Chapter 41: Ideal Type
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 41: Ideal Type
“That’ll be 27,000 won.”
Taemin Oppa, standing at the counter, held out his card.
“Thank you!”
Leaving the employee’s energetic farewell behind us, we stepped back out onto the street.
Now what?
He’d asked me to have a meal with him, and I’d come, but he hadn’t said a single word about what we’d do afterward.
“Oppa. Where are we going now?”
“Us? Weren’t we just going home?”
…And here I thought we were going to get to know each other slowly.
Just a moment ago, the mood was great, and he was even talking about going to school together!
How could he suggest going home just an hour after we met up?
Especially on a bright, sunny weekend afternoon like this!
My pride stung a little, feeling like I was the only one pushing things forward, but the thought of going home already was too disappointing. I grabbed his wrist.
“Hm?”
Oppa looked at me as if to ask what I was doing.
“How about dessert?”
“Dessert?”
“I’ll treat you to ice cream.”
It felt like I was putting a dying journey on life support, but Oppa readily nodded.
“Sure. Let’s go to that unattended ice cream shop over there…”
“No! Let’s go further down, to a place where we can sit and eat!”
If we go to an unattended shop, where are we supposed to sit and talk?
You big dummy.
“Alright, then.”
Perhaps he just hadn’t given it much thought, because he obediently changed direction at my words.
We walked past the bus stop and entered a popular chain ice cream shop, standing side-by-side in front of the counter.
“I’ll have the cherry flavor.”
I was craving something sweet, and I picked my flavor the moment I saw it.
“Then I’ll have vanilla.”
…Was this some kind of high-level trolling?
I flinched at the word “vanilla” and shot a glance at him.
With a nonchalant expression, Oppa looked back at me, a question mark seeming to appear over his head as he noticed me staring.
“What? Is there a problem?”
“No? Not at all.”
“Okay, I’ll go grab a seat over there.”
Oppa sat down at a table inside and pulled out his phone as if nothing was wrong.
For a second, I wondered if I was just being overly self-conscious, but a surge of frustration still rose within me.
Couldn’t you be just a little more aware?
It wasn’t on purpose, but I did spill that vanilla-scented thing!
Or at the very least, it would have been nice if he’d just said something like, “That vanilla diffuser smelled good.”
So thoughtless.
A hint of disappointment welled up at his indifference, but I held out my card to the cashier and gave her our order.
“Here you go.”
I placed the smooth, pure white vanilla ice cream in front of Oppa.
“Thanks.”
Putting his phone down, Oppa picked up the cup and plunged his spoon deep into the ice cream.
“There’s something I’ve been curious about. Can I ask you a question?”
“What is it?”
“Oppa, what’s your ideal type?”
It was something I’d been wondering about for a while.
What kind of girl did he like?
When he rejected me, he’d clearly said I wasn’t his type. I wondered if he was accepting me now because we’d gotten a little closer.
With the spoon in his mouth, Oppa stared at me intently.
He stared right into my eyes, so intensely it was unnerving.
Embarrassed by his piercing gaze, I lowered my head slightly and looked at my own ice cream.
I wish I could just put up a Luka avatar right now. Seriously.
“Someone charming.”
His answer was not what I had expected.
“Charming in what way?”
“You know, the kind of person who makes you feel good just by looking at them.”
Oppa wore a rather fond smile, as if he were thinking of someone.
“I like people like that.”
Hearing this, I was overcome with the urge to be direct.
Hold it in, Kim Doah. Just hold it in.
The question, [So, do you feel good when you look at me?] rose all the way to the tip of my tongue, but I shoved a large spoonful of ice cream into my mouth instead.
Having barely suppressed the impulse, my curiosity remained, so I tried asking in a different way.
“Then… have you ever met someone like that before?”
Honestly, I knew it wasn’t the best question to ask someone you were in the “talking” stage with, but I wanted to get some kind of hint.
The moment the words left my mouth, I wondered if I’d made a mistake and watched him cautiously. But Oppa just let out a faint, unreadable smile.
“…Nope.”
“What?”
“I’ve never had a girlfriend.”
“But… why?”
My curiosity was 100 percent genuine.
No, seriously, does that even make sense?
How could he have never dated with a face like that?
