Fox
After savoring a brief, sweet rest, we rose from our seats to head back.
Walking side by side with Seorin, we made our way toward the café.
Given how far we'd run, the return trip looked like it would take a fair while too.
"By the time we get back, it'll pretty much be evening, won't it?"
"Yeah. At this rate, studying for the day's basically over."
"Probably. And after all that running just now, we've got no stamina left anyway."
The unaccustomed exercise left a heavy fatigue settling through my body. Even if we made it back to the café like this, I doubted I'd manage any real work. Seorin seemed to feel the same—she'd clearly given up on studying for the day as well.
…Well, I'd more or less seen this coming when she first suggested we ditch.
I'd known it would turn out something like this. Of course, I hadn't counted on one round of exercise wiping our stamina clean out.
"Ijun, you live with your parents, right?"
"Yeah. Why the sudden question?"
I looked at her with a puzzled expression at the abrupt change of subject. Seorin muttered something like, "Then that might be a little awkward…" and then:
"Then let's go to my place."
"Your place, Seorin?"
"Yeah. Since things turned out this way, let's have a drink. Just us."
She tossed out the bold suggestion as if it were nothing at all.
"The time's awkward anyway—going back to study doesn't make much sense… we'll need dinner soon… plus we're all sweaty and gross right now, aren't we?"
"Yeah. True enough."
"So I was thinking we could shower at my place, have dinner together, and grab a drink. Sounds nice."
"…"
"When else are we going to drink? You only really drink when something hard happens, or something good. Right?"
"…"
"If you go home and try to do anything, can you honestly say you won't start thinking about the interview again?"
She had a point. The exercise had kept me distracted until now, but if I went home, cleaned up, and tried diving back into job hunting, the rejection would probably come flooding back. People tended to get more worked up the moment they started doing anything tied to negative memories. So maybe, like she said, knocking back a few drinks to clear my head for the day wouldn't be so bad. If I was taking the day off anyway, better to rest properly than half-ass it.
While I was sorting through those thoughts, Seorin must have taken my silence for hesitation, because she asked carefully:
"…Do you not want to?"
Seeing her look so timid and watchful for my reaction was adorable. That anxious gleam in her eyes, worried I might turn her down—it was the complete opposite of the Seorin who'd been toying with my heart like a gumiho earlier, and it made me realize just how many different sides she had.
"Of course not. I was just thinking a cold beer after working up a sweat sounded perfect."
"Right? Then let's swing by the café, grab our stuff, and head straight to my place."
"Yeah. Sounds good."
And the way her mood lifted instantly at my single reply—it was so pure it was simply cute. Of course, I wasn't really the type who craved beer after exercise. That wasn't me. …But honestly, having dinner and drinks together at Seorin's place? That, I wanted. Maybe the mood would turn nice, and something might happen. Or even if nothing happened… that would be fine too.
"I want to get there and shower already~ We can pick up beer at the convenience store. What should we have for dinner?"
Watching Seorin get excited thinking about the little home party we'd throw at her place, I found my own energy rising to match hers today.
"Pardon the intrusion—it's been a while."
"Come on in. Though has it really been that long? It's only been a week at most."
"True."
This made it only my second time coming to Seorin's place. Smiling at her words, I set the four cans of imported beer we'd bought at the convenience store down on the table. For dinner, pizza from the nearby market. Plus a few snack sides we'd grabbed at the convenience store to go with the drinks. Looking over the perfectly assembled ingredients for our drinking spread, I said to her:
"Want to shower first? I'll set things up roughly while you do."
"No. You go first, Ijun. You sweated way more than me. I'll handle the table."
I almost refused again, then stopped myself. If we kept going back and forth like this, it'd turn into an endless "you first, no you first" and neither of us would ever get clean.
"Alright. But Seorin—"
"Yeah?"
"Do you have anything I could borrow to wear? The bottoms are fine, but my top is soaked through. I'd really like to change."
The thought of putting my sweat-drenched clothes back on after showering was grim.
"Oh, hang on. I should have something… the one I bought by mistake last time. Ah, here it is."
She rummaged through the closet in the corner, tore open a plastic-wrapped shirt, and handed it to me. A plain solid-color T-shirt with no characters or logos on it. But it looked pretty oversized for Seorin.
"It's huge. Is this yours?"
"Yeah. I bought it unisex, so it shouldn't be uncomfortable."
"Thanks. I'll wash it and return it later."
