Behind Each Other's Backs (4)
A room cafe.
The sort of place you might drop into once or twice, when the weather turns foul or an indoor date starts to sound appealing. Some come stocked with a Nintendo; others have Netflix, YouTube, board games, even a karaoke machine. It would be nice if that ordinary impression were the one that stuck.
In reality, it isn't.
Among teenagers, they're famous as somewhere to step out of line, and for that reason adults widely regard them as filthy—or, at best, as a stop you pass through briefly while things are still just a flirtation. Of course plenty of couples go simply to snack in comfort with someone they love and watch a movie, or to play a board game. Public opinion, though, isn't something that changes so easily. Anyway.
Anyway.
Not that I'd come here with sex on the brain, the way those schoolkids do. There were three of us to begin with—me, Lee Hayun, and Lee Jiyoon. Even if one of the other two stepped out for the bathroom, the most I'd get was fifteen minutes or so. Enough for a kiss, or a little light contact. Nowhere near enough to have sex and get our clothes back in order. The smell would linger, too.
So what I was turning over wasn't anything directly obscene. It was the slower work of coloring Hayun—who still didn't know a thing—until she grew used, little by little, to the three of us simply being in one place. Her, her little sister, and me.
"......"
Would this be all right?
Number 3. I held the key marked with it and let my eyes drift over the surroundings. Not to find the room. One glance down the hall and every door wore a number big enough to read from where I stood—what was there to search for? I only wanted to see whether the place was as sealed off as I'd hoped. Sex might be out of the question, but a little light contact somewhere like this seemed as if it could serve well enough for taming Lee Hayun the way I wanted. And this was my first time in a place like this, besides.
I'd half-worried the rooms might be divided by nothing but curtains. Fortunately, proper walls stood between them. Judging by the way a voice only leaked out now and then, and only when someone was yelling as if they were singing, the soundproofing was decent enough in its own right. The other thing nagging at me was whether there might be a CCTV camera inside the room. Hard to say. Probably not? I'd have to go in and check.
"Oh, they've got popcorn too. Whoa..."
While I turned the key over in my fingers and swept the place once through, Lee Hayun murmured beside me. I set the thoughts aside and met her eyes.
"You like popcorn, Noona?"
"Yeah. Honestly, if it's salty or sweetie-sweet, I like all of it."
"It's not even 'sweet-sweet.' What's 'sweetie-sweet' supposed to be?"
"That, this... anyway, are we allowed to just take as much of this as we want...?"
"I think so. The people ahead of us carried snacks in with them."
"Hehe... yesss."
Hayun rubbed her hands together, cute as anything, and immediately started dumping popcorn in a rush into a paper tub for herself. However I looked at her, it wasn't the noona image she insisted on. It was a busy little hamster gathering sunflower seeds.
Someday I want to see her throw that noona act away and pant, completely wrecked. In front of Lee Jiyoon, no less.
"...Last time you said you liked those fresh-cream red bean buns, or whatever they were. So it really was just a little kid's palate."
"Ah, no? Jiyoon loves those like crazy too, you know?"
"She does?"
"Right? Jiyoon?"
"Huh? Huh?"
Trying to recruit an ally, was she? Hayun's clover-green eyes, sparkling at the caramel-colored popcorn, swung toward her little sister. From about half a step behind, Lee Jiyoon gave a small nod.
Ball cap yanked low, busy glancing all around—she'd probably been off in her own head and just bobbed along.
Eh, whatever. I'd been busy with dirty thoughts of my own a minute ago. Before the thread of talk could snap, I turned it somewhere else.
"Let's grab a bit more to eat and head in. I'm curious what board games they've got."
"Do you actually know how to play any? Jiyoon probably doesn't know much beyond the stuff you do with a deck of cards."
"I... know a few of the famous ones."
"Oh yeah?"
Not because I'd wanted to learn them. Before the regression, that insufferable Yozora had crammed them into my skull by force. Forget a full day—not even an hour could pass without that bitch whining that she was bored and begging me to play with her. So the bleak hideout of the Company had gradually filled up with distractions: board games, a pool table, this and that. Looking back now, they were nothing but shitty memories, prettied up after the fact.
I let the old thoughts pass through me for a moment, piled popcorn and snacks and the rest together, and headed for the room we'd been assigned. Number 3.
Cozier than I'd expected, and far cleaner than I'd expected. The wallpaper was a fresh white, as if the place had been remodeled not long ago, so it lacked the tacky look of a cheap motel—and there was no CCTV in sight. The foul smell I'd been bracing for, just in case, wasn't there either.
That was my first impression of a room cafe room, setting foot in one for the first time. Scored, maybe a nine out of ten.
If I'd actually come here alone with Lee Hayun, or alone with Lee Jiyoon, I might have spent the time we could have been watching Netflix doing plenty of things that were a lot more fun.
