The Sweet Room

Before I met Lee Yeonju, I did a little digging through the forums.

There was no shortage of tips, but nearly all of them came down to the same thing: keep it comfortable. Fret over nothing and crank the energy up on purpose, and women just get uncomfortable. The single most important factor, though, was the face.

That part had me worried. It wasn't as if I could do anything about my face between now and the date, so I meant to keep things as easy as I could — the same way I used to type in chat while watching her stream. I'd never seen anything but her face on a screen, sure, but the private sense of closeness had already piled up plenty high on my side alone.

Fortunately, nothing about the meal felt awkward. Yeonju laughed at the lines I'd turned over and over before daring to say them. She offered questions of her own, and through a course that ran a little past an hour, we ate without either of us noticing the time go. The last time I'd come alone, I'd been so bored I ate with a stream on.

From there, we even drifted over to the bar without forcing it.

No way. Me? Tonight?

Saying I hadn't hoped for it would've been a lie. What man wouldn't? It was far above my station to imagine a woman that pretty, that popular, ever going there with me. Still — imagination is free.

"So?"

"Hm? Oh. Nothing much. I figured I'd forget all of it, cleaned everything out and dumped it into some company I'd never even heard of, went off to the military, and came back to find the stock had gone completely insane. The usual boring story."

"Whoa. For real? That's insane. I've never actually met someone with a story like that."

"Come on. Plenty of people got rich off crypto."

"That's different. That's incredible. You invested in stocks, right?"

At the bar we sat side by side, close enough that our talk turned hushed. Little touches passed between us as if they were nothing, and the hand that laughed and swatted my arm kept snagging my attention anyway. Whenever the low music swallowed her voice, she leaned all the way to my ear and whispered, and the sharp bite of alcohol tangled with sweet fruit until it tickled the tip of my nose.

"This is nice."

Soft hair settled gently against my shoulder. I turned my head a fraction, and our eyes met at a distance where her breath could have reached me.

"Uh. Um."

Embarrassed, I started to look away, but a slender hand caught my chin and turned me back. In the same instant, something soft touched my lips.

A peck. Three seconds, maybe.

Her face drew slowly away. She was beautiful. Her eyelids lifted little by little, and those large eyes held me for a moment before curving into crescents.

"Cute."

"......"

I had the distinct feeling I'd been played, but the heat flooding my face left me nothing to say. So this is why people drink. Something like desire, buried somewhere inside me, stirred — less a thought of how brazen than the feeling of it.

"Mm."

I gave that slender chin the slightest tug. Her lips came as if they'd been waiting, and I covered them with mine. It was my first kiss, but the alcohol had my body moving on its own.

"Haah. Haah."

How many minutes had passed? I only pulled away once Yeonju was dragging in rough breaths, looking nearly pained — long enough for the ice in the glass to melt down small. She smiled again, bright and easy, and the words slipped out of me before I knew it.

"Want to go see the suite?"

"Oh my. Isn't that moving a little fast?"

"......Is it? Sorry."

"Pfft. What was that. All that bold confidence, gone in one second."

"Ah. I haven't dated much, so I just thought... this seemed like the moment for it."

"The moment for what?"

"Huh?"

Yeonju handled me with an easy, practiced hand. So this was what an older woman was like. The sense that I was being toyed with made me bristle, but what was I supposed to do about it? I scratched my head and dodged her eyes. She, though, had no intention of letting a caught chance slip.

"Hm? Hm? What were you planning to do once we got to the suite? Hm? What was the plan — what kind of moment was it?"

"......"

"Pervert!"

"No, I...... I saw online that these days, once you've kissed, that's just what people do."

"Pervert!"

"......"

She cried pervert, but the corners of her mouth never came down, so at least she didn't seem to hate it. I got the feeling I could lean in again. My pride was a little too bruised for that, though. Someone would probably laugh and call it useless pride. I just wanted, somehow, to be the one Yeonju clung to. Of course that was never going to happen. Still, I wanted to tease her once.

I drew out the card I'd kept tucked away and set it on the table. The keycard bore the number 10001.

"......Huh?"

There was no way she didn't know what it was. This was a tower with a hotel in it, and a keycard would be a hotel key.

"What? I said let's go look at the suite."

"R-right now?"

"You don't want to? You're drunk. Rest a little before you head out."

"......"

Those large pupils trembled, unfocused. She clearly hadn't expected me to actually produce a keycard.

