Episode 43: Park Ha-ru and Choi Si-joon Are Expectant
Episode 43: Park Ha-ru and Choi Si-joon Are Expectant
43— Park Haru and Choi Sijun Look Forward To It
"Honestly, what's there to be nervous about?"
I muttered to myself at home, but no reply came back — which was unusual.
I had a rare weekend to myself, and I'd scheduled a date on it. I felt a small flicker of regret, but honestly, today was probably the better option.
If the noonas had been home, they would've unleashed a relentless barrage of commentary on everything from my hair to my clothes.
"Hope Eunhwi-nuna's doing okay..."
Earlier, when I'd stepped into the parking garage, a wave of heat had hit me, and she'd grumbled for a solid stretch about her outdoor shoot before heading off. That had me a little worried.
I drove slowly to a café near Park Haru's place.
I could've gone straight to her front door, but she was starting to appear in the press these days. No harm in being careful.
I bought drinks at the café and was waiting in the car when someone tapped on the window.
"Oh! Haru, get in."
"Hold this for a sec..."
"You too?"
"Oppa too?"
The word oppa rolled off her tongue so naturally now, and I accepted it just as naturally. It felt a little strange to be analyzing it while she was sitting right next to me, but Nara had once told me she'd stopped getting any fun reactions out of me when she called me oppa.
The drink Haru handed me was the exact same kind still sitting in my center console.
I took it from her and made room so she could settle in comfortably.
"Oppa."
"Yeah."
"Mwah!"
This was only our fourth date, but our greeting had already become a light kiss.
Some of that was Haru taking the initiative, but I wasn't exactly opposed to kissing either. It just settled in naturally.
"What should we do about these?"
"How about we chat here and each have one?"
"Okay."
Haru clearly had a lot she wanted to talk about. She held her drink in her right hand, commandeered my right hand with her left, and fiddled with it while chattering away.
"Oh, really?"
"Seriously?"
"Huh..."
I sprinkled in reactions here and there, nodded along, and before I knew it my drink was empty.
"You tell a story so well I didn't even notice the ice melting."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
I'd once thought Haru was the quiet type, but after meeting her a few times, she turned out to be just as talkative as the noonas.
I wasn't just saying "you tell a story well" to be nice — Haru genuinely had a knack for storytelling. On top of that, her facial expressions were incredible, and the face making those expressions was beautiful, which probably made everything feel even more entertaining.
Eunhwi-nuna was also a great storyteller. I figured it was a common trait among people who read a lot of books.
At some point Haru's drink hit empty too, so I took both our cups, got out of the car, and tossed them in a trash bin.
"Ugh..."
I'd been out of the air-conditioned car for less than a minute, and already the sun felt like it was broiling my skin.
"Hoo."
I scrambled back in and let out a breath. Haru, who'd been fixing her lipstick, let out a little giggle.
"Hot, right?"
"Yeah."
"When I was walking here from my place, I almost just told you to come to me instead."
"You should've told me to come."
"Ehh... still..."
"Let's cool off a bit before we go. Make yourself comfortable."
I gave myself a moment to cool down too, gave Haru a little time to touch up her makeup, and then we set off.
"Where shall I take you, madam?"
"I've already arranged it, good sir."
"Yes, milady."
Lately she'd gotten a script for a fusion sageuk and was practicing for an audition, so every now and then she'd slip into historical drama speech.
"Oppa, you started saying weird stuff on the phone yesterday."
"Oh, I did? Sorry."
Sometimes, after I'd put the noonas to bed and couldn't sleep, I'd call Haru late at night.
It felt a little odd for me to say it, but maybe because she was still young, Haru was always wide awake even at dawn.
"No, it was cute. Bet it's even cuter in person."
"And why do you assume you'll get to see it?"
"You're... not going to sleep with me?"
She still had no brakes. By her own account, it was because I was slow to catch on, but in my estimation that was maybe thirty to forty percent of the reason. The rest was Haru being clearly prone to sudden acceleration — and a bit of a pervert.
I knew because I'd run into Nara occasionally on campus. Ever since that day in the practice room, beyond holding hands or linking arms, she had never once floored the pedal like this, in word or in action.
I wasn't complaining. Having her come to me like this honestly made things easier. Because of it, we'd gotten comfortable with each other much faster, which I liked.
Even now, she'd taken my hand off the gearshift and was quietly fiddling with it.
"It's pretty far, huh?"
"You think?"
There was still an hour left until our destination. Traffic might have stretched the estimate, but it didn't look like we were cutting through Gangnam or Hongdae.
Even after all that talking earlier, she still had so much she wanted to tell me. The whole drive was anything but boring.
Once we left Seoul and got onto the highway, I switched to Autopilot Mode and eased the tension out of my legs.
"Oh... that's amazing."
"Right? It's amazing to me too."
The feature was supposedly usable in Seoul as well, but honestly, it made me nervous. I only ever used it on highways or empty roads like this.
