The Little Giant
Just as she'd promised, Noona covered everything I'd eaten too. Wa Sol Noona even covered my eyes with her hand, afraid that if I heard the price I might try to send her the money.
...Is it weird that, right in the middle of that, all I could think about was wanting to hold that hand?
In the end I wordlessly held my hand out, determined to take hers, and even though she knew exactly what I was after, Noona played dumb.
"It's not heavy, you know."
"That's not why."
"Then it'd be nice if you just said what the real reason is~"
"...I want to hold your hand."
"Hehe. Okay."
I still hadn't reached the stage where holding hands felt natural. I figured I'd have to get used to this little by little too.
"So next... ah, over there. Let's go to that crepe place."
"Crepes?"
"Yeah. Have you ever had one?"
"I don't think so. There weren't really any dessert people around me."
Truth was, there hadn't been many people around me at all—but there was no need to go that far.
"So that means I get to be Gachi's first, huh? ...Heh."
"...Why are you the one turning red after saying that?"
"Once it came out of my mouth it got embarrassing..."
Having failed spectacularly at playing the cool, composed adult, Noona cleared her throat, grabbed my hand, and dragged me toward the nearby crepe shop. It wasn't far from the place we'd just had lunch, and luckily there weren't many customers, so we could sit right down.
"Do you like sweet things, Noona?"
"Yeah. Most girls do, right?"
"Come to think of it, Eve loves sweet stuff too."
"Kiri looooves it."
"I'll keep that in mind."
Noona snickered at my reaction.
At this point it felt like she was quietly enjoying herself...
"Ah, this is so much easier~ Since Gachi already knows I'm Kiri, I don't have to worry about anything~"
"Besides me, is there anyone at university who knows you stream?"
"No—well, Yun-a knows. Of course she doesn't care about VTubers, so she doesn't really know what I actually do."
"That student council president sunbae? How'd she find out?"
"She's the one who told me to audition for Utopia."
That was unexpected. How had she ended up telling Noona to audition in the first place?
"Well, she didn't seem to put much weight on it herself."
Yun-a sunbae. President of our department's student council. She was shorter than Wa Sol Noona, yet somehow she always seemed larger—like she took up more space just by existing.
A little giant, maybe.
She had this fierce energy and an air of absolute confidence.
I was still thinking about the president I'd seen at the freshman welcome party when Wa Sol Noona lightly pinched the back of my hand.
"...Are you sitting right in front of me and thinking about another girl?"
A woman's intuition was terrifying... Which part of that had given me away...?
Ahem.
"I-I was just thinking about the president sunbae. We barely ever talked, so I got curious what kind of person she is."
"Hmm~ She's just a good friend. Really. Don't go getting interested beyond that."
"Got it."
Somehow I'd reached the point where I wasn't even allowed to casually think about other women anymore.
That was when the vibration pager went off.
"Ah, the bell's ringing."
"I'll get it. You stay seated, Noona."
"Okay. Thanks."
For the record, she'd paid for the crepes too. So the least I could do was go pick them up.
I stood, took the pager to the counter, and collected the crepes and coffee.
In that short time the shop door opened and about four customers came in.
"Wa Sol?"
"Whoa, it really is."
Two of the guys among them recognized Wa Sol Noona right away and headed for our table. From where I stood I could only see her back, so I couldn't catch her expression, but I had a feeling she was wearing that same smile-that-wasn't-a-smile she'd shown Cheon-u last time.
"Wa Sol, you here alone? Mind if we join?"
"If we grab one more chair we could fit five."
Noona hadn't said a word, yet the two guys were already talking like joining our table was a done deal. I bristled a little and started moving back toward the table fast—
Thwack, smack!
—if a woman much shorter than either of them hadn't smacked both of them upside the head first.
"Ow... Yun-a, what the hell?"
"That's my line. Wa Sol didn't say a single word—why are you two deciding to sit with her?"
"Well... it's not like she has a reason to refuse."
"Is that so? From where I'm standing, it looks like she does."
She said that and looked straight at me.
The student council president. No—Yun-a sunbae.
"Is Wa Sol really here alone?"
That question was clearly aimed at me.
"No. We're on a date."
"See? Why are you hitting on a girl who already has a boyfriend? Go find yourselves another table."
Yun-a sunbae grabbed the two still-dazed guys by their clothes and shoved them toward an empty table. For someone so small, she really did look enormous.
I walked over to Wa Sol Noona, set the crepes down, and asked,
"Did you already tell Yun-a sunbae?"
"Yeah, over chat yesterday. The number didn't disappear so I figured she hadn't seen it."
"I was drinking yesterday so I missed it. I saw it today and replied, though."
"Really? Let me see... ah."
At Noona's short little sound of realization I checked my own phone screen too.
A two-letter reply. Short and to the point, that one.
"So you're dating this guy? Since the after-party? You went straight to his side from the start."
"No, I already told you we started dating yesterday. Back then it was more like... a thing."
From my perspective even calling it a "thing" back then felt generous, but there was no need to dig that hole any deeper.
