Is It Okay to Be This Happy?
"Yeoni, then… I'll go wash up?"
"Yeah!! See you later."
I never expected I'd end up here in my lifetime. Just one more step and I'd be having my first experience.
Letting out a sigh I couldn't quite explain, I stepped into the bathhouse and sank into the hot water.
With the weather this cold, nothing felt more like heaven than this.
Good choice. How did I even think of coming to a jjimjilbang from there? I couldn't think of a better option myself.
While soaking in the hot water, I thought about what lay ahead.
Once my body was warmed through, I'd head upstairs and meet Chae-yeon in the most comfortable clothes possible. I'd worn loungewear around her at home a few times before, but the unfamiliar setting made it feel strangely different.
After spending about thirty minutes warming up, I went up to the jjimjilbang on the second floor. Because of the separate bathing times for men and women, Chae-yeon wasn't there yet.
This really was a good choice. If I'd brought her to a regular lodging, we'd have been too awkward to do anything.
Even so, this was my first time coming to a place like this with Chae-yeon, so my heart raced as I waited for her.
"Jung-woo!!"
Chae-yeon appeared, wearing the jjimjilbang uniform and smiling brightly. Even without any makeup, my eyes naturally drifted toward her.
She's pretty. How does she manage to look this cute even in that outfit?
"Did you wait long?"
"I just got here too."
"Oh, hold on. I've got something to make."
Chae-yeon fiddled with the two towels she'd brought and quickly fashioned them into the signature ram-horn headbands that were practically a jjimjilbang essential. She placed one on my head and the other on hers.
She must have some skill with her hands. The fact that she made them fit our head sizes in one go proved it.
"Let's take a picture!!"
"Yeah!!"
Click!!
The photo was immediately uploaded to the family group chat. Since this was my first time sleeping out, they'd probably be worried even after the call.
Chae-yeon was doing the same, staring at her phone. Curious about the messages, I peeked over her shoulder and saw the most overprotective chat I'd ever witnessed.
It was the typical worried dad, but to me it didn't look like that at all. It felt like Uncle's arrow was pointed straight at me.
Don't you dare lay a hand on my daughter. If you do, you'll have hell to pay.
That kind of vibe.
"Let's buy some sikhye and roasted eggs!! Are you going to eat, Jung-woo?"
"I'll just drink the sikhye. I don't usually eat at this hour."
"Got it!!"
She came back from the snack stand with sikhye, roasted eggs, and an unexpected hot bar. We found seats and sat down. Chae-yeon picked up a roasted egg with a mischievous look on her face.
I knew exactly what she wanted.
"Want to play rock-paper-scissors and crack an egg on the loser's head?"
"Yeah!! You read my mind?"
"Yeoni, I don't even eat eggs. What's in it for me?"
"If you win, you get to crack one on my head."
"If I lose, I don't get to eat the egg and it gets cracked on my head instead."
"So win, then!!"
In short, she had no intention of giving up. We were both serious even about small bets, so we played a single round of rock-paper-scissors. My rock lost to her scissors.
"Nice!! I won. Come here, bring your head."
"My head isn't a rock, Yeoni."
Chae-yeon brought the roasted egg to my head, did a few practice swings, then brought it down. At that moment, the egg slipped from her hand, and I had the same bad feeling I'd gotten on the train.
Thwack!!
"Aaaagh!!"
The egg escaped her grip like a meteor and landed squarely on my head, bounced once, then rolled across the floor.
In short, it hurt like hell.
"A-are you okay?"
"I think my head cracked. Ow, my head."
"S-sorry. I must've used too much force."
"You weren't even trying to break the egg, so why'd you swing that hard!!"
Chae-yeon rubbed my head while checking the egg's condition. Maybe the rock wasn't my head but the egg itself. Even after that impact, the egg remained completely intact without a single crack.
"It didn't break…?"
"My head did instead."
"Can I try hitting it one more time?"
"Then I'm going home. Crying the whole way."
I watched Chae-yeon drink sikhye and eat the egg. She looked so content eating even that egg that I felt full just watching her.
