Chapter 98: Date (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 98: Date (3)
After finishing the movie in a pretty good atmosphere, we left the theater.
I asked her confidently, “What do you want to eat?”
When it comes to Gangnam, I’ve got it covered. Ever since the guild house was built here after Gangnam was rebuilt, I've been to just about every restaurant worth visiting.
Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Western, you name it. As long as she told me what she wanted, I could take her to the best place for it.
It would cost a lot, of course.
“Oh, I’m fine with anything.”
The scariest words in the world.
“They say ‘anything’ is the scariest word in the world.”
When I said it jokingly, she looked startled and quickly waved her hands in denial.
“Oh, no! I really do eat anything, that’s all I meant…”
Yoon Ji-an looked like she was about to cry, probably thinking I had seriously misunderstood her.
It was a little baffling, but I also found it cute how sensitively she reacted to my every word.
She seems to have changed so much.
“Aren’t you taking my joke a little too seriously?”
“Oh, it was a joke…”
She let out a small sigh of relief.
“Anyway, if you think of anything, just say the word. I’ll take you to the best place.”
“Ah, well, in that case… there is actually a place I’ve wanted to go.”
Did she already have a place picked out?
“Where is it?”
“Um… it’s a Japanese restaurant an acquaintance recommended.”
“Oh, really? Then let’s go there.”
It was a bit of a shame I couldn’t show off my long list of go-to spots, but today was all about her. Since I was spending the money anyway, it was better to use it in a way that would make her happiest.
“Is it far from here?”
“No, it’s about a five to ten-minute walk…?”
“Then let’s leave the car here and walk.”
“Okay.”
We went out through the first-floor lobby and started walking slowly.
The streets of Gangnam, which I hadn’t walked in a while, were the same as always.
The people walking around were mostly divided into two types.
Hunters wearing gear, or the rich, decked out from head to toe in expensive luxury brands.
The former was because the major guilds’ houses were concentrated here, and the latter was because Gangnam is the wealthiest district in the country.
The reconstruction of the destroyed Gangnam was carried out swiftly. It was the result of deploying a large number of Awakened Beings with all sorts of life-related abilities.
The newly rebuilt Gangnam was transformed into land even more expensive than before. Not only did every building have protection magic installed, but as I mentioned, all the major guilds had flocked here.
In other words, Gangnam had become the safest place in the Republic of Korea.
Thanks to that, land prices skyrocketed. The people who already owned land in Gangnam were rich to begin with, but they became even richer.
And it wasn’t just Gangnam where land prices soared. Most of the districts adjacent to Gangnam also shot up in value. The reason, of course, was simply their proximity to Gangnam.
This caused a chain reaction, and in fact, land prices across all of Seoul’s districts rose at least a little.
“Um… the weather is really nice, isn’t it?”
As I was walking, lost in the leisurely scenery, she spoke up from beside me. I guess the silence between us must have felt a bit awkward for her.
This was my mistake, too. To think I was so engrossed in the scenery with a woman walking right next to me.
“It is. It feels great to walk.”
I decided to make some conversation, in a way that wasn’t too pressuring.
“Has work been busy lately?”
“No, thanks to the department head’s arrangements, my workload has decreased significantly.”
As she said this, her expression turned a little sullen.
“But since you haven’t been looking for me either, Do-jin-ssi, lately I’ve been feeling a bit… like I’m stranded on a deserted island…”
“Ah.”
Her workload had been reduced so she could support me more closely. But since I hadn’t been calling on her, she must have felt empty instead.
“I’m sorry. I just felt bad calling you for trivial things, Ji-an-ssi.”
“Not at all!”
Whoa.
Yoon Ji-an suddenly raised her voice in her reply. She must have realized how loud she was, because her face immediately turned red.
“I-I mean, I’d like you to call me, even for trivial matters…”
“Even for really trivial things?”
“Yes, anything is fine.”
“Even if I ask you to take me home right after class?”
“That would be nice… no, I mean, that’s fine.”
Even to a request that could be annoying and bruising to one’s pride, she readily replied that it was fine. Seeing her happy expression, it seemed she wasn’t just glad to have work to do, but that she wanted to see me or be helpful to me in any way.
I couldn’t get a clear read on which it was.
As we talked, we turned from the main street into a slightly narrower alley. Rows of high-end restaurants began to come into view.
I’d been to about eighty percent of them. Back when I first settled here, I used to live for the fun of taking the guild members out to different places for lunch every day.
“Here it is.”
She, who had been walking a step ahead of me since we entered the alley, stopped and pointed to a shop.
It was a building with a harmonious blend of modern and Japanese styles. The name of the shop was Yuki, which I remembered meant “snow” in Japanese.
