A Drink with a Dangerous Noona (2)
"Sorry~ Siwoo. Did I scare you?"
"Ah—no. I'm fine."
It hadn't even splashed his clothes. People made mistakes. Right—he must have seen it wrong. He'd had too much on his mind lately; that had to be it. He settled on the thought and smiled again.
Ara noona rose from her seat. For a moment he thought she was heading for the restroom, but she sat down right beside him instead.
"I think your thigh got a little wet."
"N-Noona?!"
Startled, he raised his voice—only for Ara noona's long index finger to press over his mouth.
"Should we be loud in a restaurant, or shouldn't we~? Our dear Administrative Officer Lee Siwoo?"
It was nice that the mood had eased and she was smiling with her eyes the way she used to. Still... this was all right, wasn't it?
He could only stare at her, too flustered to get a word out. His thigh wasn't wet in the slightest. Not a single drop of beer had ever landed on him. Ara noona didn't seem to care. She went right on stroking his thigh, and she was far too close—the sweet trace of her perfume, the eyes looking up at him, and last of all the snow-white skin of her chest, the same skin he'd seen on their video call....
"Um, noona. Should we toast first?"
"The food isn't even out yet."
"I'm thirsty for a drink."
"So Siwoo likes to drink, does he?"
He'd only said it to change the subject, half afraid she wouldn't play along, but Ara noona lifted her glass without a fuss.
"Cheers~"
"Ch-cheers..."
Watching her raise it cleanly this time, without a single slip, he took a sip of beer. The chill of it, and the sharp fizz sliding down his throat, felt good. He must have been a little stressed himself—only a little. One beer shouldn't have lifted his mood this much otherwise.
While he was still thinking it, the side dishes arrived.
"Did we really order this much?"
There was more food than he'd expected. He'd been about to order when Ara noona said she would handle it, so he'd left it to her. Looking back, she had a habit of ordering more than he ever thought she would—whether they finished it or left it, if she wanted something, she ordered it. He couldn't really complain. On nights like this, Ara noona was usually the one who paid, saying she was grateful for his help and that it was only right for the older one to treat.
The place did look a little expensive, and he was already worrying whether it might be a burden on a noona with less seniority than he had. She paid the worry no mind at all.
"Here. Say ah~"
Instead she picked up a piece with her chopsticks and brought it to his mouth. No one had ever done this to him before, and he was staring at her in open bewilderment when she spoke.
"My arm's about to fall off. You're not going to eat it?"
That wouldn't do. He opened his stubbornly shut mouth and took the bite she offered.
"So? How is it?"
"...It's good."
It was good. It was also mortifying. At his age, no one had ever fed him before. He wasn't even drunk, and his face was burning. Feeling himself get swept along at her pace, he picked up his chopsticks out of sheer stubbornness.
"You should have some too, noona."
Just as she had done, he picked up a piece and held it to her lips—partly to let her feel how embarrassing it was. At first Ara noona looked surprised. Then she smiled.
The bright smile she always wore had turned a little suggestive ever since she'd met Kim Hayun. Or was that only his imagination?
"Mm~"
It didn't seem to be his imagination.
"Delicious. Tastes like our Siwoo."
"Noona. What does that even mean? Tastes like me?"
"You gave it to me, so it's Siwoo-flavored~"
What a joke. There was no way she was drunk already. Still, it didn't feel bad. If it had, he would have stopped her the moment she sat beside him and started stroking his thigh.
"Noona. So... has your anger eased a little?"
"Anger? Why would I be angry?"
"Because I hurt your feelings. That's why you were mad."
The texts she'd sent yesterday had seemed sulky that he'd gone out with someone else. At least, that was how he'd read them.
"Siwoo, you really are cute. Of course, that's a charm that belongs only to our Siwoo."
Had the skirt she was wearing today always been this short? It clung close enough to show her lines, and above all those pale white thighs kept catching his eye.
"Though you also seem a little naughty~"
"A-Ara noona."
When he looked up, wondering if she'd caught where his eyes had gone, a sly smile was playing on her lips. He turned his gaze away in embarrassment, and her laughter kept reaching his ears.
"Are you going to get married, Siwoo?"
"When the chance comes, I suppose I should."
"And what is that chance, exactly?"
