Amusement Park Date (1)
Asking Naeun for help had been an excellent decision.
"So what am I supposed to do now?"
"About what?"
"How do I get him to see me as a girl?"
"Hmm... why don't you start with a date?"
"A date?"
"You know. The stuff ordinary couples do."
"Even if you say that..."
How would I know? I had never even been close with a single guy in my life.
Whether that thought showed on my face or not, Naeun kept going.
"It's honestly amazing that someone who looks like you has never dated anyone, Yeonhee..."
"You haven't had a boyfriend either."
"Tee-hee~"
Well. Two lifelong singles putting their heads together were never going to produce expert advice.
I was still turning it over when Naeun suddenly lit up, like something had just occurred to her.
"How about an amusement park?"
"...An amusement park?"
"Yeah. I bet Juyeong's never really been to one. Perfect opportunity, right?"
"You think so...?"
"Yep, yep. Just trust me."
It wasn't as if I had a better idea, and I liked the sound of it well enough. There was just one problem.
"But what excuse do I use to ask him?"
From Juyeong's side, there was no reason for him to go with me at all.
"Just use the excuses you always use, Yeonhee. Lean on the fake-couple setup."
How much had I even used that...?
Or wait. Thinking about it, maybe I had used it a little. A tiny bit... a lot.
"...Okay. Thanks."
"Don't mention it. But I get to hear how it goes first, okay~?"
She was already counting her chickens, and nothing had even happened yet. I told her I would anyway, and we headed back to the classroom together.
Not long after I got home, my phone rang. It was her.
Ever since she had slept over at my place last weekend, she could barely meet my eyes and kept stumbling over her words, so I had figured she was still feeling awkward about it. And then she called out of nowhere with something like this.
"Why Sunday?"
...What?
It was the second out-of-nowhere request I had gotten from her since that confession at the start of the semester. I figured I might as well hear what the reason was this time.
"Is there a reason you actually have to go?"
The only thing that came back was silence.
So there isn't a reason?
Then why bring it up at all? The more I thought about it, the more it felt like I was sinking into a maze with no exit. I sat with it for a moment — and then, belatedly, a voice came through the speaker.
"Huh?"
There was a reason we had to go to an amusement park together? I genuinely wanted to know what kind of reason required her to drag along a fake boyfriend who was not even the real thing.
"What is it?"
Photos...? Did she mean the kind of photos I was thinking of?
I was still wondering what pictures had to do with going to an amusement park when Yeonhee produced the answer herself.
"Ah."
That, I understood immediately. In all the time we had been keeping up the fake-couple act, we had never taken a single picture together. A real couple would have had a gallery stuffed full of them. We did not. Of course we did not — we were not actually dating, so there had never been a reason to walk around taking photos.
It was not something I had ever worried about. I did not have friends I would need to show pictures to. But I understood the logic. Once someone started asking questions, suspicion could snowball into certainty in no time.
"...Yeah. I definitely hadn't thought of that."
"Well... I guess so, for now."
And with that, the call cut off.
She still just said whatever she wanted to say and hung up.
And yet...
Right before she hung up, the tone of Yeonhee's voice had sounded strangely happy.
A moment later I shook my head hard and talked myself out of it.
There's no way I can actually tell something like that.
I was starting to get annoyed at how self-conscious I was becoming.
Maybe hanging around Kang Hanbyeol has rubbed off on me.
And since I did not feel like blaming myself, I decided to blame Kang Hanbyeol instead.
Time passed without anything in particular happening, and Saturday came around again.
I got up early and started getting ready to go out. I put together an outfit that would not look completely off, then checked myself once in the mirror.
"..."
I had barely gone anywhere except school, so just standing there in regular clothes felt strange.
"Whatever. This should be fine."
It was not like we were going on a date. We were just going to take pictures. As long as I did not look completely unfashionable, that was enough, right?
I checked the time. If I left now, I would not be late.
"Alright. Time to go."
I stepped out the front door and headed for the meeting spot.
As I got closer to the subway station, I could see a crowd gathered in the distance.
...It couldn't be.
I told myself it would not be her this time and approached slowly. Of course, "it couldn't be" is the fastest way to jinx yourself — and sure enough, there she was, standing at the very center of the crowd.
Again...?
At the department store, she had only dressed up a little and people had still swarmed her. I had no idea why she had gone this all-out today, but I was not exaggerating — there were easily twice as many people as last time.
Just looking at it was exhausting enough to wring a sigh out of me.
