How to Spend Time
"Hey, so about you two~ How far have you gotten?"
"How far…?"
The day after Taeyang and Eunha came over, feeding four people had emptied the fridge of ingredients far faster than expected.
Seol-hwa handled all the cooking, so odd jobs like this fell to me.
Sometimes we went shopping together, but Eunha insisted she wanted to pick up snacks of her own and tagged along.
I had been wondering what she was scheming when, right as we were checking out a cart loaded with groceries and cookies, she casually dropped that line.
"You really… You already heard everything from Seol-hwa, didn't you?"
Why was it that bad premonitions almost never missed?
I sighed and answered like I was already tired of it, but Eunha only smiled as if the whole thing delighted her.
"Come on, hearing it straight from the guy himself is different~"
"Not really…"
I couldn't cut it off with a flat "nothing." We had slept in the same bed, after all.
Of course nothing like what that thoroughly sly girl was imagining had happened, yet claiming nothing at all still left me with a faintly guilty feeling.
Watching me trail off, Eunha let out a long "Hmm~" and fixed me with a dubious—no, downright suspicious—stare.
"At least nothing like what you're thinking."
I raised a fist to thump her on the head for looking at me that way, but she dodged with a bright "Haha! I can see everything now!" and crossed her arms in triumph.
That somehow got under my skin, so the moment her guard dropped I tried again—and this time I landed it.
"Ow! What if you damage everyone's precious cultural heritage?!"
Eunha's face crumpled into a pout as she started complaining, but I shot back with a perfectly reasonable observation.
"If you were a cultural heritage, that country would have collapsed ages ago."
I never hit hard anyway—just a light tap meant as a warning to tone it down. This idiot seemed to have no brakes at all; words alone never stopped her.
"Hmph! I'm telling Taeyang everything!"
She whipped her head away in a sulk, but I truly had nothing more to say.
We went out together or talked sometimes, yet it wasn't constant.
From the start, Seol-hwa and I were the complete opposite of high-energy outdoor types like Eunha's family.
We shared a house but kept separate rooms. We lounged in the living room, read or studied side by side, or occasionally played games together—that was about the extent of it.
We spent plenty of time on our own as well. Lately Seol-hwa had taken a part-time job, and I had started easing back into the exercise I had abandoned for so long.
Even in the living room I might sit alone scrolling my phone or watching streams, while Seol-hwa played with Sia—who never spared me so much as a glance whenever Seol-hwa was around.
We each had our privacy; there was no need to meddle in every little thing.
But the moment Eunha heard my explanation, her eyes flew wide as if she had just seen a news report about a meteor strike. She looked utterly shocked, as though she could not believe it.
"You're living together and it's this bland?! If I got to live with Taeyang I'd do this and that and everything!"
"I have no idea what 'this and that' are supposed to be, but you two are the ones moving way too fast."
When I tried to calm her down, Eunha clapped both hands over the top of her head and took a step back, clearly expecting another fist to come flying at her crown.
If you think you're going to get hit, just don't do it in the first place.
She's not a child, I thought, and let out another sigh.
"There's a proper order to these things, you know. I just want to treasure Seol-hwa. That's all."
I understood perfectly well what Eunha meant by "this and that." And I was still a teenager in the thick of it; it wasn't as if those feelings didn't exist. But I had no desire to force anything.
Seol-hwa had zero resistance to that sort of thing to begin with… and honestly, neither did I.
Other people might call me a coward, but at the very least I wanted to take my time and move forward slowly.
"Wow. A rare pure-hearted guy—though kind of timid."
"Unnecessary commentary. Just being able to live together is enough for me."
Even our current life already felt happier than anything I could have imagined only a short while ago.
Eunha kept needling me as if she were thoroughly fed up, but I had no intention of changing course. I simply ignored the local broadcast and began packing the paid-for groceries into the eco-bag.
"Why? Why does it always turn out like this?!"
Once we got home we polished off a simple lunch and settled into the living room for some leisurely studying.
Spring break was shorter than the other vacations, and after neglecting my schoolwork for so long I needed to chip away at it bit by bit if I wanted to keep up with class.
Seol-hwa and Taeyang, both solid honor-student types, were already scribbling away with their pens, but Eunha had started fretting and complaining.
I was clearly closer to Eunha's temperament than to the honor-student camp of Taeyang and Seol-hwa, yet even when I played basketball I had never skipped practice… Restless or not, I never made a fuss quite like this.
"What I wanted was, you know! Since the four of us are living together, maybe a double date or something that actually smells like youth?!"
"Youth or no youth—look at this weather."
Outside the window the rain showed not the slightest sign of letting up; it kept pouring in steady sheets.
Even the short trip to the store had left our shoes soaked through. What could possibly be worth going out in this?
