An Unexpected Date (2)
"Ahhh... that hit the spot..."
Lua rose from her seat wearing an expression of pure satisfaction. I stood up with a pretty similar look on my face myself.
"You're not kidding... this place is seriously good..."
"Compared to the one we went to before?"
"This one's way better..."
I wasn't just saying that because we were still inside the restaurant. I genuinely meant it—this place beat the last one hands down.
The biggest advantage of the previous gyukatsu spot had been that it sat right inside a supermarket, so it was convenient to drop by while grocery shopping. But if we were going out solely for gyukatsu, this place was closer and tasted better, so all things considered, it came out on top.
"Jinwoo, want to come again sometime?"
"Sure, why not."
"If you do well on your exams, my treat."
"That's a promise?"
"Of course~"
Grinning brightly, Lua held out her pinky. I hooked mine around hers without hesitation. Our fingers tangled into a tiny little ring, and both of us burst out laughing at the same time—neither of us could say who started first.
After that, I headed over to the building across the street with her. That building just so happened to house a movie theater.
"Jinwoo, we're watching a movie too, right?"
"We already came all the way here. You think we're not?"
"Good point."
Actually, the one who'd suggested the movie first hadn't been me—it was Lua. She'd said that if we didn't have anything else planned, we should at least watch a film together, that just eating and going our separate ways would feel too incomplete. That was how we'd ended up at the theater like this.
"So what are we watching?"
"The Man Beside the King?"
"Yeah, that sounds good."
We were going to see The Man Beside the King—or "King's Side Man," as everyone was calling it—which had been riding a recent wave of word-of-mouth buzz. It was based on the true story of a deposed king and the village chief who served him, so both of us already knew the plot inside and out. Most of the people filling the seats probably did too. The fact that it was still this popular just meant it was that well-made.
"Fewer seats than I expected."
"Yeah, no kidding."
Lately theaters in general had been struggling so badly that there were always plenty of empty seats whenever you showed up. Today, though, the place was packed. More precisely, this particular movie was packed.
It wasn't completely sold out, but there was one small problem...
"Looks like it's couple seats or nothing."
"Yeah..."
Only two couple seats were left. There were two kinds of couple seating: one was a single oversized seat you both sank into together, and the other was just two regular seats jammed right up against each other. I was still weighing which would feel more appropriate when—
"Let's just grab this one."
Lua bought the oversized single seat—the so-called "couple box."
"Lua?"
"...What? It's cheaper this way."
If that was the reason, well, nothing I could do about it. Yeah. Completely out of my hands.
I forced a nod, but I was certain of one thing: Lua had no idea how attractive she looked right now. She had no idea how pretty she was. She had no idea that treating a guy this well while sitting this close could make him get the wrong idea entirely.
Guys as a species start fantasizing the second a girl is nice to them—Does she like me?—and when that girl is also this beautiful? They're already naming the imaginary kids.
If I weren't her childhood friend, that is.
Right. Lua was just a friend. There wasn't a single romantic feeling between us.
"Jinwoo, are we getting popcorn too?"
The way she looked up at me made every last scrap of those fantasies vanish on the spot. She was just too cute. Too pretty.
One or two kids would be nice, right? Pure Korean names, or should we match the generational syllable?
"...Jinwoo?"
"Ah—uh, yeah."
"What's wrong all of a sudden? You're not feeling sick, are you?"
"Absolutely not."
"Well, good then."
Lua casually gestured for me to follow, and I trotted after her without thinking. She held up the tickets.
"These are our seat numbers. Let's head up now—there's only about ten minutes left till showtime."
"You're right. Let's go."
I somehow managed to pull myself together at her words and climbed the stairs. We stepped into the theater and made our way to our seats. Once the two of us settled into that roomy couple box, the space felt... awkward. A little too snug to call it spacious, a little too generous to call it tight. And because of that—
The second either of us leaned even a fraction closer, our skin would touch.
"Lua."
"Yeah..."
"...Maybe we should've bought popcorn after all. Or a soda."
"...Yeah. That might've been better."
Hearing her answer, I secretly hoped this moment would last a little longer. And at the same time I hoped I wouldn't start getting any strange ideas.
The movie itself was exactly the story we already knew. The same events we'd skimmed over in history class, the same ones our history teacher had excitedly explained at length. We simply spent about two hours watching them unfold on screen.
But even so...
"Huuuuh..."
Lua was already crying.
"What, are you seriously crying?"
"Sh-shut up... Don't you have any tears at all...?"
Look, it was moving, sure... but we'd both known exactly how it was going to end. Maybe I just came prepared for the tearjerker, because I didn't shed a single drop. Lua glared at me through her tears like she couldn't believe it.
"Honestly, you have no heart... Seo Jinwoo..."
"Isn't that a little harsh?"
"It's true, though...?"
She kept glaring, and all I could do was raise my hands in surrender.
"Fine, I'll cry right now then."
"You absolute trash..."
I had to hear that just for this? It stung a little, but the second I looked at her crying face the sting vanished completely. Her face was simply too pretty to stay hurt for long.
"...Let's go now."
Once she'd calmed down a bit, Lua said we should leave, and I nodded and stood first. She rose with me, and we walked out of the theater together.
Nothing particularly thrilling had happened inside those seats. Both of us had been completely locked onto the movie. And without any popcorn, there wasn't even a chance for the classic accidental hand-brush-in-the-bucket moment.
Still, watching Lua sit there with her mouth slightly open, totally absorbed in the screen, felt like stepping back into our childhood, and it made me ridiculously happy. If we ever got another chance, I wanted to come to the movies with her again.
With that thought we stepped outside and checked the time. Five in the afternoon. We really had to head home now. Eating dinner together on top of everything else would be pushing it...
"You've got a stream today too, right?"
"Yeah, I still have to stream."
Lua needed to broadcast.
"Then let's get you home. You need at least a little rest before you go live."
"Yeah... sorry."
"For what?"
"If it weren't for the stream we could've grabbed dinner and then said goodbye."
"Come on, don't apologize for that. Besides, I can still see you on stream."
At that, Lua shot me a playful glare.
"...Who do you like better, Lulu or Lua?"
"Lulu."
"Whoa, that was way too fast."
"So what?"
I said it casually, but the real reason I'd answered so instantly was something else. I didn't want to think about it too hard. The second I started seriously weighing that teasing question, something inside me would start feeling weird. So I just blurted it out before she could even finish speaking.
"...Jinwoo, we should head home now."
"Yeah, let's."
We caught the bus together and rode back toward our neighborhood. We got off at our local stop, walked the rest of the way side by side, entered the apartment complex together... and before long my building came into view.
The moment we reached it, I pulled a chocolate bar out of my bag.
"Lua, here."
"This is...?"
"...It's Valentine's Day. A present."
"Ah... uh...?"
Seeing her flustered look, I quickly added,
"Friends can give these too, you know. Doesn't have to be a couple thing."
"Uh... yeah... ah...?"
Lua made a series of broken little sounds as she stared at the chocolate. Then, all of a sudden, she hugged it to her chest and bolted full speed toward the neighboring building—her own apartment.
"Lua...?"
"J-Jinwoo, see you later...! Later...!"
With that she vanished straight into her building, and I could only tilt my head at her reaction.
What was that all about?
One thing I was sure of, though: that cool, elegant Lua had never looked so ridiculously cute before.
"Damn it..."
At this rate I was going to start having weird thoughts. The kind where I actually fell for Lua.
Fine. Since it had come to this, I'd just watch airheaded Lulu and blast this feeling away. Lua I could maybe like as a person, but Lulu was just pure cute-and-dumb. I'd drown the feeling in Lulu.