"Haru."
"Yeah?"
She looked at me with sparkling eyes.
I wanted to turn my head and look back at her face-to-face, but I wasn't alone in the car, and for safety's sake I had to keep my eyes forward. That felt genuinely tragic.
"My hand's getting sweaty..."
"Oh, it is?"
You'd think she'd let go after I said that, but instead she lifted my hand to her lips and blew on it.
"Hoo~ hoo~"
"You really are a pervert."
"As long as I'm only a pervert for you, oppa."
"Man, I..."
I clicked my tongue and put on an exasperated face, but thinking about it again, I was a really lucky guy.
"All dry now~"
She turned my hand around, blew on it, tapped it with her fingers, and then gave a small, satisfied smile.
But she still held onto me and kept playing with my hand. Feeling a little mischievous, I gently slipped my hand free and placed it on her thigh.
"H-hic!"
I glanced sideways. Haru had hiccuped and was frozen in place.
She was wearing hot pants, so her bare skin met my palm directly. It was so soft that I found myself stroking it without thinking.
"Hngh!"
Her reaction was too entertaining. Slowly, very slowly, I inched my hand toward her inner thigh.
"Uhh... oppa... we're in... a car..."
"So?"
I smiled calmly and let my hand drift deeper.
Just before my fingers reached that secret place, Haru grabbed my hand with both of hers and pulled it away.
"L-later... I'll let you touch me all you want... so hold back for now..."
"Okay."
When I answered still smiling, Haru's face turned into a pout.
"You're a bad person..."
"But you've already fallen for me."
"That makes you even worse."
That I was even saying things like this now... I'd changed a lot in a short time.
The place we reached after a full hour of driving was a botanical garden.
"Wow, it's been forever."
"Really?"
"Yeah. Last time was probably elementary school... or middle school, for some field trip thing."
It was a weekend, so the crowds meant it'd be a little hot, but Haru and I put on our masks, bought tickets, and headed inside.
I'd expected it to be cool, but it was surprisingly muggy, and I froze for a second.
"Let's get out of the tropical section fast — it's roasting in here..."
Haru apparently felt the same way. We barely glanced at the tropical plants and breezed through at a near-sprint.
Once we were past the tropical hall, we both pulled down our masks and gulped in the cooler air.
"This is refreshing."
"So nice."
"It's okay to hold hands here, right?"
"Yeah."
Inside the tropical section it had been too hot, so she'd only held onto one of my fingers. The moment we cleared it, she grabbed my whole hand.
"Oh! A pretty unni!"
A little kid on an outing with their parents spotted Haru and shouted. For a moment I worried they'd recognized her.
But judging from the parents' reactions, the kid had just called out because Haru was pretty. I relaxed.
Haru, meanwhile, waved at the kid who'd shouted.
"Must be nice being you, Haru."
"It is. You won't find a woman who hates being called pretty."
"True... and guys, well, if someone calls them handsome — barring unusual cases."
"Unusual cases?"
There were situations where complimenting someone who was already well aware of their looks could come across as sarcasm.
Most of the time, people meant it in a friendly way, but occasionally you ran into someone who took it sideways.
"Guys too?"
"Yeah, it's not just women... though it's not as intense as it is with women..."
"Makes sense. I see power struggles over it sometimes. And I'm a woman too, and even I get overwhelmed."
Unlike our conversation in the car, here we walked through the garden talking slowly — not just reacting or exclaiming, but having a proper conversation.
"Want something to eat?"
"No, let's have lunch later. I already found a great place."
"Oh, I'll look forward to it."
"D-don't get your hopes up too much..."
Getting to know Haru had taught me a lot of things, but the biggest discovery was her palate.
Haru wasn't a picky eater. She ate pretty much everything with gusto. Watching her eat was genuinely cute and pleasant.
Outside of her favorite sandwiches, she called almost everything delicious.
The problem was she had almost no filter at all. Personally, I was a little sensitive to things that tasted gamey or had an off smell.
She once brought kebabs, and the meat was slightly undercooked — it had a faint gaminess that made me frown. Meanwhile, Haru was eating hers so happily that I briefly wondered if I was the weird one.
Because it was summer and a little risky, I rushed to buy deworming medicine and made sure both Haru and I took it.
"Oh... this place really is amazing."
"Right?"
Haru had brought us to a naengmyeon restaurant.
The noodles hadn't even come out yet, but the warm broth they served before the meal was so good that if my stomach had been a little bigger, I would've ordered galbitang just to taste it.
"The bulgogi here is seriously delicious."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah. My dad said it was delicious right in front of my mom once, and my mom got really upset..."
"Your mother had every right to be."
While we chatted about this and that before the naengmyeon arrived, the two of us drained two whole kettles of broth and even asked the server for one more when they brought out the noodles.
I was a little embarrassed, but the server must've gotten this request plenty of times — they brought out more broth completely unfazed.