Stripped of any counterargument, Eunha let out a long "Ugh…," puffed out her cheeks, and flopped face-down across the desk.
Once she had finally accepted reality and fallen quiet, the living room filled only with the scratch of mechanical pencils, the soft rustle of turning pages, and the hush of breathing.
After a while Taeyang murmured, "This is kind of nice in its own way," and put on a gentle classical playlist on his phone, saying it helped concentration. Surprisingly, it wasn't bad at all.
I wrestled with my books for a stretch until I wore myself out and stretched, leaving the already-drained Eunha out of the equation. The two honor students showed no sign of fatigue and kept solving problems without pause.
Watching them sit upright and quietly work their pencils almost inspired a kind of respect.
Maybe I had been staring too openly. Seol-hwa seemed to notice my gaze, tilted her head, and asked,
"What's wrong…?"
"Nothing much. Just… the way you keep studying without getting tired. It's kind of amazing."
"I-is it?"
She covered her face with her notebook, clearly embarrassed.
Of course the fact that studying had become her hobby had its share of unhappy reasons behind it, but as she herself said, it would help her future… and simply being able to think that way was impressive in itself.
"Wow, they're starting to get all lovey-dovey even with an audience."
"Shut it. I especially don't want to hear that from you two."
"Now, now. Don't fight too much. How about a break? We've been at it a while."
"I-I'll go make some coffee!"
Still flushed with shyness, Seol-hwa fled toward the kitchen. Left with nothing to do, I rummaged through the shelf under the TV and pulled out a game console.
"Whoa, isn't that a pretty old console? You've got all kinds of stuff."
Eunha, who had immediately zeroed in on the games, sidled closer and spoke up. Between the one at my parents' house and this, they were rare enough these days that her interest made sense.
"My mother used to like them a lot. She's too busy with work to touch them now, but living with her must have rubbed off on me."
Most of the game cartridges stacked beside it were thoroughly outdated—what people nowadays called retro.
Games where you raced around as a blue hedgehog, or fought an evil doctor as a robot boy, that sort of thing.
I played the latest titles too, but I still liked this old-school feel and picked them up whenever I was bored. Lately Seol-hwa had gotten hooked as well and joined in.
"Oh, this is the one, right? Where you shove each other off the stage with characters! Seriously, you've got everything. My little siblings play the newest version."
"Yeah, pretty much. And look—we've got exactly the right number of people. I don't know about 'youth,' but once Seol-hwa gets back, want to all play together?"
When it was just the two of us we had been forced to bring in the AI, and its level was so low we got bored of it constantly. This time would be different.
Eunha narrowed her eyes at me.
"Hoh. Think you can handle it?"
"I'll say this up front—I'm pretty well trained. As the eldest sister I've beaten every opponent who came at me!"
"Music to my ears. I don't plan on losing either, so one of us is going down today."
"Oh, so that's how it is? Then how about we put a wish ticket on the line? I'm feeling confident!"
"Fine by me. Time to pay back all the grief you've given me."
"I brought the coffee… What are you talking about?"
"Hmm, a minor war sparked by excessive competitive spirit? You kids didn't forget this game is four-player, right?"
In the match that followed, the one who claimed victory was none other than Seol-hwa.
Taeyang seemed content to go along with the mood, while Eunha fixated solely on me and self-destructed in spectacular fashion.
That left Seol-hwa and me in a one-on-one. She had played with me often enough that her natural learning speed had already raised her skill, and a mid-match mistake on my part sealed the loss.
"The two who talked the biggest ended up the losers."
"Ugh, losers aren't supposed to talk! Boil me or roast me—do whatever you want!"
Completely resigned, Eunha sprawled out on the floor in a full-body X. I wondered if that was really okay for a girl, but she was wearing pants, so it was probably fine.
"So, MVP, what wish are you going to make?"
I, now firmly in the loser camp myself, sighed and turned toward Seol-hwa. Frustrating as it was, listening to whatever she asked would still be far better than obeying Eunha.
"Ah… can I save it for later?"
"…What exactly are you planning?"
I didn't think Seol-hwa would demand anything outrageous the way Eunha might, yet a vague unease made me press her. She simply stuck to her "it's a secret" stance.
Something about her still seemed off, though—kind of fidgety and hesitant.
She edged carefully closer and then, almost casually, nudged her head toward me. The moment I caught her intention I couldn't help smiling.
"First place, huh. You worked hard. Well done."
I had briefly forgotten because of the wish, but first place here was still first place.
As I stroked the hair that had grown softer and nicer to the touch lately, Seol-hwa finally broke into a satisfied, sheepish little grin.
"And they say other people are the lovey-dovey ones. Right?"
"Yeah, no kidding."