This place wasn’t here back when I was frequenting this area.
“It opened a little over a year ago, and I hear it’s famous for being delicious.”
“Oh, is that so?”
“Yes! Shall we go in?”
I followed her inside. The interior was impressive, with the warm atmosphere of natural wood under soft lighting.
“Welcome. Do you have a reservation?”
At the staff’s question, Yoon Ji-an glanced at me before speaking in a small voice.
“Yes, um… a reservation under Yoon Ji-an…”
“……?”
She said she wanted to come here, but she even made a reservation?
“Reservation confirmed. I’ll show you to your room.”
We followed the staff into a small private room with a four-person table.
“Please call us after you’ve decided on your order.”
The staff member left.
I sat down and asked Yoon Ji-an, “You made a reservation?”
“Yes, I actually made one in a hurry last night.”
She said it apologetically, but I didn’t know why.
“It doesn’t matter that you made a reservation, since I was going to treat you to whatever you wanted anyway… but what if I had said I didn’t want to come here?”
“Then… I was planning to excuse myself to the restroom and quickly call to cancel…”
Should I call that foolish, or incredibly considerate?
“From now on, if there’s something you want to do or eat, just tell me directly. Even if we disagree, it’s not like something so small would ruin our relationship, right?”
Hearing my words, her face flushed slightly.
“O-Our relationship…”
So that was the part she latched onto. Her reaction was amusing, so I added a little more.
“Since you’re my support, Ji-an-ssi, we’re stuck seeing each other for a long time whether we like it or not, right?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“So, since we’ll be seeing each other for a while, I’d like for us to be close.”
“Close… Yes, I also think it would be better to be… ahem, close.”
As she spoke, the corners of her mouth twitched up and down as if a wave were passing through them. Was she trying so hard to suppress a natural smile that it was coming out like that?
“Let’s pick something from the menu first.”
We stopped talking and chose from the menu. There was a wide variety, and since I wanted to try everything, I just ordered the most expensive course.
I think they call a Japanese course meal an omakase.
I also ordered a bottle of sake. It wouldn’t be right to have Japanese food without sake.
“You’ll have some too, right, Ji-an-ssi?”
“Well…”
Yoon Ji-an hesitated for a moment. I figured it might be difficult for her because of the car, so I was about to say she didn’t have to drink.
“I’ll drink too!”
She beat me to it. Well, we could just call a designated driver for the car, anyway.
“Excuse us.”
The food started to arrive, one dish after another. Thinly sliced fried lotus root and a salad full of abalone.
The abalone salad was just that—a salad with abalone—but the fried lotus root was surprisingly good.
“Shall we have a drink?”
“Yes…!”
She held out her glass energetically. I could feel some kind of inexplicable, firm resolve from her.
I poured sake into her glass and was about to pour my own when she reached out.
“Let me pour for you.”
“Thanks.”
Two filled glasses.
“Let’s have a toast.”
“Yes. I look forward to working with you. And… I hope to see you often, even for trivial things.”
“Alright. I’ll do my best to bother you, Ji-an-ssi.”
“Yes…!”
We lightly clinked our glasses and downed the sake.
It was smooth and clean. Dipping the fried lotus root in a bit of soy sauce made for the perfect drinking snack.
“Let’s have another.”
“…Ah, yes.”
This time, she was the one who suggested another drink. We just had one…
Is she usually a fast drinker?
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Dobinmushi with various seafood and seasonal sashimi.
Tempura with shrimp and seasonal vegetables.
And sushi made with a variety of fish.
As I enjoyed the course meal that was a true compilation of Japanese cuisine and happily drank, I became quite tipsy.
But a problem arose.
“Ji-an-ssi, are you okay?”
“I’m fiiiine…”
Yoon Ji-an was drunk.
Very drunk.
From the start, she refilled her glass the moment it was empty, so I thought she could hold her liquor well, but I was wrong.
If she was going to get this drunk, why was she in such a hurry to drink?
Her head was spinning, unable to stay still. Her gaze turned to me.
“Do-jin-ssi…”
“Yes?”
“You shaid earlier… to tell you if there’s shomething I wanna do…”
“I did.”
“I thought of shomething. Shomething I wanna do…”
I suddenly became curious. What could she possibly want to do so badly that she was struggling to say it while drunk?
So I asked with a smile, “So what is it you want to do?”
“Um… I want to see it.”
“See it? See what?”
“That…”
What on earth was “that”?
“Co… co…”
Co?
“Co… c…”
Thud!
“……”
There are two ways to piss someone off. The first is to stop talking in the middle of a sentence, and the second is…