"No need. It doesn't fit me anyway. It said free size, but it came out way bigger than I expected…"
So that was it. Without meaning to, I'd started wondering if maybe some guy had left it here.
"I couldn't be bothered returning it, so I just kept it. Looks like it's coming in handy. You take it, Ijun. Consider it a gift from me."
"In that case, I'll gratefully accept."
I made the thank-you polite. My first gift from Seorin being a T-shirt. It was a novel experience in its own way.
"Alright, I'll go wash up."
"Okay~ Take your time."
I gave her a light goodbye and stepped into the shower room. The bathroom was spotlessly clean—you could tell how neat Seorin kept things on a daily basis. It wasn't easy keeping a bathroom this sparkling. Reflecting on my own room, which currently had clothes strewn everywhere, I stripped and started showering.
I turned on the water and let the warm stream cascade over my head. Catching sight of my naked face in the mirror, an unwanted fantasy bubbled up unbidden.
So this is where Seorin showers every day.
Taking off her clothes… rinsing her hair like this… working up a lather with that shower towel over there… and then…
An image thick with bare skin formed in my mind.
"I'm crazy. Absolutely crazy. What the hell am I doing in someone else's house."
I slapped my cheek to scold the filthy mind that had started spinning useless thoughts after she'd kindly let me use her shower. If Seorin knew what was going through my head, she'd be horrified. I shook my head vigorously. With my face somehow flushed, I finished the shower with my eyes squeezed shut so I wouldn't see anything.
I'd considered using the shower towel, but the idea of rubbing something that had touched her body against mine felt weird. So the fact that I ended up not using the shower towel at all remained a secret.
"I'm done. Your turn, Seorin."
"Okay. I'll be right back. If you're hungry, go ahead and start eating."
With that, she grabbed her clothes and vanished into the bathroom in a flash. I stared blankly at her retreating back until the door closed and the sound of the shower soon followed. Being a one-room studio, the soundproofing wasn't great. The shhhh of water hitting the floor scrambled my thoughts.
…So right now, Seorin was showering in there?
Even if I tried not to, as a guy I couldn't help thinking it. A man and a woman alone in a studio apartment, one of them just finished showering. It was a string of words that made impure thoughts inevitable no matter how you looked at it. I'd been alone with her in her place before, but the atmosphere was completely different this time. Last time we'd had the excuse of a movie screening. This time we'd come purely to drink together, just the two of us. Plus neither of us had showered then.
Swallowing hard against a strange tension, I heard Seorin's voice call from the other side.
"Ijun~"
"Y-Yeah?!"
Startled like a thief with a guilty conscience, I answered too loudly, and her voice came back.
"I don't have a towel. There's a stack of them next to my closet? Could you bring me one?"
"Ah, sure! Just a sec."
So the one I'd used had been the last? Following her directions to the side of the closet, I spotted the neatly folded towels. I picked one of the colorful ones and brought it to her.
Knock knock.
I tapped on the door and called to her inside.
"I've got the towel. What should I do?"
"One second?"
She cracked the door open just a sliver and stuck out only a wet arm. Doing my absolute best not to look at her, I pressed the towel into her hand and bolted from the bathroom. But even in that split second, just the arm she'd shown was pretty suggestive. Pale, wet skin beaded with water droplets, and that slender arm. It naturally made you picture the shoulder it connected to, and what lay beyond—which only fueled the imagination further. Vicious.
"I've got no right to call Seorin out for anything."
At this rate, fantasizing was a disease. I was forcibly suppressing the rising fantasies when Seorin came out, toweling her hair dry. Our eyes met as I sat there practically meditating.
"What are you doing? I told you to eat, but you haven't touched the food at all."
"Ah. Now's not the time for that."
"Then what is it time for?"
"Inner peace? Time to achieve mental tranquility?"
"What on earth are you talking about?"
She laughed with a snort like I was ridiculous, then came over this way to dry her hair. She plopped down beside me, seemed about to turn on the hair dryer—then suddenly leaned right into me and asked. Seorin's damp hair carried a pleasant shampoo scent. I probably smelled the same now.
"W-What's with the sudden approach."
"Why so jumpy? Like you've committed some crime."
"Anyone would jump if someone suddenly got that close."
When I made the flimsy excuse,
"…You weren't thinking anything weird, were you?"
"…What?"
As if she'd seen straight through me, Seorin asked with a sly, fox-like smile.
"Oh, don't tell me. You were thinking about that kiss I said I'd give you earlier?"
…Seriously. This woman really was a fox through and through.