Let's Just Grab a Bite Together
Midterms were over.
"Uuuuugh… it's done…."
"You worked hard, Jinwoo."
"You too…."
Lua and I stepped outside together and started grading our papers against the answer key our teacher had posted in the group chat.
"Number one is three… number two is two…."
Lua's soft voice carried over to me, and I followed along on my own test sheet, marking as I listened.
Swoosh… swoosh… swoosh…
The red ballpoint pen in my hand kept drawing circle after circle, and Lua smiled faintly as she continued calling out the answers.
"…And last, number four. That's the end of the multiple choice. How'd you do?"
"I think I got them all."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
I held my paper out for her to see. Lua broke into a bright smile and started clapping.
"Jinwoo, that's amazing! You're really amazing."
"You're the amazing one, not me. You got them all too, right?"
"Hmm~ probably?"
While she'd been reading the answers aloud for me, she'd also been grading her own paper with her eyes.
Which was why she could get away with a casual "probably."
"Let's grade the short answers at a café."
"Okay~"
We headed straight to a café and sat down to finish grading together.
Once we were nearly done, Lua looked over at me and asked,
"Hey, Jinwoo."
"Yeah?"
"…You're not hungry right now, are you?"
"Am I hungry?"
I pressed a hand to my stomach.
The misugaru I'd had for breakfast had long since been digested, and it was already one in the afternoon. It was definitely lunchtime.
"Yeah, I'm a little hungry."
"Then let's drop by home real quick, dump our bags, and go eat together."
"Together? You want to grab something?"
"That works too… is there anything you want, Jinwoo?"
I thought about it for only a second before answering.
"Anything as long as it's meat."
"Of course Jinwoo only likes meat."
"There's not much in this world that tastes better than meat."
"That's fair."
Lua nodded, then asked again.
"So, want to go get meat?"
"…Let's do all-you-can-eat."
"Aww, I should treat you~"
"No thanks."
Lua kept trying to buy me things for some reason. She really didn't need to.
Maybe she figured she earned more than I did and felt some kind of obligation because of it.
That actually made me uncomfortable. I hadn't become friends with Lua because of money.
"…We'll go all-you-can-eat and split it half and half."
"Tch~ fine~"
With that, Lua stood up from her seat. I followed her out, and we headed home together.
We sipped our iced Americanos on the way, and the moment we reached the apartment complex, I went straight inside.
I tossed my bag down roughly, changed clothes, and was about to head right back out.
"I'm heading out~"
Thankfully, no one was home. My brother was probably at the library studying, and Mom must have gone to the market or something.
Just in case, I threw my school clothes into the laundry basket before going back outside—and then spent about twenty minutes waiting for her.
When those twenty minutes were up—
"Jinwoo, did you wait long?"
Lua came walking toward me.
She was in casual clothes—a clean, fresh look that suited her perfectly.
"Nah, not that long."
"Really? Good."
Looking genuinely relieved, she pressed a hand to her chest—then stretched that small hand toward mine.
Squeeze.
"Huh?"
"Come on, let's go. I'm starving too."
"Okay… uh…."
Feeling a little short-circuited, I followed Lua toward the all-you-can-eat place.
But the second we were about to walk in, both of us froze in mild surprise.
Four girls from our class were sitting at a table in the corner.
"……Do the girls come here for all-you-can-eat a lot?"
"Sometimes… and look, they're here…."
"…Want to go somewhere else?"
I asked, just in case.
I wasn't exactly popular myself, but Lua was quietly popular—especially with other girls.
Guys might find her hard to approach because of that cool expression of hers, but plenty of girls wanted to get closer to her thanks to her pretty face and perfect grades.
Of course, Lua kept her distance from them too, so "popular" meant she was well-known more than that she had a big circle of close friends.
How to put it? A celebrity? People knew her face, but they didn't exactly text her or hang out one-on-one.
And with someone like that, there was a high chance people had built up some kind of fantasy around her. That she was dating some insanely cool guy, or that she was a proud princess who would never date anyone at all.
That fantasy was about to shatter. That was why I really didn't want to eat here if I could help it.
At the very least, I wanted to protect Lua's image—and her pride—as much as I could.
Except Lua turned out to be far more of a "whatever" type than I'd imagined.
"Who cares? Let's just eat."
"Huh?"
"I said let's just eat. The food here's good, right?"
With that, she told the staff it was a table for two, and they whisked us over to a two-person booth almost instantly.
The one silver lining was that our seats ended up pretty far from the girls.
"Jinwoo, should we start with the combo platter?"
"Works for me."
She didn't seem to mind at all, so I decided to just go with it.
We ordered a mixed meat platter for the first round, then hurried over to the self-serve bar before it arrived and loaded up on rice, vegetables, and sauces.
By the time we got back to our table, a pork assortment of every cut had already been set down.
"Thanks for the meal~"
"Thanks for the meal."
I picked up the tongs and started grilling. Lua watched me naturally and spoke up.
"Jinwoo, are you good at grilling meat?"
"Decent enough. Being the youngest, I end up grilling a lot."
When I was little it was Dad. Once my brother hit his late teens it was him. Once I hit my mid-teens, it became me.
Thanks to that, every man in our family could grill meat at least reasonably well.
"Hmm… Lua, try this."
"Pork jowl?"
"Yeah. Jowl cooks fast. See?"
I flipped the piece of jowl to show her both sides. Lua's eyes sparkled as she looked at me.
"Jinwoo, can you cut the jowl in half for me?"
"Sure."
I sliced the jowl in two and handed it over. Lua took it and immediately set about building a perfect lettuce wrap with practiced hands.
In no time, a mouthwatering ssam was ready…
"Jinwoo, aah~"
Lua held the wrap out toward me.
"Huh?"
"Hurry up and eat~"
"No, you can eat it—"
"Hurry! My arm's falling off!"
"……Ah."
I opened my mouth a little, and Lua popped the meat right in.
The enormous lettuce wrap filled my mouth. As I chewed, I could taste the care she'd put into wrapping it.
It felt a little weird to say out loud, but the ssam Lua made for me was delicious in every way. The kind of delicious that made you wonder if a lettuce wrap could even taste this good.
So even while I was still grilling, I got to enjoy a deeply satisfying first bite.
"Jinwoo, how is it? Good, right?"
"Yeah, this is great. You eat too—hurry."
Lua nodded, wrapped another ssam exactly like the one she'd made for me, and stuffed it straight into her own mouth.
Munch munch.
Her mouth worked up and down, and those cute cheeks puffed out round and full.
I'd always thought of Lua as a rabbit, but maybe she was more of a hamster.
A hamster—or a squirrel.
Then I'd look at that little chewing mouth again and think, no, she really was a rabbit after all.
"This place is good. For real."
"Right? Right?"
This all-you-can-eat spot had already been around when we were little kids, so we'd come plenty of times—but somehow, even after nearly ten years, it was still delicious. I couldn't quite figure out how.
"Lua, try the neck next."
"Is it done?"
"If I cut it and pull it off to the side, it should be fine."
I recommended other cuts as I went, and whenever I did, Lua ate them without hesitation.
Watching her enjoy the food so much made grilling for her feel good for no particular reason.
"Lua, is it good?"
"Yeah! Super good…!"
She nodded over and over in agreement, and I thanked her for it by grilling even more diligently.
In the end, the two of us polished off three platters—a little over a geun of meat between us…
"Uuuugh… I'm so full…."
"Let's stop now…."
We were completely stuffed.
We were just about to sit and rest for a bit when—
"Huh? Lua Im? And next to her… Jinwoo Seo…?"
……One of the girls had spotted us.