Living Together (3)
"Thanks for the meal."
It was a phrase I'd barely used in my entire life. After polishing off every last bite of the food she'd "cooked," I got up and stood at the sink to wash the dishes.
And just like that morning, she came padding after me and took her place at my side, ready to help. Even a feast has its limits when there are only two people eating, so there weren't many plates to begin with. Between the two of us scrubbing away, we were done in no time.
I dropped onto the living room sofa with a thud, and a sigh slipped out all on its own.
"I'm exhausted..."
All I'd done was eat and do the dishes, same as always, and yet my whole body felt drained. It was probably because I was so used to being alone. Having someone around was taking a lot more out of me than I'd expected.
It was my house, and yet it didn't feel like my house at all. And the someone in question wasn't even another guy—she was a girl. That particular girl, no less.
I hadn't given it much thought lately, but if the guys at school ever caught wind of what had been going on these past couple of days, I could easily picture myself getting bricked in some back alley.
I was still turning that over when she walked over, slow and quiet, and settled lightly onto the cushion beside me.
"...?"
Did she really need to sit that close? I stared at her, and she flushed and looked away. She'd been the one to sit down, so I wasn't sure what the act was for.
The two of us just sat there in silence, and that awkward atmosphere crept back in. I wasn't the type to take the lead on things, but this kind of awkwardness I couldn't stand. Evening was still a long way off, so I figured we might as well do something to kill the time. The first thing that came to mind was what I offered.
"Wanna watch a movie or something?"
"...?"
Yeonhee tilted her head at the out-of-nowhere suggestion. Not that we had much choice. There was nothing to do if we went out, and sitting around the house would only keep the awkwardness going. The only real option was to find something that wouldn't feel weird even if neither of us said a word.
A movie was perfect for that. You could sit through the whole thing without talking and it wouldn't be strange at all, and a single film ate up a couple of hours easy. For our current situation, it was exactly what we needed.
"If we put something on the TV, it might be less boring, right?"
Right in front of us sat the television that had been here since I'd moved in—a set I'd turned on a handful of times and then never touched again.
She gave a small nod. The second I had confirmation, I grabbed the remote and switched it on. I couldn't even remember the last time I'd used it—years, probably—but luckily it still worked just fine.
I pulled up the movie menu and tried to figure out what to watch. Horror's out. Judging by how she reacted at the club screening, she absolutely hates that stuff... Thriller or sci-fi felt like too much of a gamble given how different our tastes probably were. I didn't want to just put something on and hope for the best.
The smartest move was to hand the choice over to her.
"Is there anything you want to watch?"
I palmed the decision off on her, and Yeonhee seemed to think it over for a moment before pointing at one of the titles on the screen. My eyes followed her finger to a romance film sitting in the popular movies row.
"..."
"..."
I felt a flicker of resentment that she'd pick a romance, of all things, given how awkward things already were—but I decided not to think about it.
The plot was about a nobody of a guy with all the presence of a ghost and the prettiest girl in school, thrown together by some twist of fate until they started catching feelings for each other.
I've seen this story somewhere before...
I wondered if she'd picked it on purpose. No. No way. I shoved the thought aside, paid for the rental before things could get any more awkward, and hit play.
A few ads rolled, then the opening credits, and a school came into view. The camera pushed in toward a classroom, and there in the corner was a boy being picked on by his own classmates. Even when the "jokes" turned into outright violence, all he did was take it.
...I've never had it that bad, at least.
It was a movie, so of course they laid it on thick. Kids beating him that openly and nobody saying a word? Even the teachers just looked the other way, like they'd seen it all before and couldn't be bothered.
But it was still a movie, so of course a girl showed up at just the right moment and the others backed off. That girl was the heroine—the one destined to end up with that loser of a male lead.
They really don't match at all.
I glanced over, wondering if I was the only one who thought so, and found Yeonhee watching with her eyes wide, completely absorbed. She was staring so hard I thought she might bore a hole through the screen. Putting on a movie had been the right call after all.
The scenes kept rolling while I wasn't paying attention. Before I knew it, the girl had become the boy's girlfriend under the pretext of protecting him. A string of incidents later, the two of them had caught feelings and were going on dates.
...I guess that's romance movies for you. They fall for each other over the smallest things.
After one big turning point, they finally confirmed how they felt and started dating for real. Yeah... playing out exactly how I figured it would.
And then came what you could only call the film's highlight: the kiss scene. They leaned in and kissed with a realism that did not look like acting in the slightest. It was so raw it was embarrassing to watch, and I looked away from the screen.