Just from what I’d overheard, quite a few girls in our department had confessed to him and gotten rejected.
In middle and high school, I’d probably need more than my fingers…
Maybe even my toes, to count them all.
“What do you mean, why? I just never met anyone I clicked with, that’s all.”
He replied as if my question was absurd.
Really? Is that possible?
For a moment, I was almost convinced, but I shook my head vigorously.
“Oh, come on. Be honest. I really don’t mind if you’ve had a girlfriend before.”
“I’m telling you I haven’t. Why do you keep insisting?”
Judging by his reaction, it seemed like he was telling the truth.
And if that was true…
Phew… calm down… Kim Doah…
He hasn’t even officially asked you to be his girlfriend yet. Stop getting ahead of yourself, you silly girl.
I… I’ll be Taemin Oppa’s first…
“…Doah?”
The one who snapped me out of my daze was none other than the cause of it.
“I… I’ll do my best!”
My voice was a higher pitch than usual, closer to the one I used when I was streaming.
“…Huh?”
Oppa’s eyes widened.
“I don’t know if I’m the kind of person who makes you feel good just by looking at me, but!”
My heart was pounding, and the words had just tumbled out, but now that I had to finish the sentence, it sounded like something a total fucking otaku would say.
Ah… should I stop now…?
I hadn’t finished the thought.
If I was going to salvage this, this might be my last chance.
“I’ll… become… a charming… person…”
My confidence plummeted, and my voice dwindled to a mumble.
“…for you.”
-Sizzzzle
I felt like if you tried to grill meat on my cheeks right now, it would cook perfectly, just like on a well-heated pan.
I hoped he would just find it cute or laugh it off, but his response once again defied my expectations.
“…You don’t have to try so hard.”
…Excuse me?
His bright, cheerful reply left me completely stumped, wondering what on earth he meant by that.
After getting ice cream with Doah, I returned home and opened up my schedule again.
Three times a week.
I marked the days I’d agreed to meet Doah in the morning on my calendar. Suddenly, I felt like a very busy person.
How long had it been?
Since I’d let someone this close to me.
Excluding high school and the military, where you’re practically forced into close quarters with people, this was a first for me—an incredibly rare event.
Now, if I add this here…
I overlaid Luka’s streaming schedule as another layer on my calendar and burst out laughing.
“What is this?”
Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays were for going to school and attending classes with Doah in the morning.
Wednesdays were for the group project with Doah.
Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays were for Luka’s solo streams, and Saturdays were for the regular CLOSER collab.
At this point, we were basically living together, just in separate houses.
We were together when I was out, and we were together when I was home.
Of course, Doah didn’t know about the latter part yet.
The fact that we were next-door neighbors on top of it all felt absurdly funny.
I pictured Doah’s face when she asked me to go to school with her.
Her pure, unadulterated joy was plain to see, and it reminded me so much of the Luka I knew. Thinking of her made the corners of my mouth lift on their own.
To think I’d get this flustered over someone who wasn’t 2D.
Life is full of surprises.
Anyway, an ideal type…
I was so used to being the one asked questions that I’d completely forgotten to ask Doah the same thing.
Am I really Doah’s ideal type?
Even setting aside my looks, I was curious how I appeared in her eyes.
What kind of image did she have of me that made her confess at the beginning of the semester?
Ever since I decided to face Doah seriously, questions about her kept bubbling up.
And at the same time, the seeds of anxiety began to take root deep inside me.
I wasn’t particularly interested in school affairs, but I had a general idea of how people saw me.
The quiet student back from military service.
The handsome guy who keeps everyone at a distance.
The universal critic.
Reputation is a mirror of one’s actions, but most of those titles were less my true self and more of a shell I’d built to protect myself.
After all, I’m just an otaku who doesn’t want to hurt others or get hurt by them.
The one who solved most of the problems that arose from acting that way was none other than Luka-tan.
My loneliness, my lack of belonging—I could fill all those voids in her world.
With dull eyes, I rested my chin on my hand and slowly stared ahead.
“Think you can handle it, Kim Doah?”
The fear that I might be different from the fantasy she had of me.
I murmured the words to myself, my gaze fixed on the illustration of Luka hanging on my closet door.