Just the Two of Us
“Son, Mom’s heading out.”
“Okay, see you later.”
“Dad’s going out too.”
“Huh?! Where are you going, Dad?”
“To Grandma’s. I need to make sure she eats lunch.”
“Oh, really? Have a good time, Dad.”
Tomorrow is the day Chae-yeon and I are going to watch a baseball game.
Since I know almost nothing about baseball, I sat down at the computer first thing in the morning to look up the rules and stadium culture.
I didn’t want to show up completely clueless and feel out of place.
“Huh, baseball games aren’t just about watching in person—there are all kinds of events too. That’s pretty cool.”
Some people go to see their favorite team with their own eyes, but others go because they enjoy the variety of events.
When I looked it up, I found out they still do things like kiss cams these days.
If I get picked for that, I’m confident I could do it better than anyone.
“Oh my, Chae-yeon!”
I was still searching for baseball information when I heard Mom calling Chae-yeon’s name from outside.
“Hello, Auntie. Hello to you too, Uncle.”
“Did you come to hang out with Jung-woo?”
“Yes, I wanted to stay in and play at home today.”
“Alright. Have fun, then.”
“Okay, safe travels!”
The moment the front door closed, Chae-yeon appeared at the threshold of my room.
No wonder I’d felt like showering right after waking up today. My body must have instinctively known she was coming.
If I hadn’t showered like usual just because it was the weekend, it would have been a total disaster.
“You’re not looking at anything weird today?”
“Weird? That thing last time was just something a friend asked me to make.”
“You didn’t expect me to come over, did you?”
“If I had, I wouldn’t be making this face right now, would I?”
Chae-yeon let out a light laugh and ran over, throwing herself into my arms.
I settled her on my lap and we started looking through the baseball information I’d been reading together.
“So you were researching baseball.”
“Yeah. It’s better to know a little beforehand than to know nothing at all.”
“There’s nothing super special about it. Just follow what everyone else is doing and you’ll be fine.”
“What brings you to our house today?”
“We haven’t seen each other for two weeks. One day tomorrow just isn’t enough.”
“Didn’t you come this morning? Aren’t you tired?”
“Not at all. And even if I were, being with you makes it all better.”
Even though she’d shown up out of nowhere, I felt like I should at least treat her like a guest, so I sat her down in the chair and headed to the kitchen for a moment.
Since Chae-yeon likes coffee, I made her a latte. For myself, a glass of soda with ice cubes floating in it.
When I came back to the room with the drinks, Chae-yeon was busily searching for something on my computer.
Is this some kind of trap investigation or what?
“Yeoni…”
“Baby, come here for a second.”
“Huh?!”
“What? Why?”
“You just called me ‘baby’…”
A brief silence fell over us.
Chae-yeon must have said it without thinking, because she quickly hid her bright red face behind her hair.
Her reaction made it clear I hadn’t misheard.
“Yeoni, what did you just say?”
“I… I didn’t say anything.”
“I’m pretty sure you said something.”
“B-baby.”
Wow. The way she said it with that expression was enough to make my heart explode. That’s totally unfair.
I pulled the still face-hiding Chae-yeon back onto my lap and rested my chin on her shoulder.
“Yeah? What is it? Your baby is right here.”
“Is… is that weird?”
“What’s weird?”
“Me calling you ‘baby.’”
“Not weird at all. I love it.”
“You always call me by my name. I thought… when it’s just the two of us, maybe I could try calling you that sometimes.”
It was already plenty good, but it seemed Chae-yeon was trying to do something for me again.
I couldn’t handle seeing this rare shy version of Chae-yeon, so I just held her tight.
“You know, sometimes I realize you’re really cute, Yeoni.”
“You’re one to talk.”
“Me? Why?”
The shy Chae-yeon vanished, replaced by the usual one who grabbed both my cheeks and pulled them outward.
“You’re cute every single time I look at you.”
“I haven’t heard anyone call me cute since elementary school.”
“Look how stretchy your cheeks are.”
“Is there a connection between stretchy cheeks and being cute?”
“There is.”
“Anyway, why did you call me over?”
“There are a lot of novels saved in this folder. I was wondering if I could read them.”
“Sure, go ahead.”
Unlike most writers, I don’t mind when someone reads my work right in front of me.
If there’s anything worse than others, it’s probably that I have a slightly severe case of my writing sucks syndrome.
Out of all the novel folders, the one Chae-yeon chose was my very first work, 30 March Snow.
“How did you even come up with something like this?”
“There was a webtoon I was reading back then with a white-haired girl as the protagonist. I started writing after seeing that.”
“Really? What was the title?”