The sudden turn made him clear his throat. He had a job, yes, but he was still in his early twenties. Too young to be thinking about marriage—and yet people kept asking. Soyoung did. So did Ara noona, right in front of him. So did others.
"I've got a job now, so... once I've saved some money and bought a place of my own?"
If he took out a loan, he could probably manage an older apartment. A woman content with that much would be enough for him. If she wasn't—well, then he simply wouldn't get married.
While he was thinking it, Ara noona took a sip and leaned in to whisper by his ear.
"So if you just had a home of your own, you'd marry whenever?"
"Ara noona?"
"What would you do if the woman was the one who brought the house?"
If the woman brought the house? He'd never once considered that premise, and he had no idea what to say. A man providing the home had taken root in him like common sense itself. Short of that, women didn't choose to marry a man, and the family of whoever he married would look down on it. That much was obvious. And yet—the other way around?
"I don't think someone like that would take a liking to a person like me."
If anything, the more impressive she was, the less welcome he'd be. He was a civil servant at best. She would almost certainly come from a far grander house.
He was still turning it over when Ara noona took his hand and pressed it to her cheek.
"I've told you before. What's wrong with you?"
"Ara noona."
"You're cute, you're handsome, you have manners, you're kind, you're steady."
She only stopped after he, burning with embarrassment, begged her to quit. She lifted the corner of her mouth.
"Our Siwoo's self-esteem is lower than he lets on."
"Ahem. Please call it me being objective."
"For someone so objective, haven't you been going around seeing this woman and that one?"
"I'm not that kind of man!"
"See? Cute."
Honestly, he didn't even know why she kept saying things like that.
After that they kept drinking—soju, beer, or the two mixed together. And then, as his eyes began to close—
"Ugh... Ara noonaa...."
The night simply cut out on him.
He really was cute.
Honestly, she was a little angry. It had looked as if things were going well between him and some woman who wasn't her. If Siwoo hadn't tended to her mood today, she had gone so far as to wonder whether she ought to crush that other woman.
How can he understand women so little....
Siwoo had been indifferent, but to Ara every one of those women from his class was someone to watch. Every last one of them had her sights on him. She couldn't say she failed to understand the feeling.
How could anyone not want a man like this.
With just a little polishing, he would be a jewel that shone. An uncut gem. Watching from beside him all this time, Ara had been glad.
Her grandfather had all but shoved her into it—at least become a civil servant—and so she had ended up in this countryside. She'd had no intention of staying long in a backwater with nothing in it. She'd planned to quit before even a year had passed. Then her assignment came through, and the senior training her turned out to be Lee Siwoo, and her mind changed.
"Mmm...."
Siwoo, who had been nodding off and trying somehow to hold on, finally lost the thread and collapsed where he sat. Looking at him slumped over, Ara poked his cheek. Again, and again. Watching him fail to react at all, a foolish little smile kept escaping her.
She wasn't this kind of woman. The cold, sharp edge of her was gone.
"Can someone really be this pure."
When she'd asked what he would do if the woman brought the house, and seen how flustered he became, she had wanted to keep that look as a photograph. It was a masterpiece she wanted to remember for a long, long time.
"If you wanted, I'd buy you an apartment. Anything at all."
If Siwoo had been even a little more materialistic, Ara would have given him whatever he asked.
"Noona has quite a bit of money, Siwoo. So much that money is about all I have."
She leaned to his ear and whispered it, but nothing came back. That was fine.
She didn't want to purchase him by force. She only wanted to wait for the moment this man said, of his own accord, that he liked her. Even so, she hoped it wouldn't take long. One look at her face was enough to know her patience didn't run that deep.
"Hmm. Which woman is texting at this hour, I wonder~?"
She grew especially restless when someone else reached for a thing she had already marked as hers.
Honestly, he had no sense of caution—passing out dead to the world with his phone not even locked.
After reading the messages, Ara picked up Lee Siwoo's phone. Then she took a picture: Siwoo asleep with his head on the table, and herself right beside him. After that, she sent it to both of them. To let them know who Siwoo belonged to.
"Now then. What should I do next~"
Ara's gaze turned to Siwoo. To Siwoo as he was now—utterly unguarded, unable to resist a thing.