasn't bad enough to actually hurt my feelings.
Still, the truth was that I wanted to see how she would react if I kept pretending to sulk.
So I carried the act on a little longer.
"…I don't know."
I said that and focused only on my food. Seorin stared straight at my face.
"Ijun."
"What."
"Do you know how cute you are? You know and you're doing this on purpose, right?"
"What kind of forced flattery is that all of a sudden? You'll say anything to get me out of my sulk."
"It's not forced flattery. And I'm not saying it to cheer you up either. That's just how I really feel."
"Is calling a guy cute even a compliment?"
"I don't know how other people use it, but for me it is. I've never actually called a guy cute before."
At that, the corners of my mouth loosened on their own.
…I was the first guy she'd ever called cute.
Pretending to sulk was not easy at all.
One sentence from her and my whole expression melted into mush.
"Your face. Bring it here."
"Huh?"
Her sudden words made me freeze in panic.
Why my face all of a sudden…
But she didn't explain. She just smiled at me and repeated herself.
"Hurry."
No way she was about to—mid-meal? No, that couldn't be it…
Even if Seorin were some wild, bold girl, she wouldn't do something like that.
She was a person with common sense, and we weren't nearly that close yet.
Still, I couldn't help getting nervous.
I swallowed hard and leaned my head forward a little.
"…Like this?"
"Can you come a bit more this way?"
"L-like this?"
I stretched my face out about a third of the way across the table, tense as could be—and in that instant she reached out and wiped the corner of my mouth.
A faint damp sensation.
"You're not a kid. Why are you getting food all over your face when you eat?"
The moment her hand touched my face, heat rushed up into my cheeks on its own.
I realized she had wiped the sauce off the corner of my mouth with a wet wipe.
Probably because I'd ordered kimchi jjigae. That had to be it.
"Ah… uh…"
I made some incoherent sound while panicking, and she giggled again.
"Is the sulking over now?"
"…Yeah. It's over."
Like someone under hypnosis, I dropped my gaze straight down to the table, completely unable to meet her eyes.
She snorted a little laugh.
"Your ears are red again. Cute."
That one line made my heart pound violently.
…I really can't even get mad in front of Seorin. It's terrifying.
"Ahh~ That was good."
"They give you a ton of food here, don't they?"
"Yeah. I'm so full I feel like I could fall asleep right now. Blood sugar spike incoming."
After finishing the meal, we walked out of the restaurant together.
Just walking side by side made my heart thud.
The only regret was that lunchtime was already over.
Whenever I was with Seorin, time always flew by way too fast.
"Ugh, I don't want to study."
"Same. The thought of going back and working on my portfolio again is awful."
"Should we both ditch? Just us?"
"You're not actually serious about that."
"You're right. We have to do it… Even if we hate it, that's what being an adult is."
She sagged dramatically, looking all dejected. I was thinking how cute she was when Seorin suddenly seemed to remember something and rummaged through the pouch she had brought.
She pulled out a tube of hand cream and started rubbing it into her hands.
So that was why her hand had smelled so nice when it brushed my cheek earlier.
It must have been the hand cream she used all the time.
"Oh right. Ijun, hold out your hand too."
"My hand?"
"Yeah. Earlier when you were picking the fish at the restaurant, your hands looked pretty rough. These days even guys take care of this kind of thing. You should at least put on some hand cream."
I glanced down at my own hands at her words.
The dry, flaky late-winter skin stood out right away.
I guess you could call it girlish of her.
Somehow, even in the middle of everything, she had checked my hands.
"It's fine. I'll put some on later myself."
"Ah-ah. Hand."
Remembering what had happened when she made me lean my face in earlier, I hesitated without meaning to.
But she just held the hand cream and stared me down like she had no intention of letting me escape.
There was zero chance I could win against Seorin, so I stopped walking and obediently held my hands out in front of her.
She squeezed some cream onto the back of my hand and carefully spread it out.
"You have to rub it in thoroughly like this. Otherwise it gets cracked just like yours are now."
I could have done it myself.
But I didn't bother saying that out loud.
Because the moment her fingers brushed over my hands felt exciting and good.
Just like she said, she worked the cream into my skin carefully and meticulously.
Like a professional masseuse or a skincare specialist.
She spread the cream so it soaked into every bit of skin, as gently as if she were handling something made of glass.
And the longer that time stretched on, the more my heart pounded along with it. There was nothing I could do about that.
"There. All done."
She finished applying cream to both of my hands and seemed about to let go—then, the second I tried to pull my hands back, she suddenly grabbed them tight again.
"What? Is there a spot you still missed? I can—"
"No. It's not that."
Then what?
Seorin studied my hands carefully and spoke with a small smile at the corners of her mouth.
"Ijun, you have really pretty hands."
"What?"
"It's not like I've seen a ton of guys' hands, but for a guy's, they're so slender and soft and pale."
"…"
"If you just take care of them, you could probably do hand modeling or something. Your nails are pretty too, and even your cuticles are cute."
I guess that was just how girls were.
I got that she was into skincare, but could she maybe let go of my hands soon?
My heart was racing so fast I felt like I was going to die.
"Nail art would look so good on you. I think they're prettier than mine."
She said that while lining her own hand up next to mine to compare.
To my eyes, her hands looked smaller, cuter, and prettier—but that wasn't what mattered right now.
I didn't think I could hold out any longer than this.
"…Hey, Seorin."
"Yeah? What is it?"
"Um… could you let go of my hands now?"
"Huh? Ah, I'm sorry. Once I get fixated on something I kind of stop noticing everything else. Ah…"
At my request she snapped back to her senses, lifted her head, and checked my face.
She took in how red I had gone—past blushing and into "about to explode" territory—and finally realized she had been holding my hands for nearly several minutes.
Her own cheeks flushed red too.
"Uh… um… ah… Sorry. I held on way too long, didn't I?"
She apologized and stepped back, putting distance between us.
Worried the mood would get too awkward, I shook my head and answered.
"No. That part was fine. It's just that if you kept holding them, I don't think my heart could take it."
"…Ahh."
But that answer only made the atmosphere crash even harder.
Because she turned red all the way to her ears and buried her face toward the ground.
An embarrassed silence stretched out for a moment as we walked side by side down the street.
Seorin must have decided she needed to break it, because she called my name.
"Ijun."
"…Yeah."
And then—
"If it's okay with you, want to eat together again tomorrow?"
The last thing she said was a proposal I could never refuse.