269. Delivery Food Isn't That Bad for You
269. Delivery Food Isn't That Bad for You
***
Eunha flinched and met Seola's gaze.
"..."
And Seola simply kept looking at Eunha without end.
The moment their eyes met, even their steps toward the in-house cafeteria came to a halt.
Eunha found herself looking at Seola, and the meaning of those words came to her all at once.
'She specifically said Serin, so she must have noticed back then after all.'
Just a few days ago, when Seola had come to her room. Seola had brought up Rin and asked if she wanted to watch the stream together, and Eunha had firmly refused, acting as if she wasn't interested.
But right after that, she had gone to meet Serin when Serin contacted her, and that had become a small problem.
Worse, she had ended up appearing on the stream so clearly that there was no way to deny it.
That stream was still available as a VOD, so the answer she had given Seola was as good as a contradiction.
After gazing at Seola for that brief moment, Eunha finally nodded.
"...That's right. Rin."
There were already too many clues scattered around for her to refuse to admit it.
"Wow~ so it really is Rin."
As Seola marveled like she found it fascinating, Eunha found herself staring at her.
With reddish hair that reached down to her chest, a small frame, and a cute impression, Seola was meeting her eyes with a bright expression, and on the surface, there wasn't the slightest hint of malice.
She looked like an innocent girl who hadn't outgrown her girlishness.
'Why is she so desperate?'
Lately, Seola had been trying so hard to close the distance between them that Eunha couldn't pretend not to notice.
She came by almost every spare moment to spend time together, so how could Eunha not know?
But even under Eunha's gaze, Seola just kept blinking and smiling brightly.
"Ah! I saw the notice too. Rin took yesterday off, right?"
"...The notice saying Rin was sick?"
"Yes. So I was a little worried too. Ah, so do you know how Rin is doing right now?"
As Seola naturally asked about Rin, Eunha's eyes trembled faintly, and she nodded.
"Yeah. I heard she's doing a bit better."
That was the answer she had gotten from Serin that morning.
Serin had said she was better now, that she was okay, and thanked Eunha for worrying.
But Serin still hadn't replied to the BaTalk message Eunha had sent in the afternoon, so she had been waiting.
She had even been worrying about whether Serin was really okay.
As she now said all of that without hiding anything, Eunha felt a little strange.
"Then that's a relief. Honestly, I watch Rin's stream every day too, so with the hiatus yesterday and today, I was really disappointed."
"...Were you?"
"Yes, really! And it's a stream you watch, so how could I not watch it?"
As Seola said that with a bright blink, Eunha suddenly looked straight into her eyes.
She normally didn't take an interest in other people, so she didn't pay much attention to individual feelings, but right now she was curious about the intent behind Seola's approach.
After looking into Seola's eyes for a short moment, Eunha was a little surprised.
'She's completely sincere...?'
The look in Seola's eyes seemed to contain not the slightest lie, and that actually flustered Eunha a bit.
She had wondered what Seola was getting at when she brought up Serin.
But using Serin as an excuse to talk to her was, in a way, almost pure.
Curiosity, interest, goodwill.
Those were the only kinds of feelings she could sense.
Eunha was completely indifferent to other people, but she was sensitive to how they presented themselves to her, so she couldn't help but notice.
That Seola was utterly sincere right now.
Even the content of what she said was the kind of thing she couldn't know unless she actually followed Serin's streams.
"What's wrong? Why are you staring at me like that all of a sudden?"
When Seola tilted her head under Eunha's gaze, Eunha shook her head.
With an attitude that said it was nothing, she started walking again.
Seola immediately moved to her side, eyes sparkling.
"Hey... could you give me Rin's contact info too?"
She said it in a soft tone.
It was a kind of probing.
"No."
When Eunha answered instantly without hesitation, Seola let out a bright laugh without thinking.
'She really is serious about Rin.'
They had spent nearly a year together, but Eunha was thoroughly indifferent to other people and wanted her personal space, so she had been hard to approach.
But now, Seola felt like she had finally found a focal point that could close the distance.
And a focal point with excellent material, at that.
"That's too bad. Tch."
As Seola brushed off her own words as if it had just been a joke, Eunha glanced at her without thinking.
As if she was interested, and as if she was curious about Seola's reaction.
"..."
Seola, who had worked so hard to close the distance with Eunha, couldn't miss that look.
Normally Eunha wouldn't even glance at her, and even when they talked, she almost never met her eyes.
But now Eunha was looking at her like that.
She was finally showing interest in her.
Seola was simply overjoyed by that fact alone.
"I don't know about anything else, but I'd rather you didn't ask questions about Rin's personal life."
When Eunha spoke in a deliberately firm tone, Seola accepted it without showing any particular doubt.
"Okay. I mean... nothing's really known about Rin's personal life, so asking about it would probably be a sensitive topic, right?"
"Yeah."
