First Night in the Eroge
They say that when you truly love someone, no matter how interesting the movie is, you end up focusing on the person beside you instead.
Just like the saying, I kept stealing glances at Ayoung in the seat next to mine. But it wasn’t because of love. It was because of the overturned cola cup.
“...Ayoung, are you okay?!”
I snatched up the cola cup that had spilled across her lap and checked on her condition.
“......”
Once again, Ayoung gave no answer.
And there was one difference this time.
She wasn’t smiling.
With a completely blank face, she stared down at the cola soaking her lap, then whispered softly.
“...I’m sorry.”
She suddenly shot up from her seat and started walking away.
I was utterly flustered.
“...We’ll clean up here, so why don’t you go after her?”
“...Thank you!”
“...This is so frustrating.”
I hurried down the stairs after her.
Fortunately, Ayoung hadn’t left the theater. She was slipping into the women’s restroom near the screening room.
Seeing that, I finally breathed a small sigh of relief.
...She hadn’t gone home.
Knowing the situation hadn’t spiraled into the worst-case scenario brought some comfort, yet I couldn’t bring myself to leave the spot.
How many minutes had passed like that?
I waited with growing anxiety as Ayoung remained inside far longer than expected. Eventually I started shifting from foot to foot, worried something might have happened.
Then, at that moment.
“...Ah.”
The restroom door opened.
My eyes met Ayoung’s as she stepped out, faint traces of water still clinging to her face.
“Ayoung...”
There was no need to ask why it had taken so long.
The skin around her eyes was swollen and red, as if she had just been crying.
“...Yeah. I’m sorry.”
Even in that state, Ayoung forced a smile and tried to act like everything was fine.
But now I understood clearly.
That smile didn’t mean she was okay.
“Let’s go back in. We still have to watch the movie...”
As she tried to slip past me toward the screening room, I gently caught her wrist.
“Ayoung, we made a promise, remember?”
“......”
She stopped, but she wouldn’t look at me.
Gazing at her small back, I spoke slowly.
“That if either of us had worries, we’d listen and comfort each other.”
“......”
Ayoung stayed silent.
She simply kept her head lowered, nervously fidgeting with her fingertips.
Only then did I realize it.
Ayoung was carrying a heavy burden of worry.
“Ayoung.”
I called her name carefully and took her hand in mine.
This was no longer something I could approach lightly.
“Today was really hard for you, wasn’t it?”
“......”
“The rain from morning, falling down at the theater, and the movie we chose together turning out so strange...”
Ayoung shook her head, but I knew her heart wasn’t in it.
“I’m sorry.”
I rubbed the back of my neck as I spoke.
“I should have looked into things more... and checked on how you were feeling.”
“...It’s not that.”
Thinking back, I really was a pathetic excuse for a boyfriend.
No matter how much Ayoung kept smiling on the surface and saying she was fine, after running into so many unfortunate events in a row on a rare date, anyone would feel down.
Yet I had just stayed beside her, watching without doing anything.
“I should have noticed first...”
As I quietly comforted her, Ayoung seemed to relax a little. She buried her face in my chest and murmured.
“No... It’s not because of you, Hajun.”
“......”
“I just... I felt like I looked so pathetic. That’s all.”
After letting out a long sigh, she continued.
“...And I shouldn’t have spoken to Harin that way earlier.”
A thought suddenly struck me.
Ayoung was the kind of person who would rather swallow her misfortune alone than cry out for the people around her to notice.
“I see.”
So I simply held her without a word.
Until her mood improved, even a little.
“Hajun, the movie...”
“It’s okay.”
There were more important things right now than any movie.
In the theater hallway where the scattered ceiling lights cast faint glows, I stood still for a long time.
The streets were less crowded than I expected.
Probably because we had left before the movie ended.
The heavy rain that had been pouring down earlier had stopped as if it had never happened, but the sky was already growing dark.
Theater sign lights stretched long across the rain-soaked asphalt, and the only sounds cutting through the quiet street were the soft splashes of passing cars.
