Just a Little More
When we stepped out of the cafe, the sky had already been dyed in warm shades of orange.
My face was still burning from Yuna’s soybean-paste-stew comment.
For a moment I had almost doubted the fact that she had never dated anyone.
...How could she say something that seductive without even realizing it?
We walked toward the bus stop near campus to head home.
I stood in front of the stop and checked the arrival board.
BUS 6794
21 MINUTES AWAY
10 STOPS REMAINING
Of all the times to get stuck with this. My luck really was terrible.
“Oppa. The bus times look weird, don’t they?”
“It happens sometimes. We just caught it at a bad moment.”
Even on the worst days the buses usually came within ten minutes.
Yet every now and then they would take forever like this for no clear reason.
It was too hot to just stand around at the stop...
I glanced around and noticed an unmanned ice-cream shop nearby.
“Want to grab some ice cream and wait inside?”
“Yeah. Let’s go in. It’s boiling out here.”
The shop would have air conditioning, after all.
We could eat slowly and step out five minutes before the bus arrived.
The timing felt too awkward for a café.
We crossed the street and stepped into the unmanned ice-cream store.
“Hwaaa… It feels so good.”
“Wow. I’m glad we came in.”
“How is it still this hot in the evening? The weather’s gone crazy, seriously.”
“No kidding.”
The moment the door opened, the blast of cold air wiped away the sticky heat.
Yuna and I stood there soaking it in like we had found an oasis in the middle of a desert.
Summer hadn’t even officially begun, yet the days kept getting hotter.
I was already worried about how brutal it would be once the rainy season ended.
I briefly considered a cone, but on a day like this nothing could beat an ice bar.
We stood in front of the freezer, staring through the clear glass at the colorful rows inside.
“What flavor do you like?”
“Me? It’s a little unusual…”
“Tell me. Now I’m curious.”
The way she said it only made me want to know more.
Come to think of it, Uni had never once mentioned her ice-cream preferences on stream.
“You guess, Oppa.”
“Guess?”
“Yep. I can’t just tell you that easily.”
Yuna put on a mischievous little smile and turned the whole thing into a quiz show.
Her habit of teasing her viewers was showing.
Come on, it’s just an ice-cream flavor. She could have told me.
This was the moment the phrase “nothing in life is free” hit me right in the chest.
“Um… strawberry? Peach? Or maybe yogurt?”
Each time I guessed, Yuna shook her head with a playful little twist.
The image I had built of Uni in my head was apparently way off.
Reality and imagination really were different things.
...So what is it already? I’m dying here.
When I stared at her intently, Yuna finally gave in.
“Oppa. Promise you won’t laugh. Then I’ll tell you.”
“I won’t laugh. I promise I won’t.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
What kind of flavor needed a no-laughter contract?
“...I like red-bean and chestnut flavors.”
Ah. So that was why she warned me.
It definitely wasn’t a taste most people her age went for.
It felt more like something my mom’s generation would enjoy.
“So… Bibibig or Bbambamba, that kind of thing?”
“Yes, exactly those.”
Her taste really was unique.
It was clear the flavor didn’t match the palate of an MZ-generation guy like me.
I remembered trying Bibibig once and throwing it away thinking, why would anyone eat this?
It wasn’t very sweet and the heavy red-bean taste was just… I couldn’t figure out the appeal.
“This is just out of curiosity, but—”
“Yeah?”
“Do you like red-ginseng candy too?”
“Ah! Oppa! You said you wouldn’t tease me!”
I grinned and kept poking at her with classic old-man candy jokes.
If I had typed any of this in the stream chat it would have been chaos.
I finally understood why she had never brought up her ice-cream tastes on air.
The chat would have been flooded with hate comments in seconds.
“So what do you want?”
“I’ll have the Bbambamba.”
I opened the freezer, grabbed the mint-chocolate bar I had been eyeing, and took out a silver-wrapped Bbambamba for her.
Yuna stared at the one in my hand, her eyes narrowing.
“...I’m not seeing things, right?”
“What?”
“The ice cream you picked. You grabbed the wrong one, didn’t you?”
“No. I like this one.”
The bar I had chosen had a refreshing color even from the outside.
