First Date
After seeing the two of them off, I kept walking until I found myself on the outskirts of downtown.
"Guess coming all the way out here doesn't change much."
I let out a sigh that sounded thoroughly fed up, even to myself.
They call it downtown, but there's surprisingly little to do around here either…
Back in middle school I'd been completely obsessed with basketball, and after that my daily life had consisted of staying home without ever going anywhere. Maybe this was just the excuse of a loner who couldn't figure out how to have fun… Thinking that only made my sigh heavier.
Seolhwa kept telling me that just being together was enough to make her happy, and the way she looked around at everything with open curiosity while holding my hand made it clear she wasn't lying.
But still — this is a date…
I wanted to leave her with some good memories. That much greed, at least, I had.
…I should have come up with a plan beforehand. I was just starting to regret it when Seolhwa gave my sleeve a little tug.
"Hey, what's that?"
"Hm? Oh… you mean the game center."
What had caught her eye was a fairly large arcade. Come to think of it, ever since I'd let her play games before, she seemed to have developed an interest — every now and then when I looked away, I'd catch her sitting in front of the TV with a controller in her hands.
"Want to check it out?"
At that, Seolhwa gave a careful little nod.
"…It's pretty packed in here."
"You can just say it's loud."
People chattering, the blare of game machines, the whir of little amusement rides — the arcade was overflowing with noise of every kind.
"Do you think they have the ones I played at home…?"
"Hard to say. The ones you played were all classic games, so…"
I'd heard some places stocked retro machines these days. This one was big enough that if we looked around, we might turn up one or two.
"Let's take our time and browse. You might find something you like… What's wrong?"
I'd said it casually, but Seolhwa looked oddly uncomfortable, so I asked. She started with, "…Now that I think about it."
"Everything here costs money, right?"
"Well, yeah?"
I echoed her back, puzzled by the obvious question, and Seolhwa scratched her cheek with a look of pure awkwardness.
"It just feels like I'm always the one receiving everyth— ow!"
"Keep talking like that and I'll flick you again."
It wasn't as if I'd ever held a part-time job myself. Strictly speaking, my money was my parents' money too, so I was in no position to lecture anyone. And knowing Mom, she'd probably just say something ridiculous like, "Don't even think about us — if it makes your relationship even hotter, then it's a-okay!"
"If receiving makes you feel bad, then just enjoy yourself that much more. That's what my parents and I are hoping for when we spend it… Isn't that what family is for?"
"I know that. It's just that my heart keeps getting heavy… I'm sorry."
"In times like that, 'thank you' works better than 'I'm sorry.'"
One genuine thank-you was worth more than ten apologies that only dragged the mood down. I poked the forehead I'd just flicked and scolded her gently, and Seolhwa murmured, "You're right," with a faint smile.
"Thank you."
"There we go."
After that brief episode, the two of us started making the rounds of the various machines — rhythm games where you pounded on drums, racing games where you gripped a real steering wheel…
I'd always thought people whose whole bodies swayed left and right along with the wheel only existed in comics. Apparently not.
Watching Seolhwa play, I couldn't help laughing out loud — which earned me a sulky pout so puffed-up her cheeks looked like a blowfish.
I apologized without a fight, and Seolhwa shot me a sidelong glance before saying, "Then… that one," and pointing her index finger toward a claw machine.
"I hear those are really hard. If it's too much—"
Before she could finish fidgeting and try to stop me, I said, "Leave it to me," flexed my hands, and fed a coin into the machine.
Now that I look at it, this is that thing that's popular right now.
As the claw arm set sail across a sea of plushies to a bouncy little tune, I realized what Seolhwa had been eyeing — the main character from that trendy penguin cartoon. A one-eyed penguin gathering his penguin friends to sail the seas in search of treasure island, or something like that. It was a kids' show, but I remembered Eunha — who had plenty of little siblings — going on about how it was surprisingly fun.
Guess hanging around them rubbed off on her.
She had a bit of a childish streak, didn't she. If I said that out loud to Seolhwa, who was looking at me with barely contained anticipation, she'd turn into a full-blown human blowfish for real this time — so I kept my mouth firmly shut.
"It's been a while since I did one of these. Hope I'm not rusty."
Mom was such an active person that I'd been dragged around to places like this more than a few times.
She probably meant for me to try lots of different things instead of fixating on just one. But back then, I didn't have the bandwidth to think about any of that…
I let that half-excuse of a complaint run through my head and moved the stick to work the crane. It was the kind of skill where having it never hurt, nothing more.
