How Cute
In short, we had fallen hook, line, and sinker for the vicious couple’s prank.
Shin Yujin had clearly pieced it together too. She stared at me, her face tight with panic.
No matter how hard she looked at me, there wasn’t some magical solution waiting to appear. Because I was just as thrown as she was.
“Were they always this evil?”
“Right? I had no clue they’d take it this far.”
“They’re your friends.”
“Hojin oppa is your friend too. Why are you acting like you didn’t see this coming?”
I couldn’t come up with a single decent idea, so I decided the first priority was getting out of there. I turned to head back home, but—
“You’re leaving already?”
“There’s no reason to keep standing around here.”
“Let’s just walk a little before we go.”
“Isn’t this uncomfortable for you?”
“It is, but if we do this, they probably won’t get suspicious. We don’t have anything else to do anyway.”
“Well… that’s true.”
If we told them we had a nice time at the forest park, we wouldn’t have to deal with their weird suspicions and evil schemes for a while. The price was having to stroll around a slightly awkward place with Shin Yujin, but it wasn’t a bad trade.
“This is my first time here.”
“Yeah, I didn’t even know a place like this existed.”
“You’ve never been before either?”
“Who would I have come with?”
“Another girl.”
“The first relationship I had after becoming an adult was with you.”
“Bullshit. We met when you were twenty.”
“I’ve told you a million times that was barely even a meeting. After ten years, you should really let it go already.”
Ever since the regression, everything that had happened felt familiar yet somehow off. But right now, every single thing felt completely new. Walking through the forest park together, spending time with Shin Yujin as something other than lovers, even coming here because our friends had pushed us into it.
“Han Yuchan, I have a question.”
“What?”
“From when we started dating all the way through our married life… did you love me?”
“If I hadn’t loved you, there wouldn’t have been any reason to keep going as a couple through all that.”
“So you’re saying you loved me because we were married and that’s that?”
“It’s not like that. It’s something else. It’s complicated to explain properly. What about you?”
“I loved you too. More than anyone except my parents.”
Maybe because this was all new territory, every word that came out of Shin Yujin’s mouth carried real emotion. She didn’t snap at me or ask why I was bringing it up. I guess I was searching for something familiar in this unfamiliar situation too.
Shin Yujin, who had been walking a little ahead, suddenly stumbled over a rock jutting out from the path. I quickly reached out and caught her arm.
“Careful. Try not to fall again.”
“When did I fall?”
“You don’t remember how you used to trip over nothing? That’s why you have so many scars on your legs.”
“I don’t have that many yet.”
“You will eventually.”
“You always have to have the last word, don’t you?”
I pulled her arm closer to me and matched my pace to hers as we continued walking. Even though we were close enough to touch, we didn’t hold hands. We simply walked. Our hands brushed now and then, but neither of us felt the urge to grab on. And I could tell Shin Yujin felt the same.
“Looking back, most of what we went through is happening again, isn’t it?”
“Yeah.”
“Then later… will that thing happen again too?”
“That thing? You mean the stalker?”
“Y-yeah. I really hope that doesn’t happen again.”
The moment she said it, anxiety flickered across her usually composed face. Even though we both knew there was still plenty of time before it would happen, the trauma from back then clearly hadn’t faded. That must be why she’d asked to sleep over at our house last time when she was alone.
“Don’t overthink it. This isn’t the past we experienced.”
“What do you mean?”
“We came back to the past, but for us right now, this is the present.”
“Well, yeah.”
“Just like how we’re walking through this forest park that we’ve never been to before, we can change what happens in the future.”
“So even though it’s the past we already lived through, for us it’s still the future?”
“Exactly. So don’t be too scared, even if it’s something we’ve experienced before.”
My words must have helped. The anxiety that had shown on her face gradually disappeared, replaced by a calm expression. Even though we’d continued our marriage as a couple who didn’t get along, I still hated seeing her look anxious.
“You’re pretty reliable, Han Yuchan.”
“If anything happens, just call me.”
“Are you hitting on me right now?”
“You’re really asking for a smack on the head.”
“You say that but you won’t actually do it.”
-Smack!!
“Ow!! Why did you hit me?!”