After filling our stomachs a bit, we wandered around the various sauna rooms.
"Whoa. It's so warm. Coming here was a good idea."
"Right? With the weather this cold, nothing beats a jjimjilbang."
"I'm sleepy…"
"Want to sleep a little if you're tired?"
"No!! That'd be a waste of time!! Let's go somewhere else."
Chae-yeon pulled me along to the ice room. It was basically the same as being outside, so I didn't understand why anyone would come here. Still, since she wanted to, we went in.
"Ugh, it's cold. It feels no different from outside."
"Yeah. Let's just go to a warm room."
"Let's. It's way too cold. We shouldn't have come."
After the ice room chilled us, we returned to a warm room to thaw out. The contrast of cold then warm made my body melt, and my eyes started closing on their own.
"Huh? Jung-woo, look at that."
Chae-yeon pointed to a sign advertising private jjimjilbang rooms. You could rent one for a fee, so we immediately left our spot and headed to the counter.
"Do you have any private rooms available?"
"Yes, we do. For two people?"
"Yes!!"
"Understood. Here's the key."
"Thank you!! Jung-woo, let's go."
They say thinking the times have changed means you're getting old, but honestly, I couldn't help but feel that way. When I was younger, I'd never even heard of private jjimjilbang rooms.
With a maximum capacity of five, the private room was surprisingly spacious.
"There's even a blanket!! It feels like an ondol room."
"Want to lie down for a bit?"
"Yeah!!"
We pulled the blanket over us and lay down on the floor. The warm floor against my already relaxed body made the drowsiness impossible to fight.
At this rate, we'd probably fall asleep while talking.
"Ah, is it okay to feel this good?"
"Right? It's amazing."
"Spending time with you makes me naturally drink less."
"That's a good thing. There's nothing good about drinking too much."
"Do you know your own limit?"
"I drank before the surgery, so I know what it was back then."
"How much was it?"
"Hmm… probably three bottles of soju? I got dizzy after three."
"You didn't pass out, just got dizzy? You really can hold your liquor."
Startled by the sudden change in how she addressed me, I looked at Chae-yeon. She gave me a look that said I should get used to it.
Since there was no one around, she'd switched the way she spoke to me. It was like flipping a switch.
"Let's talk about that!! Did you like me even before we started dating?"
"I already told you. I did."
"What made you think that?"
"Your earrings."
"Earrings?"
"Yeah. When we met again, you were wearing gold earrings. You're still wearing them now."
"Ah, you mean these?"
"Every time you tucked your hair behind your ear, those earrings caught my eye. They looked really pretty."
"What? So you started liking me because of the earrings?"
She looked at me with a dissatisfied expression, as if she thought I'd only liked her because of the earrings and not because of her.
She was so cute that I pulled her into my arms.
"No, I liked you because you're so pretty, cool, and adorable."
"Too late. The bus already left."
Peck!!
"Will you really tell me?"
"Yeah, I'll tell you."
"You took care of me so much, remember? I started liking you a little because of that."
"Because I took care of you?"
"Yeah. Even when I completely ignored what you said, you kept looking out for me."
"Sometimes I wondered if I was your friend or your mom."
"And how good you are at sports. That was really cool."
"More? Tell me more."
"The biggest thing was probably that you weren't the Yeoni I used to know."
"What do you mean?"
"You'd gotten so pretty it surprised me. I couldn't believe you'd always been that beautiful."
Chae-yeon buried her face in my chest, embarrassed by my words.
After that, I kept telling her all the reasons I'd fallen for her.
"Haaam…"
"Yeoni, are you sleepy?"
"Yeah, sleepy."
"Then let's sleep now. You must be tired."
"But I still want to play more…"
"We can sleep and then play a bit more in the morning before we go."
"Maybe. Then I'll sleep."
"Good night, Yeoni."
"Mm. You too…"
And just like that, Christmas came to an end.
Even though it was just one special day, we'd spent it in so many different ways that it would remain a lifelong memory. From now on, I just hoped we could have many more times like this together.