What I found instead was Yeonhee, her face so red it looked ready to burst, covering it with both hands and peeking through her fingers. Watching her force herself to keep looking while being that embarrassed was almost funny.
I turned back to the movie, and then I heard a rustling beside me. I looked over, but nothing seemed different from before.
...?
Maybe I'd imagined it. I faced forward again—and there it was, that same rustling. This time I turned the moment I heard it. Nothing out of the ordinary...
Or was there? The distance between us felt like it had gotten a little smaller.
Was I overthinking it? It was probably just the atmosphere of the movie messing with my head. I decided to leave it at that and not look too closely.
By the time I collected myself and looked at the screen again, the end credits were already rolling. One movie apparently wasn't enough to kill as much time as I'd hoped—though the clock did show that two hours had passed.
She'd seemed to enjoy it, and there was still time before dinner, so I floated the idea of watching another.
"Want to watch one more?"
This time she didn't just nod. She answered in a voice so quiet I almost missed it.
"...Yeah."
"Anything you want to see?"
I asked again, just in case, and a small finger pointed at something on the screen.
"..."
"..."
Another romance. This one wasn't a homegrown Korean flavor—it was imported.
Does she actually like romance movies this much...?
This was a girl who ordinarily didn't show so much as a hint of interest in dating. Watching her pick nothing but romances, as if she had some secret romantic streak after all, was a contradiction I couldn't quite wrap my head around.
Still, she wanted to watch it, so I wasn't about to stop her. And it wasn't like I had anything I particularly wanted to see. I just hit play.
Same as before: ads, then the opening. I stared blankly at the screen. Two romance movies in a row was apparently enough to do me in, because drowsiness started creeping in, little by little. Falling asleep in the middle of a movie was bad manners no matter how you sliced it, so I tried to fight it—but a few minutes later, I was gone.
When I opened my eyes again, it was dark outside. I sat there blinking, still half-asleep, until the last few hours came back to me.
I'd been the one to suggest watching a movie, and then I'd gone and fallen asleep. When the person who proposed it is the one who knocks out, there isn't a single excuse in the world that would cover it.
I was about to look around and see if she was mad—and where she'd even gone—when I felt something pressing against my shoulder, and my eyes went there on their own.
Yeonhee was asleep, leaning against me.
...What? Was this a dream? If I was dreaming about things like this, maybe I'd been more starved for it than I realized.
No. That couldn't be it.
I had no idea why she was like this, but I snapped myself out of it fast and shook her shoulder.
"Heheh..."
She just grinned, loopy and blissful, like she was having a really good dream.
"Hey. Wake up. It's dinnertime."
I shook her again, and her long eyelashes slowly lifted.
"...?"
The moment she sat up, she looked around, then blinked at me, still half-asleep. This wasn't going to work. I left her sitting there in a daze, walked over, and turned on the living room lights.
She squinted a little at the sudden brightness, then seemed to come back to herself—the fog in her eyes clearing as the light returned to them.
"You with me now?"
"...Yeah."
"Good."
"...What time is it?"
"Judging by how dark it is, maybe eight or nine?"
I actually checked the clock. It was past eight-thirty.
"We slept a long time..."
"Yeah, we did."
"..."
"..."
For a moment there, we'd almost been having a normal conversation. Then the silence settled over us again. It wasn't as if I had nothing left to say, though. I managed to keep it going.
"I was thinking of starting dinner. That sound okay?"
Eight-thirty was more than late enough to eat, and I wasn't the only one who thought so. She agreed.
"...I think that'd be good."
All morning she'd barely spoken, and when she had, it had been in those short, barely-there answers. After the nap, she seemed a lot better. She still didn't have that usual playful spark, but this was enough.
She'll be back to her old self before long.
There had been a stretch where I'd actually worried she'd stay like this for good. Turns out that had been a waste of energy. Just thinking that made me feel lighter.
"I'll get things ready, then. Why don't you go wash up or something?"
"Ah... I'll help too."
The same thing as lunch, all over again? Absolutely not.
"Uh... mm... it's fine."
The second the words left my mouth, her face visibly fell. I scrambled to tack on an excuse.
"No, I mean—you made lunch, so I wanted to make dinner. As a thank-you."
Even I could tell it was a ridiculous excuse. But it seemed to be enough, because her expression improved a little.
Hah... Every time I opened my mouth she looked like a kicked puppy. I was getting scared to say anything at all. Before she could get another word in, I ducked into the kitchen and started pulling out ingredients.
The menu I had in mind was simple enough that anyone could make it. Onion, green onion, pork belly, tofu, a splash of sugar and soy sauce for seasoning, a quick stir-fry, and onto a plate it went. Tofu Kimchi, done.