“You said I wouldn’t actually do it. I was showing you that I can.”
“You’re actually crazy, aren’t you?”
“And you’re just as crazy as I am. They say married couples end up looking alike.”
“Ugh… don’t say such disgusting things.”
“Saying I’m hitting on you is way more disgusting.”
Even though this was the kind of exchange that would have turned into a real fight full of genuine anger before the regression, it flowed differently now. I wondered if there was even any meaning to it anymore. Since we had regressed to the past and our relationship was already different from back then, I didn’t want to fight until our faces turned red. Shin Yujin probably felt the same.
“Han Yuchan! Han Yuchan!!”
“What?”
“There’s a squirrel! A squirrel!!”
The squirrel Shin Yujin pointed at with sparkling eyes was climbing up a tree. It was so adorable the way it scurried along the branches that I found myself staring, completely mesmerized. It must have noticed us because it looked our way with its cheeks stuffed full of acorns.
“Hey, that squirrel really looks like you right now.”
“Is that a compliment or an insult?”
“The fact that you even considered it might be an insult says more about you, doesn’t it?”
“You know that’s your karma, right?”
“What karma? Don’t talk nonsense.”
“Yeah, you’re the one talking nonsense.”
Even while we bickered, the look on Shin Yujin’s face as she stared at the squirrel caught my eye more than anything. If I had to describe it… it was the expression of a squirrel looking at another squirrel. Objectively speaking, it was cute. Pretty, even. I didn’t know she could make an expression like that.
It was the first time I was seeing it. Or rather, it was something that had been forgotten over fourteen years and now felt brand new.
“How cute.”
“Hm? What did you say?”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“Really? Anyway, the air is amazing, isn’t it? I was flustered at first about coming here, but now I think it’s nice.”
“Yeah. The air is incredible.”
When I breathed in the refreshing air, the scent of Shin Yujin’s shampoo drifted over. She liked natural scents, so she didn’t wear perfume and used a light shampoo. It was an incredibly comforting fragrance.
“Hey, do you remember? When we were dating, you made me a flower ring.”
“I remember. I saw pretty flowers in the grass and made it for you.”
“That was the first and last time I ever received flowers from you.”
“What are you talking about? I gave you bouquets on your birthday a few times.”
“…Oh, right.”
“Trying to paint me as trash with your manipulation and fabrication.”
I didn’t know why, whenever we were alone like this, the conversation always drifted to the past. There were times I wanted to talk about something new, or things we didn’t know about each other. But when I thought about it, there was no reason for those kinds of conversations. After fourteen years together, we knew each other better than anyone.
“During our married life, did you ever wish you could go back to the past?”
“I did. You?”
“Me too. I wanted to go back to the past and live a different life.”
“The reality is that even though we came back, it’s the same time.”
“Who could have known we’d both regress and keep our memories?”
I completely understood what Shin Yujin was saying. The fact that we both came back to the past was one thing. But the part where we both returned with our previous memories could only be explained as some god’s prank. I wanted to grab that god by the collar and ask what the hell they were thinking and what they wanted from us.
“Han Yuchan, look at this.”
“What now?”
“Doesn’t it suit me?”
She had picked up a flower that had fallen on the ground and tucked it behind her ear, looking at me. At the same time, Shin Yujin was giving me a bright smile. It was an expression that should have been familiar, yet it felt completely unfamiliar. Everything felt new. How long had it been since I’d seen that bright smile directed at me?
It was a scene that had become so foreign after too much time had passed.
-Click!!
I took a photo with my phone.
“Ah, what the heck. You should’ve said something if you were going to take a picture.”
“If I send them something like this, they’ll buy it on their own.”
“Let me see.”
Shin Yujin looked at the photo I took and nodded with a satisfied expression. It was only natural. Ever since we started dating, she had nagged me endlessly about how bad I was at taking pictures. I had learned how to take good photos before I learned anything else about her.
“Hmm, it’s good. All that training paid off.”
“I hate myself for instinctively knowing how to take it.”
“Send me this picture.”
“Okay, I’ll send it.”
I stared at Shin Yujin as she smiled happily after receiving the photo. After experiencing only familiar things, I had finally found something new.