“Um… it’s been so long that I forgot.”
The truth is, I still remember the title and content of that webtoon perfectly.
But I can’t tell her.
That webtoon was for adults. I don’t want to die yet.
“Where did the name Lina come from?”
“I took it from the name of a tattoo artist I like.”
“Oh, really? This was your first work, right?”
“Yeah. It was the novel I wrote in two months while my dyslexia was at its worst, banging my head against a brick wall.”
“If you told anyone this was a first-time writer’s work, no one would believe you.”
“Really? Does it look okay to you, Yeoni?”
“It’s really well written. The way you portray the characters’ emotions, the situational descriptions—everything. Isn’t this talent?”
Hearing the word “talent” from Chae-yeon made the corners of my mouth shoot up to eleven o’clock.
As expected, compliments from your girlfriend feel completely different from anyone else’s.
Chae-yeon read a good portion of 30 March Snow before moving the mouse pointer to another folder. I quickly grabbed her hand.
“N-no, not that one!!”
“Huh?! Why not?”
“That one is seriously one of my worst novels. Read something else.”
“Something else? Okay, got it.”
She absolutely cannot look at that folder.
The novel titled How Does a Fox Cry isn’t just badly written—it has other reasons why it’s off-limits.
“Hey, baby.”
“Yeah? What?”
“There are two novels of yours that share the same motif.”
“Ah, you mean the one where the character hurts themselves?”
“Yeah. Is there a reason you keep writing about that?”
“I just like dark and heavy stories. There’s something satisfying about watching characters overcome those things and find happiness. That’s why I put it in.”
I didn’t want to tell her the real reason, so I gave a half-truth.
There was no need to bring up those bad old memories.
“These are all illustrations?”
“Yeah, I made them with AI.”
“That’s amazing. How do you even make pictures like this with AI?”
This semester, one of my classes covered artificial intelligence, so I’d learned about image-generating AIs.
After explaining what I’d learned in class, Chae-yeon looked genuinely impressed.
“You really sounded like a computer science major just now.”
“Don’t say that. I’m already a slave to it—if you say stuff like that, I’ll get depressed.”
-Chu!!
“Does that stop you from being depressed?”
“You sure know how to cheer someone up fast.”
“Baby.”
“Yeah, Yeoni?”
“It’s just the two of us.”
Excuse me, girlfriend. Why are you saying that right now?
Every time she hits me with something like that out of nowhere, it feels like my heart is going to drop out of my chest.
I stared quietly at Chae-yeon’s mysterious smile, unable to read the atmosphere or her intentions.
“Just saying. Hehe.”
“You really like scaring people, don’t you?”
“What were you thinking that made you so startled?”
At Chae-yeon’s continued provocation, I responded by tickling her side.
“Kyaa!! That tickles!!”
“You should’ve known your waist was in my hands.”
“Stop…!! Stop it. I said it tickles!!”
“I’m not going to stop? I’m going to keep—ugh!!”
Chae-yeon, squirming on top of me, flailed her arms, and a perfectly executed backspin elbow slammed straight into my jaw.
Because I’d let my guard down, it hurt more than usual.
“Are you okay?!”
“I think I lost a tooth.”
“I’m sorry. Did it hurt?”
“If it hurts, kiss it better.”
-Chu!!
“Is that enough?”
“It doesn’t hurt anymore.”
“You really know how to scare a person.”
“It really hurt. If you hadn’t kissed it, my jaw and teeth might’ve fallen out.”
Chae-yeon looked at me without saying anything. This kind of atmosphere used to feel awkward in the early days of our relationship, but now I love it.
“Baby. Have I changed at all?”
“Huh?! C-changed?”
“Yeah!!”
She’s pulling out a trap card all of a sudden? We were having such a good moment!!
I desperately scanned Chae-yeon, trying to find what was different. If I couldn’t find it, I was dead.
“Um… did you cut your bangs?”
“Wrong. My bangs are the same.”
“Then… your makeup?”
“No, I did my makeup the same as always.”
What on earth had changed?
Her nails looked the same as yesterday, so that wasn’t it.
If it wasn’t her bangs or makeup—the two hardest things to notice—then what could it be?
“Pfft. Can’t find it?”
“I… I really don’t know this time. Sorry.”
-Chu!!
“Actually, nothing changed.”
“Huh?! Then why did you ask?”
“I wanted you to look at me more carefully, so I asked.”
Hearing that, I buried my face in Chae-yeon’s back.
“Don’t say things like that out of nowhere. My heart hurts.”
“I was so happy that you were looking at me so closely, Jung-woo.”
She really has a talent for startling people.
“Do you love me, baby?”
“I… I love you too.”