I held my folded umbrella and walked side by side with Ayoung.
“......”
“......”
We didn’t speak.
Not because things had grown awkward between us.
It simply felt like the silence as we walked together suited the moment better than any words.
Step. Step.
Splash. Splash.
It had only rained for a short while, yet puddles had already formed everywhere.
As I walked while thinking about that, we arrived near Ayoung’s house before I knew it.
“Ayoung.”
I called her name out of habit, then paused to think.
What should I say?
After turning it over in my mind, one thought rose to the surface.
Instead of asking about her worries, I began.
“There’s something I didn’t get to tell you last time.”
I spoke calmly, sharing my own feelings.
“Of course I was sincere when I said I wanted to help others... and it’s true that seeing their faces made me worry, so I started paying more attention.”
Ayoung listened quietly.
“But... Ayoung.”
When I thought about why all of this had started.
“My top priority has always been you. You were the one who caught my eye in the auditorium first... and you were the first person I wanted to help...”
So.
I wanted to tell her not to feel too upset over those worries, but...
With a soft sound, Ayoung suddenly slipped into my arms.
“...Hajun.”
Her voice trembled as she spoke.
“I’m always anxious... And it’s not because I don’t trust you.”
It was distrust in herself.
“...I think it’s because I can’t trust myself.”
Her words hit me harder than I expected.
“...No.”
I wanted to deny it.
I wanted to shout that she was more beautiful than anyone and fully deserved to be loved.
But would that reassure her?
I didn’t know.
The years of pain she had endured ran too deep to be healed by a few words.
The long bullying had slowly chipped away at Ayoung’s self-worth.
So perhaps she believed I might one day leave her pathetic self behind.
“...Isn’t that stupid of me?”
She laughed at herself, and I wondered what comfort I could possibly offer.
“......”
I stood there dazed for a moment.
Ayoung looked up at me, then slowly stepped back and grabbed the doorknob.
“Thank you for walking me home... Goodbye.”
If I let her walk inside alone, I would be no different from the timid, oblivious boyfriend in the eroge.
The kind of guy who eventually loses his precious girlfriend to someone else.
That’s why I reached out.
Thud—
I stopped the door before it could close.
“...Hajun?”
Moisture gathered at the corners of her eyes as she looked up at me.
I took hold of her wrist.
“Why can’t you trust yourself?”
“...Ah.”
“And what exactly makes you think you’re so pathetic?”
I gently pushed her inside the house.
The door closed behind us with a heavy thud.
“Are you scared I might leave you?”
That was ridiculous.
“Who in their right mind would leave a girl as pretty as you, with a body like that and such a kind heart?”
“...W-wait a second.”
“From now on, I’m never letting you go.”
As I spoke, I slowly slipped the pink cardigan from her shoulders.
“Today I’ll show you. Just how much I love you.”
“...Ah, it hurts.”
The body revealed beneath was flawless.
...I had thought it looked big even through her clothes, but.
“...Ah, we really shouldn’t.”
Ayoung’s weak resistance melted away the moment I pulled her close by the waist and kissed her softly.
“Kyaa...”
I lifted her easily and carried her carefully into the bedroom where the bed waited.
I laid her down gently.
“Haah... haah...”
By now my own head was spinning from excitement.
It was an impossible situation.
I had once believed I would never even speak to a girl like this, let alone date her.
“...H-Hajun.”
Watching her call my name so shyly, covering half her face with one hand while trembling, made my heart thunder.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
The sound was so loud I thought it might drive me insane.
This wasn’t even our first time in a situation like this... so why was my body shaking so badly?
...I hadn’t meant for this.
I had wanted to treat my precious Ayoung with nothing but gentleness and care.
But the moment she began to kiss me back eagerly, our tongues intertwining, all those sensible thoughts vanished.
“...Ayoung. I love you.”
“...Mm. I love you too.”
Ayoung cried softly.