Fortunately, this didn't seem to be one of those places that cheated with a broken claw or weight tricks. If I just operated it by feel the way I used to, the target should come easy — so I decided to show off a little.
I swung the claw left and right, and the swaying arm lofted the plush in a perfect arc straight into the prize chute.
"Whoa…!"
Sure enough, Seolhwa was staring at the claw machine with her eyes sparkling like she'd just watched a circus act. If I'd pulled a stunt like that and then failed, it would have been mortifying — so I was glad I'd landed it on the first try.
Silently thanking Mom for her contribution to this shining moment, I handed the plush to Seolhwa. The way her face lit up made me smile too.
"…What's wrong?"
That bright expression only lasted a moment before she seemed to sink into thought. I tilted my head and asked, and Seolhwa mumbled, "I-it's just…" before ducking her head and burying her face in the plushie.
"…Don't I look like too much of a little kid?"
"…You're asking that now?"
"What do you mean, now?!"
She looked genuinely shocked, but honestly, I didn't think she was entirely wrong. She was easy to tease, quick to get discouraged, and she pouted a lot.
"Even so — I like all of that about you too."
I said it with an easy smile. The good sides and the bad sides — until recently, she hadn't been able to show any of them to anyone… No. No one had been willing to look. If anything, I felt grateful that Seolhwa had let her guard down enough to treat me this warmly.
"Don't worry about it."
More than anything, I thought it was fine for her to be a little more childish. She'd never gotten to act spoiled before — so she should get to show every side of herself now, as much as she wanted.
I said so while stroking her hair. I couldn't see her expression behind the plushie, but her ears had gone unmistakably red, and I laughed quietly to myself.
"…When I'm with you, Yuseong, it feels like the number of things I want to treasure keeps growing."
"That's the highest compliment I could ask for."
If that was how she felt, I was glad. If until now I hadn't been able to do anything — then from here on, she just had to tell me what she wanted.
"This too… I'm going to treasure it."
That smile of hers, looking only at me. The soft laugh she always wore when she couldn't quite hide how happy she was. As a reason to keep going, it felt more than enough.
"That thing's huge…"
We left the game center and walked a little farther, and a massive building came into view.
"A shopping mall…?"
I was pretty sure it had still been under construction when I moved away. Apparently it had been finished in fine style since then.
Seolhwa looked like she wanted to say something. The way her mouth opened and closed while her eyes flicked back and forth between me and the mall made her intention obvious.
"Want to go?"
"Ah… y-yeah!"
I hope she gets better at speaking up for herself soon. Thinking something like that, I took her hand and headed into the mall with her.
"There are so many people…"
"Well, it is downtown. And the building just opened recently, too."
There really were a lot of people — enough that looking away for a second felt like it would turn Seolhwa into a lost child — so I held her hand tight and didn't let go.
"I've never been somewhere like this before… I'm excited."
"Honestly? Me too."
"Oh… really?"
Seolhwa looked at me like that was unexpected, but I'd never wandered around like this either. If I said I wasn't looking forward to trying all sorts of things together, I'd be lying.
We checked the directory to figure out where to go, and given the scale of the place, there looked to be plenty to do — a movie theater, an aquarium, even a small amusement park up on the roof.
"What do you want to do?"
Seolhwa squeezed her eyes shut and let out a strained "Nnngh…" She must have been having a seriously hard time deciding.
This is exactly the kind of thing that makes her seem like a little kid.
I watched her fondly, thinking how cute it was, until she looked up at me and spoke.
"The aquarium…"
And so our destination became the aquarium on the tenth floor. She didn't seem to know much about movies, and the amusement park would probably make us late getting home, so I had no reason to object either.
Seolhwa looked so eager to get there that we settled for a quick hamburger nearby for lunch.
"That excited, huh?"
"I-is it that obvious…?"
"It's more surprising that you'd think it isn't, looking like that."
When I went to buy the tickets, it turned out there was a grand-opening special — couples got a discount. Having the staff member ask with a smile, "Are you two a couple?" was somehow more embarrassing than I'd expected. Saying "We're a couple~" to a complete stranger was…
"W-we're a couple!"
In the brief moment I hesitated, Seolhwa's face went bright red and she blurted it out herself — leaving me frozen solid under the double blow of having my line stolen and pure mortification.
"So you get embarrassed too, Yuseong."
"…Is that not allowed?"
I glanced away, and Seolhwa carefully took my hand, smiling playfully as she said, "I win this round."