But this time, thanks to what had happened at the department store, I knew how Yeonhee must be feeling. So instead of watching from a distance, I walked straight toward her.
The closer I got, the more I could feel people's eyes shifting onto me. And when the distance between us had closed enough, Yeonhee's eyes found mine.
Her eyes went wide, as if she could not believe I was cutting through all those stares to get to her. I did not care. I walked up, caught her hand like I was snatching her out of there, and pulled us away from the spot as fast as I could.
"Let's go."
"W-wait—?"
The dazed little sound she made behind me was a bonus.
"Haa... I'm exhausted..."
After walking a little farther, we made it inside the station. I was still catching my breath when a small voice reached me from behind.
"Um..."
"Yeah?"
"You can let go of my hand now..."
At that, I looked down. I was still holding on — just as tightly as when I had grabbed her on the way in. The sight of it made me awkward enough to let go.
"Ah. Sorry."
"N-no, it's fine."
I thought I heard a tiny voice behind me say something like she actually liked it — but I figured I was imagining things, and went through the ticket gates and down the stairs.
We stood in front of the doors for a moment. Then the announcement played, and I could see the subway pulling in.
The moment the doors opened we got on, and I looked around for seats. There were more than I had expected — enough that we could have sat anywhere. I walked over to a corner seat and sat down, and a beat later Yeonhee came and sat right next to me, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"..."
"..."
I sat there without thinking much of it at first. I had gotten so used to this kind of thing lately. Then it struck me that something was off. There were plenty of empty seats. So why had she gone out of her way to sit next to me?
I raised an eyebrow at her, and she started scrambling to explain.
"Ah, no, I mean— ah. The photos!"
She made a gesture like it had just come to her, then started rummaging for her phone.
Right. The whole reason we were going to the amusement park was the photos...
I had forgotten the point of this for a second, but that brought it back. Still — did we need to take pictures on the subway too?
"We have to take them here, too...?"
"I-is that weird...?"
Beats me. It was not like I would know what real couples did. Might as well just go along with it.
"So what do I need to do?"
"Ah, I'll handle that part."
I sat still and watched, wondering what she was planning. Then she suddenly leaned her upper body toward my shoulder and brought her face right up beside mine. The instant I tried to ease slightly away, the subway lurched. My body pitched sideways, and my head smacked straight into the pole beside me.
Thud.
I was gingerly rubbing my head from the sudden impact when a sound leaked out of Yeonhee, who had been watching the whole thing from beside me — the sound of someone trying very hard not to laugh.
"Pfft—"
And she was the one who had caused this, sitting there laughing like it had nothing to do with her. I shot her a look of pure injustice, and she apologized — belatedly.
"Sorry. Pfft. I didn't do it on purpose."
...Maybe try hiding the laughter when you apologize.
It barely counted as an apology. I turned to face the other way with a sulky expression, and she started needling me from the side.
"Are you sulking?"
"...No."
"Come on. You so are."
"..."
Whatever I said at this point would only confirm that I was, in fact, sulking, so I just kept my mouth shut.
Still, if my suffering had taken the edge off the awkwardness, I figured that was a fair trade.
...Was it?
Not that it mattered. Yeonhee kept going either way.
"You know we still have to take the picture, right?"
...I found her infuriating, saying that after what had just happened. So, in the spirit of making her suffer the same fate, I pulled out my phone, switched it to the front camera, and leaned sideways at a speed she could not possibly react to, bringing our faces close together.
She was so startled she could not even move. Her whole body locked up. I did not care. I hit the shutter.
Click.
The shutter sound cut through the quiet and spread through the car. There were barely any people in our section, so even with the noise, it was fine.
I sat back up and looked over at Yeonhee. She still had not come back to herself — just blinking, over and over.
"I'll send you the photo."
That, finally, seemed to bring her back. She opened her mouth.
"Uh, um... yeah..."
Watching how badly she had been startled, I could not understand why she had done the same thing to me in the first place if this was how she was going to react.
And then she did not say another word, and the silence got awkward enough that I started wondering if I should not have done it.
Wait. Is this even my fault?
It was not clearly mine, and it was not clearly hers either. We were even, so I decided to just own it.
"So. How does it feel getting a taste of your own medicine?"
I said it on purpose in a bratty tone, trying to break the awkward atmosphere — to steer us back into the easy, teasing rhythm we usually had.
"It was so..."
"What?"
"I-it's nothing!"
I did not know what she had been about to say, but I could see a faint flush spreading from her neck all the way to her face.
This... was not the reaction I had been going for.