I picked up the plate and turned around, and I could feel her gaze following me every time I moved. Or rather—following the plate.
"Pfft."
The sight of it was so funny I let out a laugh, and she snapped out of it and looked away.
"...Don't laugh."
She protested in a small voice, but her face had gone red, which only made it funnier.
"Sorry. Pfft."
I laughed again, and she stood up, walked right over, and kicked me in the shin.
"Ow!"
"Hmph."
She let out a big, pointed huff, like she was genuinely mad, then walked back and sat down. I had been the one in the wrong, so I set the plate down without a word, pulled some side dishes from the fridge, and took my seat.
"Thanks for the food."
She said it in a prim, pointed little voice, making a show of how sulky she was, and started eating. I spent the entire meal watching her out of the corner of my eye, trying to read the room.
I'd had my head practically buried in the table for a while when a little puff of laughter from across from me made me look up. Her eyes had curved into delighted little crescents. I'd been played. I'd been falling for it for a while now, apparently.
"Haa..."
A sigh slipped out of me at the sight. At least now I could eat in peace.
We ate dinner and did the dishes together, same as always, and by the time we finished it was a little past ten. With the time left before bed, we decided to wash off the day's fatigue. I let Yeonhee go first, same as yesterday.
Once I'd watched her disappear from the living room, I stared blankly out the window. The sky had gone dark, and the moon was up. Today would be over soon. Tomorrow I'd take Yeonhee home, and next week our usual routine would start up again—me playing her fake boyfriend, her playing my fake girlfriend.
I was thinking about the days ahead when a voice called my name from the direction of the bathroom.
"Jooyoung..."
I headed over, full of questions—and a panicked voice stopped me through the slightly open bathroom door.
"W-wait! Don't come over here!"
I took a step back, wondering what that was about, and after a moment she spoke again.
"I... I forgot to bring a towel..."
"Ah."
That explained the panic. Which meant that on the other side of that door right now, she was...
"Um...?"
Her voice yanked me back just before those thoughts could take over. I gave my head a quick shake, grabbed a towel from the room, and brought it over.
"Got your towel."
I held it through the crack in the door, and I felt her snatch it away in a hurry.
"Thanks..."
The door closed again. I trudged back to the living room and dropped onto the sofa.
"Haa..."
A sigh that felt like it took my soul with it. At this rate, I might just wither away and die before tomorrow even got here.
Once I was sure she'd come out of the bathroom, I went in, washed up quickly, and came back out. In the living room, Yeonhee was already changed—same pajamas as yesterday. She'd gotten dressed while I was in the shower.
Yesterday and today were different situations, though, and the same clothes somehow looked new. Yesterday they'd brought out a protective instinct, the way she'd seemed so scared. Today, after everything that had just happened, there was a strangely alluring quality to her that I didn't know what to do with.
It was getting hard to look at her. I decided to run from the situation entirely and go to bed a little earlier than usual.
"Should we sleep?"
"...Yeah."
Luckily, she couldn't read that far into it. She went along without any suspicion.
A little later, once we were back in the room, I found myself stuck. Yesterday she'd been too scared to sleep alone, so we'd ended up in the same room—and I'd paid for that with an unexpected accident. Today she seemed fine, and there was no reason we had to sleep in the same room again.
So I told her I'd sleep in the other room.
"Do you mean that...?"
She wilted on the spot, and just like that, my options were gone. Faced with that expression, I gave in, and she smiled with her eyes as if she'd known I would fold.
...Damn it. Where did she even learn to do that? I felt like every last one of my weak spots had been mapped out.
I spread out the blankets, waited until she'd gotten into bed, then turned off the light and lay down. I'd barely closed my eyes when a voice came, in a tone uncomfortably close to yesterday's.
"Jooyoung, are you asleep?"
The déjà vu sent goosebumps over my whole body. If I stayed quiet, I was going to repeat yesterday's mistake, so this time I answered properly.
"No, not yet."
"Oh."
"Why?"
"It's nothing..."
"Talk about anticlimactic."
A stretch of silence, and then, out of nowhere, she thanked me.
"...Thank you."
"Where'd that come from?"
"I realized I never actually said it properly."
"..."
The truth was, I'd heard her say it yesterday. But if I mentioned that, I'd be outing myself as the grinning pervert who'd faked sleep so he could have her nestle into his arms.
"Don't worry about it. I didn't do anything that special."
"Yeah. But still. Thank you."
"...That all you wanted to say?"
"Yeah."
"Then let's sleep. We've got to pack your stuff tomorrow."
"Okay. Good night."
"You too."
Those were the last words we said. We fell asleep at almost the same time.