When Eunha answered immediately, Seola couldn't stop smiling.
It felt as if that topic touched on an absolute domain, completely off-limits to any pushback.
But that was exactly why Seola saw it as an opportunity.
Eunha's attitude of caring that much meant, conversely, that she wouldn't turn away from Seola when the topic was Rin.
......
After that, as Eunha walked along calmly, the two of them kept up a conversation that could genuinely be called a conversation.
Seola smiled brightly every so often, looking truly happy, and in the end Eunha found herself responding quite a bit.
And once Eunha allowed that much closeness, Seola tried very hard not to lose it.
"..."
Having stopped talking about Rin, Seola stayed beside Eunha with a smile, gazing at her.
'So a day like this really does come.'
Honestly, there was nothing all that remarkable about it.
It was just an ordinary moment of everyday life, with the two of them exchanging simple conversation. Nothing more than that.
But the fact that the other person was Eunha was such a big deal that it wouldn't be wrong to call it special.
—A superstar.
A player who was respected and acknowledged by all the other players, even while being a player herself.
On top of that, overwhelming skill, a clean personal life, a good public image, and beautiful looks—
There wasn't a single side of Eunha that wasn't perfect.
No, even if there was, she had more than enough charm in other areas to make up for it.
Now that she had closed the distance with someone like that, Seola even felt a sense of accomplishment, as if she had achieved something.
"..."
When Eunha glanced at her, Seola's eyes sparkled as she looked back.
"What? Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Just... because you're so pretty."
"...?"
Even when Eunha turned her head away with an expression that said something was off, Seola was happy for no reason.
Because Eunha had spoken to her first just now.
Seola couldn't believe that something so small could make her this happy, even as she kept smiling.
......
Click.
When they entered the in-house cafeteria, they could see several people eating.
"Enjoy your dinner, everyone!"
"Yeah. You too."
"Seriously, Seola's greetings are something the other kids should really learn from."
As soon as they entered the cafeteria, Seola greeted the team players and coaches she saw with bright energy, and they smiled and returned the greeting.
In contrast, Eunha walked right past them, and Seola gave a little wink as if she hadn't just greeted anyone, then followed after Eunha.
The players and coaches watching them laughed as if it were a fascinating sight.
"Wow... Seola's finally eating with Eunha, huh?"
"With Seola's persistence, you've got to give her credit. No, honestly, even if I were Eunha, I'd have accepted Seola."
Given Eunha's nature of placing tremendous importance on her personal time,
neither the coaches nor the team players had eaten with her very often.
Early in the team's history, they had still eaten together, but after she started producing results in tournaments and her standing changed, she began voicing her own opinions and wanting personal time.
Yoo Eunha—she truly demanded strict personal time.
Because of that, the other players and coaches had stopped approaching her or trying to close the distance at some point.
They had come to realize that she genuinely disliked people approaching her.
But now.
Seola was apparently moving to eat with Yoo Eunha, and to the team players and staff, that was a sufficiently astonishing sight.
......
Tap.
When Eunha took her seat at a solid wood table with a luxurious design, Seola sat down across from her with confidence, as if that spot belonged to her.
Eunha's chosen dinner menu was soft tofu stew with steam rising from it, along with a plate piled with properly grilled Korean beef.
As expected of a team known for offering the best treatment among domestic pro teams, even the side dishes in the TSJ in-house cafeteria were exceptional.
And Seola, seated across from her, had chosen the same Korean set meal.
"Enjoy your meal."
"...You too."
Just as Eunha picked up her spoon to start eating, Seola spoke with a bright smile, and Eunha hesitated for a moment before answering carefully.
"Okay, I will."
Seola picked up her spoon after Eunha and smiled at that simple reply as if she couldn't be happier.
***
"It's about dinner time. Should we order delivery or something?"
Serin, leaning against the bed, checked the time and spoke, and Seoyun, who had been fiddling with her smartphone on the same bed, turned her head with a snap.
Then she shot Serin a look, as if Serin had said something annoying.
"Are you telling me to go make dinner right now?"
"...No, it's the opposite?"
When Serin shook her head as if that were absurd, Seoyun let out a small sigh.
"What do you mean, the opposite... You're saying you're hungry right now."
"No, I mean, I'm saying let's order delivery and eat dinner."
When Serin said it directly, as if asking how the conversation had gotten there, Seoyun tilted her head.
"You're telling me... to let you eat delivery food?"
"Look... Seoyun? Delivery food really isn't that bad for you."
Serin spoke as if correcting a misunderstanding, but Seoyun was unmoved.
"Ugh, forget it. I'll make a nice dinner, so you just rest in your room and wait."
As Seoyun got up from the bed, Serin blinked blankly.
She had thought she'd said it simply enough, but she couldn't understand how the conversation had become so one-sided.
Click.
As the door closed and Seoyun disappeared, Serin had no choice but to close the delivery app she had opened.