It was mint chocolate—the perfect balance of bright mint and rich cocoa.
I was glad they made flavors like this these days.
“Oppa… you like mint chocolate?”
Yuna’s eyes shook as if she had witnessed something forbidden.
“Yeah. It’s good. Refreshing and sweet.”
“It tastes like toothpaste.”
“That’s exactly why it’s good. I used to swallow toothpaste all the time when I was little.”
“Ah… I see.”
Her tone suggested she had run out of energy to argue.
Was I the only one? I really had swallowed toothpaste on purpose a few times because it tasted nice.
“You probably don’t get it because your tastes are old-fashioned. Mint chocolate is basically the symbol of the MZ generation.”
I could never understand the people who hated it.
The so-called anti-mint-choco faction.
The ones who asked why you would eat toothpaste if you were brushing your teeth.
But it’s mint chocolate, not actual toothpaste.
I had zero interest in arguing with people who dragged hygiene products into food debates just to hate on it.
“Oppa. If that’s how you see it, then I’m MZ generation too.”
“Not when it comes to taste. Your taste buds are on the professor level.”
“Professor?! I feel sorry for you, Oppa. You don’t understand the beauty of old-fashioned flavors at all.”
Yuna’s engine suddenly revved up as if I had struck a nerve.
I couldn’t help laughing at her sudden speech that sounded like it belonged to a historical scholar.
But she was right—professors probably wouldn’t touch it either.
“I guess we can never go to ice-cream chain stores together in the future.”
The slightly upset tone in her voice started to worry me.
She couldn’t actually be sulking over this, could she?
“...Are you mad?”
“No. I’m not mad. Why would I get angry over something like this?”
Even as she said it, Yuna’s face was clearly pouting.
...Maybe I shouldn’t have poked at her.
I had no choice but to deploy an emergency tactic.
“Then I’ll pay for the ice cream.”
“If you want.”
Bickering back and forth, we killed time inside the ice-cream shop.
We waited leisurely until the bus finally came.
The two of us sat side by side once we boarded.
I found myself unable to move freely.
Because Yuna had already fallen asleep beside me.
“Huu…”
Why was she so defenseless?
Seeing her gently leaning her head on my shoulder made me remember the night she had been drunk.
...That had been even more of a spectacle, so this was actually tame in comparison.
Her soft hair kept brushing against my face, tickling me.
Honestly, the ride wasn’t even that long.
We would reach home in about ten minutes, yet she had already dozed off.
Today’s date must have tired her out more than I realized.
“Yuna. We have to get off soon.”
“...Mmm…”
“Hey, Lee Yuna. We need to get off.”
We were supposed to get off at the next stop, so I had to wake her.
I shook her shoulder gently until she stirred.
“Ah… mm… Oppa. Did I fall asleep?”
“Yeah. You must have been exhausted. Let’s get home quick.”
I reached up and pressed the stop request bell, then prepared to get off with a still-groggy Yuna.
After stepping off at the stop near our house, we walked toward home at our usual slow pace.
The sky was now completely dark.
Streetlights were flickering on one by one.
“Oppa. How was today?”
Yuna, now fully awake, asked me softly.
“It was fun. The movie was great and the café food was delicious.”
“Really? I’m glad. It was worth planning everything together.”
“Yeah… Maybe we should plan the next one together too.”
Next time.
It was a clumsy signal I was sending her.
I wasn’t sure whether she noticed.
But I had truly enjoyed today.
The desire to spend more time with her grew stronger inside me.
It felt like I was slowly beginning to understand the kind of person Yuna was.
“Shall we?”
She looked at me with a bright, bashful smile.
My heart fluttered for no reason at all.
Before long we had arrived in front of her house.
It was time to say goodbye, as much as I didn’t want to.
“Go on in, Yuna.”
I swallowed the regret and spoke as cheerfully as I could.
We would see each other at school anyway. And on stream too.
But unlike usual, Yuna didn’t move.
She stood beside me, staring blankly into the air.
Then a warm touch slowly slipped between my fingers.
It was the same small, gentle hand I had held in the movie theater earlier.
Under the streetlight, the tips of Yuna’s ears glowed red.
So I wasn’t the only one who felt reluctant to part.
All I could do was nod.