"No. Still, it's the first day we've met......"

Watching Yeonju fluster put me a little more at ease.

"Hahaha. I'm kidding. Kidding. That's not the suite I'm staying in — it's a regular suite. Sleep there, noona. It's already two."

"Ah. R-right? Wow. I've never slept in a suite before."

Another peck. I touched my lips to hers once more. The mood wasn't what it had been earlier, and Yeonju dipped her head, a little shy herself, but she closed her eyes and reached for my hand.

"Shall we go?"

"Yeah."

"Today was really fun. Thank you."

"I'm the one who should be thanking you. I ought to have been the one treating the Chairman who pulled a dinner date for me."

The urge to tease her rose up again. On the way out I took her hand once more and nudged her shoulder with mine.

"Pretty sure I already got my treat."

"Hey!"

On the way out, I flagged a member of the staff.

"Could you show her to this room, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠please?"

"Of course. Right this way."

"Sleep well."

"See you on stream!"

It was a parting edged with regret. Even so, ending it there, on the regret, felt like the better choice. The aftertaste was sweet in its own right.

"Ugh. Maybe I shouldn't have just come back."

Once I was in the room, the drink had sobered a little. I floated ice in a glass, poured a cola, and drank, and my head cleared. Then it all came back — Yeonju's face, still vivid in front of my eyes, and every sensation of being close to her. Her lips. The dirty jokes we'd traded. Right down to the last goodbye.

Maybe right about now she was in the room I'd gotten her, on a third round of wine. Or maybe a much thicker mood was settling over my room instead. The thought had my better judgment start cursing me out.

"Crazy bastard."

"Absolute lunatic."

"Why would you......"

"Agh, you idiot!"

I clutched my hair and tore at it. An opportunity like that, and I'd had it in my hands — one that had even come together on its own. When was a mood like that ever going to form again with a woman that pretty?

"Haa. Maybe I should just drop dead."

I went over to the floor-to-ceiling window, the one that didn't even open, and looked out at the night. It was staggeringly beautiful. Then again, if I jumped from here, it would hurt, wouldn't it? The last of the haze burned off.

"I should just sleep."

I showered and laid myself down on the bed. The drink still circled in me, but sleep came easy.

When I opened my eyes, it was lunchtime. Just in case, I'd booked Yeonju's room for two days, but I didn't go looking for her. A fan and a streamer. We'd stepped over the line a little, and anything past that would only tangle the relationship.

The phone that hadn't made a sound all ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠morning brought a woman's text instead of another game ad. A fresh morning. A morning, in this world, that started with texting a woman.

"Ah. I wish it were seven already."

I felt simmered all the way through. I sweated out the hangover in the sauna, got a massage, and by the time I came back it was seven.

The stream went live right on time, and the moment it did, the questions came pouring in.

Fair enough that they'd be curious. Right before I'd left to meet Yeonju, I'd seen the photo and the post up on her board — a line that she was out for a dinner date, a shot of the tower, and even a mention that if things went well she might turn the stream on during the date itself.

I'm not an idiot. I don't know this world well, but I'd caught something in passing while browsing the forums: if a dinner date isn't to her liking, or if he tries to cross a line, she quietly flips the broadcast on and shuts it down. I'd been the one to say she could stream, and she still never turned it on. That meant I'd done all right. Didn't it?

Yeonju started the broadcast the way she always did. Today, too, she was bright, and pretty, and back in the clothes she wore ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠on stream. She didn't dodge a single question. She answered them one by one, and the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠donations popped off — especially from her existing whales. Some of them had surely burned hundreds, even thousands, spinning that roulette in hopes of pulling a dinner date.

But would they know? That at a hundred thousand won, the odds of the dinner date coming up were exactly zero.

"Ah. I was going to mention that, too."

Still, watching her answer one thing at a time felt like being let in on what Yeonju actually thought, and that put me in a good mood.

"Me......?"

Well. If you counted the money alone, that much was true. Young was true, too.

"......"

Hearing Yeonju call me handsome, my shoulders lifted of their own accord. Was I handsome? I'd never once thought so in my life. I glanced at the mirror. I'd never exactly been unhappy with my own face, but no woman had ever walked up and shown an interest, not once, so I'd never particularly thought of myself as good-looking. And besides — this was a broadcast, and I was a whale. Politeness. That was probably all it was.

I listened to the review for a while, then slipped in.

Yeah. This side of things suits me better.