...Which is exactly why the schoolkids use these places to get up to no good. And that's a perfectly normal adult, thinking it.
I was shrugging off my coat, thoughts wandering, when Hayun came in behind me and made no secret of liking what she saw.
"The TV's so biiig... Is this a sofa?"
"More or less that sort of thing, I'd say? Looks closer to a bed, though."
"Ooh... then..."
Hayun came in with a bright smile and set the heaped tray of snacks she'd carried in down on the table. Then, as if the place were her own house, she eased herself onto the mattress—something halfway between a sofa and a bed. Close enough to bump right into me where I was already sitting. Whump.
She wasn't even in pants. Was flopping down like that in a skirt really all right? Fine in front of me, of course. She'd better not do it in front of any other man.
Jiyoon, meanwhile, stood at the line between the hall and the room, watching us with a thoroughly displeased look. A girl with eyes already on the sharp side, both hands shoved deep in the pockets of her khaki jumper, standing there like that—the mood of it resembled the no-good girls who used to sidle up and talk to me back in high school. Well. The contents, though, were another matter.
"Quit dawdling over there and get in. Close the door."
"...Ah. Yeah."
A game-addicted, antisocial little reject who'd never so much as touched a cigarette, mind you. Instead of speaking to her gently, the way I had when we'd showered together last time, I said it a little coldly—and gave Hayun, right beside me, a light flick on the shoulder. Meaning it was about time she got a grip and sat up.
"Ngh..."
"......?"
Had she misheard?
Hayun's small head came squirming up onto my thigh. As if she were asking me to be her lap pillow. Squirming, squirming. The tickle of her ponytail's roots pressing into my thigh was the least of it. Had she forgotten her little sister was right there? Or did she think this much contact was fine even in front of her sister?
From Jiyoon came a look too tangled to pin to any one word. Shock. Fluster. Pure disbelief. And then—wait, the two of them are dating, so is this just how it is? Something along those lines. I made a point of ignoring that gaze, and only then did Hayun quietly sit up, acting as if nothing had happened.
Her ears and cheeks hadn't gone particularly red. But given how busy she was gulping, it must have been something she'd done without thinking.
"W-we could play some One Card, then...?"
"......"
"......"
See? Scrambling to change the subject like that—it gives her away completely.
Beside Hayun, head ducked as she searched for a deck of cards, I let out a light sigh and briefly met Jiyoon's eyes. She was looking this way on the sly, where her sister wouldn't see.
"......"
She watched with so little expression that I couldn't say exactly what the look was carrying. She didn't seem to be thinking of nothing, though.
One thing became clear after some time had passed, starting from One Card.
Lee Jiyoon liked games where you shot people with a gun, and had no particular interest in anything else. One Card—she didn't know the rules. Hoola—of course not. Poker—same story. Jenga—that one she at least recognized, probably from having seen it somewhere. As for the other board games, there was nothing to say. She didn't know a single one.
Even so, her head must have been decent enough, because grasping the basic rules took her no time at all. Which only made it stranger, how clearly a rough picture of the life Jiyoon had lived all this time sketched itself in my head.
"...Unnie."
"What?"
And right beside me was a woman perfectly delighted to pound that same Jiyoon flat.
"...I just— I thought the bell was gonna break."
"That's what the game's there for, isn't it?"
"It's supposed to make a sound, though. All I've been hearing is tik, tik. At least hers actually sounds like a bell."
"That's the fun of it. This game."
That made five.
Having seized first place yet again, brimming with enthusiasm, Hayun smiled like a villain. Thinking about it, any game that demanded physicality was always going to favor her over me or Jiyoon. She didn't seem to have realized it. Every time she took first she just grinned, dopey and delighted, so I let her be. Most likely she was still quietly fuming over the games that took a little brain—the ones where, the moment Jiyoon grasped the rules, Hayun had gone on a losing streak.
"Anyway. Bangs up. Again."
"...Hah."
In the end, stuck with last place this round on account of the physical demand, Jiyoon lifted her snow-white hair and took the flick. I couldn't bring myself to hit her for real, so I only put in enough force for a bright little snap. Hayun was another matter. Maybe because they were sisters. Maybe because I was right there, and she figured I could just heal it. Either way, she didn't spare her. A dull thud rang out.
And so I was just stepping over to Jiyoon, who was groaning and rubbing at her forehead, about to ask quietly if she was all right.
"Jiyoon, I'm gonna go pee real quick— no no no, not that, the b-bathroom. I'll be right back."
Hayun had launched into it with a bright, cheerful smile, then locked eyes with me halfway through. As if scolding herself for the slip, she tapped her own mouth and stepped into the room cafe slippers.
"......"
"......"
The door opened.
And shut.