"Hmm~~ hmm..."
Yun-a sunbae rested her chin on her hand and began examining me carefully. She looked me up and down, circled around me once, glanced briefly at Wa Sol Noona, then—
Nodded.
"Mm... barely passes."
"Wh-what does?"
Had I just been put through some kind of test? This was someone whose thoughts I couldn't read at all.
"If you're going to date Wa Sol and your face is only so-so, it looks a little off visually. In that sense, you just barely clear the bar."
Was that a compliment? Or a roundabout dig?
"Why are you judging someone else's boyfriend's face? He's mine, so stop staring."
"Ooh, 'mine' just came out of Wa Sol's mouth~"
Of course, Noona's face was bright red as she said it.
Yun-a sunbae looked at her with amused delight, then turned a soft smile toward me.
And what she said next was:
"If you make Wa Sol suffer, I'll kill you."
The words didn't match the smile at all.
"I'd rather not die, so I definitely won't."
"Okay. Then I'll allow it."
"Why do you get to allow it?!"
"Whoa, scary. I'm scared so I'm out. Have fun, you two~"
When Noona snapped, Yun-a sunbae exaggeratedly pretended to be terrified and slipped away. Most people would say "have fun," though.
What a unique person.
"Haa, seriously. That girl is exhausting."
"Haha. Still, you can tell she cares about you."
"It's overprotectiveness."
"You don't actually hate it, though."
"That's... true, but."
Mumble mumble.
Apparently embarrassed, Noona cut a big piece of crepe and stuffed it in her mouth.
"I get what you meant earlier. She really is a good person."
"Yeah. That's her biggest strength."
Normally when someone says "good person," it feels like the kind of praise you give when you can't think of anything else.
With Yun-a sunbae, though, it was the first thing you actually wanted to say.
Even acting the way she did, she never seemed hateful—and the two guys who'd just gotten smacked upside the head weren't even angry; they were properly listening to her scolding.
...Cool. Could I ever act like that in front of Noona?
That was the thought running through my head when something soft and sweet suddenly filled my mouth.
"Mmph?!"
"...I told you not to stare so much. The person in front of you right now is me, okay?"
"Munch munch... sorry."
"Hmph."
There was no real reason to be jealous. It wasn't like I was interested in Yun-a sunbae that way.
I just... wanted to become a little more like her.
Because of what had just happened, we felt a little self-conscious and finished our crepes quickly before getting up. Out of politeness we still stopped by Yun-a sunbae's table to say goodbye.
"Wa Sol, sorry about earlier. And you too... Gachi-ssi? Sorry."
"...Sorry. Both of you."
The two guys from before apologized to us. Looking at the eyes of the one who apologized second, I got the feeling he'd been pretty genuinely interested in Wa Sol Noona.
Still, the fact that they apologized properly meant they weren't that bad of people.
"We're heading out right from here, so don't worry about us and have fun~"
"We weren't going to worry about you anyway. We'll be going first, then."
"Take care."
When we said our goodbyes again, the four of them waved us off.
After we stepped outside I glanced back through the shop window and saw the guy from earlier staring straight at us. Or more precisely—at Wa Sol Noona.
When our eyes met, he didn't look away. Like he didn't want to lose.
"...How long are you going to keep looking at Yun-a?"
But the moment Wa Sol Noona took my hand and spoke, the guy's eyes went wide and he looked away.
...I didn't need to feel sorry about that.
"You're still looking...?"
"I wasn't looking at Yun-a sunbae. Just... had a little territorial dispute for a second."
"Huh?"
"It's a thing. Come on—where to next?"
Noona tilted her head at my words, checked her phone, then took my hand and pulled me toward the center of the shopping district. I was wondering where she was taking me this time when I spotted a certain shop ahead and thought, maybe that one—
And sure enough, Noona stopped right in front of it.
"Is a place like this okay with you, Gachi?"
"Yeah. I actually think it's great. It's our first date, so taking a commemorative photo sounds perfect."
The place she'd brought me to was one of those trendy instant photo booths—Life Four Cuts.
You take four photos and they print out right away as a long strip of four Polaroid-style shots. For someone like me who didn't have many friends, it was my first time, so it felt a little awkward.
"Actually... I was thinking of showing the photos we take here to our members too. Is that okay?"
"Huh? The Utopia members?"
"Yeah."
So Eve would see them too... Whoa. What was this feeling?
An indescribable mix of embarrassment, wonder, and a little bit of happiness. There probably wasn't a single word that could capture it.
"I'm fine with it. If I'd known, I might've dressed up a little more."
"No. You look best just like this, Gachi. Clean and neat without trying too hard suits you the most."
"Hearing that makes me happy, but I did at least style my hair a little."
"That much effort is exactly the right amount. Come on, let's go in."
Noona seemed so happy about taking photos with me that she gave me a smile that had to be at least a 95, and pulled me along.
And so, with my heart racing, I held Noona's hand and stepped into the shop for my very first Life Four Cuts photos.